{"id":8894,"date":"2020-12-24T12:20:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T20:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/?p=8894"},"modified":"2023-08-24T17:16:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T21:16:36","slug":"ideen-zur-mitgliederbindung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/mitgliedschaft\/ideen-zur-mitgliederbindung\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Retain Your Members For Life"},"content":{"rendered":"For membership and subscription businesses, retention is the name of the game.\r\n\r\nIt doesn\u2019t matter how many people sign up if no one sticks around.\r\n\r\nSure, there are lots of different factors that can impact your retention rate.\r\n\r\nThings like your:\r\n\r\n&#x1f4e6; Product\r\n&#x1f4e3; Marketing\r\n&#x1f4a1; &amp; Onboarding\r\n\r\nHowever, there <em>is<\/em> something that can be woven into the very DNA of your business with the power to dramatically impact your chance of success.\r\n\r\nThe secret to keeping your members around long term can be found in what best-selling author and membership expert Robbie Kellman Baxter calls a <em>Forever Transaction<\/em>.\r\n\r\nA <em>Forever Transaction<\/em> is made up of two key ingredients: a <em>Forever Challenge<\/em> and a <em>Forever Promise<\/em>.\r\n\r\nIf you can identify your market\u2019s <em>Forever Challenge<\/em> and create a <em>Forever Promise<\/em> to solve it, you\u2019ll have the fundamental building blocks you need to create lifelong members.\r\n\r\nWe recently invited Robbie onto our podcast and had an enlightening conversation about this topic. In this article, we pull out some key ideas from that episode that will help illustrate these concepts for you.\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ll let Robbie take it from here.\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"user user-feature\">\r\n<div class=\"user-avatar\"><img src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2020\/09\/a05eb5d4-robbie-kellman-baxter-the-forever-transaction.png\" alt=\"member retention expert\" \/><\/div>\r\n<h2>Robbie Kellman Baxter<\/h2>\r\n<label class=\"color-blue\">Membership Expert &amp; Best-Selling Author<\/label>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h3><!--\/.user--><\/h3>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong>A Real-Life Example Of A Forever Transaction<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nA forever transaction is that relationship you have with certain customers where they actually take off their consumer hat and put on a member hat. It\u2019s when they stop looking for alternative products or solutions. It\u2019s when they say to themselves, \u201cI\u2019m going to trust this company to solve my problem or help me achieve my goal on an ongoing basis.\u201d\r\n\r\nA great example of this is OralB.\r\n&nbsp;\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<img src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2020\/12\/cfbdeecd-retaining-members.png\" alt=\"retaining members\" width=\"500\" height=\"128\" class=\"embed-center\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\nAt first glance, you might think that OralB is just a toothbrush company. But here\u2019s the thing: you can either be in the toothbrush business or you can be in the healthy mouth business. It\u2019s a subtle but critically important distinction. The forever promise that a lot of people want is not to have an awesome toothbrush, but instead, to have a healthy mouth.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s what that looks like:\r\n\r\nOralB recently began incorporating an app with the toothbrush. This lets you track how long you\u2019re brushing each day and whether you\u2019re preferring one side of your mouth or the other side. It\u2019ll tell you if you\u2019re pushing too hard or you\u2019re not hitting certain parts of the tooth and give you feedback. And it\u2019ll also tell you when you need a new brush head. The goal of all this is to help you achieve their forever promise: to have a healthy mouth.\r\n\r\nA lot of companies are very focused on their product \u2013 instead of being focused on the outcome they\u2019re delivering to their customer. The closer you can align the way you package your value to the goal that your customer has, the more likely your customer is to trust you for the long term.\r\n\r\nThis is what we all want as business owners. For the customer to come, stay, trust, and prefer you. When this happens, it of course maximizes lifetime customer value. But, it also allows you to continue to evolve your offerings to stay relevant over time.\r\n<div class=\"quote\">\r\n<blockquote><em>\"The closer you can align the way you package your value to the goal that your customer has, the more likely your customer is to trust you for the long term.\"<\/em><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8907\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2020\/12\/665fc34b-member-retention-strategies.png\" alt=\"member retention strategies\" width=\"1280\" height=\"300\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong>What Happens When You Break A Forever Promise?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nRemember Movie Pass?