How to Boost Membership Renewals When Engagement Feels Low

Diane: Hi guys. Thanks so much for doing this.
my question today is I have a membership in a course. My course is homemade pierogi simplified. So I teach people, how to make their own delicious homemade pierogis. And then I have a membership that's called Pierogi School.
So then in that membership each month they get a brand new filling that they learn so they can increase their skills. So I did my founding member launch and I had 12 members. So we're coming up on a year in May. I started with just the email delivery, like a link, But I now have my hub set up in, membership.io.
And it's beautiful. Like, I love it, but I'm not getting my members in there. They're not going into the hub. I'm not sure that they're even consuming the content. they're all in their like late fifties to early sixties. They're not super techie, but like I've walked them through, I've done like, little video clips to show them how to get in.
But my question today is I'm coming up on their renewal, the people that paid yearly, and I'm a little unsure how to prove to them the value of what they have gotten in the membership because they're not saying, oh, like I made these five new fillings. And I know what I think the value is, but I don't, how to reach them. Like what to say to them, how to. put the email together to encourage them to continue and to stay, if that makes sense
Paul: right. Great.
Good question.
Paul: Anybody have any,
Diane: input, insight, and keep in mind is, even if you haven't experienced this yourself as a provider, you might have experienced these things as a consumer.
Paul: Mm-hmm. Things that you like or things that you didn't like. So just always keep that in mind. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. Mm-hmm. You, you could be somebody that lived through whatever questions being asked, you know, even from the consumer standpoint. Mm-hmm. Something that you did like, oh, this is a great learning experience.
I wanna do that as well, or avoid that. have any, input or ideas? I think, I think I see Tom,
Guest 4: yeah. Hey, everybody. I'm at the supermarket. Hope you don't mind. It's good to see you all. first idea, and again, I don't know how many subscribers you're talking about. It might or might not matter, but ask them. I think people appreciate, you know, you're showing an interest in me. I was talking to somebody recently about designing a landing page and they were quoting, who was it?
Alex Ramzi. And he said, I'll send you a personalized report, blah, blah, blah. how many employees do you have and how much money do you make? It's like, are those the only questions? That's what makes the personalized report. I don't like that as being on the receiving end. So if you really ask them, what would've been some of your favorite moments over the past year?
What would you like to see more of? I mean, I know that's kind of obvious, but maybe people will appreciate being asked and that, just that personal interaction, if you can pull that off. So that's what comes to mind for me.
Thank you Tom. I, and maybe I'll, maybe you can piggyback on this. 'cause I have sent, like, I've reached out multiple times saying like, you know, hope you're loving it.
Like, what can I do to make it better? Like, I appreciate you. And then I did have one woman who emailed me and she's like, she does consume the content, but you can't tell from the hub. The hub doesn't show it because they were getting the links and I guess they were, you know, consuming it through the links.
So there's no tracking in the membership.io. I really wanna grow this. I mean, I, I love it. I do have a Facebook group that has 12,000, people in it that I've grown, and I have 4,000 on my email list, from my lead magnet. But like, I just did a flash sale too, to try to bring more people in to both the course and the.
Membership and I got crickets. So I learned a lot about my messaging, my wording, everything like that. But it just didn't resonate enough. And I really need to start, you know, seeing some sales and I'm kind of panicked because I lost a few of my monthly people that now I'm almost like afraid to bring it up to my yearly that they're, they're just gonna like leave.
And I know people do leave and you just replace them. But right now I'm at a lower income point, so I'd like to, you know, keep them as much as possible without, you know, losing that little bit of in income that I do have coming in. So,
Guest 4: yeah. Well, I'll, I'll throw something at you. And again, I'm not an expert, so I don't wanna do more do, do more damage than help.
No, I appreciate
Paul: it.
Guest 4: What if you were to offer, like the first 20 people's reply? I'll give you a $25 Starbucks gift card or something like that. Motivate them. Ethical bribe or something like that. I'm Paul. Okay. So put some cash
behind it.
Guest 4: Some I did. It's probably worth it to you again. It's like, would would it be bad if you like remind?
Oh yeah. My, my annual renewal's coming up. Is it, you know, I, I don't think it's best to not remind them or to avoid the subject or anything, but I'll stop now. I'm just trying to be helpful.
