Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

When people think about launching a membership, they think about the day that they finally open their doors for the very first time and welcome their first crop of new members.

It's a big deal!

However that grand opening isn't the only opportunity you have to launch...

There are different launch types for each stage of your business, depending on how far along you are in the membership site creation process, or what you might need your members to do to help get your product ready for market.

Listen in for a full breakdown of the 6 different launch strategies you can use at various stages of your membership journey... 

• Validating your membership idea by running a pilot program
• The difference between launch strategy for open memberships vs closed door
• How to generate seed money to help you develop your membership idea
• The best way to reduce the stress of a big launch and ease yourself into the membership model

• When the closed door membership makes sense
• Jeff Walker's book, Launch
• Creating an MVP for your membership
• The lean live launch strategy
• Membership Academy
• The Membership Guys Facebook Group

“Your big launch event will usually be a week or two, where you're doing lots of promotional marketing activity to get as many eyeballs as possible on your launch – in the hopes that you'll get that influx of initial members.”

 “The beta launch can be extremely useful for helping you to ensure that you are in absolute top shape, or as close as you can get to top shape, before you open the doors to your membership. And, it has the great side effect of also ensuring that you already have people there in your community.”

“If you know you need a little bit of a softer entry into the world of running an online membership, then a soft launch can work for you.”

The new year is upon us and for most membership owners this is likely to be a time where you are looking ahead to what you want to achieve with your business this year.

And I’m willing to bet good money that growing and improving your membership is one of your aims. Or at least it should be!

So with that in mind we're kicking off 2024 by taking a look at the 5 steps that you can take today to plan your year and ensure you achieve your membership goals.

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

And just like that, another year is almost over!

How was your 2023?

After missing last year due to the podcast being on hiatus, we're reviving our festive tradition of wrapping the year up by taking a look back at some of the fantastic episodes of the Membership Geeks Podcast, counting down the top 10 most downloaded episodes of 2022-2023.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your continued support of the show – here's to even more membership awesomeness in 2024!

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks Podcast, I discuss 3 essential strategies for generating member sales from your email list.

I delve into the importance of initial follow-up sequences, ongoing nurture emails, and dedicated promotional campaigns, providing valuable insights on how to effectively leverage your email list for membership sales.

• How can initial follow-up sequences be utilized to generate membership sales from an email list?
• What are the best practices for creating ongoing nurture emails to cultivate relationships and drive member sales?
• How can dedicated promotional campaigns and evergreen email automations be leveraged to boost membership sales?
• What resources and tools are available for membership owners to enhance their email marketing and drive sales from their email list?

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks Podcast, I discuss alternatives to cancelling a membership that membership owners can offer to their members. I explain the importance of providing options to members who want to cancel and offer suggestions for retaining their membership in a non-intrusive way.

• How can membership owners collect feedback from members who want to cancel their membership?
• What is the benefit of offering the option to pause a membership instead of cancelling?
• How can changing the billing frequency be a viable alternative to cancellation?
• How can offering different membership tiers help retain members who are considering cancelling?

Key Quotes & Takeaways:

"So if they've already gotten their head, okay, I'm gonna take a bit of a break. I'll probably come back later. Giving them the option to pause is a far better alternative to canceling..."

"But there's absolutely nothing wrong with making that last effort, that last effort to turn things around. And in fact, doing that shows that you care. You will get people who wanna leave who end up disgruntled at how easy it was to leave. That's kind of the irony of it."

"Those little conversations, even though it's taking, you know, 10, 15 minutes out of your day or out of your team's day, that could not only reverse the decision to cancel, but also build up enough goodwill and loyalty from the fact that you're willing to actually have that face time."

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

In this episode of Membership Geeks, I discuss the essential do's and don'ts of member retention.

I dive into the importance of making retention a priority, taking care of new member onboarding, and collecting feedback from outgoing members. I also highlight the risks of assuming that when someone leaves, they're gone forever and the benefits of having a failed payment process in place.

