Community retention strategies that actually work
How to create a community your members never want to leave
Have you ever felt that rush of excitement when someone new joins your community, only to wonder a few months later: "Where did they go?"
We pour so much energy into the early steps—marketing campaigns, onboarding emails, warm welcomes—because we know first impressions matter. And they do. A thoughtful onboarding experience transforms an outsider into an insider. (We talked about that in detail last week.)
But even the best welcome mat won't keep members around if there's nothing compelling on the other side.
So, how do we build communities where members stay and grow with us for years?
This is where "community staying power" comes in.
Most communities focus on attracting new members—but retention is where long-term success is built. As
wisely put it,"Most creators optimize for the initial sale of their membership. This is incredibly short-sighted. You should optimize for renewals."
This shift—from acquisition to retention—transforms how we design our communities. It's not just about making a great first impression. Rather, we must ensure our members continue to experience value long after that first moment of excitement fades.
This perspective is key to increasing customer lifetime value (LTV) and building a community that lasts.
The Leaky Bucket Problem
Retention deserves just as much attention as your outreach and onboarding efforts. Without a strategy to keep members engaged, you're essentially filling a leaky bucket—and watching your potential LTV drain away with each departing member.
We've all experienced this frustration as members ourselves—completing a beginner course only to find there's nothing more to explore, or reading all the introductory content in a group but never seeing the next step. That moment of "what now?" is exactly when members start to drift away.
Remember that story I shared about the hiking trail where the markers vanished? The same pattern occurs throughout the member journey, not only at the beginning. Retention challenges arise at every transition point:
When a member moves from newbie to regular
When they've consumed all your initial content
When their goals evolve or change
When they've outgrown your entry-level offerings
Without clear pathways for long-term engagement, even your most enthusiastic members will eventually feel lost, questioning whether to continue or move on.
During our recent community strategy AMA in The Hive, we explored this challenge in depth. I've distilled that conversation into three key pillars to help build retention into your community from day one.
1. More Value, More Reasons to Stay
Give members ongoing, tangible benefits that make membership indispensable.
Communities that captivate members long-term don't just offer one thing—they create an ecosystem of value that grows richer over time.
Consider a wellness community that begins with basic meditation guides, then introduces monthly breathwork sessions with experts, gradually adds personalized wellness check-ins with coaches, and eventually offers retreats where members connect in person. The goal is to become a hub for multiple needs, making your community increasingly essential in your members' lives.
Think about the places where you've remained a loyal fan. Maybe it's a local cooking store that started with kitchen tools, then added classes, events, and exclusive chef-led workshops. Or your running group that evolved from weekly jogs to race training and trusted nutrition support.
What kept you coming back was a business that astutely created ongoing relevance.
During our Hive discussion, Paul Jones shared a perfect example - he's exploring a custom CRM tool for his fractional executive community as a perk beyond the core experience. This approach transforms a community from a "nice-to-have" into an essential resource members can't imagine leaving.
Not all value is monetary. Don’t underestimate the importance of being seen and appreciated. When members feel that their contributions matter—that they matter—they form a deeper connection to your community. That genuine acknowledgment fulfills a basic human need to be valued and recognized for what we bring to a group.
This recognition can take many forms: thoughtful messages of thanks, celebrating someone's milestone during a community call, or simply acknowledging their helpful response in a discussion thread. Beyond making people feel good, recognition can also amplify their voice—when you feature a member's insights or share their success story, you're offering them expanded reach and visibility, which is tremendously valuable.
Recognition costs almost nothing to give but creates a virtuous cycle where celebrated members become your most passionate contributors and advocates. This creates what
calls a community flywheel—active members add value, which attracts more people, who contribute even more.Your community becomes a place where members genuinely support each other. They answer questions, share resources, and offer encouragement as they become more invested. This creates a culture of generosity that enriches everyone's experience, inspiring even more participation.
💡 When members feel like they're constantly receiving (and contributing) indispensable value, they stay longer.
2. Stronger Connections, Stronger Community
And at the heart of this value exchange are the relationships that form.
The strongest predictor of retention isn't content—it's relationships. When members form meaningful connections, they're significantly more likely to stay. While content can be found elsewhere, authentic peer relationships are harder to replace.