No, I appreciate it. Yeah, I'm planning on putting together an email to send out to them and that's what I'm kind of trying to think about how to craft it wording wise and impact wise so that they wanna continue, you know, to move on, and feel like they're getting the value from it.
So I appreciate that.
Paul: Yeah. I think Marva has a comment, I think.
Guest 5: Yeah. two suggestions, dunno whether their help, but have you thought about creating a survey for your, people. And if you thought about doing sort, sort of like a, webinar, you know, or, or a chat type webinar where you get them on, on a call and you talk about what they want, what's gonna work for them and what isn't That I think will give you an immediate response.
and a direct.
with the survey, I, I, I haven't created a survey, but I did try to do some like,live zoom, like either like office hours or questions or, you know, time and like only one person out of the 12 showed up. Well, I'm, and now I'm down to seven, so, I've lost five over, over the course of the year.
so I, I'm, I could always maybe try to revisit some of that and maybe try the survey, you know, I can try this, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, I mean mm-hmm. If they're not responding now, they're not respond, so it won't hurt me to create the survey. So that's a good thought. I can do that today and, and do it.
And then I am going to, like I said, put in like a, an impactful email together trying to, like Tom had kind of mentioned trying to, tell them what the benefits would be to continue on, you know, with the membership, and, and just trying to get my wording and my messaging right. So I appreciate that Maba very much.
Have you
Guest 5: thought about, because there's about seven. Have you thought about one-to-one calls? are they open to one-to-one calls? Dunno that I, I, I
mean, I can't, like, it's like crickets. I, I've never seen a group that loves Pierogis so much, but yet I can't get them to speak to me every once in a while.
They, every month I do send out a thing asking them what new flavor they would like to learn, and I give them three choices so as not to overwhelm them. And I do get some responses from that, but only about two or three, which I guess outta seven people, maybe that's a good percentage. So, but yeah, I can try, like, I'm willing to try, you know, to see if I can get some response from them.
I appreciate your thoughts on that.
Paul: Let's go to Robert then. Beth,
Yeah. And, and Diane, just, not to make more work for you, but thinking about, The goal of a membership, right. And that, that the idea that, there's an ongoing relationship and there's an ongoing communication of value and provision of value there.
it's, it's kind of about the quick wins, and I like the idea that you've gone down about this, you've got a food item, and I'm huge foodie, so I'm bringing some foodie perspective here. But yeah, so you got a, you've got a food item here and you're going through the permutations and how to leverage that and how to create it in different recipes or related to that.
Paul: Mm-hmm.
To continue that journey along. Maybe consider some ways that you could integrate around the periphery of the pierogi, so to speak, without getting too alliterative there. the, to, to talk about like, what do you pair this with? I. Mm-hmm. Is there a wine that goes well with it? Is there, are there other foods that go well with it?
How do you, how do you incorporate this in your meals? do you have kids? Can you help make this a family event? Can you, you know, there, there are ways that you could, I think that you could go and maybe you're already doing that, so if you are just say like, I am and shut up. Well, lemme, I, I was gonna ask you what your thoughts on it, because I do that in the Facebook, in the free Facebook group, we talk about food pairings and all that stuff, and then when they go into the membership, we kind of niche down and then they learn the new fillings.
So what are your thought on thoughts on that? Do you think I should take some of what's in the Facebook group and kind of include that in, you know, with the, the extra things like the serving suggestions and stuff? Then what are your thoughts on that,
if you're already doing that in, if you're already doing that in the Facebook group? My, my thoughts, my initial thought is. To, maybe if you can separate some of that out perhaps and bring it back into the membership. So you're, you can still tease it in the, in the Facebook group, but say, but there's more.
But wait, there's more. We've got more over here in the, in the membership. So if you wanna get the full boat, like, come on over. I love that. Okay, great. Thank you.
Paul: And I think Beth has some, input and then we'll kind of wrap up.
Guest 6: Yeah. Thank you. the thing that I was gonna ask Diane, excuse me, I've not talked to real human beings yet this morning.
I think I was gonna ask Anne, are you,also launching to market to those 4,000 on your list
Yeah, I just did a flash sale,we did like an email campaign on it. and I really was pleased with like, what I created, like the wording, I felt really confident in it, but we didn't get any sales on it.
