299 - What To Do When Your Membership Topic Has a Natural 'End Date'

What if your membership has a natural end date? While no membership will last forever, some hit a natural point where members drop off. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean the content was bad or you did anything wrong. That’s a whole other story. Sometimes members get everything they need and simply don’t need to remain a member. 

For example, if you have a membership site for helping people pass a driving test, that has a natural end date. After they pass, they probably won’t need your content anymore. 

So, what can you do? Do you just accept it, or do you fight to keep these members?

In this episode, I discuss some of the tactics you can use to retain members, but also some alternatives and different ways of looking at it.

If you’ve been scratching your head trying to come up with a solution, give this episode a listen, and hopefully, it’ll give you some fresh ideas to try out.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why you need to question whether the membership model is right for you
• How you can extend the scope of your content to maximize interest
• Why retaining members isn’t always the right move
• How a natural end date could actually be a good thing
• The most important metric to know in a membership business.

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Academy
• Why Member Lifetime Value is More Important Than Churn Rate
• Despite What You’ve Heard, Average Member Retention is NOT Only 3 Months 

Key Quotes:

“Membership works best when it’s addressing a recurring need.”

“One-off needs like “I need to learn this specific process or pass this test” tend to work better as a course where there’s a very clear start and endpoint.”

“When it comes down to numbers, everything is about one metric: Customer Lifetime Value.”