This bundle is going to guide you through 5 core phases of building a successful membership site. Here s what we re going to be covering:

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2 Building a membership site has been something I ve always wanted to do - they re an amazing way to bring like-minded people together, to share information, to create an amazing community and then from a financial perspective, they allow you to create recurring revenue in your business (amazing!). For me, building the Members Club has been one heck of an adventure. I started off not really knowing anything about how to build a membership site, but within 18 months it had flourished into an incredible community with over 2000 members, thousands of people on the waitlist and we d collaborated with some incredible experts to create bundles. However, in order to reach that point I made quite a few changes and investments. One of those investments was working with the amazing Stu McLaren, who is the co-founder of Wishlist Member and the strategic business partner of Michael Hyatt s Platform University. So I m honoured to be collaborating with him to create this bundle. When it comes to building, launching and growing membership sites he has a wealth of knowledge and I m excited that we get to share it with you. This bundle is going to guide you through 5 core phases of building a successful membership site. Here s what we re going to be covering: 1. The Master Strategy - this is your 30,000ft view of what you want to create 2. The Content Strategy - here we re going to be talking about what needs to go inside of your membership site and how to create content without feeling overwhelmed 3. The Marketing Strategy - this is the exciting part! How to get your site out there and get people to sign up! 4. The Retention Strategy - once you ve got members, how do you get them to stay? 5. The Growth Strategy - how do you take things to another level and grow? I m so excited about this bundle, because I ve experienced firsthand just how incredible membership sites are and I know so many of you are wanting to build your own or are already building one, so I hope this helps you to create something amazing. As always, I m here to help. If you have any membership questions ask away over in the Facebook group. Carrie xx 2

3 Before You Get Started You ve probably noticed that membership sites are popping up all over the online business world. There are all kinds of membership sites out there from memberships that offer monthly knitting patterns or support communities, to groups that offer specific lessons on how to do something, like build a business (ahem FEA :-)). While all membership sites vary on the content and value they provide, they usually fall into one of three categories: They provide something for people with an ongoing need (think meal planning or sewing patterns) They provide a knowledge base for people looking to master some specific area or skill over time (FEA is a great example of this) They provide a community or environment for like-minded people to connect and support each other. SO, WHY HAVE A MEMBERSHIP SITE? As a business model, membership sites help solve the entrepreneurial dilemma of time = money. Consider this, as a consultant or service based business, your income is often limited to the number of people you can serve, which is limited by the number of hours you want to work. When your business model is set up to trade time for money, your income is constrained to the number of hours in a day (that you are willing/able to work). Basically, they re amazing so let s get started on yours! First things first, let s take some time to map out your 30,000ft view of your membership site, so you can get super clear on exactly what you re intending to create. A membership site provides you with the platform to serve more people without expending an exponential amount time. Additionally, If you can create and maintain a membership that fulfills your ideal client s needs, you can build more financial stability in your business with regular recurring monthly income from memberships. 3

4 What s at the heart and soul of your membership? What s your main aim? Ultimately, what s it all about? Go When I was working on the Members Club I got very clear on the fact that I wanted to create a beautiful space online for like-minded female entrepreneurs to come and hang out, build relationships, learn strategies to help them build a successful business. I wanted it to be a place that inspired and empowered people. I wanted it to be a warm, caring, friendly and supportive place. That was the intention and the energy that I created the Members Club with. Who is your membership site going to be serving? Who will your members be? For me, I focused on getting clear on understanding the kind of people who would want to be part of my membership, by thinking about the kind of people they d be (passionate about building a business, determined, people who want to network, build relationships, learn new skills things that would help me as I came to create the sales copy and the content for the site). I also took time to get clear on their challenges and frustrations, so I could address them. I did this by creating a survey and asking my audience questions so that I could better understand. I also asked them if they d be interested in joining a membership group and if so, what they d like to see inside it I didn t have all the answers and in order to create something great I had to ask my audience for the answers. 4