• Why is it important to make member retention a priority?
• How can we ensure a solid new member onboarding experience?
• What are the risks of assuming someone is happy just because they haven't cancelled?
• How can collecting feedback from outgoing members benefit our membership offering and win back campaigns?

Key Quotes & Takeaways:

"When you realize that someone leaving isn't the end of their journey, then that nullifies any reasoning you might have for making things difficult for them to leave or punishing them when they do leave."

"Failed payments account for a lot of churn. It's called involuntary churn. Someone leaving your membership when they might not have intended to because their credit card payment, their PayPal subscription - however they pay you - for some reason, has failed, and they don't address it in time, and therefore, their subscription ends."

"If you make the process of leaving difficult, they're never gonna come back, and they're not gonna speak positively about you to anyone else"

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks podcast, I dive into the 3 pillars of membership growth.

If you have an existing membership and have been struggling with knowing where to focus in order to grow and scale your membership, this episode is for you. I discuss the importance of marketing, member attention, and management, and how to implement strategies and tactics for each pillar.

• How can I attract new members and continuously build my audience?
• What are the key elements of a solid core sales funnel for my membership?
• How can I retain members and ensure they stay subscribed for the long term?
• What are the essential elements of managing and scaling a membership business?

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks podcast, we explore 7 ways to generate FOMO (fear of missing out) for your membership. FOMO is a powerful tool to attract non-members and create a sense of urgency and excitement about joining. Join host Mike Morrison as he shares strategies to create that FOMO and drive membership growth.

• What is "member first messaging" and how can you use it to your advantage?
• What role does insider language and identity play in generating FOMO?
• How can branded merchandise and swag contribute to generating FOMO for your membership?
• What are the benefits of organizing in-person member meetups and how can they generate FOMO?

Key Quotes & Takeaways:

"That feeling when someone sees something really cool, really exciting going on that they're not part of, and they get that itch they get that urge, they get that sense that they are missing out."

"Make sure you're promoting ahead of time what is happening over the next month. So release a schedule of new content or live calls every single month so that people know what's ahead."

"It's always great to be able to meet your members, to actually put these people in a room, see the connections that happen, see the conversations, and it's all like minded people. You've already brought your people together online. If you can replicate that in the real world, even if it's just ten people from your membership having dinner together, it's fantastic, fantastic thing."

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks Podcast, I dive into the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for online membership businesses. Get my analysis of the hype surrounding AI as well as practical insights on how membership site owners can navigate the AI landscape.

• How should membership site owners react to the rise of artificial intelligence?
• Does AI signify the end of online education or memberships?
• Should membership site owners prioritize AI or stick to their current business models?
• How can AI be practically applied in your membership businesses?

Key Quotes & Takeaways:

"These are just tools, they should be used as such, which is to say they should be used to solve actual problems, not just for the novelty factor."

"The rush to capitalize on AI is leading to a lot of pointless and generic content, and the content that's created is actually quite inaccurate a lot of the time and requires a lot of checking and correction."

Get more detailed insights about AI for memberships here

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.

Online summits can be a fantastic way to promote and grow your memberships; tapping into the attention and urgency created with 'event marketing' and converting a captive audience into paying subscribers.

In this episode of the Membership Geeks Podcast, I'm joined by Krista Miller from Summit in a Box to share her strategies and top tips for selling your membership via an online summit.

• What is the ideal length and number of sessions and speakers for your online summit
• The most effective strategy for generating membership sales on the back of your summit
• Top tips for reaching out to guest experts to participate as summit speakers
• How to ensure you get plenty of people attending your summit

• Get more from Krista at Summit in a Box

We really appreciate you choosing to listen to us and for supporting the podcast.

We would be eternally grateful if you would consider taking a minute or two to leave an honest review and rating for the show. They're extremely helpful when it comes to reaching our audience and we read each and every one personally!

Finally, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast to make sure that you never miss an episode.