How To Stop The Leaks In Your Struggling Membership!

Launching in and of itself isn’t a problem really. It’s necessary in business and for memberships especially.

It’s when you start launching to TOP OFF MEMBERS that it becomes a problem.

You put all this energy into creating content and launching but by the time you’re ready to launch again it’ll simply be topping off the members you lost to the CHURN (dun dun dun!)!

Geez! I thought this membership lifestyle was supposed to get you off the launch roller coaster? It seems like you now have a permanent seat! You’ve suddenly become a member of the Frequent Launchers Club which is the prerequisite to the Frequent Burnouts Club.

Kinda counter to what’s being taught about memberships, right? Just a bit.

Now does this make memberships BAD?

Nope. They actually are amazing business stabilizers… but..

That’s only if you are able to KEEP your members.

You see, in memberships, the money is made in the renewal.

The renewal comes when members believe this is the place for them to be to make progress. They belong to the community. They are getting closer to their goals.

The cancelation comes when most of this isn’t happening. The churn increases when this is continuously not happening.

So what to do?

How can you get off the launch roller coaster and get on the launch bunny hill?

By focusing on your current members more than you do currently. Focus on helping them stay in the loop, attend live community building stuff, make progress, and be celebrated. When you focus on this your members want to stay.

You see, most membership owners have a communication problem. They seem to only get into regular contact with their members when they are launching something new or relaunching the membership (because they forgot to segment their current members in their list but that’s another thing).

They assume that if the member isn’t engaged it’s because they don’t want to be or are busy or just lazy.

What if, when you were in college and you disappeared for a while, they never got in contact with you? They didn’t send emails or calls or put holds on your account to get your attention? What would you think? That they don’t really care about you and everything is copacetic because they already got your tuition, amiright? That’s how your members feel when you only reach out for the “fundraiser/member drive” 😉 (See what I did there?)

Now how to better communicate with your members in a way that keeps them in the loop, builds community, make progress, and be celebrated?

Through email.

Now there are excellently prepared membership owners who send at least one of these following types of email once a month or so…

It’s not actually enough to retain members though.

If your members don’t feel like they are making progress and they don’t feel connected to the community they are going to bounce (quit) or ghost (they are a member but you never see them).

So how to this without it being overwhelming for you and them?

Through specific types of email. Some of these emails are automated (prescheduled) and some are triggered by specific behaviors (completing a module, moving forward on the success path, or scheduling a call).

There are different type of emails you can but they all fall into these 5 categories. Some of which are automated and some are behavior triggered.

Those 5 emails are:

1. Onboarding / welcome email sequence emails
2. Weekly recap/update emails
3. Live content reminder emails
4. Celebration emails
5. Motivation emails

The first type of email members should receive is the onboarding/welcome email sequence.

• Onboarding / Welcome Email Sequence

 

This is where you tell the members, in bite sizes, about the membership. This email sequence includes:

1. Where to find everything
2. Where to start
3. What to look out for (specific challenges that cause them to not make progress and eventually leave the membership), and
4. How progress is monitored in the membership (letting people know that you’ll be keeping track and keeping an eye out for their challenges and success makes people feel connected and seen! it also gives a sense of accountability)

This email sequence indoctrinates people into your membership and keeps them from hitting the refund or cancel button right off the bat. New members will wonder if they made a good decision. That question will be in the back of their minds for a few weeks to a few months before they decide to “cut their losses”. But in order to keep people in loop so they won’t want to cut their losses you also need to send a weekly recap/community update newsletter.

• Weekly recap/community update newsletter

 

Most memberships that I belong to do the weekly newsletter/community update emails to the members. I greatly appreciate them because it often links directly to posts in the Facebook group. I can go, read, and catch up on in a moment without scrolling the group. This keeps members from getting caught in the Facebook Time Warp  lol

If I didn’t receive emails like this, I might have missed and felt left out when I found out later. FOMO (Fear of missing out) is a real issue for some people. Sending these newsletter/community update emails keeps members in the loop and connected.

These emails also include a reminder for the theme of the month and any important things coming up in the membership.

Stu McLaren’s Tribe Connect (a membership for membership owners… meta, I know) does these very well. They send theirs out every Monday at 9am EST like clockwork it seems (it’s gathered and scheduled in advance).

 

The sections they include in their emails are:

• Announcements (last week’s and this week’s) which includes upcoming calls and content drops
• Community Highlights (broken down by group hashtags/topics)
• Save the date (which includes upcoming content drops, upcoming group events, and upcoming launches)

This is such a great example I’ve shared a video of the email: connect weekly email video because seeing an example can help for sure, amiright? Now here’s where things get a little shaky. Very, very few memberships I belong to send the 3rd type of email: the live content reminder emails.

