Transcripts
You're listening to the Membership Geeks podcast, bringing you
Speaker:proven practical tips and advice from the leading experts on
Speaker:growing successful membership.
Speaker:It's official the Membership Geeks podcast is back. I'm your
Speaker:host, Mike Morrison, 1 half of the membership geeks, and it is so
Speaker:so good to be back on the road with this
Speaker:show. I've missed you guys. So you miss me It's been
Speaker:almost a year since we went on hiatus with the membership
Speaker:Geeks podcast. And literally since the day after that
Speaker:episode dropped where we announced that that's what we'd be doing.
Speaker:People have been begging and begging and begging for the show to come back.
Speaker:Now we first launched this podcast back in June.
Speaker:Wow. when was it? June, July 2015.
Speaker:So it had been, like, 7 years of
Speaker:delivering these weekly episodes nearly four
Speaker:hundred episodes. And honestly, we just needed a little bit of
Speaker:a a time out, a little bit of putting this on the
Speaker:back burner to recharge our batteries, refresh
Speaker:our energy, and also, you know, the the look at different
Speaker:subjects and topics and angles that we could cover. We've covered
Speaker:so much ground here on the membership peaks podcast. And anyone who's
Speaker:listened to it for a long time will know that every episode
Speaker:is gold. Now, obviously, I'm a little bit biased, but the great
Speaker:thing is I even episodes back in 2015, they're still
Speaker:relevant today. The advice from years ago
Speaker:still applies because they are core principles
Speaker:of the membership world that are just universal, that
Speaker:are forever. And that's fantastic. because it means you can dip
Speaker:in wherever you want to get really solid
Speaker:advice. But it also presents a little bit of a challenge
Speaker:for us because you run out with
Speaker:stuff to say. And so, when we were contemplating bringing the show
Speaker:back, I sat down and kinda said, if I can come up with a
Speaker:year's worth of truly valuable episodes.
Speaker:Either on topics we've not covered before, tactics or strategies
Speaker:that we've not covered before, or new angles, new approaches, new
Speaker:ways to get you to think. If I can come up with just a year's
Speaker:worth, then we'll bring this thing back. Otherwise, there's not really much
Speaker:point And so I did that little exercise
Speaker:and kind of 2 or 3 years' worth of topics later. I thought,
Speaker:okay. We're bringing this bad boy back. And here, it
Speaker:is hopefully you're excited to have me
Speaker:back in your ears coming out your speakers.
Speaker:Hopefully, you're as excited as I am. I'm really, really pumped. I'm really,
Speaker:really buzzed to get back on this and start
Speaker:giving you those top tips, practical
Speaker:advice, and proven strategies to build, launch,
Speaker:and grow a successful membership business. Now, of
Speaker:course, if you want to grow successful membership business, the number
Speaker:one place you need to be is our own membership about memberships,
Speaker:the original membership about memberships, and that's at membership
Speaker:academy.com. It's where Callie and I do our very best work
Speaker:It's where you get access to our signature program, the membership road map, as
Speaker:well as an extensive library of
Speaker:training of resources, of templates of tools that
Speaker:will help you at every stage of your membership business.
Speaker:And all of the support and the community and the accountability
Speaker:and the access to us that you will need to help you on your
Speaker:journey, whatever stage you're at. So if you
Speaker:want to get serious about planning, building,
Speaker:launching, and growing a successful membership business, Head
Speaker:on over to membershipacademy.com. I would love
Speaker:love love to see you there. Alright. So
Speaker:today, I'm talking all about why your membership needs a
Speaker:cart abandonment strategy. quite
Speaker:often, if someone visits our membership site, our sales
Speaker:page, and they click through to the checkout So they
Speaker:click that buy now or that join now button on your sales page.
