Your website may appear to be nothing more than a glorified business card to you. However, there's a lot more it can do for you. You could, for example, use it as a membership model to generate revenue and build a long-term customer base. We've got some tips for you if you're wondering how to start a membership site or even why you should. Furthermore, the consumers you acquire may become your most valuable assets, delivering long-term revenue, social proof, and outreach opportunities. In this post, we'll go over these advantages in greater detail before leading you through four simple steps to create a membership website up and running. Let's get started!
What is a Subscription Website?
A subscription website, often known as a membership website, is one that requires users to register in order to have access to exclusive material and other benefits. Subscription sites can be used to create private forums or groups, as well as to give exclusive discounts or intangible services.
Benefits of a Subscription Website
A subscription site can benefit customers who actually value what you have to offer by leveraging your content and exclusive deals. When you create a membership website, you can benefit in a variety of ways:
1. They Make Drip Campaigns Simple to Manage
A subscription website allows you to spread out your content so that it can be used for a variety of events and time periods. This is ideal for businesses with a vast material library that needs to be used in a precise order.
Your subscription website's drip content features help you keep your subscribers engaged. If someone can download all of your content at once, they might as well unsubscribe from your site.
2. They Ensure That Your Content Is Protected
Your content is a valuable resource. It's also critical to safeguard your possessions. As you offer content strategically, a subscription site provides a safe haven for your most valuable content. Visitors won't be able to simply duplicate, steal, or misuse your content this way.
3. They Assist in the Development of a Community Platform
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
Subscription websites can help you build a community of people who are interested in learning more about your company, product, or industry. By allowing you to select who has access to online forums or Q&As, subscription sites make managing online communities a breeze.
People can learn more about what you do by asking more in-depth inquiries, and you can foster open discussions about mutual interests.
4. They Can Provide You with Recurring Revenue
You can earn passive money from your material if you create a membership website. Allowing your customers to only see or purchase certain things at a discounted rate encourages them to join up for the subscription if your business revolves around subscription boxes as a product.
5. They Assist in the Development of New Marketing Opportunities
Your subscribers are a pre-assembled group of people who can be notified about new content and product offerings. They'll be more inclined to buy your stuff than visitors who haven't yet signed up for your newsletter.
How to Make a Subscription Website in 6 Easy Steps
Depending on the host or CMS platform, the process to create a membership website may change. The following are some fundamental steps to create a membership website:
1. Identify Your Niche
To have a successful subscription website, you must first choose a good niche. You must determine what distinguishes your products and services from those of your competitors. It's critical to understand why a user would choose your organization over another to sign up for a subscription.
2. Choose from a Variety of Content
The next step is to decide what kind of content to provide. You can choose from ebooks, whitepapers, newsletters, courses, and other limited-time offers. You might also want to combine different types of material to further segment your drip campaigns and personalize your content marketing.
To begin, choose a specialty that is related to your chosen sector and will appeal to your target audience. You can experiment with your specialty until you find the one that works best for you. Make sure you get feedback from your customers to make sure it's working, and make any necessary changes to the membership model.
3. Decide on a CMS Platform
When it comes to how to create a membership website, the CMS site host is crucial. It's not easy to have gated and ungated material for your subscribers and visitors with every CMS host. The HubSpot CMS is a solid choice for hosting. Without the usage of plugins, you can easily develop a membership-based website with the HubSpot CMS.
4. Decide on the Membership Website Platform
Image is taken from Strikingly
While several platforms advertise themselves as membership website builders, just a few are designed specifically for the inexperienced creative and small business owner who is unfamiliar with coding and technology. Strikingly is a good example of a site that bridges the gap between ambitious site owners and their markets.
Strikingly also includes a number of easy-to-use features for converting visitors into superfans. If you want to expand or switch platforms, it's a simple decision with many unique features not seen on other sites, such as coupon codes and free trials.
Strikingly gives you everything you need to "create your website in minutes." It's simple to get started with a basic site, but what if you want to offer your consumers a premium membership subscription program?
Strikingly gives you the option of including a subscription feature on your website. There are free and paid registration options, which you should carefully consider as you develop a membership website.
