Use “Engagement Tripwires” to Assimilate New Members and Increase Retention

Move beyond welcoming a new member to actually guiding them into their membership.

When someone joins your membership program, they’re not REALLY a member.

Not quite yet.

Sure, they’ve signed up, agreed to be a member and paid their fee. But, that doesn’t make them a member.

They don’t “feel” like a member.

They say things like:
I joined _____ membership.  vs   I am a member of _____ membership.

Your membership. . .    vs      My membership. . .

You have a great program.    vs    My membership is great.

People will begin to personalize their membership AFTER they begin using it and are assimilated into your membership program.

Their language and how they talk about their membership is the first indicator that they’re taking ownership and assimilating.

That’s when they take the first step toward full engagement and getting involved.

So how do you take someone from sign up to fully engaged?

One of the more advanced tools that I encourage membership businesses to have is an Engagement Tripwire.

 

An Engagement Tripwire is an action that you want every member to take with the goal of getting them to use their membership.

When you think about your Assimilation System (how you get members fully engaged), do you have a tripwire that moves them to take their first steps to use their membership?

What are the first 3-5 actions you want new members to take and that will help them use their membership?

With each of these action steps that new members take, it should pull them further and further into your membership increasing their engagement and utilization of “their membership.”

Welcoming a new member is not enough!

You must move beyond welcoming a new member and actually guiding them into their membership.

 

If you utilize an Engagement Tripwire, new members will:

  • Assimilate more quickly
  • Get a “quick win” in using their membership
  • Feel more confident that joining your membership was indeed the right decision
  • Will know immediately what they should do upon becoming a member
  • Feel more like a member

Engagement tripwires should also be used in increasing your retention.

 

What are two-three actions you want people to take to increase their engagement with the goal of them staying in your membership program longer?

The first step to utilizing engagement tripwires to increase retention is to look for the drop off points where people are quitting their membership.

Usually, the drop off points come because of:

 

  1. Time:  they’ve been a member for a specific period of time and are unengaged.
  2. Utilization: they’ve not been using their membership
  3. Payment:  they notice a payment
  4. Value comparison: they begin to question the value of the membership compared to their time, investment, your competitor, etc.
  5. Priorities:  they have so much going on the question whether or not they’re going to make time for their membership.
  6. Overwhelm:  they receive “too much” from their membership that they’re not quite sure what to do, when to do it and overwhelmed.
  7. Too much:  they get too much with their membership and feel like they’re not utilizing their membership because they’re not using everything that the membership makes available to them.

 

The second step to utilizing engagement tripwires to increase your retention is to establish two-three actions for each of those drop off points.

The goal of these actions is to combat the drop-off point and re-engage your members.  It’s to pull them away from the drop-off and into your membership.

In doing this, you’ll increase membership engagement resulting in increased retention.

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