A couple of clubs I’ve been working with lately have expressed concerns with annual members renewing their memberships. My first question to them was, “When did you send their renewal letter?” Every one of the clubs said they sent the renewal letter the same month their membership was expiring.
I am a huge fan of sending early renewal letters to members at least three months in advance. There are several good reasons for this. First, we are incentivizing them to renew early — one free month for every month early that they renew. When you send a renewal letter the same month they are due, it suggests to the member “Hey your year is up, come pay us money again, thank you!” By sending early letters you are able to contact your members multiple times.
The second reason is that life happens. We all have things happen in life, car breaks down, new lawn mower, hot water heater breaks etc. When we do early renewals, we give ourselves a couple more chances of getting them to renew before life happens and then they do not renew their membership. You can come up with different incentives for your club, but it comes down to multiple touches to get them to renew.
Eric Vyborny
Fitness Marketing Contributor
