Creating a community website is easy. However, getting long-term members is where the real challenge lies. No matter how many members you have on your community website, only the ones who are going to stay for a long time will impact your business. You must be very careful when it comes to memberships plans. You need to be very strategic about your approach. You will also have to make sure that your viewers remain glued to your website and they keep coming back over and over again. So here are a few strategies for you that will help you to attract long-term members:
Select the members properly:
Make sure that the members are appropriate for your memberships. No one would like to spend their money on something that they don’t like. This will give rise to unhappy customers and such customers can do huge damage to your website. These are the two situations that you would not want in your community:
- A member who isn’t sure what exactly they are trying to find on your website. This type of member will pay for your membership once or twice and after that, they will leave your website.
- An idle membership who forgets to cancel their membership. This may seem to be a good thing at first. However, it will definitely cause a lot of damage to your website in the long run. Your customers will end up becoming frustrated and they will develop a bad feeling for your company and your brand.
One thing you can do to avoid this is to explain to your members what exactly your membership is going to offer to them. In this way, you will be able to make sure that only interested people sign up for your website. The above two situations may help you to earn a lot of money in the short term but it will create a lot of frustration and dissatisfaction among your members and your business will be hampered gradually. So, you must make sure that your members have a really good experience on your website. You must also include important features like refunds and support tickets for your members so that you are able to acquire new members and compensate for the lost ones.
Few useful marketing strategies for you:
- Design excellent sales pages for your company so that your customers clearly understand what exactly they are investing their money on.
- The pricing options should be both clear and transparent. Your members must be completely aware of all the cost that they will have to incurred to sign up on your website.
- Try to understand your existing customer base. You need to know who your regular customers are. You can try to give special advantages to those members. This can be an excellent marketing strategy for the betterment of your community.
- You must advertise your community to the right audience. Only then will your community get the right exposure and success. You should find those members who are truly interested in your community and who will be committed to your niche for a long duration of time. Some niches are completely meant for fans, hobbyists and other non-professionals whereas other communities are meant for professionals only. So choose your members accordingly.
- You may ask your new members to participate in a survey. This will help you to collect important data regarding their goals, interests and preferences and you will be able to use this data to modify your marketing strategy. This will also make sure that your members remain on your community website for a prolonged duration of time.
Also Read: Importance of Micro Community Websites
Depend on content marketing strategies:
Publishing good content on your website is a very good way to attract potential members. It will not only increase your popularity but will also create a very good impression in the minds of the viewers. You will be able to educate your audience and also help them out in their journey. Good quality content will make your website popular in a very short time. It will also encourage the members to purchase membership plans from your website. Suppose your community is about health and fitness. You can publish regular interesting content on this niche and keep the momentum going all the time.
Create member pathways:
Long-term members are extremely important for the success of your website. Member pathways are quite useful in guiding the members of your website so that they remain engaged all the time. It will also help them to develop a sense of commitment towards your website. You must try to identify the members who will be benefited from the content that you post on your website. Also, learn about their goals and interests. All this information is extremely useful in creating member pathways for the members of your website.
Customer retention is a very important aspect of community websites and this aspect needs to be taken care of at all times. So, you need to take all the necessary steps that will help you to attract long-term members towards your website. Only then will you be able to create a successful community for all your members.
Interesting Read:
How To Manage An Online Community WordPress Website
How To Increase Traffic To Your Job Board Website: Social Media Marketing