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The Membership Economy: Find Your Super Users, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue Hardcover – March 17, 2015
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In today’s business world, it takes more than a website to stay competitive. The smartest, most successful companies are using radically new membership models, subscription-based formats, and freemium pricing structures to grow their customer base―and explode their market valuation―in the most disruptive shift in business since the Industrial Revolution.
This is The Membership Economy.
Written by an expertconsultant, this groundbreaking book will show you how to turn ordinary customers into members for life. Learn how to:
- Turn digital subscriptions into forever sales
- Build an online community your customers will love
- Develop new loyalty programs that really pay off
- Transform freemium users into superusers
- Create a self-generating revenue stream
- Keep memberships and profits growing for years to come
Whether you’re a small business with limited resources, an established company using a traditional business model, or a hungry start-up who wants a bigger bang for your buck, this comprehensive guide provides a wealth of membership-building options to suit every need.
You’ll learn the best-kept secrets of top industry leaders, from global giants like Am Ex and Weight Watchers to smaller dot-com successes like SurveyMonkey and Pandora. You’ll find proven strategies for creating membership programs for everything from vacation timeshares and car rentals to video streaming and Software-as-a-Service.
Most importantly, you’ll discover what works, and what doesn’t, from some of the key players in the new membership economy. It’s not about ownership; it’s about access, options, and freedom.
When you join forces with your customers, membership has its rewards―for you, your company, and your continued success.
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMcGraw Hill
- Publication dateMarch 17, 2015
- Dimensions6.3 x 1 x 9.2 inches
- ISBN-100071839321
- ISBN-13978-0071839327
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Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant and speaker who has been providing strategic business advice to Silicon Valley companies for over 20 years. She is the founder of the consulting firm Peninsula Strategies LLC, and regularly presents to professional associations, leading universities, and corporations.
From the Back Cover
“From Netflix to Spotify, over the past few years, subscription models have become a powerful and profitable business model in the digital economy. Robbie has written a unique, well-researched and very smart book for anyone interested in building one.”
David Kirchhoff, former CEO, Weight Watchers International and WeightWatchers.com
“At American Express, we've always been committed to putting our members at the center of everything we do. Robbie Baxter's book provides practical techniques and insightful new examples to guide organizations in building powerful, ongoing relationships with their members.”
Josh Silverman, President, Consumer Products and Services, American Express
“The Membership Economy is an insightful, research based look at the strategies and tactics needed to develop, grow and maintain a membership-style program for customers. It is perhaps the best, most detailed source I’ve found on this subject to date, and it has very much changed the way I think about our own growing membership program. I can’t recommend it enough.”
Mark Kupferman, VP, Insights & Interactive Marketing, Six Flags Entertainment Corp.
“Some will read The Membership Economy as an entertaining collection of stories about some of the most innovative organizations out there, while, for others, it will serve as a practical guide. It’s a fun insider view that’s also pragmatic.”
Marc Bodnick, CEO, Quora
“In The Membership Economy, Baxter explains, illustrates, and advocates for this new way of doing business — you won’t want to miss it.”
Bob Baxley, Head of Product Design and Research, Pinterest
“Salesforce.com has always focused on open, transparent, ongoing relationships with members of our community, from customers to vendors to partners. As a result, we've been named for four consecutive years by Forbes. Companies that don’t build this kind of community will fall behind, but Robbie’s book can help any kind of organization leverage these principles and thrive. The Membership Economy is a critical read, and one that should be added to your business bookshelf this year.”
Leyla Seka, SVP & GM Desk.com at Salesforce.com
“Having seen and experienced the challenges of building long-term sustainable relationships involving membership organizations, Robbie Kellman Baxter offers clear examples and straightforward advice how to achieve success in both the non-profit and corporate sectors.”
Howard L. Wollner, Chairman, NPR Foundation
“There's a big difference between subscribers and members. From The Times to The Sun and now at The Wall Street Journal, we are committed to building our relationship with our customers around the principles of membership. Members are more engaged, more connected and more profitable. Read The Membership Economy to learn how to take your organization from transactional to relational.”
Katie Vanneck-Smith, Chief Customer Officer and Global Managing Director, Dow Jones
“As the leader of a major alumni relations office, I understand the importance of building long term relationships with our members. Robbie Kellman Baxter's practical advice will drive immediate results. If your organization depends on having highly engaged members, you should read The Membership Economy.”
Raphe Beck, Director of Alumni Relations, Stanford Graduate School of Business
“I've run a successful membership business for a while now. So I'd like to tell you to move along and not read this book... because why is Robbie Kellman Baxter giving away all our hard-won secrets? But I won't tell you that. Because The Membership Economy is great perspective on an important topic.”
Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Everybody Writes
“Robbie’s book is packed with innovative ideas for pricing, acquisition, and engagement of customer. I highly recommend this book for any CEO who seeks to disrupt their industry by putting their customers at the center of everything they do.”
Heidi Roizen, Operating Partner, Draper, Fisher, Jurvetson
Lisa Gansky, entrepreneur and bestselling author of
The Mesh
About the Author
Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant and speaker who has been providing strategic business advice to Silicon Valley companies for over 20 years. She is the founder of the consulting firm Peninsula Strategies LLC, and regularly presents to professional associations, leading universities, and corporations.
Product details
- Publisher : McGraw Hill; 1st edition (March 17, 2015)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0071839321
- ISBN-13 : 978-0071839327
- Item Weight : 1.06 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.3 x 1 x 9.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #153,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #139 in Customer Relations (Books)
- #190 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior
- #496 in Sales & Selling (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Robbie Kellman Baxter is the author of both THE FOREVER TRANSACTION and THE MEMBERSHIP ECONOMY. She first coined the phrase “Membership Economy", over 10 years ago, and it’s now part of the business lexicon used by organizations and journalists around the world.
THE MEMBERSHIP ECONOMY was recently named a top 10 Marketing Book of all time by BookAuthority.
Robbie is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC. Her firms clients have included Netflix, Microsoft, and The Wall Street Journal as well as several venture-backed private companies and associations. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries.
Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer. She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Robbie has been interviewed by CNN, NBC, and NPR. She has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities.
She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. For more information go to www.robbiekellmanbaxter.com
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As a small-business owner, I was looking for some nitty-gritty strategies and tactics to help my cottage subscription-based businesses. That's not what this book was. It did give me a lot of things to think about, and that helped me to generate my own strategies, tactics, and to-dos, but it was actually more of a broad survey of the topic of membership businesses. A lot of information was covered from a pretty high level, conceptually.
Where I think this book would be most useful would be in the Silicon Valley startup world, or with larger established organizations considering a new strategy. The book focused heavily on these larger organizations and their established customer-bases and marketing budgets. There was also a lot of great content regarding innovative marketplace interruptors. If that's the kind of place where you work, or the kind of company you dream of starting, this book is a great tool to get you thinking about the membership economy.
However, if you are looking for an instruction manual on how to implement this, then you should look elsewhere. Later in the book she dives into a plethora of short case studies. Since the membership economy is a loose set of ideas, it is difficult for her to show what a successful and intentional roll out looks like, She resorts to painting a company's action in broad strokes without thorough analysis. Despite the lack of rigor, she did show an apparent positive impact from applying the idea of membership to many different styles of businesses.
Frustrating aspects:
Chapter 9 is a series of advertisements for selected SaSS players.
The case studies are very shallow.
The last section of the book was too high level to be practical.
That being said, I will be recommending this book to colleagues. I loved the ideas, I finished it wanting more proven tactics, rigor and analysis.
Whenever someone first buys from a company, they are a new customer. But no business can be sustained on new customers alone. All businesses rely on REPEAT CUSTOMERS. (Duh.) The key to getting more repeat customers is to STOP treating them like customers and START treating them like MEMBERS.
This is the book that can help you (and your entire business) make the transition from being customer-centric to being member-centric. Read this book and learn:
- What the difference is between a membership and a monthly subscription (hint: they're not the same, because "Membership is an attitude, an emotion.")
- How to (re)organize to be member-centric -- "The Membership Economy is more than a marketing strategy. It's about the whole organization being built around the ongoing customer relationship."
- Why ongoing tinkering with membership benefits is absolutely critical
- How to streamline your member acquisition funnel
- What a super user is, and why they're important for other members
- When "free" does and doesn't make sense
- Technology to help your organization to be more member-centric
- And much, much more.
This book is a quick read. It's well written and full of tons of practical advice and real-life case studies. Whether you are VP Marketing in a large company, a sole proprietor of a local business, or the head of a non-profit or association, this book is a must read. This book (and author) is pure marketing genius and is likely to spawn a whole new generation of marketing.
Top reviews from other countries
Membership Economy is more about ongoing relationship with customers for any organisation where customers are feeling value for money they are spending and really benefits from it. Organisation must treat it's customers like a family and ready to get feedback from them to improve it's services. It's like continues improvement.
I personally think recent MBA graduate students and CEO of different organizations need to read this book.
Future is Membership Economy and we need to learn and practice about it. So many case studies discussed by Author with proper explanation. Author had many years of experience in this field with great list of very famous customers in the world ( e.g Netflix) and she is MBA from world famous Stanford university in USA.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn and to start Membership or Subscriptions based business. A must read book.
It is very much geared on how to grow your customer base and keep them forever.























