How to get members to use their membership benefits?

Using advisory services, legal assistance, discounts and other benefits is not only good for members – for the organization it helps strengthen customer loyalty, create satisfied members and recruit new members. So why don’t organizations focus more on increasing usage?

Increasing the use of member benefits should be a high priority for all member organizations. Many are very happy that the customer has ended up in the CRM, and stop there. But one of the keys to keeping them there is regular communication with the member, and reminders of why it is worth being a member.

Therefore, membership benefits are not just a lure for enrollment, but a tool that the organization should actively use and manage over time.

Treat membership benefits as products 

Insurance is one product, and courses are another. You don't need full branding and separate websites for each product, but they should ideally have a product owner each, or at least be separate from each other in, for example, analytics tools and CRM. 

Decide which products are most important to you and your members 

To find out which products are most important, it's not enough to just look at which ones are most used. Those statistics can also show which products have the best user experience or are easiest to use. No, you have to: 

  • Set up surveys that measure exactly this.  
  • Talk to customer support about what they get asked the most about (and ideally have a system that organizes requests by topic) 
  • And most importantly: have 1:1 conversations with members. 

Compare those results with what is most important to you as an organization. My experience suggests that it will be the products that require personal interaction and meetings with members, because they often result in the highest customer loyalty. But whatever the answer is: make assessments based on these factors, and rank the products in order of importance. 

In an ideal world, you would have enough people and resources to promote everyone equally, but that is almost never the case. In most Norwegian organizations, you will have to prioritize, because it is always better to do one thing well than two things half-heartedly. Start with one product, and work your way through the list in order of priority. 

It is worth mentioning here that some products are by their nature not used very often. This applies, for example, to advice and legal assistance. Other products are not very visible in everyday life, such as insurance and bank agreements. The product you choose to promote should be something that members can use relatively often, and something they notice that they are using. Good candidates are, for example, product discounts, support for professional development, and webinars and courses. 

Set goals 

I recommend taking a good look at the goals for using the product. “Increasing usage” is not a goal, at least not one that can be used to assess whether you have succeeded. How much should usage be increased? How should members use the product? When should the goal be achieved?  

Specifying the goal makes it much easier to adjust and optimize in the end, and perhaps most importantly: give an indication of when you can celebrate with cake and soda. 

We usually use the SMART methodology to set goals. The goal should be: 

  • Specific 
  • Paintable 
  • Attainable 
  • Relevant 
  • Timed 

You can find templates for holding a SMART goal workshop online, for example here. Alternatively, you can talk to someone who has done many such workshops before, for example here. 

Find reasons why members don't use that particular service 

  • Set up another survey that, for example, is limited to the benefits pages or logged in users 
  • Ask if they use the product, and why not 
  • Ask what would make them use the service more (list options you get from the previous survey) 
  • And again: Talk to the members. 

This is also a good opportunity to ask members for specific feedback and involve them in the development of the product. 

Afterwards, it is ready to: 

Addressing the biggest reasons 

The reasons can be broadly divided into a few categories: 

  1. Lack of knowledge about the product 
  1. The benefits are perceived as not very relevant  
  1. The product is difficult or time-consuming to use 

This may go without saying, but: If the product ticks all the boxes at once, it may not be a lifesaver. Choose another one as your “star product.” 

1. Lack of knowledge about the product 

The answer is almost embedded in the question: The product is not visible enough in your portfolio. Maybe it's a crooked design or bureaucratic text, or maybe it's hard to find in the menu?
This is a typical content job that can often require even more insight: If the current content or page structure isn't working, what would actually work? 

Here, it will help to talk to your designer or someone who is good at plain language, to get the tools you need to fix the problems. 

Once these hygiene factors are fixed, you can start promoting the product on your website, social media, paid ads, or email campaigns. The main focus should be on communicating: 

  • What need does the product meet? 
  • What value does it provide to members? 
  • What evidence do we have that it actually works? 
  • And finally: facts about the product. 

Every campaign, landing page, or email should have content that covers these four points, preferably in that order. Use creativity and storytelling to convey why this is the best product in the world. 

Under this category, the problem can also be a misconception of the services, as is sometimes the case for legal aid. Members may have the perception that legal aid is only for the most serious situations, but in reality it can be quite simple things, such as GDPR and privacy advice. The answer is to clearly communicate what the offer is about, and what it covers. 

An experienced content strategist, whether you already have one or need outside help, will also be able to choose the most effective channels, automate what can be automated in CRM, and personalize communication to different parts of the target audience (personas). 

You can read more about how you should write online in this article. 

Building community 

Under this category, it may also be a good idea to look at what you can do to build a community around the product. For example, if you have chosen to promote courses, you can create a separate newsletter for participants where you make sure they know exactly what benefits the course series will give them. It may also make sense to invite participants to a separate Teams channel where they can talk and share experiences, or give them special benefits that they can use often.  

The point is: do everything you can to have frequent contact with your members. The goal is to become a part of their everyday lives. 

The benefits are perceived as not very relevant 

Note the word experienced here. If the product is perceived as irrelevant, but it is not , you also have a communication job ahead of you. But if the product is actually not relevant to most members, you should perhaps take another look at whether the product is worth continuing to offer. You may need to develop the product to become more relevant. For example, this could involve making the product more flexible and letting members only choose the parts of it that are relevant.  

The solution here lies in working with the product page, and explaining what it does with illustrations, videos and other tools that convey why it is actually relevant. 

The product is difficult or time-consuming to use 

In the vast majority of cases, this will be about user experience. To take legal aid as an example again:  

  • Does the solution require the member to download Zoom or Teams, or can they have the meeting right in their browser? 
  • Do members have to wait for an email response, or do you have an automatic meeting booking calendar? 
  • Does the form for requesting help contain too many fields? 
  • Are there too few included hours in the membership, making people afraid to use them up? 
  • …and so on 

A good UX designer will be able to give you good tips on what you can do to remove barriers to using the product. A good UX designer with experience in membership organizations will also be able to suggest better technical solutions that can make the user experience more seamless. 

Measure the effect and adapt 

After the changes are made, it’s time to go back to the SMART goals. Included in these should be a description of how you want to measure success. Ideally, they also include milestones so you can monitor and make adjustments along the way. It’s also a good idea to continue talking to your users. 

There can be many adaptations, but focus on them contributing to achieving the goals. Good ideas can often come from the left, and it is important to always ask yourself whether these serve the purpose. Eyes on the prize! 

A lot to deal with? Don't despair 

There is a lot of work involved in coming up with a solution that will make a difference. And it is work that is not being used for other things you want to get done. Take it one step at a time: setting up an initial survey on the website and talking to some members will give you a clearer direction for your work, and the rest of the process will not be so burdensome. 

Remember that your main task is to create many loyal members who will experience such great benefits from being a member that the cost of switching to another organization will be too great. The products you highlight are tools to get there. Both you and your members benefit from taking a systematic approach. 

If you need help implementing a product process, please feel free to send me an email via the link below. We at Dekode has extensive experience in assisting companies in making strategic choices based on user insights.

Do you need help with your membership journey?

Jørgen Bertelsen, advisor in Dekode, photo
Jørgen Bertelsen
COO
+47 930 11 048