A recent Harvard Business Review article found that employees with a strong sense of belonging show a 56% increase in job performance and a 50% reduction in turnover risk. The same principle applies to communities—people stay where they feel they belong.
But how do you intentionally design these connections, especially in an early-stage community?
Several Hive members shared their strategic approaches:
Katie Kastner, who leads a community of entrepreneur moms, brings in guest experts who not only deliver valuable content but also spark new connections.
Brandon Jenkins, a 26-year Navy veteran, designed his Leadership Ready Room with small peer coaching cohorts that deepen trust over time.
Active communities naturally create network effects—where the value grows exponentially as more members participate. This makes the community harder to leave because what keeps members isn't just the content—it's the relationships they've built.
Consider these two contrasting approaches:
The Forgettable Membership: A leadership community offers solid workshops and a forum, but there's nothing unique tying members to the experience–or to each other. When it's time for renewal, they leave without hesitation, because they can easily find similar content elsewhere.
The Sticky Community: Another leadership community offers exclusive roundtables where members tackle real, ongoing challenges together. The relationships deepen over time. Members aren't just consuming content—they're workshopping solutions to their in-the-moment challenges. Leaving would mean losing a trusted peer group.
The difference? The second community makes itself irreplaceable by focusing on connections, not just information. It understands that relationships create a form of value that can't be easily replicated elsewhere.
💡 When relationships deepen, members stay because of the people, not just the content.
3. New Challenges, New Solutions
We've all joined groups that felt stagnant over time. The book club that never evolved, the professional organization where the same beginner questions circulate endlessly. Communities that provide progressive value—helping members solve increasingly complex challenges—create stronger reasons to stay.
The communities we stick with are the ones that grow with us.
Katie Kastner (
) captured this perfectly: “I don’t want members to age out of my system... I want there to always be something for them.”Part of this evolution includes creating leadership pathways that allow members to grow from participants to contributors to community leaders themselves. When members see a clear progression—from asking questions to answering them, from attending events to hosting them—they remain engaged because their role evolves alongside their expertise.
What makes community building especially challenging (and rewarding!) is that your "product" is constantly evolving—it's made of people who grow and change. This requires a level of adaptability that's uncommon in traditional product-based businesses.
The antidote? Author and organizational psychologist Adam Grant champions what he calls the "scientist mindset" in leadership. In a 2022 talk, he explained: "You don't let your ideas become part of your identity, and you are as motivated to search for reasons why you might be wrong as you are to look for reasons why you must be right." (emphasis mine)
This curiosity is essential as you continuously evolve your offerings based on your members' changing needs. It requires both listening systems (surveys, feedback loops, one-on-one check-ins) and your willingness to adapt based on what you learn.
Ask yourself:
What will my members need next year that they aren't asking for today?
How can I ensure my community continues to evolve alongside them?
💡 When a community grows with its members, they never leave because they've outgrown it.
Building Your Retention System
Getting retention right is actually a system, not a single tactic. That system includes understanding your specific retention metrics, creating the right balance of value streams for your context, designing connection architecture that works for your community size, and developing growth pathways aligned with your members' evolving needs.
While a comprehensive retention strategy requires thoughtful planning and implementation support, you can begin with small experiments.
As you think about your own community's retention strategy, consider:
Where do you see the most drop-off in your member journey?
How do your current offerings evolve as members grow?
What structures do you have in place to facilitate meaningful connections?
How are you gathering intelligence about your members' changing needs?
Your initial steps won't transform your retention overnight, but they'll start you on the path toward a more sustainable community.
To creating communities worth staying in,
P.S. Want to build a community members never want to leave? The Spring Community Foundations cohort kicks off soon! Save $300 with early bird pricing through March 31st—use code EARLY300 to enroll. SAVE MY SPOT 🌱
P.P.S. Want ongoing support with community retention? Inside The Hive, we tackle these challenges together—sharing strategies, testing ideas, and building communities that last. Join us!
What's one unexpected thing that's kept you engaged in a community long after you thought you might leave?
Great read, Laura! And thanks for the shout out. I'm really excited about what Leadership Ready Room will do for leaders!
These are great insights, thanks Laura!