How to Use Gamification to Improve Member Engagement

Did you know that gamification can help you improve member engagement and retention in your site?

It’s a wonderful, yet often under utilized tool among membership owners…

But in recent years has gained popularity for enhancing user experiences and the effectiveness of eLearning for online courses and membership sites…

And as lifelong geeks, it’s right up our street!

So what is gamification and how can you implement it into your site?

Let’s find out…  

Taking Your Membership Offline for Increased Success

There is a lot of benefit to be had in connecting with your members offline, and you’ll often find that there comes a point in your membership when your members are actually crying out for more in-person connection, either with yourself or with others in your membership.

In this post we take a look at four different ways that you can take your membership offline and connect with your members on a deeper level.

5 Things to Consider When Adding Gamification to Your Membership Site

Gamification, the act of applying game elements and game theory to non-gaming situations, can be a great addition to many membership sites and provides a number of different benefits.

However actually adding gamification to your membership site can be a bit of a balancing act, and successful gamification requires some careful thought and planning in order to be effective for your members long term.

4 Tips For Validating That Your Membership Site Idea Will Work

When inspiration strikes and you come up with an idea for a membership website or some other product or service that you’re convinced is a winner, all too often it’s easy to get carried away in trying to make it a reality without every stopping to really examine whether your idea is actually as solid as you’re convinced it is.

Before you invest countless hours and immeasurable quantities of blood, sweat and tears into your new project, it’s highly worth taking the time to validate your big idea.

Here are my top tips for doing just that…

6 Reasons That Your Membership Website Absolutely Sucks!

Are you worried that your membership website kind of sucks? Hopefully not.

I’m sure you’ve got plenty of happy members who are giving you great feedback and showing you that your hard work is actually making a positive change in their world.

But there are unfortunately a lot of membership sites out there that do – to be frank – completely suck.

So if you’re someone who is running one of those websites, then in this episode I’m going to share some of the reasons why your membership sucks.

Are Your Long-Standing Members Actually Loyal to your Membership?

Is the fact that someone continues subscribing to your membership really a sign of loyalty?

So much of our time as membership site owners is spent trying to attract new members, and worrying about those who cancel, that it’s easy to take for granted the ones who continue paying us month after month.

We tend to assume that those members are happy, content and loyal; but quite often that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Marketing Tactics for Attracting New Members – Part Two

There’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to marketing a membership website.

However there are a number of tactics and strategies that are proven to work well, or that take advantage of some of the unique elements that come with running a membership website.

In the concluding episode of a two-part podcast series, I discuss a variety of different marketing tips that you can use for your own membership in order to increase sales and have a steady stream of new members joining your site.

5 Simple Ways to Use Forms to Improve the Member Experience

Whilst you may think about using a contact form plugin such as Gravity Forms to add contact forms on your membership site, it’s actually capable of so much more than this and in fact has a whole host of powerful features and add-ons that can be used to further enhance your membership site.

Gravity Forms is actually a bit of a ‘secret weapon’ of ours when it comes to memberships, as this one plugin can form the base of so many more advanced features that provide a better experience for both you and your members.

So, here’s just a few of the ways that you could use Gravity Forms (or similar options such as Ninja Forms) to improve your membership…

Marketing Tactics for Attracting New Members – Part One

Sales are the lifeblood of a successful membership business.

While being able to hang onto those members is critical to the long term health of your site, the best retention strategy in the world is useless if you’re not bringing in members in the first place.

In the first of a two-part podcast series, I discuss a variety of different marketing tips and tactics that you can use for your own membership in order to increase sales and have a steady stream of new members joining your site.

9 Signs That You Shouldn’t Start a Membership Website

Is starting a membership the right move for you? 

This is probably not a question you’d expect me to ask…

We’re here to guide you on how to plan, build and grow a membership after all…

But we’re also realistic…

A lot of people out there will tell you that every single person can start a membership…

And that’s simply not true… 

Running a membership isn’t for everyone.

Don’t get me wrong, they can thrive in every market and for every business…

But that doesn’t mean that everyone should launch one.

There are a lot of factors to take into consideration that might mean a membership is the wrong move for you.

So if you’re still on the fence on whether or not to launch a membership website…

Or are currently asking yourself “Is this what I should be doing?”

Then we’re going to give you some clarity to help you make that decision.

Here are 9 signs that you shouldn’t start a membership…

10 Most Popular Episodes of The Membership Guys Podcast in 2016

As 2016 draws to a close, we’re in a reflective mood here at The Membership Guys HQ.

It’s been a great year for us and for many within our community; and a particular highlight has been the growth and evolution of The Membership Guys Podcast.

We’ve had the great privilege of being joined by a number of great guests, and it’s been humbling that many of our most popular episodes feature only Mike and, well, a mic!
In this special holiday edition of the show, I’m counting down the 10 most popular episodes according to download numbers during 2016, and revisiting some of the biggest gems and value-bombs from them all.

Why It’s Important to Take Time Away from Your Membership

In some circles, working every hour under the sun and being so busy that you’re eating your Christmas lunch with your laptop on your knee, is seen almost as a badge of honour.

Evidence that you’re “hustling” harder than anyone else and as a result your business will be more successful.

It doesn’t work like that.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast we talk about why taking a break is so important, and I share a story about when I first realised that the world doesn’t stop spinning if you step away from your business.

How to Attract New Members by Running a Free Challenge

Most memberships are focussed on helping people to reach a goal or achieve some sort of positive outcome.

Whether you enable this with courses, worksheets and tools, community or something else – it’s the result that matters.

Running a free online challenge as part of your audience building and lead generation strategy taps into this in a big way and as a result can be one of the most effective tactics for attracting new members.

How to Use Live Video to Market Your Membership with Luria Petrucci

Live video is extremely popular right now, and it’s only going to become even more powerful as a marketing channel.

A lot of memberships we see are centered around an authority or expert of some type; and it stands to reason that one of the most effective ways of demonstrating your expertise, establishing your credibility and truly connecting with your audience is to get in front of a camera and share your message.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I’m joined by Luria Petrucci from LiveStreamingPros.com. These guys are absolutely nailing live broadcasting, and Luria has brought her years of experience in online video to the show to give you the steps and strategy you need to follow to make live video work as part of your membership marketing strategy.

4 Plugins for Creating an Awesome Online Course

If you’re creating an online course then you may want to consider using an LMS plugin instead of or as well as a membership plugin. Here I’ll compare the top 4 LMS plugins for creating an online course – Woo Sensei, WP Courseware, LifterLMS and LearnDash.

4 Tactics for Accelerating the Growth of Your Membership Audience

Growing your membership audience can be a slow, painstaking process.

Ultimately when all things are equal, people will buy from people they know, like and trust; and that sort of relationship takes time to develop.

However there are ways to speed up the process; and in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I look at 4 of the tactics you can use to accelerate your audience growth.