MemberPress creator, Blair Williams, gives the lowdown on the wily world of upgrades and prorations
When purchasing a WordPress membership plugin, most people aren't thinking about member upgrades. After all, you've got to get members before you can give them the opportunity to upgrade.
But the fact is, how your plugin will impact the ability of your future members to upgrade is really important.
Unfortunately, a surprising number of plugins don't handle upgrades at all.
Many of you know the MemberPress backstory – that I originally headed up a team of developers who built membership sites for clients in various industries.
Well, during those days, I actually fell prey to the “upgrade problem” on a client's project. The team didn't think about upgrades in the beginning, and it turned into a huge issue I had to fix with custom code.
Also part of our backstory… we created MemberPress to address all the major problems we were running into creating enterprise-level membership sites for clients. Including the upgrade/downgrade problem.
That said, keep reading to see how MemberPress helps your members upgrade and downgrade easily and automatically. And how that translates into lower member churn.
Groups
Using Groups, you can specify a “group” of membership products, whether these products are part of an “Upgrade Path”, and what order you want them arranged in.
MemberPress Groups also allows you to generate an attractive pricing page for your membership products.
Self-Service Upgrades and Downgrades
When a member wants to upgrade or downgrade the membership product they're subscribed to, they just log into their Self-Service Account Page, and click the “Upgrade” link next to their subscription.
From there, the member is redirected to the group pricing page which shows the level they're subscribed to and the level they can upgrade or downgrade to.
Unauthorized Redirects
Speaking of redirects, our Unauthorized Redirect feature can further help member upgrades.
Instead of stopping members in their tracks when they come across your “Default Unauthorized Message”, provide them with a call-to-action that makes it easier to upgrade their subscription right then and there!
Prorations
This is a big one. I've yet to find another WordPress membership plugin that handles prorations with the same ease and simplicity as MemberPress. In fact, most other plugins don't handle prorations at all.
For example, imagine that a member has already paid for a month of their membership, and halfway through the month decides to upgrade. MemberPress automatically figures out and charges the prorated amount the member will need to pay for the rest of the month at the new level.
Prorations in MemberPress can be calculated for subscriptions with different periods (weekly to monthly, weekly to yearly, monthly to lifetime).
They can be calculated between different payment methods. For example, say a member first subscribed via PayPal. But they want to upgrade via Stripe. Not a problem.
MemberPress' proration routines are solid, comprehensive, and fully automatic.
The Takeaway
There are lots of reasons MemberPress is the most popular paywalling, course builder, subscription, and membership site plugin in the world. But one of the most significant is the way the plugin handles upgrades automatically.
That's because the fewer the hassles in the buyer's journey the more likely they'll stick around. Together, automatic prorations and upgrades are a powerful anti-churn tool.
If you're serious about monetizing your site, check out MemberPress. You won't be disappointed.
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Do you have any questions about upgrades and prorations in MemberPress? Ask away in the comments!
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