I hear creators in the community space say, "You get out of it what you put into it." In the best cases, this means the amount of value you get OUT of the community is proportional to the effort you put INTO the community. In the worst cases, it lets the community builder off the hook when someone DOESN'T find value in the space.
I'm not throwing shade – I've said this phrase myself. I think there's definitely truth to the idea that the more effort you make, the more value you'll experience.
Two weeks ago, I wrote:
We focus our sales efforts on the outcome on the other side of the product. We make big promises for a better life – all you need to do is buy this [thing]. We make it seem so attainable that the act of purchasing itself feels like we're buying the outcome.
Customers buy the promise of value.
But at the point of transaction, the customer has taken all the risk. The creator captures value (in cash), but the customer is still at the starting line, waiting to capture their value in return.
We obsess and optimize for everything up to the point of purchase...and then we throw our customers into the deep end.
This doesn't just apply to digital products – it applies to ALL products. And community-based products may be even bigger offenders.
What if communities didn't require a ton of effort to get value? That's not to say making more effort doesn't yield an even better experience – but what if you got far more out of it than what you put in?
Isn't that what we should strive for?
A new direction for communities
When someone cancels their membership or leaves your community, it always boils down to the same reason:
They're getting less value OUT of the community than the cash they're paying to be IN the community.
It's as simple as that. Their words may sound different or more specific, but ultimately, it's a simple math equation.
This is frustrating when you know there is value to be had in the community. You may think, "Well, I can't make someone engage in my community!"
I've said that, too. And, technically, that's true.
But there are two more empowering thoughts:
- How can you make it easier for them to make that effort?
- What if they didn't have to "engage" in the community to get value from it?
Sounds like work, right?
It is! And it should be. When someone joins your community, they've taken all the risk. If it's paid, you've received cash, but they're still in the same position as they were before they swiped their credit card.
Your job is to make the experience with your product as good as possible with as little effort as possible. That may look like:
1. Better onboarding
When someone joins, they want to know how to extract the value they've paid for (as quickly as possible). Teach them how to use the space with a custom-designed onboarding experience to show them what to do next (and why that will deliver the value they expect). I think we do this exceptionally well in The Lab.
2. Personalized introductions
A lot of value in community is peer-to-peer interaction, so how do you simplify that? Instead of requiring members to research WHO to meet and reach out themselves, what if you did that for them? I'm not doing this well enough yet – but I'm thinking about it a lot.
3. 1:1 Welcome Calls
When someone joins The Lab's Standard or VIP tiers, the first step in onboarding is scheduling a 20-minute 1:1 with me. Usually, that call happens a few days after they join – which is the perfect amount of time for me to view their activity and see how I can encourage them to utilize the community. Have they made an intro? Have they checked out the [resource] that helps with the goals they shared in their profile?
4. Live experiences.
Self-paced resources are great for efficiently transferring knowledge, but they require discipline. What if you provided value in live experiences, and lowered the "effort" bar for members to simply putting the session on their calendar? This is why cohort-based courses work so well; once it's on your calendar, you show up and do the work.
I'm taking live experiences even further with our first-ever, dedicated in-person event for The Lab. We're doing a 2-day event in June where I plan and facilitate the experiences – members just have to show up.
Conclusion
Most creators optimize for the initial sale of their membership. This is incredibly short-sighted.
You should optimize for renewals.
Every renewal is equivalent to a new member. When you optimize for renewals, you don't even need new members. But as a byproduct of creating a product worth renewing, they will tell their friends.
Memberships worth renewing attract new members on their own.
The easier you make it for people to get value out of your product (i.e. the less effort required) the more renewals you will receive.
By optimizing for renewals rather than new subscriptions, you end up getting both. Good experiences are good for business.
Want to see my approach in action? Join The Lab. Not only will we help you grow your business, but you'll get a front-row seat to all of the ways I'm experimenting with better membership experiences (plus it includes my popular course, Build A Beloved Membership!).
The Lab – Community for Advanced Creators
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