Best Practices for Membership Retention |
Ask anybody who has ever started a membership business and they'll be able to admit that recruiting new members is something that they are thinking about... a lot! It's a bit daunting trying to get people to show up, spend their hard-earned cash every month, and actually engage in learning and expanding.
What really causes soul damage? Working hard to build your community, nurturing leads and growing value, and signing up those members, but then seeing them depart within a matter of minutes.
There is no need to make it as this! There is a way to build an organization that continually offers advantages to members in order they remain loyal for the long term. In this article we'll go over some of the best ways to keep members are available to implement this week.
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The article
1. The truth about membership retention
2.6 membership retention best practices
2.1. Find your ideal member first
2.2. Built on the appropriate platform
2.3. Create connections between members
2.4. Provide a membership to pause
2.6. Ask for feedback
Truth about membership retention
What you need to know before we talk about membership retention best practices is that there will be some turnover. something that happens regularly. Be prepared for when individuals leave your community but avoid taking it personal. There will always be people who decide to leave. Perhaps they're not prepared to take on the challenge the offer. Perhaps it's not the right fit suitable for them at the moment. It's possible they're not financially able. Maybe they came across a different place to do their work.
It's extremely difficult as a creator not to be a victim. It's tough to not be irritated by members leaving. However, it doesn't have to be about you. It's partially about their own personal circumstances. It's inevitable that there are individuals in every community that come to the point where they realize, "This is not for me at this moment." That's okay.
In fact, some member changes can be a great factor. You want your community to focus on a single direction, and you'll need to select the right participant (which we'll talk about below). If you have a bunch of members who do not want your product or service and aren't willing to participate, it could be very demotivating. The best thing to do is let they just move on.
So the goal with retention of members is likely not to bring your turnover (that's a fancy word for member turnover) to zero. But still, when your business is based on monthly revenue recurring, increasing your member retention can lower your churn rate and boost your profits.
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6 membership retention best practices
Make sure you know your ideal user first.
One of the best methods to retain members is to start before you have anyone in your community. (If you already have members, it's still possible to try this! )
If you can get a razor-sharp picture of who you actually want in your community, and effectively communicate that vision, the right people will join in the first place. It can go a long way towards creating high membership retention.
The process we teach which we refer to as Community Design(tm). One of the steps in your design process will be to interview 15 or 20 prospective members in order to find out what their pain points are and what benefits they would gain from being in the community. If you've already launched your community, it's never past time to conduct these interviews and get more information about what your ideal members are.
After you've completed the work turn it into something we would call a large reason statement.
While the majority of suggestions for retention of members below concentrate on what happens AFTER the members are enrolled making this decision early will yield dividends.
Create on the correct platform
There are a ton of choices for software that can help you build your community of members and it's an overwhelming task to select. But picking the right software is essential to membership retention. A good software for community management can be your partner to serve your members. It makes it simpler, it will let you do it at scale, and most importantly of all, customers will take part in it!
Too many community builders stitch the pieces of a shady technology to try and blend an online course together with the Facebook group together with other social media platforms.
Stop this. Pick a software for community you are able to master, and capable of letting you accomplish anything you want to serve your membership.
We love online communities that are great which is why we channelled this passion into building the platform. From live streaming to apps for all devices to brilliant courses to branded subgroups, it's got everything you need to keep your members engaged and ultimately keep them!
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Create connections between members
One of the lessons that we've learned through thousands of online communities is that members may sign up to take an online course or learn some skill, but they nearly stay for a long time because of their relationships. If your community is the one which people turn to for friendships and connections, when they can't go one week without going in to meet people and when they interact regularly with other members, you have a formula for maintaining members over time.
While you can't fake this, you can manufacture the conditions necessary to make it take place! Make sure you provide plenty of chances for your members to connect with each other. It can be accomplished by facilitating informal drop-ins, groups coaching, breakout spaces or even through content such as "member spotlights. "
If you build your community, and the friendships within it something people can't live without and the greater chance you'll be able to see retention increase and your churn drop.
Offer a membership for a pause
Did you think of planning a long-term vacation and asked your gym if you could put your membership on hold? They're happy to allow the thing. They know that should you choose to end your membership, it will make it much more difficult to bring the same customer.
Offering a strategically-planned membership pause or hold is a fantastic option for people who need to leave the group for a period of time however would prefer to remain for a long time. While there are a bunch of reasons that people might need to step away from their membership it could be anything from major life events or having to concentrate on a particular project to a certain time, a membership pause will allow them to stay in touch without paying.
The best way to do this is to ask "Would you like to suspend your membership on hold?" rather than saying, "Ok, bye. "
Create membership tiers
Creating different kinds of membership bundles or membership tiers can go a long way to keeping your customers loyal and make it among the top well-known ways to retain members. This is due to the fact that the members are able to opt for more or less, depending the way they feel. If you have an extensive program that offers daily coaching as well as a class but someone feels it's too much for them is much wise to provide a second level of membership that they could drop down instead of losing them as a member.
Get feedback
Not the least, but certainly not the least, find ways to continually solicit feedback from your members. These could include:
- 1:1 interviews
- Questionnaires or surveys
- Polls (the functionality is built into each Mighty Network! )
- Interviews at the exit (offer something worthwhile to those who leave in exchange for their candid honesty)
Feedback can be super useful in helping determine which elements are effective and what's not.
Recommendation: Consider comments and suggestions with a pinch of salt. It's acceptable for people to state things like "We ought to create a class or group for x" or "I'd like to see more of." You should filter your criticism by looking at it through your community Design(tm) work , and then decide if it's the right advice to follow.
Conclusion
If you can put these member retention tips into practice then you'll be in good position to not only acquire members but also to keep your existing ones! When your community is an integral part of your members' lives and they stay for a long time.
If you haven't yet launched your own community or you are looking for an alternative location for it to live, do take a look at our platform! This is the best place to build an engaging online community that will stand over the test of time. You can try it free for 14 days. No credit card required.