#5: Member Engagement, Retention & Churn Rates...

Kylie Kelly [00:00:10]:
Hello. Hello. And welcome back to episode 5 of the low ticket membership lab, where we are diving into member experience and engagement. In this episode, I wanna talk to you a little bit about how I provide value to the members of the spotlight club on an ongoing basis. And I want to chat a little bit about some methods on how to keep members engaged and satisfied. I am going to be telling you all about my churn rate and the percentage of people that are leaving versus the people that are joining. And I also want to share a few success stories and testimonials from current or past members. Before we jump into that, of course, if you are not a member of the spotlight club and you are a female business owner interested in growing your email list fast without paid ads or social media, I would love you to come and join us.

Kylie Kelly [00:00:53]:
It's just $19 a month for the standard tier. And you can find the link in the show notes below. But without further ado, let's get into episode 5. Now, firstly, I just want to say that this has been the hardest thing for me. How do you provide enough value to keep members engaged the content in the spotlight club. That was back in episode 2. So of course, go back to that if you haven't listened to that episode yet. But I think what I've found the most important thing is having that foundational content built out, like we chatted about in episode 2.

Kylie Kelly [00:01:33]:
That's 9 lessons. That's 3 modules with 3 lessons in each. That's your foundational content. That content should be pretty consumable. They're not super long videos. They are literally like 10, 15 minutes long, and somebody should be able to go through it from start to finish and get a really great transformation, a really quick win. Now when I built out the spotlight club, as I mentioned, I did it a little bit differently. There's the 3 foundational, trainings at the start, and then the other 6 are different visibility strategies, podcast guesting, bundle summits, freebie swaps, that kind of thing.

Kylie Kelly [00:02:02]:
So I built the Spotlight Club a little bit more like a gym membership. So instead of going into a gym and trying to touch every piece of equipment at the same time in one session, you would not do that. You probably wouldn't be able to walk the next day because you were that sore and you'll be there for a very very long time. The same thing goes for the membership as I've built it. So it is built so that you can pick up trainings when they apply, when you wanna try a different strategy, but you don't have to do them all at the same time. So I think that's been key to not making it overwhelming, to actually being something that my members know they can come and go and pick it up and put it down as they please that lines up with their journey. But then there's still that point of how do you keep them engaged. Now for me, the community is everything.

Kylie Kelly [00:02:41]:
The community does this so well. So as we've already talked about as well, I built the community in Slack and I definitely have a key set of members that are always in there. Supporting each other, cheering each other on, sharing their challenges, sharing their wins very, very transparently. And again, because I am like that, I think that has come across in the way that communities come to life. So that definitely keeps the members engaged. But there are a few extra things that I do that I think really help with this. So I send out a weekly Monday morning email. Every single week, rain, hail or shine, public holidays or not, an email goes out that has all the weekly updates, the call times of live calls that might be happening, any expiring visibility opportunities that I know about and the links to apply.

Kylie Kelly [00:03:24]:
So they are different bundles and summits and podcasts that are looking for guests that have an application due date during that week. I'll remind them of that and send them the links so they can quickly apply for it if they had forgotten. So this email is kind of like the pulse, right? It gets sent out every Monday morning. They can look at it, know what's going on for the week, and also know if there's anything they need to apply for straight away. So that is point number 1, is that regular touchpoint, that regular email communication. The second thing I do that I think that keeps them super engaged is I am constantly looking for gaps. So I'm paying attention to the questions that are being asked in the q and a calls, the questions that are being asked in the Slack channel, any feedback forms that I am always asking for. I'm really putting a lot of attention onto those responses because those responses and the questions that are being asked helps me form bonus content for them.

Kylie Kelly [00:04:12]:
So if there is a theme, if there is something that keeps coming up or that a lot of members are wanting, I'll go and create it as a bonus training, as a bonus workshop, as a bonus template. As they're needing new things, I'm trying to make sure that I'm meeting where they're at and giving them something. Right? So that definitely helps them feel like they're getting a lot of value out of the club. The other thing that I like to do, especially for my premium tier members, is when I host live events. So I might put on a live event around email sequences or a live event around hosting your own bundle. Or when I do something like that, like a get it done week or a live workshop, I will sell that to my public email list. But anyone in the spotlight club, sometimes it's just a premium tier, sometimes it's everyone, can get it for free. Depending on what it is.

Kylie Kelly [00:04:57]:
But that makes them feel like holy smokes. This is not only super valuable. I'm getting all my questions answered. I'm making some great progress on my email list. I'm ticking all this stuff off. But I'm also saving a ton of money because Kylie is looking after us. She's giving us all this other stuff that other people are paying for. So that also really helps keeping them engaged and helping them feel super valued.

