25 Tips to Increase Customer retention on a membership site
If you are a site administrator trying to improve the retention rate of your customers could be among the most crucial goals you have. Of course, the most important factor to making the membership model successful is regular revenues.
If your clients don't keep the membership active, your revenue from each client will decline making it difficult to grow a successful subscription website becomes nearly impossible.
This is just one of the primary differences between a site that's a member's association or an online course. If you own a membership site the initial sale will be the beginning of your partnership with your customer. When they continue to make payments for a subscription as they continue to pay for it, you'll provide them with information and education. The exchange of values is ongoing. of information and values.
By finding ways to keep your clients for longer it increases the lifetime price (LTV) of your customers typically to provide a higher worth than the single purchase costs for online courses. This is why the membership site a is a popular method to earn money for instructors as well as the reason the improvement in retentionis essential.
In the words of Mike Morrison, Co-Founder of The Members Guys states:
"It takes anywhere from 7 to 10 times more to get an additional customer instead of maintaining an existing customer. If your company is losing more members than you're getting, it will never last very for long! "
We've spoken to over a dozen of members who are achieving success. We've identified the 25 different strategies they've employed to boost customer retention on their membership sites.
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25 Strategies to Improve the Retention of Customers on Your Website:
A lot of the strategies listed below could be utilized in the initial sales process or onboarding of new customers, and others could be utilized in the coming years. Together, they all aid in reducing churn as well as increasing the average LTV of your customers.
1. Incorporate an application form into your sales process
Inviting prospective clients to sign-up to your site's membership can assist in screening new members before they sign up and also deter less committed ones from becoming customers. If someone doesn't wish to join your site it is likely that they won't fill out the form.
There's also the psychological effect that works to your advantage if you invite an applicant to join your customer. If you make an application for something that you know about, there is the chance that your application might not get approved. Through screening potential clients to ensure that you give them a feeling of exclusivity and an exclusive membership website This in turn enhances the worth of your membership website.
2. Include a Welcome Video on your member dashboard
Incorporating a member is the method of welcoming the new member to your membership system efficiently. This is the aim of making sure that your new members are in the running and enjoying your website's content as fast and as smoothly as possible.
An effective way to improve the process of registering your members is to include the Welcome video on your Member Dashboard (aka Member's Area). In this video, take the time to educate your members on your membership site, where they can access your training/content, how to request help, connect with other members, etc.
Below is the illustration of a Welcome Video which is strategically located in the "Getting Started" section of Jill and Josh Stanton's ( Screw The Nine To Five) membership website:
3. Make a phone number available for welcome to all new members
4. Make a custom welcome video to all new members
Record a short welcome video featuring your new friend's address with the name of your new member. It can be sent directly to the new member. Thanks them for signing up to your site for membership in addition to letting them know you're eager to watch them start the process of learning. It can be a bit tedious depending on the amount of new members you're registering regularly however, the personal gesture is sure to encourage those who join to stay longer.
Vidyard is an excellent tool to send (and monitoring!) welcoming videos.
5. Mail new members a welcome surprise present
Contact your customer's postal address and mail them a personal thank-you note and a physical gift or product. This will make your clients feel welcome and valued. It's also possible to ask them to photograph the present you give to the recipient and post the picture on social media sites and get more attention to your business.
6. Offer different rates to encourage those who have a longer period of time
Creating different price tiers in your membership website is a great option to reward customers with loyalty points by reducing the price of their subscription based on the duration when they're active customers. The customer will receive a lower rate on your membership those who pay monthly and as a consequence you have the chance to keep them for longer. This will benefit both parties.
Mike Morrison ( The Mike Morrison (The Membership Guys), for instance, offers one-time subscriptions and an annual membership to his site. If the customer opts to join the membership for an annual period and pay less money than the sum of 12 payments per month.
7. Customize your membership site design & branding
The style and layout of your site for members play an an important role in boosting student engagement and retention. It's important to ensure that users can browse through various sections and courses easily and with minimal effort.
The appearance and layout of your membership website should be in line with your overall brand. The idea behind this is that your membership site should look and feel just similar to your other real estate digital properties, such as your primary site, sales pages, downloadable materials as well as social media profiles and so on.
