5 Ways You Can Use Coupons To Help Your Club Or Associations

 

Explore five practical strategies for clubs and associations to utilise discount coupons within the Member Jungle platform. Learn how to incentivise quick membership renewals, attract new members with compelling offers, effectively track sponsor contributions, drive merchandise sales, and enhance overall marketing efforts using the power of discounts.

 

If you watch any YouTube videos or listen to any podcasts, you are probably overly familiar with ads for meal kits, energy drinks, clothes, VPNs, and any number of other things. No matter what these ads are hawking, they will all have one thing in common. At some point during the ad, the host will say something like, “Use my code BlahBlahBlah to get 10% off at checkout.” 

 

 

I bring this up because it is a particularly common way coupons are used today. Just go to the website in question, add the offer code, and get 10% off that new meal kit or whatever. 

Did you know that Member Jungle also offers the ability to distribute discount coupons for both your club's store and your memberships? In fact, we have just released the ability to add coupons to your memberships in the latest product release. 

Well, today, let's have a look at coupons at Member Jungle and five clever ways to use them to help your club or association. 
 

Why Are Discount Coupons So Useful? 

Coupons enable you to offer members or the public discounts on items your organisation sells. This includes products in your online store and memberships. These discounts can be set to custom amounts using either dollar or percentage discounts, so you can really customise your offers. 

The reason this is so useful is that everyone loves a discount. So much so that people will buy things for no other reason than to get a discount on them. Do I need a 6-foot-tall plastic skeleton taking up room in my small one-bedroom apartment? No, obviously not, but it was 25%, so what was I supposed to do? 

On the plus side, sometimes I dress it up as me and let it attend work meetings for me. 

 

 

I'm not sure whether I should be insulted or not that no one has noticed yet. 

I digress; the point is that being able to offer discounts is really good and will help get more people across the line when it comes to purchasing merchandise and memberships from you. Coupons can also be a great little incentive when you need people to do things in a timely manner. 

So, with that in mind, let’s get into five ways to use discount coupons. 

1. For Quick Membership Renewals 

A lot of clubs and associations struggle with members dragging their feet when it comes to renewal time, which makes the whole process take longer, delays that much-needed influx of funds from renewals and is just generally a pain in the arse. 

However, membership coupons can help with this. If you have fixed renewals, meaning everyone renews at the same time (usually June and July), then offering a timed discount coupon can really push people to get their act together. For example, let's say the cutoff for renewals is June 30th, and you usually start sending out emails and renewal reminders six weeks early, around May 19th. Why not offer a 15% discount for all membership renewals completed by May 31st? 

You'll probably get an influx of early renewals, which is excellent. Plus, you'll get more renewals before your June 30th deadline, as there will be plenty of people spurred on by the chance of a discount who will not quite make the deadline for the discount but will generally be quicker to get their renewals in. 

2. Increase Membership Signups With Discount Coupons  

Another great way to use discount coupons is to attract new members. You can do this by offering a variety of welcome offers to new members; this can be done in various ways. 

For example, a non-expiring discount coupon grants new members a discount equivalent to their first month's membership dues. Set it up so they can enter the discount code "FIRSTMONTHFREE" at checkout to get the discount. 

You can also set up limited-time discount codes to quickly push people over the line. This creates a sense of urgency amongst potential members, who must act fast or risk losing out on their discount. Make the discount code something that reinforces this urgency, like "JOINNOW" or "JOIN20", and get it out to potential members. One great way to do this is to print flyers and hand them out at your next public event. Even stick a QR code to the Member Jungle app so people can scan it, download it, and become members while at your event. 
 

 

Is that the prettiest flyer in the world? No, but it's only in black and white, so printing out a bunch of them won't cost the equivalent of a small island nation's GDP, and it has all the information a new member needs to join. 

3. Use Discount Coupons To Help Track Sponsors'/Partners’ Efforts 

To return to our earlier example of coupons used by YouTubers and podcasters, you will likely notice that they each use unique coupon codes that often include their names or a reference to their shows. This is designed to make it easier for sponsors to track the sales they generate from each person they sponsor, and you can do the same. 

Let’s say you run a classic car club. You have a deal with a few local auto part shops, where you allow them to advertise on your website, and in return, they direct their customers to your club. If you give these stores a unique coupon code, you can track who is bringing in the most new members. This is a straightforward way to check which partnerships are worth the time, money and effort and which ones just aren’t worth it.  

4. Use Discount Coupons For Your Club Or Association’s Merchandise 

Discount coupons are also great for boosting your online merchandise sales. Merch discounts work, whether it's a general sale, clearing old stock, or tied to membership incentives. For renewals, try something like: "Renew by May 30th and snag 50% off a club hoodie with code RENEW50." 

Merch discounts are also a great hook for new members. Offer them a deal on that branded name tag and polo they were already planning to buy if they sign up by a specific date. It's a great incentive to join sooner, plus it helps move stock, which is always good. 

5. Use Discount Coupons In Your Club Or Association’s Marketing 

We’ve been circling this point for a while now, but discount coupons make a great marketing tool. Obviously, this will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever existed inside a shopping centre, as shops absolutely love splashing discounts everywhere. Case and point. 

 

 

They do this because it works; there is something in our dumb lizard brains that just falls hook, line, and sinker for a discount, and you should absolutely use that to your advantage. 

Offer a 5% discount on all new member sign-ups, post it on social media, send it out as a marketing email, and add it as a banner ad on your site. It doesn't really matter what you do with them as long as you incorporate them into your marketing and use them to help you sell more merchandise and recruit more members.  

Discount Coupons Tips & Tricks For Membership Organisations

Now that we've looked at five ways to use discount coupons, I want to quickly go over a few brief tips to ensure this process goes well for you. 

First, name your discount coupons clearly and uniquely. This is key for tracking their performance within Member Jungle. You'll want to quickly identify which promotions drove the most revenue, revealing your most effective deals and communication methods. For example, for a $10 new member discount on Facebook and email, you should use distinct codes, such as "FB$10" and "EM$10." This accurate data will be invaluable when analysing what worked and what didn't.

Secondly, when it comes to pricing and discounts, people are a little weird. People prefer prices that are odd numbers, i.e. Membership costs $59.21 a year or $176.99 a year. We subconsciously trust that more thought has gone into those prices than if the prices were $60 and $180.

On the other hand, we prefer discounts that are round numbers, e.g., $10 off, $25 off, 40% off, etc. So, when setting your prices and deciding on your discount codes, be sure to choose odd numbers for prices and even numbers for discounts. Despite it not making any sense, people would rather get 20% off $89.90 than 17.9% off $87.00. 

 

See, it just looks wrong.

For more information on how to use membership coupons, please read Membership Discount Coupons.

Other Ways To Use Member Jungle To Increase Your Organisation’s Revenue & Renewal Rates

Discount coupons are great for increasing the amount of money coming into your organisation and helping to get more membership renewals. I thought I'd share some articles to help with both of those things. 

If you want more ways to improve your renewal rate, check out How To Reduce Member Churn This Renewal Season.

If you are looking for a way to use Member Jungle to raise more money for your club or association, please have a look at How You Can Make Money With Member Jungle.