Do you have a membership site that’s getting far fewer sales and less traffic than you anticipated? Membership websites are extremely popular, and only growing as time goes on. Many people like the idea of subscribing to a brand for exclusive content, offers, and products.
However, just because people like the idea doesn’t mean you don’t have to make serious efforts to see your site succeed. There are plenty of similarities and differences between membership sites and a typical eCommerce storefront. You can use these details to grow your business, connect with your target audience, and improve your conversions.
Today, we will take a look at several factors you need to consider if your members-only site performance is underwhelming. The advice here will help you make smarter marketing decisions and expand your brand to a broader audience.
Let’s get started!
Create Valuable Content
The first thing you need to think about is the content on your site. In many cases, users subscribe to your membership platform because they want to read exclusive posts and get more value for their money.
If you’re not creating great content, you can expect to see a dip in your retention rate. People will seek out companies that offer more value if you don’t meet their needs. In fact, some brands make their entire platform based on written content behind a paywall, think The Washington Post.
You can make sure that you’re creating content your users want to read by listening to their feedback and creating posts based on their buyer personas. Feedback can help you figure out what’s working and where you can improve. Use this data to develop blog and video ideas that will keep your customers engaged with your brand.
Customer personas are created when a business owner looks at their analytics, social media, and email data and compiles the data into one report. These reports will show you the pain points, goals, and buying habits of your audience. Use this information to create blog content that aligns with your segments.
Writing a ton of great articles will improve your relationship with existing users, and it can help you generate more traffic overall. Research shows that after a company publishes 51 blog posts, they tend to see a traffic increase of 77%!
Engage With Your Audience
Creating great content isn’t always enough. You need to actively engage with your audience across all platforms if you hope to find success. There are plenty of great ways to get in touch with your subscribers, regardless of where they like to spend their time.
You could focus on creating drip campaigns for your email marketing strategy. Use this technique to deliver content to subscribers consistently. This strategy will help you build rapport with new customers while your feedback and open rate can help you determine if users are engaged in the content you’re sending out.
Social media is also a great place to engage with your audience. Over 3.81 billion people use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to engage with their peers and businesses.
There’s plenty of fun and interesting ways to keep your audience interested in what you have to say or the membership plans you’re offering. One way is to create an online contest. Giveaways are designed to spread brand awareness and engagement while keeping customers interested in what’s coming next.
If you have a new membership plan coming out, you can offer five annual subscriptions to your audience if they participate in your contest by commenting, sharing your post, or following your brand. These actions all count as engagement, and will help you build stronger connections with your customers.
Collaborate With Other Brands
The next way you can grow your membership site is by collaborating with other brands. Many businesses work with other companies in the same industry but offer different products and services. For instance, a theme company might work with a website hosting company because the two products go together.
Depending on your industry, you may have to spend time looking for businesses whose values and products align with your own. Once you find a potential brand to start collaborating with, send them a message with some of the ideas you have. Make sure your content helps both their users and your own. You don’t want this partnership to be a one-way street.
Together, you can create blog posts, videos, email campaigns, and social media content that helps both brands “cross-pollinate.” In other words, the followers from the other brand will see your site and vice versa. The result is more exposure for both companies and plenty of potential for more sales and traffic.
Start an Affiliate Program
Finally, we suggest that you start an affiliate marketing program on your membership site. People will gladly share your brand with their friends and family, especially if there’s something in it for them. You could offer users a free month of your plan for every person they recruit.
Research shows that 69% of membership leads come from word of mouth marketing. This means that creating a solid experience and giving users a reason to tell their friends can land you more leads and sales.
Additionally, new consumers are likely to join your site if they hear about you from a peer. A surprising 83% of people trust reviews from friends and family over advertising. We can’t overstate the value of creating a site that encourages people to talk about you positively to the other people they know.
You can even reward new subscribers that come from a referral by giving them a discount on their first purchase.
Back to You
As you can see, there are several ways to grow your membership site. The key is to understand what your target audience expects from your brand and delivering on those expectations. It’s important to note that expectations are usually set by the business owner before a subscription occurs.
If you’re offering your users five pieces of content a week, make sure you can deliver on that number while keeping quality top-notch. It’s possible to grow your membership site exponentially, but it also takes time, patience, and effort to turn your dreams into a reality.
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