In telephone fundraising, we frequently talk about donors and supporters, but perhaps less often about members. Yet at least 50% of our clients are from membership organisations – whether that‘s Girlguiding or British Horse Society, Humanists UK or Eden Project, a significant proportion of our work is membership focused.
Which is why we thought we should shine the spotlight on why telephone fundraising works so well for membership organisations, and share some of the ways it can be used really effectively for membership retention, building relationships with members, and recruiting new members.
But first – why would you even consider the telephone as part of your membership engagement strategy? Surely it’s labour intensive, it’s expensive, and do people even talk on the ’phone any more?!
They sure do! In fact, your members love to talk on the ‘phone – for many it is their preferred way to hear from the organisations or charities they support – it provides a personal touch in an era where pretty much everything is automated and homogenised. And the telephone has a huge advantage over direct mail, email, social media, and text messaging – it allows for a two-way dialogue, enabling natural and authentic conversations, which generate deeper connections and add value. It can improve loyalty and reduce attrition in a way no other communication platform can. And it’s why so many businesses and charities are using the telephone to create a membership base which is engaged, satisfied and committed for the long term.
Let’s look first at membership retention, because as we all know, retaining members is more profitable than acquiring them, yet it’s still an area often overlooked by organisations.
The sort of telephone campaigns we’d recommend you consider for maximising retention would include good stewardship calling for welcome and thank you, which are also fantastic for getting feedback, gauging satisfaction, and improving the supporter experience. These types of calls are important steps in ensuring a long-term, engaged relationship with members and we regularly receive feedback from new members as to how valued they feel as a result.
Retention calling also includes reactivation for lapsed memberships, and we see many clients implementing reactivation calling on a rolling monthly basis, enabling them to quickly and efficiently address lapsed payments. And for those members who are not yet automatically renewing their membership and require a renewal, a telephone call is a great way to move them onto a direct debit, and some members may even offer to increase their support without prompting. And if members are cancelling, you can use a call to see if they might consider returning and supporting at a lower amount, or in a different way.
Many of our charity clients will add into a campaign the opportunity to do a gift aid check, but this also works incredibly well as a stand alone campaign, and can generate an amazing amount of income. As has been the case with British Horse Society, who with our support, managed to increase their penetration of Gift Aid from 55% of their membership to 67% – with a contact rate of 37% and a sign up rate of 50%,
If part of your strategy is to ask members to increase their subscription or donation – upgrade calls are still performing very strongly, even in challenging economic times. And of course in the longer term, if you want to identify and curate legacy donors, the telephone helps you cultivate these relationships carefully but confidently, enabling better long term planning for your organisation.
And then coming back full circle to member acquisition – so many of our clients are using lead gen and valex proposals to significantly develop their membership base – Surfers Against Sewage recruited an incredible 600 new members from a petition-based lead gen campaign, and we are regularly seeing valex campaigns using pin badge or tote bag giveaways generating significant leads ready for conversion by telephone.
If you are looking for effective ways to create stronger and more meaningful relationships with your members, do reach out to us. We have over 20 years of experience which we’d be delighted to share with you.
