Renewals form the financial backbone of any member-based organization. However, the process of manually tracking and processing these renewals can be frustrating and prone to errors.

Automating the renewal process can save your organization significant time and effort while also increasing renewal rates, improving cash flows, and enhancing the member experience.

And with the appropriate automation tools, you can establish a renewal process that is not only seamless but also requires minimal management effort.

In this guide, we'll walk through 7 effective strategies for automating membership renewals using Glue Up, an all-in-one engagement management software designed exclusively for member-based organizations.

Key Takeaways

• Automated renewals enhance member experience and increase retention rates by eliminating manual errors and oversights.
• Online membership renewal and automatic recurring payments offer members a seamless, effortless renewal process.
• Automatic invoice generation and membership expiration streamline administrative tasks, ensuring accurate and timely updates.
• Regularly reviewing renewal reports provides insights to fine-tune the automation strategy for optimal member engagement.

1. Set Up Automated Renewal Reminders

One of the primary reasons members fail to renew their memberships is simply because they forget. By setting up automated renewal reminders, you can proactively inform your members about the upcoming renewal deadlines and increase the chances of timely renewals.

You can set up automated renewal reminders using Glue Up’s AMS with just a few clicks. You can schedule and dispatch personalized reminders to each member, ensuring they receive timely and relevant notifications. This enhances the overall renewal experience and increases the likelihood of successful renewals.

These automated emails serve as a gentle nudge to your members, reminding them that their membership is nearing expiration and prompting them to log in and renew. You can configure the system to automatically email and/or text members reminders at set intervals (e.g. 30, 60, and 90 days) before their membership expires.

However, make sure to highlight the benefits of renewing and provide straightforward renewal instructions.
For instance, your email could read: "Your membership is expiring on [date]. Click here to log in and renew today. By renewing, you'll continue enjoying [list key benefits]."

These reminders should also include renewal instructions and a link to easily renew online. Automating renewal reminders increases renewals by keeping members engaged.
 

2. Enable Online Membership Renewal

To offer your members a seamless experience, it's essential that you enable online membership renewal. Automating this process allows your members to renew effortlessly through your website or membership management system.

When setting this up, ensure the renewal page displays their contact details, membership tier, and various payment options. Facilitate them further by allowing online payments through credit cards, letting them instantly renew without any complications.

With platforms like Glue Up, the task becomes even simpler. The platform allows you to craft personalized online renewal reminders for each member. Once logged in, they can independently renew their memberships, saving your team invaluable time.

This efficient process not only makes renewals straightforward for your members but also minimizes the manual workload for your team.

3. Set up Automatic Recurring Payments

To further enhance your membership experience, consider setting up automatic recurring payments.

By offering this function, you give your members an option to have their membership dues charged directly to their credit card, be it monthly, annually, or any other renewal term they've opted for.

This method eliminates the need for them to remember and manually process renewals, offering a frictionless experience. It also ensures that they don't miss out on renewals due to overlooked deadlines or missed payments.

Glue Up lets you set up automated recurring payments for each membership level. Your members can easily opt in upon signup or renewal, ensuring their membership continues without interruption. This not only guarantees consistent renewals but also considerably trims down administrative tasks.

To bring this convenience to your members, ensure you've activated the automatic recurring payments feature in the platform. As a result, during the checkout process, your members will see a "Renew Automatically" checkbox, which they can activate.

With this setup, their membership renewals are processed in the background without any intervention on their part. This approach solidifies long-term commitments from members and augments your renewal revenue.
 

4. Configure Automatic Invoice Generation

While the convenience of online payments is undeniable, it's important to remember that some of your members might still prefer to receive invoices. To cater to their needs and to streamline your operations, consider automating the generation of renewal invoices.

Set up your system so it automatically churns out a renewal invoice for these members when their renewal date approaches. Ensure this invoice includes all the essential details:

• membership specifics
• payment information, and
• The due date.

Then, send it straight to the member's email. By doing this, you streamline the renewal process, making it smoother for both your team and the members.

You can easily use Glue Up's automated invoice feature to generate and dispatch renewal invoices according to your schedule. Even though they are automated, they have your
logo along with the payment details.

And what about members who don't opt for auto-renewal? For them, you'll want to ensure that renewal invoices are automatically generated and sent. This way, they receive a timely bill for their upcoming renewal, nudging them toward making their payment.

5. Enable Automatic Membership Expiration

Membership automation wouldn't be complete without automatically expiring memberships when renewal doesn't occur.

Instead of having to manually track and expire non-renewed memberships, set up your system to automatically expire the memberships that are not renewed by the end of their term. Once expired, they'll lose access to member-exclusive benefits until they decide to renew. This way, your membership list remains current at all times.

This feature is easily set up in the Glue Up. The platform automatically expires the membership if no renewal occurs. You don't have to worry about tracking or managing membership status - it's all automated based on your renewal rules.

Remember that in addition to automating renewals, it's equally important to have memberships auto-expire at the end of their terms. This ensures members who don't renew are moved into the proper non-member groups.

6. Configure Paths for Downgrading Memberships

Not all members might want to continue with their current membership tier. In such cases, providing downgrade paths can ensure that these members still find value in staying connected with your organization, albeit at a lower tier.

This process can also be automated through Glue Up’s comprehensive dashboard. You can set up specific downgrade paths, allowing members to easily transition to a lower membership tier if they choose to do so, thus preventing complete membership drop-offs.

However, make sure that the downgrade option is clearly presented during the online renewal process, encouraging members to stay instead of canceling their memberships.

7. Review Renewal Reports

The final step in your membership management journey involves closely monitoring the results. Make it a habit to consistently review detailed renewal reports to assess the efficacy of your automated renewal processes.

To get comprehensive renewal reporting, simply sign up and navigate your data on the Glue Up platform. The dashboard provides a snapshot of upcoming renewals, overdue members, and renewal performance metrics.

To access reports on scheduled, overdue, and completed renewals, navigate to home > modify dashboard. These reports can be filtered by date range and membership type.

Review these renewal reports regularly to identify and address any issues promptly. This will enable you to follow up with members as needed to enhance renewal rates. Furthermore, the real-time insight into renewal performance and trends will allow you to fine-tune your automation strategy effectively.
 

Membership renewals serve as a key revenue generator for numerous organizations. Automating this process not only ensures consistency and efficiency but also increases the probability of retaining members.

By incorporating a platform like Glue Up into your operations, the process becomes effortless for members to remain actively engaged with your organization.

The outcome? An increase in renewals, a reduction in workload, and more satisfied members contribute to recurring revenue year after year. For more insights on how to automate administrative tasks, refer to our comprehensive guide on association management, or get a demo to witness the benefits of automation first-hand.