Members Area Retention - What Works?

[Lee]

Was curious to see what you folks thought the best methods of retaining members were?

For me, the primary thing that made an impact on member retention was offering up multiple niches worth of content inside my members area, along with making sure the members area itself wasnt to 'clean' in terms of layout.

What methods have you folks used to increase your members retention?

Regards,

Lee

[hdkbill]

Weekly updates, staying in touch with members through weekly newsletters and the blog and we offer a 20% discount on all products for members.

Bill

[Lee]

Weekly updates, staying in touch with members through weekly newsletters and the blog and we offer a 20% discount on all products for members.

Bill

See thats interesting and, its also part of the reason i started this thread, we dont offer any of that to our members, they never get contacted by us.. EVER... and we dont offer a blog for them to read yet they still retain.

Makes me think there is more to retention than just communicating with members or offering them discounts.

Regards,

Lee

[Bec]

Weekly updates, staying in touch with members through weekly newsletters and the blog and we offer a 20% discount on all products for members.

Bill

I've certainly seen sites that offer dvd discounts to the member base, but I've been told, or have read on various boards that it's suicidal to email your members because it reminds them to cancel. Sounds like that's not the case?!?

[hdkbill]

See thats interesting and, its also part of the reason i started this thread, we dont offer any of that to our members, they never get contacted by us.. EVER... and we dont offer a blog for them to read yet they still retain.

Makes me think there is more to retention than just communicating with members or offering them discounts.

Regards,

Lee

Lee,

Well, yeah, there's obviously more to it than I stated....I started by making the assumption that the site has a good amount of quality content for the specific niche that you are attempting to fill....I suppose I just assumed that was a given.

If you got the right content, and your update regularly, and you stay in touch with your members then your retention should be fantastic. We have many members who have been members since we started the membership side of the site 7 years ago. As for the 20% of on all merchandise, as a studio that's something we are able to do. Most webmasters who don't produce films and content like we do won't be able to do that.

Bottom line is it's all about the content and staying in touch with the members and letting them know that they are appreciated. Our chargeback ratio average over the past 7 years has been one tenth of one percent. Tough to get much better than that on memberships.

Bill

[hdkbill]

I've certainly seen sites that offer dvd discounts to the member base, but I've been told, or have read on various boards that it's suicidal to email your members because it reminds them to cancel. Sounds like that's not the case?!?

Bec,

I hadn't thought of that but it doesn't seem to be the case in our situation. But, when thinking about it, I belong to a lot of sites myself to see what competitors are doing, and with the exception of one, they don't send out anything to members. Guess it's something to consider.

Bill

[Bec]

Love the new avatar Bill, that pup of yours sure has grown!

[hdkbill]

Thank Bec,

That photo is our "Family Christmas photo".

Oscar has grown. Damn near lost him to a fox the other night. Pity the fox. The other pup is Jake, a long haired doxie. They make quite a pair together.

Hope you have great plans for New Years Eve tonight.....and may we ALL have a full, wonderful and prosperous New Year.

Hugs,

Bill

PS I love the glasses on your puppy. I tried that with Oscar. Had to go buy another pair of glasses!!