Making the most out of your business by having both a course and a membership.
I have been thinking a lot about membership sites over the last few months. It seems like over the last few years the membership sites have really blown up and become a profitable business model for many online marketers. This blog post will go over the benefits of having a membership site and explain why you would want to have a membership site as well as a course.
“Course and memberships go together like peanut butter and chocolate!
Courses bring an injection of cash into the business.
And having a membership brings in the stable reliable recurring revenue you can count on month after month.
They are the power combo for ANY business.”
– Stu McLaren
1. The benefits of having a membership site for your courses
Are you one of those instructors that wants to jump on every opportunity to make money? You know, the ones who have a course for teaching meditation, one for mindfulness, one for journaling, and another for self-esteem?
Well, you might want to think twice about that. You see, keeping all these courses updated can be quite a hassle, and what if you are planning on creating more courses in the future? If you offer a bunch of courses, you might lose a lot of potential clients that are looking for a complete course, and not just a bunch of individual lessons.
One way to solve this is by having a membership site which offers your courses all in one place. This way, people can buy your course and they will have all of your content and resources at their disposal.
With a membership website, users will be able to purchase access to your course.
This is ideal if you are going to be selling the same course over and over again. Instead of having to create each individual course and all the content for it, you can simply deliver it through your membership site.
Then when you create another course you include it on your membership site. You get to choose who gets access depending upon their membership level. So your customers may only buy one course from you, but customers who buy more than one course from you, can have one place to login to access multiple courses and/or exclusive membership content.
The main idea behind a membership site is that there is a monthly or annual fee for access to a site. You can sell your online course and membership as separate products to make two separate income streams in your business.
But what if you want to make more than just two streams of income? Is it possible to use both a course and a membership to make even more income? The main benefit of having both a course and a membership is that you can take advantage of bundling.
Once you have built up the courses you can bundle different existing courses to create a new product, service or membership offering.
2. Checklist of what you need to create your membership site
A lot of people use the term membership site all wrong. It confuses a lot of people. A membership site is NOT a sales funnel. A membership site is NOT a course. A membership site is NOT a way to get your information out.
A membership site is the place where you provide value to your members. The value could be in many forms. It could be a single online training course, or a series of courses. It could be a simple membership site that allows your members to read one article, or watch a new video from you every week. The value of the membership could be something available to your members 24/7, or something available to them for a limited time.
A membership site can do a lot for you, but you have to set it up correctly. The trick is to deliver value to your members on a regular basis so that they return to your site and want to stay there. Here are some things you need to consider when choosing a membership site format for your content.
3. Get your membership site built by an expert team
Take advantage of this opportunity to get your membership site created for you and build a community around your training to succeed.
If you are considering building a membership site, the first thing you should do is to look for the best membership site builder. An effective membership site builder can help you create a website that contains all the essential features.
Using Groove has everything integrated. Have your Membership linked to your sales funnels and sales pages for each course. With the GrooveMail Autoresponder included mailing system; to further educate and upsell your other training courses and coaching or therapy services. All included in one of the most powerful Marketing Platforms.
With Groove, you can do it yourself or get a membership site created for you to deliver your courses. I can help create the entire website platform that is pre-integrated. Ready for you to add your course content. grow with you and be easily managed. One membership, as many courses as you want to add. Content can be drip delivered or accessed instantly after purchase.
b. How to make your membership site pay?
While a course offers exclusive access to information or resources for a certain period of time. A membership platform is the perfect way to sell your online course, memberships, trainings, event tickets or anything else.
You can use this platform to build your email list, sell courses, and offer special bonuses to your customers. Best of all, This is a great way to build a list of customers who are interested in your products or services.
4. Now that you have a membership site, what do you do next?
a. Course format considerations
A website that delivers courses online is a great way to provide content to users at their convenience. This is especially true for courses that are delivered in video format. There are a number of platforms to use for streaming video, but the two most popular are Youtube and Vimeo. If you use either of these platforms, you can embed your video into your course to provide instant access to your content.
b. How easily accessible is content?
If you want to create a membership site, you need to make sure that you’re delivering content that people will want to access over and over again. If your content is too difficult to access, your visitors might get frustrated and just give up on your site.
You can use many different formats to deliver your content, including PDFs, videos, and audio files. Of course, from an accessibility viewpoint I always recommend you offer your membership site courses in multiple formats.
Content can be engaging, accessible and delivered as texts, video, transcriptions, handouts, images, discussions, podcasts or audio. You’ll cater to different learning styles as well as including a wider audience, without restricting access.
The best membership sites scaffold their content. Meaning that they give the users a way to start out small, then build up to a big, impressive course. Founding members are often happily grandfathered at lower rates. Knowing the content delivered will increase with time.
c. You have to find what works for you and your audience
The best way to find your way is to experiment. Be creative and use your own experience to figure out how it all works for you.
- Do you want to be able to give your customers instant access to your courses? Or slowly drip feed resources over time?
- Do you want the flexibility to be able to change your prices and offer special deals?
- Do you want to add members continuously to consume evergreen course content? or
- Do you want to open up your membership to gain access to your selected premium course library only once a year, month or quarter?
All of these things can be used to help you figure out what works best for your audience. So that you can create a membership site that will deliver your courses in the best possible way.
A membership site can be a powerful tool in helping you boost your online business.
Rather than opting for an online course creating a membership site course can be a good option.
I hope that you now feel more comfortable about creating a membership site to help you boost your online business. Connect with us to get started with your membership site.
I will be able to build your membership site for you. Ensuring that you have it set up correctly. On an easy to use platform. That allows you to deliver your content in many formats, while offering different content experiences to your users.