How Launching a Membership Can Transform Your Business
If you have a product-based, service-based or information-based business like myself, then you’re going to love learning how to launch your own membership! I know so many of you are interested in learning how to bring recurring revenue into your business month after month. And it’s important to note that having regular income reduces stress and increases stability in your business.
This episode is proudly brought to you by TRIBE. An incredible online course and community led by Stu McLaren, one of my main mentors and a dear friend. He is literally the go-to guy when it comes to pitching business owners on how to come up with a recurring revenue model in their business AKA simple monthly subscriptions, whether it’s a service, a product or a membership site.
Back in the day, Karl and I were contemplating having a membership for the Mums With Hustle brand, but we didn’t know what type membership it would be. I’m really glad we did not start pursuing the idea until we started educating ourselves. At first, Karl and I were scared to buy TRIBE because we have not spent that much in an online course. But, it was such an eye-opener!
ABOUT OUR TODAY’S GUEST:
Our guest for this episode is Jessica Donovan, an Inner Circle Mastermind mentee and a TRIBE graduate who is running a thriving membership of her own. She’s a mama of two and a qualified naturopath. Jessica helps mums to raise super kids with healthy food and natural medicines.
This week, Jessica will share how she launched her membership in the early days and her top tip when it comes to running a membership.
Let’s get into it!
JESSICA’S BUSINESS JOURNEY
Jessica started naturopathy early on, straight out of high school. She knew that the traditional role of a naturopath (sitting in clinic with clients all day) is not for her as she loves travelling. So she started an online business that is all about mum’s health to help mums with their energy levels.
Jessica built a small community and asked them what online course they would like for her to create. She says, “At the end of the list, I caught an option for kid’s health and I was shocked. That was, by far, the most popular thing that people wanted from me.”
>>> KEY TAKEAWAY 1: LISTEN TO YOUR AUDIENCE
Jessica says that a big factor is listening to what her audience wanted, even if it was off-track to what she was initially thinking about creating.
She listened to her community and created a course about keeping their children healthy with their nutrition, gut health and immune system. She catered to what her audience wanted, rather than what she thought she wanted. The course was really successful when she launched it. Her list was around 300 people at the time and 65 people joined the program. So cool!
HOW DID JESSICA START HER MEMBERSHIP?
After the success of her online program, she pivoted her business from focusing on mum’s health to focusing to their kid’s health, entirely. She knew that people would want more support from her.
When she came across TRIBE and Stu McLaren’s program about memberships back in 2017, she learned all about how to create a successful membership program, the ins and outs of it, and then launched a membership.
WHAT WAS JESSICA’S MINDSET WHEN SHE JOINED TRIBE
Jessica shares that she was sick of having a “roller-coaster launch” where one month there was loads of cash coming in, but next month there was none. As you may know, having an irregular income is hard to deal with, psychologically, for a business owner.
At first, she didn’t have any idea on the type of membership she wanted to offer. But she knew that kid’s health, her product, was an ongoing process. She says that she did not know what that would look like before joining TRIBE.
>>> KEY TAKEAWAY 2: DON'T THINK TOO HARD, JUST DIVE-IN!
There you go, ladies! You don’t need to have all your ducks in a row before joining TRIBE. You can join completely green and fresh because it walks you from the very beginning of learning about memberships to building out what kind of membership it should be to marketing it and launching it.
WHAT DOES JESSICA LOVE MOST ABOUT HER MEMBERSHIP?
Jessica shares that having a membership has transformed her business in so many ways.
- She loves that memberships are a work in progress and she’s constantly changing based on what her members want and what they don’t like.
- Jessica loves the deeper connection business owners can make with their audience.
- She also loves that she knows when people need more support from her by listening to their feedback.
>>> KEY TAKEAWAY 3: MEMBERSHIPS ALLOW BUSINESS OWNERS TO SEE THE IMPACT BEHIND THEIR WORK
One of the most important things to remember, according to Jessica, is that memberships are about seeing people implement what you’re teaching them. It’s not only about throwing them a heap of content and not following through.
>>> KEY TAKEAWAY 4: MEMBERSHIPS CAN BE A SOURCE OF RECURRING INCOME FOR BUSINESS OWNERS
Jessica says that having a membership allows her to give her family financial security and the ability to grow a team of her own. Having people manage her brand allowed her to venture more into other things, such as creating healthy recipes and putting out more content.
Recently, it also helped her and her husband with big decisions when it comes to quitting his work. Knowing they have regular and recurring income had made them comfortable enough to make that decision. Having a safety net allows them to spend more quality time with their family.
WHAT DID THE VERY FIRST LAUNCH OF JESSICA’S MEMBERSHIP LOOK LIKE?
When Jessica completed TRIBE program, she launched her membership shortly after. She grabbed the momentum and went ahead to launch. Jessica put the offer out there (even without anything in it yet). She shared the idea of what the membership will be and what it will provide.
Then she created the sales page as a sort of beta launch and offered it at the lowest price it will ever be. Jessica did not run any facebook ads.
>>> KEY TAKEAWAY 5: EXPLAIN TO YOUR AUDIENCE WHAT THEY’RE GETTING FROM THE MEMBERSHIP
Even with no content on hand, the key in launching your membership is to explain it to your audience. Be transparent. Explain that what you are going to provide them will be based on what they wanted.
Jessica says, “I pitched it as: Join me on this membership journey and help me form what this membership will look like.” You really need to listen to your audience and provide what they’re asking for.
>>> KEY TAKEAWAY 6: JESSICA’S TOP TIP ON HAVING MEMBERSHIP
Do not overwhelm your members with too much content. Less is more. Jessica shares that one of the top reasons members leave the subscription is that they can get easily overwhelmed with too much content.
Keeping content minimal and focusing on implementation of the content is really important, plus they should be easily accessible.
WRAP UP
I particularly loved what Jessica shared about beta launching! We are all about the imperfect action here at Mums With Hustle.
Ladies, I want to remind you that TRIBE opens on April 23, 2020, and we will be supporting a cohort of ladies going through the TRIBE course. Supporting them as coaches and mentors with an exclusive Facebook group, with exclusive Q&As to support each TRIBE module and gifting you additional tools and swipes from our very own launches that are going to make YOUR launches become easier and more successful.
If you are interested in this, head over to mumswithhustle.com/TRIBE and we will be in touch.
See you there!
CONNECT WITH JESSICA:
Follow Jessica on Facebook where she does weekly Facebook Lives every Tuesday night and talks about various topics relating to children’s health.
Instagram: @naturalsuperkids
Pinterest:@naturalsuperkids
Website: www.naturalsuperkids.com
CONNECT WITH ME
Web: www.mumswithhustle.com
Facebook: @mumswithhustle
Instagram: @mumswithhustle
Twitter: @MumsWithHustle
Biz Club: MWH Biz Club
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