Membership Retention 101: Best Membership Retention Strategies & Ideas

Starting a membership site is a big win if you can keep your members around in the community. And, it’s the main challenge that a lot of people face.

It’s also true that membership programs can be very profitable. But, this only works if your members stay with you for the long term. To do this, you need strong membership retention strategies along with ideas.

In this guide, we’ll share the ins and outs of membership retention and give you the 10 best ways to keep members away from leaving. Let’s find them out!

What Is Membership Retention?

Membership retention is a measurement that shows how your community or group is keeping its members. In other words, it means keeping the same members by analyzing how many people stay or leave.

Basically, it's about keeping your members happy and getting them to stick around for a while. Once you get new people in, you've got to make sure they feel important and involved so they don't bail.

So, they don’t leave. By doing this, you can keep your group or community strong and growing while ensuring income.

And, you’ll find it mostly shown in numerical or percentage form to give full insight into members that come or go.

To understand it properly, here’s an example:

If you have 10,000 members and 2,000 of them decide not to renew their membership or simply leave, you’ll end up with an 80% retention rate. And, this means you need to focus on the 2,000 and try out things to bring back 2,000 members just to keep your numbers the same.

Why Is Member Retention Important?

No matter if it's subscription services, clubs, or gym membership retention, it’s quite essential to maintain people in a group. And, it's important for the following reasons:

1. Saves Money: Keeping a current member is more cost-effective than acquiring a new one. You also cut down on membership marketing and onboarding expenses.

2. Steady Income: Retained members usually offer a reliable source of income. Due to this, it leads to consistent profits. This also allows for easier business planning and budgeting.

3. Free Advertising: Upholding your members in the long run helps a lot to gain fame. Thanks to this, your members will promote your community to others.

4. Making a Safe Space: This means having people you know and can trust around, which makes everyone feel welcome and supported.

How to Calculate Membership Retention Rate?

Even if you’ll find quite a few complicated formulas to calculate the membership retention rate, here’s a simple trick to finding it using a proven way. And we'll keep things simple with a traditional formula:

To see how this works, consider the following example. Assume you wish to calculate the membership retention rate for a specific period.

First and foremost, determine the number of members at the outset, assuming it is 1,000. During the span, you get 700 new members. And by the end of the period, you'll have a total of 1,600 members.

By using the above calculation, deduct the extra members from the final number, 1,600 - 700 = 900. Then, divide this number by the number of members you had at the start (900 ÷ 1000 = 0.90).

To find the percentage, just multiply by 100. For example, 0.90 × 100 equals 90%. As a result, the membership retention percentage over time is 90%. This also means you were able to keep 90% of your members.

What Is a Good Membership Retention Rate?

As the membership retention rate, you’re aiming for will depend on your goals and budget. However, know that the higher the number of rates in this case indicates better.

To ensure more profit through members, it’s better to keep the retention rates above 70% to 90%. But, it’s hard to keep the membership retention rate higher due to various factors beyond your control unless you improve.

Why Do You Need Membership Retention Strategies?

Getting new members usually costs far more than keeping existing ones. According to SimplicityDX, e-commerce enterprises will spend about $29 to retain new buyers in 2022.

And, if you're spending $29 or more to recruit new members, losing them too soon can make your membership site more expensive than profitable.

Instead of doing that, a good goal is to keep your member turnover (churn) rate around 5%. With rates nearing 20%, it is worrying as replacing that many members every month to stay even isn't sustainable.

That's why, it’s better to have strategies so that you can keep the existing members happy and sticking around. And, it’ll make your business sustain better.

By using effective membership retention strategies, you can lower costs, make more money, and build a loyal community that supports your brand over time. This also helps your business grow steadily and stay strong.

Here are a few benefits you can take in membership programs if you take retention strategies:

Connecting with More People

A lot of folks like connecting with others. And, your membership programs can offer a supportive community.

Simple to Join

Paying a membership with affordable monthly fees to access a good community is less scary than committing to a costly one. This also helps your community to grow naturally.

Knowing New Skills

Membership sites are quite popular as more people take on extra jobs to make more money. And, your program can benefit others to learn new skills and get helpful information. In return, you’ll earn passive income and members.

How to Know What Your Members Want and Keep Them Coming Back?

