The 7 best tips for membership management in 2022

A sports club is the ultimate place of joy for hundreds of people. It is like having a second home where they can wind down and participate in exciting events. As an administrator or membership manager at a sports NGB (National Governing Body), you are responsible for ensuring that this community receives the best possible membership experience.

Engaging such a large group of people is no easy feat; after all, disengaged members are more likely to become inactive and eventually cancel membership. They have different backgrounds, levels of education, computer literacy, sports experience, and so on.

Organising more events and offering discounts may boost member retention, but they can also be inefficient in the long run as it costs you more. However, minor tweaks in how you manage your members can make a big difference in securing a happy community. For example, personalised communication could increase community engagement.

Bond (2018) states, “Programs that establish positive emotional connections with members see 27% more of their membership increasing their spend with the brand.”

By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear roadmap to help you redefine and elevate your members’ relationship with your sports organisation. From decades of experience, here are our best tips for membership management.

Best Membership Management Tips

1. First impressions count!

As the famous saying goes, the first impression is the last impression. From day 1 of interacting with a new member, you have the opportunity to create a strong bond via an excellent first impression.

Designing a member journey for newcomers is vital. This may include a warm welcome message into the community and a list of available sporting facilities. Introduce them to relevant personnel and let them know your door is always open for feedback. Take extra care to integrate them within the community. Overall, make sure to create an emotional connection with your members and make them feel valued. 

Action: Now take a step back and discuss with your team- What do we usually do once a member joins the community? Could we offer our members more? 

2. Clean up your member data

Take it from us; receiving duplicate emails or invites can be pretty annoying as a member. Members may change their phone numbers and email addresses, and you must ensure all your records are updated accordingly. If you don’t update your database, you could potentially lose communication with a lot of dedicated members. You can manually try cleansing your data or use a system that makes removing duplicate records easy. 

As members pay a fee to be a part of your organisation, it’s perfectly understandable for them to expect a higher standard of treatment. Reaching out to them at the correct email address or number is the first step to delivering a superior membership experience.

Action: How can you keep your member data up to date? Consider initiatives that incentivise members to update their details, such as regular competitions and events. 

3. Personalise all the way

How do you feel when a friend makes an effort to remember how you take your coffee? Pretty special, right? In the same way, members love an organization that offers them an extra dose of attention and care.

“72% of customers will only engage with personalized messaging.” (SmarterHQ, 2022)

How do you create this feeling within your community? One magical word: Personalisation. It’s important to remember that members are humans, not a number or a sales target. 

Ask members to update their member profiles with their interests, experiences and athletic goals- which you can bring up during conversations. Use their first names in emails. Make sure to thank them after participating in events or courses. If a member requires support, make sure to follow up later to ensure everything is in order. These seemingly simple steps will boost your NGB’s credibility and leave a positive impact in the long run. 

Action: Review your communications and take note of where you could add more personalisation.

4. Stay connected

Apart from the usual membership renewal emails, how often do you keep in touch with your members? A good membership management system will automate your communications, making it easier to send personalised and regular emails. 

Keep members updated on the latest happenings in your NGB. You can share upcoming events, new additions to the community, a monthly newsletter, or even in-depth reports on how member involvement plays a role in boosting your organisation’s performance. 

Looking to get your message across to members of various ages, abilities and disciplines? Then segmenting your mailing list and sending personalised emails to each segment might be the perfect approach for you. 

Remember that your NGB’s email communication with your members should follow a professional template, alongside company branding, images, and any call to action you wish to focus on. 

Action: Take a look at how you segment your members currently. Is it detailed enough for you to get across the messages you want?

5. Automation is your superpower

Did you know? Automation is a membership manager’s best friend. 

As a membership manager, you’re likely spending hours on making sure members are renewing their memberships and submitting accurate information – not to mention a dozen other tasks. 

Automation works as a godsend for your to-do list. Your membership management system should automate some of the key tasks for you, from membership renewal payments to member communications. Even better if you can introduce smart logic to introduce the perfect personalised experience. For example, if your event is targeted toward 25-30-year-olds, your system should automatically prevent purchases from people outside this age range. As members fill out their profiles after signing up, their forms should be auto-completed by fetching existing information from the database. 

And most importantly, automated membership renewals ensure you never have to chase down members to pay their fees. Your system should automatically renew memberships through a subscription and/or send emails as renewal reminders to those who didn’t opt for auto-renewals.

Action: Which recurring tasks do you seem to be doing over and over? Is there a way to automate it and save time?

6. Member experience is crucial

Here’s a tip we cannot stress enough: Member experience is the core of your business. Your membership journey should support members of all ages to fulfil their athletic or social goals and stay active within the community.

As paying members, they deserve a well-designed and user-friendly system. You might provide supporting documents to ensure they can navigate the system easily. Also, make sure members feel welcome in your community. This may include designating certain team members to interact with particular groups or individuals and help them bond with people of similar interests. 

Multiple members of a family may exist in your system. Creating a separate ‘family’ category and providing exclusive discounts to families is a great way to deliver a unified experience for the entire family. The best membership management systems like JustGo will provide you with dedicated family membership features to make this process simple. You could also create a rewards program to provide additional benefits. Overall, the idea is to build a sense of value and belonging within your members by intentionally taking the time to understand their needs.

Action: Walk through your member journey as a new member. Is your messaging clear enough? What could be improved?

7. Flexibility is powerful

No membership management system is perfect, and neither is any NGB. While there are limitations to what you can do for your members, your system should be configurable to the maximum extent. It should support smart logic and changing environments every step of the way. 

For example, you should be able to segment members into different categories and provide personalised journeys for each segment, making it easier for them to enjoy the right products, services, and events. 

Similarly, your smart rules ensure only people with the proper credentials can apply for coach memberships or book courses that match their level. This might be achieved through setting pre-requisite conditions for certifications and documents that require validation. (Pssst… Check out our tips on credential management here.)

Finally, you should always have full access to all of your data whenever you need it. No requests for data, no difficulty reviewing membership renewal figures and certainly no issues with reporting on financials. 

Your system should support and cater to the small and large details like these – and while it may not address everything directly, it should allow for any configuration or integration you might require. 

Action: Review how flexible your membership management system is. Does it support all your administrative endeavours?

As the support of members is the driving force behind your sports organisation, the need for a great membership management system cannot be overemphasised. Our team at JustGo has decades of experience in the membership management industry, and we have designed the perfect tool with and for organisations like yours to deliver an outstanding member experience and membership administration experience. 

If you’d like to know more about JustGo’s Membership Management System, feel free to reach out to Phil at sales@justgo.com. He’d love to hear from you!