In his book Retention Point, membership and subscription expert Robert Skrob talks about the importance of having a “Member On-Ramp” to get your new subscription members up and running and getting value from their membership quickly.

Key activities include:

• Reselling the benefits of their subscriptions (so they're motivated to take action)
• Getting them to set a realistic short-term goal to work towards
• Getting them to free-up time to do the actions they need to do to benefit from their membership
• Giving them some quick win activities to get results fast

All aimed at what I talked about last week: time to value. Getting new members to experience the value of their subscription quickly so they become loyal customers rather than quit their membership.

Of course, you probably don't run a membership site or do subscription boxes. But the On-Ramp concept can still work for you.

For new clients, the faster they get results from working with you, the more motivated they become to do the work needed to get long term results and the more likely they are to retain you for future business.

A good On-Ramp can get you over the inevitable hiccups and roadblocks you get on many projects. I know to my own cost the problems that can happen when a client doesn't schedule enough time to work with you or assumes it will all be plain sailing.

And you can apply the On-Ramp to new contacts and subscribers too.

Every email list has a huge amount of churn: subscribers who sign up but then leave after a few emails.

Subscribers who get value from your emails quickly, however, tend to stay as subscribers for life.

Building an On-Ramp isn't hard. We just have to think about what we need to do, then make sure we do it for every new subscriber (through the initial emails they get) and every new client (through our personal interactions with them),

You can get started by asking yourself these questions:

• What can I say to remind my new subscribers (or clients) of the value they signed up to get and why it's worth following my advice? How can I paint a picture of what things could be like if they do what I recommend?
• How can I get them to set a realistic short-term goal for their work with me? 
• What advice can I give them to free up time to do the work they'll need to do to achieve that goal?
• What is one thing they can do quickly that will bring them an immediate return on investment?

Good answers to these questions will make sure your new clients and subscribers stay engaged and loyal rather than drifting off.