Case Study

Cut Contact Costs

Objective:

The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan annually presents some of the world’s most renowned individuals to its members. But rising speaker fees were causing membership dues to climb steeply, so The Club wanted to cut its processing costs.

Insight:

We helped The Club solicit email addresses from members (more than 1500) and prospects on the waiting list using direct mail, press releases and Club announcements. Then we updated The Club’s website with online dinner ticket ordering for the last two meetings of the 2008-2009 season. After making slight site adjustments, we rolled out online membership renewals and dinner ticket ordering in 2009-2010.

Results:

From the pilot online ticket orders in Spring 2009 to the membership drive in 2009-2010, The Club’s site saw a 59 percent increase in site visitors; 35 percent first timers. There was also a 47 percent jump in page views. The Club processed nearly $300,000 in membership fees instantly. Email meeting notifications also reduced postage and printing needs by more than 80 percent as well as sped up delivery of speaker announcements and meeting change notices by two to five days.