The Membership Economy – an overview

“Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction and Build Recurring Revenue” – by Robbie Kelman Baxter

This is one of the most useful, relevant and actionable books I’ve read in a long time. It shines a light on how the likes of Netflix, Spotify and Amex add continual value to their members, have mastered the “forever transaction” and built themselves a strong recurring revenue stream. Seeing how Uber and Air BnB have shaken up the established way of things, no industry is safe from a savy start-up lurking around the corner.

This video gives you a great overview of the book:

Drive loyalty: make it easy, make it personal, get members involved

The book really got me thinking…what can we offer people that makes them truly value what we offer? How we keep them wanting more? How can we shift our product from something customers “own” to something they “access”?

The book provides a ton of information, these are just some of the key points that stuck out for me that were most relevant to my organisation:

• Stop thinking about a sales and marketing funnel and start building an hourglass. Focus on the bottom half (the community) to help drive future growth (both in customer retention and acquisition).

• Provide a great onboarding experience. Make it as simple as possible for users to gain value quickly.

• Consider how you can gamify interactions to motivate users to participate regularly, reward engagement and build habits. One great example of this is Dropbox, who gave extra storage space when you recommended a friend, rapidly expanding their user base and  providing additional value.

• Personalise experiences based on the data you have. I love how Spotify does this by creating playlists for me based on my listening history.

• Pull users back and build engagement into their day to day. An obvious example of this is your Facebook notifications.

• Facilitate connections between members is key, it’s not just content people want but a sense of community. Whether it’s film ratings on Netflix or the ability to follow other people’s Spotify playlists, these all give us a sense of connection and network.

Importance of organisational culture

A clear vision, mission and culture are central to developing a successful business. To develop a business that can thrive in a membership economy it’s vital to build culture of innovation that goes beyond the founders of an organisation. Relying on the original innovators isn’t scalable or sustainable, everyone in the business needs to be seeking new ways to improve what they and others do.

Like the sound of the book? Here’s the amazon link >>