Speaker:And then they disappear. They give up. They don't go on to
Speaker:actually register We tend to interpret this as them
Speaker:simply deciding, you know what? I don't wanna join anymore. They
Speaker:decided against joining of had second thoughts that changed their
Speaker:mind. And while quite often that is why it happens, it's not always
Speaker:the case. In fact, in many times, It's the furthest thing from
Speaker:the truth. There are many different factors that could lead to someone
Speaker:abandoning the checkout process halfway through. So it's very important
Speaker:that every single membership business has a cart
Speaker:abandonment process or checkout abandonment
Speaker:process depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on. I think over in
Speaker:the USSA cart, over in the UK, we see a checkout, and
Speaker:goodness knows what else everyone, everywhere else says. But whether
Speaker:it's cut or whether it's check out, you need a strategy in place.
Speaker:Because otherwise, you're losing sales. from the people who
Speaker:did have every intention of joining, but something just got in the
Speaker:way, something distracted them, something meant that
Speaker:they didn't follow through. So before we get into some
Speaker:of the things you need to do, let's talk about some of the main causes
Speaker:of current abandonment strategy? Because actually understanding why
Speaker:people abandon the checkout process, that's 90% of
Speaker:the battle. And really, the key to
Speaker:having a a good process, a good approach in place
Speaker:is challenging your own assumptions around why
Speaker:someone might have clicked on the buy now button, but not actually gone
Speaker:on to join. So one of the first main causes
Speaker:of card abandonment is that the checkout
Speaker:process is just too confusing. Maybe it's overly
Speaker:complicated. Maybe there's too many steps to come leader. It's too long.
Speaker:Others more form fields than someone
Speaker:understands or someone thinks is reasonable or feels they have time to fill
Speaker:in. Maybe the information that's shown on your checkout page
Speaker:doesn't quite marry up with the information on your sales page, so
Speaker:there's a little bit of a disconnect there. That can be as simple as just
Speaker:the design or the layout being inconsistent, the company
Speaker:name, the product name, the the logo. If there's
Speaker:something that doesn't feel right on your checkout
Speaker:form versus your sales page, that can people off, especially
Speaker:if it's anything to do with the pricing terms, the billing terms as well.
Speaker:Perhaps you have an overly complex pricing structure, so if you have
Speaker:joining fees, you know, I mostly don't like joining
Speaker:fees. Or if you have a subscription amount that increases
Speaker:or even decreases after a set amount of time. Maybe you
Speaker:have irregular billing cycles, so rather than billing on the same
Speaker:day every month, you bill every 28 days. Some
Speaker:people do this, and it can throw people off. Things like
Speaker:this or things like having lots upsells or order bumps. Lots
Speaker:of unnecessary information on my checkout page can make
Speaker:things very confusing for the potential new member And this can cost
Speaker:you sales because it gives them too much to think about when
Speaker:they're at a point where they just wanna join. And the more they're thinking,
Speaker:the more they're going to let anxieties or doubts or concerns
Speaker:or hesitations kick in. In fact, a
Speaker:2020 ecommerce report showed that 21% of people
Speaker:abandoning carts did so because the checkout
Speaker:process was confusing. As is the
Speaker:case, in my opinion, for every aspect of your membership strategy, keeping
Speaker:things simple is the way. It's the whole case principle. Keep
Speaker:it super simple. or if you wanna be more insulting, keep it
Speaker:simple stupid. So if you all check our process, is too
Speaker:confusing. There's too much going on. There's a bit of a disconnect. It doesn't make
Speaker:sense to people. That's going to be potentially costing
Speaker:new sales. Another big cause of current abandonment
Speaker:is the payment itself actually failing. So
Speaker:when someone fills everything in, pumps in their card
Speaker:details or selects their PayPal account and then that payment
Speaker:just fails for whatever reason. Whether it's insufficient
Speaker:funds, whether it's a problem with your payment processor, whether their card
Speaker:type isn't accepted, A potential member might give a 2 or 3
Speaker:tries at most. But if their payment keeps on failing, then they'll give up for
Speaker:now at least. Now, of course, this isn't always gonna be your fault. In
Speaker:most cases, it's not your fault when this happens, but it does make it
Speaker:important to have things like multiple different payment
Speaker:options, support for multiple cards or payment
Speaker:methods, and clear error messages shown
Speaker:when a payment does actually fail so people can understand the
Speaker:reason. Whether it's the card was declined, whether it's an unaccepted card
Speaker:type, or whether the specific information missing.
