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Launching a membership site is one thing, but making it a success is another. In today’s blog post, learn these 4 surprisingly simple and easy to remember secrets of successful membership sites.
The most important element of a successful membership site is your “why”; that is, the value that you serve up to your members.
Everything else serves your “why.”
That said, there are a number of other membership sites having a fantastic “why” and yet they never made it past a certain level of success or never saw a profit.
In today’s article, I list down secrets of successful membership sites so you can apply them in your own membership site.
Why did your members join your site in the first place?
The most likely reason is to access useful, valuable, expert content that present solutions to a specific, pressing, common problem they’re experiencing.
For as long as you’re providing high-quality content that helps them solve their problems and achieve their long-term goals, your members are going to stay on and you’ll be able to get new members to join.
Make a content calendar. If your membership site has no specific end date, you must never run out of content to publish. Prioritize content creation and schedule it properly so you never run out.
Ensure that even if you prioritize the creation of your content, you have enough time left over for other essential tasks of maintaining your membership site. If there’s no way everything will fit, consider hiring people to take care of other minor tasks for you so you can focus on the most important ones.
Allot enough time for your research. You may be an expert in your field, but you still need to research thoroughly to write excellent content. If you’ll have to research a topic that’s industry-wide, or you’re going to write an expert roundup, allow yourself enough time.
Update older content. The longer you have your membership site, the staler your existing content gets. Make sure you always stay relevant by incorporating content updates into your content calendar.
Experiment with content type (but not too much). Getting the right mix of content type (text, images, video, audio, etc.) will take time and plenty of feedback to perfect. Don’t be afraid to test different types and finding out what your members want more of and what they want less of.
However, you still need a degree of consistency to your content. Don’t just produce something else because it’s trendy; produce it because it’s more valuable and effective than what you were doing.
If your members find your text content useful but your podcasts not so much, maybe try to switch your podcasts to video and see if you have a better response. It doesn’t mean that you have to give up the text content; it’s working, so leave it alone.
Consider including member-generated content. There will be times when you’ll sorely need a break. Member-generated content can give you a little bit of a breather.
But it’s not all selfish. Featuring content from members is a great way to acknowledge members who contribute a lot to your site. Incentivize it further by making it into a contest with one major prize or rewarding everyone who participate.
Never forget who the content is for. Your members are the ones who will be consuming your content. Keep creating the kind of content that will help your members solve problems and achieve their goals.
Customer experience doesn’t just begin when your members sign up.
Their entire experience from learning about you, to reading your content on your blog or social media, to opting in to your mailing list, to signing up for your membership site, to your interactions with them on the site, to purchasing your products or getting your services (if you’re offering them) until they cancel their membership.
That’s a long journey.
It all sounds so involved and so exhausting.
But why is it important to create a positive experience for their entire journey?
Because a customer, prospect, or member that has positive experiences with your membership site from the start is likely to be a loyal member. Not only that, they tend to have nothing but kind words to say about you to others, and recommendations like these are a valuable source of social proof.
Be pleasant right from the start. Treating your prospects with courtesy and respect from the beginning of the member-owner relationship will go a long way.
This one sounds very basic and something you should be as a person, but you’ll be surprised at how many membership site owners overlook simply using “please” and “thank you” when dealing with prospects who want to join their site.
Reply to emails, respect other people’s time, never be rude even when they’re rude to you and even when they don’t want to sign up. Be the kind of person people want to interact with.
Reach out to your members regularly. Ideally, you do regular check-ins with your members when you send them newsletters or updates.
But sending them a regular email solely to check in, just to ask how they find the site and if there’s any concern they have or any questions they’d like to ask you, can help them focus and reflect on how they’re using the site and if they still find it useful to them.
You can have this automated and sent every 4, 6, or 8 weeks (depending on how much content you have and how active your community is) from when they signed up for your site.
If you wait until your members are already unhappy and dissatisfied before you ask them what’s wrong, it’s going to be too late. Nip their dissatisfaction in the bud.
