How to Write a Great Membership Renewal Letter (Sample)

Renewal income is the lifeblood of most associations, chambers of commerce and nonprofit groups. A great membership renewal letter can convert members who may be unsure if they want to remain. Follow these best practices in your renewal email to maximize retention.

Jump to the Membership Renewal Letter Sample.

The Basics

1. Write a great subject line
   Retention Science reported that subject lines with 6 to 10 words deliver the highest open rate. This may be in part due to the shorter cutoff point for subject lines that are read on smart phones. See some subject line tips for your member renewal letter and consider these examples:
   • Your access to abc benefit expires in x days
   • Why popular member name renewed, and why you should too
   • Discount code inside for first 10 Gold Member renewals
2. Aim for simplicity
   The ideal length for an email is between 50-125 words according to a Boomerang study; emails in this range enjoyed response rates above 50%. Other tips to keep your renewal email format simple:
   • As of March 2019, approximately 60% of email opens occurred on mobile (Adestra), underlining the importance of a mobile-first focus. This means not including wide graphics that will break your email layout for mobile viewers.
   • Don’t clutter the top of the email with graphics other than perhaps your logo. You don’t want to waste your members’ time or distract them. Get right to the point.
   • Use bullets and short sentences to convey key points.
   • Apply a readability test to your content. Proof your letter for typos, punctuation, spelling and grammar mistakes.
3. Remind members why they belong
   Mention benefits, preferably in a bulleted list format with links. If you are taking the time to customize your member renewal letter on an annual basis, pull in a few highlights from your annual report. Create a calendar reminder to prompt you to make adjustments to your renewal email when your new report comes out.
4. Communicate urgency
   Be sure that the member renewal date is prominent. You want your members to take action the first time they read this email and not wait for reminders.
5. Direct members to the right place to renew
   Don’t just link to your membership website home page. Your members might end up trying to join again instead of logging into their account to renew. Within the renewal letter, the renewal link or button should be close to the membership expiration date.
6. Include contact info
   Renewing members may have trouble with their passwords or other technical issues, especially if you have older members. Contact information — both email and phone — helps members reach you to speedily resolve issues.
7. Engage the member to take action
   The more engaged they are, the more likely your members will renew. Consider including mention of an action they can take to reconnect to your organization:
   • Remind the member to log in and add to their member directory profile.
   • Invite them to attend events; include a link to your event calendar page.
   • Encourage volunteering; link to your volunteer page. Along these lines, you can mention committees that are actively seeking members. Don’t forget contact information or a link.
   • For vendor or affiliate members, promote your sponsorship and advertising opportunities as they may not know how to get involved.
8. Test before sending
   Test your message before you activate it for your members. See how your renewal email appears on smartphones and desktop computers. If it looks good in both places, you can typically assume that it will also look good on a tablet too. Possible issues:
   • Long subject lines are cut off. Mobile devices show around 25-30 characters of a subject line on average. To avoid issues, place key words early in the subject line.
   • If an image is wider than 300 pixels, it may force mobile viewers to scroll right and left to read the message.
   • Check to be sure your tags convert to data when you send a test to yourself. Nothing makes an email feel more impersonal than seeing a tag instead of a name.
9. Set up multiple notices
   Today’s members are easily distracted. Set up a series of emails in your membership platform related to renewal. Consider communicating with:
   • Two in advance of the membership renewal date. It’s great to get your dues payments in sooner!
   • Two to three emails if the member goes past due.
   • A phone call somewhere in the process. Perhaps you have a membership committee, retention chair or board members willing to follow up this way to spread out the workload? Tip: track personal outreach efforts in each member’s timeline in your membership database.
   • Other personal outreach.

   Each email can have a slightly different focus so that the member is provided with new information that may compel them to renew. In either the last email prior to the expiration date or in past due emails, mention the benefits that they will no longer have access to, whether it is:

   • member only content,
   • exclusive member events,
   • their membership directory listing,
   • discounted ticket pricing and more.

