In Funnel Rolodex, we also discuss with our clients the so-called Membership Funnel.
Your customers are the backbone of your business. In fact, loyal customers spend 67 percent more than occasional customers but keeping them is not as easy as it sounds.
That’s why more businesses are embracing the subscription business model.
For this post, we’ll be discussing everything you need to know in understanding membership sales funnels.
If you’re interested, come and hop in.
What is a Membership Sales Funnel?
A membership sales funnel basically encourages people to make the leap to becoming a member.
It is a multi-step process that moves general website visitors gradually into paying members.
Although the traditional sales funnel approach is well established, membership and subscription sites have a unique lead generation that requires a different approach.
The top-of-the-funnel is particularly important because every customer starts somewhere with your business.
That first impression — or series of impressions — can make or break a lifelong relationship, just like we always teach to our consulting clients in Funnel Rolodex.
It is typically based in a popular and evergreen niche, such as internet marketing, weight loss, self-improvement, or fitness.
Each month, new content is added, which customers can access as long as they continue to pay their membership fees.
But why use a membership sales funnel?
Benefits of Using a Membership Sales Funnel
Here are some of the advantages and convenience of using a membership sales funnel:
- You can earn passive income by selling the product you’ve created over and over again. By creating a membership funnel, you can have a passive income stream that delivers your content automatically.
- It is a great way to stay in touch with your customer base, as well as to build authority in your market.
- Since these people are paying customers, you can sell additional products to them both inside the membership area and through email campaigns. Once they join as a member and see the quality you deliver, they will trust you enough to buy higher-ticket products later.
Setting up a membership funnel is a lot easier than you probably think.
We have helped hundreds of our clients in Funnel Rolodex build and launch their membership funnel in less than a month!
You just need to build the funnel, create a method for users to join and pay their monthly fee and provide a way to access their product/content.
However, there are a few things you need to do first before proceeding to make your own funnel.
Before You Begin
Before you start creating your membership sales funnel, it’s highly recommended to survey your audience first. Ask them what challenges you can help them overcome. A survey overcomes 2 major obstacles:
- It pre-promotes your upcoming membership site and prepares your audience to buy it.
- Since the survey will involve your audience’s input, it increases the chances that they will enroll when it launches.
Once your survey is complete, you can now start building out the membership sales funnel.
Now, how does a membership sales funnel work?
You start off with a lead magnet that you will use to make people opt-in. It will then take your new email list subscriber to a Thank You page with a tripwire offer.
If they purchase the tripwire, they’ll be sent to another Thank You Page for the product and is then added to an email list.
If they don’t, they’ll be added to your subscriber email list and will simply be sent the freebie they signed up for.
Your new subscriber will be sent an email sequence for establishing a relationship with them by providing valuable content.
Later on in the email sequence, you can send an email promoting your membership site.
They will then be added to your membership and member onboarding if they purchase.
How to Make a Membership Sales Funnel
Let us first look at the parts of a membership sales funnel:
Lead Capture Page – This is where your audience can opt-in their contact details in exchange for a free downloadable offer like an ebook or a mini-video series.
Confirmation Page – They’ll be redirected to this page that says “thank you’’ and confirms that the process was complete. This should also connect the viewers with additional content from you.
Email Sequence – This is an automated email sequence that engages with your new leads and encourages them to upgrade to a membership.
Sales Page – This is where your viewers can enroll and purchase your membership site.
Membership Site – This is where you will host your membership content.
Now, the steps to building your funnel are as follows:
Step 1: CREATE A LEAD MAGNET.
Your lead magnet should be connected to your content because it is the FOUNDATION of your funnel.
By creating a lead magnet that is relevant to your channel and your offer, you’ll accomplish a few different tasks – you’ll get a higher open rate in your emails, you’ll avoid the spam box and get more deliverability.
Completing this step is a multi-process.
Aside from creating the lead magnet, you’ll also need to embed it in your Offer page where a viewer can input their name and email.
Then, create a Confirmation Page that thanks them and invites them to your membership community.
Our objective here is to introduce them to the membership site so it’s in their brains and stirring.
Step 2: CREATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP SITE.
The membership site should allow you to allow your members to get access to the new stuff as well as the old contents.
They should be all organized and 100% searchable. It is also where you’ll handle the billing and member registration.
You can easily find templates for this in sites like ClickFunnels.
Step 3: CREATE YOUR EMAIL MARKETING AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Once all the pages are created, you’ll connect your email system to your page using simple integrations.
You’ll first create your email autoresponder which can be a 3-part email sequence that automatically sends to your new subscribers.
In this autoresponse, you’re going to promote the sale back to your membership. An ideal sample of a sequence is like this:
- 1st Email: Thank you / Delivery of Free Offer
- 2nd Email: Gain – Tell them what they’ll gain by joining membership
- 3rd Email: Logic – give them facts to support the purchase
- 4th Email: Fear – Last chance at this price
Congratulations! It’s done.
If you think it’s still overwhelming, then let us take you by the hand and walk through the process step-by-step just like how we helped our clients in Funnel Rolodex.
CONCLUSION
Membership sales funnels are a good way of keeping your customers.
This type of funnel will move general website visitors gradually into paying members allowing you to have passive income.
It is also a great way to build a good relationship with your customers and will allow you to sell additional products to them in the future.
In general, membership funnels are super powerful and can help you in your online business.
If you need help with all the technicalities of building this kind of funnel, you know where to go!
Go visit Funnel Rolodex now and find a funnel expert to help you with your problems.