5 What transformation/benefit will they get by being part of it? When I was planning this out for the Member s Club, I kept it simple The transformation was about going from feeling alone, struggling, not knowing the answers, to feeling supported, having a great network to tap into and having access to the answers to up-level their business. It was all about creating a space to enable people to succeed, by us all coming together (members + experts) to support each other and to cheer each other on. What kind of membership site will you create? How do you envision it running? 5

6 I m going to be completely honest, when I was working on the Members Club, I got so confused about this. I just didn t know how to decide what kind of membership site I wanted 1. Did I want a membership site where I created monthly content and charged a monthly fee? (Like DM Lab or Fizzle) 2. Did I want a membership site where I created content up front and then people paid an annual fee to access everything? (Like Leonie Dawson) 3. Or did I want to create a membership site where I create a set amount of content and then charged people a more expensive rate for 12 months, with life-time access (like John Lee Dumas does for Podcasters Paradise) I was literally going round in circles and listing the pros and cons for all of them and there were plenty of good pros and cons for all. So in the end I asked myself: 1. What would work the best right now? (I.e. do I want to take more time to create a lot of content before I launch?) 2. What feels the best for me? For this I thought about revenue and decided that I wanted to create monthly recurring revenue and I also realised that I wanted to create something where I could build up my member base, rather than having members pay for 12 months (like with Podcasters Paradise). So that s why I chose to go with the model I have. There s nothing wrong with the other models at all, you just have to go with what will work best for you. 6

7 GETTING TECHIE So once you ve nailed the concept for your membership site, how are you actually going to build it? Thankfully there are some amazing tools available today that make this quite simple and I ll list some of them below. I, however, chose to work with a developer to build out my membership site, because I know that my area of expertise really isn t building sites and setting up payment gateways and I wanted to design something that look beautiful, so I need some customisation. That being said, it s good to have an understanding of the technical side I m sure there are plenty of people in the Members Club who can give suggestions on this too, so if you have questions make sure you ask in the Facebook group. What platform are you going to use? There are a number of different platforms for building out your membership site, the main ones are: Wordpress Kajabi Customer Hub (part of Infusionsoft) ClickFunnels Most people tend to use Wordpress, as there are a bazillion membership site plugins out there to choose from. So let s talk about them 7

8 WORDPRESS MEMBERSHIP SITE PLUGINS The plugin that you choose is what will enable you to turn your Wordpress site into a membership site. Different plugins have different features, but most of them will allow you to do the following: Protect your content, so people have to be logged in to see it Sequential content delivery Analytics (so you can see what s going on with your members) Multiple membership levels Payment integration Member management There are a lot of them, so how should you choose what will work best for you? Well, all I can say is that you need to research to find one that has the features you re looking for and the price point that works for you. Here are some options to look into: Wishlist Member AccessAlly (created by Nathalie Lussier, I ve never used it, but it looks brilliant!) imember360 (this is what I use, which works for protecting the content, but I find it s not so good at giving me the stats I want to see) Zippy Courses (more for online courses) 8

9 WHAT PAYMENT GATEWAY? Something else to consider is what payment gateway you re going to use. We use PayPal and we also take credit and debit card payments through Infusionsoft. For credit and debit card payments you might want to check out: Stripe Braintree Samcart Recurly (specifically for recurring payments) You ll need to check that the shopping cart you choose integrates with the platform/plugin you choose. PRICING As part of your master strategy you ll want to consider what price you re going to charge, which for some can be a tricky area! Pricing for membership sites ranges from $1 a day up to $100+ monthly. It varies depending upon the need, topic and return for members. There are pros and cons to pricing both high and low, and ultimately it hinges on what you feel is right for your business. structure as well as learn more about what best serves your members while making some income. There s less risk with a lower price point for members so you will likely have an easier time getting people to join at the beginning and you will also gain the value of experience, and hopefully gain momentum to be able to raise your pricing when the time is right. Starting out low gives you the room to grow your membership and then increase your rate over time, providing the opportunity to refine your content and 9

