On the Charge

I had three meetings last week where the people I met were wondering about how to monetise their (currently free) communities. So here are some tips if you want to start charging:  

1. Build a critical mass of members

If you’ve not yet started building your community offering, but are definitely planning to charge for access, you need to make sure there will be enough happening inside it. We strongly recommend you to attract a group of early adopters who will hopefully become your most enthusiastic users, and whom you might exempt from any upfront payment.  You can decide how large this group should be based on your offering and who it should include. It could be invite-only, or appear as a special, time-limited offer. These members are vital to your success - it will be much harder to delight and retain future paying punters if when they arrive they discover it’s a ghost-town.  The initial period before charging for access also gives you time to fine-tune the offering and build some excitement around the product.

2. Focus on the benefits new members will derive from being part of your offering

In the first instance, people are more likely sign up if they think it will help them achieve their aims or goals. Consider how many work events you sign up for just to meet people? Probably not many. You go because you believe you may learn something new or consolidate your knowledge. Once there, you might meet some great people which will hugely add to your experience, but that probably wasn’t your first consideration. As is often said,  people come for the product and stay for the community, so go big on the quality of the overall offering and the results people will enjoy by signing up. Once they are there, you can wow them with the community offering so they never want to leave. 

3. Bring your early adopters with you when you do start to charge

Don’t try and sneak in the fact you are switching to paid – involve the members who are already there. Explain why, involve them in the process, show them the love (eg a “founding member” special price and/ or status). Make them feel part of your decision and not that this is something being done “to” them.

4. Top-notch experience

Obvious I know,  but you do need to make sure the experience they get is as good as it can possibly be. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to splash the cash on the latest technology stack, but think about elements that are cost-effective and are fully in your control. How are you going to maintain a personal touch? Are you remaining laser-focused on how to help your members achieve whatever their goals are? Do you have the manpower in place to do this? Who in your team is going to help provide this experience? You can do a lot to make people feel special and appreciated without immediately turning to the very best in technology offerings. 

Finally on this point, have you double-checked that there isn’t a similar offer in the market that’s free? Because if there is, how is your community going to justify charging? 

5. Beware of cliques forming

As you grow and develop, have the processes and offerings in place to make sure cliques don’t develop. For example, you don’t want a situation where early adopters aren’t welcoming to new entrants. You need to set the culture and tone around this and have the mechanisms in place so your community remains a welcoming and inclusive space. Address this as an issue before it becomes one.   

6. Keep iterating and developing with your members

If you want to retain your paying members for as long as possible, you need to keep developing with them. They might have started with you at a certain point in their personal “journey”, but if your community is providing the results you claim it will, their motivations and goals will likely change over time. Don’t stand still with your paid community – keep developing too. 

7. Is charging really right for you?

Most of these tips relate to charging members for access, but don’t forget there are other ways of monetising your offering. Sponsorship, for example? You should explore all such options before you introduce a paywall, because once you do, it’s hard to backtrack without shredding your credibility.

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This newsletter is brought to you by www.customer-ization.com. We work with B2C brands to activate and empower customer communities to deliver growth, retention and satisfaction. To find out more why not book a call to explore how we can help you harness your customers’ enthusiasm and achieve a step change in your business outcomes.