Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

Have you recently launched your membership website? 

If you have then you’re in the midst of a steep learning curve… 

One we’ve all been through as membership owners. 

As we’re approaching the end of the year, now is the perfect time to plan what we want to achieve over the coming months… 

For more established membership owners the year ahead might be fully mapped out so they know what to expect...

But for those new to the membership world, what lies ahead is largely unknown.

While we don't have a crystal ball to tell you exactly what's going to happen over the next 12 months...

We can try our best to prepare you for some of the things you're likely to discover in your first year of running a membership site…

And that’s exactly what we’re doing in this podcast episode. 

Join us to hear 5 things you quickly learn in your first year as a membership site owner

Essential Learning Points:

• Good customer service can be the difference between losing a member and leaving someone with a positive impression who is likely to recommend you to others.
• Implementing a solid onboarding process will make everything easier - for both you and your members. 
• The freedom, the flexibility and the fulfilment that comes from recurring revenue and making money while you sleep can make a huge difference to your life. 
• You can’t please everyone
• You’re probably making a bigger difference than you realize

Important Links & Mentions:

• Membership Academy
• How to Handle Customer Service for Your Membership Site
• How to Avoid Overwhelming your Members
• Why you need a kickass member onboarding process
• How to Deal With Negative Feedback About Your Membership

Key Quotes:

“Nothing ever goes 100% smoothly - that’s just life. The key is how you deal with things when issues do arise.”

“When you have a good onboarding process in place, your members are happier, your engagement increases, retention improves and you have far less customer service issues to deal with. That’s pretty much a win for everyone”

“If you have 99 happy members who love what you’re doing, but have 1 unhappy member, you need to learn to focus on the 99 – those guys aren’t all wrong!”

“Don’t take someone’s silence as a sign that they aren’t getting value from what you’re offering, you're probably making a much bigger difference than you realize.”

Is your membership built on rented land? Are you relying on third parties with little control of your own content or community?

While there’s something to be said for third parties and all-in-one platforms, you need to be wary. Those platforms could go down, or maybe they could be hacked, and then what?

If you can’t access your membership assets, that’s bad news for your business. In this episode, you’ll hear all about the perils of building a membership on rented land.

Tune in to hear why control and having alternative options in the bag are so important and what you can do to protect yourself from a Facebook 2021-style outage.

Essential Learning Points:

• What the Facebook outage taught us about the dangers of relying on third parties
• Why control is the most important thing you need
• Why you need to protect your business assets
• The pros and cons of building on rented land

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“When we talk about not building on rented land, it's less about the dangers of depending on third parties and more about emphasizing the importance of control.”

“The willingness that so many people have to just surrender control of their most valuable business assets to third parties in the name of convenience or simply following the crowd is insane when you think about it.”

 “Your decision to build on rented land has to be an informed one. You have to know that there's a risk that comes with it, that you're sacrificing something in order to get that convenience.”

Email marketing is the golden ticket to growing any kind of membership or online business. But a successful email marketing campaign is about so much more than sending out the occasional email to your mailing list.

If you really want to step up your email marketing effectiveness, you need to use some tried-and-tested tactics. In this episode, we share six ways to improve your email campaigns.

You’ll hear why emailing more often is the right move, how to use narrative and open-loop emails to keep interest and how to use different email marketing features to transform your campaigns. Tune in today to learn more.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why you should get out of your comfort zone with email marketing
• How to utilize the P.S. section of your emails to drive sales
• Why storytelling is the key to a good email
• How to maintain interest through open-loop emails
• Why you should always try to experiment with email marketing 
• How to use conditional content

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“Stories are far easier to infuse your personality into, which of course helps to foster connection which goes a long way, especially with memberships where that connection is so key.”

“If you've got a great story to tell and a strong narrative that lends itself to being sent one bit at a time, then using open loops in your emails can be fantastic and engaging.”

“Split testing can be invaluable for refining and perfecting your approach to email marketing to best suit your audience's preferences.”

Want to give your membership a little revenue boost? Who wouldn’t?

The chances are, you’re already working on 101 things to grow your membership over time. But what can you do today?

