Grow your member base with installment payment options for membership dues

Offering the convenience of installment payment options for membership dues delivers big benefits for your association and your members – especially when the economy is tight.

Creating the right membership packages and pricing is vital to attracting new members, moving members to the next level, and driving membership renewals. But what about the options you give members to pay their membership dues?

Offering convenient installment payment options, such as monthly, quarterly, and/or bi-annual payment of membership dues, can deliver big benefits for your members and your association. Let’s take a look at the advantages of this approach.

How installment payment options for membership dues help members

Giving your members and potential members the option to pay their membership dues in installments offers them multiple benefits. Students, new graduates, those early in their careers, and those between jobs will appreciate the option to space out their payments over a year instead of making one big annual payment. Also, any member will appreciate budget-friendly installment payment options when their company is not footing the bill for membership dues and the economy is tight.

How installment payment options help your association

Providing installment payment options for membership dues helps your association, too. Consider these benefits:

• A lower monthly, quarterly, or bi-annual price tag, versus a big annual payment, reduces the cost barrier to membership, making members more likely to join and renew – ultimately helping to grow your member base.
• Combined with a membership auto-renewal option, installment payment options simplify membership renewals, making the dues payment and dues collection process much easier on your members and your association’s staff – saving your staff time and improving the member experience.
• If your association offers multiple membership tiers, it can be easier for your current members to move to a different membership level as needed – making them more likely to remain members longer.

Find the right association software to support installment payments for membership dues

Research shows that 76 percent of U.S. consumers are more likely to make a retail purchase if a payment plan backed by a simple and seamless point of sale experience is offered. So, be sure to look for association management software (AMS) that supports a smooth installment payment option for membership dues.

For example, YourMembership by Community Brands is association management software (AMS) built for small-and-growing associations like yours. It makes it easy to offer monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual membership dues payment options. It also allows you to give members the option to automatically renew membership, with the membership fee charged to the member’s credit card. You can set up this option, with corresponding automated emails that notify members when their membership has been renewed. If members decide not to renew, or want to change their payment frequency, they can simply update their account information online.

This functionality – plus the ability to easily configure multi-tiered membership models and empower members to manage their own membership information via an online portal – makes the membership dues payment and renewal process much easier for your members and your association.

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Providing installment payment options for membership dues is just one way to attract more members and improve member retention. As your association grows, it’s critical to have membership management software in place that supports multiple ways to recruit and retain members while reducing workload on your small staff.