The Member Lifecycle: PropFuel Campaigns To Grow and Retain Membership in Every Stage

The member lifecycle is a crucial framework for driving long-term membership growth and retention. By understanding the unique stages your members move through, from awareness to engagement, renewal, and reinstatement, associations can craft tailored strategies to meet members where they are. Each stage represents a different set of needs and behaviors, and addressing these with relevant check-ins can improve the member’s experience, loyalty, and overall retention.

Why is understanding the member lifecycle so important? Because it allows you to create a more personalized experience for your members, making them feel valued and understood at every touchpoint. Whether turning a potential member into a loyal supporter or winning back a lapsed member, knowing how to engage at each stage ensures your communications are timely, relevant, and effective.

Here is our member lifecycle breakdown:

This stage focuses on identifying and meeting the needs of prospective members to drive membership growth. By understanding what potential members are looking for, you can tailor your messaging to demonstrate how your association can fulfill their needs.

Campaigns for this stage include:

• General Acquisition: Introduce prospects to the benefits of joining your association. Depending on what they need from membership, you can tell them how being a member gives them access to resources to meet their needs.

• Post-Event: Follow up with prospects who attended a recent event or conference to convert their interest into membership.

• Nurture: Engage with prospects over time to build a relationship and convert them into members. Ask your prospects questions about themselves and their goals to show how membership can help them.

• Conference Engagement: Keep prospects engaged before, during, and after your events to highlight membership benefits.

• Profile Write-back: Collect and update information from prospects to customize and personalize future communications.

Once members join, making them feel like they belong is essential. Members who see a precise alignment between their needs and your value proposition are likelier to stay engaged and participate in your community.

Campaigns for this stage include:

• New/Renewing Member Engagement: Welcome new or renewing members, showing them how to get the most out of their membership by finding out what’s most relevant to them.

• Event Registration: Encourage members to register for upcoming events, driving continued involvement with your association.

• General Member Engagement: Keep the conversation going with members through regular touchpoints highlighting benefits, resources, and opportunities.

• Opt-out Win-back: Reach out to members who have opted out of communications to win them back and reconnect them to your community.

• Profile Write-back: Ensure member profiles are up to date, allowing you to deliver personalized engagement.

As the renewal period approaches, making the process as effortless as possible is crucial. At this stage, you either confirm a member’s commitment or address concerns that might lead to non-renewal.

Campaigns for this stage include:

• Renewal: Proactively remind members about their upcoming renewal, emphasize the value of membership, and nurture members to take action by renewing.

• Grace Period: If a member misses their renewal deadline, a grace period campaign can remind them to take action before losing benefits.

• Profile Write-back: Collect updated information to streamline the renewal process and better tailor future communications. This is also great for company members–verify the primary or billing contact before the renewal cycle for easy and seamless renewals.

When members lapse or become dormant, remind them of your association's value with messaging tailored to their specific needs.

Campaigns for this stage include:

• Lapsed: Reach out to former members with messages designed to reignite their interest and bring them back into the fold. If they don’t plan on returning, you can find out why not and nurture the relationship.

• Dormant: Engage with members who have been inactive for an extended period to remind them of the benefits they’ve been missing.

• Profile Write-back: Collect updated profile data to re-engage members with personalized content addressing their current needs.

Understanding and addressing the member lifecycle is essential to creating meaningful, lasting relationships with your members. By leveraging PropFuel at each stage, you can deliver personalized, timely communications that meet the specific needs of your members. This approach not only helps drive membership growth but also fosters loyalty and retention by demonstrating that your association is responsive and attentive to the evolving needs of your members.

If you’d like to explore how PropFuel can better support your member lifecycle strategy, reach out to your Client Success Manager (CSM). They can help you tailor campaigns to your association’s specific goals and guide you in optimizing each stage of the member journey.