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This article is part of the series, and is based off the ebook 'Top 21 marketing methods for membership websites published by The Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.
The entire collection is available as an ebook >
The 6 major social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn. Choose one or two channels that your intended users are located and on which you are most comfortable engaging. Engage on the channels five every day of the week. The majority of the content you post should be useful or useful for your viewers, with just 20% of it of it being for promotional. Thus, 1 five social media posts should not be "salesy," that's it. No more, no less.
Social strategy must tie in seamlessly with the content marketing plan. If, for instance, there is a theme for the month or theme for your membership, then your content marketing (remember that you require an unpaid vs. paid content strategy to achieve this) should be aligned to the theme of your month. And not surprisingly, your social media strategies should promote and relate to the content that you are releasing for free each month. Do not reinvent your wheel. Streamline your content marketing and social strategy by piggybacking on what you're doing behind the paywall with your paying members.
Facebook is a slam dunk to advertise on paid for membership sites as there are 2.3 billion people using the site and unlimited possibilities for customization, however this isn't the most ideal location for free activities on social media unless you've got Established Facebook Group.
I won't take a deep look at the pros and cons of every medium since this is beyond what's covered in this article. We do recommend Instagram, Pinterest, and/or YouTube for memberships that revolve around highly visual instruction, and both Twitter and LinkedIn when your membership is B2B (business to business). Utilizing a scheduler for social media such as Buffer or Edgar, will help you organize your social media shares as well as ease the burden of being present on the same social network daily. That being said it is important to show up frequently and interact with people who are interested, but it's likely unreasonable to add regular social interactions with everything else you have on your plate as a membership site owner.
Your once-weekly promotional, more salesy, interaction on social media should include a call to action (CTA) that matches the step your audience on each platform might be willing to complete in order to join the membership. This could include participating in an engaging contest, taking part in a test or signing up for a webinar, visiting your website or a landing page that is specific to your business and the downloading of your lead magnet.
If you need an email address to send the content you've created, that piece of content serves as what's called a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a piece of content with a high value and relevance you give to your prospective customer in exchange for their email address. If someone enters their email address must instantly receive the promised information by email, and also be added to your list of email addresses. Don't allow them to be on your email address to receive the occasional newsletter email or something similar. You must have a plan to convert that new lead into becoming a paid member of your site! It is done by preloading a lead nurturing email sequence which automatically starts off when somebody downloads the lead magnet. Yes, it's tedious work, however, this is the most effective set-and-forget marketing tool available to you. Do it once, and examine your nurture emails every six months.
The overarching goal with all of your CTAs on social media CTAs is to get the email address of your prospect so they can begin receiving your automatic nurturing email sequence. Like all marketing efforts, social engagement must be planned relevant, appropriate to the context, and measurable. If you don't have accurate information regarding click-throughs conversions, likes, shares and retweets as well as lead captures and more., you might be wasting your time. Do you have it?
To find out more about Facebook Live, grab Hubspot's Ultimate Guide to Facebook Live here..
Marketing with organic influencers
Collaboration with companies that have the interest of a large bulk of your targeted group is the most efficient route to increase the number of members on a website. It is possible to do the process yourself or directly trying to pay for it.
For the purposes of membership sites, the term "influencer" is someone who has amassed a large, loyal, and engaged following online because they are the expert in their field, or just super funny/interesting/etc. And people love to hang out with their company. Engagement is the primary metric to look for when seeking out influencers within your industry. Some people have tens of thousands or more followers. However, it doesn't matter if the majority of them do not follow and don't engage with the person they follow.
There are many instances of paid influencer advertising when celebrities are hired to act as spokespersons for a certain brand. Entrepreneurs and bootstrappers have taken that concept and used it in niche markets.
There influential people in your business. Have they written an article on your membership topic? Who is the host of conferences to meet your target audience? What are the top 3 blog, podcasts and YouTube channels that your target audience is paying at? These are your influential people. You need to identify them, locate, and begin to be helpful to these individuals. This is how you can put your best foot forward so that, over time, you can forge authentic relationships with those who influence you in order to create collaborations that are mutually beneficial and collaborative.
Giving value to your industry's influencers by being kind and helpful is the right method to be on their radars. The primary goal of this channel of marketing is to first establish genuine relations (to make a friend or befriend) with the influencers you're targeting. THEN in due time, work towards creating mutually beneficial ways to reach each other's audiences. Make sure to treat these relationships with child gloves. Be cautious, thoughtful, and mindful that these influencers often hold the power to influence buying decisions of their audiences. You want that working in your favor, not against you.
Start to be a positive person through doing the same things such as: Engaging with them via social media (retweets or likes, remarks, etc. ) and reviewing your book(s) through Amazon or leaving a review on the podcast on iTunes and leaving regular helpful feedback on blog postings, sharing their posts with your audience and tagging the author on different social media channels with a quick thank you etc. Get these kinds of activities in your schedule as a regular event to ensure your organic influencer strategy stays in line.
When you write an email or send an initial appeal on social media for introducing yourself, you should include a quote from an person who is the influencer in a blog post or interview on a podcast, or recent speaking gig with some interesting comments about how their advice/expertise helped you or ask you a follow-up question. It shows that you've completed research and aren't comin' in hot out of the blue with a goal to achieve.
Say you've been a long-time admirer of the work they do (because they're a part of your life them and providing support to them for some time now you know? ), you've posted their material to your audience multiple times, and you're in the same industry and you thought it could be beneficial to establish a connection. Next, offer the opportunity to introduce them to any within your circle who could benefit the other (great to have individuals you're certain they're not already friends with). Be sure to not ask for anything in this initial contact. If they respond favorably proceed slowly but gradually and provide value to this person. Take your time However, do not be afraid to inquire to collaborate if it is logical.
If your working relationship progresses you will naturally to collaborate on content when relevant, be present on the other's podcasts, cross promote services, bundle offers for services as well as explore other innovative collaborations to share audience information.
If your natural influencer efforts come up short or aren't on time, don't panic, you can try for paid influencer marketing instead!
Influencer marketing paid for
Similar to natural influencer marketing you'll first be able to recognize the influencers within your field, however you can speed up this process by contacting them with paid promotion opportunities.
Some recognized influencers could have a media kits of some kind available on their site when they've conducted paid influencer marketing for others in the past. If you're not sure if you've paid them for collaborations or access to their audiences previously then you may need to determine the possibility of the possibility. Regardless, you're better off if you've followed the relationship-building steps outlined in the previous section on organic influencer marketing so you're on their radar before you make that inquiry.
Examples of paid influencers opportunities could include: a sponsored mailer to their email list or a blog post that is sponsored, a guest spot on their podcast and paying them to become an invited participant on a webinar, paying to interview them, paying them to speak at your event or conference or any other thing which is appropriate for your space.
It is the fastest and often the least costly way to increase your reach. Do not overlook the impact that influencer marketing can have in your acquisition and marketing strategies.