5 biggest membership site benefits
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Don’t look now, but membership sites are hot, hot, hot! Especially for businesses selling digital products.
They allow members to learn, connect with like-minded professionals, and gain access to otherwise hidden resources. And these are all perks you can pass on to your own customers.
If you’re interested in creating a site of your own, read on for the top five membership site benefits.
1. Recurring revenue
Not surprisingly, one of the best membership site benefits is recurring revenue.
Depending on the current stage of your business, you may already have everything (or almost everything) you need to launch your site and start generating revenue.
If you’re an entrepreneur selling online courses or other digital products via your website, it should be pretty easy to add a membership service to your current business model.
The key to success is knowing how to price your membership site.
Set your price too high and you’ll scare away potential members. But price it too low, and you could miss out on hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars a month.
Compare your idea and approach to other sites in your niche. The knowledge you gather will provide a better idea of how to set your price.
There’s no better feeling than a recurring revenue stream. It’s truly one of the top benefits of building a membership site.
2. Improve customer loyalty
As an entrepreneur, customer loyalty should be high on your priority list. You want your customers to fall in love with you, your brand, and the products and/or services you offer.
But that doesn’t happen overnight. Loyalty and trust are built over time through good member management.
You must earn customer loyalty.
One of the best membership site benefits is providing your audience with a place to gather. You give them access to you, your brand, and all the knowledge you have to share. And that’s the foundation for a loyal customer.
The more “touch points” you have with your audience, the easier it becomes to establish loyal brand followers. With a membership site, there’s no shortage of options for communicating with your audience.
Think about it like this: Someone who is willing to pay for access to your site is already loyal to you. Now, all you have to do is fulfill your end of the bargain.
3. An audience to sell to in the future
Upselling and promoting other products shouldn’t be the only goal for your membership site. However, the ability to sell to a captive audience can be a very fruitful benefit.
Once you establish your site, you can slowly begin to market and sell to your members.
Here’s an example.
You’re an SEO consultant with a large following on social media. You decide to create a membership site as a way of earning recurring revenue and taking your personal brand to the next level.
In addition to membership fees, you can upsell things such as:
- SEO consulting
- Webinars and online courses
- Personal coaching
- Ebooks
- Related services, such as content writing.
Having a place to gather all your members gives you an ideal and built-in audience who is likely very open to purchasing your other offerings.
The opportunity is there. Just make sure you don’t lose sight of your primary responsibility to your members: to provide value.
4. Build industry authority
Personal branding and industry authority are more important than ever before. You want to be considered a leader in your space. From helping improve your SEO, to giving customers confidence in your products and offerings, authority goes a long way towards adding value to your business.
When you run a successful paid membership program, you show the world that you have something unique and powerful to offer your industry. Even if a prospect decides not to sign up, they’ll look at your site and realize that other people are paying to learn from you. Consider too that your members are customers who are likely to sing your praises. Word of their satisfaction is bound to spread and help solidify your authority.
That’s powerful.
As your industry authority grows, so will your reach and credibility. With that comes more members to your site and more money in your pocket.
5. An opportunity to help your audience
Let’s put revenue, sales, and industry authority to the side for a minute. All these things are important. But the greatest benefit of building a membership site is the ability to help your audience.
The most successful brands aren’t built on the premise of making money. They’re built on the idea of helping other people succeed. Their success is your success.
Sticking with the example from above, an SEO consultant has the potential to upsell members to establish another revenue stream. But before they do that, there must be a dedication to helping members reach their goals.
When you help your audience, they’ll help you. Provide them with value, answer their questions, and show them that you’re an authority in your space.
From there, you don’t have to do much (if any) upselling. The opportunities will come to you.
There’s no better feeling in business than helping someone else reach their goals. With a membership site, there’s no shortage of people you can help.
Honestly, most entrepreneurs don’t think of this as the number-one benefit. However, those that do are in a better position to succeed.
Watch: How to Get People to Join Your Membership Site
Need some help asking people to join your membership site? Watch this video with a sample pitch script and other helpful tips:
Using Kajabi to build your membership site
With so many membership site benefits, now may be the right time to take action. Should you decide to go down this path, choose a platform that provides you with everything you need to succeed.
Kajabi was designed with you in mind. With Kajabi, you can sell your expertise online. Create online courses, establish membership sites, offer coaching programs, host a podcast, and sell other digital products. Plus, you'll get marketing tools like a website, CRM, email marketing, landing page templates, and helpful analytics to help you spread the word about your products and earn more revenue.
Start your free 14-day trial of Kajabi today!
Still researching? Check out Kajabi’s free downloadable ebook guides on launching and growing a knowledge commerce online business!
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