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This blog post is part an ongoing series that is based on the book 'Top 21 Marketing channels for membership sites', written by The Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.
The entire collection is available as an ebook
Referrals
Referrals are among the most warm leads you can get. Unlike the other acquisition channels that we have discussed, referrals are something everyone should be asking for regardless of.
Do not ask members who aren't the right ones for recommendations; instead, you should solicit referrals from your current power users! Keep in mind that your most powerful members are the ones who are most engaged in your community, who spend the most with youand who are your top brand evangelists.
It's essential that you request to get referrals from active users, rather than those who have lost interest and are in desperate need of some TLC. Sending the right message when it's appropriate to the appropriate members is crucial to the achievement at all levels in managing your membership. This including asking for favors, such as reviews, referrals as well as networking introductions.
Paid-for advertising
Paid advertisements can cover almost anything, but most common opportunities for the membership websites are: Google AdWords, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, within an influencer's social channels (sponsored emails, podcasts, through social media, and so on. ) or paid content the traditional advertising in an trade publication, and everywhere you can find someone who will accept your cash in exchange for promotion.
Paid advertising should be the easiest channel to keep track of. If you can't track the success of anything you're paying for, then I can't imagine a circumstance in which you should do it. If you're a giant firm, for one thing it's unlikely that you're reading this. However, you may purchase ads strictly for the sake of brand recognition. If you're less than $5 million ARR then you should not be marketing to build brand awareness. You must be using your advertising to track results.
However it's crucial to are realistic about what advertising paid for will accomplish for you. If you discover a magic bullet acquisition channel that's efficient and has never run out of money it's time to try your luck at the lottery also. For the rest of us, we're hoping to find 2-4 acquisition channels that are successful and reliable over six to seven months. You'll need to change your approach to marketing from time to time.
If your advertisement is the first exposure that your potential customer has of the benefits of membership, your CTA cannot and should not solicit them to sign up to paying for your membership.
The same rules apply to your marketing outreach like they do with the nurture sequence (which is the pre-loaded series of email messages your customer receives as they download the lead magnet) Make the correct ask to the right person at the right moment.
If you request excessively or insufficiently when you're not asking for it, the would-be qualified lead could be unable to keep you in mind forever due to the fact that you came on too strong, or your offer just wasn't compelling enough to warrant an action from their side. Did you ask for someone's blessing in the first meeting? Did it go well for you? And the reverse of that, ever had sparks fly during a first meeting and the couple did not contact them for 3 weeks? The ad you choose to place on your website must be appealing to your intended audience by offering the right offer at the perfect moment.
To test paid advertising I would suggest beginning using Facebook ads. Their platform offers unimaginably wide reach. It it is cost-effective to test, and provides a level of flexibility that's impossible to match by other platforms with a similar pool of people (2.3 billion) for the price. In addition, their tracking data dials in on exactly how much value in actual dollar and cents, your advertisement was worth. All you need to do is log in to Facebook Ad Manager and check the value of your campaign; there is no need to calculate.
Install the Facebook Pixel on your site in case you didn't do it yet and then set up a 3- month, budget- limited, retargeting campaign. Retargeting is the process of showing ads to users who have gone on your site and have interacted with your brand at some degree.
Expect a greater return on investment (return of investment) when you show advertisements to people who have previously been to your site and have a general idea of what you do and what you can do to assist them rather than an advertisement on Facebook as their first exposure to your business. Don't show identical ads to the same people over and over and over again during the 3 month test time. Try a few ads , both video and static and compare the outcomes of each.
Here's a great guide on getting started with Facebook ads: buffer.com/library/facebook-ads-guide.
PR (Public Relations)
One way to leverage PR in your membership is to write a compelling interesting story that is newsworthy about you, your business, a new product, an event or partnership with a charitable organization or other organization, etc. Then, you can work with influential people and highly relevant publications to spread the newsworthy story. You can have to pay for or, when your story is interesting enough, you might be able to get it included in some publications at no cost.
The opportunity to get a famous person from a particular publication to interview you and release your interview is amazing as well, and in some cases even better. Keep in mind that publications are typically more amenable to publishing great content by you when you're an advertising company that is paid.
If you've taken the time to build relations with influencers that run the magazines you're targeting for PR, your chances of cooperation and perhaps even collaboration are much higher than if you go in with a cold, uninformed approach.
For small to mid-sized enterprises, content marketing can be very interspersed with PR right now. The lines are pretty fuzzy on what point content marketing gets started and where the PR end point; influencer marketing is also tied into this mix.
