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This post is part of the series, and is based off the ebook 'Top 21 marketing ways for membership sites', written by The Subscription Coach Amanda Northcutt.
Download the whole series in a book
The Big 6 social channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn. Choose one or two channels that your intended viewers are and with whom you enjoy engaging. Participate on those channels 5 seven days per week. 80% of what you say should be helpful or useful for your audience, with just 20% of it that is advertising. So, 1 out of five social media activities ought to have the quality of "salesy," that's it. No more, no less.
Social strategy must tie in seamlessly with the content marketing plan. If, for instance, you have a monthly topic or theme for your membership, then your content marketing (remember you need a free instead of. paid strategy for content to ensure this happens) should also align with that monthly theme. Not surprisingly, your social media strategy will promote and tie in with the content that you are releasing for free that month. Do not reinvent your wheel. Streamline your content marketing and social strategies through leveraging what you're doing behind your paywall for your members who are paying.
Facebook is a slam dunk to advertise on paid for member-based sites, since there are 2.3 billion users and infinite customizations are allowed, but this isn't the most ideal site for your social efforts unless you have Established Facebook Group.
We won't do a thorough dive into the advantages and disadvantages of each platform, since that's beyond the scope of this document. But, we do suggest Instagram, Pinterest, and/or YouTube for memberships that revolve around an emphasis on visuals or education, as well as Twitter as well as LinkedIn if your membership is B2B (business to business). Using a social media scheduler, like Buffer or Edgar which can assist you to batch your social shares and ease the pressure of being present on the social media platform each day. In reality it is important to show up often and engage with those who are interested, but it's probably not a good idea to add regular social interactions in addition to the other tasks you have to do as a site's owner.
Your once-weekly promotional, more salesy, interaction on social media should contain a call-to-action (CTA) that is the same as the steps your followers across all platforms might be ready to take towards joining your group. This could include participating in an engaging competition, taking a survey and registration for a webinar accessing your website, or landing page as well as download your Lead Magnet.
When you require an email address for an article the piece is referred to as an "lead magnet. A lead magnet is something that is of great value and importance that you offer to your potential customer to get the email addresses of those who sign up. The person who puts in their email address will instantly receive the promised information via email . They will also be added to your list of email addresses. But don't just let them join your list for the occasional newsletter email or something similar. You must have a plan in place for converting this new lead to a paying member of your website! It is done by preloading an lead nurturing email sequence that automatically kicks off when somebody downloads your lead magnet. It's true that this is labor-intensive, but it is by far the most efficient set-and forget marketing tool available to you. Do it once, and review your nurture email sequence every six months.
The overarching goal with all of your social CTAs is to collect a prospect's email address so they start receiving your automated nurturing email sequence. As with all marketing activities, social interaction must be planned relevant, appropriate to the context, and measurable. If you aren't armed with accurate information regarding click-throughs conversions, shares, likes, retweets, lead captures, etc. You could be losing your time. Are you?
To find out more regarding Facebook Live, grab the Hubspot Ultimate Guide here.
Organic influencer marketing
Working with people who hold the interest of a large mass of your target customers is the most effective route to growth for a membership website. Try to accomplish the process yourself or directly paying 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 like to be with them. Engaged is the most important measure to be looking for when searching for influential people within your industry. Certain influencers have several thousand or more followers. But that means nothing for those who overwhelmingly ignore and are disengaged from the influencer.
It's been reported that there are instances of paid influencer advertising in which celebrities are employed to serve as the spokesperson of the brand they represent. Entrepreneurs and bootstrappers have applied the same concept to niche markets and used it in small-scale markets.
Chances are that there influencers within your field. Who has written the book on your membership topic? Who hosts conferences for your target audience? What are the top 3 blogs, podcasts, and YouTube websites that your customers pay at? These are your influential people. They are the ones you must identify them, locate, and begin to be helpful to these people. Here's how to make sure you are putting your best foot forward to ensure that over time, you'll build real relationships with influential people and work towards collaborations that are mutually beneficial and collaborative.
Providing value to your industry's influencers by being kind and useful is the most effective way to get on their radars. The main goal for this marketing channel is to begin by establishing genuine connections (to become friends or befriend) with these influencers. then, as time passes create mutually beneficial methods to connect with their audiences. Make sure to treat these relationships with child gloves. Be careful, thoughtful, and mindful that influencers are often able to wield the power to influence buying decisions of their audiences. You want that working for you rather than against you.
Start to be a positive individual by doing what you can like: Engaging with them via social media (retweets and likes, or comments, etc. ) Reviewing your book(s) through Amazon and leaving a positive review on their podcast on iTunes, consistently leaving helpful comments on blog posts, sharing their content to your followers and tag their social networks and a short thank you, and so on. Include these activities in your schedule as a recurring event so your organic influencer plan stays in line.
If you send an email or initiate an outreach on social media for introducing yourself, you should include a quote from an person who is the influencer in a blog post or podcast interview. You can also send them a message from a recent speaking gig with some insightful comment from you on how their advice/expertise helped you and/or ask a follow up inquiry. This shows you've done your homework and aren't just arriving out of thin air with a plan to follow.
Say you've been a for a long time a fan and admirer of their works (because that's what you've followed their work and helping them for quite a long time isn't it? ) You've also published their work to your followers on multiple occasions, and that you're also in the same industry and thought it might be useful to connect. In the next step, ask them you to connect them with anyone within your circle who could be beneficial to them (great if you have some individuals that you are certain they're buddies with). Make sure you don't ask for anything in this initial outreach. If they're positive then move on slowly and gradually and provide value to this person. Take your time However, don't be shy to ask to collaborate if it is logical.
As your relationship develops you will naturally to share each other's information when it is relevant. You should also be in each other's blogs or cross-promote service, bundle services for special offers and explore different creative collaborations to share audience information.
If your influencer marketing efforts organically aren't working or aren't on time, don't panic, you can try for paid influencer marketing instead!
Influencer marketing paid for
As with the organic marketing of influencers, first you'll have to determine the influential people in your industry, but 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 if they've done paid influencer marketing with other companies in the past. If you're not sure if you've paid them for collaborations or access to their audience in the past it's possible to first see whether they'd even think about this. 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 might include: sending a paid email to their list and a sponsored blog and a guest slot on their podcast and paying them to become an invited participant on a webinar and/or paying them to do an interview and allowing them to speak at your conference or event or any other thing that makes sense in your area.
It is often the fastest and the least costly way to increase your reach. Don't overlook the power influencer marketing could have in your acquisition and marketing strategies.