Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

Are you struggling to encourage disengaged members?

Member engagement can be a tricky thing. We want people to consume the content, engage with the community, and really use the membership that they’re paying for, but we don’t want to nag people with constant emails either. Once someone becomes disengaged, it can be difficult to nudge them back into action.

In this episode I look at the ways you can maintain a careful balance between encouraging engagement without getting on people’s nerves, from soft unsubscribes to using email tags to using remarketing ads to gently encourage your members back to courses and back into the community.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why it’s important to maintain a balance between nudging and nagging
• Using tools in your CRM and messaging apps to create a buffer to reduce the nagging
• How to use soft unsubscribes to reduce email overwhelm
• How you can mix up the formats you use to send reminders
• Making sure you don’t overdo it with your messages and emails
• Why it's important to remember that people engage in different ways

Important Links & Mentions:

• Membership Academy Courses
• ConvertKit
• ActiveCampaign
• Intercom
• Drift
• The 90-9-1 Rule of Community Engagement

Key Quotes:

“If the reason they haven’t logged in is because they have something serious going on or a major change in circumstance, you don’t want to be that annoying person nagging them every week. Giving them the ability to soft unsubscribe from certain types of reminders and emails ensures that you don’t alienate or annoy those members.”

“Mix up the format and how you get yourself in front of people to try and reengage them to log in, rejoin the community, or finish that course.”

“You need to be smart and think about that bigger picture for the member and don’t overdo it, don’t try to force it and know when to stop. Make sure that you’re not going overboard.”

How can you launch a membership without any audience? The simple answer is you don’t have to. You need to put in the work to build that audience first.

That’s exactly what we did, and in this episode, we share all the little details that went into building our audience BEFORE we launched the Membership Academy.

So, join me on a trip down memory lane. We’re talking about the early days of The Membership Guys and what we did six years ago to get where we are today.

We share detailed tips on content marketing, blogging, building your email list, and gaining interest before you even sign up your first member.

Essential Learning Points:

• It doesn’t take thousands of dollars to launch a membership
• You don’t need a huge email list to launch your membership
• What steps you can take to build interest in your membership
• The importance of a solid launch strategy
• Where The Membership Guys are today.

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy
• Member Machine book
• Membership Economy by Robbie Kellman Baxter
• Superfast Business
• Membership Toolkit

Key Quotes:

“Do what you can with what you have.”

“We hated having to turn people away and not being able to give them a suggestion of where to go.”

“450 people on an email list...you’re not going to brag to many people about that. It’s still fairly small...but it was big enough.”

What’s the secret to marketing your membership? Spoiler: there isn’t just one secret! There are multiple different methods to try, but there are some universal truths to always bear in mind first.

In this episode, we share the 12 universal truths to membership marketing. There may not be some hidden secret that will guarantee you success, but these truths apply to all types of membership (and many other businesses as well.)

If you’re unsure of what marketing approach to take or whether you need to spend much time marketing at all, don’t miss this episode!

Essential Learning Points:

• The 12 universal truths that apply to all memberships
• Why there’s never a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing
• Why building trust should be a key part of your marketing
• The importance of marketing and why you can’t overlook it

Important Links & Mentions:

• The Membership Guys
• Membership Academy
• Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans
• Bob Berg’s The Go-Giver book

Key Quotes:

“Think of your membership as a painkiller, not a vitamin. You want it to be a must-have, not a nice-to-have.”

“An average product that has great marketing will always beat a great product with average marketing.”

“What someone says about you is worth so much more than what you say about yourself.”

Setting boundaries is essential if you want your membership to be productive and positive for you – and your members.

But how do you do it without cutting people off, coming across as aloof or inaccessible, and how can you ensure your members are having their questions answered whilst still respecting your boundaries.

It’s certainly a balancing act, but it’s one you can perfect by putting into practice some of these tips and tricks. We’ve tested and refined these approaches over time with our own Membership Academy and our members have also found these approaches to be beneficial in their memberships too.

Tune in to find out how we, and many other membership site owners, set healthy boundaries with our members that benefit everyone.

Essential Learning Points:

• Why opening yourself up to more communication can actually reduce contact overwhelm
• Some of the best tools and tactics we’ve used to set healthy boundaries within our membership
• Why setting the right boundaries will benefit your members as much as you

Important Links & Mentions:

• Is Starting a Membership Website the Right Move for You?
• Recommended Tools & Resources
• How to Add an Online Forum to your Membership Website
• Live Membership Q&A with Mike and Callie
• Membership Academy

Key Quotes:

“Your members will contact you and any successful membership site owner will respond when they do reach out. That’s not to say that you can’t set boundaries and that you can’t be the one to set the terms.”

“When people know that they don’t have to try hard to reach you, that takes the urgency out of the equation.”

“Nobody should be in a position where they send you a message and they have no idea of when to expect a response.”

“Setting and managing expectations is good not just for you, but for your members too.”

In this special episode of the Membership Geeks Podcast, I share a huge update on what's been happening within the company this year regarding Callie Willows - the co-founder of the business - having to make the decision to step away.

Listen in for more on what this means, and for a farewell message to the community from Callie herself.