• Live content reminder emails

 

If your membership includes Coaching / Q & A / Training calls or anything with a live component I’m sure you want as many of your members to be there as possible. Of course, that’s barring previous time commitments or time zone challenges. You might think that saying it once in the weekly newsletter is enough but it’s not. You might think dropping a link in the members’ Facebook group is enough. It’s not. (Algorithms might keep members from seeing it until it’s too late!)

Sending a specific single purpose email 1-2x per week specifically for the call ensures more people see it and can attend. Make this call at a regular time & place and you’ll be able to tell them to book it in their calendar and create a reminder. Even if they do that… send a reminder email.

Bonus tip: If you’re using a messenger bot in your membership, send a reminder there as welll.

People want to get their money’s/time’s worth and will want to attend as many calls as possible… I’m sure you’ve seen it with webinars in the past… people sign up for the same webinar a few different times and it’s because they don’t want to miss anything… no? Just me? Ok ‍♀️

Sending this email isn’t annoying. Not sending this email is a disservice. It makes your members think you only care about those in the FB group or don’t really care about their success at all and it’s all just secretly a money grab. That may or may not be true but the thoughts are happening for sure. And to prove it’s not a money grab and that you do care about their progress you’ll also want to send progress celebratory emails.

Progress & celebratory emails

 

These emails are important for encouraging the habits/behaviors you want in your members. This means that if they complete a lesson or a module in your members’ area they should receive an automated email triggered by that completion tag. If they move forward on the success path and they are making progress then send a celebration email.

There are many courses and membership platforms out there but the only one I know that adds tags and gives engagement points is MemberVault. With this content platform you can create tags, actions, and notifications based on the actions your members take. Then sync it to your email service provider (MemberVault syncs well with many others but to best option is ActiveCampaign, another favorite of mine so I’m probably biased lol) and have the emails go out automagically!

This will surprise and delight your members on autopilot and they will focus on making progress. Offering excusive special bonuses in these emails will also encourage them to keep going. This is how you keep your members engaged, making progress, and members for the long haul! Now this might seem like it leaves the people who are not making as much progress out but it doesn’t because the next type of email is especically for them… the encouragement/motivation emails.

Encouragement / Motivational Emails

These emails are for those who might be lagging behind and aren’t making the progress necessary for results. They might be disengaging or may have never felt engaged in the first place. Sending these emails range from being a slight nudge to a full-on push. That really depends on your style and approach in your business. But these emails are meant to help you keep churn down and also keep members moving forward and making progress. These emails aren’t a nag. Not sending them is a disservice to your members and your business.

The fortune is in the follow-up applies with your existing members as well! ~ Brittany, The Profit Booster™️

You can also set these up using MemberVault and ActiveCampaign in tandem. (Want to find out how we can do that together? Be sure to check out my work with me page!)

Bonus tip: You can offer additional support in these emails.

It’s the easy up-sell. Maybe this member is realizing they need more accountability and that’s something you offer in your 1:1 but not so much in the membership. This is a perfect and welcomed opportunity to offer it. This is called being of service! You can sell and serve at the same time.

Now you might be thinking,

“Britt, damn girl, that’s a lot of emails!”

and you’d be right.

The thing is businesses don’t email nearly enough except when they are in “launch mode” then they are bombarding your inbox. If people in your membership feel you only contact them when you are selling something then they are going to bounce as well. If people feel that in order to connect with you they have to be in the Facebook group but don’t do Facebook they’ll probably leave.

Make being a member easy. Have everything in one place (like MemberVault (wink wink lol)) and using an awesome email service provider that has robust automation at an awesome price, like ActiveCampaign. Between these 2 you can have a robust automated membership that keeps members engaged without necessarily always being in the Facebook group.

The key to not getting overwhelmed with this is starting with 1 thing at a time. I’d recommend starting with the one you don’t have first and if you don’t have any of them then start with the onboarding/welcome email sequence.

So to recap

Your members need to hear from you more than you think. Keep them in the loop so they feel supported and celebrated so that they want to stay in your membership for the long haul. This is important because retention is the KEY to success with memberships. Remember, the types of emails you want to send your members are:

1. onboarding/welcome email sequence
2. weekly recap/community update emails
3. live content reminder emails
4. progress & celebratory emails
5. encouragement & motivation emails

Now you don’t have to stop what you’re doing right now to do this. You can design and install these in phases… or

You can get help.