Dear reader,
Most associations don't have a renewal problem. They have a renewal reminder problem, and the two get treated as the same thing far too often.
The reminder that goes to everyone the same way
A standard renewal sequence usually looks the same regardless of who's receiving it: a notice at 60 days, another at 30, a final one at the deadline. Same subject line, same content, same timing, sent to the member who's used their membership constantly and the one who logged in once, eighteen months ago, and forgot they'd joined.
That's not really a communications strategy. It's a schedule.
Why generic reminders underperform
A renewal reminder that doesn't reference anything specific to that member reads as exactly what it is, an automated notice. It doesn't remind them of the event they attended, the resource they downloaded, or the community they've actually been part of. It just asks for money again.
The information to do better usually already exists inside iMIS. Event attendance, resource downloads, engagement history, most of it's sitting there, it's just never been connected to the renewal sequence itself.
What actually improves renewal rates
This isn't really about writing better renewal emails. It's about segmenting properly before you write anything: highly engaged members get a different message than lapsed-but-still-paying members, who get a different message again than members who joined for a single event and never came back. Each group is actually being asked a different question, "keep doing what you're doing" versus "here's what you're missing" versus "is this still relevant to you."
Getting this right usually means the renewal sequence pulls from real engagement data, through iMIS itself or whatever's connected to it through communications integrations like Higher Logic or Mailchimp, rather than treating every member identically because building three or four versions felt like more work than one.
Why this fits a fractional arrangement well
Auditing and rebuilding a renewal sequence properly is exactly the kind of project that falls into the gap between "quick question" and "full new engagement." It's too specific and too tied to your actual member data for a generic template to fix, but it's not a full platform overhaul either, usually a few focused sessions: pull the segments, map what each group actually needs to hear, and rebuild the sequence around that.
Who this is for
If your renewal reminders currently look the same regardless of who's receiving them, that's usually not a sign you need new software. It's a sign the data you already have in iMIS has never been properly connected to how you actually communicate with members.
Until next week,
Brock