To build a strong community, it's key to understand what your members enjoy or are looking for. And, the simplest way to learn this is by just asking them.

By paying attention to what your members say and changing things to fit their tastes, you can build a community where they feel appreciated and want to stick around.

Plus, understanding what they like also helps prevent them from getting bored and keeps your community lively and interesting.

Here are some ideas you can try in your community space to get a feel for what your members like:

Ask Questions and Do Surveys

You can drop some questions and run surveys. This not only helps you understand what they like but also what they think about what you're sharing.

Host Fun Live Events

You can put on live events like webinars or Q&A sessions. These events let members share their thoughts right away, which can help you see what they're into.

Connect on a Personal Level

You can offer up chances for one-on-one chats or live sessions. These personal conversations can also uncover individual needs and ideas that group discussions might overlook.

Keep an Eye on Member Activity

You can watch how active your members are in your community. To do this, just look at which posts they engage with, how often they join, and what they ignore. This also helps you spot what's popular and what needs more attention.

Make Improvements Based on Feedback

You can use what you learn to make your community even better. This also lets you tweak your content and activities to better match what members enjoy and find useful.

10 Proven Membership Retention Strategies & Ideas That Work Growing Community

To keep your existing members and attract new ones, nothing works better than the membership retention approach. Here are 10 strategies and ideas that you can try to grow your members:

1. Show Charming Content

The first thing you should do to keep your members is ensure the quality of your content. To put it simply, people like to see good content in any form whether it's video, audio, or text.

Moreover, if you give monthly or yearly memberships, it’s ideal to put quality stuff in your courses, PDFs, videos, or other content. That way, you can make your content worth it. This also helps you to gain their interest and build a strong community.

Plus, making the right kind of content will show why your membership is valuable and interesting to keep them paying each month or year. Now, to make the ideal content for your audience, you’ll need to figure out a few things.

Firstly, find out how many people are showing interest in your content. Are they paying to get a membership or skipping after one month? This will answer a lot of things for you to pick the right niches for your content.

Then, you’ll need to think of looking at the pricing plan of your membership. To do that, you’ll need to decide pricing based on what kind of content you are offering to them. Well, the costly one should have more premium things, while the reasonable one should have good stuff.

After that, check the member engagement to know if the content is good or not. And, you can easily understand that by seeing how people react to your content. Members also attend events, meetings, or live sessions when the content is fun.

Not to mention that the type of content you make should fit your business. And, this will ensure that your members find it useful. For instance, if you are giving lessons, live coaching calls, or special courses, it needs to be well-made with quizzes to match your work.

To keep members interested but not overwhelmed, you’ll need to understand them well and find the right mix. And, keep your content simple so everyone can join and use it to get results.

You should also avoid using too complicated or fancy words that people don’t know. This is the most important tip for keeping members with you.

To make good content for your people, you can consider a few membership retention ideas that truly work:

• Know the niche and member’s façade.

• Maintain good quality standards to add value to your audiences.

• Reply to comments, queries, and feedback to improve.

• Give fun and attractive content using your creativity.

• Have daily Q&A sessions.

• Allow members to share their content to add value to the group.

• Use membership platforms to reach more people.

• Post valuable content or schedule it on a daily basis.

• Make sure the community is respectful and moderate.

• Show your gratitude and reward members to add loyalty.

2. Make a Community Space

To do better in membership programs, you can try creating a space for them to gather everyone in one place. However, it needs to be a safe yet fun community place so they can engage better.

This way, you can make them interested with good content and help them find people who are similar in mindset to them.

However, if you are planning to do this, it’s better to keep the place friendly. That also helps you to make the group active on your monthly or yearly membership programs.

Since you can mix and match your content from video to text or picture, it allows you to make the community stay in one place while seeing your work.

Here are a few things that you can do to make your community space special to your members:

• Welcome New Members: To make a good first impression on your members, it’s best to make them feel comfortable in your community. With this, they will feel more involved in the platform and can share their thoughts better.

• Keep Members Engaged: It’s a fact that a community that keeps people active will work better than a silent one. And, this gives your members reasons to return to your membership site daily.

• Make Members Feel Included: Your group will appreciate their experience more when they can build friendships with others.

