Strategies What if you couldn’t reach any new members for your online community?

[joelr]

Here’s an interesting question: What if you couldn’t reach any new members for your online community? No fresh faces, no new registrations, no external growth. How would that change the way you manage your current audience?

If reaching new members wasn’t possible, wouldn't that force you to shift your strategy? I would stop focusing on constant growth and start digging deep into the members I already have. Here’s what I’d do:

• Focus on creating incredible experiences: Instead of chasing numbers, I’d work on making every interaction memorable. From welcoming new members to celebrating milestones, I’d create moments that make people feel valued.
• Learn more about each member: Personalization would be key. I’d invest time in understanding my members' preferences, needs, and goals to tailor communication and content that speaks directly to them.
• Refine my onboarding and communication: I’d write better onboarding sequences and educational content to keep members engaged long-term. I’d also focus on crafting emails that people actually want to open.
• Invite more feedback: It’s time to turn monologues into conversations. I’d ask more questions, get more input, and make members feel like they’re part of shaping the community’s future.
• Create can’t-miss content: I’d aim to make my content so compelling that people wouldn’t even think about leaving. If my content consistently adds value, the community would thrive without needing to bring in new members.

It’s funny how much we focus on new growth, often forgetting about the potential within our existing community. I’m guilty of this too! But what if we could do more with what we have? Whether you have 100 members or 100,000, chances are, you could deepen your relationship with them and boost retention, engagement, and overall value.

What would you do differently if you couldn’t reach anyone new? How would you better serve your existing community? Let’s share our ideas and discuss how we can focus on retention just as much as growth.

 

[Shortie]

This is a great question and one I believe is overlooked the most when people run an online community, I too am guilty of this.

We tend to focus so much on getting new members and ways to keep new members coming in that we forget about those who are already around and use the site.

Offering knowledge and even new ways for your current audience to engage within the community is a great place to start, I always say that if there is activity and knowledge that can help not only you gain a new audience but keep your current audience coming back as well.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I would focus on the site and hope to bring the best experience for the members I currently have on my community. I would work on asking what the community wants such as contests ideas, theme ideas, etc. Then I would work on organizing the site too if they wished it was more organized.

 

[Nomad]

getting new users in your community is necessary for the growth of the community, however, if that is not happening in my community, I will focus on encouraging my existing member base to create search friendly content that can attract traffic from search engines. If the content is good, people would certainly want to take part in the discussion and I might get new members.

 

[Henrywrites]

I would focus on the site and hope to bring the best experience for the members I currently have on my community. I would work on asking what the community wants such as contests ideas, theme ideas, etc. Then I would work on organizing the site too if they wished it was more organized.

Contests even when the amount involved is not huge is a key way to draw members to your community. There are a couple of members that would like to introduce your forum to another person who hasn't registered yet assuming you are running a contest on your forum.