In this episode, we cover four super simple ways you can boost your revenue both in the short and long term. These are simple tactics you can get started on today that don’t take too long or cost much.

This episode covers how you can use flash sales and discounts to boost sales, why you should pay extra attention to your non-buyers and ex-members, and how you can get members to upgrade.

Try these tactics today and integrate them into your long-term strategy to see consistent results for years to come. Tune in to hear how you can get started.

Essential Learning Points:

• How to use a flash sale to boost revenue
• Why you shouldn’t ignore your non-buyers
• The benefits of getting in touch with ex-members
• How a simple email can prompt members to upgrade

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“You could email anyone who's on your email list, who's been through your main sales sequence, and have not bought yet. You could run a flash sale targeted just at those people to give them an extra push and incentive to join your membership.”

“More often than not, people will be open to returning, and indeed, many will come back to your membership within months.”

“Cancellation is not condemnation. People don't leave because they hate your membership.”

“If you've not reached out to your ex-members in a while, then consider emailing them today or starting a Facebook ads campaign targeted at those people.”

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 is something that needs to change. 

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, then this episode of The Membership Guys podcast is for you.

Join us as we explore KPIs that every membership website should be tracking. 

Essential Learning Points:

• Different metrics to focus on for analyzing website traffic and activity 
• Why you need to have an in-depth understanding of your conversion rates
• How your churn rate impacts member retention and why you should aim for 5% to 10%
• Why it’s crucial to measure the percentage of trial participants who become paid members
• How to measure the lifetime value of your members
• Recommended tools for reporting on member engagement
• Why you should track customer acquisition cost 

Important Links & Mentions:

• Membership Academy
• Biggest Takeaways from the Online Membership Industry Report
• The Most Effective Tools for Reducing Your Membership Churn
• Why Member Lifetime Value is More Important Than Churn Rate

Key Quotes:

“If you don’t know how your business is performing in key areas then you have no basis for growth, for making improvements or knowing whether or not your membership site is doing well or if it’s in trouble”

“Member retention is as important, if not more so, than acquiring new members.”

“What really matters in business is the overall profit that you're making. As the old saying goes, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity.”

“Knowing that lifetime value means that when planning, advertising campaigns or any of the marketing spend, you can more accurately assess your return on investment.” 

Preparing to launch your membership website? 

This can be both an exhilarating and terrifying time, with lots of tasks to tick off your checklist and limited time in which to get as many eyeballs as possible on you and your business. 

So how can you make your membership launch a success?

The key is to generate excitement and buzz around your site that will result in your first influx of members and give you some momentum to move forward with. 

And in this episode of The Membership Guys podcast, we’re sharing with you six tactics to implement to do just that. 

Essential Learning Points:

• Why a membership website doesn’t live or die based on launch alone 
• Why you don’t necessarily need a large audience to launch your membership 
• How to connect with your audience and make them feel like they’re involved from the get-go
• Different tactics to implement to get in front of a wider audience to promote your membership

Important Links & Mentions:

• Membership Academy
• Why You Need to Take People Behind the Scenes of Your Membership
• Must-Listen Podcast Episodes for Launching Your Membership Website 
• How to attract better members that will stick around long-term

Key Quotes:

“Right from the get-go you’ll need an initial influx of members to get your community up and running, people engaging and consuming content, and giving you feedback that will enable you to make your product even better. This in turn will make it easier for you to attract more members in the future.” 

“You can still do a lot in terms of your membership launch with a relatively modest audience.”

“Live video is a fantastic way of getting your personality across and really connecting with your audience to allow them to feel like they're getting to know you on a deeper level.”

“There's no doubt that having a group of people who are committed to spreading the word about your membership in their own audience, especially if their audience is large, can do wonders for your membership launch.”

Do you want to transform your tweeting into real results? Unsure where to start?

Social media is a tough nut to crack. You can post consistently and still see no results and no sales. The good news is that you can turn it around with some proper planning and a little help from your analytics.

This episode, takes you through a 12-step social media plan to help you tweak and fine-tune your current strategy.

Tune in to hear why social media is so important, why you need to audit your channels, learn from your audience, keep an eye on your analytics, and much more.