So my first step was, I'm gonna try to get my yearly people to stay with me, and then I do need to launch again. But I'm, as everybody said, I'm, I'm terrified now. I have like, I. I don't, I'm afraid, I guess I'm afraid it's not gonna do well because I didn't get any response. But I'm gonna push, I will push through that.
but I haven't gotten yet to the point where I've relaunched it again, it's coming up on a year. So the price will go up now. 'cause I did a founding member price of $18 a month and then, I'm gonna increase it and then try to reach out to those people. But I've even tried, like on the email list stuff, like tried like questions, like, you know, where they'll hit reply and answer back and it's just, I'm, I'm not getting a response from them.
And I know there's a lot of noise out there right now. You know, there's so many people emailing people and people are busy. that maybe, you know, pierogi making wasn't on the forefront of what they're doing, but I'm trying to, you know, kind of reach, other people too. 'cause I really would love to grow.
The membership, you know, so that it's really thriving and bringing in, you know, really good recurring income. I do teach in-person classes too, and that's where a lot of my money's coming from right now when I make it, you know, is the in-person classes. But I really love this online portion of it too. So I, I am trying to reach them, but I'm not getting a super great response on that either.
And this is all new to me, like, put me in an in-room classroom, like I shine, I thrive. But this has just been a learning process as we go and I'm not giving up, but, I'm, I'm feeling a little stuck right now, so that's why I'm trying to like, you know, kind of move, move things forward a bit.
Guest 6: Right. Great.
Paul: Alright.
Melissa: Thank
everybody.
Melissa: I appreciate it, everybody.
Paul: Any thoughts on your Yeah.
Melissa: oh, I love everything. What everybody shared with it. especially too, what Robert was saying, like definitely I would pull in some of that aspect into the membership for sure.
Because I think there's a lot of, it's not just the perga itself, but the experience around it as well and the whole like, wait, there's more like kind of seed and sprinkle a little bit in that free group, but then give them like, maybe it's like, oh, you know, did you know you could do a pierogi party? You know what I mean?
And kind of tease the idea in the Facebook group. Mm-hmm. I wanna learn more about how to throw your own pierogi party. We're gonna do that inside of the membership. And then that actually leads to my other idea. Especially since you have all these annuals coming up. and if, if they're all all kind of around that same date timeframe, yes.
they are, they're typically what we like to do is put something after the renewal date as like an event, a thing. So if, you know you have like this period, it's like, let's, let's do a probie party, you know, that's gonna be after the renewal date. And it's like this member event, it's something that they can look forward to.
It's over the, you know, that renewal date. I don't like to ignore annuals because the, the thing that's challenging with annuals is that sometimes, you know, but it's almost like it's creating excitement. for us, like we send out for our annual members a reminder to let them know that their renewal is coming up.
And then if there's like a big event, like, oh, just wanna let you know, your renewal date is coming up and just that, that you can mark that. We saw that when we were reviewing our accounts. And by the way, don't forget, we have our pierogi party that's old for members only.
It's gonna be on this date. It's gonna be so much fun, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, it's you, you just kind of assume that they're coming to the party and assume that they wanna renew. So, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Great.
Paul: Alright. Thank you
guys so much. I appreciate it.
Paul: Yeah. And I just have a couple thing I'm gonna information down very quickly
Your free stuff, we all want to give value, but when your offer is less than what you're giving free, it's hard to move people over. Okay. So, so using the food references, you're giving people a seven horse meal in your free group, and then you're only, you're trying to sell them like a dessert over in your paid thing.
Okay. Because you're, you're hyper-focused. So in a way, just like what Robert said, and Melissa, you wanna reverse that. Okay? You wanna create tension where they get more or they get excited, anticipating things because you're teasing in the free thing, and they can get the reveal of the full thing inside of your paid.
Okay. now, the carrot, as Melissa was talking about, definitely. Mm-hmm. And just keep this in mind. if you're always launching right around this time of the year, if you think about it, people like Stu and Amy and j and Jeff and j all them, they all launch right around the exact same time every year.
