Looking for new ways to grow your membership site’s user base and generate more sign-ups for your paid courses and programs? The ideas for sales promotions in this guide will help you do just that.
Usually, you’ll need an existing audience to get the most out of these membership site promotions and offers. So if you’re still struggling in that department, be sure to check out our guide to membership site marketing strategies.
Whatever your stage in the membership-site journey, chances are, getting more members is high on your priority list. And trying out a few of the promotional methods in this guide could move your closer to your goals.
So, let’s get started!
Create a Free Membership Program
Creating a free version can help remove the financial barriers that may be stopping people from joining your membership program.
By adding a free program to your membership site, you give your target audience a way to check out the quality of your content without financial risk.
Also, you can use this opportunity to grow your email list by giving users the option of joining your email newsletter when creating their free account for your introductory program.
When creating the free program, consider if you’ll repurpose some of the content from your paid programs or produce new content.
Whatever you do, be sure to make this content your best. Remember, those who sign up will use this content to decide whether your paid programs are worth the money.
Offer a Lower-Priced Option
If the idea of creating a free membership program doesn’t appeal to you, consider offering a lower-priced option instead.
You’d take the same approach as with the free program, while earning some money from your endeavors by charging a relatively small access fee.
One plus to creating a lower-priced membership option is that the user will have already created an account when signing up.
Having payment info already in the system removes some friction, making it easier for members to hit the Upgrade button and join your full-priced membership product in the future.
Run Free Membership Site Trials
Adding a free trial to your membership program comes with lots of perks.
However, unlike creating a free mini-course or lower-priced version of your core product, there’s no need to produce a new program. Instead, you simply offer free access to your existing program for a set time.
With a powerful membership plugin like MemberPress, setting up a free trial is a breeze, making this one method you can implement today.
MemberPress gives you the option to require members to enter their payment details when signing up, or to simply give them access to content.
Issue Discount Coupons
If you have a sophisticated membership plugin like MemberPress, discount coupons are another effective and simple promotional option.
Thanks to the way discount coupon codes work in MemberPress, you retain full control over how coupons are used and how much money users save.
There are several ways you can use discount coupons. You might:
- share a promotional code with email newsletter subscribers,
- announce a code while promoting your membership program through a guest post or in a podcast,
- issue a code on an individual basis
- create a banner on your site to encourage visitors to make a purchase
- If you’re doing any offline promotions, such as printing flyers, you could include a discount code as part of the content.
Coupons not only incentivize signups but also help you track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
Buy One Get One Free
If you have more than one membership program, a BOGO sale can be a highly effective promotional method.
The most common BOGO promotion is to offer the lower-priced item for free. Similarly effective promotional structures include buy-one-get-one-half-price or buy-two-get-one-free.
Another option is to create bundles of your programs that don’t strictly follow the buy-X-get-Y-free framework but still give users access to more of your content than they would get otherwise.
TOP TIP
Customize the delivery dynamics of offers, deals, and any other messaging with the WPCode integration. For example, want to set up a 2-for-1 Wednesday deal and display a banner each week on your site? No problem with WPCode:
Time Sensitive Offers
Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, where a product is reduced in price for a set time, are good examples of time-sensitive offers.
Of course, you’re free to run this type of promotional offer any time of the year.
However, consumers are well-trained to look for discounts over the Black Friday and Cyber Money weekend. There may already be potential new members checking out your site for discounts during this time.
Create Bonus Items
Offering bonus items is a great way to inspire visitors to sign up and become paying members.
Instead of creating a free mini-membership program or offering a BOGO sale, you could produce an eBook and offer it as part of each new membership. The options are limitless.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article has given you a few ideas for how you can increase sales for your membership site.
But keep in mind that you can get creative with these promotional methods by combining them to suit your membership programs and target audience.
For example, you could use discount coupons to promote your free trial, limiting the free trial only to those with the code. Or you could bundle your membership courses in a low-priced package and offer it in a flash sale for a limited time.
Also, if you’d rather not discount your core membership product, you can still benefit from running sales promotions.
If you offer multiple membership levels to your audience, you could limit promos to your top-tier plan to make the higher-priced plan more enticing.
Which promotional method will you use on your membership site? Let us know in the comments section!
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