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Here at , the Customer Happy and Customer Success teams often get asked questions about the best way to market to new members. But rarely do we hear customers asking about the best way to onboard recently acquired members. It sets an important precedent in attracting and welcoming new people to your community and creates a positive first impression. Below are the four aspects we've identified to help your new members feel comfortable and at in the first place.

1. Welcome email with a redirect link

The majority of poor onboarding experiences I've seen from customers are due to the lack of instructions or information around what the member should do right away after signing up.

I tell my clients to presume that the new members don't know the best way to navigate the program they've bought. This is addressed in two diverse ways.

Designing a memorable redirect page, which either outlines clear next steps or instructs members who are new to the site to look in their email for a Welcome email that aims to answer any potential questions a prospective member could have. (This seems like an easy task, yet lots of customers fail to invest the time needed to do this.)

Informing members that new content is released, and reminders on how they can gain access to that content.

From my personal experience, the majority of instances where members disable auto-renewing immediately upon joining are caused by inadequate onboarding or the lack of guidance.

2. The preview of future content and gains

Another strategy that's effective is sending out previews of members' content as well as other perks prior to when they're released. It gives members something to look forward to and  keep an eye on.

It is possible to do this by sending messages that are targeted at the most recent customers who signed up within a recent timeframe (that the customer can specify).

3. Social engagement

I've been telling one of my clients to make shout-outs for their new followers via social media. The results have been positive: new members get recognition and prospective members view it as social proof. This is a win-win situation for everyone.

An easy way to do this is to request visitors to answer the Welcome email with your Instagram handles or their Facebook address to get a shoutout. A few of our customers use a social proof app named FOMO which integrates with Stripe and creates pop-ups on their sites.

4. New members can be helped to build equity

Inquiring new members about the type(s) of content they would like to view will instantly make them feel having something to contribute to the group. If membership managers ask members for such input and then give time to answer to that feedback, it can help create immediate trust. Again, this can all be accomplished via email by asking members to respond the Welcome email.

Conclusion

All that being said, whatever a customer does to build an immediate personal connection with their members is always an effective factor to retain customers and creates a path to expanding future revenue. This also makes it more likely that a member is open to the concept of an upsell in order to provide more worth later on.