Your membership has grown since you launched it – have your prices kept up?
When my friend, Gemma first launched her nutrition and fitness coaching business online 3 years ago her offer was simple: her expertise and her time.
It was enough to get people through the door.
But she’s the kind of person who loves what she does and can’t stop learning. She signs up for new training constantly, seeks out new perspectives, and every client she works with adds something to what she knows.
She’s also been building out her coaching membership the whole time – adding courses, a resource library, materials her members can work through independently.
The coaching platform she’s created over the years is genuinely different from the one she launched. But her prices haven’t moved.
A lot of membership site owners end up here, and I get why.
When your pricing is working, there’s a real reluctance to touch it. You’ve built something that converts. You’ve got a loyal client base that you have genuine affection for.
Raising prices can feel like a gamble you don’t actually need to take.
But every month you’re quietly losing out, and it’s worth some honest reflection.
Why It’s Hard to Raise Your Prices
I think most people fall into one of two camps:
Some get genuinely excited about a price increase. It’s a chance to position the membership more seriously, attract a different kind of client, grow revenue.
But a lot of people feel uncomfortable about it, even when they know logically that it makes sense.
Your current price is working. You know what it takes to attract members at this level. Changing it feels risky.
And that’s fair. The certainty of what’s working now feels safer than the uncertainty of what might work at a higher price ( a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush, as the saying goes).
But staying underpriced has real costs, they’re just less visible.
What Underpricing Is Costing You
The most obvious one: you’re leaving money on the table.
That’s revenue you could put back into the business – better tools, stronger content, actual marketing.
Or, honestly, just a well-earned vacation. Running a membership takes real effort and you should be paid well for it.
Beyond the direct revenue, a low price can actually work against you. People use price as a shortcut for quality.
When something is cheap, members often treat it as a nice-to-have without realising they’re doing it. They’re less likely to engage seriously or act on the guidance, and more likely to churn.
A higher price, paired with an offer that justifies it, tends to attract more committed clients. These are members who are genuinely invested in getting results.
And practically: if your pricing doesn’t cover your costs, your time, and your own continued development as an expert, that’s going to catch up with you eventually.
4 Signs Your Price Has Fallen Behind
A few things worth looking at honestly:
1. Your offer has grown but your price hasn’t moved.
If you’ve added courses, coaching, community, or a richer resource library since you first launched (and your price is exactly the same) you’re probably underpriced.
Gemma (the nutrition coach) is running a fundamentally different membership than the one she launched. The price tag doesn’t reflect that yet.
2. You’re attracting members who don’t engage.
A very low price can bring in people who aren’t really invested. They sign up, barely touch the content, and cancel. If retention is a problem despite solid material, pricing is worth looking at.
3. Nobody ever hesitates about price.
Counterintuitive, but if literally no one raises an eyebrow at what you charge, it might be too low. Some friction is normal.
4. You’ve started to feel resentful.
This one matters more than people admit. If the effort you’re putting in doesn’t feel proportionate to what you’re getting back, that’s a problem (for you first, and eventually for your members).
Building an Offer Worth More
One thing I’ve seen change the calculation for a lot of membership site owners is adding more structured, substantive elements to what they offer, things they can point to clearly when explaining why the price is what it is.
CoachKit™ is a good example. It lets you build proper coaching programmes (drip-fed milestones, progress tracking, structured check-ins) rather than working ad hoc.
If you’re already doing one-on-one or cohort coaching, this gives it structure and makes it feel like a programme rather than a loose arrangement.
ClubSuite™ adds a community layer, so members are connecting with each other, not just consuming your content alone. For a lot of memberships, that’s what keeps people subscribed long after they’ve worked through the material.
And building out courses turns your expertise into something reusable. You create it once; it keeps delivering value across every member who goes through it.
How to Actually Do It
Be straight with your members. You don’t need to apologise for a price increase, but a clear explanation helps. Something like “I’ve added X and Y over the past year and pricing is going up to reflect that” is completely reasonable. Members who are genuinely invested tend to understand.
Consider grandfathering existing members. A common approach is to honour the current rate for anyone already subscribed, while new members join at the higher price. It protects existing relationships while starting to shift your revenue. MemberPress makes it easy to manage different pricing across tiers.
Give people a heads-up. If you’re not grandfathering indefinitely, let members know in advance. 30–60 days is a fair window.
Test with a new tier first. If you’re not ready to change your headline price, introduce a premium tier with more access, for example, extra coaching, a community element, something tangible.
It gives you a read on what people will pay without touching what’s already working.
Gemma is working through her pricing now. She knows she’s built something genuinely different from what she launched, and she knows the price should reflect that. She’s figuring out how to do it in a way that feels right for her members.
If your membership has grown in the same way, it’s worth asking whether your current price still reflects what you’re actually offering, or whether it’s a number you set a while back and never revisited.
Have you recently reviewed your membership pricing? I’d love to hear how you approached it. Let us know in the comments below.
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