Because what ends up happening is also their renewals on their backend of their offers come right around the same timeframe. And what's, it's interesting, if any of you're behind the scenes, you'll see that they're reinventing the membership every year there's new things coming 'cause they're reselling the existing members, not just the new people that they're bringing in.
Okay. So you're sitting there in a state of discontent and you're kinda like, oh, I've been in this thing for a year. I was thinking about canceling. And it's like all of a sudden it's reimagined. And sometimes it's taking the same things and giving them new names and just them, or doing some new colorful things to it.
But I mean, like you, you do have the ability, to just spruce up and almost re-recruit these, these individuals, the state group. Okay. And, and use your learning experience this past year, like, you know, from these individuals and everything. Now the other thing, I just, for all of us, 'cause we're all guilty of this, don't call out the elephant in the room too much.
Because some people are just card carrying members. Yeah. And they're gonna like, so yes. Give them a renewal. Heads up. And I'm telling you that all of us need to get over the fear of annual renewals. You'd rather give people heads up and have them cancel than two months in than doing a chargeback against your merchant account.
Mm-hmm. Okay. Because they did not want that charge. You know, they forgot that they were part of something. Okay. Okay. Now what I would also say is that the, the people that you just had come in, you conditioned them to receive content through email. Yeah. So that's what I believe the deliverable was. And that's the habit and the routine that they got in with you, you moved into membership io or any other platform, that's a new consumption habit that they were not in a routine for.
So all the new people that you bring in won't have the email deliverability reality, they'll just have them do it. You'll see more of those people logging in and consuming that way 'cause they don't know how things used to be. So it just knows that whenever you do a founding member, whenever you switch things, the old people always want it the way it used to be.
And all the new people coming in only had the reality of the new way that you're doing something. so just keep plugging along and just keep, keep doing it. and whatever you're doing in the real world, when you're done your class in the real world, you should be making them an offer to continue online with you.
Mm-hmm. I tried that.
I, I have to get better at that. I always kind of throw it right at the end, and it's kind of like, I'm kind of mumbled about it and, you know, instead of being like, Hey, we have this great thing because of
Paul: that. Yeah. And because of that, at least you're owning it and you're aware of it.
That's why you're not selling any of it. You need to, you need to be seeding it throughout. Like, you need to say, you know, I'm so excited we have this hour together today, you guys, I wish I had more time. That's what I do with my online people. You know, every week, you know, we go and we do this. Can you only imagine the stuff that you can create beyond today?
But enough about that. I'll talk to you guys about that at the end, because I know some of you're gonna want to continue this experience, but let's go ahead and get into the training right now and go do, do, do you know? Okay. the last thing is, is, inside of our adaptive marketing program, one of our members, Carrie, she helps people with, quilting a very specific machine.
It's a very niche thing, but her average age of her client is execs is yours, and she delivers everything via email. Okay. They can't figure out how to log in. They're an older demographic. They're, yeah, they, username passwords, things like that. So for years, all of her deliverables have been like direct, linked to a video, direct link to a mm-hmm.
Type thing. for all of us know your client and if you're dealing with a client that has some barrier issues mm-hmm. Somebody can't log in and can't figure out how to get, they will cancel. Mm-hmm. Because they're not, or getting the value of the transformation.
at the end of the day, just make sure you know, you know your consumption habits of your people because of this. Okay. They love you, but like now suddenly they don't get anything from you. 'cause they have to figure out how to find the username and password each week. And you used to just send them a link.
So I would just maybe reach out individually. and the last thought, I know it went too long. 'cause there's so many things that you said. I. Whenever you do surveys with members, do 'em as blind surveys. If you do a survey to a group, somebody will say something weird and everybody will latch onto it and suddenly you're gonna have a weird thing that you don't.
So always do it in a vacuum, so send it out. Okay. Individually have people, you know, they do their own survey and then you can present, Hey, I got all this feedback and here's how, what we're doing new year. This is excitement. Some of those things are probably things that they really didn't put in the survey, but you're like, I need to move the ship this way.
Okay. you know, versus, you know, some oddball suggestions. But if you put it in a group format, you know, people will always ask more of you. People always ask, you know, for things that'll potentially will burn you out. So just protect your, your energy. Yeah. Okay.
Great. Thank you everybody.