"Don't make disjointed and inconsistent marketing. Do not create images or branding which are not consistent across every step of the process from the lead/prospector to the buyer member. "- Kate Erickson, Podcasters Paradise
8. Access members to your website
One effective method to enhance the value your customers receive beyond offering them new information is to provide them with an immediate access to you, your instructor. Based on how many students you've got and the cost of your membership, there are a few options that will be better for you when compared to other organizations. There are a few options to give members instant access to your website
- Access to emails (up to a amount)
- 1-on-1 phone calls (monthly, quarterly, etc.)
- Group calls (group conferencing)
- Live webinars
- Private Facebook Group
- Discussion section in your membership site.
- Scheduled Sessions to AMA (Ask me Anything) sessions
John Lee Dumas ( Podcaster's Paradise), is one example. He regularly hosts Q&A live sessions for his members. Here's a screen-shot of an email that he wrote to his clients (I'm one of his!) in the early morning hours of one of his Q&A live sessions:
9. Create your private Facebook Group that is only accessible to people who belong to your group.
For many members site students to be member of an online community of people who are also on the same experience is more significant to them than the training or content that they receive from the membership website.
Every successful membership site owner that we spoke with understands this. A majority have chosen to make private spaces for their students. This allows students to interact with each other, ask one another questions and cheer each other on in their progress.
10. Write testimonials, member cases research
If you're in a position interview your clients. In accordance with their consent you can publish these interviews on the site of your member as well as on your blog and YouTube channel or podcasts, etc.
Chandler Bolt ( Self-Publishing School) for example, guides people on how to self-publish the first novel. You can visit his website to look through case studies of customers who have successfully self-published their book following his instruction:
11. Your members should be accountable as partners
A reliable method to make certain that your members actually implement what you teach them in your membership site is by connecting them to an accountable member. The accountability partner may be a different member or depending on the situation of your business or anyone you employ for this purpose.
An accountability partner has just one responsibility and only: to hold their partners accountable to taking action towards the goals they have set for themselves. An easy phone call (or perhaps an email) with the accountability partner for a review of their actions with one another every week, can significantly improve their chances of successfully following through with what they have been taught.
If you opt to adopt this method, you should inquire with the new members in the process of onboarding if they would like an accountable partner. Create a procedure to match the new member who requests an accountable partner with someone who's willing. Offer them guidelines and procedures to adhere to to ensure they are aware of the best way to go about it.
12. Set up meetings with your participants in person
There's nothing more effective at cementing friendships that are formed on the internet more than spending time with people in real life. The idea of having in-person meetings with customers can be a wonderful opportunity to establish relationships with them, and perhaps even more important, make it possible for them to form friendships among themselves.
When your membership site expands and expands, you may even see that members arrange to get together with one another in person. In that case then you'll know the existence of a community inside the website.
13. Contact a Customer Support Manager
If you have a community with members it will increase the amount of support demands from customers is likely to rise. For technical issues to queries about your content, requests for feedback or advice as well as other requests. Being forced to wait for a lengthy time to receive the response you need for assistance is one of most common reasons for customers to cancel their subscriptions to subscription websites.
If you're struggling to find the ability to keep pace with all the requests that come in for assistance It could be the right moment to get in touch with professionals who are able to manage customer support inquiries along with questions submitted through email or social media. If you're in possession of a Facebook Group for your members You might want to think about hiring a community manager to help facilitate conversations within the group, and also respond to any questions from members of the group.
14. Offer special benefits to your members
When you offer specific products or services to your clients Contact the suppliers and ask whether they would be willing to give your customers an exclusive discount or perk something of. Knowing that they will not be able to avail exclusive deals offered by other companies when they end their subscription, it can encourage your customers to continue with an active membership to your membership site.
Nathan Chan ( Foundr Magazine) For instance, Nathan Chan (foundr magazine) provides discounts on a variety of software applications to members who are members of Foundr Club the member website which caters to entrepreneurs
15. Make sure to drip-feed your primary content
If you're able to provide a substantial amount of information about your membership site, there is a chance that new members will feel overwhelmed by the amount of training that is immediately accessible to them. In order to prevent new members from being stressed, you could consider feeding the primary content to them according to an established timetable.
Iffor example, the core curriculum for your website for membership has includes eight modules, you could choose to drip feed one module each week for members joining during an eight-week period. Additional training which is not a element of the core program should be added to an additional section on your membership website and accessible to members of all levels anytime.
