There are so many big promises out there about the benefits of membership and subscription business models that too many people launch, expecting that offering a membership will solve their business problems.

You invest money and hundreds of hours creating a brand-new marketing campaign, but it generates so few members you wonder if it’s really worth it.

You try to get your members engaged, send out a survey, or ask them to provide you information and you get so few responses you wonder whether your members ever received your message.

You try to improve retention by creating a new member welcome campaign and it actually makes retention worse. Members reply to your message asking to cancel their memberships. It feels like it would have been better not to email members at all and follow the old adage, “Better to let a sleeping dog lie.."

Creating new content for your members becomes a grind. It feels like you’ve got a hungry monster to feed each month to deliver what you promised, but you get so little response from members that it feels like they never look at anything you send them.

I understand. I’ve felt the same way many times in the 25 years I’ve been growing membership businesses. And the secret — the thing that’s preventing you from succeeding …

Yes, that’s right, I’m about to reveal it right here for you. There’s a secret that’s preventing you from growing like you should. And it’s between your ears.

It’s time to stop pretending you are serving your members when your goal is to grow so you can serve yourself. The fact is that your business exits to serve your members. Not the other way around.

You are in the business of solving your members’ problems. Otherwise, you are hitting against growth walls you can’t break through, climb over, or get around.

It costs so much to acquire new members through expensive marketing campaigns. And yet, members are quitting so you face a slow death of declining revenue. It’s humiliating and frustrating, and I see it every week.

Good news — it’s completely fixable. Make your business about solving your members’ problems. Promise solutions in your new member marketing and see your new customer acquisition efforts improve. Deliver solutions and stand back as your retention improves. Nothing grows your recurring revenue like new customer acquisition and better retention rates.

Do you want some examples?

How about an association, like the California Chamber of Commerce, that offers typical association benefits together with a library of human resources compliance tools? Here’s copy from a video sales letter I wrote for them a few weeks ago to position CalChamber’s benefits as a solution to business owners’ problems.

If you run a business with employees or independent contractors in California, missing one small detail in the law can be devastating. Everything you’ve invested and built could disappear with one strike of the judge’s gavel.

CalChamber helps you attract and retain the best workforce, comply with the law, and make California a better place to start and grow your company.

How about a publishing company that provides tax compliance information for small business owners? Here’s copy I wrote for a new member sales page for Bradford Tax Institute:

Why do the richest people and corporations pay so little in taxes? Meanwhile, most Americans pay more than required. It’s not fair!

While I’d love to simplify the tax code so you could file on a postcard, that’s not happening any time soon. In fact, with the recent tax reform law, it only got more complicated.

The good news is that YOU have ME on YOUR side. And that’s better than some $5,000.00 suit tax attorney from New York City. Rather than confuse you with more mumbo jumbo, I reveal the power of the tax code to you.

I clear away the confusing terminology and write everything in plain language. I give you simple tools to make complicated calculations. And above all, I help you put more money in your pocket.

You can be the person who saves big money on your taxes. I’ll show you the rules of the game and help you WIN!

For Smart Agents, a company that provides marketing tools for real estate agents, you’d think it would be simple enough to promise an agent that he or she will get new clients. It may be enough to get them to buy and join, but to get them to use those tools and retain their membership, you’ve got to be their problem-solver.

In real estate, your customer can’t try out several agents before choosing one. He doesn’t have several homes to sell (or buy) to decide which agent is the best. Instead, he’s got to make a choice without many facts or much experience.

Clients today want to deal with the person who can solve their problem, doesn’t waste their time, and will get them best deal possible.

Your Smart Agents book enables you to prove you have the knowledge, resources, and will to solve their problem, get the best possible deal, and never waste their time. And, most of all, rather than looking like a greedy salesperson, you are chosen because you demonstrate you care.

Do your membership marketing materials include a list of all the benefits you provide? If so, you are probably losing out on attracting as many members as you could.

Instead, create the list of the problems your membership solves for your member. Position your membership as the shortcut for helping your member out of their problems, and you’ll finally attract the members your benefits deserve.

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.