Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

Customer service is at the heart of the member experience.

No matter how great your membership site is, you’re going to have members contacting you for additional support at some point.

Providing your members with good customer service is an easy way to elevate their experience of your site, and similarly a bad customer service experience will quickly turn their opinion of your membership sour.

In this episode, I break down the 4 step approach to master your customer service strategy, as well as specific tactics for streamlining customer service as your membership scales.

As a membership site owner it’s easy to tie yourself in knots trying to come up with the best ways to get your members to engage with your site, your content, and your community.

From fancy progress tracking to complex loyalty schemes; laborious member outreach programs through to advanced gamification systems.

However it can be easy to forget that often some of the less glamorous methods of engagement are the most effective.

So in today's episode I’m going to take a look at one of my favourite tactics for member communication, engagement and retention – the humble “member roundup email”.

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... 

Essential Learning Points:

• 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

Important Links & Mentions:

•  The 6 Different Types of Membership Launch
• 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

Key Quotes:

“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.”

Have you launched your membership and then found yourself regretting your choice of technology that runs your website? Or maybe you haven't yet launched but you live in fear of that turning out to be your reality.

“What if I make the wrong choice and then in 6 months’ time I discover I’m stuck with it?”

Because of this we see a lot of people have a lot of anxiety about deciding on which platform or plugin is right for them. In this episode I reveal everything you need to know about switching your membership platform.

Essential Learning Points:

• The questions you need to ask yourself before deciding to switch platforms
• Why data migration is the most crucial aspect of switching
• How to communicate this big change to your members
• What you need your members to do, and how to get it
• The reality of what switching platforms can cost you

Important Links & Mentions:

• Guide To Choosing A Membership Plugin

Key Quotes:

“This isn't something you do on a whim, or because a new tool sounds cool and has got a lot of buzz. This isn’t a small decision...”

When communicating, make sure you address the question that's going to be in their minds. “What's in it for me?” Focus your message on how the new system is going to benefit them.

“At all times in all memberships there will be a percentage of the member base who are only there because of inertia. The only reason they’re still members is because they keep forgetting to cancel their subscription.”

“Don’t start switching over, then run a couple of tests and regret the change you’ve made. Test first and test thoroughly, before you do anything else.”

Do you know the difference between good marketing advice and bad marketing advice?

The marketing industry is full of information. Some can help you build meaningful customer relationships and effectively generate sales. But some is based on misinformation, pressure tactics, and “shortcuts” that could lead to slower audience growth or even a damaged reputation.

I find it so infuriating that people are being pressured and pushed around by membership marketing myths that they believe are the industry standard. In this episode, I get on my soapbox to bust the most common marketing myths and help steer you away from the nonsense.

• Why pressurizing leads can drive them to buy elsewhere
• How to prevent your customers getting buyer’s remorse
• Why a good product isn’t enough to generate sales
• The number of followers you really need

• Open Every Day by Ross O'Lochlainn
• 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly
• Our free Membership Mastermind Facebook Group
• Membership Academy

“Successful marketing is all about getting the right message, to the right person, at the right time.”

“Some people are just not ready to buy when you’re ready to sell. Your business and how you market it is actually more about being there when someone is ready to buy, rather than trying to force the sale too quickly.”

“If you’re not able to connect the dots and to compel people to put their hand in their pocket and pay you for the solution to their problem then it doesn’t matter how great your membership is, it doesn’t matter how great your product is. “Build it and they will come” is not a valid strategy.”

How much should you charge for your membership site? And, what should your pricing strategy look like?

Well, the answers to both of those questions depend on your membership. However, there are some advanced pricing tactics that successful membership sites use when it comes to determining their prices.

As I’m sure you’re aware, getting the price of your membership right is so important. But it’s often more than that, you also need to make sure that you use effective pricing strategies to convince people to join your membership. In this episode, I reveal my top and most advanced tips and tactics to help you with your membership pricing strategy!

Essential Learning Points:

• The differences between B2C and B2B pricing
• Why you need to consider the numbers within your price
• How to create compelling discounts
• Three ways to leverage price anchoring for your membership

Important Links & Mentions:

• ResponseSuite
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“The more choices you give, the more you add friction to the buying process, which can lead to decision fatigue.”

“With a decoy product, you specifically create an option with the entire purpose of that option being that it makes your main option look better. You actually don't want people to buy this product.”

Is your membership community a ghost town? Are you constantly banging your head against a wall trying to figure out ways to get your members to actually converse with each other? This guide has got the answers.

We’ve said it many times before - people come for the content but they stay for the community. However, getting an active, thriving community inside your membership is easier said than done.

