How do the best memberships create winning sales strategies?

As it turns out, their compelling sales strategies are not as complex as you might think.

Sure, they might try a few wild card tactics in an attempt to boost their numbers every now and again, but for the most part they stick to obvious marketing strategies.

The funny thing is that many membership owners assume these sales tactics are too easy to actually work.

So, instead of trying them out, they shy away from such things in favour of the “next big thing” in marketing.

Unfortunately, you won’t find one golden solution that works for everybody.

If you want to grab the attention of potential members, you need to stop searching for magic tricks and focus on combining a mixture of strategies and tactics and doing them very well.

You’ll be surprised to learn that it’s often the simplest sales tactics that have the biggest return on investment.

So, here’s six quick and easy sales tactics that you can try:

1. Email your list, today

I know, emailing your list is so simple, it’s shocking. But you’d be amazed at how often we see membership owners who don’t even think about mentioning their membership to their email list.

The number one reason why people hold back from sharing this exciting news with their email subscribers is that they don’t want to come across as too salesy.

Well, here’s a news flash for you… if you have a membership, you need to sell it.

There’s no reason to feel guilty about it!

Your membership will solve your members’ problems and a lot of people on your list could really benefit from joining your site. But they can’t join if they don’t know it exists.

By keeping this valuable information from your subscribers, you’re doing them a massive disservice.

Don’t be afraid to send a promotional email announcing your membership.

If you like, you can choose a single feature of your membership (such as a webinar, a workshop or a case study, etc.) and focus on that in the email.

2. Offer a trial promotion

People are more likely to commit to something that they’re confident in and they know exactly what they’re getting for their money.

A great way to drive more membership sales is to offer a trial promotion to your audience.

A trial promotion gives people the chance to take your site for a test drive.

You can offer it as part of a limited time only promotion, which also triggers FOMO (fear of missing out) and helps to compel more people to join.

You could let everyone know that this trial offer is for a limited time only such as 48 hours or so.

This will help get more people into your membership because there’s a sense of urgency and as humans, we don’t like missing out on a great opportunity!

Having an open trial that’s constantly available might not work for every membership.

The best way to find out what works for your membership is to test it.

You might find that an open trial isn’t for you at all. Or, maybe you prefer to use it for the occasional marketing promotion, but it’s not something you want to depend on very often.

Once people have entered your ecosystem via a trial promotion, you’ll find it much easier to convince them to hang around for the long-haul.

3. Allow non-members to attend member training sessions

No, I haven’t lost the plot!

This is a fantastic sales tactic that I’ve seen many memberships use and it did wonders for them.

Giving ‘outsiders’ access to something that’s normally conducted behind closed doors cultivates a sense of mystery and excitement.

Anyone who takes part is granted access to content that typically isn’t available to them.

It’s not a full trial, but it gives non-members a taste of what they can get if they decide to become a paying member of your site.

Hopefully, it’ll be enough to tempt new members to join.

It could be as simple as letting them attend a live webinar or Q&A session. To get people interested in coming along, you can promote it across your social channels.

Depending on what you’re doing, most software for webinars and live events, etc., will give you the option to open up registrations to the public for this session only.

That way, non-members can watch the event but without the ability to actually submit queries or take part in the chat.

Limiting their access like this helps to preserve that exclusivity for your members and it can also act as a great way to convince non-member participants to sign-up so that they can be more active in future webinars and events.

4. Directly ask non-buyers why they haven’t joined your membership

This one might seem a little scary as you can potentially open yourself up to some ridicule and negative feedback, but you can also learn a lot.

Emailing people who opted out of paying for your membership and asking them why they haven’t joined is a great way to help you improve your membership across the board.

However, asking this question can help you open up more sales opportunities.

The key thing is to keep it simple.

Don’t overcomplicate your question and make an email that would take too much effort to respond to.

Keep it simple and remember to ask people to reply with their answers. You’ll be surprised at just how many responses you’ll get.

A lot of the replies will clarify why non-buyers decided not to join your membership.

You might discover that the majority of people didn’t join due to financial concerns or perhaps they didn’t find any value in your offering.

Whatever the case, you may be able to turn things around and convince them to join after all.

If you can prove to them that your membership can and will help solve their problem, you’re on the right path.

Reaching out to non-buyers gives you the chance to find out what stopped them from joining.

Using this information, you can fine-tune your funnels and hopefully prevent the same thing from happening again.

5. Ensure you have a clear “call to action” on your website

It may seem simple, but so many people don’t bother to include a direct call to action (“CTA”) on their website and thank you pages, etc.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you can’t or shouldn’t mention your membership unless someone has completed an entire sales funnel for it.

This mentality prevents you from attracting more members because guess what, if you don’t mention your membership on your website, nobody will know it exists.

If you want more sales, put your membership on your main website.

Give it a spotlight and stop putting it on the back-burner.

Without a link to your membership and a relevant call to action, people will have no inclination to find out more because the information simply isn’t there for them.

Don’t neglect your ‘thank you' pages either!

If someone has opted into your email list, they’re already interested in what you’ve got to offer.

So, make sure you’ve got CTA’s on all of your thank you pages and let them know about the other ways you can help them (such as your membership site!)

Believe me when I tell you that a CTA on your website can have a massive impact on your membership sales.

Last month, 52% of our member sign-ups for the Membership Academy came from calls to action on this website.

So, if you want to boost sales, don’t skip this one!

6. Host a live tour of your membership

People love taking a peek behind the scenes and yes, it’s probably because we’re all really nosy, but some people genuinely want to know more about your membership.

They might have a basic idea of what to expect, but they need to know more before committing.

Since memberships are comprised of different deliverables and content, etc., marketing them effectively can be a real challenge.

The bigger and broader the membership, the more difficult it is to properly convey the true value of joining.

Hosting a live tour of your membership and giving people a behind the scenes look inside can be the key thing that compels them to join.

Showing people around the site and going from screen to screen is a great way to make your membership come to life for them.

They’ll get to see how everything works and ties together, which helps to demonstrate what your membership offers.

Behind the scenes videos have always been one of the highest performing marketing assets we’ve used for not just ourselves, but our clients and members.

Hosting a live tour is even better because it’s more interactive, you can communicate with people in the chat section and answer any questions they have about the site with a live video demonstration.

Some of the best software for hosting a live membership tour includes OBS, Ecamm Live, Wirecast and even Zoom.

The people who join your live tour are clearly in the market to potentially become members.

So, this is your chance to prove that your membership is worth joining.

All of these sales tactics don’t take too much time or effort to put in place.

You might find that some work for you while others don’t and that’s okay.

Remember that there’s no one size fits all solution to boosting membership sales.

If you’re serious about getting more members through the door, you need to test a variety of sales strategies until you find the perfect mix that will help scale your membership.