16. Recognize the areas where drop offs occur as part of your training and fix these areas.
Find out the percentages of completion for certain lessons on your member site and when the deadlines for certain videos. The top causes for a student to not finish an entire lesson or video is because the length is too lengthy. The shorter, "bite-sized" training is more likely to be finished and consumed more quickly than larger learning.
If you've created a 20-minute training video for your class and realize that the majority of your students end watching the video around 10 minutes in, you should consider splitting the training video into two distinct videos each about 10 minutes in length.
17. Contact existing members to get content ideas
One method to ensure that the content you write to your participants is useful and helpful for them is by asking the members what they'd like know more about. You can send them a survey where they can identify the topics they need additional instruction on. If you review the findings of the survey and see that a number of persons have expressed interest in being educated on this topic Add that topic to the training list to create.
Automate this process with one of the many email platforms that are available. For example, you could create an autoresponder email that contains a link to an online survey ( Typeform is an excellent tool for this) then schedule it for distribution to members 2 months after the date that they register on your membership site. It could result in an unstoppable response to your survey throughout your efforts to attract new members.
18. Create training that accommodates different ways of learning
Every person has their own distinct way of learning. That's why it's crucial to know what are the more popular learning styles are in order to create different types of training and content that can accommodate all these learning styles.
If you are creating only videos for members, like that you are not providing the right content to all members who prefer learning via sound or in writing. Most successful membership websites administrators utilize the "balanced range" of different types of content that help accommodate the different types of learning styles their members are able to use.
19. Create a FAQ page on your main website or the sale page
The addition of a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on your website is an effective way to cut down on the amount of queries and inquiries you receive from your customers. Adding a FAQ section to your is also a great way to answer a prospective customer's concern before they ask for help on your website.
Mimi G ( Sew It Academy) is an instance. She offers a FAQ section on the main page of her membership website. Anyone who is a potential or existing member who has a question regarding the membership site of Mimi can refer to this section prior to making contact to Mimi directly.
20. Have your students keep track of their development
The impact on the brain that progress bars provide to students is easy, yet effective. If a child can track the progress they make towards a final date, they are more motivated towards completing the objective.
21. Offer completion certificates
Although the assumption with websites that are a part of the membership program is to have more information added to the website in the near future, you may think about giving a certificate of completion to your customers upon their successful completion of the core content. The thought of receiving a completion certificate incentives students to complete the training which they are offered.
You are able to design completion certificates your self !
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22. Remind customers to pay their bills and renew their renewals to your customers
In order to prevent cancellations of members due to issues with billing or expired credit card, inform your clients prior to their next billing cycle. This technique works well for subscription plans that have more frequent billing cycles (quarterly, annual, etc.)
When they have an annual subscription such as a subscription to a magazine, members tend to have a higher chance forget what date their membership renewal is due. Sending them a reminder ahead of the time the renewal due date is going to give them enough time to make changes to their credit card (if necessary) or at the minimum be aware of being stunned by a renewal cost.
The renewal period for long-term subscriptions are a good time to encourage customers to renew their subscription by offering a reduced rate or a bonus or reward of some sort. amazing is an ideal option for setting up billing or renewal reminders.
23. Emails to re-engage active members
In the event that a member ceases to be active for a prolonged duration of duration (usually a few weeks to months) there is the risk of having to cancel the membership. Be aware that membership sites are created to provide a continuous exchange of value. If your customer decides to quit using the site that you have created for them, it shouldn't take long for them to begin to worry about the reason they're continuing to make a contribution to a membership.
If you find that your client hasn't been attending classes on a regular basis, send the person an informal "just make sure you check in" email to find out what's happening. Most of the time, students have too much on their plate to not remember to attend the classes you offer. If you keep track of your students, it's a sign that you are concerned about your students.
24. Make a custom video, and the contact form for your cancellation page
Add a short video message to the cancellation page on your site for members. This isn't intended to deter your clients from having to cancel their memberships, but to encourage them to reach out to them to share their opinions prior to cancelling. Inform them that you respect their opinion and that, if there's something you can make to keep their trust and keep them coming back, you'll do your best to accomplish it.
25. Survey participants who opt to not answer
If a client decides to cancel their membership gently contact them after they decide to cancel and request feedback. Inform them that it's a pity for their loss and that you'd like to hear any suggestions or comments regarding your membership website.
If you make use of your feedback from customers who have cancelled their subscriptions to improve your service to existing customers over the long time you'll improve your retention rates.
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