Four Irresistible Membership Perks Ideas Any Organization Can Use

So your thinking about spicing up your benefits package with some compelling new membership perks? 

Well, well, well, look at you being all savvy! You belong to the growing community of membership organizations that understand the importance of offering value-added perks as a key element in enticing, retaining, and actively involving your members.

In a previous article about membership perks, we defined membership perks as extra value that is added to your suite of member benefits. They come in the form of bonus products, services, opportunities, etc. 

Admittedly, it's a bit more nuanced than simply adding any ol' benefit. So, for a quick refresher, that article answers questions like “What are membership perks?” and “Why use membership perks?”

But to sum it up, organizations strategically incorporate perks into their member benefits packages to address any gaps that exist with their core benefits. When members are at risk of leaving due to a lack of value, offering the right membership perk at the right time can entice them to stay.

Now, I’m sure you have more questions, like “What are the different kinds of membership perks?” and “What kinds of organizations use them?” Well, those are questions we hope to answer here. 

Types of Membership Perks

Generally, these perks fall into four main categories:

• Exclusive content
• Consumer discounts
• Surprise rewards
• Loyalty currency & cash

Let's take a closer look at these value-added membership perks:

Exclusive content

A great way to form a deeper emotional connection with your member is by inviting them into your inner circle. People who are treated like VIPs tend to not only stay loyal but convince their friends to join too.

For some organizations, this might look like sneak peeks at products or services before they’re released to the public. Others still have found great success by inviting members into the decision-making process by asking for their participation in surveys and user testing. Or maybe it’s simply a behind-the-scenes look at the people and processes behind the membership

You’ll often see professional associations offering continued learning opportunities, certifications, networking, and other ways to advance careers. This type of content could be appealing to members of all types of organizations.

It may take a bit of testing and analysis to figure out how to best communicate with your unique membership, but recent statistics can give you a starting point. For example, 54% of consumers want to see more video content this year. Just keep in mind that if you want to offer content as a member perk, you’ll have to make sure it stays exclusive and is not available to the general public. Or at the very least, your members get exclusive access for a time first.

Consumer Discounts

People love discounts. The vast majority (94%) of US consumers report using coupons when shopping and younger generations are proving even more deal savvy than their elders.

One of the biggest benefits of offering discounts as a membership perk is that you can frame it as a way members can offset the cost of membership. In fact, a simple calculation could illustrate how regular redemption can save members more than they pay, in some cases, much more.

Organizations that bring people together under a common interest are often seen offering industry discounts. These groups can add a lot of value by targeting deals that their audience will love. For example, sporting clubs often negotiate members-only deals at sporting goods stores, gyms, event tickets, and the like because those are things their members are likely to be buying anyway.

And membership groups of all kinds have found great success in offering universal discounts. This bleeds over into everyday relevance and means that much less hesitation when renewal fees come due. You’ve proven your worth so many times over. If you’re looking to partner with a discount program provider, keep in mind that the best discount programs will have high-value, local, in-store deals in categories that reflect where people are already spending their money.

Surprise Rewards

Surprise rewards have been known to turn casual members into loyal members, and turn loyal members into super-excited-have-to-tell-everyone-I-know-about-this members. There’s a reason it’s known throughout the industry as surprise and delight. Unexpected rewards are a proven way to bring feelings of delight (and gratitude) to recipients.

Gifts don’t have to be expensive to be meaningful. Some inexpensive ideas to show appreciation might include thank-you notes, a follow-back on social media, birthday freebies, just-because gifts, etc.

The idea is to show that you value the relationship enough to invest in keeping them happy.

Loyalty Currency & Cash

Points and miles have long proven highly motivating member rewards for encouraging the behaviors you want your members to engage in. When it comes to loyalty currency, cash-back is a popular option for people. Just the idea of cash is enough to make most of your members sit up and pay attention. Plus, many reputable points and cash-back providers feature merchant-funded rewards. This means organizations don’t have the cost of funding the rewards themselves, and can even revenue share a portion of each earned reward to help offset the cost of the program. 

The value gets exponentially bigger when organizations offer cash back on big-ticket items like travel bookings. Discount travel is one of the most highly requested member benefits out there. When you add cash back or points accumulation to the mix, you’ll see members earn tens, even hundreds of dollars in a single purchase. That’s some seriously good will they’re banking along with the dough.