Essential Learning Points: 

• Why social media should be key to your marketing strategy     
• Why you should audit your channels and your audience
• The importance of knowing your audience well   
• How to serve and build your audience
• How to offer value consistently
• Why you need to keep an eye on analytics

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy
• Setting Goals for Your Membership Business: A Practical Process
• How to Start Building an Audience for Your Membership Site
• Why You Need to Take People Behind the Scenes of your Membership

Key Quotes:

“Make sure that you engage with your followers. Don't just publish content and leave it. Aim to have two-way conversations. What do your followers need help with? Ask them.”

“Take steps to really develop your knowledge and understanding of your audience.”

“Once you build momentum, once you've got the basics in place, refine that messaging. Refine the type of posts you're making to make sure you're not too salesy, to make sure you have a variety in how you promote your membership.”

Are you struggling to get members to consume and complete your content once they’ve signed up?

If you want to keep members happy and improve member retention, the work doesn’t end once they hit ‘join.’

Members need to constantly feel like they’re getting value, but sometimes they need a prompt to get involved in the content.

In this episode, you’ll hear four super simple tactics to improve content consumption and engagement in your content library. We share how rewarding your members can go a long way, how you can get involved, and what you can do to your content to improve its effectiveness.

With these tactics, you’ll help to boost your engagement rates across your content library and help members progress towards their goals.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why you should try to boost content consumption
• How rewarding your members can go a long way
• How to use reminders to prompt your members to consume more content
• Why getting involved in the content yourself boosts engagement
• The benefits of using multiple content formats

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“The ability to have access to you and to have you focused on the same thing that they're focused on can be a huge motivation to get your members to actually take part in a course.”

“Reminders and helpful nudges can be a great way of guiding people to content, making sure that they're actually consuming it.”

“Make sure that you're providing multiple content formats so that you're catering to a variety of different member needs and learning styles.”

First impressions are key, especially in the membership world. A good experience in the early days is absolutely crucial to encouraging engagement, community collaboration, and retention.

But a good onboarding experience is just step one. Even if you have all the necessary steps covered, there’s still more you can do to amplify and enhance that experience.

In this episode, we cover five simple yet effective ways to level up your new members’ experience, so they’ll want to stick around for years to come.

This episode covers why you should try to go above and beyond in the early days, why a personal touch can help you create a great first impression, and how to make your new members feel welcome.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why leveling up your membership experience can boost satisfaction and retention
• How personal videos can go a long way
• How a member questionnaire can help both you and your members
• The importance of using segmentation
• Why you should consider throwing a welcome party
• How physical welcome gifts can be a welcome surprise

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy
• Bonjoro.com

Key Quotes:

“Any way that you can better tailor things to each particular member's needs will massively level up their experience.”

“This sort of stuff is really just about going that little bit further, putting in that little bit of extra effort to make someone's formative days and weeks inside your membership that much more enjoyable, that much more rewarding, and that much more productive.”

“That sort of welcome party can be really, really good for getting that buzz, getting that excitement, and helping people make those connections early on, all of which level up your member experience.”

Do you want to offer a brand-new course or live event…separate from your membership?

Is this something you’re allowed to do, or will all hell break loose in your membership?

First off, yes, you can do this. But you also need to understand how your members will react. If they’re expecting all new content to come included in what they’re paying for, they could be disappointed.

Luckily, there are a few ways around this that we share in this episode.

If you want some tips on how to navigate this delicate topic, tune in today. We’ll share the pros and cons of keeping everything in your membership, why you shouldn’t always cave under pressure and ways to keep your members happy.

Essential Learning Points:

• The problem with selling a separate product from your membership
• Why this can upset members
• Why it’s all about setting expectations and your message
• How to avoid doing yourself a disservice
• Three simple ways to keep members happy and offer separate products

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“The clearer it is, what your membership does, who it's for, and what it consists of […] the less chance there will be of confusion or disappointment.”

“You don't want it to seem like your membership is a bait and switch. But at the same time, flipping this around to you as a membership owner, you need to resist the urge to over-deliver.”

“Give your members priority preferential treatment and a price discount on anything else you might sell outside of the membership. That then adds to the value of them becoming a member.”