Make your processes efficient and user-friendly. From opting into your mailing list to downloading their lead magnet, to signing up and paying for their membership, to buying and downloading your products, each and every one of the processes your members will have to go through on your membership site have to be seamless.
Perfect systems don’t exist, but you can make it as efficient as you can so that major screw-ups are rare. Choose the right tools and services so you can make it as painless as possible for your members.
Listen to your members. It’s one thing to ask for their input and their feedback and another to actually read and listen to them. Take time after your member survey or feedback request and actually read through.
Bear in mind, however, that you’re still in control of your site. Part of your obligation as the site owner is to keep everyone or at least the majority happy. If the feedback doesn’t benefit everyone, feel free to toss it out.
Building an online-based business inevitably involves rapid change.
What’s popular today might be gone tomorrow, and what’s obscure today might suddenly be the talk of social media tomorrow.
A successful membership site never stops adapting to the current trends and member preferences.
Pay attention to conversations on your community section. As I’ve mentioned, your site exists mainly for your members. Their conversations are a prime source of information about what they find important and what they don’t.
Note the topics that are being raised, questions being asked. You’ll glean enough information from them to know if your content, your products and/or services, and even your website design are still up-to-date.
Update yourself on the latest news and developments in your niche. Your members are your greatest source of feedback, but you should also be responsible for always keeping abreast of the latest news in your field.
Social media is an obvious choice for trending topics, but don’t count out other blogs and websites in your niche. Tools such as EpicBeat, BuzzSumo, and Google Trends can also be a tremendous help.
Never lose sight of your “why.” Your mission, the reason why you started your membership site, and the value you want to give your members must remain constant, even throughout the changes in your niche.
As your content evolves and you offer different products and services to cater to the changing needs of your membership base, they should still be able to solve their problems and reach their goals with your help.
I’ve saved this for last because even after your members have gotten everything out of your content, or bought all of your eBooks, or booked all the services you offer, having an active, thriving community on your website increases the chances that your members will stay.
You might be the owner of the website and have full control over content, customer experience, and the membership site in general, but without an engaged community, your site will never live up to its full potential.
Applaud successes. It’s human nature to seek approval from one’s peers. Dedicate an area of your site to celebrate wins by your members.
Recognizing their success sends the message that you think of their wins as everyone’s wins. Plus, you want other members to be motivated by their co-members’ accomplishments to convince them that they’ll see the same success if they stay on.
Cherish the members you have more than the members you don’t. It’s possible to be so focused on getting more new members that you neglect the existing ones. It certainly isn’t an ideal situation because being ignored in favor of the new members will probably trigger your existing members to leave.
This is especially true for those members who’ve been with you since your initial launch. Giving them a degree of distinction can inspire them to stay on and possibly even take on some responsibility as forum moderators or additional support for new members.
Note that this distinction isn’t meant to artificially create a social hierarchy within your membership base. Rather, this is to express your appreciation for them and for staying on with you as long as they have.
Aside from the mental and emotional investment in new members, there’s also the financial investment to consider. Retaining existing members is much less expensive than acquiring new ones. So even as you continue recruiting new members, make sure your more senior members aren’t being neglected.
Be part of the community. Yes, you own the site, and you have plenty of responsibilities and tasks just to keep your site running. But your participation is a huge factor in whether or not the community will flourish, especially when you first launch your site.
Engage in conversation with them; real, meaningful conversations about their goals and their struggles in achieving those goals. Allow them to ask you questions and constructively comment on your content and your website in general.
If you’re not interested in being a part of your community, how can you expect anyone else to be?
I said it at the beginning and I’m going to say it again.
The central element that determines the success of your membership site is the value you give your members.
Everything else is secondary, but ultimately necessary for your overall success.
Here are the 4 surprisingly simple secrets to success.
Having a good grasp of your “why” and of these 4 fundamental principles will get you on the right path to long-term success.
What would you say is your secret to a successful membership site? Share it with us in the comments!
JoAnne is your average, everyday, sane stay-at-home mom who believes in the power of the internet to make dreams come true. She has an insatiable appetite for chocolate, as well as all things internet marketing. She keeps up with the latest trends in blogging, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and more.