Membership Organizations That Offer Perks

Any business with a membership model can benefit from offering perks. These organizations generally charge a recurring fee for an individual to keep their membership. Occasionally, organizations will offer membership for free, requesting instead the members’ email addresses or attention. 

Membership tiers are another popular model, where those who pay more receive access to increasingly more and/or better benefits.

Some of the most common membership models include:

Your organization type is one of the many factors that help determine which perks will give you the best results. Other factors will probably include the current structure and pricing structure, organization goals, issues to troubleshoot, etc.

What Perks Are Best For Different Membership Needs?

One of the greatest challenges that organizations face when offering a new benefit or perk is justifying the cost with the profits they generate. The old maxim says: the more value you offer, the more engagement you’ll receive in return. But the answer isn’t always as easy as offering more.

In fact, many organizations find this to be a delicate balancing act between cost and value. And with the recent trend of businesses devaluing their rewards, you’ll want to steer away from overpromising just to get people in the door.

A better way is to consider all the factors beforehand. That way, you’ll be able to deliver perks that are compelling to your members AND beneficial to your organization's goals.

Consideration #1: What is your pricing structure, budget, and expected return on investment?

Finding your budget for adding membership perks to your benefits package will likely take some calculations. If you already know your MLV (member lifetime value), MAC (member acquisition cost), and your member retention budget, then you’re already most of the way there. Here are a few examples that illustrate the influence even a small retention budget can have on a member's lifetime value.

If it costs $25 to recruit a new member, and new members stay an average of 3 months at $10 per month, then your profits would be about $5 per member.

$30 ($10 per month x 3 months) - $25 recruitment cost = $5

If spending $1 per member per month on a membership perk raises retention to an average of 1 year, then your profits would be about $83 per member.

$120 ($10 per month x 12 months) - $37 ($25 recruitment cost + $12 retention cost) = $83

If spending $2 per member per month inspires members to upgrade to a higher membership tier at $15 per month for 1 year, then your profits would be about $131 per member.

$180 ($15 per month x 12 months) - $49 ($25 recruitment cost + $24 retention cost) = $131

Establishing a budget will get you a long way toward selecting the right value-added benefit for your needs

Consideration #2: What membership perks are likely to have the greatest influence on member behavior?

A 2023 study of retail brand loyalty programs revealed what encourages members to make the jump from free to paid membership. 81% of the traditional loyalty program (free) members would join a premium loyalty program (paid) at their favorite retailer, as long as the benefits were valuable. And what kind of perks would encourage these members to pay for premium membership? The top answers included: free shipping (66%), instant discounts (60%), surprise rewards (45%), holiday discounts (38%) and exclusive deals (35%).

This is just one example of member engagement statistics that can give you a head start by revealing industry trends. Though if you want to know how to best engage your unique audience, member surveys, and data monitoring will take you the rest of the way.

Consideration #3: What do you want to accomplish by offering membership perks?

If an organization has a goal or issue to troubleshoot, then it can find success by choosing perks proven to help in that area. The end goal for most organizations is a member and customer retention (and if it’s not, maybe it should be.) And sometimes there’s a specific pain point or issue standing between organizations and that goal. Choosing perks as a solution to overcome that pain point can often move the needle on engagement and ultimately retention.

For example, a state farm bureau had a challenge to overcome: recruiters were having trouble justifying the cost of membership to potential members, especially to younger generations. To help solve this, they partnered with Access Development and offered the largest private network of everyday local discounts as part of membership. This gave them a tangible benefit with a clear monetary value to discuss with potential members. With this tool, they were able to surpass their original recruitment goal by over 10%.

A few other scenarios might look like this:

Add Membership Perks to Your Benefits Package

Businesses everywhere are embracing the idea that:

Rewarding members leads to deeper member engagement

which leads to higher levels of member retention

which leads to a better return on investment.

That’s the reason many organizations are finding them well worth the cost.

As industry demand grows, many great plug-and-play programs are offered from reputable sources. This gives you the option to partner with another company and launch high-quality perks to their members with hardly any time and effort. Of course, you can always design your perks in-house if you have the time and capacity. Here’s a guide for those ambitious enough to try.

If the process of choosing the right one for you sounds overwhelming, contact the membership perks experts at Access Development. For the past 25 years, we’ve built the world’s largest private discount network, cash-back travel booking engine and more perks that your members are sure to love.