Kylie Kelly [00:05:20]:
So that really has become a game changer. The last point that I wanted to share with you as well around this keeping members engaged conversation, which I did touch on before, but it's the importance of community. So not only do we have the Slack channel that is really engaged and really supportive, but I did also introduce networking calls. So once a month, we have a networking call that members can come to and they can really get to know the other members on a deeper level. Now I introduced this after I'd noticed my churn rate had significantly increased. And I think in this day and age, anything, is connection. And human beings need connection. So the more that we can have a community of people actually connecting, authentically connecting, connecting on a deeper level than they can online through social media, right, the more powerful a membership like this could be and the more likely the members are to actually be engaged and stay longer.

Kylie Kelly [00:06:20]:
So, again, the 3 ways that I have kept members engaged, number 1, the weekly update emails that just keep a pulse on what's coming up that week and are a nice little touch point. Number 2 was the bonus content, taking notice of what my members are asking for, what gaps that might be there in my foundational content, making sure that they're not paying for those even if it is something that I am selling to my email list or my audience as a whole, delivering it to them for free if I can. So that is number 2. And then number 3 is community through the Slack channel that I've created, but then also on a deeper level through networking calls. So those three things have really made a difference to the level of engagement that my members have inside the membership. Also, definitely connected. It's had a massive impact to my churn rate and members leaving. Now when members leave and it still happens every week.

Kylie Kelly [00:07:09]:
Right? Somebody's leaving, if not multiple people. But when they are leaving, it's generally because they feel like they're at a place where they know how to grow their email list. They've learned that skill of how to actually make that happen fast and they can go and run with it, and then they're focused on building out their offers or they're focused on something else in the next step of their business. Again, my churn rate is something that still really upsets me. I'll be honest. I still find it really difficult not to take things personally when people leave. So much so that I actually outsourced that to now my first team member, Katie, because I didn't wanna see the a 191 members at the moment that every time somebody cancels, it does kind of hurt. So I didn't want that to zap my own energy.

Kylie Kelly [00:07:52]:
So I've outsourced that to a team member. Even still, if we look at the business as a whole, my churn rate has kind of fluctuated between 10 20% in this 1st 12 months, which means that as long as I can make sure that I'm getting enough people in the door to compensate for that churn and I'm noticing any spikes so, for example, just before I introduced those networking calls, my churn rate had spiked to about 18%, which terrified me because that feels really high. So I introduced the networking calls and it actually came back down to, like, 12%. So things like this, knowing your numbers, knowing your data, keeping your eye on not just the new members, but the churn rate on the questions people have, the comments they're making, the feedback members are giving. All of that is so important in this membership model, and it's something that you learn along the way. Now I have learned when we're talking about churn, I have learned that in the 1st 12 months of a membership, anywhere between 10 20% is actually quite standard. When you get into, like, year 2 and onwards, you should be able to get it under 10%, because, of course, you've ironed out all the kinks. Right? You have some really solid foundational content in there.

Kylie Kelly [00:08:58]:
You know how to engage them. So you should be able to keep that churn rate low. Again, really important to know these numbers so you know how many people you need to bring in so the membership is actually growing so that it's not just people leaving all the time. So that's a little bit on that member experience and how I've kept my members engaged and like any membership, like what that churn rate has looked like. So just know if you are about to start a low ticket membership, if you, have one and you're in that 1st 12 months, having a churn rate between 10 20% is normal. Just keep focusing on the members that are there. Focus on getting new members in, and focus on engaging and retaining as many of them as you can. One thing that I personally want to start implementing is an email sequence to the people that leave and check-in with them, like, 3 months after they've left the club.

Kylie Kelly [00:09:41]:
Be like, hey. How's your email list going? Are you continuing to grow it? Like, how is it feeling? Do you want to come back? Here's a special offer. That's definitely something that I want to do because a lot of times when people do leave, it's the time factor. I just don't have time. I'm gonna focus on something else. It's very rarely a financial decision because it is a low ticket membership. But the thing is, and I've discovered this myself, is that reason I don't have time, right, is really sneaky because it feels like it's a productive reason because, like, oh, I don't have time for this. I'm gonna focus on something else.

Kylie Kelly [00:10:10]:
But half the time, that is just our brain keeping us busy. And when we focus on something else, it might not even be a needle moving activity in our business, so we don't actually make progress. It might feel like we are because we're doing easier work. We're getting more of that easy work done, but we're not actually making progress in our business, moving the needle in a way that's going to actually increase our revenue, increase our email list, increase our audience. So I feel like checking in at that 3 month mark of like, hey. How is it going? Like, do you need to come back for some support? Have you been able to grow your email list? Tell me all the things. Here's a special offer in case you wanna come back. I think we'll really help those ex members come back into the fold and into the club.

