I ran into a roadblock with a client this month. How I broke through may help you attract and retain more members.

His assignment: Research his target customer for our next conversation. And he did it; he brought three pages of information on the size of the market, age, gender, and reachability. But something was still missing.

The information was all analytical, superficial even. It was all based on the image the prospect was trying to portray to the world, instead of what the prospect was really thinking. In one exchange, he told me that all of his members, whose ages range from 40 to 70 years old, wanted the same thing.

I told him that, yes, they may say the same words, but the reality is quite different to a 40-year-old than the 70-year-old. Think for a second. Even something as simple as getting out of bed is very different for someone who is 70 years old than it is for a 40-year-old. It’s much harder, slower, and more frustrating for the 70-year-old. Just a simple act, requires planning and effort for a 70-year old. But still, my client had trouble getting beyond the superficial, analytical understanding and moving toward understanding members at an emotional level.

Then I said to him that you have a certain way you portray yourself to the world. You want the people you work with to think a certain way about your skills, ambition, and intelligence. You make every effort to protect the way you are perceived.

But then there’s an inner voice; it’s been there since you can remember. This voice has a different assessment of your abilities. This voice may have a lot to say about you and whether you are living up to the image you portray to the world on a minute-by-minute basis.

In our membership marketing and communications, we must move beyond the outside shell our members try to portray to the world and instead speak to their inner voice — that voice they’ve had since childhood.

What does your member think about himself or herself? What are your members’ fears and frustrations? What are the symptoms of problems that your member faces — problems you may point out and help him understand are temporary and easily fixed by your subscription, versus something he may believe is permanent?

Bypass the outer shell and, instead, speak to your member’s inner voice inside his head — the voice that not even his spouse ever hears. This will transform your membership and subscription growth.

About Robert Skrob

The problem with subscription membership programs is that members quit, I fix that problem. For more than 20-years I have specialized in direct response marketing for member recruitment, retention and ascension in diverse subscription members environments including non-profit associations, for-profit publishers/coaching, subscriptions and SAAS companies. For an evaluation of your current churn rate and how I can improve it, contact me here. I discover there are often two or three quick wins you can implement within a week to lower churn immediately, let’s talk about your quick wins.