The 3 Things Every Membership Needs to Grow (Most Are Missing One)
The membership and online program landscape have totally changed in the last 2 years. But this concept still holds true, more than ever.
The 3 layers that you absolutely need to put in place when you have a membership, if you want it to be successful, with members that engage, take action and get results.
If your membership has a retention problem, people don’t engage, you can’t tell if your members are happy, if they are getting results, I’m willing to bet your first instinct was to add more content.
Another module. A new bonus. An extra live session.
And if you’re nodding right now, you’re not alone. It’s the most common move I see. And it almost never fixes the problem.
Here’s what I’ve learned after building 300+ membership sites over 17 years: retention doesn’t break because your content isn’t good enough. It breaks because one critical piece is missing from the member experience.
I call it the CSA Model. Three elements. Every membership needs all three. Most have one, maybe two.
#1 CONTENT
This is your curriculum. Your modules, your lessons, your frameworks. It’s the reason someone signed up, the transformation they came for.
And yes, it needs to be good. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: great content alone does not keep members. People can have access to the best program in the world and still do absolutely nothing with it.
Content gets them in the door. It doesn’t keep them there.
#2 SUPPORT
Support is what kicks in when a member gets stuck. Your Q&A calls, your community, your help desk. It’s the bridge between watching a lesson and actually implementing it.
Without support, members hit a wall, feel alone, and eventually disappear. With it, they keep moving forward.
And this is where most memberships stop. Two out of three boxes ticked. And they wonder why retention is still slipping.
#3 ACCOUNTABILITY
This is the piece that actually drives results, and the one most commonly missing.
Accountability is the check-in. The deadline. The someone-is-watching feeling that makes people follow through. It transforms passive consumers into active implementers.
And here's why it matters so much for your business: members who implement get results.
Members who get results stay. They refer. They become your testimonials and case studies. They become the proof that your program works.
Without accountability, you have a library. With it, you have a program that changes lives.
THE AUDIT
Before you add anything new to your membership, do this first.
Ask yourself three questions:
Do my members have the content they need to get the result they came for?
Do they have somewhere to turn when they get stuck between sessions?
And do they have something that holds them accountable to actually doing the work?
If one of those answers is weak or missing, that’s your retention leak. That’s where to focus.
The good news is that once you can see it, you can fix it.
The good news is that once you can see it, you can fix it.And when all three are working together, your membership stops feeling like a treadmill and starts feeling like a flywheel.
FREE RESOURCE FOR YOU:
You don’t need more modules. You need to know exactly WHERE your membership is leaking retention, content, support, or accountability, and what to fix first based on how you actually run things right now.
If this resonated, leave a comment and tell me more.
Nathalie
PS: If you’ve been looking for a solution to stop the leak or revive a dormant membership, feel free to message me here, my dms are always open. Sometimes one conversation saves months of overthinking.
Nathalie Doremieux is co-founder of The Membership Lab, helping coaches, course creators, and membership owners build and optimize scalable membership platforms. 300+ sites built since 2006.