6 Membership Retention Best Practices |
If you ask anyone who has established a membership company and they will tell you that getting more members can be something that they think about... A lot! It's a bit daunting trying to get people to show up and spend their hard-earned money every month, and actually commit themselves to learning and developing.
But do you know what is actually soul-destroying? Doing the hard work required to create your community, cultivating leads, and increasing the value of your business, then signing the members you want to join, and then watching them go a short time later.
The community doesn't need to be like this! You absolutely can create an organization that continually offers benefits to the members so they remain loyal for the in the long run. In this piece we'll discuss some of the best practices for member retention that are available to implement this week.
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In this article
1. The truth about keeping members
2.6 membership retention best practices
2.1. Find your ideal member first
2.2. Build on the right platform
2.3. Make connections between members
2.4. Offer a membership for a pause
2.6. Ask for feedback
The truth about member retention
What you need to understand prior to discussing membership retention best practices is that there will be some turnover. an inevitable thing. Be prepared for when individuals leave your community and definitely avoid taking it personal. There are going to be some people who decide to decide to leave. They might not be ready to take on the challenge that you're providing. Maybe it's not suitable for them at the moment. It's possible they're not financially able. Perhaps they found somewhere else to enjoy their time.
It's hard for an author to not be a victim. It's tough to not feel the rejection of members leaving. However, it doesn't have to be solely about your personal feelings. It's in part about the people who are affected. There will be people in any community who get to the point that they realise, "This is not for me now." That's okay.
Indeed, some changes can be a great factor. Your community should be gathered around a clear direction, and you'll need to pick the perfect participant (which we'll talk about further down). If you have a bunch of people who don't want your product or service and aren't willing to participate, it could be very demotivating. The best thing to do is let these people simply move elsewhere.
The goal of member retention may not be to reduce your the churn (that's the fancy term for turnover among members) to 0. However, if your company is built on monthly recurring revenue, increasing your member retention can lower your churn rate and boost your profits.
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6 membership retention best practices
Clarify your ideal member first.
One of the best strategies to retain members is to start prior to the time you've got any members in your community. (If you already have members, you may still try this! )
If you can get an accurate picture of the people you really want to include within your group, and effectively communicate that vision it will be easier for the right people to be drawn to join the community in the first place. It can be a huge help to creating high membership retention.
The process we teach here at that we call Community Design(tm). The first step in designing your community will be to interview 15 or 20 prospective members in order in order to discover the reasons they are struggling and what they could get from joining an online community. Even if you have already established your community, it's not past time to conduct the interviews, and gain an idea of the type of person you want to join.
When you've finished this , you are able to convert it to something we would call a large purpose statement:
While the majority of suggestions for retention of members below concentrate on what happens AFTER you get your members, doing this up front will pay dividends.
Build using the right platform
There are a ton of choices for software that can help you build your community of members; it can be a little intimidating to choose. However, choosing the best software is an important part of membership retention. A good software for community management will be your ally to serve your members. It will make it easier to manage your community, let you manage it in a way that is scalable, and most importantly of all, customers will take part in it!
Too many community builders stitch the pieces of a shady technology and are trying to combine the course they offer on their site along with an facebook group together with other social media networks.
Stop this. Pick a software for community you are able to master, and flexible enough to let you accomplish anything you want to serve your membership.
We love great online communities We channeled this love into creating the platform. From live streaming and an app for every device as well as amazing classes to custom subgroups, it's got everything you need to keep members interested and ultimately retain your members!
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Make connections between members
One thing we've learned from thousands community forums is that individuals could sign up for a course or master some skill, but they nearly always stick around long-term due to the connections. When your community is the place which people turn to for connections and friendships, where they are unable to go one week without going in to see people, and they regularly interact with other members and have an established strategy for long-term retention of members.
While you can't fake this, you can manufacture the conditions necessary to make it happen! Provide plenty of opportunities for your members to connect with each other. It can be accomplished through informal drop-in sessions, groups coaching, breakout spaces or even through content such as "member spotlights. "
If you are able to build your community, and its friendships something people can't live without The more you'll be able to see retention increase and the churn decrease.
Provide a membership pause
Did you think of planning an extended vacation and then asked your gym if you would be able to put your membership hold? They're delighted to grant it. Because they know that, when you decide to cancel the membership you have, it'll be way harder to get the same customer.
Offering a strategic membership pause or hold could be an ideal solution for those who have to be out of the community for a time, however would prefer to remain for a long time. Although there are lots of reasons that individuals might have to take a step back from their membership, it could be anything from major life events or having to concentrate on a project in the interim, providing the option of a membership hold lets them stay connected without paying.
And it's so much better to inquire "Would you like to put your membership in hold?" instead of saying, "Ok, bye. "
Create membership tiers
The creation of different membership bundles or membership levels can go a long way to helping your members stick around and make it an extremely well-known membership retention best practices. The reason for this is that members can easily choose to go with more or less, depending on how they're feeling. If you're offering a comprehensive package that includes regular coaching sessions and courses, and someone decides it's too much for them It's wise to provide a second member tier that they can go down to instead of simply dropping them from your membership.
Request feedback
Not the least, but certainly not the least, find methods to continuously get feedback from your members. This could include things like:
- 1:1 interviews
- Questionnaires or surveys
- Polls (the functionality is built into each Mighty Network! )
- Exit interviews (offer something valuable to the people leaving to be honest in exchange for their sincerity)
Feedback is extremely useful in helping identify what's working and what isn't.
Recommendation: Consider feedback and suggestions with a grain of salt. It's normal to hear things such as "We ought to create a class or group for x" or "I'd love to see more of." Be sure to filter the feedback using the lens of your Community Design(tm) work and decide if it's the right advice to adhere to.
Conclusion
If you implement these member retention strategies into action and implement them, you'll be in a excellent position to not just gain members, but to keep members! And once your community becomes an essential element of the lives of your members and they stay for an extended period of time.
If you're not yet launching your own community or you are looking for a new place for it to go, make sure to take a look at our platform! This is the best platform to develop an interactive online community that stands over time. It's free to try for 14 days with no credit card required.