\r\n\r\nThey came out with a forever promise that was almost too good to be true, right?\r\n\r\nIt was something along the lines of $10 a month to see as many movies as you want. Anywhere, any movie. We all did the math in our heads and said, \u201cWell, that\u2019s ridiculous. But sure, why not? That\u2019s amazing.\u201d It\u2019s interesting how once you put an offer out there, people quickly accept that as the promise like, \u201cOkay, great. That\u2019s what they\u2019re offering me forever.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe risk of a membership is when you make that forever promise, the customer assumes that they don\u2019t have to pay attention. They assume that you\u2019re going to continue to deliver on that promise forever.\r\n\r\nAnd what happened with Movie Pass? They changed the model. They made the offer much less generous and raised the price. While it wasn\u2019t such a terrible deal, it was really a lot worse than what they offered initially. Because of that, people felt cheated.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m sure you can guess what happened next.\r\n\r\nThey lost a huge percentage of their subscription base.\r\n\r\nI think the reason that Movie Pass initially had such a sweet deal was they thought they were going to be able to aggregate data all this data. Then they could sell data on movie goers\u2019 preferences. Things like what movies they saw, how long they sat, what popcorn they bought, and all kinds of other metrics they were hoping to track. But they never got to that point.\r\n\r\nTo have that kind of ambitious model where you\u2019re not going to make real money until you have this huge pile of data is you have to have really deep pockets to wait that out. They just didn\u2019t have the resources to pursue that strategy and they didn\u2019t have the pricing to have a profitable business as a free-standing business so they just kind of fell apart.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8908\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2020\/12\/750834ae-membership-retention-ideas.png\" alt=\"membership retention ideas\" width=\"1280\" height=\"300\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong>The Power Of Keeping Your Forever Promise<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nNow that we\u2019ve seen what can happen when you break the promise you make to your members, let\u2019s take a look at what happens when you keep it through thick and thin.\r\n\r\nIn this example, we\u2019ll examine another company most people wouldn\u2019t consider a membership business: The Miami Heat.\r\n\r\nA very big problem for a lot of what I call \u201chit driven\u201d businesses like the Miami Heat is this: some years they win, some years they don\u2019t. Some years they have really charismatic, beloved stars. Other years, not so much.\r\n\r\nWhat often happens when things are good is that they\u2019ll get lots of new subscribers, lots of season ticket holders. Then when things are bad, all those subscription holders go away. They\u2019re not actually loyal to the business. When this happened with the Miami Heat, I think one of the things that Kim Stone \u2013 <em>their VP of business development<\/em> \u2013 realized was, \u201cWe need to treat our best ticket holders \u2013 <em>our biggest fans<\/em> \u2013 like members.\u201d\r\n\r\nFrom there she said, \u201cThey come for the name on the back of the jersey but want them to stay for the name on the front of the jersey. We want them to feel an affinity and a relationship with our team, with our stadium, with being part of this organization and less focused on whether or not we win or lose because we don\u2019t control that. More focused on the journey that we\u2019re all on together, the enjoyment out of their fandom.\u201d\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<img src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2020\/12\/f173c34d-member-retention-ideas.png\" alt=\"member retention ideas\" width=\"600\" height=\"256\" class=\"embed-center\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\nHere's a story that perfectly illustrates what that means:\r\n\r\nShaquille O\u2019Neal left the Heat in the 2007\/2008 season. When he did, their season ticket sales plummeted. At that point they decided to become more fan centric. They empowered all of their customer success team members to be much more than just customer support. They don\u2019t wait till there\u2019s a problem, they\u2019re not just sales people, they\u2019re empowered to do whatever it takes to delight their members. They give them all kinds of special benefits that allowed them to really maximize their enjoyment.\r\n\r\nWe all know when you go to a basketball game or any event, it\u2019s not just about the entertainment on the floor. It\u2019s about how much of a hassle is it to park, where do you have to go with your tickets, how good is the food, do they welcome you, do they make you feel special, and so on?\r\n\r\nFrom that point on, the Heat really focused on that and they did it when things were not going all that well. Then something interesting happened. Things started going well for them again in 2010 when they signed LeBron James and Chris Bosh and became a championship contender. Immediately, there was once again this high demand for season tickets.