Twenty-one years is gone in the blink of an eye.
My wife and I took our daughter, Samantha, to Nashville for a long weekend to celebrate her 21st birthday. It feels like she was born just a year or two ago. Now she’s an adult.
When my wife, Kory, got pregnant, we owed more money than we earned in a year. At the time, credit card company representatives were passing out applications like they were candy at Halloween. And to get approved, you just had to be a full-time student.
Although I paid them off each month for years, I eventually fell behind. Then, the outstanding balances grew and grew.
We planned on Kory going back to work after Samantha was born, but we did the math anyway. After day care expenses, Kory earned less than $2.23 an hour. This meant our income had decreased by 50 percent at the same time our family grew by 50 percent.
At the time, I got paid every two weeks. One Saturday after payday, Kory and I sat down to pay our bills. After writing out everything we owed, there was $9.78 left in our checking account for groceries and diapers for the next two weeks. I sold my CD collection to generate a little cash for diapers, baby formula, and a few groceries.
That’s when I was introduced to direct response marketing, copywriting, and membership. I wrote sales letters to sell memberships, mailed packages to sell sponsorships and exhibits, and created campaigns to fill seminars. I knew little about what I was doing, but I quickly discovered that member retention was the easiest way to grow. By the time 2000 came along, I’d sold memberships within more than 25 different industries.
At that time, all of our memberships were annual renewals. After a little bit of research, I discovered our renewal rate for first renewals was a lot lower than the rate of years two and beyond. I became focused on figuring out what I had to do that first year of membership to get that member to renew at a higher rate. And, when we got them to renew that first year, it was a lot easier to improve our renewal rates overall.
Higher renewals led to higher recurring membership revenue. More members meant more attendees at our events. Additional attendees attracted exhibitors. A full exhibit hall made it a lot easier to sell sponsorships to companies trying to differentiate themselves at a crowded event.
Membership renewal made all the difference.
I see so many clients working tirelessly to generate new customers. Yet, when I have the opportunity to analyze their numbers, I’m able to show them that small improvements in retention would help them reach their membership and revenue goals with a lot less work, investment, and time.
Too many smart business leaders put off working on their member retention, instead redoubling their new member marketing efforts. Getting new members is expensive. It takes advertising, sales follow-up, and conversion. Then there’s your fulfillment costs to onboard a new member. And all too often, those members are flushed through and are gone within a few weeks or months.
As you are a reader of the Skrob Report, I’m willing to buy you a Robert Skrob Member Growth and Retention Analysis. It’s a $2,500.00 investment, but I’m happy to buy it for you to give you some insight into when your members are quitting, what the weaknesses are in your systems, and to see if you have any quick wins we could roll out to improve your retention within a few short weeks. Apply today for your complementary analysis by visiting www.RobertSkrob.com/membership.
Time goes by too quickly. My daughter is all grown up. And with her, all the dreams I had of what we’d do together as father and daughter. Don’t put off your dream membership and business. Putting off your retention efforts is like saying “no thank you” to the security, growth, and stability of the recurring revenue you set out to achieve when you launched your membership. Request your analysis today.
About Robert Skrob
