Welcome to the first ‘edition’ of the Membership Toolkit – a monthly round-up of our favourite tools, tech and teachings for online membership owners.
Each and every month we’ll be highlighting everything from plugins and platforms to software and services, books and blogs to courses and conferences; giving you our top recommendations for what will help you and your membership business.
So, let’s dive in with the very first Membership Toolkit recommendations for June 2020…
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Members join for the content, but they stay for the community.
While anecdotal, this trend can often be observed in memberships of all shapes and sizes.
However while the community aspect of most memberships is the glue that holds things together, that certainly doesn’t mean you can slouch when it comes to creating content.
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Sales is not a dirty word – it’s the lifeblood of membership sites! If you want to have a successful membership, you’re going to need to recruit some members.
How do you recruit members?
By selling your product to them. It’s as simple as that!
Even if you hate the idea of selling, it’s essential if you want to grow your membership.
So, we’ve put together some tips and tricks that will help you boost your membership sales in a way that even the most sales-shy people can stomach.
Read on for five of our favorite tactics and strategies that can push your membership sales upwards.
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In the early days of running your membership, you’ll find yourself preoccupied with the day to day, short-term stuff.
How many new members did we get this week? Have we had any cancellations? Do I have enough time to get this new piece of content out to members?
However once things have settled and stabilised then it’s time to think bigger in terms of how you’re going to scale and grow your membership over the long term.
When that time inevitably arrives, here are the 6 key areas you’ll need to focus on…
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When you either have a large amount of content inside your membership, or you’re continuously adding new content on a regular basis – there’s a real risk of overwhelming members.
And when members are overwhelmed, they’re less likely to stick around.
This is where having a smart approach to your membership content strategy is crucial…
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When it comes to offering trials of your membership site or online product, opinions tend to be divided between those who consider it a smart strategy and those who believe you shouldn’t give anything away, no matter what.
We’re big fans of utilising trial periods as part of your pricing strategy; however we recognise that they’re not something which will necessarily be right for everyone.
If you’re still on the fence, here’s some food for thought to help you determine whether to implement trials into your own strategy.
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Starting a membership is exciting, nerve-wracking, and everything in between, but how do you know if it’s the right choice for you?
The decision to start a new membership site is not one to be taken lightly.
It’s a big commitment – and one that can be tricky to back out of once your membership is up and running with paying subscribers.
So it’s important you start a membership for the right reasons and fully understand the type of business you’re getting into.
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Most membership sites include some form of premium content locked away behind a paywall.
But locking your content down is a double-edged sword.
You could have the most incredible content in the world, but if the only people who know about it are your paying members then you’re missing on an opportunity to get so much more bang for your buck.
So before you hit ‘publish’ on your next piece of membership content, try implementing these 7 tactics.
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Churn is perhaps THE key measure of membership site performance.
It’s a KPI that every membership site owner should be tracking, but the majority of membership site plugins and programs don’t actually track this for you.
If you don’t know that you don’t know, how are you ever going to fix it?
By the end of this post, you’ll understand what churn in, have an easy way to measure your churn rate, and know six key ways to improve your member retention.
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Your sales funnel is a key part of attracting new members to your community; and so it’s no surprise that some membership owners have a constant itch to tweak and tinker with every little detail.
However making constant adjustments to your funnel is seriously counter-productive and could actually be hurting your business.
So, how often should you adjust your membership sales funnels?
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Having an audience to market to is paramount to the success of your membership. But what if you’re early in your journey and simply aren’t able to wait for the time it takes to build your audience organically?
The answer is simple: borrow your audience from someone else!
There are three main methods of audience growth: build, borrow or buy.
Joint venture promotions are one of the most effective tactics you can use if you’re looking to ‘borrow’ an audience.
Partnering up with an expert or influencer in your field is a great way of tapping into other people’s audiences and creating a big influx of new members.
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Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote and grow your membership, hands down.
Free content like blogs, podcasts, and videos will help you increase traffic, grow your audience, generate leads, and directly drive membership sales.
More importantly, it enables you to demonstrate your expertise and build trust with your audience.
And that is essential to attracting members who will stick around long term.
Consistently putting out quality free content is a must – but you can take things further and elevate your content marketing strategy to be even more effective for growing your membership.
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Some of the key principles and cornerstones of running a fruitful and brilliant membership are true regardless of whether you’re just starting your membership journey or looking back on your humble beginnings with fondness.
If you’re starting out, these tips could save you a lot of time, stress, and confusion.
And if you’re an established “membershipper”, these tips could be a perfect prompt for you to reinvigorate your membership or solve an issue you’ve been struggling with lately.
Let’s look at the eight essential things you should know before starting a membership…
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Over the years we’ve worked with thousands of memberships of all shapes and sizes; and for all their variety and the niches they occupy, the majority of those memberships have something in common:
They’re based on expertise – they’re founded by an expert in a specialist field, and their currency is their expertise and knowledge.
And they face a catch-22.
You need to demonstrate and prove your expertise in order to persuade people to join your membership.
And the best way to do that is through content marketing.
But giving away your best ideas for free means nobody will want or need to join – right?
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Running a membership site is exciting, rewarding, and… a lot of work.
Sometimes it can be mentally taxing – so when it comes to thinking up fresh ideas for new membership content or features, it’s not uncommon to find that the well has run a little dry…
We all need a helping hand with getting those creative juices flowing every now and again!
That’s why I’ve brought together 5 of the best ways to generate ideas and inspiration for your membership site.
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If you’re trying to level up or learn something, the first person you’ll look for is the person at the top of their game – the big name, the leading voice, in a given subject area.
As a membership site owner, your focus should be on becoming that person!
But simply knowing your stuff isn’t enough.
It’s all well and good having knowledge and expertise, but people need to know about it!
You need to make sure that you’re taking steps to position yourself as the go-to person in your industry.
So… how do you do it?
Here are my top 10 ways to market yourself and your membership site so that you become known as the go-to person in your industry
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