It’s not a case of just setting up a Facebook group and assuming that all the conversations will start flowing, and connections will happen automatically. You need to put in the work to drive the discussion and the connections within your community. It can take quite a bit of time to get the discussion flowing, particularly in the early days where this can feel like trying to push a boulder up a hill. But these steps will help get it done.

Essential Learning Points: 

• Start The Discussion Yourself
• Encourage “Low-Hanging Fruit” Conversations
• Don’t Rush To Answer Every Questions Yourself
• Tag Other Members In Discussion
• Include Your Community As Part Of New Member Onboarding

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Academy - https://www.membershipacademy.com/
• The Membership Guys Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/MembershipGuys/groups 

Key Quotes:

“You’re going to have to be the one who drives the conversation. It’s not going to be a case of creating a forum or a Slack channel, giving people the link and seeing the engagements and discussions just happen.”

“If you’re getting to every question first and answering straight away, you’re shutting down discussions before they get a chance to start. So, it can be worth strategically stalling.”

“Embrace the role of not just the expert who answers questions, but as the community leader. Embrace being the person who creates connections between your members and facilitates the best path of learning.”

“The best way to encourage people to be active in your community is to get them in there early and ensure your community is an integral part of the member experience.”

Wow... 5 years of Membership Academy!

And what a rollercoaster ride our fifth year has been.

Listen in as Callie and I recap the highs and lows of the past 12 months of Membership Academy, and look ahead to what's in store in the next year and beyond.

• The real impact that running our first conference had on our membership business
• How we navigated personal illness and a global pandemic
• Changes we've made to our content strategy, and the results we're seeing so far
• The big step up we're taking in the coming year

• Inside the launch of the Membership Academy
• Looking Back at the First 12 Months of the Membership Academy
• Insights & Reflections on Year 2 of the Membership Academy
• Looking Back at Year 3 of the Membership Academy
• Celebrating the 4th Anniversary of Membership Academy

As always, we want to thank each and every one of your for your support over the past 5 years - whether you're a podcast listener, Facebook group member, blog reader or one of our highly treasured Academy members (or indeed, all of the above) - we just want to take this opportunity to thank you, sincerely, for being with us on our journey.

A membership has many moving parts, lots of technical elements, and will take plenty of hard work to get started.

But there is one element of running a membership site that is constant and, if you don’t have it, you won’t keep your membership alive.

If you don’t have an audience, you won’t have a membership.

So, if you’re just starting out and eager to get your membership going, it’ll pay dividends if you invest in finding and growing your audience now. This classic episode of The Membership Guys will show you how.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why it’s important to build your audience before you release your product
• Where the best places are to look for your potential audience
• How finding your audience will also help you fine-tune your membership content and marketing strategy
• Where you can go to learn more about establishing and growing your audience

Important Links & Mentions:

• How to Generate Email Leads for Your Membership Site
• Using Segmentation to Increase Leads and Member Sales
• How To Use Content Marketing To Sell Your Online Membership
• Marketing Tactics for Attracting New Members
• 4 Ways to Discover What Your Audience REALLY Want from your Membership

Key Quotes:

“If you’re building a product, you need to have someone to sell it to!”

 “Passionate people find each other and they congregate around different places online.”

“A lot of your initial audience building efforts are going to center around finding where your particular crowd are and hanging out with them.”

“Don’t take it for granted that your existing audience will have an interest in what you’re doing with your membership.”

Setting boundaries is essential if you want your membership to be productive and positive for you – and your members.

But how do you do it without cutting people off, coming across as aloof or inaccessible, and how can you ensure your members are having their questions answered whilst still respecting your boundaries.

It’s certainly a balancing act, but it’s one you can perfect by putting into practice some of these tips and tricks. We’ve tested and refined these approaches over time with our own Membership Academy and our members have also found these approaches to be beneficial in their memberships too.

Tune in to find out how we, and many other membership site owners, set healthy boundaries with our members that benefit everyone. 

Essential Learning Points:

• Why opening yourself up to more communication can actually reduce contact overwhelm
• Some of the best tools and tactics we’ve used to set healthy boundaries within our membership
• Why setting the right boundaries will benefit your members as much as you

Important Links & Mentions:

• Is Starting a Membership Website the Right Move for You?
• Recommended Tools & Resources
• How to Add an Online Forum to your Membership Website
• Live Membership Q&A with Mike and Callie
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

 “Your members will contact you and any successful membership site owner will respond when they do reach out. That’s not to say that you can’t set boundaries and that you can’t be the one to set the terms.”

 “When people know that they don’t have to try hard to reach you, that takes the urgency out of the equation.”

 “Nobody should be in a position where they send you a message and they have no idea of when to expect a response.”

 “Setting and managing expectations is good not just for you, but for your members too.”