10 Map out your pricing strategy and possible variables / scenarios to consider When I was deciding my price point I went in circles for a while and really had to way up the pros and cons for all options and ultimately had to make a decision based on what felt right. I started off charging $25 per month, which has since increased to $30 and at some point in the future will likely increase again. In the masterclass with Stu he shared the pricing strategy for Platform University and it was very similar. They started off at $15 and then increased the price within the first 7 days and then have slow increased the price to $30 and have plans to do another increase soon. 10

11 What content are you going to create for your membership site & how are you going to manage it? Membership sites involve content creation, which can be structured in many ways! The key thing to keep in mind when developing content is that you don t want to overwhelm your members - the #1 reason why people cancel their membership subscription is because they feel overwhelmed, so keep it simple, clear, and actionable. So to start your content strategy, it s good to identify the core content topics you re going to be covering in your membership site. For example, for a business membership site your core content topics might fall under: Building your audience Generating revenue Creating systems Having the right mindset Or if you had a membership site all about online marketing you might have: Social media Marketing funnels Video marketing Advertising Facebook groups/online communities So what would your core content topics be? 11

12 Take some time to brainstorm specific content topics Before I launched the Members Club I did a survey to find out what topics my audience most wanted help with, based on that I brainstormed 12 potential bundles I could create for the Members Club. This helped me to feel so much clearer about what I had to get done. How are you going to deliver your content? And what other features are you going to have? Now that you have some fabulous ideas for the type of content you want to provide, what is the best method to deliver this content? Are you releasing something monthly? Are you sending them something each week? Consider the best way for your audience to digest and implement your content. Remember that you don t need to share everything you know about the topic in one go, most people are looking for clarity and convenience - what do I need to know and do this week? Like Stu talks about in the masterclass, it s good to have 4 content buckets. For Platform University this looks like this: Monthly Masterclass Platform U How To Live Q&A session/class Backstage pass (video where Michael shows behind the scenes) 12

13 So, how will you deliver your content? Like you know with FEA, we have 3 content main features: Monthly Bundle Monthly Masterclass Monthly Goal Planning Workshop Additional features that FEA has is the Facebook group and the monthly accountability partners, so take some time to think of all the features of your membership site You don t have to start with all these features, you can add them as you go. How much content are you going to create before you launch? 13

14 In the masterclass, Stu mentions that it s good to have at least two month s worth of content created and to have a clear plan of what content you re going to create after that. So, what will your first few months of content include? When I launched the Members Club I d created the first bundle and was working on the second month s and I had a plan for the next few months after that. However, it was stressful and I probably should have had more content created! 14

15 WORKING WITH EXPERTS TO CREATE CONTENT When you re creating a lot of content, it s often a good idea to work with other experts so it s not just you creating content all of the time. In the Members Club we frequently collaborate with amazing experts to create bundles and with Platform University, Michael has experts involved every month. Which experts would you love to collaborate with? Create a wishlist of people and what topics they could cover When I was starting the Members Club I always wondered how other people worked with experts did they pay them? How did they get introduced? How did they structure it? So I want to share with you how it s worked for me. I was very intentional that I wanted to work with other experts and in the beginning I reached out to people who I already knew to some extent and asked if they d like to be a featured expert. At first I didn t really know what I was doing! I was just asking them for their strategies and tips and from that I created the workbooks. As time went on I found that more and more people wanted to be a featured expert, which was amazing! Whenever I work with experts I always let them know that the aim of the bundle is to provide step-by-step guidance on how to make something happen - whether that s writing amazing copy or getting to grips with your finance. I want the experts to share an easy to implement process - it needs to be actionable. There s no money exchanged. It s always work in progress and if I reach out to someone I don t have a relationship with and ask them to get involved I make it as simple for them to say yes as possible. For example, with Mastin Kipp, we filmed the masterclass, because it was the easiest way to allow him to share his strategies. 15

16 HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAY ORGANISED WITH YOUR CONTENT CREATION? When you re starting a publisher style membership site, a big fear is that you ll be stuck on a content treadmill! So in order to avoid that the key is to batch create content. For Platform University they batch create 12 months worth of masterclasses and backstage passes over a few days! So what content could you batch create? 16

