Less than a month ago, Callie bought a book.
Unbeknownst to her, that simple act would be the start of the single worst buyer experience she’s ever encountered, as she found herself subscribed to a membership she never signed up for, with no clear way out.
In the interests of seeing how far the rabbit hole of terrible business practices went, she decided to see it through…
Join us on this rather unusual episode of The Membership Guys Podcast as we take a step by step tour through how NOT to run a membership (or any other business, for that matter!)
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Many people measure the success of their membership according to vanity metrics…
They focus on the amount of followers they have rather than the level of engagement they generate…
Turnover rather than net profit…
And the number of members they have as opposed to how many members they retain in the long-term…
So to many, success is defined by attaining those big numbers…
But is this how you should measure the success of your membership?
And should you be aiming to build a BIG membership or it is ok to create a smaller more intimate community of highly engaged members?
In other words, how big does your membership need to be in order to be considered successful?
Let’s explore this in more detail…
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This year we’re extremely excited to pull the trigger on something we’ve wanted to do since we very first launched The Membership Guys back in 2015: running our own conference.
Retain Live is a 2-day live event for membership site owners taking place September 11th-12th 2019, and it’s shaping up to be an extremely special conference.
It definitely helps that we’re pretty seasoned at attending events like this around the world, as we’ve been able to draw on what we’ve liked (and what we haven’t!) in order to help us design the type of event that we’d love to go to ourselves.
However we know that many in our audience might not have been to a conference like Retain before, and as such perhaps you’re not sure what to expect, or can’t figure out whether it’s worth the time, money and energy to actually attend.
After all, what can attending an event in person give you that watching a few videos online can’t?
Well, the answer is – a lot!
There’s a huge array of benefits to attending live events – some obvious and some not so obvious. So we thought we’d highlight just some of the reasons you might decide to attend Retain 2019…
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Drip feeding your membership or course content can be a good way of increasing the value and stickiness of your membership, as well as providing other benefits for both you and your members.
But what actually counts as drip feeding and in what circumstances should you use it?
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How do you know if you’re delivering enough value in your membership for the price you’re charging?
This is something that every membership owner worries about at some point, asking ourselves questions like…
Is our membership good enough?
Are we doing enough for our members?
Are we meeting the needs of our members?
If this sounds familiar then don’t worry, you’re not alone.
It’s a common doubt that many of us have…
And whether we’d like to admit it or not, it usually comes from a form of impostor syndrome…
It’s that “comparisonitis” that we get when we look at what others are doing and somehow feel less in comparison…
Now, I could tell you to just not worry about it.
That it’s all in your head….
But in truth, the question of whether or not you’re delivering enough value for your members is a legitimate one to ask yourself…
And the mere fact you’re concerned about this means you’re a good membership owner…
So how do you know if you’re delivering enough value in your membership?
Let’s look at this in more detail…
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How do you take your membership content strategy to the next level?
Or even get it up and running in the first place?
Typically, membership site owners follow two or three fairly common strategies when structuring and distributing their content…
Members are either offered full access to a library…
Or are drip-fed content through things like courses and other resources on a regular basis.
These are both very solid approaches…
But, when it comes to content there are a plethora of creative ways to skin the membership cat…
And if you have to do anything, why not stand out while doing it?
So if you’re in the process of mapping out the specifics of your membership…
Or are looking for ways to spice things up when it comes to your content…
It’s always a great idea to know some of the less common approaches out there…
And we’re going to share some of them with you!
Here are four fairly unusual, but pretty effective membership content strategies…
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One of the key decisions to be made when planning a membership is whether to offer multiple membership levels or a single ‘all access’ option.
While we always advocate for simplicity, there are definite pros and cons to consider.
In this episode I discuss the key things you need to consider when deciding whether to have multiple levels in your membership, and provide my top tips for making this strategy work. And I also share a ‘middle ground’ for people who prefer to stick with a single level.
