How To Stop Losing Club Members
Preventing member churn is critical for the sustained success of any club or association. Organisations often lose members due to a perceived lack of value, poor communication, or an outdated website. Implementing strategies to enhance member engagement through valuable content and events, optimising your digital presence, and clearly demonstrating the benefits of membership are key. By addressing these common pitfalls, clubs and associations can significantly improve member retention and ensure long-term growth.
Did you know that in the late 1970s, Stephen Pile created the "Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain" to celebrate human inadequacy? He then wrote a book called "The Book of Heroic Failures" as an official handbook for the club.
Unfortunately, the book became a bestseller, which led to Pile being kicked out of the club he founded because he was too successful. The club received 20,000 applications within a few months due to the book's popularity, and they disbanded as a result. Pile reflected, "the club disbanded on the grounds that it was now a roaring success. Even as failures, we failed." (Pile, 1989)
I bring this up as it is the exact opposite reason that the average membership organisation fails. Usually, when a club or association fails, it’s because they couldn’t attract enough members and couldn’t get the word out about the great work they were doing. Today, let's take a look at some common reasons why clubs and associations lose members and explore ways to prevent this.
A few key reasons clubs and associations lose members are:
- Lack of content and activities
- Poor website
- Members believe that your fees are too expensive
- Poor communication
- Competition from other organisations
These are all reasons why your organisation may be losing members, so let's break down each of these problems and what you can do to fix them. To ensure your club or association is the very best it can be.
Does My Club Or Association Lack Content and Events?
One really common reason members don’t renew their memberships is that they don’t feel like they are getting enough for their membership dues. People join up with clubs and associations because they get something from them. What that thing is is as varied as the clubs and associations themselves; it may include in-person events, opportunities to learn and upskill, networking opportunities, advocacy, and basically an infinite number of other things. If members don’t feel as though they are getting enough benefits for their money, they will likely stop renewing their membership.
To make this simpler, let’s look at your organisation's events and content separately.
How To Add More Content to Your Club Or Association's Website
When I talk about "content," I mean all the valuable, non-event-based resources you offer your members. Your organisation's content is crucial not just for keeping current members engaged but also for attracting new ones. Generally, the content on your website might fall into categories like:
- Club/Association Newsletters
- Training Information and Resources
- Educational Resources
- News on Upcoming Events
- Merchandise Store
The specific types of content you need will depend heavily on what your club or association does. For instance, a classic car club might not require extensive training resources, but it could compensate by focusing on engaging newsletters, how-to guides on car repair, or expanding its merchandise range. On the other hand, content like newsletters and updates on upcoming events is universally beneficial and should be used by every type of organisation, from knitting clubs to professional associations.
A fantastic way to figure out what content would best serve your members is to explore other club and association websites. See what they're offering, what resonates, and what gaps you might be able to fill for your own community.
Boosting Member Engagement Through Activities
The activities your club or association runs are truly one of its most important aspects. Sharing your passion and purpose is often the very reason your organisation exists, so ensuring activities play a central role is vital for engagement.
You're likely already hosting regular events and activities focused on your organisation's mission. If these aren't happening consistently, consider making them more frequent. If your events must be spaced further apart, then it's crucial to keep communicating about them and build excitement for what's coming next. This way, your members will always know what's happening and feel confident that you're continually planning engaging experiences for them.
However, hosting and advertising events is only half the battle. You also need to be continually improving these activities. A great way to do this is by conducting polls and surveys of your members. This feedback will give you invaluable insights into what your members truly do and don't like about the events you're running, allowing you to fine-tune future events.
Is My Club's Or Association’s Website Good Enough?
What is the point of having fantastic content and events if your website is so poor that your members can never find them? Your website is the first thing many prospective members will see, and it's how your current members interact with your organisation. Essentially, your website is the first impression that a lot of people will get of your organisation, so it needs to be good. A good website is the first impression equivalent of smiling and shaking hands, a bad website is the equivalent of meeting someone by shrieking at them through a staircase banister like the grudge.
Never be the grudge.
Optimising Your Club or Association Website
It should be a major priority to ensure your website looks great and is easy to use. A poor or hard-to-use website will, unfortunately, drive away potential new members and may even lead to existing members leaving your organisation.
Here's a short checklist of what your website needs to truly shine:
- A good-looking design
- Easy navigation
- Works on phones and computers
- Your club's logo and consistent colour scheme
- Social media links
- Engaging blog articles
- Quality content
- User-friendly interface
For a much deeper dive into creating a great, engaging website for your organisation, check out Why Your Club Needs A Well-Designed Club Website.
Are My Organisation’s Membership Dues Too High?
I obviously don’t know how much your fees are, but I can tell you that 90% of the time, it’s not the fees that are the problem; it’s that your members can’t see the value in your fees.
It’s never a bad idea to reassess your fees and see if they need to be adjusted, but chances are, what you really need to do is demonstrate to your members all the benefits you provide for their fees. Show them all the events, training, networking opportunities, and education that you are providing in return for those fees. If people complain that your fees are too high, chances are the real issue is that the perceived value of your membership is too low.
For a more detailed breakdown on how to solve this problem and show your members all the value of your membership, read Why Demonstrating Membership Value is Key to Increasing Member Retention.
Does Your Club or Association Communicate Well?
As we were just discussing with ensuring your members understand the value of your membership, being able to communicate with your members clearly and effectively is crucial.
Communicating with your members clearly and effectively is a fantastic way to boost member retention. You want to be able to keep your members across everything that's going on in your organisation with little work and fewer miscommunications.
If you find yourself emailing back and forth with a member half a dozen times about a simple question, or constantly having to clarify event details, or when renewals are on, that's a pretty clear sign your communication isn't as effective as it could be.
How To Communicate With Your Members Better
There are a lot of different ways to improve your communications with your members. As we’ve already discussed, a good website can do wonders for improving communication. Beyond that, you should also try:
If you aren't already using a membership management system like Member Jungle, you should seriously consider it; it can help solve many of the problems we’ve discussed, gives you all the above communication tools and just generally makes life easier.
For more ways to improve communication with your members, check out How To Improve Your Club’s Communication With Its Members.
Competition From Other Organisations
There’s not really a lot to say about this one, except that if you don’t fix the problems above, you may start to lose members to clubs and associations that have fixed those problems.
If another organisation is hosting more events, has a better website, and is communicating more effectively with its members, it's possible that you may start losing members to them. This can be one of the big reasons why clubs lose members. The members aren’t falling out of love with the hobby that drove them to your club in the first place, nor are they leaving the industry that brought them into contact with your association; they are simply falling for a new group. So, pay close attention to other organisations that are similar to yours to make sure that you don’t get left behind.
How To Stop Members From Leaving My Club Or Association?
If you want to stop losing members and be a more successful organisation than the “Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain”, you can start improving on everything we discussed above. Pay more attention to your members, improve your website, focus on content and events, and ensure your communication is pitch-perfect.
If you want to know more about ways to improve your club or association and stop losing members, have a look at How To Reduce Member Churn This Renewal Season.
If you aren’t already using Member Jungle and are interested in finding out more about how it can help, check out How Does Member Jungle’s Membership Management System Work.
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