Speaker:The clearer these kind of messages are, the more likely it is someone's
Speaker:going to be able to fix them, come back and join your
Speaker:site. And of course, this also emphasizes the need for
Speaker:you to follow-up later to get someone to give it another
Speaker:try after they've spoken with their bank or after
Speaker:they've found a different payment card or something. Whatever was the
Speaker:reason behind their failed payment. So failed payments can be a big, big cause of
Speaker:abandoned checkouts. Another reason the checkout can get
Speaker:abandoned is tech problems. If someone experiences
Speaker:technical problems during the signup, then that's obviously going to be an issue. This
Speaker:could be anything from your website being super slow through
Speaker:to it simply not loading at all. Broken images, error
Speaker:messages, form fields that aren't responsive when you click on them.
Speaker:Problems connecting to your payment provider and so on.
Speaker:Now, tech problems are going to happen even with the most robust setup in
Speaker:the world. you might just get unlucky with the timing.
Speaker:Or it might actually be someone trying to sign up. They're still on that
Speaker:56k modem. and they're wondering why everything is loading like
Speaker:it's 1999. Like, a lot of this stuff can't be outside of your
Speaker:control, but it's still worth understanding in terms of the
Speaker:effect these kind of problems have on card abandonment.
Speaker:Now unexpected costs are a big one. 51%
Speaker:of people who abandoned cart according to that study I mentioned before
Speaker:did so because of extra charges that they weren't expecting.
Speaker:Now that was an ecommerce report. It was a study into the broader world of
Speaker:ecommerce where obviously there's other charges involved
Speaker:beyond just the product the shipping, there's tax,
Speaker:and stuff like that. So with memberships, you're not going to
Speaker:have those kind of extra costs. But if you do have a joining fee,
Speaker:If your sales paid pricing didn't include tax, but then that
Speaker:tax gets added on a checkout and it's actually more expensive than someone thought
Speaker:it was gonna be, Or if you have unclear payment terms,
Speaker:if you promote your pricing as, you
Speaker:know, it's it's 600 per year, but you
Speaker:actually show the monthly equivalent instead of the actual annual
Speaker:price they're gonna pay today. Stuff like that, can ruffle
Speaker:enough feathers cause enough confusion to put people off joining or at least
Speaker:give them a reason to want to think their decision over
Speaker:a little longer rather than just joining there and then.
Speaker:And again, these abandoned carts are usually not related to something that you, the
Speaker:membership owner, has or hasn't done, sometimes it is just
Speaker:bad timing. Someone may have been checking out your site
Speaker:with just a few minutes of spare. They were just clicking on the
Speaker:link just before they're about to go on a Zoom call, and then
Speaker:they closed that browser tab. just to make sure, you know, their connection
Speaker:was stable or whatever. So they start the process of joining up then.
Speaker:Life just gets in the way. They remember that they have an appointment
Speaker:or that they forgot to send an email. Or their boss comes by and tells
Speaker:them to get back to work. They get a notification on Twitter or
Speaker:Facebook all threads, the new one. And so
Speaker:they closed the window and they set a little mental note to come back
Speaker:and join later. And maybe they do. Maybe they
Speaker:don't. So timing can be just one of those things that
Speaker:causes people to abandon cost. On a similar note, maybe they're just very
Speaker:easily distracted. They're signing up, and then ping, there's that notification we
Speaker:mentioned. Jan on Facebook just tagged you in a post. Oh my god.
Speaker:Why was I pulling that face in that photograph? And who's that person I'm
Speaker:hooking? Hold on. Let me just click through and check their profile. And then
Speaker:8 hours hours later, you're deep into that rabbit hole with nothing to show
Speaker:for it other than 3 new Facebook friends and a deep desire to change your
Speaker:relationship status to it's complicated. It
Speaker:happens. People are easily distracted, especially online, so it's not
Speaker:uncommon to lose sign ups in the moment. because someone has been pulled away by
Speaker:a shinier squirrel. Or maybe they were all good to
Speaker:go. But when it came time to enter their card information, They
Speaker:realized that they just don't have it with them. They thought they had their wallet
Speaker:in their office, in their pocket within easy reach, and
Speaker:they were wrong. Or maybe they prefer to use their business credit card
Speaker:rather than their personal one, but they left that at home while their business partner
Speaker:has it. Maybe their purse or their wallet is in another
Speaker:room and there's just two ways that you go and get it right now. So
Speaker:again, they make that mental note that little mental sticky
Speaker:note to grab it next time they get up from their desk. And in the
Speaker:meantime, they'll just close the window on your site and, you know, Assume
Speaker:or hope that they'll remember to come back later. And again, maybe they do.
