To be an effective membership site creator today, you need to be more than just a content provider—you need to be a teacherpreneur.
Because to make sure your customers stick with your content for the long-term, you have to act as creator, coach, advocate AND mentor.
To that end, I’ve got a business lesson today that answers a question posted by one of our clients and colleagues, Bruce: How do you get customers to stick with your content and complete what you’re sharing with them inside your training course?
Make sure to leave me a comment and let me know how you’re going to use these tips, OR if you have question you would like me to answer in a future blog!
Great video Pam …
Where would you house the community … FB Group?
How do you connect – vid/written/audio … and what frequency?
Thanks for the information, Pam. I participated in your Marketing Roadmap course a while back. Good information, but I am still struggling to make things happen. I found out as time progressed, that two of my websites were not mobile friendly. I decided (based on budget constraints) to rebuild one of them on WIX. WIX is somewhat limited, and does not allow for membership sites. So, I am offering some of my trainings products there, as self-study download packages. Keeping people engaged with an 8-12 week training program will (based on your video tips) involve a couple Q & A calls, and video emails, I imagine. I hope to build my second site on WordPress so I can add a membership option, but I really want to see if I can get any sales on the WIX site before I invest time, energy and money in a membership site. You are so blessed to have the online marketing figured out. I find it to be overwhelming. I know several great marketers who had moved on from teaching online due to the challenges of keeping people engaged.
Candia, you might consider switching to an integrated online course platform like teachable.com (there are many others). I’m a fan of Kajabi, but it may be beyond your current budget. This approach is SO much easier and faster than trying to “roll your own” by integrating a wide array of WordPress plugins.
This video is helping me focus on the development of my online training. Thanx. Cheers to a grand day!
Thanks Debbie! Nice to hear from you!
Pam,
Great content, I love your online blog. Could you please tell me where you get the backgrounds for all your videos? I’m just getting started, and I’m just plain stumped here. Would really appreciate a response! And thank you for your help with this.
Thanks so! I actually film in my home…I have an office attached to my bedroom so we just use the background that’s there. I mix it up by changing what’s on the table, shelves, etc. and often I’ll buy flowers to bring some warmth and life into it but obviously the flowers are optional! 🙂 The biggest thing is doing it somewhere YOU are comfortable. I love the idea of inviting people into my home so that works for me. Also, I just film with one camera but we use a full 3-light kit so we can make sure everything is lit appropriate. Sometimes it’s just walking through your home or office and seeing how the backgrounds look through the camera lens!
Pam,
The component that virtually every online course ignores is commitment and motivation. Without that, even a great course structure may fail to retain interest through to the end of the course. Maybe each student needs to set up their own rewards system to know how they will reward themselves when they hit various milestones in the course. That should be part of the course. A written Statement of Intent may also be effective as motivation – kind of like a contract with yourself. Occasionally, I fill out a short questionnaire to determine whether I truly want to proceed with something. It clarifies the decision one way or the other. It is not my creation, but, if you want to check it out I will email it to you.
Super answer Pam, thank you so much, fantastic tips and ideas. Tips 1 and 2 are harder to take action on because the courses are already complete, but I can use them as guidelines on some upcoming projects. But tips for and 4 and 5 I can take action on right away. I already have a very active Facebook group on publishing but I think making a new closed group just for my members is must do. I also have a subscription wit Zoom and can take up to 50 participants in a group Q & A session. great ideas and time to start that shortly.
Your 5 tips were great
1. Clear structure and framework,
I do have this but could probably be clearer. And some of my courses feel just way to big. Is it better to have a bunch of short more focused courses of lump them together
2. Length of Videos
I am all over the place on this, but have been getting better at making the videos shorter. I find now that when I feel myself saying “now lets go to the next step” that is where a new video should be.
3. Communicating with members
I will often do a thank you email and then nothing. That is something I have to work on. It is hard to think up what to write and setting it all up. I do have AWeber which great for autoresponder and I use Teachable
That might be a great question to answer for a video
Making your auto responder series, what to write, how many, frequency,
4. Some form of a Q & A
Love this one, I have a Zoom.com account and can easily start doing this. Even just general to my Facebook group. I now have over 1700 members and this could be a great way to get more course sales
5. Build a Strong Community
I already have my How to Publish Your Book FB group which is very active. I am in there all the time, but I hear you and I should really also have a private group for (a) each course, I have 5 now or (b) or for all of my courses and group them together. They are all around book publishing and the answers can cross between courses. I have just over 300 enrolled people now with 55 of them paid. It is hard to manage a lot of different groups so I am leaning towards just have one main one that I can respond and do all the things you mentioned. Troubleshooting, answer questions, build relationships, support and encouragement.
Ok, fantastic Pam, all stuff to start taking action on, thank you, bruce
Bruce! Thanks for posting this summary – it was a GREAT question and I”m so happy you asked it as it caused me to think it through at another level as well. I really hope our paths will cross in person sometimes soon! 🙂
HELLO,
I am just getting started and need assistance with everything. It is so great that you are doing what you are doing and you really seem to care and enjoy what you’re doing. I am learning from other peoples questions. I have been thinking about starting a Real Estate Investment Program and I stopped thinking about it because I did not know how to separate myself form others teaching the same. Now templates, camera, lighting, tools, blog, platform… Great info here.
Glad it was helpful, Patrice! Thank you for leaving me a comment. Remember to take it one step at a time. If you try to tackle everything at once, you’re more likely to get overwhelmed.