Setting Goals for Your Membership Business: A Practical Process
Setting goals for your membership is an essential part of fuelling continuous growth.
But simply setting them isn’t enough…
Actually following them through and achieving your goals is a whole other challenge.
And often that’s where people fall short.
To make sure you get where you want to go, you need to have a solid process, one that not only ensures that the goals you’re setting are realistic, but also achievable.
Setting unrealistic goals without a clear plan of action pretty much guarantees failure.
If this sounds familiar, don’t worry we’ve got your back!
In this article, we’ll be sharing with you a practical goal-setting method that we’ve used to grow our business.
Read MoreHow To Avoid Your Membership Becoming a Burden
Creating a membership is an exciting time…
The creative juices are flowing…
The sense of accomplishment from launching something new is exhilarating…
And there’s an undeniable buzz you get with every new member who joins!
But how do you feel months or years down the line?…
Does your membership still motivate you?
Or is it starting to feel like a chore?
Let’s face it, sometimes things don’t work out as nice and rosy as you imagine them to be!
But, when you’ve got a membership site to run, you have an obligation to keep it going, especially if people have paid for yearly access!
So, what can you do to prevent your membership from feeling like a burden?…
Let’s find out…
Read MoreTop Takeaways from the Online Membership Industry Report 2022
Do you know what the average churn rate is for a typical online membership?
How about revenue benchmarks?
Average conversion rates?
What about the most popular tech solutions? Or the most effective marketing channels?
Truth is, there’s very little reliable data available about the online membership industry.
That’s because this market is relatively tiny.
It’s a niche, of a niche, of a niche.
What data we do have tends to come from either the broader subscription industry, or from membership associations.
Neither of which reflect the online membership world.
A few years ago we made it our on a mission to change that by conducting a survey of thousands of membership owners designed to shine a light on the real data and benchmarks for the online membership industry.
And now it’s time for an update…
We’ve spent the past fews months tapping into our audience of tens of thousands of membership business owners to identify how they’re performing, what challenges they’re facing and which benchmarks and trends are prevalent.
And we’ve compiled those results into the Online Membership Industry Report 2022
In today’s episode of the Membership Geeks Podcast, I’m sharing some of my top observations, takeaways, trends and other interesting tidbits and insights taken from this year’s report.
Read More5 Biggest Risks Facing Membership Site Owners Right Now
Running a membership website can be one of the most rewarding experiences…
You become recognized as an authority within your niche, build a loyal community, and a successful business in the process…
But what people don’t tend to talk about are the potential pitfalls that you need to avoid…
And there are a few of them!
As anyone running an online business – or any business in fact – will tell you…
There are risks that will pop up at lots of different stages of your entrepreneurial journey…
Knowing what these risks are…
And, more importantly how to avoid them, can be really useful.
With that in mind, let’s explore five of the biggest risks facing membership owners right now…
Read More10 Ways to Personalise and Tailor Your Member Experience
How can you personalise and tailor your member experience?
This is something that many don’t even think is possible when it comes to memberships…
Especially when you can potentially have hundreds or thousands of members in a community…
How on earth can you tailor an experience for so many?
Yes memberships are a one-to-many business model…
But that doesn’t mean you can’t offer a personalised, memorable experience for your members.
In fact, it’s important that you do…
Because if the member has a more personalised experience, they’re more likely to extract the elements of your membership where they get the most value…
And this will help them achieve the outcome they aimed for when joining your site…
And make them want to stick around for a long time.
And that’s the goal, right?
So how can you personalise and tailor your member experience?
Let’s walk through 10 techniques…
Read MoreSwitching From Working with Clients to Running a Membership Full-Time
Are you running your membership on the side while managing an existing client focused or service based business?
Maybe you’re a web designer who still builds websites…
Or a music teacher dealing with private students…
And to be quite frank, you’re feeling stuck…
You want to make the transition from working with clients to running your membership full-time…
But you’re not sure how to do it…
Or even if the time is right to make the switch!
We’ve been there…
And completely understand that it’s a HUGE decision to make…
So we’ve decided to help you out…
Here are some tips on how to switch from working with clients to running your membership full-time…
Read MoreKPI’s Every Membership Site Owner Should Be Tracking
Every successful membership site owner knows their numbers…
If you don’t know how your business is performing in key areas, then you have no basis for growth and making improvements…
Or any idea of whether or not your membership site is doing well or if it’s in trouble.
Worryingly, our Online Membership Industry Report revealed that 14% of membership site owners aren’t tracking their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) at all…
And an even greater number only track a few key metrics!
This needs to change…
And we want to help make that happen…
So if you’re currently not tracking metrics on your site…
Or are measuring some, but are not sure if they’re the ones you should be focusing on…
Here are the KPIs that you should be monitoring and measuring to ensure you have the finger on the pulse of your membership business:
Read MoreDo Membership Sites REALLY Provide Passive Income? (Revisited)
Passive income… two simple but loaded words that have become associated with the world of online memberships.
It’s difficult to have a conversation these days on the subject without someone bringing it up…
And that’s because a lot of people think that starting a membership is a guaranteed way to make passive income…
You just set it all up once, sit back and watch the money roll in, right?
Erm, no not quite…
You’ll rarely see us talking about memberships and passive income in the same sentence…
And there’s a good reason for that!
There are a lot of so-called internet marketing gurus that point you in the direction of the membership model and promise that you can make money while you sleep…
The truth is, it’s just not that simple…
And if you’re reading this post looking for me to do the same, then I’ve got some bad news for you….
A membership is never going to bring you 100% passive income.
But does that mean you can’t make any passive income from your membership?
Read MoreHiring Your First Employees for your Membership Business
Are you ready to hire your first employees for your membership business?
You may have already dipped your toe in the water by working with freelancers or contractors…
People who essentially work for themselves or third party companies and handle one-off tasks or work for you as and when needed…
But now you’re at a point in your business when you need more…
There are tasks that need to be completed on a regular basis…
And you don’t have the time or the bandwidth to do it…
So you’re now ready to hire your first employee…
And that’s a whole different ball game…
So where should you start?
Having completed our own recruitment drive here at The Membership Guys, we have some experience in this area…
And of course, as always we want to share our knowledge with you…
So here are our thoughts on how to go about hiring your first employees for your membership business…
Read MoreMusings About Money and Mindset in the Membership World
Let’s talk about money!
When it comes to this subject people tend to be at wildly opposite ends of the spectrum…
Some will happily talk about money all day long…
Whether it’s about how much they make, how little they have or their financial goals…
Others, however, completely shut down as soon as the ‘M’ word comes up.
That’s because many of us have a complicated relationship with money…
Which is possibly why I’ve waited so long to tackle this topic!
But, the truth is, when it comes to business, it’s a subject you simply can’t shy away from…
That’s why I’ve decided to share some of my musings about money and mindset in the membership world…
Our perceptions of it, how we treat it, how we think about it…
And the impact that can have on our memberships.
So, let’s dive into some random musings about money, memberships and everything in between…
Read More