\r\n\r\nCan you guess how they responded?\r\n\r\nThey didn\u2019t raise their prices.\r\n\r\nOne of the things about a membership is you want to reward your most loyal fans. You want your most loyal fans to feel like, \u201cIf I make a forever transaction with you, I don\u2019t have to be on the alert to make sure I\u2019m getting the best deal anymore. You\u2019re going to take care of me in exchange for my loyalty and my trust, you are going to be trustworthy and give me a great experience on an ongoing basis.\u201d\r\n\r\nI think that\u2019s something that almost any business can keep in mind. In a lot of industries, they treat their most loyal members as if they were stupid. And I\u2019ve had many prospective clients, entrepreneurs, and executives come to me and say things like, \u201cOh, our subscribers, our season ticket holders, our members, they don\u2019t even look at how much we\u2019re charging them. They just trust us so let\u2019s make the candy bar smaller. They don\u2019t notice. What are they going to do? Let\u2019s make the newspaper have less content. We don\u2019t raise their prices but let\u2019s give our new members a lower price and we\u2019ll just keep charging our new members a higher price because they don\u2019t know.\u201d\r\n<div class=\"quote\">\r\n<blockquote><em>\"Membership models work best when the subscriber has a what I call a \u201cforever challenge.\u201d Something that's going to go on for an extended period of time and where the business can provide a \"forever promise\" to justify a long-term relationship.\"<\/em><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h3><strong>Forever Is A Long Time: Focus On The Big Picture<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nHere\u2019s the moral of the story:\r\n\r\nThe Miami Heat could have focused on the short term and made more money when the demand for tickets went up again. Instead, they chose to see the bigger picture and focus on the relationships they\u2019d created with their subscriber base.\r\n\r\nLots of businesses have that happen when they say, \u201cHey, we can optimize right now for short term revenue and we can hit our quarterly number by adding in this extra fee.\u201d There\u2019s a temptation to just optimize for the short term. I think what you need to understand if you want to have a long-term membership model and you want to have that kind of golden goose relationship, you have to have some self-restraint.\r\n\r\nOne of the things I\u2019ve noticed \u2013 <em>and I\u2019ve been doing this a long time<\/em> \u2013 is a lot of closely held businesses and family-run businesses are especially good at subscriptions and memberships because they\u2019re thinking about legacy.\r\n\r\nThey\u2019re thinking about the value of their brand for the next generation. When you\u2019re thinking like that, the thought of optimizing and doing something a little tricky for short-term revenue seems foolish. Right? Why would you destroy your brand just to get a little extra money in our pockets right now?\r\n\r\n<img class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8909\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2020\/12\/42b0944a-membership-retention-strategies.png\" alt=\"membership retention strategies\" width=\"1280\" height=\"300\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong>Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\nWe hope you enjoyed this peek into the heart of some successful (<em>and not so successful<\/em>) membership and subscription businesses.\r\n\r\nIf you like what you learned here, we have a feeling you'll love the full podcast episode we recorded with Robbie.\r\n\r\nCome to think of it, she's actually appeared on our show twice!\r\n\r\nEach conversation packed full of valuable information and insights you can use to grow your membership or subscription business.\r\n\r\nYou can check them out here:\r\n\r\n\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/podcast\/robbie-baxter-the-forever-transaction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How To Build A Forever Transaction With Your Members<\/a>\r\n\u2192 <a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/podcast\/robbie-baxter-membership-site-pricing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Essential Guide To Pricing For Membership Sites<\/a>\r\n\r\nIf you have any questions, comments, or any other thought you'd like to share with us, leave us a comment below and join our conversation.\r\n\r\nWe'd love to hear from you.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In diesem fesselnden Artikel erfahren Sie, wie Sie ein Mitgliedschafts- oder Abonnementgesch\u00e4ft aufbauen k\u00f6nnen, das seine Mitglieder langfristig bindet.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":20918,"featured_media":8903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_strive_editorial_status":"not-started","_strive_copy_of":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_strive_checklists":"\"\"","_strive_active_checklist":"64949637c1a53","_strive_post_notes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[117,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mm-dash","category-membership"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}