You may already know that membership sites make great business, but you have to promote them in order to see success. However, marketing a membership is different from marketing products. A membership is an ongoing experience, so you have to communicate and promote the ongoing value of your membership to see consistent growth. 

There isn’t one single marketing method or strategy that can magically boost your membership sales. You’ll have to try out a few methods and see which one works best for you. Luckily, there are many tactics to try. 

Some of the promotion strategies that work for membership sites include: 

1. Building your brand
2. Using social media 
3. Leveraging email
4. Offering incentives 
5. Partnering with others 
6. Optimizing your website 
7. Sharing real results 
8. Upselling 

Let’s dive more into these strategies below. 

1. Build your brand

A strong, compelling brand voice can entice folks to check out your site. The best way to build your brand is to be consistent in the voice, tone, and imagery you use to represent your membership. Define your specific style in your graphics, videos, marketing materials, and even copy and content. Make sure you document your choices in a style guide or handbook to reference and continually refine. 

One way to make yourself stand out is to bring a new perspective into the market. What’s your unique selling point or competitive edge? What are the benefits for members? As you build your brand voice, be clear and direct about how you’re different and what value you bring.

2. Get on social media

It’s obvious that you need social media presence for marketing, but you should also be actively engaging in your online communities. Not only will this market your business, but it’ll help you establish yourself as an industry expert. 

First, make sure your profiles are professional and provide plenty of contact information. Then, join relevant communities and become an active member in online groups, discussion forums, and so on. Respond to messages, comments, and mentions to promote more engagement. Think of creating shareable “daily tips,” how-tos, or quotes from your own material.

Consistency is key. Consider a posting schedule for your own content. You can then plan and schedule out your content in advance to lighten your daily workload while still maintaining a consistent presence. 

3. Leverage email

Email is still a popular marketing tactic for a good reason: subscribers like getting mail, and it’s effective at conversions. In your emails, you can share exclusive content, insights, and information about your membership, plus discounts and exclusive offers. 

However, email newsletters have to be done well to work. The best way to build a successful email newsletter is to segment your subscribers into different email marketing lists. Then, you can target your messaging to those different groups. For example, if you’re offered a free trial, then your email newsletter can offer additional free tidbits with the promise of more behind a paid membership. 

4. Offer incentives

Speaking of sharing free content, you can go a step beyond email newsletters and offer more incentives towards a membership. Think mini courses, white papers, free ebooks, and more. When offering an incentive to entice potential members, include a sense of urgency or scarcity— make the resource feel limited and exclusive. 

A free trial and membership tier is also a great way to incentivize a membership. Folks can begin with a lower tier for less commitment and work up to higher membership levels as they choose. You can also incentivize folks by offering an “anchor” tier, sometimes seen as the “best value” tier. It’s not your cheapest option, but also not your most expensive – it’s that sweet spot where cost meets value in your consumer’s eyes.  

5. Partner with others

A savvy, low-cost marketing solution is to build partnerships. You can partner with non-competitive businesses and industry authorities to jointly promote your membership alongside their products or content. Consider a campaign on social media with social sharing of posts, links to sign up for memberships, or resources to learn more. Or, take it a step further by hosting events and webinars together. 

Beyond partnerships, you can also try affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is when others promote your membership while earning commission on sales. Affiliates may be current members, but more commonly they are free agents, working on your behalf to market your membership and bring your membership site to a new audience.

6. Optimize your website

One simple way to market your membership site is to make sure your website is as optimal as possible. Here’s how to do it: 

• Make sure the navigation is clear and easy to use. 
• Use a design that’s simple but reflective of your brand. 
• Sprinkle keywords throughout your website copy so it ranks higher organically on Google and other search engines. 
• Create SEO-optimized content on your blog and main pages. 
• Build an amazing membership sales page that you can drive folks to through simple and effective CTAs.

Additionally, ensure your site loads quickly. Here are tips for improving speed:

• Use smaller images (jpg, webp) or compress images with Imagify. 
• Try embedding videos instead of hosting them. 
• Use a caching plugin like LiteSpeed Cache and pick a good lightweight theme like Kadence Theme if you’re on WordPress. 

7. Share real results

Part of promoting your membership site is building trust and credibility. Sharing real results of the benefit of your membership is a great way to do this. 

Showcase testimonials, reviews, and results from your most trusted and loyal members. Post your member success stories on social media, in an email newsletter, or as a weekly blog feature on your website. 

When considering member feedback to share, find testimonials and stories that focus on the benefits and the value of your membership. These sort of specifics will help build confidence in wavering folks. 

8. Upsell

If you sell other products or services on your site, you can easily upsell memberships to your customers. For example, you can offer a membership at a reduced price during the checkout process. Or, give your customers a special offer in their purchase confirmation email as a way to upsell your membership. 

Upselling can be an effective strategy, as customers have already shown that they are willing to pay for your content. This previous relationship you have can go a long way in building your member base. Upsell your membership as an ongoing, long-term value beyond the single product or service purchase. 

However, don’t overwhelm your customers – overdoing an upsell can drive them right into your competitor’s arms. Make the upsell an appealing suggestion and let folks decide when it’s the right time to convert. 

Promote a membership site from MemberDash 

Marketing your membership site is not a one-size-fits-all process. It involves a variety of different channels and methods to create an effect that will drive traffic and sales. However, if you consistently promote the ongoing value of your membership site and remain active and engaged in your community, your site should see growth. 

Want to get started building and marketing a membership site? MemberDash is a perfect tool for building and managing membership sites. You can easily create a membership experience with WordPress and market your course by offering free trials, membership tiers, and a smooth membership registration experience. Try out the MemberDash demo first to see how a membership site built on WordPress could work for you.