As an entrepreneur, you always want to make sure you see a solid return on your investments. This is true whether you’re talking about a traditional financial investment, or something harder to quantify, like an investment of time. When you look back at those investments, you want to see positive results. At a minimum, you want to see that you’ve gotten more out of those investment than you put in.

The same is true of your customers. When it comes to measuring returns, your customers and subscribers have it tougher than you do. While you can run the numbers on an advertising campaign or service, as end users they often don’t have as clear of an idea what a great ROI their subscription provides. They might not have the insights they need to see the value of the service, and they might not have the time to really examine the pros and cons.

If you want them to see the benefits of their membership, you have to show them. Fail to do this, and even a great service with a fantastic ROI can find itself just one bad mood away from a cancellation. The last thing you want is for your members or subscribers to make the decision about renewing based solely on a whim.

You aren’t running a casino, and you don’t want the success or failure of your business to be as unpredictable as a roll of the dice. If you want to keep those subscribers and members, you need to demonstrate that value in a way that is both compelling and motivating.

How do you demonstrate that value? It’s easier for some companies to do this than others, depending on the scope and the nature of their service. In some subscription-based services, like lead-generation tools, it’s possible to present the customer with hard data. In others, however, you may only be able to indirectly demonstrate the value of your memberships.

Here’s an example: There’s a great company called InsideSales.com, and they provide some really good tools and services for inside sales organizations.(They’re not a sponsor or anything, I just like the company.) They are also built around a subscription-based model, meaning they have to use many of the tools they sell.

One of the things that InsideSales.com does very well is to create great content based on best practices and reliable academic research. If you want real data about sales, like the average ratio of cold calls to completed sales, they’re the best resource I can think of. That kind of content also allows them to regularly demonstrate the value of their subscription.

All it takes for a some businesses is a weekly email showcasing that high-quality, members’-only content. Because that outstanding content it directly relevant to things like generating sales and building your business, it makes a strong case for a great ROI. And that’s exactly how InsideSales.com presents it: This is content that provides significant value, and you can’t get it anywhere else.

Don’t be shy about reminding your subscribers about the value of their subscription. Regularly showcasing the benefits of membership isn’t just about keeping those membership retention levels up, it’s about encouraging members to get the maximum value out of their investment in that subscription. By measuring and demonstrating that ROI for them, you’re making it that much easier for them to renew.