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At Customer Happy and Customer Success teams frequently get asked how to market to new members. But seldom do we get clients asking us about the best method to welcome newly acquired members. This is a crucial step in attracting and welcoming newcomers to your group as well as creating a memorable first impression. There are four main aspects we've identified to help the new members feel welcome and at in the first place.

1. Welcome email, redirection page and a link

The majority of negative experiences onboarding I've witnessed from customers are due to lack of instruction or communication around what the member must do first upon the initial sign-up.

I tell my clients to presume that the new members know nothing about how to manage the program they've bought. This is addressed in a couple of diverse ways.

Creating a memorable redirect page, which either outlines specific next steps or directs members who are new to the site to open their mailer for a Welcome email that will answer any question a new member might be able to ask. (This sounds trivial, but most customers do not take the necessary time to do this.)

Informing members of new content that is available along with reminders on how they can gain access to that content.

From my personal experience, the majority of situations where people stop auto-renewing immediately upon joining are caused by inadequate onboarding or the lack of guidance.

2. Future content previews and the benefits

Another strategy that's effective is sending out previews of members' content as well as other perks prior to when they're made available. The members have something to look forward to and  to 'wait for'.

This is accomplished by messages that are targeted at the most recent members who have signed up within a recent timeframe (that customers can choose).

3. Social engagement

I've been telling some of my customers to shout out their newly joined members on social media. This has been impactful: new members get recognition and potential members see this as 'social proof'. This is a win-win situation for everyone.

An easy way to do this is by asking the new members to reply to the Welcome email with your Instagram handles or their Facebook address to get a shoutout. Some of our clients utilize a social proof application named FOMO which integrates with Stripe and creates pop-ups on their websites.

4. Help new members build equity

The question of asking new members what type(s) of content they would like to view will instantly make them feel if they have an interest in the members. When members are asked for input from members and make the effort to reply with that input, it helps create immediate trust. All of this could be accomplished via email by asking members to respond to the welcome email.

Conclusion

However that, anything a client is able to do to create an immediate personal connection with members consistently proves to be an important factor in retention and provides a way of expanding future revenue. This also makes it more likely that the member will be receptive to the concept of an upsell, to offer even more worth later on.