Ep 33: Client Case Study: How We Used This 4-Step Process to Increase Client Retention From 89% to 92%

Oct 4

Client Case Study: 4-Step Process to Increase Client Retention From 89% to 92%

One simple four step process helped me take a client from 89% retention in their membership to 92% retention. Most of my clients are seven and eight figure membership site owners that want help increasing their retention.

Retention is how long people stay inside of your program. This is a very important metric to track because retention ultimately determines the lifetime value of each and every customer that comes through your door. Which also determines how much you can spend to acquire a new customer.

This client in particular had an 89% retention rate. They normally stay between 89 and 90% retention, and have been in the industry for a long time with around 4,000 members. A simple four-step process helped this client increase their retention rate from 89% to 92% in just a few months.

Step 1: Track Activity

The first step is to track the activity of your members. Identify the behaviors of your best customer and track their engagement with your program. You can track anything from site logins to attendance at live calls to lesson views. This step is crucial to identify which members are active and which are not.

Once you have identified the behaviors that you want to track, track those metrics on a consistent basis. By tracking activity, you will be able to identify which customers are most engaged with your program and which ones may need additional attention.

In this case, we tracked what members had logged into the member site in the last 45 days. They had 1,469 out of 4,000 members that had logged in in the last 45 days. You may be saying, wow, more than half of the people haven't logged in in the last 45 days. Well, this is actually pretty common, especially for a membership that has been around for many years.

Step 2: Identify Buckets

The second step is to identify your buckets. This involves dividing your customers into groups based on their level of engagement with your program. For example, you could have a "green" bucket for customers who have logged in within the last 45 days and a "red" bucket for customers who have not logged in for more than 45 days.

Once you have identified your buckets, you can use them to target your re-engagement efforts. By focusing on the customers who are least engaged with your program, you can increase their participation and improve retention rates.

Step 3: Give Them a Compelling Reason to Re-Engage

Often, when I work with clients on reactivation campaigns, one of the first questions I ask is, "What's in it for them?" It's important to understand why someone who has lost interest in your program should step back in. Clearly, the basics of what you were doing weren't compelling enough to keep them around, so you need to come up with something that will motivate them to re-engage.

This could be a new feature inside the program, a new training, a live Q&A session, or a special event. Maybe you're offering a special bonus or running a challenge that they can participate in. The key is to identify something that is exciting and will encourage them to take action.

The good news is that there's probably something coming up inside your program that you can leverage as a compelling reason to re-engage your inactive members. Take some time to think about what that might be, and then use it as the centerpiece of your reactivation campaign.

Step 4: Reach Out with a Graceful Invitation

The final step is to reach out to the members who are not engaged with a graceful invitation. This could be an email, a text message, or a personalized Facebook message. Remember to keep the mindset of your members in mind and extend grace to them. Give them a reason to show up for the exciting event you have planned and encourage them to take action.

The choice of medium depends on how you can best reach your audience. Some clients prefer personalized Facebook messages since their membership is Facebook-based, while others opt for text or email. Regardless of the medium, the key is to communicate your message clearly and effectively.

If you want to keep it simple, sending one or two targeted emails to the specific group of people you want to reactivate is a good option. These four steps make reactivating your dormant members a doable task.

Re-engage your Members

For the client that increased retention from 89% to 92% retention, we put together a campaign where we reached out to anyone who hadn't logged in within the last 45 days. We categorized them based on how long it had been since their last login. We then conducted two different outreach efforts to reactivate these individuals.

Keep in mind that it was simply an email campaign that was sent out to these individuals. The outcome was, one month after the reactivation campaign, there were 2,082 people in that green bucket. This represents an increase of 41% from 1,469 members who had logged in within the last 45 days. That's a significant increase, all from just a few emails. This increase undoubtedly had a direct impact on their retention rate.

If you don’t know your retention rate or customer’s lifetime value, go to memberltv.com to gain access to a free Membership Retention & Lifetime Value Calculator. I encourage you to try using these four steps to reactivate your member and let me know how it goes.