So you’re planning to launch a membership service of some sort, and you need the power and reach of the internet. Obviously, you’ll need a website to accomplish this. Do you know how to run a successful membership website?
However, a membership website is much different than a regular website. It’s built for members and to cater to the needs of these people specifically. In addition to that, it should convince prospective members to join your service/program.
In this post, we’ll be taking a look at some tips for running a successful membership website. Membership sites can seem technically complex to most people, but the reality today is quite the opposite. Really, anyone can create a membership site using Weebly, a popular and easy to use website builder.
What’s important is how to plan and run a successful membership website, and we’ve boiled it down to a few key points for you in this post.
1. Start With A MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
Don’t think that you’ll get everything right and built when you launch your membership website. The membership website design should be iterative and should be constantly improved by adding features, functionality and updating web design with feedback from customers.
Plus, spending all you have into creating complex functionality that most users won’t even need will be a waste of time and resources. Start off with a minimum viable product (MVP), something that your users can find value in but isn’t too complex to build. Web analytics insights can also help out to improve your website.
As time goes on, you can enhance features and add value to your membership program. There’s always time to improve, so focus on launching your site as economically as possible. There will be lots of improvements that lie ahead, no matter how much time you spend building the website before launch.
2. Interact With Members
If you’re running a one-man show, it’s much easier to interact with the members as they’ll know you personally. Most of the time, even sites like these become home to just content and resources that members can avail, but with no interaction with site owners.
For a truly engaging member experience, according to GetVoIP, consider having interactive sessions with members on a somewhat regular basis to keep them invested in your website.
Some Ways Of Engagement:
- Create a private member-only Discord chat.
- Live seminars where members can ask questions.
- Create a private Facebook group to interact with members.
- An email where members can reach out to you.
You don’t have to spend hours every day interacting with members. Set aside half an hour daily to interact with your members. This shows that you care about your members.
Having a weekly email newsletter sent out is also a great strategy to keep members interested. If you notice your Discord, seminar or Facebook group are quiet, ask questions and start conversations to get the ball rolling.
3. Evolve Your Website According To Member Needs
Your members aren’t going to be content with the features they get when they first join the website. Chances are, your website offers what they’re looking for at the moment they join the website.
Afterward, however, they’ll discover competitor sites that offer the same things as you do, but with some additional features and perks. You need to be aware of this and keep adding features, functionality, content or whatever else to make sure your members find new value in being members of your site.
Keep an eye on member engagement through. If you see it falling below routine levels, reach out to members and ask for what improvements they’d like to see going forward.
Don’t be afraid of asking members what they want. Delivering new value can be challenging, but it’s not impossible especially if it allows you to retain existing members.
Use your forums, Discord chat or private Facebook group to survey members on what they’d like to see from your website.
4. Offer Free Trial To New Members
Let’s face it, most of us are hesitant to buy things without trying them first. To make it easier for new members to test whatever your offering is, offer them a free trial.
Offering a trial allows you to dodge a lot of questions a user might have of your product, so your customer support team doesn’t have to deal with non-members so much.
If a free trial is too costly for you to offer, choose to offer a cut-price one-month membership to new members.
You can also offer a cut-price paid trial to users who you know are already interested. These could be from paid ad campaigns. For cold traffic, however, you should offer free trials.
5. Avoid Shoe-Horning All Members Under One Membership
Your membership should be divided into several levels or tiers. The most basic membership should have access to the basic features only, while more expensive plans can have advanced features included in them.
And there’s no harm in doing this either. Some users simply aren’t looking for advanced functionality. By segmenting your paid plans, you’re giving flexibility to users on choosing what they pay for.
This makes it easier for users on a budget to choose your membership.
6. Upsell
You may want to consider upselling to increase the average revenue generated per member. This could be in the form of add-ons or offering discounted yearly packages.
You can also upsell your ‘basic’ membership level users to upgrade to the premium membership level, with an incentive or two thrown in. This will increase the revenue you generate per member.
Monitor the users who are the most engaged with your website and services, and start upselling to them first. They’re the ones who are already familiar with the limitations of their plan and might be in the process of upgrading anyway.
