How To Grow Your Membership Site

Have you worked hard to create your membership site, but have no clue about how to get people to join?

Anyone who’s gone through the effort of building a membership site knows that it’s a massive undertaking, which feels like the virtual version of climbing Mount Everest.

It doesn’t matter how much quality content you’ve filled it up with or how compelling your sales letter or video is, one of the biggest challenges you’re going to face is getting new members.

No members equal no profits, which means your efforts may be in vain.

If you’re a go-getter, having your site die on the vine is not an option.

Today, I’m going to share four ways that you can use to grow your membership site.

Let’s dive in…

1)) Specialize and Focus like a Laser 

It seems almost counterintuitive – you’d think that if your site would appeal to as many people as possible, then you’d get more members.

But it doesn’t work that way.

Instead, you’ll get more members once you focus your site and all marketing materials to focus in like a laser on one niche.

Example: Let’s say your site teaches people how to build a website. You should focus on one niche, such as “web design for ebook marketers” or “web design for private practice doctors.”

Now think about it…

Let’s say an ebook marketer wants to learn how to build a site. Is this person going to go to “Joe Blow’s Web Design” membership site… or to the “Web Design for Ebook Marketers Site?”

That’s right; he or she will choose your site because it’s geared toward his or her needs.

2)) Give a Free or Low-Cost Sample 

You can get more paying members if you first give people a free or low-cost trial membership (such as $1 for 7 days).

Doing so, gives people a chance to take a peek inside of your site to see if it’s right for them.

And since you collected their credit card info before they joined the site, you can automatically start their paid subscription once the trial is over.

And if you’ve done a great job of over-delivering on your promise, chances are they’ll remain a member.

Be certain not to use any shady tactics by tricking people to join, and making it easy for them to cancel their subscriptions.

This will build trust, just in case they decide to rejoin in the future because not everyone will cancel due to being dissatisfied, there could be other reasons such as having to deal with unexpected life events.

3)) Share the Benefits 

As mentioned previously, you’ll need a sales letter or video to help turn prospects into members.

While you’re sharing all the benefits of your membership content in general, don’t forget about the benefits of the membership site itself.

Examples:

Small price. A monthly fee (such as $10 or $20 or even $50 per month) sounds small compared to a one-time fee such as $297. As such, you can get more members by focusing on this small recurring fee. You may even break it down further by reminding your prospects of the daily cost (e.g., “just 75 cents a day – about the price of a candy bar…”).

Not overwhelming. If you have a training site and you’re tackling a big topic, then let prospects know that they won’t get overwhelmed since you’re offering a step-by-step course in weekly installments.

Remember, Benefits Sell and Features Tell!

4)) Let People “Peek” Inside the Site 

 Whether you offer free trials or not, you can get more members simply by letting prospects “peek” inside your site.

There are multiple ways to do this, including (but not necessarily limited to):

Providing partial content, such as the first paragraph of an article with a link or a description of the report with a link. When people click on the link, they’re encouraged to become a member.

Screenshots of the inside of the site, which show the materials available, the community group, etc.

Video of the inside of the members-only area of the site. Just use screen recording software and record yourself “touring” the site. This approach is very compelling and can get your prospects excited about joining.

Conclusion

There you have it, four surefire ways to get more members into your paid membership site.

With how hyper-competitive the consumer market is, it can no longer be business as usual.

You have to go the extra mile to outperform your competitors.

Filling your site with great content and putting up a sales letter or video alone will not cut it, because you have to differentiate by using more effective marketing strategies and tactics than your competition.