Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

Social proof is a powerful marketing tool.

Everyone expects you to talk about how awesome your membership is - that's a given - but when others back you up then it's a whole different ball game.

Testimonials, endorsements and success stories go a very long way - and as a membership site owner you have the perfect resource at your disposal to generate this sort of social proof: your existing member base!

In this episode, I talk about the most effect ways of tapping into your existing members to help you to create highly persuasive and effective social proof that will help you to skyrocket your marketing.

There's an element of risk involved with every type of business.

Particularly online.

However when it comes to membership sites there are a few things in particular that you want to pay special attention to.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast - I look at 5 of the biggest risks membership owners need to be aware of and give my top tips for pre-empting and preventing problems.

• How some membership owners are building on borrowed land, and what problems this may cause in the long run
• Tips for keeping your membership secure and minimising the risk of your site being hacked
• Protecting your intellectual property and your membership content
• How your particular membership model and strategy could be leaving you wide open

The one-to-many aspect of the membership model is one of it's greatest benefits.

Being able to serve your audience on a larger scale is what attracts a lot of membership owners to this type of business - however it does come at a cost.

The larger your membership grows, the less able you are to create a more personal connection with individual members, and that can be unsatisfying for both them and you.

However there are still ways you can add a personal touch to your membership, even with hundreds and thousands of members to serve, and in this episode I talk about 8 of the best ways to do that.

• Why even the smallest personal touch can make a massive difference within a one-to-many environment
• How video can really help you to make a deeper connection with members
• Tactics for offering personal coaching in a highly leveraged, manageable way that doesn't overburden you
• How to gain better insights into what your members want and need in order to give tailored attention

Gamification is the strategy of using gameplay elements as a means of encouraging engagement with your product, course or membership.

Typically with membership sites, this manifests itself as point systems, badges and other rewards for completing content or contributing in your community.

While gamification can be a highly effective strategy, it isn’t a “magic button” for creating an engaging member experience, and if implemented poorly can actually have an adverse effect on your membership.

In this episode I discuss some of the potential problems with using gamification techniques for memberships.

Are you in an industry where there may be a demand for group access to your membership?

Whether it's partners in the same business, employees in a single company, or even just an entrepreneur wanting their assistant, web designer or some other member of their team to access your site - it's not uncommon to receive requests to provide shared access.

In this episode I discuss the 3 ways you can facilitate this in your membership site.

Cancellations suck. There's no denying it.

Obviously a member ending their subscription is pretty much the worst case scenario. By nature of the business model it's pretty much the last thing we want to happen, right?

So why would you make it easier for members to leave by giving them the ability to cancel their membership themselves without you being involved or having a chance to talk them round?

In today's episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I dive into the pros and cons of allowing members to cancel their own subscriptions vs implementing a process that requires them to contact you first if they want to leave.

Live calls are a great way of delivering value to your members without a lot of the headaches and added effort that goes into creating many other forms of member content.

Webinars, live Q&A's, member coaching calls - this sort of content is ideally suited to most types of memberships.

In today's podcast episode, I dive deeper into how to get the most out of live member content and give my top tips for raising the bar and improving the quality and impact that it can have.

• Why live calls such as webinars and Q&A sessions are a great addition to your membership
• Recommendations for reducing the tech barriers for members to attend
• How one change can help you to create a more personal connection
• Ways to get more people to turn up live to your calls

Offering a trial is a great way of moving people off the fence and encouraging them to give your membership a try.

However should that trial be free, or should it involve a nominal charge?

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I cover the pros and cons of each option, and dive deeper into the benefits and considerations of offering a trial for your membership.

• How offering a trial on your membership can significantly increase sales
• Why most people instinctively choose to make their trials free
• The psychology behind a trial period, and how it differs from free vs paid
• The only metric that matters when assessing the performance of your trial

The launch of a new membership site can be a nerve-wracking time, and adding to that anxiety is the question of whether you have enough content to open your doors.

Is there a set amount of content that a membership site needs to have before you release it to the public? What content should you be creating and how do you know when to say “when”?

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I tackle this question, and provide my top tips for approaching content creation as you gear up for launch.

As well as looking at the key things to consider when thinking about your membership launch content, I also discuss specific examples from our own membership – the Member Site Academy; and provide insight into our specific approach to content creation as we were preparing to open our doors.

It’s easy to get sucked into the trap of grinding out high levels of content just so we can say that we offer the most course, tools, resources or whatever other widgets we have on the market – but as membership site owners, especially ones who are getting ready to launch – this is absolutely the wrong approach and the wrong mindset.

If a membership site launches with no audience to notice, has it truly launched?

In this episode we answer the much asked question of whether it's possible - or advisable - to launch a membership site when you do not have an audience.

I also discuss why audience building is particularly important for membership website owners, as well as my top tips for how you can get started on building an audience for your membership, fast.

• Why "build it and they will come" is a terrible business strategy
• The main benefits of building your audience before building your product
• Why piggybacking on other people's audience is a limiting approach
• How to get started on building an audience for your membership