The American Bar Association is considering testing direct mail and telephone scripts that strongly encourage credit card payment to boost membership renewal rates.
The ABA is the largest volunteer professional association in the country, with 400,000 members, including 300,000 attorneys. Lawyers are offered a free one-year membership when the pass the bar exam; after the first year when payment is requested, retention is about 40%.
Membership levels are crucial, said Roger Marcus, the ABA’s director of database marketing at the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing’s annual DM Days last Friday.
“We’re a major lobbying organization,” he said, noting the association needs around 17,00 new members annually to meet their recruitment goals. “The more people we have, the more important we look.”
The ABA’s main recruitment tool is telemarketing, he said, noting that as a nonprofit, the ABA is exempt from many of the Do-Not-Call regulations.
The association will take a sale without upfront payment, asking for a credit card on the phone first, then offering to send a bill, or as a last resort, a “trial” membership. (“No pun intended,” Marcus noted. “But lawyers do respond to the word trial.”)
The ABA has several dues classes, varying from $100 to $300 depending on the number of years since the attorney has passed the bar. Marcus noted that the association doesn’t have the funds to call everyone on its list, so analyzes the file based on past responses to see which have the best likely return.
The connect rate for calls is about 90%, while the contact rate with the right person is about 40%. The response rate for the 25,000 name universe of people who dropped off the member file recently is 50%, while the response rate for the 65,000 name universe of people who have fallen off in the last one to three years is 35%.
Conversion rate for those willing to pay immediately by credit card is 95%, while conversion for “bill me” responders is 35%. The conversion for those who ask for a trial membership is only 15%.
Nonprofit associations need to have definite goals in their fundraising programs, said Frank Roman, a nonprofit consultant. The group must recognize whether it has short term or long term goals in mind, and like any marketing organization, have a clear idea of how it is measuring its return on investment.
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