If you’ve done your research and have a large target audience, you’ve probably begun building your online business. Once you’ve accrued a certain level of consistent users or customers, you may want to consider creating your own membership site. These sites are great because they are created around a built-in audience that should ensure profitability.
You can build your brand’s visibility and create a more intuitive relationship with your customers or clients by offering special content and deals to individuals who sign up for these membership sites. But how do you promote your membership site? Once you’ve done the work and got the site up and running, how do you attract people to this site (not only your current clients but also future customers)?
Let’s take a look at some of the key factors to consider when looking to promote your membership site and some tips that can help you do so successfully.
Process of Your Launch
Before we get into the promotional options and tips, let’s look at the process of actually launching your membership site. There are three main parts to the process – prep, promotion, and launch. Let’s take an in-depth look at each so you understand the aspects that create these steps:
Prep
Before you launch your membership site, you want to create all the materials you’ll need to do this. This includes things like the document workflow, content creation, graphics, and email sequences. Once all that’s done, you can utilize that to execute your membership website pages and do a test run to make sure everything is working.
Promotion
Then comes the promotional part of the process. Of course, we’ll talk about some of the promotional options you have below, but those are the ones to use when the membership site is up and running. As you’re beginning to launch, you’ll want to offer pre-order prices and utilize social media and content to get the word out about your new membership site.
Suppose you already have an email list from your previous content and offerings. In that case, you can utilize this to push conversion to your membership website and offer your pre-existing customers the chance to join for more information.
Launch
Once you’ve got everything prepared and word out about your membership site, you can launch it. After you have launched, it’s time to dive into the tips and tactics you’ll use to further promote your membership site.
Tips for Making Your Membership Site Successful
Promoting your membership site is just one aspect of making it successful. There are a ton of other factors that go in, so before you start promoting and getting your content and brand name out there, you want to really make sure you have everything in your arsenal. We have pulled together some tips from successful membership site launches to help you out.
Value
You have to be offering value to your target audience that warrants a financial commitment of this nature. Making the membership lucrative to them is only possible through a unique selling strategy that benefits them. There is a wealth of content available to them, so your content has to engage and benefit their needs and demands.
Authority
You want to build confidence in your customer. That means that in every aspect of your launch and promotions, you need to exhibit authority in the niche or industry you are offering your membership site in. This includes cultivating a brand image that ties in with your brand story as well as plays well with the lifestyle and sensibilities of your target audience.
Expertise
When you’re looking to build your membership website, you have probably already been in the field you are looking to create it in for a while. Being an expert should be a core foundation of the entire idea of creating your membership website. Furthermore, being an expert will help you with the above tip in developing your authority in your niche or industry.
Exposure
You need to make sure that you are utilizing every tool at hand as you’re developing your membership site. The more exposure you have, the better it will be when you launch and promote your site. This means using social media as well as other content strategies to ensure that your content and products are getting in front of the eyes of the audience you’re looking to market your membership site to.
Promotional Options for Your Membership Site
Those tips above cover the overarching idea of creating, launching, and promoting your membership website. But when it comes to the actual methods, there are many different options you can choose from. So below, we’re going to go over some of the most common and effective ways to promote your membership site.
Direct
Of course, you can directly promote your membership site by sharing your content and updates on the progress of the preparation to launch over social media and other outlets. You can also communicate directly with current clients and customers to share all the benefits and value that you are offering through this membership site.
Cross-promotion
Cross-promotion can be done very easily by utilizing influencers or other people that are in a non-competitive business to help market your membership site. Suppose you have some sort of authority and expertise. In that case, you can reach out to figures in your niche and offer them a collaboration to promote their business and your membership site to reach a larger audience.
Affiliate Marketing
It’s always great when you can get the word out about your membership site without utilizing that very important resource known as time. In order to get a wider net thrown when it comes to an audience, one of the best tools you can utilize for your membership site is affiliate marketing. By allowing others to market your product, you can drive their traffic to you, thereby converting at a higher rate and creating a better return on your investment.
Of course, this can be challenging if you’re not familiar with the concept, so having access to those that know the marketing tactic and resources to help you make an affiliate marketing program is quite beneficial. There are plenty of options available online, including the Membership Marketers Club.
Online Events
Another way to promote your membership site is to create an online event. This could be a live stream on one of your social media platforms or an Ask Me Anything session. If you want to be more formal, you can go with a webinar or maybe even a free introductory course that ties in with your membership site.
When it comes to online events, though, promotion-wise, you’ll want to continually do this every now and then to build more anticipation for new content that you’re releasing to garner more customers.
Front End
Asking for people’s money can be quite challenging. After all, they have other things like bills and commitments that they need to utilize it for. So if you’re looking to ask them for their money, you want to make sure you’re giving them the most beneficial offer possible.
That’s why offering special content and products upfront could take away some of the hesitations in signing up for your membership site. So a great promotional tool is to offer front-end offers that are only available upon signing up.
Upselling
If you already have an email list or a set number of customers who purchase your services or product, this is a great tool to offer them more value. In order to promote your membership website, you can reach out to these customers and offer them a membership that adds a reduced price. Basically, you’re utilizing your membership site as an upsell to capture their email and create a more symbiotic relationship that offers you both advantages.
Final Thoughts
A membership site can be a very lucrative way to build your business as well as a wonderful way to connect deeper with your target audience. But you have to be able to promote and launch it properly in order to get the biggest bang for your buck.
We hope that the tips and strategies above have helped you create a plan that will lead to a successful foray into the membership site aspect of your business. But if you still need more information, you can always check out the Membership Marketers Club as well!