5 Reasons Why A Membership Site Benefits Your Business

Sometimes there’s a fine line between doing “enough” for your business and doing “too much.”

On the one hand, it’s easy to fall into that frantic FOMO mindset – the fear of missing out. It happens when you begin to worry about getting “behind” as an entrepreneur, worrying that you’re not doing as good as So-and-So. FOMO is both detrimental and really draining.

But on the other hand, you might find yourself stuck in that “good enough” mentality.

Your business is good enough because you’re getting paid. And it’s good enough because you’re currently running it without running yourself into the ground.

I truly don’t believe that you have to pull an 80-hour work week in order to reach your full potential as an entrepreneur… But I also don’t believe that complacency is a good place to be, either professionally or in your personal life. There’s always room for good, healthy growth.

And that’s why one of the best tools for an online business owner is the membership site.

Learn To Balance Healthy Comfort And Business Growth With A Membership Site

So maybe there are some obvious holes in your business that could use a little love, but you’re worried about stretching yourself too thin.

The natural membership site benefits can be a great way to maximize your efforts without having to work more.

No, it’s not a magic solution to business growth, and it’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all deal. But there are a few key areas in business where a membership site provides a clear-cut solution, such as:

Reason #1: Recurring Revenue For Your Business

From the business-y side of being an entrepreneur, the potential for recurring revenue is a huge pull in favor of creating a membership site for your business.

Although not every membership site has to have a price tag attached to it (and sometimes it’s better to have some free elements to draw people in), there are a couple of different ways to monetize your members-only area.

One way is by setting up a monthly (or yearly) membership fee for your site. Another is by requiring users to purchase their access to the various areas of your membership site (course content or whatever you’re offering).

Or, you might choose to do a combination by charging a base membership price with limited access and making additional content available for an extra fee.

Either way, the idea is that you spend time creating the content once, then continue to receive some sweet recurring revenue for your efforts. It’s all possible when you start selling on WordPress, too.

Reason #2: You Can Deliver More Focused Value To Your Clients

There’s a lot to be said about sharing the wealth of your knowledge without asking anything in return. After all, it’s one of the main motivators for heart-centered people: we just want to make a difference!

But the funny thing is that limiting access to some of your stellar content with a membership site can be a way to increase the value of your top-notch expertise.

That’s because, within a membership site, you can create courses with content that builds on itself. It allows you to go much deeper than you could in, say, a blog article or a podcast.

You might create some introductory courses, then build on that basic info to lead to more advanced course material.

It’s a way to deliver more focused, in-depth value to your clients without having to link to a bunch of different places for it to work. Instead, everything’s nicely packaged inside your membership site.

Reason #3: Increasing The Impact Of Your Message

Have you ever felt like your words are just falling on deaf ears?

It’s not a good feeling, especially when you really believe in the importance of your message.

As humans, we tend to place a higher value on things that require something from us.

As humans, we tend to place a higher value on things that require something from us.

If I see two similar dresses hanging on the same rack, one with a $1.50 price tag on it and the other with a $1,000 price tag…which one do you think I’m going to place a higher value on?

That’s right. The expensive one, even if it’s totally outside my budget.

The same principle applies to your membership site.

When you ask someone to pay a membership fee to access your content, you’re also giving them a reason to focus their time and attention on what you’re trying to give them.

The more they soak in, the more they’ll benefit from what you’re sharing.

Reason #4: Increase The Social Buzz

Social media platforms house members of nearly every niche imaginable. It’s a place where you definitely want to have some conversations going about your business.

Organically, as your tribe reaps the benefits from your membership site, they’ll be more than willing to spread the word about you on social media. It’s a natural phenomenon.

But even if your tribe is a little more reserved, there are some other simple steps you can take to increase the social engagement surrounding your membership site.

As the word gets out on social media, you’ll be able to reach and attract even more people to become loyal fans of your business.

Reason #5: You Can Automate The Whole Darn Thing

Maybe at this point, you’re totally sold on the idea of creating a membership site for your business…you just aren’t quite sure how this can save you from total burnout.

One word: automation.

You can automate the whole thing.

The heavy work comes in the beginning: finalizing your best membership site ideas and developing a membership site that wows, then creating and launching your courses.

From that point on out, there are some neat tech tools that can shoulder most of the burden associated with registration, purchases, and refunds.

AccessAlly, for example, is our membership plugin for WordPress.

It’s designed to fully integrate with Infusionsoft, Ontraport, ActiveCampaign, Drip, and Kit. Tagging, permissions, password resets, and payments are all automated by this plugin. (Bonus: it’s also easy to use!)

But, depending on your email marketing software and preferences, you might lean toward one of the other membership plugins available for WordPress.

Just make sure that the plugin you choose will integrate well with your email marketing platform…and that the platform you’re using will have the ability to automate the processes that are important to you.

Build A Membership Site That Works For Your Business

For membership site benefits to really impact your business, you – the mastermind – have to make sure that it fits well with your message.

You should already have a solid bunch of subscribers to who you can easily market your new membership site to (if that’s still on your to-do list, there are some free list-building resources out there to help.

You should also be comfortable with building the site itself or be willing to invest in a techy someone who can build it for you. (If you need some recommendations, we’ve got a few awesome people in mind!)

Decide on what you want and how the membership site benefits will truly help your business to grow… The sky’s the limit!

Please take time to share your ideas and thoughts on the benefits of a membership site in the comments section below!