4 Ways You Can Use A Membership To Supplement Your Existing Business

When we talk about membership sites, typically it’s in the context of being the main part of the membership owner’s business.

However that’s not the only way to do it.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I dig into 4 of the main ways you could create a membership site that’s secondary and supplementary to the real focus of your business.

Learning to Love the Membership Model with Kim Jimenez

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Callie is talking with Kim Jimenez from The Business Lounge, a membership site for online business owners.

Kim has had her membership for nearly two years now, and in this episode she discusses how she didn’t initially want to create a membership site, what changed that opinion, and how starting one has actually transformed her business and life.

Kim also talks about how she is using YouTube, webinars, and trials to attract new members, and why she has both a Facebook group and an onsite forum for her membership community, and how she balances the two.

How Many People Can I Realistically Expect To Join My Membership?

This is the ultimate “how long is a piece of string” question.

There’s no exact science or specific formula that will accurately predict how many people are likely to join your membership.

However when setting goals for the launch of a new membership site, or even the growth of an existing one, it’s useful to know whether your aspirations are realistic or just pure delusion!

In this episode, I attempt to answer this unanswerable question, and give my “rule of thumb” guidance for predicting how many people you can realistically expect to join your membership.

A Member a Day Without Marketing with Nigel Moore

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie is talking with Nigel Moore all about his membership site, The Tech Tribe.

Nigel offers all members a personal coaching call when they join, has a private coaching section in his community and creates most of his content based on member questions and needs. As a result he’s really tuned into what his members, and his potential members, are looking for and what will help them to get results.

Here Nigel also talks about getting a member a day without marketing, and what happens when he actually turns his marketing funnel on. As well as the challenge of content creation, doing things that don’t necessarily scale, introducing a higher membership tier into the mix, and more.

Creative Ways to Improve Your Member Experience with Andrew and Pete

In today’s online world you’re increasingly competing with a lot of noise and distraction when it comes to your members time and attention.

How do you stand out?

What can you do to deliver a member experience that will make logging into your membership and spending time in your community preferable to watching hilarious cat videos on YouTube or chatting with friends on Facebook?

Andrew and Pete are two of the most creative content marketers in the world. And that creativity carries over to their own membership community too.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, we look at what they’re doing to craft a truly unique and remarkable member experience, and they share their tips on how you can think outside the lines and start being more creative with your membership.

Cultivating a Membership Community with Terra Dawn

In today’s episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Terra Dawn from Uncork Your Dork and the Wham! Bam! Business Plan!

Terra’s had her membership for over a year now and in this episode they’re talking about why she initially moved from Teachable to WordPress and why she’s recently moved her community from an onsite forum to Mighty Networks, and the effect that this has had on both her engagement and her retention.

Terra also discusses how she uses challenges and summits to market and grow her membership site, how the membership has changed her business focus and what she’s doing next to grow the membership even further

How To Level-Up by Creating a Membership Ecosystem

So your membership is ticking along nicely, you’re bringing in new members at a steady rate (and they’re sticking around too), you’ve got your systems and processes nailed and everything is running like clockwork.

What next?

There are a few different paths you can take for growing and scaling your membership business; but in this episode I want to talk about my favourite approach, one that’s perfectly suited to the membership model.

And that is creating an ‘ecosystem’ of products and services with your membership smack-bang at the heart of everything.

Low Cost and High Volume with Mark Warner

In this episode of Behind the Membership Callie talks with Mark Warner about his membership site for teachers, Teaching Packs.

Mark has a very different model to most membership site owners, offering only a very low cost non-recurring annual membership. So we’re talking about why Mark made that decision, and how it’s enabled him to attract 15,000 teachers to his membership over the last five years, as well as completely transform his own life in the process.

Mark Asquith On Changing Your Core Business Model

Making the move from working one on one with clients, to running a “one to many” subscription business like a membership can be a daunting transition.

It’s one Mark Asquith made several years back, when he called time on his successful digital agency to focus entirely on his SAAS company.

And it’s a journey we’ve taken ourselves with The Membership Guys.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, we discuss our respective journeys, and Mark shares an inside look into how he made the transition both from a practical sense as well as a mental one.

It’s a must-listen episode for anyone looking to make a similar switch in their business.

Where Should You Host Videos For Your Membership Site?

Most memberships in the online space feature some form of video content.

But the question of where to host these videos continues to confuse many membership site owners.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I delve into the 6 main options you have for hosting your membership videos and give my definitive recommendation (as well as what the absolute no-no is when it comes to video hosting)

Hiring as You Grow with Tim Topham

In this episode of Behind the Membership, Callie talks with Tim Topham from TimTopham.com, whose membership site is all about helping piano teachers to improve both their creative skills and their teaching businesses.

Listen in to hear how Tim made the leap from his teaching job to full time membership site owner, and the challenges and opportunities that that’s brought for him.

Plus Tim shares his advice on growing a team for your membership, making your first hire early, bringing in other content creators and the importance of just getting started and fine tuning as you go. And much more!

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.