Terms

"For us, membership is at the core of everything we do. There is no way to be a side hustler in the field of membership, it must be the main focus of everything," starts Dan Carson who is our Director of Product. "If are serious about establishing a membership We believe that this is the greatest combination of features. While we started with WordPress as the sole entry point to those options, this is no longer the case."

Dan clarifies that we're not taking away any of 's original capabilities, such as integration to WordPress: "If that's how one wants to create their website for membership, it's possible to do it as prior to us - we're simply giving them a more straightforward on-ramp."

"There are many individuals making use of third-party software, but not necessarily because they want to. It's because that felt like the only choice," Dan adds. "People might already have WordPress However, they've made a fairly basic website or have MailChimp but they don't even utilize 50% of its features."

These people simply need an option to let people sign up, and be able to email them without all the bafflement of a cloud enterprise version. "Maybe they signed up to Mailchimp in 2014, and they are still using it as that's where they are. However, are they the target market for where Mailchimp is headed?"

"We consider there to be people out there who were able, if the task was simple enough, would be able to combine all of these instruments into one place and then have it well-integrated - so long as it still did all of the tasks they wanted to perform," Dan says.

Our email tools will have all of the features you need. The author adds: "We're not trying to provide enterprise-level marketing departments with tools. We're trying to serve those who are looking for a low-cost and straightforward method to share information and publish content to their target audience."

It's for us not so much about the tools you have, and more about what you are doing. If you'd like people to to join a newsletter, we can make that easier and cheaper as you do not need to purchase other tools.

The decision is based on each individual's usage scenario, naturally. Some people want the ability to piece together several Integrations, but some worry it's more expensive and harder to manage, especially as a single company. "Previously we were kind of just building for one of those groups. We're now building for both of them," Dan says.

For a certain type of user that you are, the version 2014 of MailChimp is what you need; it's the one that you've fallen in the love. "If I'm looking for a basic web page, I'll probably not want to use WordPress. Even Squarespace isn't the best choice as a website that relies on subscriptions. The site isn't tightly connected to membership at its basis," Dan adds. We thought to ourselves, "What would happen if there was an entire product designed around that idea?'.

We're the same way about podcasting and online communities as well. "We're not going to be rebuilding Libsyn. We'll be building the basic version that's easy to use and covers 80percent of the features you care about, integrated with all your other stuff, in one place for similar prices," Dan believes.

It is an innate law that the more time software has for, the more eager it is to develop. It wants to become increasingly complex and complicated.

The addition of new features isn't always a good thing However, it is a bad thing for customers if the target customer the company is building it to isn't you anymore. "People are hungry for applications that can do what they require and doesn't seeking to do greater than that. Like in jazz, sometimes it's not the notes that you play!" Dan laughs.

The process of making something easy is quite hard. Dan agrees: "It's about paring down to the essence of something. One of the easiest things for us is to simply put everything in there and then make it an element and then customers could locate it on a settings panel somewhere." However, we aren't sure that's the kind of thing our customers are looking for. Instead, we want to bring together all of our knowledge gained over the past decade of building membership software, taking customer feedback and distill it into easy-to-use tools.

"It's easy to overlook the importance of tools that are simple. Easy to use tools are an underserved need. Many things are more complex than they need to be." Dan adds.

The dashboard is updated.

The biggest change we've made this quarter is how we've organized the dashboard. Instead of having each option available at the top, with the capabilities organized according to feature, we took a step back and asked, "Why not organize everything according to what you're working on during the time?'.

Based on our experience, and speaking with those that run membership companies generally, your work is something that falls into one of four jobs including designing and creating your site, publishing exclusive content, directing the activities of your members or increasing the revenue. Dan says: "Everything you're doing as a membership operator is going to fall into one of these four categories. Therefore, we decided that this was a logical method of organizing the functions of ."

Website

This is designed for those who wish to build a membership website. Historically you may have needed to utilize WordPress or something specific to. You can now make use of our built-in website builders. This first section is for building the site in the first place and then modifying the look. And setting up your publicly-facing content. "You're making a place for your audience to and visit," adds Dan.

Content

The second task is publishing content. A modern-day membership business usually entails publishing exclusive content for members. This includes posts, emails or podcasts. "The second job is creating special content or sharing benefits - it's about creating the value the members receive from joining your club," Dan explains.

Members

The final task is to manage your members. "Part of running a strong membership is to have a intimate relationship with your customers and that's a big reasons why they're backing you," says Dan. You need to be able to offer customer support to the people who are members, such as being aware of their relationship with you, and troubleshooting the issues that are not working properly.

Revenue

"If you're building your own membership site with you're trying to make money and there are a lot of things to consider: creating your plan and determining what you should charge as well as monitoring the health of your company to determine the things that are working," says Dan. This is a section that covers discounting in order to increase retention and run acquisition campaigns and referral programs.

"We've added a lot of functions over time. Not having them organized caused it to be difficult to locate things, particularly those who were new. We wanted to cut down on the amount of learning required," concludes Dan. This provides a better framework for us going forward as we add more new features, as we'll have more intuitive places to place things. This allows users to locate and explore these additions so you can get value out of them immediately.

Builder for websites

Another major development in this quarter was around the website builder. "We'd started to build these tools earlier in the year and were trying to get the needle moving towards introducing this new capability, without affecting the existing ways of using ," says Dan. "We put ourselves in the shoes of someone who is looking to build a membership website."

Now, the process of signing up and getting into the product is much faster; we provide our customers with an advanced beginning point, including default options, plans for membership already made and the design of the site already designed. The only thing you need to do is set up your Stripe account, and you'll be able to begin your website within just a few minutes.

Today, the editor process is similar to an advanced WYSIWYG (What you see Is What You Receive) web-based builder that is directly interacting with the membership site. "You can type directly on the screen, drag objects around, conceal and show elements, and you will be able to view what the page looks as soon as you open it," says Dan.

Dan states that this is only the beginning of future website builder enhancements: "We had to redo the base of everything this manner; now we can step on the gas to begin expanding the capabilities."

The concept has been introduced in blocks, which are essentially content modules. At present, we've got a basic content block and a title banner block that could be textual or an image that has a button. Now this framework exists, we're currently working on new blocks, and creating various types of content to be displayed on the page. The user will be able to organize them in the right order on the page, and are able to control who sees them based on what membership plan people are subscribed to.

Dan states: "It's everything you need to create a fully-featured membership site. The site is fully connected to subscriptions. The membership component is at the center of the whole." The end result is a website-building experience that's simpler to get started easier to navigate, more intuitive and more in-line with the expectations of modern users.

Conclusion: A new way to utilize

"We have described in the past as the glue that holds your membership together," Dan recalls. Dan. "But in the event that an equipment is critical to your company having components bonded together doesn't always sound like a positive. Sometimes you want that they are welded, like steel - you want it to be the same component, and not two pieces glued together," adds Dan. Two pieces were built in tandem the membership element was always a part of the beginning.

If you're someone with an incredibly successful WordPress website or millions of members on your MailChimp list that you'd like to just add subscriptions rather than start over, it's possible. We still offer the tool for you to add subscribers, and then put it all together. However, we do not believe that's the only method people would like to build anymore.

" is for those looking for a space for their people to come together online, a hub to their customers and members. In the present, all you like, from making it look like your company and putting everything you have to share in one place could be what you create with ," Dan concludes.