In the spirit of making lemon aide from lemons, let’s take a look at how to make money from your membership cancellations.

The first way is to stop those cancellations before they ever happen, if at all possible.

The second is to make people an offer they cannot refuse when they do cancel. In fact, we’ve got 4 different methods to achieve this.

And finally, we’ll cover how to reactive subscribers after they’ve left the fold.

Simple Trick for Stopping Paid Subscription Cancellations

Do you have an automated system that allows paid subscribers to cancel their subscription?

You might be able to retain some of those paying members by letting them know what they’re going to miss.

For example, when they click on the link to suspend or end their subscription, the next screen might say something like…

This will cause you to lose access to [insert your membership name or programs]

Suspension effective as of [DATE]

Coming soon from [Business Name]

[List what is coming soon. Make it sound super enticing]

By giving them a sneak peak of what’s coming next, you will hopefully retain some of those members who attempt to cancel.

Even better, be sure that your paid members are always kept up to date on what’s coming. When you have a paid membership, one of your most important jobs is always tempting your members with whatever is just around the corner, so that they never want to leave.

How to Make Money when People Ask to Cancel

Method 1: If you have a paid monthly membership or software as a service, then sooner or later you will have customers who want to cancel their membership.

When they do, make them a special offer for one year of membership at a major discount.

You’re not losing any money since they were going to cancel anyway.

And you retain the opportunity to sell them more products from inside the membership, too.

Method 2: Your paid member has cancelled. Now what?

Don’t give up. On the page that lets them know the cancellation has gone through, offer them a membership in another program of yours. This other program might be a better fit for their needs.

Don’t have a second paid membership program to offer them? Team up with another membership site owner in a related or identical niche. You offer their membership on your cancellation page, and they do the same for you.

Of course, you can also become an affiliate for another membership site and use that as your offer.

This works best if you can make the offer a one-time special. Either they get a discount that won’t be repeated, or they get access to a very special bonus.

Method 3: If your paid membership is all about the content (versus, say, software as a service) you might offer them all the content published thus far, immediately downloadable and theirs for life.

They must have liked your membership if they signed up for it in the first place. Getting access to what’s inside the membership up to the month when they cancelled might be something they would love to have, for the right price.

Method 4: Offer them the same membership they just cancelled, only better and more expensive. This one might sound crazy – why would they sign up for the membership they just cancelled, and pay more for it, too? That depends…

If your site is teaching them how to do something, it could be that they need more help than just being told what to do. Maybe they need coaching, or they need someone to perform a service for them such as setting up a website needed to put a profit stream in place.

Take a good look at your site and figure out what’s missing. What would make it even easier for your members to reach their goals?

Then build this better version, whatever it might be, and offer it to subscribers past and present.

Simple Trick for Reactivating Paid Subscribers

If you’ve had a paid membership site or software as a service for any length of time, you’ve also got a list of people who canceled their membership.

(Don’t take it personally – this happens to every single membership site, regardless of how amazing the content is or how low the price.)

This list is worth gold, because it’s always easier and cheaper to reactivate someone who’s already tried your membership or software as a service, than it is to get the attention of a new subscriber.

Send your previous members a series of messages to entice them back. Let them know all the stuff they’re missing and the improvements you’ve made.

Solicit their feedback, and offer them a special deal, such as 30 days for free. Remind them of how easy it is to cancel, and how they have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.