Membership Renewal Batches: Email Non-Renewed via Household or Email Non-Renewed
How do these 2 types of membership renewal email batches work? Which should you choose for your organization's renewal email communication to members? Let's use the example of Mary and Bob, 2 household members*.
*The instructions and definitions given in this article are dependent on your organization having already created Household linking between People in your database. Need more info before you read on? Click to learn more about how People can become linked household members in your Arts People database.
In our example, Mary's membership is up for renewal, but her household member Bob has an active membership of the same type as Mary's.
1) "Email non-renewed"
You'll want to use this batch type if your organization would rather that Mary renew her membership, even if she does have a household member (Bob) with an active membership of the same type.
Result: Mary will receive an email if you choose "Email non-renewed" as your batch type.
Note: Mary and Bob may be partners/spouses and be sharing finances. If this additional context gives you a reason to reconsider Mary getting a renewal email, read on to find out how the Email non-renewed via household batch type works.
2) "Email non-renewed via household"
Use this batch type if you don't want Mary to receive a renewal email, because her household member Bob has an active membership. This is your batch type if you define an active membership as just one household member with an active membership.
Result: Bob won't receive an email (because he has an active membership) and Mary won't receive an email either (because of her household link to Bob's active membership). So, neither Mary or Bob will get emailed if you choose "Email non-renewed via household".
3) Setup: Now that you have a sense for how to use these renewal batch types, and you've chosen the batch type you will be using to communicate with members, you'll want to check the content of your membership batch renewal emails and edit them if needed. This section is a multi-step how-to. If you'd rather get help from your client services representative, just send them a request asking for help with setting up your membership renewal batch emails.
4) Navigate to Setup>Public Setup>System Messages>Emails. Scroll down the page to: "membership_renewal_automatic_html" to view the default content in this email.
Once you view the default content and you've decided you want to make changes, keep in mind that there are 8 code items that need to be retained, not changed, and appropriately placed in your updated content.
They are:
[*field/logo*]
(This code will add your company logo, if you have loaded a logo into the logo field on the Configure Appearance screen)
[*field/first_name*]
(This code will display the First name of the patron.)
[*field/last_name*]
(This code will display the Last name of the patron.)
[*box_office/name*]
(This code will display your organization's name, as it appears on the client information setup screen. Note: this code appears twice in the default content.)
[*field/expire_date*]
(This code provides the member with their expiration date for their current membership.)
[*link/membership*]
(This code provides a link so your member can renew online from their email.)
[*box_office/phone*]
(This code will display your organization's phone number, as it appears on the client information setup screen.)
[*box_office/email*]
(This code will display your organization's email, as it appears on the client information setup screen.)
5) After you have saved the changes you made or kept the default content of the "membership_renewal_automatic_html" just a bit further down, find the field labeled: "membership_renewal_automatic_email_subject" again, view the default text and make any changes you would like, click Save.
6) Would you like to add images to your Membership renewal email? If not, you're ready to send your Membership renewal batch email, covered in step 8 below.
7) If you would like to use images, use your Visual Editor to add images. Click into the text area where you'd like to see the image appear, and then click the image thumbnail in the upper right of the Visual Editor to place your image.
8) Test your membership renewal email before sending to members by sending yourself an email with the content you've been working on.
In this step, you'll test to be sure the content you added to the renewal email field(s) looks good and is ready to send out to members.
a) Go to the field labeled: "membership_renewal_automatic_html"
b) Bring your cursor into the field you chose above and select, then copy all of the content in that field to your clipboard - open an email addressed to yourself in Gmail (or whichever provider you use) and paste it into the body of the email.
c) Send this email to yourself, open it and have a look. Adjust/correct your content as needed. Notice the links in brackets in your email to yourself. These won't appear as clickable links in your test email and that is OK, they will work correctly when the actual batch email is sent from your account to members. Once you've got your content looking good, you can send out your renewal batch emails.
9) When you're ready to send out your renewal batch emails:
a) Navigate to Database>Batch Processing>Membership Renewals>(The number of renewals will appear to be batched on the lower left, above the Batch Renewals button.)
b) Click Batch Renewals to create a new batch of members up for renewal. Refer to the information above on the Renewal email batch types to determine which type you'd like to use for your organization's membership renewal communication.
c) Click the "Email" link under the label for the renewal batch type you chose (info at the start of this article). A notification will appear at the top of your screen. You can navigate away from the screen whenever you'd like, once you see the notification. Once you've sent the email batch out, make a note in whichever system your organization uses to track Renewal communications with the date.
Need more context on Batch Processing , Memberships and how People can become linked household members in your Arts People database? Click the links to learn more.
Questions about renewal batches emails - how to set them up, or how to figure out which type is best for your organization's use? Please submit a help desk request, we're happy to help.