Are you ready to launch an online membership? I’ve got six signs for you that indicate that it might be a great next step for your business…
Read on or watch below to find out!
Here are my six signs that you’re ready to launch your membership program:
1. Proof of concept
Proof of concept means that you know people will pay you for the outcome you’re promising.
For example, if you want to create a membership where you help women to A, B, and C, then you need to have proof of concept where you’ve demonstrated that you can sell your VIP services that help women to A, B and C.
Selling the same outcomes in a one-to-one delivery format is such a great way to prove your membership will fly before you invest your time, money and energy into creating the content, building the platform, and launching it to your audience.
2. You have an existing audience (a platform)
Don’t wait until you’re launching to build your audience… build it first!
Personally, I would aim to have a mailing list or at least social media following of 1,000-2,000 people before launching.
That way, when you do launch this membership, you’ve got a ready-made audience of people who are potential clients for it.
If you need to build a cold audience during your launch, you’ll likely achieve a lower conversion rate which can be tough. If you’ve been consistently building your mailing list and you’ve been consistently growing your following online, then in most cases, your first membership launch will have a nice influx of new members immediately.
3. Confidence in your process
Your membership will have a promise or value proposition – an outcome that your membership is supposed to deliver.
Are you confident that your process will deliver that outcome?
This is particularly critical for memberships, due to dropout rates. When people join a membership, the average time they stay in is three months. Usually, the reason why people leave a membership within the first three months is that they aren’t completing the modules (usually because it’s overwhelming and information overload), or they are, but it’s not getting them to their outcome quickly enough.
Practice delivering your process one-to-one first, and build up your confidence so that you can ensure you don’t have a high dropout rate for your membership.
4. Message clarity
If you can craft compelling offers and a message that resonates with a cold audience, you’re ready to launch a membership.
It’s one thing to be able to speak to your existing audience and have them agree with you. But it’s another thing to be able to talk about your work and to connect with cold audiences and bring them to the point where they’re ready to purchase very quickly.
Are you clear? Does your message resonate? Are you able to convert people into paying clients from a cold audience?
If yes, it’s probably time to launch that membership!!!
5. Sales and cash flow
During your launch, you’ll likely see a bit of a drop in cash flow because you’ll be promoting your free lead magnets, and then if people do join your membership, most are going to pay the monthly rate.
You can incentivise people to purchase a year upfront, which will help, but you need to be able to survive the dip in income during launch.
Have a quick check of your cash flow, and ensure you are confident that you can still keep your business rocking even if you have a dip in income in the launch period.
Even if the launch completely flops and you need to re-think your strategy, you’ll be okay.
Having that level of confidence does wonders for your mindset as well.
6. Time to launch and deliver
The first three months of your membership is the most critical. I cannot stress that enough.
If you finish your launch and then need to spend the next month with back-to-back VIP Clients because you paused their sessions during the launch or you don’t have time to really nurture your new membership clients… you could lose them pretty quickly.
Woman writing schedule in diary ready to launch a membership for courses and launching
Dropouts and turnovers are a big income derailer for people who are going into membership programs.
Have a look at your current schedule. Be honest about the time you have to commit to the launch and to delivery and early nurturing.
If you need to, it could be a good idea to increase the prices of your VIP services first, and reduce the number of hours you’re delivering in other areas before launching.
READY? I have a free resource for you! Create and launch your online course (or membership) with my free training: tashcorbin.com/create
Are you ready? Do you have questions? Any aha moments you’d like to share? Make sure to come and post in the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs community and share your comments and questions using #podcastaha and the episode number (189).
I look forward to continuing the conversation!
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
