What follows is a guest vlog post from our friend Anthony at True Productions. Anthony has built many a successful membership site and is an authority on using video effectively and incorporating lessons of lifecycle marketing to move prospects through a funnel. In this video post, Anthony teaches three key lessons you can apply to make your membership site more successful. Without further ado, Anthony droppeth thy knowledge bombs…
-Sean
#1: When people are expecting something, they will open it.
How many times have you opened up an app on your phone or went out of your way to type in a website, go to the login page, to recover a lost password, just so you could get into the site and see an image? Or change a setting? How about to cancel something? We log into just about everything these days. We have passwords for our banking, for social media, for food delivery. Even our cars have apps now that we log into to see what our tire pressure is, or to unlock the doors if we forget our keys.
The point is, we are willing to go (often out of the way) to get something as long as we know that method exists in the first place, and if it serves a specific purpose.
For example, I needed to find a high-resolution image of the Grand Canyon that was over 2000 pixels wide, so I Google it. From there, I found the perfect image that I needed. I saw it belonged to a website called Shutterstock. Shutterstock has a membership option that gives me all the images I need and I can access it anytime I want. So, I sign up for an account, and now I have access to millions of images, including plenty of the Grand Canyon.
When I signed up, Shutterstock sent me a confirmation email that included a receipt. I was expecting to see this information. If they eventually send me a follow-up a few days later asking how I like the service, I’m not going to mark that email as SPAM — because I did in fact register for a service.
That being said, have you ever complained about an email that was sent to you that contained your login information after you just registered for something? A webinar? When you just purchased a product?
Of course not. That would be ridiculous if you unsubscribed from a website that just sent you the login details to a website you just paid to have access to.
My point is this: Your membership site will give you the vehicle to send content that your audience is expecting and waiting to receive on a continuous basis.
An easy action item for you to implement right away is to make it easy for your members to get into their accounts to access your info. This is often overlooked, but so important. I know without a tool like 1Password installed on all my devices, I would get easily lost in a sea of passwords.
So, make it easy for your members and sync their login with Facebook. Or, If you can merge in their login info on the emails you send them, do that too. Better still, if you can auto log them in from a click of an email, do it. Anything you can do to make it easier for them to get to your content is a win, especially now that they are expecting to see it!
#2: Own a time slot in every subscribers week
Some of the most successful campaigns we have built for our clients include creating content for members that are offered for free. The idea is to educate your members, build yourself up as a trusted authority to them, and then offer them something after you have just explained to them why they need it several times in several different ways.
For example, one of our client’s mission is to help you make small steps in your life towards healthy living. As part of their free education, they offer a weekly email series that gives a different quick tip every Thursday at 7:00am EST.
No matter what the temperature is outside, if they are late to the office that day or if they lose power at the office, that email is going to be sent on Thursday morning at 7:00am EST.
This is important to understand because our attention spans are so ridiculously limited. In the 1950’s it was around 15 minutes. Today, it’s 4 seconds or less. People look at their phones on average 150 times per day! If we do the math, we’re talking about 1,050 glances at a mobile device every week.
All you should be trying to do is make it so one of those 1,050 looks are for something that came from your membership site.
If you can accomplish this regardless of how they are seeing it (email, text message, social media) and get them to take something away from it, you have accomplished a great feat.
As a next step, think about the content you can create and send on a weekly basis at the same time, on the same day. Make the content quick — just a few lines of text will do. A weekly success tip maybe? A tech tip of the week? A recipe? A quote? How about a page from your book?
The possibilities are endless.
#3: Segment, Segment, Segment
Your membership site gives you the power to segment your database and offer them focused content/upsells/messages at relevant times.
You have the power to gain all the information you need to market to the right people, at the right place, with the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons.
That’s a lot to process. I’ll say it again.
The internet makes it possible to market to the right people, at the right place, doing the right things, at the right time, for the right reasons.
One of the best examples we have built on this concept comes in the form of a 30-question health and wellness assessment. These can be just simple forms with basic automation and segmenting. In this particular example, the assessment asks personal questions and segments the list into one of 5 groups. Once they get allocated to one of 5 groups, they are marketed to a little differently.
For example, the lowest grouping is told to drink more water and read the book (provided for free). They are starting at the bottom — so they aren’t going to be told to run 6 or more miles a day or increase how many superfoods they eat, because they aren’t eating any at all yet. In contrast, the highest level is told to find some white space and become a referral partner so they can gain income from their expertise (again, free knowledge).
Along with this, each segment will see different emails that contain different messages and store coupon codes. This type of web development will give you the power to understand exactly why a person came across your site, and quickly determine what they need.
How many different segments do you have? Can you give different material to at least 2 different segments? What materials have you already developed that you can move your prospects through a little differently?
Thanks for watching, and don’t be shy. Reach out to us anytime.
See you next time.