• Create Online Forums: A place to discuss like forums or discussion boards will make it easy for members to connect, share, and ask queries.

• Host Events: Conferences and meet-ups are awesome for members to mingle and make new friends. They also help expand the group.

• Give Volunteer Opportunities: Things like volunteering, mentoring, and leading projects let members put their talents to good use and keep everyone involved.

3. Know Your Members Better

A good way to bring back and get more people is to make a profile after understanding your members. It’ll also help you design the right membership levels and use targeted marketing.

And, if you're not already using targeted marketing, it's the best way to attract and keep members by focusing on what matters most to them.

To do that, let’s learn about a few types of members and how they normally behave that you’ll find in every group:

1. New Members

These types of people are curious and are just starting to learn about your community. To win them back, you’ll need to give lots of benefits and make them feel comfortable.

2. Long-Term Members

These types of people are quite involved and support your community by interacting. To win them back, you’ll need to keep them interested by hosting events and showing appreciation for their loyalty.

3. Lapsed Members

These types of people have a membership in your community but aren't active anymore. To win them back, you’ll need to send regular updates and remind them of the benefits they can enjoy as a member.

4. Focus on Welcoming Your Members

Making your members feel cozy in your group is what you should prioritize. By doing that, it gives you the first impression to make sure they feel valued and excited about joining.

Here's what to include in your welcome plan:

• Give them a welcome package

• Arrange a meeting for new members

• Pair them with a mentor

• Feature them on your website and social media

• Provide access to member benefits and resources

And, you can make progress at different stages of welcoming your members. That can also lead to more people joining and renewing their memberships. Plus, you can get their opinions by asking to do surveys and know if you are doing it properly or not.

For the long term to keep your members in your group, the main idea is to make a positive onboarding experience. Also, if you impress members right from the start, they're more likely to stay involved with your community.

5. Offer Special Resources

Your members need to see how your organization benefits them. And, this means giving them useful resources that make the membership worth it. Here are some great ways to do that:

Educational Materials

These can be recorded on your content or info in newsletters only for your members. You can also keep these materials behind a member login so they can access them.

Professional Development Certifications

A lot of folks join the community to grow professionally and get some proven certifications. So, if you offer the certifications and seminars, it can help your members to stay.

Mentorship Programs

These can create a sense of community among your members. And, this way newer folks get guidance while the more experienced ones get the chance to share their knowledge. Besides, it’ll help you keep the members in the community.

Webinars

These are a cost-effective way to give value. To do that, you can give the chance to your members to join live and catch up later with recordings on your community.

By offering these kinds of valuable stuff, you're showing just how much your group brings to the table and why being a member is worth it.

6. Take the Feedback and Act on It

Feedback plays a great role in membership retention, especially from your existing members. It's not just about hearing what they say, but also taking action on their complaints as soon as possible.

When members give their opinion that they want to see or ask for some changes, it’s a chance to build trust by taking action seriously.

It’ll also show your members that you care about their concerns or needs to make the group or community stand out at the top. And, that way you can make them stick around longer and stay loyal to your group.

Here are some practical tips that you can take to get the feedback from your members:

• Surveys: You can use mail, email, or send notifications to ask for surveys to get feedback. This will also help you find out if members are happy overall and ask about specific areas where they think things can improve.

• Focus Groups: You can gather a small group of members for a detailed discussion. This also helps you understand their concerns and needs better.

• Open-ended Feedback: You can let your members share their thoughts in person. To do that, you can contact them over the phone or through email. This also gives you details about what they want and need.

And, once you get all the feedback, you can review it and make changes as needed. When you make a change, it’ll make sure to tell your members about it. This is also helpful to keep track of feedback to see what's working well and what still needs improvement.

7. Offer Rewards for Referrals

The biggest followers will talk about your community without you asking and share it with their friends. But, why not encourage even more people to spread the word? Here are some simple ways to reward referrals:

Discounts

It gives existing members a discount on their next month’s fees for bringing in new members. You can also offer discounts on popular or costly items.

Exclusive Access

This offers special access like coupons to your community or valuable resources. By giving access as a reward, it will help you grow loyal members.

Bonus Points

If you use bonus items or a point system in your community, it gives new things or points for referrals. This way you can also keep your members interested and active to collect points for each new person they bring in.

