Produce Marketing Association Increases Member Renewal Rates
Background
Produce Marketing Association (PMA) is the leading trade association for the buyers and sellers from every segment of the produce and floral supply chains. In addition to advocating for the industry in Washington, D.C., PMA serves as the source of industry news, standards and research on consumer and other trends.
The Challenge
PMA has 2,100 corporate members whose memberships renew annually. Typically, as many as 300 members will neglect to respond to multiple renewal attempts by the association, including three invoice mailings and a fax reminder."
“We don’t want even one member to lose out on the benefits of membership in PMA because of what is usually an administrative oversight by busy professionals,” says Paula Gonzalez, member relations manager. “Our challenge is to communicate personally and effectively with these people, remind them of the benefits of belonging to PMA, and let them know that access to those benefits is critical to their companies. In this day and age, emails simply don’t work, they risk getting captured as spam or overlooked along with the 1,500 other emails in the recipient’s in box. We need personalized contact. That’s why we work with Foundation Marketing Group to supplement our staff contacts.”
The Response
Each year, Foundation Marketing Group calls PMA members whose renewals are overdue to advise them that if they don’t renew their memberships their benefits will lapse.
The campaign’s success is measured by the number of renewals acquired as a result of the outbound phone calls.
“The campaign is really a ‘last resort’ following all our other efforts,” says Gonzalez. “With the sheer number of members involved and the price of membership, just two or three renewals pay for the campaign. Every year, we not only cover the cost, but increase our renewal rate—which is essential to us."
“Telemarketing is extremely important to us because of the strategic direction PMA has taken in the past three years. We discovered that members had been bombarded by emails, so we shifted gears to become more customer-centric and community-based. To be a part of a community means applying a ‘personal touch.’ Foundation Marketing Group provides that personal touch.
“I appreciate the fact that the company takes the time to learn everything there is to know about us before making calls and understands how to make free-flowing conversation with our members. Other telemarketing firms just stick to a script, but not Foundation Marketing Group. It’s their skill in communicating that makes them effective.”
Additional Programs
Renewals aren’t the only membership marketing activity that PMA assigns to Foundation Marketing Group. The association also relies on the firm to:
- Contact member organizations for routine membership database updating and cleansing; and
- Conduct member satisfaction surveys.
In addition, PMA turns to Foundation Marketing Group to promote its major educational events, including its annual meeting, the Fresh Summit International Convention & Exposition. The largest produce industry gathering in the United States, Fresh Summit draws more than 15,000 attendees each year, so keeping touch with key audiences is a big task.
In the area of event promotion, the association taps Foundation Marketing Group to:
- Contact, qualify and prioritize leads for exhibit space (exhibitor lead generation);and
- Contact, qualify and pre-register attendee leads (attendance acquisition); and
“Promoting PMA-sponsored events through telemarketing is another visible way we use the ‘personal touch’ to build community,” says Gonzalez.
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