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The Customer team for Customer Happiness and Customer Service are often asked about how to reach out to potential members. However, rarely do we hear clients asking us about the best ways to integrate newly purchased members. This is a crucial step in attracting and welcoming new members to your organization and creates a positive first impression. There are four main points we've identified that will help your new members feel comfortable and at in the first place.

1. Welcome email with a redirect link

The majority of poor onboarding experiences I've seen with customers is due to lack of instruction or communication about what the user must do first upon signing up.

I tell my clients to presume that the new members do not know how to navigate the new membership they've purchased. We deal with this in two different ways by:

Creating a memorable redirect page which can either provide clear next steps or instructs a new member to look in their email for a Welcome email that aims to answer any potential query a new member may be able to ask. (This sounds trivial, but most customers do not invest the time needed to complete this.)

Notifying members when new content is available along with reminding them how to access that content.

My experience has shown that the majority of situations where people stop auto-renewing immediately upon sign-up is due to insufficient onboarding and inexperience.

2. Future content previews and the gains

Another strategy that's effective is sending previews of member contents and other benefits before they're released. It gives members something they're excited about and 'hang around for'.

This can be achieved with email campaigns that focus on the latest customers who signed up within a recent timeframe (that the customer can specify).

3. Social engagement

I've advised certain of my clients to make shout-outs for their new members via social media. The results have been positive as new members are recognized and future members perceive the social proof as being a positive thing. It's a win-win.

A simple way to accomplish this is to ask visitors to answer the welcome message with their Instagram handles or their Facebook username to be eligible for an acknowledgement. We have a few customers who make use of a social proof tool called FOMO which integrates with Stripe and displays pop-ups on their web pages.

4. New members can be helped to build equity

Asking new members what type(s) of content they'd like to see quickly make them feel if they have an interest in the members. When members are asked for input from members and give time to answer that input, it helps create immediate trust. Again, this can all be handled over email by inviting members to reply to with a welcome email.

Conclusion

All that being said the things that customers does to build an immediate personal connection with their members is always an important factor in retention and provides a way of expanding future revenue. This makes it even more likely that a member is open to the idea of an increase in price, to offer even more value, down the road.