10 Proven Ways to Promote Your Membership Site: How to Get Your First 50 Customers
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You’ve got a stunning membership site filled with engaging content - where are the members?
The point of a membership site is to have a scalable offering that can help you build passive income for your coaching or consulting business (or semi-passive depending on how you engage with your community).
Attracting those members who will provide your passive income is easier said than done.
Promoting a membership site requires strategy. You need to define your target audience, get your message in front of them, and ultimately get them to know, like, and trust you before they will want to pull out their wallets and join.
In this guide, I'll walk through the most effective channels and tactics to market your membership site, common pitfalls to avoid, and how to set your site up for long-term growth and success
How to Market Your Membership Site: Start Here
Before you pick your marketing channels, send out podcast guest requests, or create Facebook graphics in Canva, you need to start with the basics.
Who are you selling to, and what makes you different?
You’ll need to identify the people you want to target and where they spend time (whether online or in-person) because this will speed up your path to success. Otherwise, you’ll be left fumbling from channel to channel wondering what will work.
To help you get started, try jotting down answers to the following questions:
Once you have that out of the way, start thinking about a “hook” to catch your target customer’s attention and get them into your funnel.
Some examples of good, newsworthy topics that would get visibility for your membership site are:
Take some time to brainstorm “hooks” like these to grab the attention of prospective members, then move on to the next step. This is the foundation for an effective marketing campaign, so now all you need is the right mix of channels, which I’ll show you next.
The Best Channels to Promote Your Membership Site
Now that you have an ideal member persona and message, it’s time to get in front of those prospects.
There is no “perfect” marketing channel. Pick the channels that are most likely to put you in front of your target audience, and where you can reasonably stand out.
The top marketing channels I’d start with are:
I’ll walk you through each of these in this section.
SEO
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” SEO is the process of creating and optimizing content so that it ranks highly on Google. Every time your target audience opens their laptop and types in a Google search, you have an opportunity to get in front of them.
Common SEO tactics include:
SEO gets more complicated than that, but those basics will get you started. Be warned, SEO can take a long time to get results, especially if your site is new. SEO is a great long-term strategy, but if you want to make sales right away I’d look for something that gets quicker results (like ads).
Ads
If SEO is too much of a long game for you and you have some budget to allocate, paid ads on Google and social media are great ways to get qualified traffic quickly.
Make sure that you select the channel(s) where your customers are going to be most receptive to your offer. In other words, identify places where they have more of a learning and buying mindset. Then set an ad budget and create eye-catching and compelling ads that stand out, get clicked, and turn into customers.
If you’re new to the world of advertising, start with a smaller budget to test your ads and learn from the traffic they bring you. Once you have a good baseline and are seeing some results, then you can ramp your ads up to drive more sales.
Here are a few quick tips for writing stellar ads:
Social Media
Got an especially social audience?
Meet them where they spend most of their time on social media! Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, or LinkedIn - if your audience spends substantial time in one or more particular app then that is where you need to be.
Build a following by sharing valuable advice and content to build trust and authority. Then accelerate things by engaging with your audience, answering questions, and demonstrating how your membership provides unique benefits.
Like SEO, organic social can take time to build momentum but it can be well worth the effort.
Download a copy of the FREE Promotion Guide now!
Want a handy list of proven ways to promote your membership site?
Ask your network
If you already have a robust professional network, they can be a great source for your initial customers.
I know, asking for help can be intimidating. But trust me, it gets easier as you get more and more comfortable sharing your site with your network and asking for help. Try sending a personal note via email or a LinkedIn message to someone in your network sharing what you are building and asking if they know of anyone who might be interested.
Run a webinar
Convincing complete strangers to trust you and join your membership site is daunting in the early days after you launch. You can make it easier for potential customers to know, like, and trust you by inviting them to a free webinar where you provide a portion of your expertise for free.
This is a great way to build your list, drum up interest, and close new customers all in one.
If you have an email list then you can start there by inviting your subscribers to your webinar. Ads work great here as well, especially social ads on the networks where your customers spend time.
Join a podcast
If your target audience regularly engages with podcasts, then joining as a guest or running an advertisement is a great way to get your message in front of them.
Start by reviewing the podcasts that your target customers listen to, and then look for opportunities to reach out to the hosts to be a guest interviewee or sponsor. Different podcasts will have requirements for their guests, so it’s best to review them before you reach out. There are services as well that can help you get placed on a podcast which saves you a great deal of time, though it will cost money.
Sponsor a newsletter
90% of email users check their email 20 times a day. Email is a fantastic channel for growth (more on that next), but if you do not have an email list you can still use email as a channel by sponsoring a newsletter.
Find email newsletters that reach your target audience and sponsor them to promote your membership site. Write a compelling ad to include in the newsletter that highlights the key benefits of joining your site. Track signups from each sponsorship to measure ROI.
Build an email list
An email list is the most valuable asset you can create for your business.
Nothing else compares. It’s estimated that every $1 spent on email marketing returns $36 - now that’s a good return!
Build your list by creating a lead magnet to entice visitors to your website to subscribe to your newsletter, and then nurture your audience regularly so you always stay top of mind. Once you are ready to launch your membership site, run an email sequence to turn your subscribers into buyers.
Create a lead magnet
If building an email list has you breaking into a sweat, attract subscribers (and customers) with a lead magnet.
A lead magnet is a valuable piece of free content that you offer to potential customers in exchange for their email addresses or other contact information. By offering a lead magnet, you can attract potential customers who are interested in your course topic and will be more likely to enroll in your membership site in the future. A lead magnet can take many forms, such as a short report, a checklist or template, a video series, or even a free trial of your membership.
Make sure that your lead magnet focuses on a specific problem or pain point that your target audience is experiencing. This will help you attract the right people and ensure that they're interested in your membership site.
Online forums
Are your target customers on Reddit? How about Quora?
Online forums can be a great way to rub elbows (digitally) with your target audience. By commenting, upvoting, and even posting you can build your brand and expertise with your target audience and pique their interest in what you have to offer.
Be warned, many online communities have strict rules about self-promotion so make sure you brush up on the community guidelines before posting.
When to Start Promoting Your Membership Site
It's best to start promoting your membership site as early as possible.
I’d go so far as to say you should start promoting it the minute you’ve committed to building one! If you’re worried about promoting it without having content, don’t.
For one thing, this will force you to validate your audience, topic/niche, and pricing. It’s best to get this out of the way first before spending time and money on building the perfect site only to find out no one is interested in buying. Think of this as preselling your membership site to generate interest and buzz before you launch.
Once your membership is launched, you will continue to promote it through ongoing marketing efforts to ensure a steady stream of enrollments over time.
Common Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
As you promote your membership site, watch out for these frequent missteps:
Remember that marketing is about sharing a message and starting conversations. If you’re not getting the results you hoped for, it may be that you are targeting the wrong audience, sending the wrong message, or using the wrong channels.
Tinker and experiment as you go, and you’ll find a repeatable way to grow your membership site with time and practice.
Ready to Launch Your Membership Site? Download the Free Marketing Guide
Promoting a membership site and getting your first 50, 100, and even 500 customers can be daunting - but only if you don’t have a plan to get there.
Marketing can quickly be complex, so when you get overwhelmed try to take a step back and remember at its core you just need to answer three questions:
To dive deeper, download our free membership site promotion guide. You'll get a list of promotion channels to try as you begin your launch.
Don’t wait until the last second to start marketing. Download the guide now and put these proven tactics into action.
Enjoy!
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