Last week I wrote about the WishList Membership Site WordPress Plugin. Many people are excited about this new tool. So am I. Every new membership site I come across seems to run on the WishList Membership Plugin. And hearing of friends setting up 3 membership sites in one day is not uncommon.
WishList makes membership sites accessible to virtually everyone. All you need is a WordPress blog. The WishList plugin itself is just as quick and easy to install as any other WordPress plugin. You get a series of short easy to follow videos when you buy the plugin. This makes it easy for you to set up the different levels of your membership site at the same time as you go through these videos. You can easily set up a membership site in under an hour without any specific training.
Content Marketing
Sounds simple right? And it is, but just like any other WordPress blog, you’re going to want to spend some time on design and other plugins. This time you can use other plugins specifically to create a stronger experience for all of your members as they use your membership site. You can tailor your membership sites to different audiences.
And this is where as a marketer I’m very excited.
Not Just A Membership Site
My biggest AHA moment came when listening to some audios from a WishList Live Training Event. This is when I fully realized the power of creating a membership site in a WordPress environment. What does this mean? Well, you can:
- Choose a theme appropriate to the type of membership site you want to create
- Easily combine your WishList membership plugin with other WordPress plugins to do all sorts of things
When you choose a good theme and play around with the different combination of plugins and the different membership levels you can actually “manipulate” the experience you provide your members in many different ways. You can create very different membership environments by focusing on how you set up:
- Page navigation
- Featured content navigation
- Category navigation
- Sidebar navigation
- Footer navigation
And what can you do when you get a marketer to play around with all of this?
Provide A 3 Dimensional Community Experience
Your website is no a longer flat experience. You can really control the experience your visitor receives his end.
This reminds me of the IKEA experience, where all IKEA stores guide you through a complete tour of their store. They control your experience as you visit their store. And it works.
Now imagine different floors and hidden passageways in the IKEA store. Add some incentives, games, challenges and clues to find those hidden passageways. Make it fun and interactive so people want to come back often. This is what you can do with WishList when you combine it well with different combination of WordPress plugins. You can create an almost 3 dimensional community experience for the members of your membership site.
Tailor Visitor Experiences To What Your Market Needs
With a little thought a marketer can create different dimensions for different membership levels. You do need both a marketing mindset and the technical skills to make this work. But the results can make a huge difference for your membership site.
For example, most membership sites experience higher membership drop offs at a certain point. This can be around the 3-5 month period. When you notice this, what do you do? In the offline world when people are about to leave your store, you would find a way to market to them just before they leave your store, for example with candy bars in front of the cash registers.
Well why not do something similar with your membership site? Before your members get to that drop off point, engage with them and offer them an incentive. With WishList it’s easy to do this. Technically you can add in different levels, and deliver specific content at specific times. You can set it up so it is easy to control who gets what.
Membership Outside Of The Box
You see if you continue to think of the membership site software as only providing traditional membership site products, you’ll miss out on the opportunities. Membership sites are being transformed.
So, instead imagine ways to control how you deliver content to the audience you want to reach. Go wild. Then go have a look at what WishList does without being blocked into traditional membership sites. And also go look at what you can do on a WordPress blog with the wide variety of plugins out there.
Still don’t see a solution to your online content marketing dreams?
WishList will be making their API available to developers. Just give everyone the chance to play around with this and come back next year and have a look.
In the meantime, if you are ready to take the plunge and need someone to set up a membership site for you using the WishList Membership Plugin drop me an email. I’m taking on a few clients right now.
What about you?
- What marketing possibilities do you see for membership sites?
- Are you using membership sites to learn more about your markets?
- How do you think marketing with membership sites will change in the next few years?
More on Membership Sites:
- New Marketing Opportunities With Membership Sites
- WishList – A Great Marketing Tool To Get To Know Your Market Better
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