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Running a membership single-handed is a tough job.
In the early days, most membership owners wear multiple hats and do everything themselves…
But as your membership grows, it’s time to think about getting help.
More help means it’ll be easier to manage your membership…
You’ll have more time (and sanity) and can focus your attention on what you do best.
It seems like a no-brainer, right?
And yet, taking that leap to outsource is a tough call to make.
Lots of business owners struggle to part with their responsibilities…
And it’s tempting to try and do it all yourself…
Especially if that’s how you started.
My good friend Chris Ducker refers to this as “superhero syndrome.”
This is when you convince yourself that everything in your business rests on your shoulders, and you’re the only one who can possibly handle it all…
But that just means working insane hours, increased stress and becoming at risk of burnout…
And while some business owners convince themselves that that’s just the price you pay for being the hero in your business.
That’s all nonsense…
You shouldn’t be trying to do everything yourself and here’s why…
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This year we embark on our biggest and most daunting challenge to date – running our very own live conference: Retain 2019
It’s something we’ve wanted to do for years, and we’re beyond excited to bring together hundreds of membership site owners from around the world for 2 days of amazing speakers and high-level networking.
But the journey has not all been smooth sailing…
In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I take you behind the scenes of the story so far, revealing our thought process, strategy and sharing the highs and lows of orchestrating this kind of event.
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Your membership sales page is perhaps the single most important piece of the puzzle for attracting member signups.
Whether it’s a cold lead or someone who has been following you for years – it’s your sales page that needs to seal the deal and help them to make the final decision to join your membership.
So it’s crucial that you get it right!
In this episode I walk through the key elements that every membership sales page should have in order to maximise new member sales.
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Most online memberships involve content.
A lot of content.
Not only are you creating content for your membership, but often you’re blogging, podcasting or creating videos as part of your marketing strategy too. It can be a lot to handle!
That’s why it’s crucial to have a solid plan for your content production, so you know well in advance what you need to create in order to schedule accordingly and avoid constantly doing everything at the last minute.
In this episode I’m joined by Janet Murray to discuss how to plan an entire year’s worth of content, and the tips and tools you need to help you stay on track.
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Considering starting a membership website in 2019?
Perhaps you should be…
In this episode I look at 6 types of people who are especially well suited to starting a membership site, and discuss some of the various strategies they could consider.
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And so another year draws to a close…
How was 2018 for you and your membership?
Rather than lament the passage of time, once again we’re wrapping up the year by taking a look back at the most loved episodes of The Membership Guys Podcast, counting down the top 10 most downloaded episodes of the past 12 months.
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Lead generation is a critical part of the sales process for membership owners.
For most membership businesses, this means getting people to subscribe to your email marketing list, where you can engage with them further on a more direct basis and guide them towards joining your membership site.
In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I talk about how to convert website visitors into email leads, and give my top tips for increasing both the quantity and the quality of the leads that you generate.
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It’s easy to get carried away when creating a membership website.
We often turn to other memberships for inspiration, and as a result end up with a wishlist of shiny bells and whistles that we absolutely MUST have for our own website.
And the end result of cramming all of those features into your membership is a convoluted frankenstein’s monster of a website that’s a pain to manage and an even bigger nightmare for members to use.
It’s not just the tech side of things that people tend to over-complicate; we see the same thing happening with marketing, sales and overall business strategy too.
In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I warn against adding too much complexity to your membership business and discuss the benefits of embracing simplicity.
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Membership websites have a whole mess of moving parts – plugins, themes, integrations, payment processors – they all add up to make memberships one of the most complicated types of sites that you can build.
And even if you have help getting everything up and running, chances are there’ll be numerous times you’ll need a bit of tech support in the day to day running of your membership.
But finding reliable help with the technical side of building and maintaining a membership can be a crap-shoot.
In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I run through some of the most viable options for finding tech support that you can rely on for different stages of your membership.
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