Boost Membership Sales With Promotions

Posted on January 31, 2018 in Associations, Chambers, Coupons, Feature Updates, General, Membership, Nonprofit, Promo Code, Promotions

There are an endless amount of situations in which you can incorporate Membee’s Promotions feature into your organization’s revenue strategy! Check out this week’s blog post to see what you may be missing out on!

Membee’s Promotions feature brings a powerful discounting mechanism and performance tracking that will allow you to build and publicize powerful new sales promotion initiatives.

“Successful sales promotions bring in net new revenues that until that point you have not been successful in capturing.”

That’s the ticket – “NET NEW REVENUES”!

As you will see below, ability to combine new membership sales, existing membership renewals, and event registration into a Promotion are virtually limitless. But before you start telling people about your new promotion, make sure it is achieving at least one of the following objectives for you:

Provides an incentive to join for potential members who to date, you have now been able to attract
Provides an incentive for existing members to renew earlier
Provides an incentive for existing members to not only renew but also increase their event participation
Provides an incentive for members to register more people for an event or event series
Provides an incentive for members (maybe non-members too) to support something new
Provides increased value to “big ticket” members supporting you at your top dues level(s)

How Does it Work?

When you define “Promotion” in Membee, you are telling the system what specific item(s) you wish to offer a discount(s) on and the specific conditions of your promotion. These conditions include:

Discount can be used for
- New membership purchases
- Existing member renewals
- Event registrations
- Or a combination of the above
Dollar or percentage based discounts
Set a date range where a discount begins and when it expires
Limit the discount to a maximum number of uses
Set a volume discount that requires a minimum purchase before the discount is applicable
Membee then generates a “discount” or “promo code” that you can share with purchasers that can be applied to a purchase on checkout

There are two types of Promotions:

Direct
- These are simple
- The discount is applicable to a single specified event or membership item
- The applicable discount can be applied at checkout by anyone who possesses the code
Conditional
- More powerful
- In order to get a discount for a specified item, a purchaser must first purchase a different “conditional” item
- You can offer multiple discounts for different items once the conditional item is purchased

Direct Promotion Examples

These examples show you how simple promotions can help you increase revenues.

A “Bring a Friend” Promotion

A simple idea that applies to the sale of new memberships and event sales. You create a promotion in Membee that generates a discount code. You then send the discount code to members and encourage them to share with a non-member. The non-member could use the discount code to join or register for an event. This promotion achieves objective #1 & #4 listed above.

A “Buy 2 and Get a 15% Discount” Promotion

A common situation would apply to event purchases. A discount would generate registrations that you would not get without it. Depending on your membership structure, the same concept could apply to new memberships as well. This promotion achieves objective #1, #4, & #5 listed above.

A “Register for This Event by a Specific Date and Get $50 Off” Promotion

Getting event registrations earlier can help your event build greater momentum that will yield even more registrations. This is an effective approach if the event is new and has yet to earn its “street cred”. This promotion achieves objective #3 & #5 listed above.

A “Get a Free Membership” Promotion

Wait a minute! Isn’t that going in the wrong direction? Try this. Create a promotion that generates a 100% discount on membership but share the code only with your Board members and your most staunch supporters. Chances are your Board members and staunchest supports interact daily with similar, like-minded people and organizations. In many, many markets, the cost of acquiring a new client exceeds the revenues generated in the first year of the relationship. Your “cost of acquisition” here is nearly zero and you’re acquiring new members who are similar to the ones you already have! This promotion achieves objective #1 & #5 listed above.

A “Join in December and get 25% Off Your First Year” Promotion

Run a “limited time offer” promotion in a time of year where your new member intake is historically slow. Using the beginning and expiry dates in your promotion, the discount will automatically expire so you can share it with potential members using social media. This promotion achieves objective #1 & #5 listed above.

A “Renew by a Specific Date and Get $20 Discount” Promotion

A historic “accounts receivable” approach to membership renewal could have an organization trying to apply financial penalties for late renewal. Some would say that such penalties pile even more stress on the relationship with a less than motivated member. By creating a promotion that is valid only when members renew allows you to create a positive experience for the member when renewal comes around. This promotion achieves objective #2 listed above.

Conditional Promotion Examples

Keep in the mind that a conditional promotion requires the purchase of the designated “conditional” item in order to receive a discount(s) to apply to the purchase of additional item(s). These discounts are delivered to the purchaser via email only after they have satisfied the condition by purchasing the “conditional” item. The possibilities here are nearly endless but here are some popular examples:

A “Buy an Event and Get a Free Membership” Promotion

Create a conditional promotion where registration in a specific event by a non-member will trigger the delivery of a “100% discount” for the purchase of a membership. This promotion achieves objective #1 & #5 listed above.

A “Buy an Event – Get a Free Membership AND a 10% Discount on a Book” Promotion

This is a powerful feature of conditional promotions. The idea is to provide multiple discounts upon the purchase of the designated “conditional” item. This promotion achieves objective #1 & #4 listed above.

A “Buy a Membership and Get 25% Off a Specific Event” Promotion

This conditional promotion motivates a potential new member to join and immediately gain access to an event discount, just like your long-term members. Because the promotion is conditional, the new member gains access to the discount only after they have acquired their membership. This promotion achieves objective #1 & #4 listed above.

A “Buy a Membership and Get a 10% Discount Off a Series of Events” Promotion

A conditional promotion can be used to extend a discount for an entire series of events (a set of events grouped together into a specific Event Category). For example, after the purchase of a membership, your new member would receive a discount code that reduces their registration in any event in your “Education” group of events.

A “Pay Your Membership Renewal and Get a $100 Discount for a Specific Upcoming Event” Promotion

The goal of this conditional promotion is to use a major event to increase your member retention rate. This promotion achieves objective #1, #3 & #5 listed above.

A “Pay Your Platinum Membership Renewal and Get a 100% Discount for an Upcoming Series of Events” Promotion

The growing trend of creating “premium” levels of membership, this type of conditional promotion better ensures that a premium member is likely to renew their membership. Keep in mind that often having the “option” to attend an event or series of events for free is what is valued by the member whether they redeem the discount or not. This promotion achieves objective #2, #3 & #6 listed above.

A “Pay Your Membership Renewal by a Certain Date and Get a Discount for an Event if Your Register by a Specific Expiry Date” Promotion

This might be the most beneficial conditional promotion. It aids with renewal by accelerating renewal while motivating members to renew in order to gain access to the event discount. Your event wins through increased and accelerated registration thanks to the expiry date set on the discount. This promotion achieves objective #2, #3 & #5 listed above.

What Does the Purchaser See?

Good question. The discounts can be applied to a purchase upon checkout. Specifically, that checkout could occur when a new membership is purchased, an existing membership renewal is paid, or an event registration is purchased.

Applying a discount is really easy! Let’s have a quick look at a discount being applied during an event purchase.

Membee’s Event Checkout Page Before a Discount Code is Applied

Notice the new ability for the purchaser to enter a discount code and apply it to their purchase.

Membee’s Event Checkout Page After a Discount Code is Applied

After the purchaser enters the discount code and applies it to their purchase, Membee adjusts the price of the applicable item(s) on the fly before the purchaser proceeds with paying for their purchase.

Sales Promotion Resources

The opportunities to create revenue-increasing promotions are nearly limitless so we’ve gather some resources to help master the core concepts of effective sales promotions:

Promotions Feature Pumps Up New Member Sales

Using the Sale of One Item To Boost the Sales of Others

Use a Promotion to Increase Membership Sales

Use Membee’s Promotions Feature to Increase Revenues