Do you run an online membership and want to make more sales?
Your online members are some of the best people to upsell to new products because of the unique
relationship you’re able to form with them.
In this video, I’ll take you through five steps to upsell your online members and make
more sales.
Let’s get into it.
While online membership is a common upsell from other digital products, it can also work
the other way around.
If you’ve already got an engaged online membership, you might be sitting on a gold
mine of potential upsells.
So grab your pickaxe and helmet and let’s go digging for gold.
Step 1: Foster communication with your members While it’s true, you can run a successful
membership with little to no communication with your members, you could be missing a
huge opportunity.
People who joined your membership because of the value you offer are likely to trust
you to solve even bigger problems.
You can learn about these problems by opening lines of communication.
Here are a few ways you can do that:
Encourage comments.
If you create membership posts as a part of your membership, make a habit of asking questions
and encouraging comments at the end of each post.
Members will enjoy engaging with you and it also gives them an opportunity to interact
with one another.
Respond to comments and questions.
One of the best ways to encourage back and forth communication is to be responsive.
When members see that you regularly respond, they’re more likely to take the time to
share their questions and comments.
Hold a members-only Q&A.
Set aside a consistent Q&A or AMA session where your members can interact with you live
and share their comments and questions.
You can do this through a live stream with chat or you could offer access to a private
forum if you’d rather not be on camera.
Go deeper with live chat.
Podia offers a live chat feature that allows you to talk in real-time with members, customers,
and anyone who is visiting your Podia site.
Live chat can be a great way to dig a bit deeper and ask more questions so you can learn
more about the challenges your members face.
And don’t be discouraged if your members aren’t blowing up your inbox overnight.
It can take time to build strong lines of communication, but it’s absolutely worth
the effort.
Step 2: Look for patterns This step is relatively simple.
Once you’ve fostered communication, pay attention to the kinds of questions and struggles
your members share.
If you start to see a pattern, that could be the seed of a great product.
For example, let’s say you run a membership for digital entrepreneurs.
You’ve noticed that your members are really responsive to posts about creating passive
income streams.
They ask questions using phrases like, “making money while I’m sleeping” and “making
my business run on auto-pilot.”
You could create a product like Podia creator Rachael Taylor.
She sells a mini-course called “Your Path to Passive Income” where she teaches people
how to turn their 1 on 1 services into passive income sources.
It helps to have a system for recording patterns as you see them.
You may even want to create a document or spreadsheet and keep track of common themes.
In the Podia dashboard, you can see which of your membership posts are getting the most
likes and comments.
Those topics could be a great start.
Step 3: Build your new product You might find yourself in the fortunate position
of already having made a product that meets the common struggles you’re hearing from
your members.
If not, start making it.
But rather than do all of the work behind the scenes, get your members involved in the
process.
Let them know what you’re planning to do.
Ask them questions about what specific ways your product might be able to solve their
problem.
Would your product work best as an online course, or as a webinar series?
Should it be video-based?
Would worksheets help?
Think of your members as partners in helping you bring this new product to life.
Not only will they be more eager to purchase it when it’s finished, but it will also
do a better job of helping them overcome their struggles and reach their goals.
As you build it, keep your members up-to-date about your progress.
Document as you go and let them share the product creation journey with you.
Customers who are invested in your journey can be some of your best ambassadors.
Step 4: Sell your new product Once you’ve completed your new product,
it’s time to sell.
If you’ve done a good job of sharing the product creation process with your members,
you’ll probably already have some customers who are eager to buy, but with the right positioning,
you can make your new product irresistible.
Consider some of the following ideas:
Offer a limited-time deal - Give your members a chance to purchase your new product at a
discount for a limited time.
For example, you could let your members know that they’ll get a member-exclusive discount
if they purchase the new product within the first 48 hours.
Offer a permanent discount - You could simply make your member-exclusive discount permanent
and provide a coupon that gives your members a percentage or dollar amount off of the regular
price of your new product.
Offer a members-only bonus - If can provide extras, like a 1:1 call with you, a group
session, or additional learning materials, you could make them available for some number
of members.
Like a bonus guide for the first 50 people who purchase, or a 1:1 call for the first
10.
If you just upsell your product at the regular price, you’ll already have some excited
customers, but use one of these positioning methods and they’ll be knocking down your
door.
Digitally.
Step 5: Use your product to create a new membership tier
New products are a great opportunity to create a higher membership tier or add value to an
existing one.
You could take this step in place of the previous one and only offer the product as a part of
the higher membership tier, or you could do both.
Selling your new product both as a standalone and as a part of a higher tier can create
a huge incentive for your members to upgrade their membership.
For example, let’s say your current members pay $49 per month and you’ve made an online
course that you are selling for $499.
You could also include it in a new membership tier at $99 per month and use that as an incentive
to upsell your members.
This can be a bit risky because there’s always a chance that a member will upgrade,
take the course in a short period of time, then downgrade their membership.
As you price your new membership tier, take into account how long it should take for a
student to finish the online course.
You want to ensure that the price will be attractive while also protecting you from
being taken advantage of.
Another way you can take a bit more control is to drip your course content.
Many online course creators go this route so they can pace out the course material and
provide a better learning experience for their students.
Following these steps will make it more likely that you’ll create a product your members
will love and be excited about buying from you.
No matter what kind of membership you run, I hope the steps in this video have sparked
some ideas that lead you to your next great product.
Leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or questions, and if you found this content
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.