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Miami 2025

Membership Acquisition with Nift and BJ’s Wholesale Club

Pat Balles and Daniella Kelly discuss gift-based acquisition, membership upgrades, and bringing lapsed customers back. A practical look at evaluating a new channel beyond the initial sign-up.

Pat Balles · Daniella KellyApril 202520 MIN WATCH

Watch it. Put it to work.

ABOUT THIS SESSION

Match acquisition to the membership model.

Pat Balles and Daniella Kelly discuss gift-based acquisition, membership upgrades, and bringing lapsed customers back. A practical look at evaluating a new channel beyond the initial sign-up.

For ecommerce founders, marketers, and operators working on acquisition.

Speakers
Pat Balles
Advertising & Partnership Development, Nift
Daniella Kelly
Director of Member Acquisition, BJ’s Wholesale Club
Recorded at
Miami 2025 ↗
April 2025

Speaker roles and platform examples reflect the session’s original context. This is an archived conversation.

TAKE IT BACK TO YOUR DESK

Ideas to put to work.

  1. 01

    Match acquisition to the membership model

    Distinguish a membership from a recurring product subscription.

    Read this part · 03:16 ↓
  2. 02

    Make the gift’s value clear

    A gift-based offer needs a clear explanation of what the customer receives.

    Read this part · 04:40 ↓
  3. 03

    Look beyond the first sign-up

    Evaluate upgrades and reactivation alongside new memberships.

    Read this part · 09:39 ↓
READ THE SESSION

The edited transcript.

A condensed, edited reading version based on the YouTube captions and session chapters. Repetition and unclear audience audio have been removed; the discussion is paraphrased for clarity, rather than presented as a verbatim transcript. Timestamps refer to the original video.

Original recording on YouTube ↗
03:16

Match acquisition to the membership model

Distinguish a membership from a recurring product subscription. BJ’s sells access to a wholesale club, so the acquisition journey has to communicate the value of shopping there. The conversation explores digital channels as a way to reach new audiences and connect an initial offer with an ongoing reason to stay.

04:40

Make the gift’s value clear

A gift-based offer needs a clear explanation of what the customer receives. Pat and Daniella discuss how Nift fits into acquisition and reactivation campaigns. Their examples connect the customer’s experience of claiming a gift with the business goal of bringing someone into a membership relationship.

09:39

Look beyond the first sign-up

Evaluate upgrades and reactivation alongside new memberships. The discussion includes Club Plus membership growth and bringing lapsed customers back into the business. Email communication and reviews support that process, helping prospects understand the offer and giving existing members reasons to return.

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