Seven Membership Growth and Retention Strategies

Here’s a surprising fact – one which anyone in today’s highly competitive, globally-connected economy should know: 80% of customers believe the experience provided by a company is just as important as its products and services. That’s an eye-opening statement. It’s no longer enough to have the item someone needs and sell it at a reasonable price. These days, people prefer businesses that make them feel good, and this often comes down to customer engagement.   Customer Engagement Revolves Around Your Brand Customer engagement is created by the connection between a customer and a brand. It’s the relationship a customer has that keeps them coming back. In order to maximize an organization’s results, maximizing this relationship is key to sustained growth. There are customer engagement best practices related to marketing, sales, and service, with plenty of nuance in each segment. But in a nutshell, the whole idea is to improve a customer’s experience through positive interactions.  In the old days, this was mostly done at the point of purchase. But now customer engagement also happens digitally with advertising, social media, blogs, surveys, and more. Remember, you are up against sellers on the other side of the planet, so a great experience can separate your business/non-profit from the pack. Take a look at these two figures for more insight into why this matters: 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. 95% of customers say trust in a company makes them more likely to remain loyal to that brand (OutGrow).   The truth is that engaged customers are more valuable, so customer engagement is a powerful business driver which should be a priority. But maintaining this great experience is an ongoing process. It begins long before the first purchase and continues long after.  Today we’ll present eight tips to help improve customer satisfaction and loyalty–if you’re a small business operator or a super-sized organization. Remember: Great customer engagement doesn’t happen by accident, after all.   8 Best Tips to Increase Customer Engagement    1. Know Who You Are, Know Who Your Customers Are The best customer experiences start with a clear message. Build a strong brand voice for your organization, and strive to maintain it at all times. If you know who you are, customers will know, too. And when you feel like you know someone, it’s possible to build trust. For your customers, start with a Customer Journey map to clarify the steps customers take when engaging with your business or organization. Build your service and product to serve their realized needs.   2. Stay In Front Once people know who you are, it’s important to stay in front of them. Make the customer life cycle as long as possible – and you can do that with follow-up on social media, online ads, blogs, great email marketing for returning customers, and much more. Figure out where your customers are, and go to them.    3. Track Preferences In today’s hyper-connected world, it’s easier than ever to collect useful data that can help with decision-making later on. Things like Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, or even surveys are invaluable tools for learning what customers prefer. But even so, 39% of companies don’t regularly ask for feedback!   4. Trigger Warning Another powerful use of data is to determine the “trigger” that convinced a customer to engage with your organization or buy that product. There’s often a reason, whether it was an advertisement, a social media post, or even word of mouth. Try to identify these triggers and put them into practice when possible.   5. Be Personal Despite the power of data, there’s still no replacement for a personal touch. Almost 40% of customer interactions will be automated through AI and machine learning by 2023. But, 49% say that after getting a more personalized experience, they have splurged on an impulse buy.   6. Be Honest No one is perfect – and even though businesses try hard to make themselves seem that way, they aren’t either. A big part of customer engagement is owning up to mistakes and making things right, with personal communications when possible. This is often easier for a small business, so take advantage!   7. Use Everything You Know Just like navigating the news, it’s best to never rely solely on one source of information. Be flexible in where and how you get customer engagement details, and then try hard not to cherry-pick data points that confirm what you already thought. Learn to be ok with learning.   8. Punch Above Your Weight Finally, outstanding customer engagement will often mean your little operation seems like a much bigger one. Using a combination of data, flexibility, and a personal touch, it’s possible to make decisions like a big business – and tailor the experience like a mom-and-pop shop.   Grow Customer Engagement With Cause Machine Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your customers. Learn how it can work for you here.

