Maximize Member Excitement to Stop Your Members From Quitting

“I can’t even get them to return my call.” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times. It’s the telltale sign of a membership marketer who has a member with an expired credit card. They’ve been a member for months, but now they’re getting canceled because their monthly charge didn’t go through.

The team emails, calls, and even sends a letter … no response. In the beginning, these were little more than symptoms of a problem; but now, you can see there is a disease. It started in the hours and days after this member joined. You just don’t excite them anymore.

Remember when you were dating? When you were excited about someone, if they called, you’d answer the phone and try to act all casual. But inside, you were jumping for joy. Then some-one else would call, and depending on who they were, you might dread talking to them. Even if you liked them well enough, it wouldn’t matter. No one likes talking to a person who doesn’t get them excited anymore.

If you can’t get your member to return your call, you don’t interest them right now. You could maybe win back their heart in the future, but it’s not happening today.

Here’s the member excitement slope you deal with most often.

Excitement versus Time

When your member first discovered you, she engaged with your materials, got to know you, built a sense of trust, and then finally bought from you. Her excitement grew every step of the way. Your marketing message talked to her pain, suggested a new approach, and promised a solution. She loved it, took out her credit card, and bought it.

Then came your product. You gave her instructions and perhaps even an upsell. Maybe you even gave her access to a library of more stuff she could look at. Argh! Overwhelming.

Time goes by and she begins to feel badly that she can’t get around to it all. For some reason, she feels like if she can’t consume and implement everything you teach, she’s wasted her investment. Sort of like buying too many groceries and having some of them spoil in the refrigerator be-fore you could eat them. And because she’s a member of your monthly program, you remind her about this frustration by sending her more each week or month. The backlog becomes bigger, and rather than delivering an exciting solution, you’ve transformed your program into another problem that creates pain.

Rather than admit it’s her fault, she makes excuses. Your program is the wrong fit. It doesn’t work. Her frustration grows, so she begins to avoid you. Even if she doesn’t unsubscribe, she tells her email system to put your messages into her spam folder, to be ignored. And, soon you are for-gotten.

As an alternative to all this, focus on growing your member’s excitement after her initial purchase by giving her an opportunity to feel good about herself. Give her an easy win.

Excitement versus Time page 4

An easy win could be implementing a plan that gives clarity, achieving a certain goal, or at-tending an upcoming event that your member can look forward to — or all three. This win makes her feel good about herself. Invite her to tell you when she’s completed this so you may congratulate her. This feedback grows her belief in herself and in you, so she’s ready to tackle something else. Soon enough, she’s taking action and achieving a transformation in her life.

The inflection point between a member who quits and one who engages and gets a result is comprised of two things. First, a small task that gives the member a quick victory. Second, a way for her to report that quick win so you can give her recognition — a good job.

When your kindergartner arrives home from school with an art project, you put it on the refrigerator. You show your pride in this achievement, and this gives your child belief in himself. Recognizing your member gives her belief in herself. Often this can be automated through website tracking, online badges, and automated follow-up emails, although it’s just as effective if you do it manually.

What is a quick win you can put in place for your new members? How will it make them believe in themselves? Finally, what kind of feedback mechanism will you need to put together so that you can be alerted to this win and can give your new member recognition? The answers to these questions will help you stop your members from quitting.

About Robert Skrob

The problem with subscription membership programs is that members quit, I fix that problem. For more than 20-years I have specialized in direct response marketing for member recruitment, retention and ascension in diverse subscription members environments including non-profit associations, for-profit publishers/coaching, subscriptions and SAAS companies. For an evaluation of your current churn rate and how I can improve it, contact me here. I discover there are often two or three quick wins you can implement within a week to lower churn immediately, let’s talk about your quick wins.
10X Subscription Growth

2 Comments on “Maximize Member Excitement to Stop Your Members From Quitting”

  1. Previously in content of yours (can’t recall which right now) I read you mentioning a “typical” member attrition %. As long as attrition is within those guidelines is it best to just keep profitably chug-chuggin along?

    1. Definitely. That’s the goal of creating membership programs. Minimizing attrition rates makes that possible.

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