Speaker:Maybe they don't. Perhaps they had issues with one card, so they need to
Speaker:use another that they don't have to to hand. Maybe they need their spouses called,
Speaker:their boss is called. Forgetting the payment method.
Speaker:Again, here's a reason why people might abandon that process.
Speaker:Or finally, maybe they didn't actually have any intention of signing up. At
Speaker:least not now. Maybe they're just checking you out, Maybe they're
Speaker:another membership owner scoping your side out for design inspiration.
Speaker:Happens to us a lot. Perhaps it's a competitor snooping on
Speaker:you. That happens to us a lot too. Or maybe you
Speaker:didn't actually put your pricing on the sales page. We see this a
Speaker:lot. People don't tell their sales page visitors
Speaker:what the price of the membership is. And so they create a situation where
Speaker:someone has to click through to the checkout in order to find out how much
Speaker:they would actually need to pay in order to join. So there's
Speaker:no actual buying intent being demonstrated by the fact someone's on
Speaker:your checkout page. So they're not potentially a lost sale
Speaker:because they were still in information gathering mode. They weren't starting
Speaker:the buying process. And by the way, Don't make
Speaker:people click through your checkout to find out the cost. Put the price on the
Speaker:sales page. Have some confidence in your product
Speaker:and your pricing. Not only is that just
Speaker:better practice, but it also means that you can
Speaker:implement things like a card abandonment strategy because
Speaker:you can definitively say when someone clicks through to the checkout,
Speaker:that is a good indicator that they are ready to buy.
Speaker:So as you can see, there's a whole bunch of different reasons potential members might
Speaker:give up part way through the registration process and abandon their
Speaker:cart. Then doing so does not mean it's game over. It
Speaker:does not mean that they've changed their mind. A lot of the things that will
Speaker:cause people to abandon the checkout process are easily prevented,
Speaker:and many of those that can't be prevented can be salvaged after the
Speaker:fact. One thing is for certain failing to have a solid court
Speaker:abandonment strategy is costing you money.
Speaker:So what can you do about it? Well, there's a bunch of ways that you
Speaker:can improve your checkout experience. Make sure it's as simple as possible,
Speaker:that you're only asking for information that you actually need over
Speaker:as few steps as possible. 90% of the time, you
Speaker:do not need the phone number of someone joining
Speaker:your online membership. And yet, A lot of checkout forms will ask
Speaker:for this information, but they'll never use it. Because it's an
Speaker:online world, most people aren't calling their members on the phone.
Speaker:So think about your checkout process. Think about how you can improve
Speaker:it, how you can minimize the information you're asking for, make it as clear,
Speaker:and as simple as possible. And make sure
Speaker:that you're actually testing it out for yourself to ensure that it
Speaker:works, to ensure that it makes sense, and to ensure that there
Speaker:aren't any technical hiccups. You can
Speaker:make changes to your website, to your sales page,
Speaker:to ensure that everything is as clear as can be and that there's
Speaker:nothing which will confuse or put people off. If you have complex
Speaker:pricing terms, Think about how you can really achieve
Speaker:clarity in the way that you communicate those to your
Speaker:members. If you have joining fees, make sure that
Speaker:they're clear. If you are
Speaker:promoting your pricing, using that that method I mentioned before
Speaker:where people will take the annual price. But
Speaker:the price they show prominently on the sales page, is what that
Speaker:annual price breaks down to on a monthly basis.
