How would you like to make recurring income from your online business???
A membership program is the hero product that can make it happen.
Your membership program is a great opportunity for you to give your customers the very best offers while allowing your business to grow monetarily.
Maybe you’ve already been considering taking your big idea and creating a membership program with it, that’s awesome!
The question I’m asked again and again is what tech did I use to build my membership program?
Over the years I’ve tried a lot of different software and products and the trial and error process can be exhausting. After creating my own membership program I’ve found what tech has worked best for me and that’s what I’m going to share with you right now.
I’m also going to share with you the philosophy behind a membership program and why they rock!
Save time, money, and hassle with my membership tech stack!
A Membership Program is the Hero Product You Need!
We all need a hero. When you run a business you need a hero product!
A hero product is your highest quality product. A product that offers more value and builds an audience that will attest to that value.
The concept is pretty simple, but man, it’s so powerful for the growth of your online business.
Incredible financial gains come from a product that’s able to bring in recurring revenue, and as an internet entreprenuer, you can do this through a membership program.
If you would like to watch the video where I explain the membership program in detail, check out my video below.
If you’d rather listen check out my podcast.
Why Have a Membership Program
No more launch cycles, one sales funnel template, one sales letter, one series of automation, you just set your tech up once and it’s ready to roll.
This creates ease for you as you dive deeper into your big idea while having a more profitable business model at the same time.
Incredible things happen for your business and your audience when you can keep pouring your efforts into a product that is designed to grow and expand over time.
A membership program is the hero product you can create that’ll offer access to more valuable content from you, a connection point for a group of like-minded individuals to interact, and an opportunity for you to help those along the path even further.
It’s a lot more intimate and it focuses on individuals, no matter what niche you're in.
You have to ask yourself, what value can you offer to your audience that would make them want to become a member in the first place?
Because really, once you have the tools and the software setup, the make or break aspect is, what will set you apart in your market from other businesses in your niche offering similar things.
Building a membership for yourself is an exciting step to take. You’ve been doing the work, growing your audience and now you’re ready to create. You are going to create something that’ll allow you to offer more value to your customers and for you to cash in on all your efforts.
When dozens, even thousands of people sign up for your program, that’s where the big bucks come from!
What You Need to Know Before You Build Your Membership Product
You need to make sure you get enough traffic to crush your sales funnel which means a couple different things.
You have to work towards growing your email list. The more effective your email marketing strategy, the more engaged your list will be.
You need to have an audience before creating your hero product. Even though you can pay for traffic, organic traffic is a more sustainable, long-term strategy.
Once you have your membership program idea in mind and you’re ready to start the development process, you have to ask yourself:
How can I create a promise where I will be able to take a group of people in my inner circle on a journey? A journey to give them what they need to really scale up their business or whatever it is that they’re doing?
Once you create your promise, then you need the right tech to set it all up.
How I Began Testing Membership Program Software
Being an entrepreneur is full of trial and error!
In the past, I have used and recommended clickfunnels for my membership software.
I knew I needed a group format since my membership program requires me to be able to work with multiple people.
Then I left clickfunnels because Clickfunnels did me wrong.
I tried the Facebook group thing, but Facebook is the number one greatest distraction mechanism ever created!
Eventually, I closed it down. For me, the interface was just not up to par, especially for a hero product like a membership program.
Over the past 6-months or so I have been working with Dave Wooding at https://integratepro.com/ to create a duplicatable membership stack and we crushed it!
Membership Program Tech - Software That Works
When it comes to choosing your tech stack, most entrepreneurs face decision fatigue.
I’ve tried so many different platforms and all of them come with their own challenges. Many platforms also come with similar features making the decision even harder.
Now, in addition to the membership software, you need three more pieces of tech to get a fully functioning selling machine out of a membership program.
Here are the four things you will need to start your hero product:
- A sales page.
- A way to collect money.
- Tech to automate your member's access. and
- The right membership software to host all of your memberships deliverables.
Sales Page, The Entrance to Buy Your Membership Program
Your sales page and your sales funnel are the first things you have to dial in.
Without converting your traffic into sales, you have no membership program.
This is where you send all of your new potential subscribers to learn about your membership program and they choose to subscribe or pass.
Dialing in a great sales page requires much copywriting research and scripting.
In addition to the words, you have to build the sales page.
I have used so many sales funnels with shiny objects. Most have failed.
So a few years back I had to find a DIY option that filled in the holes these “funnel” template systems missed.
I needed control and found it with a DIY sales funnel built on WordPress.
WordPress is the content management system and Thrive Themes is the sales page builder that I use for my products.
Write your copy, get Thrive Themes and build your sales page to your membership program!
At $230 ish a year, it’s less expensive than other, inferior landing page template building tools. Plus, the team from Thrive support is second to none.
Process Sales for Your Membership
Shopping carts are complex and I wanted simple.
There is no one size fits all shopping cart solution. This video talks about the pros and cons of the four most popular shopping cart options.
I went with ThriveCart.
For me, it’s hands down the best membership program management money collecting system on the market, and simple too.
You can access the full ThriveCart review, here.
It works great for recurring memberships or subscription products, courses, and even physical products.
Thrive Cart allows you to offer monthly recurring payments, free trials, and even one-time payments for whatever you’re offering.
There is currently a limited lifetime access special offer for ThriveCart.
It’s a one-time $595 payment and you never have to pay any monthly or annual ongoing fees.
Activating Memberships With Automation
You don’t want to manually send out access to every single person that subscribes to your membership program. It can become a real hassle when your membership really gets going.
You need simple and scalable when you are building out your membership program. Automation to the rescue!
Active Campaign is the management tool that runs the automation.
Dave Wooding set it all up so that when someone purchases from the shopping cart, that runs automation in Active Campaign.
Then, they get access to the membership platform.
When someone cancels their subscription or asks for their subscription to be canceled in the shopping cart, it automatically runs another automation in Active Campaign and they then get removed from the membership.
So all of the access is governed inside the Active Campaign in their automation. It’s the management tool that I use for the needs of my membership program and it works great.
Membership Software - The Home For Your Membership Program
Like I said before, Facebook wasn’t a suitable interface for hosting a group based membership so I went with XenForo 2.0.
It’s an old-school forum with modern tech and it beats a Facebook group hands down!
There are tons of customizable themes
It’s highly secure, has a responsive support team and great social network integration.
It has over 3000 add-ons and allows you to customize your themes making it a great space to interact with your audience.
What’s really great is around 90% of those add-ons are free!
Here’s a pic of the inside of mine.
You’re able to customize your themes and it is THE way to give TONS of value to keep them hooked on subscribing for a long time!
Start a Membership Program and Go Full Steam Ahead!
Growing your business online takes time, there’s a lot of foundation building and a lot of hard work and effort on your part to build up your content and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
But if you have a big idea the work is worth the effort. Before my membership program idea was even conceived, I was doing the work and you have to as well.
Success will not happen overnight. It’s taken me a couple of years to build my audience, multiple 90 days challenges, commitment on my part to nurture my list through email marketing. You absolutely have what it takes to do it too!
Your hero product takes you beyond one time sales and provides you with reoccurring income. Your hero product will allow you to create the lifestyle business that you want while being of service to others. And that my friends, is a pretty exciting place to be.
If you have any questions on any of the program tech tools, hit me up in the comments and let me know and I’ll be happy to help. If you’ve recently started a membership using the software I’ve recommended to you, give me a shout out, I’d love to hear from you! Until next time, be well.