Membership programs aren’t new, and they have been a growing trend over the last decade. Gone are the days when you would simply pay for a service when you wanted it – instead, there’s been a heavy shift to memberships and subscription payments. It’s proved a profitable venture, but how can you make as much money from it as possible?
Start with free memberships
The trick with any subscription membership is to let people join for free. You can either give them a free month – which allows them to have a taster of all that’s on offer – or you can offer free membership with limited access.
There are examples of both ideas that showcase how well they work. With the latter, we can look to something in the wine industry. An interview with restaurant owner Jonathan Sears revealed a new wine collective where people could become members for free, giving them access to basic things like digital wine tasting. The idea is to reel people in, give them a look at what they can enjoy, but to access additional features – like private events – they have to pay money. This concept is brilliant as you give members something for free, but leave them wanting more, encouraging subscriptions to flood in.
With the first idea, you only have to look at the likes of Netflix or Spotify. People can get a month for free, but then they have to pay to keep getting everything they’ve been getting. Again, it’s the idea of showing people what they can enjoy, giving them a taste, then banking on them paying because they can’t go without it.
Offer tiered memberships
Tiered memberships mean people can choose what type of membership they want. You see this with leisure centers all the time. The bottom tier might give you access to the swimming pool or gym exclusively. A middle-tier gives you access to both – for more money – while a third tier gives you access to both, plus access to a health suite and loads of other benefits.
The idea with tiered memberships is to entice people to pay more for more benefits. You will find that a lot of potential members might opt for a middle or high-tier membership instead of the cheapest one. Offering the option to upgrade can also help you get more money from members in the future.
Provide affiliate links
Once someone is a member, you should give them a unique affiliate link that they can use to encourage more people to become members. An excellent way of using this to your advantage is to offer a discount on the first month’s membership for anyone they invite. Then, you set a target – every 5 new members they invite, they get a special discount themselves – or something like that.
Effectively, it encourages your members to do some marketing for you. They drive more people to your business, allowing you to get more ongoing subscriptions every single month.
Ultimately, the advantage of this business model is that you are constantly getting money from customers every month. Even if they don’t use your service all the time, they’re still paying for it! The key is continuously adding members to ensure you keep making more money. These three tips can help you do that, while also helping you get more money from members.