What Should Be Your Membership Refund Policy?

Refunds suck.

Let’s face it – someone asking for their money back is never cause for celebration.

But the fact is that while it might hurt your feelings, hurt your wallet or just flat out annoy the hell out of you when people ask for a refund – having a fair refund policy is ultimately a good thing for you and for your membership.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I explore the best ways to deal with refund requests, and provide my top pointers for what you need to include in your membership’s refund policy.

Success in a Crowded Niche with Scott Baptie

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Scott Baptie from Food for Fitness about his new membership site, The Food for Fitness Inner Circle.

While Scott’s membership site has only been open for a few months, he already has a few hundred members, and here we’re talking launching, going all in on the membership model after years of offering services and products, and how he’s managed to attract members, despite being in a very crowded market.

We also dive into how Scott uses features like private coaching and accountability groups as part of his membership, as well as what he’s doing to grow his membership and improve retention going forward.

6 Quick & Easy Membership Sales Tactics To Try Out This Month

Much of the marketing advice you’ll come across conditions you to seek out a magic bullet that will unlock a tidal wave of leads and sales.

It’s all nonsense. There is no “easy button”.

Truth is that it’s extremely rare to find one big thing that will move the needle in your membership. It’s about doing a lot of the little things, and doing them well.

This week, I’m sharing with you 6 very quick, very simple marketing tactics that you can try out with minimal time or effort.

So, forget searching for your ‘Golden Goose’, listen to the episode and give some of these ideas a try…

Removing the Barriers to Membership Sales with Kim Bultsma

On Episode Four of Season Two, Callie is talking with SEO and content strategist Kim Bultsma about her membership site, A Cup of Content.

Kim and Callie talk niching down, running completely free trials to attract new members, implementing member challenges to improve engagement and retention and the joy of watching your members make progress thanks to your content.

They also talk about how Kim came to start her own business in the first place after years of being a teacher, and the impact that this change had on her family life.

Plus, Kim shares some of the challenges that she’s encountered along the way, particularly when it comes to balancing time between her service business and the membership site.

3 Questions That Will Accelerate Your Membership Growth

A clear understanding of what makes your audience tick is key to ensuring your marketing is on point.

So often people forget this.

They get swept up in the latest quick fix marketing tricks, Facebook ad hacks and flavour-of-the-month sales funnels that they ignore that the foundation of successful marketing is understanding your audience.

Their pains, their problems, their motivations.

This stuff isn’t difficult to zero in on. And in this week’s podcast, I discuss the 3 questions every single membership site owner should be asking, and what to do with the answers to improve both your marketing and your retention strategies.

Highs and Lows of a Closed Door Model with Brandon Vogt

In this episode of behind the membership, Callie talks with Brandon Vogt from Claritas U about how he’s achieved success with his membership site for Catholics who want to get clear on their faith.

Brandon has managed to create and run this six figure membership site alongside a full time job and gained over a thousand members with just his first launch, a pretty impressive achievement by anyone’s standards.

Here we look at how Brandon uses the launch model to only open his site twice a year and the pros and cons he’s found of doing this, including how it impacts his churn and ongoing member numbers.

We also talk premium tiers, engagement, content creation, retention and more!

How to Tap Into Your Existing Members to Create Social Proof

Social proof is a powerful marketing tool.

Everyone expects you to talk about how awesome your membership is – that’s a given – but when others back you up then it’s a whole different ball game.

Testimonials, endorsements and success stories go a very long way – and as a membership site owner you have the perfect resource at your disposal to generate this sort of social proof: your existing member base!

In this episode, I talk about the most effect ways of tapping into your existing members to help you to create highly persuasive and effective social proof that will help you to skyrocket your marketing.

Creating a Successful Membership Ecosystem with Janet Murray

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Callie is talking with Janet Murray, PR and marketing strategist and owner of The Studio membership.

Janet has actually built a whole ecosystem around her membership, providing a natural progression through a different range of services and products including books, live events, consulting and mastermind groups.

