How long do you have the attention of your new members until they tune you out? 

We need the attention of our chamber members in order to sell our ideas and initiatives to our members after they join. The problem is that attention is fleeting these days and there's lots of competition and noise out there. 

So the age old debate around my house is what's more valuable: Attention or money? Well it's kind of like the chicken and the egg... Leave it to the banking industry -- where they use attention to buy and sell money -- to conduct a study that helps the rest of us understand the connection between money and attention. The banking industry study I'm referring to tells us exactly how many emails we can send to a new customer or member before they tune your chamber OUT. 

And that magic number is somewhere between six and seven. So let's just call it seven emails. 

The next question becomes in what period of time does a member decide to renew? I used to think we had a year to convince a member to renew but boy was I wrong. Most members make their decision to renew in the first 90 days of membership. 

So if you structure your first correspondence with members using these key data points, you're sure to improve your member retention. Be intentional with your first seven member touch-points and be timely with your engagement in the first 90 days of membership.