Making the Most of Your Memberships

Jessica Abejar
Jessica Abejar
  • Updated

In this article, we’ll explore several tools you can use to make the most of your Memberships in Spektrix. In this article, we’ll take a deeper look at some of the features available that can help your organization manage and elevate your Membership offerings.

Before reading this article, we recommend taking a look at the Introduction to Memberships for an overview of the components of a Membership and considerations for selling Memberships.

VIDEO: If you're new to Memberships or other audience loyalty features in Spektrix, take a look at our Audience Loyalty concept video.

This article will cover:

TIP: Other features you may consider to make the most of your Memberships include Auto Renewable Memberships and Gift Memberships. You can find in-depth details on the functionalities in their respective Support Centre articles.

 

Customer Eligibility with Memberships

Your organization may be familiar with linking different benefits in Spektrix with your Memberships. This can include Priority Booking, Offers, designated and priority seating with Locks and waived Commissions

These benefits can be managed using Customer Eligibility. In Customer Eligibility, you can use Membership eligibility, which looks for Customers with current Memberships of that selected type.

Memberships in Customer Eligibility.

In the example above, the Gold Membership has been selected. This means the benefit will apply to any Customer who have a current Gold Membership. Any Customers without Memberships, with other Memberships or with expired Gold Memberships won’t be eligible.

Customer Groups also use Customer Eligibility to identify your Members to Sales Users and Scanning Interface Users.

Member Customer Group in the Sales Interface.

Member Customer Group in the Scanning Interface.

 

Segmenting Members

You can segment your Members to identify:

  • First time Members
  • Members in the Renewal Period or Grace Period
  • Customers who’ve let their Memberships expire and lapse
  • Members who’ve also booked Tickets to a particular Event
  • Members who’ve received a Mailing
  • Members who’ve been Invited to special Events

For these examples, we recommend using Global and Local segments to group these specific Members. You can build these segments for use in Customer Lists and Auto Tags.

TIP: In order to use the segments mentioned as part of Customer Eligibility, they must be set up as Auto Tags. For example, if you’d like to offer a discount on Merchandise for only first-time Members, you’ll need to create an Auto Tag first and then add the Auto Tag to Customer Eligibility.

Membership data can be found in a Purchasing Segment from the Segment Builder Wizard. Select the Memberships wrapper and uncheck Only show commonly used criteria for a full listing of all available metrics.

The Purchasing segment will look for Customers who have made a Membership purchase that meets the selected criteria. Purchasing segments take a look at all transactions in a Customer’s purchase history.

To limit your segment to Customers who've made specific purchases during a specific time range, use a date metric. For example, for recent first-time Members, use the First Ever Membership metric with Date Transaction Confirmed with a range of This Month

The Membership wrapper in a Purchasing Segment.

Next, we’ll take a look at a few metrics in the Membership wrapper:

  • Metric Description How to Use
    Accounting Date

    If you use the Accounting Date feature, you can segment on Members who have purchased a Membership within a specific Accounting Date range.

    With the Returned metric checked, you can segment on Members who have returned a Membership within a specific Accounting Date range.

    Include or exclude from a selected date range
    Auto Renew

    If you sell Auto Renewable Memberships, you can segment on Members who have Auto Renewable Memberships. 

    This metric includes all Members who have purchased Auto Renewable Memberships in the past or present, including those that have expired. 

    To limit to current Auto Renewable Membership holders, use with the Expiration Date metric and select a date range of tomorrow until the end of time.

    Checkbox
    Campaign

    If you use Campaigns in the Opportunities Interface, you can segment on Members who have purchased a Membership that is linked to the selected Campaign(s).

    This is the Campaign for the Opportunity linked to the Membership purchase or the default Campaign, if not linked to an Opportunity.

    Include or exclude Campaigns, Sub-campaigns and/or Sub-sub-campaigns from the selection screen
    Date Returned

    Segment Members who have returned a Membership with a Return Date during the selected date range.

    It’s recommended to use with the Returned metric checked.

    Include or exclude from a selected date range
    Date Transaction Confirmed

    If you use Date Transaction Confirmed, you can segment on Members who have purchased a Membership within a Date Transaction Confirmed range.

    With the Returned metric checked, you can segment on Members who have returned a Membership within a Date Transaction Confirmed range.

    Include or exclude from a selected date range
    Did Lapse

    Segment on Members who have a lapsed (expired) Membership.

    This metric includes all Members with expired Memberships which have passed the grace period and that have not renewed. The metric won’t include Members who have later repurchased. 

    Use with a date range metric such as Expiration Date to limit to Members whose Memberships expired during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    Expiration Date Segment on Members whose Membership has an Expiration Date within the selected date range. Include or exclude from a selected date range
    First Ever Membership

    Segment on Members who made their first Membership purchase. 

    Use with a date range such as Accounting Date or Date Transaction Confirmed to limit to Members who purchased their first ever Membership during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    First Of This Membership

    Segment Members who made their first purchase of this type of Membership.

