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This blog post is part the series, and is based off the ebook "Top 21 marketing methods for membership websites', written by The Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.
Download the entire series in a book
Finding the most effective marketing approach to promote your membership site may feel like an insurmountable feat -- especially if marketing and sales aren't your wheelhouse. Maintaining a constant stream of leads flowing to you month after month, year after year along with each other responsibility you're expected to perform as a membership site administrator is no easy task. We'll look at the most successful channels for acquiring customers on membership websites and tell you the ways they relate with each other, so you'll be able to develop a cohesive efficient marketing strategy.
Hi! My name is Amanda Northcutt, The Subscription Coach. I help the founders of SaaS, subscription, and online membership companies to ensure that their revenue engines are operating to their full potential through training, consulting, recruitment and also as an executive on a fractional basis. I have more than 20 years of experience in sales and over 15 in online recurring revenue businesses. This guide on Marketing helps take your online participation to the next level!
The business is in the process of being developed
Before we dive in, let's get together on something simple that will help you stop spinning your wheels with your membership, take the time to work in your organization and identify what's working and what's not. If you want to be profitable, it is essential to look at your numbers. Otherwise this membership venture that you have started will be a hobby, and will not ever allow you to gain the financial freedom and the rewards from a fully leveraged company. If you're content with the mediocre, stop reading. If you're looking to learn the basic business skills necessary for achieving your ambitious and hairy goals - the ones which make you shiver with fear - read on!
What is a sales/marketing funnel?
The 21 channels for acquisition listed into sections below are all "top of funnel" sources. The very top of your marketing funnel could be described as the huge bucket where all of the new leads you receive go into. Your email nurture sequence, advertising (like retargeting), etc. helps further narrow those high-level funnel leads to a moderate-sized pool of people who are better qualified to achieve success with your membership offering than the mass of people who initially entered your funnel. And finally, those who are sifted even farther into that middle-sized bucket will make it all the way to the small bucket (bottom of the funnel). The potential leads that are in the tiny buckets are the most qualified leads who should be ready to make a purchase!
As you're reading through this article, I'd like to encourage you to consider which 3-6 methods of acquisition are the most at trying first. Next, you must make a promise to yourself and to your business to follow the guidelines below to determine the two to four most effective marketing channels for your subscription.
Assess viability
Once you've chosen the handful you're going to try, you need to find the channels that are suitable for your needs.
The best acquisition channels can be both successful (your CaC MUST be lower than your cLTV, or else you'll be dead) and also reliable (provides constant flow of leads instead of operating once, but not ever).
CaC stands for the cost of customer acquisition and refers to the amount of money it takes to bring on an additional member to your website. An example of this is that the case of the Facebook campaign costing $2,000 and at the end of the campaign have acquired 20 new customers that means the CaC was set at $100.
CLTV stands for customer lifetime value . It's the amount the customer is liable to pay from their first to last transaction through your site. Put simply If your subscription costs $25 per month and the typical customer is with you for six months, your cLTV is close to $150.
Find out how to identify the most viable acquisition channels to join your club:
- Pick a channel
- Take a test that is simple to conduct
- Review your findings to discover which channels are best suited to your needs.
- Repeat until you find the 3-5 most viable ways to aid you in scaling
Take note that the information you get from an easy test does not always need to be statistically significant to provide valuable insight or even serve as a base from which to build.
Back to science class for an instant...
Just like the science class in elementary school, your test should have the form of a hypotheses, specific parameters, as well as a method to evaluate your results. So, first, make an educated assumption about the outcomes you can expect for your test in marketing. Then, you must define the purpose for the testing. For our purposes that can just include timeline and budget. Lastly, make sure you can access results once the test is complete.
A litmus test of an acquisition channel for marketing is "can you assess the results when this thing is done, or is this an attempt to shoot in the dark?" If you're shooting in the dark There are a few cases in which you should proceed.
If you charge more to members than what they're paying, your membership business will not endure. The only way to determine whether you're in the right track is to examine your numbers: run tests with a predetermined budget and timeline, and then assess your outcomes.
Acquisition channels should be profitable and reliable, and it's difficult to know what they are without running the figures. While this is at times soul-sucking work, it's foundational to having even moderate success, and absolutely imperative to increase the number of members you have.
Once you've got a framework for conducting the tests required to identify the best ways to reach your goals Let's get started on with our list of top 21 channels!
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Chapter 1 Content Learn more about organic search traffic, content marketing, as well as blog guest posts! Read more >