Speaker:Now, that's not a bad thing necessarily to do, but it is going to
Speaker:confuse some people, and you can understand why people might look at something
Speaker:that says the membership costs $50 per month
Speaker:and assume they're going to be paying $50 per month when
Speaker:actually, if they look at the small print, They'll see that
Speaker:it works out at $50 per month, but what they need to pay
Speaker:today is 600. Stuff like that, clarify,
Speaker:clarify, clarify, simplify as much as
Speaker:possible so you're not confusing or putting people off. That's just
Speaker:good practice in general, not just for the purposes of card abandonment.
Speaker:You definitely wanna make sure that you're following up with court abandons via
Speaker:email. Ensure that you have an email automation that's
Speaker:triggered buy an abandoned checkout, which tries to get
Speaker:people back to your site to finish signing up and make sure
Speaker:you're sending out that first follow-up email within an hour
Speaker:of that can't be in abandoned. The way you would set this up will
Speaker:depend on your tech. Some membership plugins like member price
Speaker:will do that for you. If you're using WordPress, but your membership
Speaker:plug in doesn't have card abandon features, then there's a great plugin
Speaker:called WP Fusion, which can enable you to do that.
Speaker:Or your email marketing system, if it has site tracking like
Speaker:ActiveCampaign does, You can trigger those automations
Speaker:based on people visiting the URL of your checkout
Speaker:page. So the tech side of things can get a little bit more
Speaker:complex for how you trigger these email follow ups, but you wanna find a
Speaker:way to make sure that you have a
Speaker:follow-up campaign in place to email anyone who
Speaker:abandons the call process. You can even use Facebook or
Speaker:Google retargeting to show ads to people who abandon the sign up
Speaker:process to try to nudge them back, give them some sort of special
Speaker:offer or trial, or maybe show them other content that will
Speaker:aid the buying decision like case studies or behind the
Speaker:scenes videos to try to encourage them to come back and join.
Speaker:So it's absolutely vital to have a cart abandonment
Speaker:strategy in place. Without one, you're losing members
Speaker:and you're losing money. So much of this does come down
Speaker:to, 1st of all, challenging that assumption that an
Speaker:abandoned cart is lost forever and realizing the
Speaker:majority are going to be salvageable, understanding
Speaker:the reasons why people would abandon their card and implementing some
Speaker:of the tactics that I talked about, either just making those improvements
Speaker:in your checkout process and eliminating some of those things
Speaker:that will be putting people off, as well as using email follow ups
Speaker:and potentially even retargeting ads to get people back.
Speaker:to finish what they started, complete registration, and become a
Speaker:member of your site. And if you're a member of membership academy,
Speaker:we actually have an in-depth workshop on creating your cart
Speaker:abandonment strategy. We dive deeper into the specific changes
Speaker:and improvements that you can make to reduce abandoned carts
Speaker:and the tactics you need to implement in order to salvage those lost
Speaker:sales and get people back to your membership to sign up.
Speaker:Including some of the tactics I've mentioned on this episode and a few
Speaker:more as well. And we even provide the copy and
Speaker:paste email template for you to use in your follow-up campaign to
Speaker:those card abandonments too. So, if you're a member of membership
Speaker:academy, you'll find this workshop in the training library. If you're
Speaker:not a member, Head on over to membership academy.com where you can sign up
Speaker:for instant access to this workshop so you can get cracking with your cart
Speaker:abandonment strategy. Because I should hopefully be clear from
Speaker:this episode, this is something absolutely every
Speaker:membership owner should have in place. In fact, anyone
Speaker:selling anything online should have a solid court abandonment strategy.
Speaker:It really is that important. And hopefully,
Speaker:today's episode has given you a better understanding and appreciation
Speaker:for why having a cart abandonment strategy is so crucial
Speaker:why people might be abandoning that sales process and why it doesn't
Speaker:mean that they're lost forever and what you could be doing
Speaker:to get them back, and to get them signed up to your membership. That
Speaker:is it from me for this return episode of the
Speaker:membership Geeks podcast. That was fun. Right? I enjoyed
Speaker:that. It's good being back behind the mic. Hopefully, you found it
Speaker:useful. I'll be back again. next time with another installment of the
Speaker:Membership Geeks podcast. Bye for now.