    Use this metric with the Membership metric and with a date range such as Accounting Date or Date Transaction Confirmed to limit to Members who purchased their first  Membership of this type during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    In Grace Period Segment on Members who are in their Grace Period as of the current date. Checkbox
    Is Repurchase

    Segment Members who have repurchased a Membership. This includes renewed and reissued Memberships.

    This metric includes all Members who have repurchased a Membership in the past or present, including those that have eventually expired. 

    Use with a date range metric such as Start Date to limit to Members who have repurchased their Membership during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    Lapsed Then Repurchased

    Segment Members whose Membership lapsed (expired) and then who later purchased the same Membership. This does not include renewed or reissued Memberships.

    This metric takes a look at the expired Membership and then looks ahead to the Member’s next purchase of the same Membership type. Their next Membership may have eventually expired.

    Use with the Membership metric and combine using AND with another Purchasing segment using the Membership and Start Date metrics. This combination of segments will take a look at Members who have let a Membership expire at any time in the past and then repurchased the Membership during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    Membership

    Segment Members who purchased any one of the selected Membership types.

    With the Returned metric checked, you can segment Members who have returned a Membership of the selected types.

    Include or exclude Memberships from the selection screen
    Membership Attributes

    Segment Members who purchased a Membership that have the selected Membership Attributes.

    With the Returned metric checked, you can segment on Members who have returned a Membership with the selected Membership Attributes.

    Include or exclude some or all of the Membership Attributes from the selection screen
    Price Segment Members who purchased a Membership within a specific Price range. Include or exclude from a selected value range.
    Renewal

    Segment Members who have renewed a Membership. This does not include reissued or repurchased Memberships.

    This metric includes all Members who have renewed Memberships in the past or present, including those that have eventually expired. 

    Use with a date range metric such as Start Date to limit to Members who renewed their Memberships during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    Returned

    Segment Members who have returned a Membership. This includes Memberships returned as part of a reissue.

    Use with a date range metric such as Date Returned, Accounting Date or Date Transaction Confirmed to limit to Members who returned a Membership of during a specific timeframe.

    Checkbox
    Start Date Segment Members whose Membership has a Start Date within the selected date range. Include or exclude from a selected date range.

 

Extending Membership Periods

There may be times when your organization will need to extend the Membership Period of one, some or all Memberships. You can do this in a few ways:

This is the timeline of a Membership with an Expiry/Expiration Date applied:

The timeline of the Membership period.

  • The Membership Period starts on the day a Membership is purchased.

  • The Membership ends on the Expiry/Expiration Date, which can be a relative date (for example, after 30 days) or a fixed date (for example, December 31).

  • The Renewal Period is a designated period of time before the End Date when Members can renew at the Renewal Price before their Membership expires. If a Member renews during this time, the Renewal Start Date is always the day after the End Date.

  • The Grace Period is a designated period of time after the End Date when Members can renew at the Renewal Price, even if their Membership has expired. If a Member renews during this time, the Renewal Start Date is always the day after the End Date.

TIP: After making changes to the Membership period, you may want to contact your Members about these changes. Read Segmenting Members for information on how to select specific Members to contact. Then read Communicating with your Members for information on the different ways to contact and personalize communication.

 

Extending Expiry/Expiration Dates

There may be times where you’d like to change the Expiry/Expiration Date for Memberships you’ve already sold so that Members can enjoy any status and benefits associated with their Membership for longer periods.

While editing a Membership’s Expiry/Expiration Date in the setup will change the Expiry/Expiration Date for all future purchases, all current Memberships will need to be reissued individually.

Follow the steps in Editing and Reissuing already sold Memberships in Selling and Renewing Memberships and override the End Date. This will reissue the Membership with its newest Expiry/Expiration Date.

A Membership in the Order with the Reissue button highlighted.

The reissued Membership will appear in the Subscriptions tab of the Customer Record with its latest details updated. The previously sold Membership will appear as an Expired Membership.

WARNING: Reissuing Memberships is best for new purchases or repurchases of a Membership. Attempting to edit and reissue a Membership Renewal after the renewal’s Start Date will cause an error. If you need to change a renewed Membership's dates, you can do so by returning the renewed Membership and then purchasing a new one.

 

Extending Renewal Periods

There may be times when you’d like to change the Renewal Periods for Memberships you’ve already sold so that Members can decide to renew even earlier. Any changes you make will apply to all currently sold Memberships.

Follow the steps in Editing Basic Details in Setting Up and Editing Memberships and edit the Renewal Period.

Renewal Period field in the Basic Details of the Membership.

This will change the Renewal Period for all currently sold Memberships and may cause some Memberships to begin their Renewal Period as soon as it has been edited.

Extending Grace Periods

There may be times when you’d like to change the Grace Periods for Memberships you’ve already sold so that Members have the opportunity to renew after their Memberships expire. Any changes you make will apply to all currently sold Memberships but won’t reinstate any Memberships that have fully expired after their Grace Period.

