Five interesting lessons learned from The Self Care Space's $30,000 Member Launch
The launch of a paid-membership community to roaring success is the dream for many entrepreneurs out there, but Megan Sherer and Katrina Wright created it into a reality.
Together this creative duo established a holistic therapy network named The Self-Care Space and built an app with a white label on Mighty Pro to bring it to life. Within their app, they provide therapy sessions that are self-guided, live events, and an online community that is supportive and they earned a total of $30,000 when their app launched.
There are five things we learned from The Self-Care Space's launch to help you build a paid membership business which is a huge business.
Spoiler Alert: Rome was not built in one day. Neither did The Self-Care Space. By careful planning and a creative execution, Sherer and Wright built something that's more than what they had imagined.
Let's dive in.
1. Make sure you emphasize the social aspects of your participation
A key element to creating the potential for a vibrant community is actually building a space that people want to visit. That might seem obvious, but we've all had to be part of a lot of online "communities" which are just the opposite of engaging.
This is exactly the type of work you can plan for in advance of the launch of your paid membership. The first and most important goal of running a paid-for membership website is that members are the ones doing all the talking.
In The Self-Care Space on average, their 800+ members contribute to more than 82% of content posted in the community. This is a remarkable achievement that was created by Sherer and Wright making a secure space for their members to connect with one another through group-focused and self-led programming that connects the members by sharing experiences.
2. Grow your reach with partnerships
Self-care is a losing battle when you launch a very popular paid-for membership. Sherer created The Self-Care Space by seizing big potential through partnerships.
Sherer partnered with, Katrina Wright, a successful Instagram influencer, who helped kickstart the business. Sherer leveraged Wright's pre-existing following of over 840,000 people, as well as a successful business venture called The Sculpt You with 10,000 monthly users and 18,000 Instagram followers.
How did Sherer leverage Wright's large fan base? She got creative and began organizing free events and classes through Wright's social channels. These events offered prospective clients a glimpse of what The Self-Care Space was all about.
Then, Sherer found success in building an advisory board for The Self-Care Space compromised of highly influential experts from various fields. This expanded their reach because they had more followings that they could tap into as well as allowing them to distinguish between the opinions and content which are available to members of the paid members.
3. Make a variety of content
The Self-Care Space launched with an assortment of diverse contents that increased their value proposition to prospective customers. If you're an online course creator a live event organizer and an instructor online or trainer of some kind, that doesn't mean you must place all your eggs in that basket.
Your members aren't a hivemind. Although they share similar preferences, they could have different interests. Making sure you have a mix of deployable content types will help sell just how valuable the private area you're inviting people to join really is.
Sherer said this about The Self-Care Space, "Our platform offers a variety of self-guided material. Also, during live events, we try to encourage more community engagement, attendance, and participation--all with the goal creating that sense of community and connection ."
Within their community, they offer live events frequently, however they're delivered in a variety of methods: monthly sounds bath, a healing session using crystal bowls for calming anxiety, formal lectures, online workshops, group coaching. Doesn't that sound like something you can't find just anyplace? This is what makes their membership such a tempting offer.
4. Social media continues to be effective
There's much to talk about the dangers of social media, but it can still be effective in getting the attention of your customers when you approach it in the right way.
In light of the lesson we learned on forming partnerships with influential people within your field, this is where social media will help in a significant way. For The Self-Care Space launch, Sherer and Wright made use of the accounts of their Instagram accounts to promote the event with videos, educational material, workshops and free events that all assisted in putting their first interested members onto a waitlist to be a part of The Self-Care Space once it began its launch.
5. Differentiate your pricing
Pricing is a key factor when it comes to launching a massive launch of your paid members' community. In the case of The Self-Care Space, Sherer saw an opportunity to get the maximum number of people into the community by offering diverse tiers of membership that appealed to various groups.
They took the following four steps to price:
- Price per month
- Yearly pricing at a discounted price
- Lifetime pricing is something rarely seen has opened up a pricey pricing for customers who bought into their methodology.
- A discounted rate was offered to members who were already part of Katrina's previous members who paid for membership. This was incredibly successful because it gave The Self-Care Space a gateway to a group of individuals that were already interested in similar topics and were familiar with making payments for memberships and had confidence in Katrina Wright's advice.
Follow these five lessons and you'll soon be the launch of your very own lucrative paid-for membership site. Most important to be aware of is that planning ahead and executing your strategy effectively will allow you to enjoy the benefits you're dreaming of. There is no way to anticipate all that will happen, but you are able to put your best foot forward from the beginning by following these suggestions.