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Here at , the Customer team for Customer Happiness and Customer Service often get asked questions about the best way to market to new members, but rarely do we hear clients asking us about the best way to onboard recently acquired members. This is a crucial step in attracting and welcoming new people to your community as well as creating a memorable first impression. There are four main points we've identified that will make your new members feel at home right from the start.

1. Welcome email, redirection page and a link

A significant number of the poor onboarding experiences I've seen with customers is due to lack of instruction or communication regarding what the customer is supposed to do immediately after the initial sign-up.

My customers always are advised to think that members who are new know nothing about how to manage the membership they've just purchased. We deal with this in a couple of different ways by:

Designing a memorable redirect page that either provides specific next steps or directs the new member to open their mailer for a Welcome email that will answer any question a new member might have. (This may seem like a trivial thing, but lots of customers fail to spend the time required to do this.)

Informing members of new content that is made available, as well as reminding them of how to access that content.

My experience has shown that the majority of situations where people stop auto-renew right after joining are caused by inadequate onboarding or lack of direction.

2. Previewing future content and benefits

Another tactic that works well is sending out previews of members' content as well as other perks prior to when they're available. This gives members something to look forward to and  keep an eye on.

This can be achieved with messages that are targeted at the most recent users who joined in the last few days (that customers can choose).

3. Social engagement

I've told certain of my clients to shout out their new members on social media. This has been impactful as new members are recognized and potential members see the social proof as being a positive thing. It's a win-win.

One way to achieve this is to request the new members to reply to the welcome email by providing your Instagram handle , or even Facebook URL to receive a shoutout. Some of our clients use a social proof app known as FOMO which integrates with Stripe and creates pop-ups on their web pages.

4. New members can be helped to build equity

Inquiring new members about the type(s) of material they would like to view will instantly make them feel if they have something to contribute to the group. When membership operators ask to hear their input, and make the effort to reply with by giving their input, they help to build confidence immediately. Again, this can all be accomplished via email by asking members to respond to the welcome email.

Conclusion

That being said, whatever a customer can do to establish an immediate personal connection with their members is always a driving factor for retention and opens the way to increasing future revenues. This also makes it more likely that the member is open to the concept of an upsell in order to provide more benefit later.