Change is never easy. Gartner research found that 50% of all change initiatives fail and only 34% succeed. When it’s time to introduce new prices at your association, transparency is crucial. Creating a clear communication plan to detail the shift in offerings and address potential member concerns is a necessary strategy in navigating change.
Here we’ll show you how to develop a communication plan and effectively announce pricing changes at your association.
How To Brainstorm And Build A Communication Plan
Before you start planning your communication strategy, it’s wise to recognize the impact of the changes soon to occur. Because association members will bear the brunt of pricing changes, they’ll need time to adapt to the increase. While you’ll understand the reasons behind the pricing changes, members will likely require more convincing.
You’ll need to convey your vision behind the organizational change and consider how it can improve the membership experience. Here are five ways to do just that:
1. Meet With Your Board Or Leadership Staff
Begin by sharing your vision of change with your organization’s leadership team. Your team will help you consider how your association will operate after the pricing changes are made.
Together, you can discuss the consequences for the member experience and plan a strategy to balance the change with more membership benefits. Crafting a communication plan where your motivation for change is clear and necessary for success will help all team members work toward the common purpose.
Consider also working with your leadership team to train your staff in how to respond to member questions about pricing. Moving forward, it is likely your members will have some questions about why your prices are increasing. Try creating a script or an FAQ guide that your staff can easily refer to if your members have pricing questions.
2. Add More Value To The Member Experience
In your communication plan, you’ll want to highlight the value added to membership benefits and association services. During times of transition, pairing challenging financial news with details about how an organization is addressing member needs will do much to bolster morale.
A Momentive Software research found that 66% of association professionals believe developing and/or offering new benefits and services is essential for their organization. Over half of the association members surveyed identified training opportunities as one of the most valuable benefits of membership. When reorganizing your pricing structure, consider adding more training opportunities, certifications, professional development classes, and webinars to maximize the member experience.
Add value to the member experience by synchronizing learning management software (LMS) credit tracking in Nimble AMS. When members complete certification courses, Nimble AMS will compile the data in user-friendly reports. Extend Nimble AMS tracking functionality by easily importing previously completed member credits.
3. Form A Member Focus Group
If you seek further insight before launching your communication plan, consider inviting members to participate in a focus group. Hosting a focus group can provide qualitative data about your pricing changes and detailed answers from group participants. Ensure your volunteer group is diverse and inclusive to provide a wide range of viewpoints and opinions when gaining feedback on messaging.
Once you have recruited your focus group, select a moderator who can effectively facilitate the discussion. In advance of the group meeting, write open-ended, unbiased, and flexible focus group questions. Be sure to avoid leading questions when trying to elicit members’ honest feelings. After the focus group meets, thank them for their participation and send them an anonymous survey so they can share their feedback. Now you can sort through the data.
Use Nimble AMS to take advantage of the Salesforce AppExchange and browse from over 7,000 apps to find the best survey solution for your organization.
4. Plan A Communication Timeline
Based on the results from the member focus group, make the necessary updates to the communication plan and notify your leadership team. Determine how you want to share the news of pricing changes with association staff and ensure all details are disclosed synchronously, through an internal email or an all-hands meeting.
5. Notify Your Members
You’ll also want to give ample notice of any price changes to your members. Providing your members with advanced notice of price changes and explaining the reasoning behind them will help them adjust to the changes before they take effect.
Once all staff members are aware of the change, you can begin implementing your communication plan.
The Best Channels Deliver Your Pricing Change Communications
Now that you’ve fleshed out your communication plan, you can start announcing the pricing changes to your association. But what are the best ways to communicate change? Here are four easy ways to get the message out:
1. Automated Emails
Announce the news to your entire member base through personalized email campaigns. Begin with an introductory email that details the pricing changes and encourages members to contact staff with any questions.
Based on your communication timeline, follow up with variations of the same information at different intervals, starting with monthly and then weekly as you approach the price transition. Schedule the emails with your association management software (AMS) to streamline the process.
With Nimble Create, you can easily design personalized and branded email templates to share crucial content with your members and automate your communication process.
2. Notify Long-Time Members
If you have any long-term association members, those who are highly involved in volunteering, or work as subject matter experts (SMEs) for your learning program, consider calling them directly to alert them of the price changes. Because these members have given so much to your association, personalizing the communication strategy by thanking the members for their specific service could be particularly beneficial.
Additionally, if you have any members who aren’t tech-savvy, consider calling them to alert them to the upcoming price changes. You don’t want any member to be blindsided by a price increase and not renew their membership.
3. Mobilize Your Online Member Community
Spread the word about the pricing changes on your association’s online community and encourage members to ask questions and air concerns. Select a leader to represent the communication plan and address member questions.
Be prepared for members to share frustrations and confusion about pricing changes. Remember to stick to your communication strategy and use empathetic messaging, conveying the necessity for change and the added value it brings to the membership experience.
Utilize the online community platform, Nimble Communities, to effectively communicate pricing changes while delivering an outstanding membership experience.
4. Update Your FAQ Page
Ensure that you detail the upcoming pricing changes on your association’s website for easy reference by both staff and members. In association emails, consider linking members to more detailed versions of the communication plan, which can be found on your FAQ page.
Doing so will direct members to a single source for pricing changes messaging. It will also eliminate the need for members to contact staff with easy, “yes/no” questions, saving them time.
