Membership Site Tips To Automate Your Online Course And Give Each Student A Personalized Experience

In last week’s blog, we demonstrated how you can use a free membership site to get more paying clients. And maybe you read through the article and thought that yeah, maybe you’d like to give it a go…

But now it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room:

What happens when creating an ideal environment isn’t enough?

Because sometimes it isn’t going to be enough.

We see this happen a lot with online businesses and membership sites. Most membership websites are static and if your students haven’t logged in for awhile… they probably won’t be back.

But there’s a way to keep your students enamored with your membership site…

And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Because the most successful membership sites are set up in a way that allows an individual, personalized follow up with each member… automatically.

It’s a natural struggle that comes with doing our business online. I mean, when you’re in-person, personalized treatment comes as second nature.

So why do we think it’s ok to market the exact same way online?

I suspect many of us hesitate because of the scope of investment. We hesitate because burnout is a real thing.

But the good news is that you can actually use automation to personalize your customers’ experience in an entirely new way, using Individual Signals™.

Use Individual Signals™ to Cultivate Happy Paying Customers

Individual Signals™ can be a total lifesaver for your membership site and sanity.

These special signals occur anytime your members take action (or fail to take action) in key areas of your membership site.

For example, a few areas where you can grab some important Individual Signals™ are when a student:

  • Completes a course inside your membership site
  • Sees the results on a course quiz
  • Thinks about purchasing a new course…then changes their mind
  • Forgets to complete a course – or simply loses motivation
  • Etc.

These moments represent key turning points for your students. But if you can’t capture them, they’re just a missed opportunity.

Specific Tech Tools Designed to Capture These Moments

There are some tech tools that are designed specifically with Individual Signals™ in mind. They not only allow you to take a snapshot of each moment, but also enable you to create a custom, automated response for each of them.

The results are really impressive.

The main tool that we use for this purpose is AccessAlly Pro, the membership site, and a premier LMS plugin for WordPress.

This tool integrates perfectly with the major tag-based CRM systems.

membership site tips

This is important because not only can they identify each important action, but they can also pass these Individual Signals™ to your CRM, where the automated response then takes place.

4 Easy Ways To Track Engagement and Follow Up With Each Member Based On Their Actions

At this point, maybe your mind is racing to think of ways that you can start using Individual Signals™ in your own membership site.

Here are 4 very practical membership site tips (with screenshots!) to show you a few of the most effective areas to begin with:

1. Display Special Timed Offers To Maximize Upsells When Excitement Is At Its Highest

Why make people wait for a launch or go through a long warm-up sequence if someone is ready to buy and continue on their journey with you right now?

Scenario: One of your students has just finished a course.

She’s super excited to have completed the content and is already seeing some of the benefits. It’s an amazing feeling, and she’s already trying to think of a way to build on this information… when she sees a popup on the final course page that offers an amazing price on the next course in the series.

The message reads: Congratulations – you’ve made it to incredible new heights! But don’t stop now – there’s so much more in store! As a special achievement reward, you can grab the next course in the series for 25% off!

This exciting message is accompanied with a countdown timer… Which can be one of the most effective ways to upsell an online course.

membership site tips

It’s easy to set this up and show the offer at just the right moment because AccessAlly Pro tells you the exact moment when a member has completed a course… and passes this info to your CRM.

When combined with the special timed offers and the built-in count down timer, you can offer the perfect incentive to get someone enrolled in your membership or course.

2. Begin a Personalized Track With An Assessment

With AccessAlly Pro, you can also offer an assessment quiz that guides your students to the right next step for them.

This strategy has been key in our own Heartquarters membership site, where we offer a free assessment to figure out where each student is at:

membership site tips

Once the quiz has been completed, a unique “solution” is revealed, based on where we can help them:

membership site tips

With this sweet little trick, you have a better chance of staying relevant with the needs of each of your students.

3. Easily Follow Up With Abandoned Checkout Carts To Close More Sales

When it’s time for people to sign up for a paid program (whether that person comes through your membership site or from your web site), don’t let them slip through the cracks!

Did you know that 70% of people who click the buy-now button never complete their order?

With AccessAlly’s 3-step checkout process, you get the name and email of the customer before you ask for their payment details. So if anything happens, you can follow-up via email and send them back to their order to complete.

Learn more about the benefits of this checkout process here.

membership site tips

4. Turn Happy Customers Into Word Of Mouth Advocates For Your Brand

Don’t let your membership site be a dead-end. Instead, use the activity and enthusiasm of your members to create a prolific social sharing center.

As your members progress through their courses, give them a reason to celebrate. Little popups and surprise bonuses can appear throughout, increasing momentum along the way.

Then, you can funnel this enthusiasm to social media outlets by letting students share their accomplishments directly from your access site.

But The Success of These Membership Site Tips Depends On Your Own Commitment To Success

Here’s a reality check: if you don’t know your clients in and out, you won’t be able to pinpoint the right Individual Signals™ to use.

On the tech side, if you’re not using the proper set of tools, you won’t be able to create the right automation sequences to make it all fit together.

Investing in the right tech tools (whatever they may be) is key when you’re ready to take your business automation to the next level.

Nathalie Lussier

I’m a writer, technologist, and regenerative farmer. I founded AccessAlly with my husband in one frantic weekend to solve my immediate course platform issues. Over a decade later the company has grown, and our product has evolved to serve millions of learners across the globe.

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