Membership sites are great for building recurring income, because as long as you give members value they will continue to pay you every month. But how exactly can you get new members for your membership site?
1. Tell them about the benefits
Clearly illustrate the benefits of your membership site. Yes, the features of your product, membership, or service are important, but when asking them to sign up for ongoing payments, you really need to let them know the benefits. For example: will they save time, have less stress, build more stamina…?
2. Give a low-cost or free trial
Even if your subscription offer can be cancelled at anytime, people are often wary of getting hooked into a subscription of something not yet sure of. You can offer a free or a very low-cost trial to try it out. For example, when I promoted my Online Business Club I offered the first week for $1 and almost everyone who signed up to that stayed for a few months at the very least.
3. Offer a Satisfaction Guarantee
A guarantee can go a long way in giving you prospects the confidence to buy. In the case of membership sites where you are delivering digital content, there are minimal costs per member so that offering a 30-day money back guarantee, for example, is easy enough to do.
4. Let them cancel at any time
In addition to giving them a guarantee, make sure they know they can cancel at any time. Some offers need commitment to see results (such as coaching), but in the case of a straightforward subscription there is usually no reason to make it hard to leave. Prospects will be more likely give it a try if they know they can get out easily. Then you just wow them with your content, so they’ll stay.
5. Ask your customers to help you promote
Why not set up an affiliate program? Some of your members may be experienced with affiliate marketing, but for those that are not, make the concept of the affiliate program easy to understand. It’s simply a referral program where they can refer family and friends. Make it attractive by telling them they can earn enough cash to pay for their monthly membership, or even more.
So there are a few ideas to get you going. And if you haven’t grabbed Alice Seba and Ron Douglas’s free guide with 24 ideas and examples of winning membership ideas, here is where to get it . (It’s only available for a few days).
Thanks for writing this.