Retention Point: The Single Biggest Secret to Membership and Subscription Growth for Associations, SAAS, Publishers, Digital Access, Subscription Boxes and all Membership and Subscription Businesses

by Robert Skrob

The Retention Point is the moment when your members become so emotionally invested in what you deliver, they become Lifers.

Once you have made a promise to solve a problem, then delivered on that promise, a gift of food IS a plus that builds good will. Until then, it’s just empty calories that do nothing for your member or you.

Your new members eagerly want to believe your membership is the answer to their problems. But if you flip into teaching mode, they’ll get lost and bored. Member Leaders understand they must lead with beliefs and their members will follow.

Most people assume the decision to take action was made when the purchase was made. However, the purchase itself is so easy, especially with SAAS products where the initial cost is relatively small. When faced with setting aside time to implement this new tool into your life, it’s too easy to back out and fall into old habits.

Here are the key components of your new Member On Ramp:

Dream, velief, goal, time, focus, curriculum, win, recognition, upsell

Before your customer is going to take action, he’s got to have a good reason for investing the time and energy. He’s busy and overwhelmed already. And you want him to take time from his schedule to implement your strategies? You better paint a clear picture of what his life will look like if he takes action.

Begin by promoting the end

Your customer is unlikely to do anything with what you deliver until he believes it works and is likely to work for him.

Lead dont teach

TIME Your member schedules time to implement your solution.

I’ve found that when you offer an upsell to your new members during your Member On Ramp, the new members who invest in the upsell product retain at a much higher rate. This makes sense, right? They are making another investment in what you offer, so these members are more committed to succeeding. But there’s another observation that’s not so obvious. The members who are offered an upsell and don’t buy also have a higher retention rate. Yes, that’s right, the upsell, when done well, almost always results in an improvement in retention, even from those who don’t buy the upsell. From what I can gather from speaking to members who don’t buy the upsell, giving them an opportunity to buy something more expensive makes the membership they have look like a better value. They think, “I can’t afford that big program, and I’m getting what I need at a much lower price.”

My clients who automate and split test their new member upsell path together with their Retention Point key performance indictors perform the best. Having this automated allows you to split test what works so you can maximize promise fulfillment, member engagement and lifetime value improvements.

Nothing you do to get your members to the Retention Point will improve unless you make your member the subject of every sentence and paragraph. Stop writing about you and what you deliver.

When your people leave a message, do your members call back to say, “Don’t you dare end my membership. I love being a member; here’s my updated card. Sorry for the inconvenience.”? Then you have this right.

Membership Growth Is About the Members You Keep, Not the New Members Who Join