How to build a membership program for consistent monthly income.

Creating a membership is a great way for having a consistent stream of monthly income.  Natalie Arent shares how to build a membership program. She created her membership by taking messy action and is sharing what she learned.

About Natalie

Natalie Arent is a personal branding coach for Christian female entrepreneurs struggling to get visible and gain momentum. She helps them find their people online and build a client-attracting brand, so they can live out their God-given calling in business.

How Natalie started her Membership

Natalie started her membership by taking messy action. She realized that if she continued to wait until the timing was perfect, she never would have taken action.  Instead, taking messy action, launched her forward.

Two great resources for creating a membership program:

Stu McClaren

The Membership Guys

How to build a membership program by starting with a Founding Members Special

While mapping out the program, offer a discount price to the founding members.  They will appreciate the discount and they will help you build the program.

How many people do you start a membership with and where do you find them?

Natalie had 400 people in her Facebook Group and the founding members of her membership were already in her audience.  She originally capped the founding members to 12 people because she was new to group coaching and the membership program was going to be a group coaching membership.

Keep it simple

The key to creating a membership is to keep it simple.  She created a few announcements and a handful of posts and then launched.

When keeping things simple and focusing on the people who already trust you, it makes it easier and less overwhelming.

Accountability

Sometimes, we have to put things out in the world to give us the push and accountability we need to accomplish our goals.

Knowing when it’s time to pivot

Through the 7 months of growing the membership and doing all the right things, Natalie came to realize that the membership wasn’t the best container for the information Natalie was teaching. Natalie follows her gut, her God-Gut she calls it.

When feeling the need to pivot, block time to focus, and hit pause.  Use the valuable feedback from serving the population you are serving and evaluate with fresh eyes what needs to change.

She isn’t going to scrap the program she’s going to refine it and make it better.  It is growing and evolving and it’s important to think about how you can improve it versus scrapping it and starting over completely.

Lessons learned from starting a membership

 

1. Looking at why you are starting a membership? Evaluate your motive and have a clear focus.  Are you starting it solely because you want consistent monthly income?  Do you love to create community? What is the true reason you want to start the membership and be sure it aligns with your values and works for you and your business?  Be super clear on what this membership is for.  Keep it simple.  There is no need to add bonuses and extras. If people in the membership don’t have time to consume all of the content, they will leave the membership because they don’t feel like they are able to get their money's worth.  Think about the singular problem you solve for your audience and provide that solution.  It’s more valuable to focus solely on the problem that you want to, and know you can, solve so that you don’t water down the value.
2. Level of Support and Client Journey. What level of support are you going to provide with your membership? Get super clear on the content you are offering and how it will be delivered. Think about the destination you want your members to reach.
3. Price accordingly. Take offerings into account.  The more detail-oriented and time-consuming the more value. If just providing content ideas, the membership will be much less. Be sure you are being reimbursed for the value you are pouring into the membership to avoid burnout. Know that when you set the bar with the type of support you are going to give your members you need to price accordingly. People will recognize the value and will be willing to pay for it.

Learn more about your host, Robyn Graham, click HERE.

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Learn more about Natalie and connect with her:

Website: nataliearent.com

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/presencepurpose

Podcast: bit.ly/presenceandpurpose