I Don’t Need a Membership Site…Do I?

Do you need a membership site?  I guess it depends.  I do know every business owners needs to decide how they will use the Internet for:

• growing revenue,
• increasing client spend and
• generating referrals from existing customers and contacts.

The Internet is out there with more interconnected people that we ever thought possible. If you don't use it, your competitors will and they fully intend to take business away from you.

So how does a membership site, and especially one that offers a community with it, fit in here? At the very minimum, the sites can  be used to deliver your lead magnets to anyone requesting one.   You've seen these.  Lead magnets are information pieces intended to pique the interest of a prospect.  It can be an e-book, a report, a white paper. More and more people are using video for these.  The point is to offer something of interest to the audience you're targeting.

When they request what it is you have to offer, you get their email address. That's the currency. Now what you need to is begin to follow up with them.  You begin sending them a consistent stream of messages via email and maybe text showcasing what you know.  You do this to build credibility.

The benefit of using a membership site to deliver a lead magnet is you can gather so much information about them. You know when someone logged in, how long they were there and what in addition to your lead magnet the saw.

A membership site is a great way to on-board new clients.  With community features, you let them interact with others working with you. They learn more about you by talking to others. You can use it to given them access to your schedule or project plan for the work they'll be getting.  You can introduce them to the team members assigned to their project.  You can offer them material addressing buyer's remorse.  You want to give them information making them happy they made the decision to buy from your or work with you.

When someone makes a purchase, they don't really expect to be wowed, but when they do it's greatly appreciated.  You bolster your relationship with them and, who knows, they may just start telling their friends.

Using a site like this to provide new clients this kind of information is an excellent way to put community and membership sites to work.  And like I said earlier, you can closely monitor what these new clients do.

Click here for another article I've written explaining what you can track to get the most out of the members visiting your site.

Hope this helps!