Next Level Ideas for Your Membership Renewal Letter

1. Customize the content by membership level.
   Your membership database software should allow you to send out different renewal notices to each of your membership levels. Leverage this ability to customize; remind your premium members about the benefits they are entitled to.
2. Offer the opportunity to auto-renew.
   Think of all the things that can go wrong when a member tries to renew, such as:
   • The member sees the renewal letter once and thinks, “I’ll deal with this later,” but never returns to the task.
   • The member forgot their password and doesn’t take the time to use the forgot password feature (or worse, the password reset email goes to their spam folder).
   • The member types in incorrect or expired credit card information and gets an error message. If they are in a hurry, they may get frustrated and not complete the transaction.

   Given these pitfalls, the more members you can convert to auto-renewing credit card billing, the better your retention rates will be. Encourage auto-recurring billing. Some ways to encourage this shift include:

   • Mention the efficiency of not having to login and perform this task with the next billing cycle.
   • Consider offering a discounted membership rate to those on auto-renewing billing.
3. Avoid spam filters
   It’s always a good idea to run your email through a spam test to look for problems with your subject line or content. Or take a look at 550+ spam trigger words to avoid. If you are questioning whether or not any of your emails are consistently reaching your members, take a look at these factors:
   • Use an email address tied to your domain name such as members@yourorganizationname.com, not Gmail or Yahoo email account. Two reasons among many why using a personal email address is a bad idea:
     • It looks unprofessional. If you can’t be troubled to set up a domain-affilated email address, why should your members take time to renew?
     • A domain-specific email address lets your members know whom the message is coming from. They are less likely to open an email from someone they don’t know.
   • If you are using a custom domain name-related email address for sending renewal letters from your membership management software, have you authenticated your email address using DKIM/DMARC? Creating these records at your domain registrar will enable your membership software’s servers to officially send emails on your organization’s behalf. Look to your membership CRM Help section for instructions. MembershipWorks customers can find this information in Help > Basics & Setup > Email Deliverability.

Consider the Entire Membership Journey

Ideally you have been communicating with each member regularly since their join date. How did you interact with this member? Some of the ways you might engage with members on an ongoing basis include:

• Event notices,
• Thank you emails for membership and other transactions,
• Calls for volunteers, peer mentors or committee members,
• A regular enewsletter,
• Blog posts that are sent out by email,
• Listserv emails,
• Autoresponder series on a topic they are interested in,
• Forum posts,
• Social media posts,
• Phone calls,
• Texts (bulk or personal), or
• Best of all, personal communications.

Members who have been educated about the value of belonging, have engaged with the group and have taken advantage of its benefits should welcome the chance to remain a part of your organization.

Sample Renewal Letter

This renewal letter example illustrates what a chamber of commerce might say, but you can easily customize it for any membership or not-for-profit organization’s needs.

Subject line: Your access to 1,500 newcomers ends soon

Dear [contact],

[organization name] has worked hard over the past 12 months to help you acquire new business and connect with peers. Login <link to member login page> to renew your membership before it expires on [date]. Let’s keep growing together!

This year we promoted your business by:

• Distributing 2,500+ welcome packets to newcomers.
• Selling 5,000+ Buy Local cards.
• Connecting 50 local nonprofits with 500 volunteers. (See media coverage. <link>)

Renew today <link> to continue your access to:

• Our annual salary survey results <link>.
• Member only networking events <link to calendar page> like our annual Picnic on the Lake and our monthly Member Happy Hour.
• Our mentorship program <link to directory page that is a subset of your larger directory>.
• Listing your events on our Community Calendar <link>.

We’re eager to have your participation in the coming year! Please reach out with questions or ideas to better serve you.

Thank you,

Your Member Service Team

memberservices@yourorganizationame.com
555-555-1234

Facebook <link>

LinkedIn <link>

[website]

Also check out our tips for writing a member welcome letter. A well-crafted welcome email can boost retention rates. New members will start off on the right foot with awareness of your programs and how to make the most of their membership.

See related articles:

3 Rules for Successful Renewal Letters
5 Tips for Successful Automatic Renewal Letters
How to Make a Splash with a New Website Announcement (Sample Email)

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