By If you’re building a membership site in EverWeb, it’s easy to focus on creating content, setting up protected pages using Membership Levels, and attracting new members. However, one of the most important factors in building a successful EverWeb membership site is often overlooked: the member journey.
A member journey is the path visitors follow after they have signed up. The better that journey is designed, the easier it is for members to find value in your content and remain engaged with your site.Whilst it’s important as a membership site owner to grow the business by focusing on acquiring new members, it’s also important to remember that a successful site also has to focus on helping its existing members get the most from their membership from day one.
What Is a Member Journey?
A member journey is the experience that members have after they’ve logged in to your website’s Membership Site. Rather than simply giving members access to a collection of pages, videos, downloads, or tutorials, you guide them through a structured process that helps them achieve their goals. Basically, you’re signposting the way for your members, rather than letting them stumble around your site unguided.
A clear member journey should help your members:
- Know where to start in the Membership Site
- What content is most important
- Which resources are suitable for all levels of membership
- What the member can do next
Why The Member Journeys Matter
One of the biggest reasons members lose interest in a membership site is not a lack of content, it’s actually the opposite. A lot of membership sites contain so much information that new members become overwhelmed, and existing members are overwhelmed, finding it difficult and time consuming to find content they want.
If a new or existing member is unable to find where to start, they’ll more likely to leave valuable content unexplored, or just give up out of frustration.
So creating a member journey will help focus you to:
- Improve member engagement
- Reduce member frustration
- Increase the perceived value of their membership
- Encourage members to return regularly to the membership site
- Improve long-term member retention and renewal
If you make a great journey for your members, this will help them succeed in finding the content or resource they want in your membership site. This in itself will make it more likely that they remain subscribed and return tot he membership site regularly.
Starting a Member Journey: The Welcome Page
When creating your membership site’s front end in EverWeb, one of the most valuable pages you can add is a dedicated welcome page, which is like your site’s ‘Home’ or Landing page, but specific to your membership site. This is the page your new and existing members will come to after logging in.
The membership site’s welcome page could include some or all of the following:
- A welcome message
- An overview of membership benefits
- Easily accessible Links to essential membership resources e.g. content and account administration
- Recommended first steps
- Frequently asked questions
- Contact info for problems, issues or questions
The welcome, or membership home page, is there to help your members feel comfortable and confident from the moment they arrive.
Create a Clear Starting Point
Many membership sites make the mistake of presenting all content equally. When designing your member Welcome page, identify the single best place for new members to begin.
You might create
- A “Start Here” button that leads to e.g. highlighted, or most recent, content
- A beginner’s guide to your membership site
- An short introductory video
- A first lesson or tutorial on how to get the best from the membership site
Creating such pages, links or buttons in EverWeb is easy, especially with its recently introduced Containers feature which makes it easier than ever to add and highlight content features and content. You can also use highly visible buttons to help your members easily in your navigation and throughout your membership area.
Removing uncertainty helps members take action more quickly.
Organizing Member Content Into Pathways Is Key
Your members are going to welcome a membership site that’s properly structured. Group content into logical pathways. With a membership site, that’s quite easy to initially do as you can use your Membership Levels as the jump off point. For example, you may have Bronze, Silver and Gold membership Levels in your membership site:
- Bronze Member: Content for members who are can only access free content
- Silver Member: Content that includes bronze level as well as Silver level content
- Gold Member: Content that includes bronze level, Silver level and Gold Level content
- Member Resources: This might include areas for Downloads, templates, guides, and reference material
- Featured or What’s New: Make new and updated content or resources easy to discover. The Home page, or a link to a dedicated page, is useful for this. More on this later…
Remember that this level of direction is only the start. You may need to breakdown content in to sub-categories and sub-sub categories to help easy the discovery journey. Using this approach helps members identify which content is most relevant to them and prevents them from feeling overwhelmed.
Use Calls to Action Throughout The Membership Site
Every page in your membership site should answer one important question:
“What should I do next?”
Without clear direction, members may simply leave the page and not return. Creating simple ‘Calls To Actions” will help guide members through your content. Here are some Call To Action examples that will keep your members focused:
- Continue to the next lesson
- Download the companion guide
- Watch the next tutorial
- Explore advanced content
- Complete the next step
Making New and Updated Content Discoverable
One challenge for growing membership sites is ensuring that members notice new content. As your EverWeb membership site expands, members may miss valuable additions unless they are highlighted. With this in mind, consider creating:
- A “What’s New” section
- Featured content areas
- Update announcements
- Monthly member updates
These small additions will help encourage your members to revisit your site regularly.
Review the Experience From a New Member’s Perspective
Before launching your membership site, spend some time reviewing it as though you were a first-time visitor. This may be difficult to do, so you might want to ask someone whose opinion you trust, and who can give you an unbiased opinion about your membership site to problem the following questions:
- Is it obvious where members should start?
- Can they easily find important content?
- Is the navigation straightforward?
- Are next steps clearly explained?
- Does the site feel welcoming?
Even small changes and improvements at this stage can significantly enhance the member experience.
Conclusions
Creating a membership site in EverWeb involves much more than protecting content behind a login page. The most successful membership sites guide members through a carefully through a well designed journey that helps its members discover content, achieve goals, and continue finding value in their subscription.
By creating a clear starting point, organising content into logical pathways, and providing direction throughout your site, you can build an EverWeb membership site that is easier to use, more engaging, and more rewarding for your members.
When members always know where they are and where they should go next, they’re much more likely to keep coming back.
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