This Incredibly Simple Trick DOUBLED My Member Retention - I LOVE Membership Sites!

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I'm a big fan of membership sites and the recurring income they can provide. However it's not technically "recurring" if people cancel within their first month, right? Thus member retention is ever important for us membership site owners to work on and improve.

I had been doing all the big things like testing my price points, offering trials, and ensuring I was providing excellent content. However it was this one little "trick" that really helped me personally and gave my site a pretty significant boost in member retention: a better welcome page which included a new member survey.

Improving my members first experience with my site AND providing them an outlet (on the front end) to tell me (1) what they were looking for, and (2) what they hoped to get out of their membership gave me a significant boost in member carry over.

I had a welcome page already, but I really worked hard on improving it. I made sure I gave my new members a good orientation to the site, sharing with them what to expect, and so on. But the MOST important piece of this for me has been the "new member survey" which I included on that welcome page.

Now I had done surveys in the past, but only to existing members, but here each new member gets a survey straight away. In it I ask just a few simple questions.
- What convinced you to join?
- What's one thing you'd like to learn?
- What's your biggest struggle in online marketing?

The first question is INCREDIBLY insightful information for me personally and helps me market my site even better, and the remaining two help me craft my future content making my job much, much easier than before.

Another important component of this though has been that I personally respond to each member survey. For instance, I will take what they said they really wanted to learn and I will point them to that specific area of the member's site and maybe offer some initial tips right away. My responses vary, but I make it personal to them. This has been incredible for me, and I constantly get replies from people in awe of the personal touch. I think it's this connection ultimately, this sense of community I try to build, that has really helped me retain more members.

Anyway, these are just a few of my recent experiences with membership sites. If you run a similar site, I hope this might help.

Best,
Derek
#50% #increased #membership #membership sites #retention #simple #site #trick
  • Profile picture of the author eac07740
    Thanks for taking the time to share your personal experiences managing membership websites. Very insightful and will be of value to the forum community.
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    • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
      Originally Posted by drunkenmonkey View Post

      Nice post dude.

      I use wordpress for all 6 of my membership sites.

      So I got 3 questions:

      1. Is your membersite built on Wordpress too?

      2. If yes, what survey plugin are you using for this?

      3. How often does the survey show up?..is it there constantly or does it dissapear after it has been filled out?..or is it set to appear on intervals?

      Ideally I'd like it to be a combination of:

      There constantly UNTIL it gets filled out OR timed to appear once the member has been registered for 10 days would be ideal.

      Retention isn't really an issue for me as all my member sites are fixed term & Fixed fee.

      I just genuinely want to deliver and completely out-do my competition and the inner workings of members heads/mindset wouldn't go amiss either.

      Nice post.

      DM

      Glad you'd found it helpful. In response to your questions...

      1) Yes, my site is build on Wordpress too and I use Digital Access Pass.

      2) I actually don't use a survey plugin at all. When a new user signs up they are immediately sent to a Welcome Page. This Welcome Page is not protected so the users are not even logged on at this point. I use a simple contact form using the Contact Form 7 plugin. I get an email notification with the info when someone fills it out. I then read over it quickly and shoot back a simple reply to begin building that relationship. At the bottom of the page is a link for the new user to actually log on the Members Area. Since not everyone fills out the survey I do have a link back to Welcome Page from within the Members Area though, and I simply encourage those who have not yet done so, to take the 30 second survey. But because it's one of the first things people see (even before they actually log on), I've personally had good success. It's not the only way to do it, but it's working well for me and the systems I have in place.

      3. So in regards to how often the survey shows up, I think I addressed this above. It's ALWAYS on the Welcome Page, but new members are only directed to this page once. After login they are directed to my Members Area in which I link back to the Welcome Page and encourage everyone to fill out the survey.

      I don't know if that all made sense, so let me know if I need to clarify.

      Best,
      Derek
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by drunkenmonkey View Post

      Nice post dude.

      I use wordpress for all 6 of my membership sites.
      6 membership sites?

      How do you stay on top of them all?
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      BS free SEO services, training and advice - SEO Point

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      • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
        Originally Posted by drunkenmonkey View Post

        One absolute kills it.

        One does ~ok~

        4 totally flop (and I know it's definately not the Niche)...hence my interest in this thread.

        DM
        The good news is you only need 1!

        Derek
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas W
    the alternative membership model.

    Low trial offer, Cross sale, Upsell, Upsell, Recurring. "Forgets to cancel"

    I have seen membership sites actually pull over $175 in a span of 3 days from a $1 trial.

    When you add up the numbers it can add up the same. Would you rather get $175 upfront or get $175 total from 6 month membership
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  • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
    Originally Posted by Thomas W View Post

    the alternative membership model.

    Low trial offer, Cross sale, Upsell, Upsell, Recurring. "Forgets to cancel"

    I have seen membership sites actually pull over $175 in a span of 3 days from a $1 trial.

    When you add up the numbers it can add up the same. Would you rather get $175 upfront or get $175 total from 6 month membership
    Neither. Instead I'd opt for a lifetime member. Why stop at 6 months?

    Derek
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    • Profile picture of the author Campaignmarket
      Thats actually a quite good way to do it, even though there are some workarounds, its still good. I had did have an idea about you using that plugin to do it, once you wrote they weren't logged in.

      Definately something I will bear in mind when I do set up a membership site.
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      • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
        Originally Posted by Campaignmarket View Post

        Thats actually a quite good way to do it, even though there are some workarounds, its still good. I had did have an idea about you using that plugin to do it, once you wrote they weren't logged in.

        Definately something I will bear in mind when I do set up a membership site.
        Yeah, there may be better ways but this is certainly working well for me and my particular setup.

        Derek
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  • Profile picture of the author automaton
    Can you give a little more details about the results regarding the consumer behavior you got in your surveys?
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    • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
      Originally Posted by automaton View Post

      Can you give a little more details about the results regarding the consumer behavior you got in your surveys?
      Can you clarify your question? I'm not sure if I understand what you're asking.

      The end result is a better sense of community which naturally makes the Members Area more "sticky". I'm able to take the answers to their questions regarding what they struggle with and offer them individual advice and point them to various areas of training from within the Members Area. It's nothing too spectacular...I mean we don't become best friends...BUT thanks to this personal attention and the individual focus (even if only slight) I give to each member has seen my overall retention rates from month to month jump way up.

      Best,
      Derek
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  • Profile picture of the author elzafonv
    great share, derek. can u tell a little bit more about this biz model? how do u handle 6 membership sites at once? how many hours per month do u invest in each?
    tia
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    • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
      Originally Posted by elzafonv View Post

      great share, derek. can u tell a little bit more about this biz model? how do u handle 6 membership sites at once? how many hours per month do u invest in each?
      tia
      I don't have 6 membership sites, I only have one. That was another poster who said they had 6. As for my one though, I invest about an hour a day developing content and chatting with members.

      Best,
      Derek
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      Thousands of happy Warriors agree...
      This service is a MUST - so worth it - Barry C.
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