17 How are you going to get your membership site out there and get members? This is the exciting part, when you can put your membership site out there and start getting members! So let s craft your marketing strategy MARKETING PRIOR TO LAUNCH Several months prior to launching it s helpful to bolster your list with as many qualified leads as possible. You might do this by... Hosting some webinars on a topic congruent with your membership site (see the Webinars Bundles for complete instructions on that) Creating and advertising a new opt-in PDF that shares some really valuable information in your area of expertise Doing some general list building advertising efforts (see the List Building Bundle). Brainstorm ideas for list building prior to your launch: 17

18 STARTING A WAITLIST It s also a good to start a waitlist of people who want to know more about your membership site - get people to sign up via . Place banners on your site, post out on social media to let people know something exciting is coming and give them a teaser, you could even test Facebook ads. Once people sign up to your waitlist, make sure you send them some more information about your membership site and get them excited! You ll be glad you did this when you come to launch! FOR MORE HELP WITH THIS DEFINITELY CHECK OUT THE LAUNCH BUNDLE. 18

19 When it comes to the launch there are some things you need to consider beforehand WILL YOU HAVE AN OPEN DOOR MEMBERSHIP OR WILL YOU HAVE A CLOSED MEMBERSHIP? Basically, will you allow people to sign up anytime or will you have specific periods when people can enrol? There are pros and cons to both. Open door allows you to be constantly replenishing members, but also requires you to promote your membership each month. A closed membership can seem intimidating because the pressure is on you each month to make sure existing members stay. Generally, the closed membership allows you to invest more time/energy into the launches than when you have to launch/promote each month. Ultimately it comes down to what you feel is best for you. Remember, that nothing is set in stone and you can always try it one way and then decide to change it later. The important thing is to just get started and try things out, because it will provide you with so much insight. Like your business itself, your membership will always be evolving and growing. When I launched the Members Club it was open all of the time, so each month I would market it. Then I switched to having it closed and doing two enrollments per year. It was a scary transition, but when I did my first launch and then closed it I had more members join in 7 days than I had join in the first 18 months! What was even better was that because enrollment closed I didn t need to worry about marketing, which gave me more space to focus on how I was going to add more value to the Members Club! WHAT ACTIVITIES WILL YOU DO TO LAUNCH? There are a million ways you could launch your membership site and there are no rules to follow but one of the most popular ways to launch at the moment is by sharing a 3-4 part video series with your list. This allows you to deliver value and build trust very quickly. You can also accomplish this with a series of webinars or do both! Here s what launch activities have worked well for me: Creating a free workbook + 3-part video series, which then leads into the launch (this builds my list, creates excitement and builds trust/the relationship) Facebook ads to promote the freebies + the enrollment Social media marketing - for my last launch the majority of new members signed up from an I sent. Live webinars 19

20 So, what specifically will you do to launch your membership site? IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AN AUDIENCE YET, THERE ARE A FEW OPTIONS You could find someone to collaborate with who does have a following You could fast track your list grow using advertising. YOU CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS IN THE LIST BUILDING BUNDLE AND FACEBOOK ADS BUNDLE. 20

21 CREATING AN EVERGREEN FUNNEL If you re going to have your membership site only open for enrollment a couple of times a year, it s a good idea to consider creating an evergreen funnel for people to join through the backdoor. You could create a webinar and then advertise that on Facebook and at the end of the webinar offer people the chance to join. This is what they do for Platform University. FLASH PROMOTIONS & VIP/WAITLIST ENROLLMENTS You could also consider doing a flash promotion or opening the doors to your waitlist more frequently. So if you are going to do 2 big enrollments a year, you could also do an extra 2 flash/waitlist promotions. Use the space below to map out what your annual marketing strategy will look like for your membership site: Remember, you don t have to do everything all at once! When I first launched the Members Club I just sent out s, did Facebook ads and posted out on social media. That s it. 21