By 2030, the online education industry is expected to be worth almost $200 billion*. But in this growing field, many entrepreneurs make a crucial (and understandable) mistake. They focus too much on the coursework itself. It makes sense. Even with a great idea and the necessary expertise, educators know presentation is key – but it’s not enough. These days, knowing how to market online courses is integral, too. Each year, thousands of new online courses are created. In order to stand out from the pack, creators need to present their products well and capture attention.      10 Methods on How to Market Online Courses   1. Know Your Audience Even before you create your online course, there are some marketing rules you should keep in mind. The first is to know who you’re talking to. Imagine a person who is likely to take your course – this is your ideal user. Along each step of the way, you will make decisions with this ideal user in mind. From the way you write instructions to the color scheme and pricing, it should all be designed to appeal to them.   2. Identify Your Lane The biggest question any brand faces is “Who am I?” so lock that answer down before moving forward. It should be crystal clear what problem your course solves or what need it fulfills. Make sure your course offers something of unique value with a unique voice, and remain laser focused on that identity. This goes hand in hand with knowing your audience. It may be tempting to try appealing to everyone, but you’ll end up appealing to no one.   3. Get Social Now it’s time to start spreading the word, and the most powerful tool in your arsenal is social media. You should create accounts on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, but don’t count out the smaller/newer ones. Ramp up to your course’s launch date by teasing small bits of valuable content, and then after the course is live, maintain a consistent posting schedule with quality content that drives conversation and engagement.    4. SEO Is King SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” and it’s the mantra digital marketers live by. Almost all of the internet’s search traffic (about 90 percent) goes through Google, so you should try to work within Google’s algorithm to become the top result for a given search term. There are lots of best practices for this, but the biggies include researching keywords and using those keywords in context on your online course platform. This will help push it toward the top of Google’s search results.   5. Targeted Ads Once you know what keywords you’re targeting, you can use Google ads to create an advertisement that will appear when someone searches for those keywords. These can be incredibly effective since they only show up for people who are already interested in the topic. You can also use Facebook to advertise, using that ideal user you came up with to target specific demographic features like age, occupation, and interest. Another idea is to buy some influence. Use a site like Fiverr to pay social media users for tweets promoting your course, just like big brands use celebrities to endorse their products.   6. Check the Reviews In today’s digital marketplace, consumers are understandably wary of getting ripped off by a fake product, so they often look for user reviews when deciding whether or not to buy. You can use this to your advantage by asking students to leave reviews of your course. Feature those positive reviews and testimonials front and center so potential customers know they’re getting the real thing.   7. Podcasting Podcasting has quickly become one of the fastest growing media segments, and it can be a great option when deciding how to market online courses. Set up a show that revolves around the topic you are teaching, and host a conversational discussion about that topic each week. You could also seek out other podcasts on the same topic and appear as a guest. But no matter what, make sure to include a shout out to your online course at the end. You’ll soon be building an audience who may also become students.   8. Create Mini Courses Once your online course is live, you might want to add a few smaller follow up courses, diving deeper into a related topic or something students expressed interest in. These add value to your brand and can also be promoted in the same ways we’ve discussed above. Tease them on social media before they launch, create a targeted ad to hook potential students, and talk them up on your podcast. It’s a great way to keep your content fresh and keep people coming back for more.   9. Sales and Bundle Deals Everyone likes a good sale, so be sure to consider them on a strategic basis. You could go the traditional route, offering new students a discount for signing up. Or, you could bundle services together. If you’ve got multiple standalone courses, why not sell them as a package deal (for a limited time? Or throw in access to those new mini courses you developed—anything to give people a little added value.   10. Live Events Finally, it may seem counterintuitive for a digital business, but getting in front of real people can still be a useful tool in how to market online courses. Seek out local events that are related to your course’s topic, and ask if you can give a presentation. You could preview part of your course for the audience and slide in a pitch to check out the rest at the end of your time. You can even consider hosting virtual events to drive even more course sales. Make sure you choose the right event management software to make your life easy. Some platforms even have event management and online course features already built in.     There's a ton of interest in the online course business:      In today’s online learning market, there is still plenty of opportunity for an expert with a great idea to start a thriving business. But in order to reach your full potential – and to maximize your return on your effort – you need to stand out. If you use these tips on how to market online courses, you’ll be on your way.     Get Started With Cause Machine Starting with a community engagement strategy is the secret to building a successful platform in the long term. Cause Machine helps customers build the plan of engaging a community well and then begin mapping out the technology to help support that strategy. We’re certain that you’ll find some great resources and powerful tools in Cause Machine to better engage your community. Learn how it can work for you here.