Membership Form Best Practices for Enrollment and Renewals

How do you connect with your membership audience both online and offline? It’s easy! Here are a few ways you can optimize your membership forms for both new and returning members.

What to Include on Membership Forms

Your members should be able to complete your forms quickly and easily. Spending a lot of time filling out a form is no one’s idea of a good time! With Neon Membership’s intuitive form builder, you can give your members an enjoyable, hassle-free experience both online and offline.

Here are some strategies to consider when building your membership forms:

• Use modern, branded themes. Your form should match your branding and aesthetics.

• Keep your form short and simple. Splitting your membership form into multiple short steps makes the application process feel easier and less complicated. It can also help applicants move more easily through the process.
  
• Leave space for static content. Your form should include space for content that describes the benefits of being a member, how funds help support your mission, and other relevant information. 
  
• Add membership types or levels and their fees. List these in a clear and concise manner and allow for easy selection.

• Allow popular payment methods. By providing a few popular payment methods, you’ll increase your form’s conversion rate and decrease the chance of form abandonment. Try offering options like Apple Pay and Google Pay that appear to users based on their browser and device.
  
• Create a QR code. Are you using Neon Membership to create your form? You can instantly generate a QR code that will direct constituents to that form. Then, you can include that code on any membership marketing materials you send your constituents. Some people may opt for more traditional payment methods like cash or check. Others may appreciate the option to scan the code and fill out the form with their smartphone.

Your membership form should also include a few additional questions that give you insight into who your members are and what motivates them. By asking some personal questions, you can collect information that will help you build meaningful relationships with your members in the future. 

What Information Should I Collect on My Membership Forms?

To make sure you stay engaged with new members and build relationships with current ones, you’ll need to craft a membership form that invokes excitement around joining. Remember to list all the great benefits your members will experience! 

One way to ensure members stay engaged with your organization is to make sure you include the right fields and questions on your form. Here are three great places to start:

• Personal information or professional interests. Ask members for their birthday! When you have that information, you can easily create an automated email that will send on their special day. This is a great way to show your members you care about them. Ask members about their professional and personal interests, too. You can use that information to better understand who your members are and what’s important to them. 
  
• Specific membership information. Does your organization have chapters, committees, regions, or task forces? If you do, you’ll need to collect specific member information during the application process. That information will allow for easy audience segmentation in the future. 
  
• Communication preferences. Ask members what information they want to receive from your organization and how they’d like to receive it. You can use that information when communication with them about their membership.

It’s important to collect this type of information during the membership application process. Your organization can strategically use this valuable data for ongoing member communications.

Show Your Members Some Love with Personalization

Recognize returning members when they renew or upgrade their membership. Aside from making them feel good about continuing their membership, this will also help reduce confusion during the renewal process.

Neon Membership includes a member portal your constituents can use to manage their own memberships. You can also enable Email OAuth to further personalize the membership renewal process. With these tools, your member can log into their account or click “Renew Now” from your organization’s membership renewal email. Then, they can easily renew or upgrade their membership without having to enter their contact information. Your returning member will also be able to see their current or lapsed membership level, which makes it easier for them to navigate the membership level options you’ve included on your form.

Adding personalization elements to your membership forms will result in retaining your members year after year. Returning members represent a consistent revenue stream! Keep the following best practices at the top of your mind when building your renewal strategy.

Membership Renewal Best Practices

Use these strategies to encourage your constituents to renew their membership for another year.

• Provide a modern and easy membership renewal experience. Your members should be able to quickly and easily renew their membership. Our membership renewal forms will curate the enrollment process for returning members, making the renewal process easy and worry-free.
  
• Reach out to members about renewal at the right time and through the right channels. Try reaching out to your members by email, phone, direct mail—maybe all three! This is why it’s important to ask members how they’d like to receive communications during their initial application process.
  
• Ask questions to make sure members feel that they are benefiting from their membership. This helps to build the relationship you’ve established with your constituents. It also provides insightful information you can use in future campaigns.

Your staff will save time with an automated and personalized member renewal plan. With a little planning and the correct tools in place, you’ll spend less time behind the computer and more time building meaningful relationships. 

Tips and Tricks for an Effective Renewal Strategy

Let technology do most of the work for you! You can spend time using our built-in member analytics and widgets to understand who your members are and how you can engage them. A data-driven renewal plan will save you time, which you can use to grow your member relationships through phone calls or personal emails.

How to Use Neon Membership’s Renewal Plan Feature

Our tools make it easy for you to create a renewal process that’s easy for your members to use. Here’s how to use them.

• Enable Email Link Authentication in your system. When a member with an existing Neon account clicks on an enrollment link in an email, this feature automatically directs them to the constituent version of your membership form. This saves your members the step of logging in or re-entering personal information. This will also help prevent duplicate accounts.
  
• Set up an automated system email or letter to members telling them their membership will expire soon. Craft “membership due” and “membership overdue” emails or letters that are triggered based on a membership expiration date. Use the scheduler to create as many schedules as needed for your desired series of reminders. For example, try scheduling a notice that sends when a membership expires in 30 days, then a second email that sends a week before expiration.
  
• Include a QR code on your physical renewal letter or within your membership renewal packet. Offer your members a quick, easy way to renew instantly with their smartphone and popular payment methods.

• Build the relationship with a phone call: Remember how you gathered insight into your member’s communication preferences? Use that information to pull a list of all members due to expire and the best way to reach them. For example, you can identify members set to expire within 30 days who prefer to communicate by phone. From there, you can reach out to each member via phone call.

Create Effective Membership Forms with Neon Membership

The main goal for any member-driven organization is to grow and sustain your membership base over time. To do that, you’ll need a seamless application process that is inviting, easy, and transparent. Neon Membership has you covered for both your online and offline registration strategies. These best practice tips and strategies will help you connect with your members on a personal level, and our membership analytics, automated system emails, and workflows do the heavy lifting for you. It’s easy to create personalized forms your members will love. Interested in seeing how easy it is to set up your membership forms? Take a self-guided tour of the Neon Membership form builder! Click here to see the tool in action.