In the majority of cases PR is a method used by large corporations to influence the public's opinion. Many large organizations are highly skilled at this, and that's just not the case with the vast majority of the membership companies.
Cross-promotions
To run a cross-promotion, find a couple of other businesses that are not competing and targeting the same target market that you do, and then work with them to cross promote the businesses of each other.
What additional products and services does your target audience buy? Make a list of related offerings and products in relation to yours. You can spend a few minutes Google looking for firms that offer those offerings. Choose around six companies whose audience very likely matches yours and you're confident you have the ability to add value to.
Never approach a different business owner asking to cross-promote in the event that you aren't able to bring tremendous value to the table yourself. This has to be beneficial to both parties and the owner of the other company must clearly see the benefits of their business to grant you their time of day.
If you are running a membership to teach email marketing, partner with someone who teaches, runs the membership program, or even sells a course on social marketing on Facebook, media marketing or similar.
If you teach any sort hand-on craft or skill you can partner with online shops that sell products to your members. If you teach a paleo lifestyle, collaborate with a paleo food kit delivery service.
Bundles, reciprocal discounts, and ongoing promotional reciprocal promotions (usually through the help of affiliate programs) are just three options to approach cross-promotions.
Bundling services or products with a time limit of time during holidays, Black Friday, or any time that is appropriate for the product or service you're offering can be a easy, low-risk approach to start and evaluate the effectiveness of a cross-promotional partnership.
Offer a discounted rate to your cross promotional partner's business when someone signs up to your program is fantastic as well. Just make sure your promo partner has the same offer when they purchase from you. It's a once-off set and forget, highly tracked promotion if you're applying a promo code.
It is possible to formalize a cross-promotional alliance by setting up an affiliate partnership as well. This will be discussed in greater detail further down the line, but in essence you receive a share of any business that you refer to them and the reverse is true.
Direct sales
It's probably the least popular option of all option, however, based on the scale and level of your membership website either direct or one-to one, selling is often required to gain the ball rolling when you're just beginning to roll out.Direct sales involves seeking out prospective customers on a limited scale, often a one-to-one basis. Then, you can approach them directly (first with value!) for the first time to begin the discussion.
If you find the need to directly sell it's likely that you're only starting out and are trying to build some momentum, or you're selling B2B (business to business) subscription or membership at an affordable price enough to justify the effort and time required to conclude the transaction.
LinkedIn's Sales Navigator is a must-have subscription for those selling through this method. There's not another company database that's with the same level of accessibility and reliability as this.
One-to-one B2B outreach approach, that includes 7-12 multi-platform touches, for a specified period of time , is essential to do this work. It is essential to offer a lot of personal value for your customers via various platforms (email, social, phone videos, or even direct mail) and be able to adapt quickly if necessary in order to even get on their radar.
An unplanned approach isn't likely to work. This kind of sales approach requires a lot of thought and is outside the realm of this manual.
Affiliate programmes
An affiliate program means you are giving 10-30% of a membership's annual or monthly fees in perpetuity (until the member decides to cancel) to someone else in exchange for an attributable referral.Offering an affiliate program to influencers or other organizations that have the potential to cross-promote could be an effective incentive for individuals to convince their customers to sign-up for the membership.
It's imperative to factor the affiliate fee in the CAC (customer acquisition cost) and examine how it compares to other marketing channels in order to figure out which one is best to you (a.k.a. it is actually successful). Remember the equation that says cLTV = CAC. In other words do you make out of a user throughout their visit to your site greater than the amount you spent for marketing expenses and additional sales commissions that go with them? If yes, how would your affiliate program stack up against other acquisition channels in terms of profit?
Another option to try is paying a larger, one-time upfront affiliate commission. This can be a bit uncertain, however if your website is established and you've got a firm knowledge of your customers' life value, this could prove to be profitable. This could be an excellent incentive for affiliates (they are aware of the exact amount they earn for each referral) If you're able to keep a close eye of your LTV you'll ultimately reap more long-term gains. You must be able to pay cash to make this work, because the affiliate commission is higher than the amount the new customer pays for the first few months.
The middle of the road, and slightly less risky affiliate option is to give your affiliate a high percentage of the member's monthly fee such as 50-75% for the first 3 months of their membership. This way, you don't pay giving them any cash upfront and the affiliate will share the risk with you more in a fair way. If they offer members to you that are not really a match for what your membership provides it's likely that they'll churn early and the affiliate misses the opportunity to earn a compensation.