22 How are you going to keep members on board? Okay, so you ve created the content, figured out your membership site structure, had an amazing launch and have a beautiful community of members! Amazing! So, how do you keep them month after month? Well the truth is, you re not going to be able to keep all of them (although it would be nice!), but there are things you can do to make sure your retention rates are high. So the first thing you need to be aware of is the #1 reason why people cancel their memberships. It s this OVERWHELM Believe it or not, the number one reason why people leave (and we can verify this as our #1 piece of feedback when people decide to cancel their membership with FEA) is because they feel overwhelmed. The content may be amazing, but if it s presented in a way that seems daunting or there is no clear path to success - people go into overwhelm and give up. Think about it - how many things are on your to-do list each day just to maintain your personal or family life? Even with a strong desire to want to learn something, if you can t see the clear path to success or know where to start it s easy to let other things take priority. And then they have a membership they are not using and that s easy to see that it becomes of no value to them anymore. It s funny because often the main concern you have when creating a membership site is that there is not enough content, but the truth is that you really have to be clear and careful with how much information you present and the way you present it. The other reason that people cancel is because people don t feel like their membership is providing the value that was promised. It s important to not over-promise to your potential members. Make sure that you truly deliver all that you offer and more. Focusing on serving and helping members creates small wins. It should all be about helping them and providing value for them so they can make quick wins and create momentum for themselves. You will craft an amazing experience for them by being intentional about celebrating their successes with them and becoming their #1 cheerleader - because you care about the results they are getting. That said, it s only natural that your membership will have people who decide it s not the right fit for them, and that s totally okay. The average monthly loss for most membership sites is around 20-25% of the membership. However, there are some specific tactics you can employ to help keep members happy. 22

23 RETENTION TACTICS HOW FEA HAS DONE THIS: Help them consume content and create anticipation for upcoming content. Community - help them foster meaningful relationships with you or other members Round up of the week , so people can easily see what s been going on and we can highlight people s wins Weekly Threads (Sunday: what s your focus for the week? Wednesday: share your offer. Friday: leave a link to your social media) Challenge of the Month + encouraging people to share their progress/creations Celebrate the Wins The Facebook Group, where we can all build relationships and ask questions. 23

24 Brainstorm ways you can build anticipation for upcoming content. Brainstorm ways you can help cultivate community in your membership How can you acknowledge and celebrate your members wins? 24

25 THE ONBOARDING PROCESS Something else that I ve found to be important is the Onboarding Process - how you make people feel from the get-go. When a member signs up to FEA, here s what happens: 1. The first thing they see after the payment is a welcome video making them feel excited about their decision to join. 2. They receive a welcome with their login details in. 3. When they login to the site for the first time they re given a tour of the site, so they know where everything is. 4. A couple of days after they ve joined they receive an from Jess, welcoming them again and letting them know that she s here to take care of them. 5. They continue to receive more s over the first month, so we can stay really connected. It s so important to consciously create an amazing experience for your members. This will always be work in progress, but for now brainstorm ways that you can make your members feel welcomed during their first month as a member 25

26 How are you going to take your membership site to the next level? Once you ve found a groove with running the membership, the next step is thinking about how to reduce the workload from your shoulders and grow with a team. Even though you might not be at this stage yet, it s good to think about the following things... IDENTIFY ROLES What roles do you have within your membership? Do you need a community manager? Do you need someone to take care of support? Do you need someone to help organise the content? IDENTIFY GOALS Get really clear on what your goals are for your membership site. Where do you want it to go? How many members do you want and when do you want them by? BE INTENTIONAL. Also, give yourself permission to hire once you reach your goals. 26

27 Keep it Simple. You don t have to get it right but you do have to get it going. Your site will evolve over time and you may not end up where you thought you would but it will always be improving and evolving. So by now you should have a big plan in place for building a really successful membership site. As always, if you have any questions then ask away over in the Facebook group! Good luck building out your membership, I can t wait to see it! Carrie xx NEED HELP? WE RE HERE FOR YOU... COME AND SAY HELLO TO US ON FACEBOOK 27