5 Practical Ways to Engage and Retain Members

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When you’re running membership software, there is so much to take into consideration if you want to keep your members happy. Even if you’re using a membership management software, there are many hurdles you need to jump through in order to retain your members, keep them engaged, and most importantly… keep them happy.

 

Keeping your membership base satisfied is not an easy matter, so with this in mind, here are some practical ways to engage and retain members at your organization.

1. Offer clear incentives (and remind your members about them)

Offering people incentives is basically the whole point of having members, is it not?

If you want to keep members engaged with your company, make it clear what incentives they are getting. Give them obvious benefits that encourage them to stay loyal to your company and part with their hard-earned cash.

Whether it’s discounts, insider info, rewards, or exclusive content, you need to offer something valuable and exclusive to your members.

It’s not uncommon for members to forget some of the perks they can experience through their membership, so consider reminding people of their perks in newsletters, landing pages, social media streams, invoices, etc. You can easily automate this part if you use this easy to use software from MembershipWorks.

2. Hold surveys regularly so you can get honest feedback

The best way to retain members? Fix the things that are annoying them before they decide to leave.

Although a lot of people will ignore a survey in their inbox, people who are dissatisfied with elements of your service are pretty likely to fill them out and voice their opinions on what needs to change.

If you get lots of responses that trend toward a general theme, then it gives you tangible ways to improve your service so that members feel listened to and want to stick around.

3. Respond to feedback so that members feel heard

You might get feedback and complaints from existing members regardless of any surveys or questionnaires you send out. Make sure you respond to this feedback respectfully, even if you don’t intend to make any changes to your system based on it.

Ignoring the concerns of your paying members is a surefire way to make them want to leave. Next time someone complains in your email or live chat, allow them to feel heard even if you disagree with what they’re suggesting. 

4. Show gratitude

Every now and then, it’s good practice to publicly or privately show your thanks and gratitude to the members who support your organization. This is especially true if your members pay fees that help to keep your business running.

You don’t need to do it all the time, but it’s a good practice to thank your members for their support every once in a while.

You might make a public post on Facebook, write an article on LinkedIn, send out a mass email or write something in your regular newsletter – it all depends on the way you operate. 

5. Diversify your events to keep all members happy

If you hold regular events or webinars for members, make sure to diversify the topics you’re covering across different events.

For example, if you’re a copywriting network but all of your events are based around sales copy, you’ll quickly lose the interest of SEO blog writers who are members of your network – they’ll go looking for an organisation that includes their niche too.

If your membership base falls into different sub-niches like this, do your best to keep them all happy.