Terms

"You have to know those who will become your customers before you can build a membership business," begins Matt Hardigree the publisher of The Autopian. "I have seen issues that were solved by people who just assumed there would be an audience that existed. The math is hard however the math isn't complicated. The math can be done using all the data you have."

He says that if you're writing on an online platform, take a look at the number of readers you've got. "If I'm on a platform together with 10 other authors and 3 of us are trying to make something, what are we all alike? Are we 15% of the website's members? This isn't a huge amount. Do we constitute 80percent of the site's traffic?"

At some point, The Autopian founders David Tracy and Jason Torchinsky made up 50% of Jalopnik's traffic. "They could have thought 'We could start something, it's entirely possible"," continues Matt. "What's fascinating is David and Jason do not have huge social followings, which seems like the obvious method to turn into readers. They didn't have to accomplish it as they already had readers.

The days prior to the official launch The Autopian did a review of competition within both the auto industry and in the media. "We have a good idea about the amount of automobile fans visit these sites. Do the math: once we've figured out the expenses then what are we likely to require to be successful? And then you have to think about where those individuals come from?  What percentage of them are aware of who we are? and 'What percentage of those are we required to get to the point of the sustainability of our organization?' and 'In terms of membership, how much are we likely to charge? ? '."

He continues: "You can make some assumption - but aren't required to prove it. But you must have those numbers. When you've got started, you can plug in the data to find areas where you're off and adjust. If there's no information and is just guessing then you'll have to do the maths and work out what you're missing.

Matt confesses that when you do your homework, you'll experience an "in your head" time "In the first half hour or so of starting membership, I was completely lost! I thought, "What's going to occur? As memberships began to come in, I felt great! We're also conducting analyses of the data and constantly evaluating what's effective and what's not."

Strategies for engagement and growth

"I believe we're at 10% of what our membership can be," Matt continues. "We've had success, and we've had plenty of members. But, the top 10% of members are the easiest to get. The last 10% of members will be the hardest. Every tranche is going to be more difficult than the one that preceded it. It will be possible to solve the problem."

Matt says that growth of 10x over the next five years is a goal. "If we can get to 50 percent of the target, we are almost totally sustained at our present stage by our members. If we can reach 100%, we're far more sustained through members or making money by membership alone. I'd like to be at this level."

Matt Hardigree, The Autopian

What are their strategies for achieving this objective? What do they have to offer as perks for members and how do they utilize this to draw new members?

Matt replies: "It's a balance because The Autopian is a journalism project as well as an activity driven by enthusiasts. It's like having three buckets to help people sign up and to keep members in the fold by helping The Autopian feel valuable."

Strategy 1: Content

Matt says that the primary bucket of content. "We have to come up with something that is interesting enough, engaging enough as well as different in comparison to what's available elsewhere and  that I can only read this via the Autopian. You must be in The Autopian if I want the Autopian to be able to access this.'

"You're not paying for access to this content since there's no paywalled access to the content. The reason is that you'd prefer to be able to get it anywhere." Matt affirms that contents will be the Autopian's most valuable value proposition "You need this thing to be in your life so badly, you will part with four dollars a month, ten dollars per month, and the equivalent of $85 per month for certain individuals."

Strategies 2 and The Advantages

Bucket 2 depicts the benefits members get for free like Discord access, clothing including T-shirts, tickets to events including trivia nights and merchandise like badges and stickers.

"We offer a variety of items you can choose from as if you're purchasing the car. The cheapest is cloth ($70/year) then vinyl ($100/year) and then Velour for $250 per year, and the most costly level is Corinthian leather that costs 1,000 dollars per year. There are more people who use leather and velour than I could imagine!"

"One one of the gifts you'll receive is a birthday greeting card. The co-founder of the company is an artistic talent. We weren't expecting to get many drawings, but he's actually been doing many birthday cards than we thought he would and we're just catching up!"

A monthly rate of $1000 is a big ask, however it was the suggestion of the well-established company in media Defector. They told Matt they had a lot more customers at $1,000 than they had anticipated. "I thought"I do not even know, $1,000?' They replied"Do that!"" Matt laughs.

"They were also saying that they wish they could have a middle-stage, since they've got two levels lower and one higher," the doctor adds. "We debated on it and decided on $250/year. It was the ideal amount because Velour has a lot of members, and this year we witnessed more people moving upwards from vinyl to velour and then from velour back down to vinyl. In fact, more people went from 100 to 250 rather than between 100 and 250. It's a sign that I think we're on the right track!"

Autopian's Autopian team has also realized that content behind the scenes is popular. They share procedural information like how they got to a headline as well as "Tales from Slack". Matt explains: "We have our internal Slack and it's not meant for consumption by the general public."

"People are inclined to make up absurd, ridiculous and funny things!" Matt is laughing. "Our chief editor David isn't a pop-culture awareness and is constantly confused. He was convinced that Ronan was the real Serpico, he believed that the Al Pacino film set in the 70s was an Robert De Niro film from the 90s!"

Strategy 3. Fear of missing out (FOMO)

"The third bucket of content which is extremely effective and which people probably overlook is FOMO. We do not want anyone to be missing out on things," Matt continues.

"We are on Discord with regular column of advice. Our Discord is completely free and available, but there's a section for members," he adds. "I would like members to post images in chatroom 'Here's me wearing my shirt and I'm proud to wear my badge' and I'm hoping people will be eager to join with us in this."

Matt concludes attracting members works very well if the message is in line with the type of content you publish. "Every once in a while, we'll do a 'Here's everything you'll receive' appeal. This is a way to remind members of the benefits people get when they join."

They will more often acknowledge their communities "We appreciate our readers You make us better. If you're not an active participant, we're not mad at you. Some people don't have enough money. If you're in the position of a student however this is, we're aware. If you're in a position that you have money, please check out. We want you here and we'd love to have you join us as a member of our family. If you're interested in these kinds of things you have the chance to become a member of the community."

We'll then do a FOMO posting where Jason will post a message saying 'Here's all the birthday-themed sketches I created during the month of July!' those who look at the sketches will be thinking 'God! I want to do that.'

It's apparent that building communities can come in a variety of designs and sizes, including birthday drawings for car enthusiasts.

Further information

For more information and to join The Autopian, go to theautopian.com.

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