5. Create a Membership Website that is easy to use
Image is taken from Strikingly
It's never been easier to get started with your Strikingly membership website. Hover over "Audience" in your Site Editor to get a drop-down option that contains "Membership." Select "Activate Membership" from the drop-down menu. This will ensure that your followers have access to exclusive benefits such as coupons and product promotions.
The rest of the stages, from basic tier setup to user management and assistance, will be guided by the site. It's easy to accomplish and doesn't require any coding knowledge. For anyone new to creating a membership website, this is perhaps the easiest, most seamless, and easily adaptable solution accessible. You can now share your exclusive content, such as online classes, with your audience while also earning money!
6. Decide on the Requirements for Membership
Image is taken from Strikingly
You should have a fair idea of what you'll need on your site to make it function at this point. Strikingly's Pro plan allows you to add up to 100 members to your site and create one membership tier. The VIP plan goes above and above, providing you with more membership tier possibilities (up to 5) and 20x more members than the Pro plan.
Another advantage of using Strikingly is that you can set up members-only pages on your site and use numerous pages for your membership program. The Audience Plan expands the capacity and reach of your website. With this Audience Plan add-on, you may further customize your side and offer support.
Image is taken from Strikingly
Tips for Creating a Membership Website
Frequently, membership websites or communities must fulfill two critical functions: attracting and retaining member participation.
A member website should be informative, interesting, simple, and vision-aligned with the members it serves. This article offers five suggestions to create a membership website and online communities work better.
• Determine your Members' Requirements
This is the most critical and initial tip to create a membership website. The web design process must begin with a thorough understanding of the community's requirements. If an organization is revamping its membership website, noting the prior website's pain points will be critical for everyone involved in the redesign process. To capture the different sorts of members, their wants, pain areas, and opportunities, we advocate building customer personas. Personas may be quite useful in pushing people to take action on the website when it first launches, as well as giving tools to assist them in doing so.
• Less is built, More is observed, and More is improved
Consider introducing a minimal viable product instead of building every feature, tool, and resource for the launch of the new member website. Integrate members into a simple, easy-to-understand platform, then gradually add functionality. This will allow you to invite your members back, observe (and learn from) their activities, analyze data, and create cleaner, clearer, and more accurate tools. Additionally, you will be able to launch early, which may help avoid dissatisfied members from completely departing your business.
• Allow for Simple Access
Image is taken from Strikingly user’s website
When you create a membership website make sure that all major tools and information are easily accessible. Members will become frustrated and abandon the website if you make them search and dig. Yes, there can be an excessive amount of navigation. Maintain a minimal, pared-down, and clearly defined navigation system. Make sure consumers don't have to go through a lot of hoops to get to the website's most popular pages or features.
• Explain and Assist
Websites for members are frequently larger than those for brand brochureware. Tools to enable the community to communicate and engage with one another may be available on member websites. Forums, movies, messages, dashboards, activities, and photo galleries are all possible. When they initially see the new website, not all members will feel at ease. Consider assisting them. Members may soon become super users if you provide explainer films, site maps, tip windows, fancy tour overlays, feature tours, recommendations, help forums, customer service areas, or education content.
• Create a Sense of Involvement
Engagement features make it easier for a community to return. Make sure you arrange for adequate engagement tools throughout the website and member journey at the early design stages of the project. Keep in mind that new members may interact with the website in a different way than returning members. Use web analytics and event tracking to confirm that members are using new tools and features and that activity is increasing.
Final Thoughts
Nothing could be further from the truth if you believe that a steady stream of revenue from a loyal group of consumers is a pipe dream. You can reach your membership goals now that you know how to create a membership website – and how comparatively simple it is to implement!
Having a website is a vital aspect of online development as business, sales, purchases, and news become more internet-oriented. Membership websites are a terrific way to generate a constant stream of revenue while also increasing user engagement.
It takes a lot of effort to create and launch a membership website. If that is holding you back, consider building your membership website with Strikingly.
Exploring your interest in a new way, though, can be quite satisfying. As a result, membership websites may be worth investigating.
