Have you ever thought adding a membership component to your current business model? If you're like most of our members, you probably have. But even if you haven't I strongly urge you to seriously consider it.
The membership business model has done more for me personally and professionally than I could have ever imagined. It has opened doors of opportunity I neither planned for nor anticipated.
Membership is such a powerful addition to any business model that it is part of the theme for the next Indie Business Retreat coming up next year. No matter what kind of business you have, adding a membership can make it stronger, more resilient, and more fun. Don't believe me? Read on …
Here are 10 good reasons why you should consider adding a membership component to your business model.
1. Membership business models build community
Adding a membership component to your business naturally attracts your target audience into your sphere of influence. This builds organic community, and many of these people ultimately become your members. You treat them differently from the masses. As you do so, they become a part of your brand story in unique ways. Your members get to know you and each other, and the relationships they build form a strong and lasting community around your brand.
This brand community is like an ecosystem. As you support your members, your members support each other. As each individual member becomes stronger, the community as a whole becomes stronger. This is an extremely powerful dynamic, and I consider it one of the chief reasons to seriously consider embracing a membership business model.
2. Membership business models produce recurring revenue and predictable income
A membership business model allows you to offer recurring value, which is the only way you can produce recurring and predictable income. With a membership, you promise to deliver on a recurring basis, and your members promise to pay you on a recurring basis.
This cyclical relationship between delivering value and being paid for it — on a recurring basis – is at the core of a successful membership business model. When people pay you for recurring value on a recurring basis, you always know how much income your business will produce each month, thus allowing you to sleep a little better at night and plan more precisely for the future of your business.
3. Membership business models facilitate market research
When you surround yourself with the like-minded people who are your members, you can conduct market research daily and without even trying. As you invest time serving your members, you'll continuously learn about the things that matter to them because they will tell you. This enables you to more easily deliver high value with minimal effort. You also lower the chances that you'll offer things your members won't like, thus saving you precious time, energy, money, and other resources.
4. Membership business models inspire relevant content for your niche target audience
Many small businesses fail because they are trying to be all things to all people. Instead of offering their products to a niche target buyer, they try to lure everyone. In order to lure everyone, you have to produce content for everyone. That is a recipe for disaster because if you are serving everyone, you are serving no one.
With a membership, you essentially serve the same person over and over again at a different address. This allows you to tailor your marketing content to people who actually care about your brand message. You don't have to struggle to figure out what to say in your newsletter publications, blog posts, or Instagram videos because you are serving a niche with a few major concerns around which your marketing content is tailored.
5. Membership business models hone your leadership skills
In order to sell your products and services, you must become a leader and a person of influence. A membership business model naturally elevates your leadership skills by forcing you to influence your members with intentionality and mindfulness. Whether you have a single member or 5,000 members, you will become a more effective leader simply by putting yourself in a position to influence a niche group of people on a daily basis.
6. Membership business models produce abundant sales opportunities
A membership business model is the best sales producing tool you could ever have. Surrounding your unique brand with a tribe of members and true believers places your brand in a beautiful blue ocean with characteristics and benefits that cannot be duplicated. It opens doors for you to naturally share your offerings in an authentic way.
A membership business model goes where you cannot always personally go. It is a walking talking expression of you as an expert in your field and of the community of smart people who trust and follow you. It encourages people to know, like and trust you, and once that happens, sales opportunities are not far behind.
7. Membership business models make it easier to create and launch new products and services
Creating and launching new products and services is time consuming and risky. You could spend months or years developing what you think is the perfect product, and it could hit the marketplace like a dead animal.
A membership business model provides you with an opportunity to maximize the chances that you'll offer things people will like and buy because you can vet everything in advance with your members. If you ask them, they'll tell you what ideas they like and don't like, and you won't waste time guessing. With a membership business model, you have a built-in focus group that provides you with 24/7 feedback so consistently that you barely ever have to ask.
8. Membership business models produce raving fans and true believers
Consider a membership as a kind of concert. When people who like the kind of music you make learn that you'll be performing, they get excited and tell their friends. You perform the music and your members enjoy and consume it. They spread the word. They take pictures of themselves with your products or your brand on a t-shirt or coffee mug and post it on Instagram — and tag you. They seek you out, and look forward with anticipation to your next release.
As you respond specifically to the desires of your members and serve them based on what they want and need, they respond to you with loyalty. They reward you by becoming raving fans and true believers who love you and your brand, and want to share it with all of their like-minded friends.
9. Membership business models build confidence
Your business will never outperform you. If you are performing well, your business will perform well. Leading a membership is one of the best ways to ensure that you are continuously increasing your capacity to perform well. As you lead your members and positively impact their lives daily, your confidence grows. As you grow, your members grow. As your members grow, you grow. And the cycle naturally continues for the benefit of all.
10. Membership business models are fun
Wouldn't it be great if you could be surrounded daily by exactly the types of people you truly enjoy being with? It's possible, with a membership business model.
When your members are the amazing like-minded people you love to serve, and who love being served by you, business becomes endless tons of fun. The fun makes the hard work of entrepreneurship more pleasant and easier to do. With a membership business model, you can put yourself in the presence of precisely the types of people whose company you crave.
Set your business up to give you the gift of fun. What could be better than that?
Questions for discussion and sharing
Does your business include a membership component of any kind? If not, why not? Have you considered it? What are your questions about adding a membership component to your business model? Share below, and let's discuss!