Follow the steps in Editing Basic Details in Setting Up and Editing Memberships and edit the Grace Period.

Grace Period field in the Basic Details of the Membership.

This will change the Grace Period for all currently sold Memberships and may cause some Memberships currently in the Grace Period to be extended as soon as it has been edited.

TIP: Extending the Grace Period won’t change the Start Date of the renewed Membership, as the Start Date is always the day after the Expiry/Expiration Date.

 

Communicating with your Members

There are many reasons why you might want to contact your Members, which can include:

  • Saying thanks for joining or renewing.
  • Updating Members about their benefits usage, such as Ticket comps and presales.
  • Keeping Members up to date on the impact of their support.

Spektrix has several communication tools with our Dotdigital Integration that you can use to build and maintain relationships with your Members. In this article, we’ll take a look at:

TIP: Dotdigital is a cloud-based marketing automation platform which provides an accessible and user-friendly interface that you can use to send email marketing campaigns. You can read more about this in our Introduction to Dotdigital Support Centre article.

 

Customer List Schedules

In Segmenting Members, we looked at the different ways you can segment your Members using metrics such as first-time Members or Members in the Renewal and Grace Period. With these segments, you can use Customer List Schedules to send specific emails tailored to these Member groups.

For example, you can schedule:

  • A welcome email for Members after they’ve purchased their first Membership

  • A reminder email to let Members know they’re in the Renewal Period and can renew early

  • A notification to let Members know their Membership expired and how many days are left in the Grace Period

Follow the steps in Customer List Schedules. You may also want to read:

 

Dynamic Content in Email Campaigns

If you have multiple Memberships and you’d like to use the same Email Campaign for all Members, you may want to consider using Dynamic Content.

Using Dynamic Content you can use the same Renewal Email Campaign but include different information for different types of Memberships. You can use a Dynamic Content block to include information such as:

  • Name of the Membership and current Renewal Price
  • Benefits of the Membership
  • An upsell to encourage the Member to purchase a higher tiered Membership

To use Dynamic Content, you’ll need to create Auto Tags and sync these Tags into Dotdigital.

TIP: You won’t be able to pull in fields such as the Name of the Membership, Renewal Price or Expiration Date. You’ll need to manually include these into the Email Campaign design.

Dynamic Content button in the email campaign design of DotDigital.

In order to use Dynamic Content for different Memberships:

  1. You’ll first need to create an Auto Tag for each Membership.

  2. After syncing the Tags to Dotdigital, you’ll create a Dynamic Content block.

  3. Create a Variation for each Tag/Membership. In the variation content you can include the Name of the Membership, current Renewal Price, days until expiration, benefits, instructions on how to renew, or an upsell to a higher tiered Membership.

  4. Select the appropriate Contact Data Field for each Variation.

  5. Repeat these steps for all Memberships.

TIP: Your Expiry/Expiration Date may differ from Member to Member. If so, we recommend using language such as “5 days left of your Membership” rather than specify the actual date. You can then  create a Customer List Schedule that sends the Email Campaign to Members whose Expiry/Expiration Date is five days from today.

 

Other Email Campaigns

You can also use Dynamic Content for other Email Campaigns including Pre and Post Show Emails and other emails sent to all Customers. You can use the Dynamic Content to specifically call out your Members, including:

  • Letting them know of any benefits when they arrive at the venue, such as parking, drinks at the bar, free programs, etc.

  • Upselling Member-only Supplementary Events such as a pre-show cocktail hour or a post-event discussion.

  • Thanking them for their continued support.

REMINDER: Dynamic Content can’t be used to pull in data fields such as Supplementary Event Name, Date or Time or any other information that may vary from Instance to Instance.

 

Reporting on your Members

You can use Reporting to better understand your Members, their demographics, their booking behavior or other purchasing behavior.

You can run a Customer List of all Members you would like to analyze through any Reports on your system. Follow the instructions in Crossover Analysis - How to Run a Customer List through a Report.

Run a Customer List through a Report option.

Examples of Reports you may want to run include:

  • Customer Analysis: Get an overview of Members’ behavior and demographics. Alternatively, you can instead use the Membership metric in a Criteria Set to filter to only current Members.

  • Customer Behavior Analysis: Analyze your Members’ booking behavior for selected Events, Instances and booking periods.

  • Ticket Sales Analysis: Analyze your Members’ Ticket Sales for selected Events, Instances and booking periods.

  • Customer Questionnaire Analysis: Get a breakdown of the answers given by Members to the questionnaire with their Ticket purchases.

  • Register of Attendance: A register of which Member booked into each Instance of an Event, including Members’ emergency contact details.

  • ROI Report by Mailing: Get the overall ROI and sales by Event due to a mailing to Members. Alternatively, you can instead use the By Mailing Criteria Set and select any Members-only mailings.

  • Donor Giving History: A list of Members with a breakdown of their total, average, latest and largest gift information.

 

Further Reading

If you’d like to explore other features available in Spektrix for managing your Memberships, read the following articles or reach out to our Support Team for a consultation.