7 Reasons Why Your Members Won’t Subscribe to You

We work with a lot of churches, ministries, groups, teams and other organizations who are trying to connect with their members. They create simple email and text message lists (like we provide here at Flocknote), Facebook fan pages, Twitter accounts, and websites. Some use it all to great effect, but many others wonder why their members still aren’t subscribing, liking, following, or visiting.

Well here are 7 reasons why your members still aren’t interested:

1. They don’t trust you. – They are afraid that if they connect with you, you’re only going to keep asking them for money or bombarding them with information that doesn’t really pertain to them. If you’re guilty of committing these mistakes in the past, then you’ll have to work extra hard to regain their trust.
2. You aren’t focused and consistent enough. – Maybe you’re trying to communicate on too many different platforms at once and doing none of them well. Or you’ve started up new communication efforts in the past on various platforms and you weren’t consistent in using them and they quickly became obsolete. Start with focus. A simple email (or text message) list is usually the best place to start if you don’t have one yet. Use that well, then expand.
3. You’re begging for attention – rather than earning it. – You can’t simply ask people to connect with you. You have to give them a compelling reason to do so. Throughout their day, your members are continually assaulted with things that are begging for their attention. Interrupting them. Distracting them. Sucking their valuable time and energy from their day. Don’t be another desperate entity begging them to pay attention. It won’t work. You have to earn their attention. (Read the rest of this list to get some ideas on how.)
4. It’s all about you. – If 100% of what you are saying is about what you want them (your members) to know, you will not be effective. Imagine if you had a friend who, every time you got together, just started spouting off things they thought that you should know – and then they left. The friendship wouldn’t last long. Yet this is exactly what so many organizations do when they communicate with their members. Then they wonder why people won’t subscribe to get more of it.
5. You’re not listening. – The best communication starts with a good relationship. And relationships are two way streets. 50% of your communication efforts should have to do with how you’re listening to your members. Start listening to them. It’s a necessary part of any good relationship.
6. You’re not providing value. – Rather than just talking about yourself, you should be finding ways to provide value to your members. Give them answers to their most burning questions. Provide them with resources that improve their life. Teach them something that brings them joy and peace. Invite them to participate in your activities as an organization. Provide a community via your communication channels where they can connect with others, discuss like interests, nurture relationships, ask questions and better understand your mission as an organization (Flocknote is great at this). Add value to their lives.
7. You’re not doing anything inspiring. – Finally, if your organization is doing something that inspires people, people will be knocking down your door, begging you to take their contact info and asking how they can subscribe to get your info. It’s the truth. And the reality is that your organization is probably doing something incredibly inspiring. Otherwise you wouldn’t have started doing it in the first place. But there is a good chance you’re not communicating that inspiration to others. Tell your story. Remind people why what you’re doing matters. Move them. Inspire them.

If you’re guilty of these 7 things, technology is only going to magnify those problems for you. But if you fix these things and combine them with proper use of new media communication technologies, the possibilities are endless.