Here we dive into the role The Studio has in Janet’s business, and how the membership has evolved and expanded over the last few years, actually resulting in a current rebrand and a restructuring.

We also look at why customer care is vital and some of the things Janet is doing differently to help with both attracting new members and keeping existing members, including the use of open days, reset and exit calls.

Building a 7 Figure Bass Empire with Scott Devine

The Behind the Membership podcast is back for Season 2!

And we’re kicking off this season with a very special guest, the one and only Scott Devine from Scott’s Bass Lessons.

Now, Scott was actually a client of ours for many years and we saw his site go from free YouTube videos and a PayPal donate button to a seven figure membership site in the years that we worked with him.

Scott’s Bass Lessons has been running for 6 years now and has attracted over 30,000 members in that time. So there’s a lot to pack into this episode!

The Potential Downsides of Using Gamification In Your Membership

Gamification is the strategy of using gameplay elements as a means of encouraging engagement with your product, course or membership.

Typically with membership sites, this manifests itself as point systems, badges and other rewards for completing content or contributing in your community.

While gamification can be a highly effective strategy, it isn’t a “magic button” for creating an engaging member experience, and if implemented poorly can actually have an adverse effect on your membership.

In this episode I discuss some of the potential problems with using gamification techniques for memberships.

3 Ways To Enable Shared Group Access To Your Membership

Are you in an industry where there may be a demand for group access to your membership?

Whether it’s partners in the same business, employees in a single company, or even just an entrepreneur wanting their assistant, web designer or some other member of their team to access your site – it’s not uncommon to receive requests to provide shared access.

In this episode I discuss the 3 ways you can facilitate this in your membership site.

Should You Let Members Cancel Their Subscription Themselves?

Cancellations suck. There’s no denying it.

Obviously a member ending their subscription is pretty much the worst case scenario. By nature of the business model it’s pretty much the last thing we want to happen, right?

So why would you make it easier for members to leave by giving them the ability to cancel their membership themselves without you being involved or having a chance to talk them round?

In today’s episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I dive into the pros and cons of allowing members to cancel their own subscriptions vs implementing a process that requires them to contact you first if they want to leave.

4 Ways to Improve Your Live Member Training Calls

Live calls are a great way of delivering value to your members without a lot of the headaches and added effort that goes into creating many other forms of member content.

Webinars, live Q&A’s, member coaching calls – this sort of content is ideally suited to most types of memberships.

In today’s podcast episode, I dive deeper into how to get the most out of live member content and give my top tips for raising the bar and improving the quality and impact that it can have.

Should Membership Trial Periods be Free or Paid?

Should membership trial periods be free or paid? 

This is one of the biggest questions we get asked when it comes to offering trials…

It’s natural for some to think that a paid trial would scare some potential new members away…

And in some cases it does…

But that’s not always a bad thing!  

Free trials on the other hand are often the most attractive option for membership owners and participants alike…

But does that mean it’s the right move for you? 

If you’ve been considering offering a trial for your membership…

Or you’ve attempted a trial and aren’t sure if you picked the right option after not getting the results you’s hoped for…

Then read on as we explore both free and paid trails in detail to help you decide which one is best for your membership…

How Much Content Do You Need to Launch Your Membership?

The launch of a new membership site can be a nerve-wracking time, and adding to that anxiety is the question of whether you have enough content to open your doors.

Is there a set amount of content that a membership site needs to have before you release it to the public? What content should you be creating and how do you know when to say “when”?

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I tackle this question, and provide my top tips for approaching content creation as you gear up for launch.

Should You Launch a Membership Site Without First Building an Audience?

If a membership site launches with no audience to notice, has it truly launched?

In this episode we answer the much asked question of whether it’s possible – or advisable – to launch a membership site when you do not have an audience.

I also discuss why audience building is particularly important for membership website owners, as well as my top tips for how you can get started on building an audience for your membership, fast.