Tips on Increasing Member Retention

There is no secret to good member retention, no shortcuts, or no panacea that can work for every member of your website. It is all about knowing who your members are, what they want, and serving them well. They have subscribed to your website with some expectations and benefits, either economic or intellectual, or both. If you show genuine concern for your members and former members too and use all available resources to better understand and serve their needs, your members are going to back you with their support. Depending on the nature of your membership you should formulate your strategy of member retention.

Tip #1

Show professionalism. Your website should be built on a solid base of member activities and systems like a stable data management system, a commitment to effective customer service, flexibility, personalization, and quick response. These will always earn the goodwill you need to successfully run your membership website. Your member retention should ideally begin with member recruitment. You need to communicate with your members regularly. First one or two months are quite critical in terms of retention. They should see the real involvement from you in terms of communications and services.

Tip #2

Always create a synergic relationship between you and your members. Involve your members in all possible way. Proactively ask them to express their concern, ideas, opinions, and suggestions on improvement. They should always have a feeling of being a part of a team and not just a passive receiver. If your membership website deals in Sports car, ask their comments on the new models in the market, their pros and cons, etc. Your members need your personal attention. A personalized human interaction is a major factor for member retention. Develop a system to provide personalized communications letting the members know you care for their cause. Your attention will pay off as a higher commitment from members who feel you are truly interested in serving their needs.

Tip #3

Show your members real value for their money. Give out a bonus to your members so that they know that they are getting services worth their subscription. You may offer special discounts on the products you sell or advertise on your website. If it is to do with some information processing, provide them links to useful resources or make your website a repository of information they would love to have. Offer user programs quite frequently for your members to encourage them to attend forums, contribute their thoughts with other members, come up with solutions for problems posted by members, etc.

Tip #4

Some moneymaking websites and pay per click ads always earn traffics for any websites. You and your members earn and your membership base grows faster. You can also add some specialty product pages to your website that direct your members to products like books and movie reviews, kitchen and household products, gift items, and can form a link for network marketing plan. Adding some affiliate links on your web page you can provide extra discounts from them and earn revenues as well. Offer free screensavers, desktop images, posters, free calendars, online tools, technical know-how, which are always a crowd puller. These free content also widens your membership base and your revenues too. A membership newsletter is another very popular technique to retain your members.

Your members need to justify their membership investment in terms of money and, more importantly, the quality of tangible and intangible services you offer. A benefit that is appreciated by your members will go long way to increase the retention of their membership.