Special Achievements

These are small rewards like a profile badge option. And, you can make your members feel appreciated. It also works well if your community shows these badges on profiles.

Affiliate Programs

It inspires members to share special links with their audience in a community. When someone joins using the link, the member gets a commission. And, these are more complex but quite effective for growing members.

By trying all the above ways, you can boost traffic to make your membership retention strong. Here are two main benefits of referral incentives:

• You’ll be thanking your loyal supporters. And, these are the people who are already telling their friends, family, and colleagues about your community. By thanking them, you will make them want to share even more.

• You’ll get more referral traffic. Some loyal members also may not talk much about your community. But, if you offer money or social rewards for new referrals, you’ll see more people telling others about your group.

8. Keep an Eye on Membership Retention Rates

When you track retention rates, you can find out how well your community is doing overall. You can also use this data to make well-versed decisions and find ways to improve.

To do that, you can check the member retention rate. This will also show you the percentage of members who stay for a certain time.

Apart from this, you can consider figuring out the churn rate. And, that’ll help you find the percentage of members who leave during a specific period.

Then again, the average membership length shows the data on how long people stay in your community. And, the renewal rate lets you detect the percentage of people who renew the membership.

Plus, you can check member engagement including survey responses, forum activity, event attendance, and similar stats. It also helps you see where members aren't joining so you can make changes.

In case you want to use retention data to make your members grow or keep them, do the following steps:

• To begin with, you can find out where retention is low and churn rates are high.  By doing this, you can fix these issues and make members less unhappy.

• Afterward, you can find out what works best and apply those fruitful strategies to other areas. With this, it’ll help you make a great difference in your community's offerings.

• Then again, you can do better with services and offer benefits after tracking what members value the most. This will also make the membership more worthwhile.

• Lastly, you can boost activities and events by tracking engagement and presence. This also ensures your members are valuable and relevant for future experiences.

9. Give Alternative Plans Instead of Canceling

A lot of times members can decide to stop their memberships for different reasons. In that case, you can try giving them a diverse choice like a new plan or a discount for the next month. And, this works greatly to avoid losing them fully.

When members think about leaving, it can make a big difference if you give them options. It not only keeps them longer but also makes them more likely to say good things about your service to others.

Moreover, you should remember to keep in touch with former members. So, when their membership ends and they forget to renew that, you can send them a special offer or a reminder to bring them back.

Also, using the right membership platform can make all this easier. For example, EzyCourse comes with built-in email marketing tools to help win the members who leave and turn them into revenue.

10. Keep on Updating Old Content

When you keep on turning your old content up to date, it helps a lot for your audiences to stay in the community. Besides, this helps your members to stay attentive and enjoy new things that match the trend.

Plus, you don’t want your members to get puzzled by seeing the old information in your content. In the worst case, this can make them leave your community and never renew the membership.

In other words, you will have fewer members staying with you and they will probably skip watching your content regularly.

Whether you're creating blog entries, email newsletters, community posts, eBooks, or webinars, you should plan to update them frequently.

Furthermore, different types of content and platforms require distinct modifications. Here are some general guidelines for updating your older content:

• Keep the Facts Accurate

You can ensure that your information and statistics are correct. If new info comes out that adds to or changes what you have, you can update the content accordingly.

• Add Value to Content

You might not need to update every month, but it's good to check them at least once a year. And, your style might have changed, or you could have upgraded your content.

• Answer Common Queries

People always have questions, especially in a community. Even after updating the content, your members might ask about recent changes. By responding to these updates, it shows you're listening and helps keep members around.

• Apply SEO Tactics to Your Content

As SEO rules are always changing, you can make changes based on them. When you update your content, just be sure it follows the latest best practices so people can find it easily.

• Renew Calls to Action (CTAs)

Your goals as a community will change over time. That means what you want members to do will change too. And, you can update your Calls to Action (CATs) to fit your goals.

Ending Notes

Your membership community will be successful if you know how to make your members stay while attracting new ones.

And, the toughest part of the retention process is to keep the ones you currently have. And, it works when you offer good quality content using a reliable platform for long-term success and profit.

For that, you can trust EzyCourse which offers full support for keeping your membership site interesting and fun with tons of options. Find out more about the membership tiers from our service!