Kylie Kelly [00:10:45]:
So I'm really excited to start to implement that. And, of course, if you're interested in how that goes, please reach out, and I'll be happy to let you know, the results, the data, all the things once I have put that into place. So the last thing that I wanted to do is read a few testimonials just to give you an idea of the breadth and the depth that the members experience in the club. It's not all just about being in a bundle. And I think sometimes because I am the queen of bundles, I'll be honest, I absolutely love them. I've grown my list so fast with that strategy, and others, but mainly that one in the last 12 months. So often when people think about the club, they think about bundles and there's so much more that's being experienced inside of the club. So as an example, I have had a beautiful member, Laura, hosted a webinar and she had a 117 people on her webinar.

Kylie Kelly [00:11:33]:
67 of them were new to her email list. So imagine if she hadn't have grown her email list, that is over 50% of those webinar attendees that would not have turned up. So so powerful. Melissa commented again not long after that that she'd figured out her first sequence for her welcome emails. Again, so important. We were super proud of her. Another beautiful member, Nadine, was on a radio show talking about the balancing act for ambitious parents, mum specifically, and she got over a 100,000 people listening into it. I have not even had that kind of PR splash.

Kylie Kelly [00:12:04]:
I think that is amazing. We also did a lot of email authentication stuff. There was a lot of wins just about getting that all sorted out. My gorgeous friend Katie, who's also the member I said to you, handles all the cancellation, so I like to employ within the club if I can. She had a bump offer that she added to a contribution to a bundle and got her first sale. She said never has she been so excited about $5. And, again, even small wins like that are so worth celebrating because it means that that offer is validated. People wanna spend money on it.

Kylie Kelly [00:12:32]:
Whether it's $5, $50, or $500, it is so worth celebrating even the smallest of wins. Another beautiful member of mine, Caroline, she actually hosted her first bundle called the Nurtured Mother's Bundle. And not only did she have the opportunity to connect with some amazing contributors, but she had 618 sign ups, 2 upsells into her new community and 4 VIP sales out of it, like, massive. Right? This kind of stuff, the fact that it can happen so fast. And the thing that really excites me is that people don't realize that this is all at their fingertips. Right? They think they have to be dancing on social media, pointing their finger in TikTok, waiting 5 years with a freebie on their website. Like, no. There is such a different way to do this that's more fun, and you see results so much quicker.

Kylie Kelly [00:13:18]:
Rosemary, who's another beautiful member, officially hit 1,000 in her email community. She said that back in October, she had 35. She went from 35 to 1,000, and that was posted in February. So between October February, she practically added a 1000 people to her list. Amazing. Another member, Fernanda, mentioned that she emailed her list weekly with one selling email, and she grew her list by 50%. Through the bundle, she created entirely new strategic freebie and set up all the welcome emails. Like, huge, huge progress.

Kylie Kelly [00:13:52]:
That is one thing I will say about all the members of the club is they're not afraid to take fast action. They're more willing to just put in the work and get it done, be a little bit messy, put it out there, and then tweak it and keep going. And that is why they're seeing wins. They're not holding on to something until they're happy with it that it's perfect. They're willing to do messy action to put it out there and then just learn and iterate from there. Again, another member, Sarah, cleaned her list and got rid of 700 people, which feels so fucking scary when you were scrubbing your list, but it's so important. And as your list gets bigger and as you have a bigger email list, when you clean that many out, you'll see your open rates skyrocket. You'll see your click rates skyrocket because suddenly there are so many more engaged email subscribers actually receiving your content, which is huge.

Kylie Kelly [00:14:37]:
So I've just been reading we have a weekly wins thread in the Slack channel, and that's where I've just been reading these from. So I just scroll back to January and I've just been reading them, but they keep on going. So I hope that gives you a glimpse as well. It's not just about bundles. It's about so much, so much more. So if you wanna experience some of those wins and you're not in the spotlight club, come on over. We would love to have you. But I'd love to invite you, if you have a low ticket membership, a, make sure you're celebrating your wins with your members because that is huge.

Kylie Kelly [00:15:03]:
That is what it's all about. So make sure you have some kind of way of knowing their wins so you can celebrate alongside them. But then also think about these ways that you can start to really engage your members. Check your churn rate. Rate. Make sure it's sitting in that standard range, that standard percentage, and think about different ways of how you can engage them, how you can make sure that they are getting the most out of the membership so that they do stay around, so that you can retain them and live happily ever after. Wouldn't that be nice? Now stay tuned, we have one episode left in this series. I hope you've been enjoying it so far.

Kylie Kelly [00:15:33]:
I have curated a list of questions that we're going to do a bit of a rapid fire with. So some of my members have sent in questions. I've had some come in through my email list, through my audience. So I have a list of questions. I'm not looking at them. I've compiled them in a list without looking or preparing anything. So I would like to just go through them rapid fire style and answer them. And hopefully, if there's been any questions sitting there at the forefront of your mind as you've listened to this private podcast, hopefully that will answer some of your questions too.

Kylie Kelly [00:15:59]:
So thanks again for being here. Tune into episode 6 where we're gonna wrap this baby up and know above everything, I'm really grateful that you're here. Alright. I will see you in the next episode.