Do you know the benefits of a membership-based website? Membership is about developing and building a community by sharing premium content and igniting demand and interest by strategically providing access to members-only sections. Offering memberships may be a perfect way for a website to build brand authority and generate a regular income stream.
Selling products necessitates convincing new customers to do so.Even though you can make enough money by charging one-time prices for products, selling memberships on WooCommerce has its advantages.
You can make the most of your marketing efforts and make existing buyers into returning customers with memberships. By selling membership subscriptions to your customers, you can:
- Make recurring income streams for your online business.
- Provide limited access to your exclusive content.
- Give incentives to non-members to buy more (by offering special discounts to members only).
- Turn first-time buyers into paying and loyal customers.
For this, you need plugins like Member Plugins for WooCommerce that simplify your membership plan’s management and setup. It must be easy for the person in charge of the website to manage and work well with email marketing and subscription plugins.
In this blog post, we will look at why creating and offering membership plans is a significant way to improve sales and achieve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
How membership plans benefit members and store owners
Online businesses know there is nothing wrong with charging people for valuable and regular content or revealing their secrets. Companies put work into compiling different training resources that are valuable for readers. On top of this, they also spend time executing membership programs.
The membership model is different from the usual way of doing business, where you have to find more customers once you’ve closed a deal. Instead, it lets you streamline your cash flows.Membership means less time and less pressure on finding new customers or viewers because you can turn current ones into a long-term steady income source.
Apart from generating recurring revenue, membership plans give you a more sustainable and reliable business model than the one-time transaction method. The reason is that you can sell more products easily to your current customers, and optimizing more profits and revenue on your ecommerce store per member.
Moreover, buyers like to feel special. They are willing to pay extra to gain access or get perks to exclusive information. When buyers crave premium products or content that they think is valuable, they feel more inclined to afford a membership fee.
Thus, more quality content means more attraction for customers to buy from you. Your customers will become valuable to your business.
Decide which membership model will satisfy you
There are multiple models of membership on WooCommerce sites. So, the one you opt to go with will depend on your specific needs. The initial step is to establish a clear goal for your business model.
The following are a few popular membership models businesses use to boost sales by attracting new customers:
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Single membership product
You can offer memberships as a standalone product. Buyers can access the content by signing up or paying an upfront fee for a tiered membership subscription. This is specifically useful for online stores that sell the same products regularly, such as cosmetics, grocery items, and pet food.
Membership tiers classify users as per the quantity and quality of business they generate. The model also determines the kind of reward they are eligible for. For instance, a WooCommerce store can ask clients to sign up for the Premium Membership plan for 20% off on all purchases.
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Grant access to the content upon product purchase
You can offer products and unlock access to certain content when a user buys a particular item. By wrapping your product with other content, you can boost your sales. For instance, when clients buy an elliptical machine, they can sign up for the weekly meal plan and gain access to your premium recipes.
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Sell a range of products
You can offer different product ranges to another class of members, e.g., only premium members can buy certain items. This is a great way to get your current customers to spend more money and help you make more money.
As a result, you may offer two subscription tiers to users, dubbed “Basic” and “Pro.” In the basic subscription tier, you can sell your core product, and in the pro subscription tier, you can sell additional materials such as videos and eBooks.Customers can sign up for the VIP plan and gain access to unique apparel and recipe videos, for example, if your culinary course encourages them to do so.
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Build a community
You can develop a community of target audiences by giving access to users as per a particular calendar, called dripping content. You can pick a specific topic or niche to build an online community for your website, such as gaming, beauty tips, computer troubleshooting, etc.
The newly curated content will be published in a private member’s area based on a monthly subscription. For example, your cooking course could encourage customers to register for the quarterly Baking Program and gain access to premium recipes and a 30-minute one-on-one with the program director.
