How much content should you add to a monthly membership?
Probably less than you think.
One of the common reasons for cancellation I’ve seen across multiple client industries is there’s too much information.
Yes, they cancel because your membership has too much content.
Depending on your market, it’s likely your prospects and customers already feel a sense of overwhelm.
Become a trusted guide.
That doesn’t mean overloading them with as much content as you can produce.
Instead, it’s more about cutting through all the content…and delivering clear direction to help them reach their goals.
Choose any topic. For this example, let’s simply say it’s about search engine optimization.
Would you rather have a 75-hour online video course that covers every possible detail…or a 2-hour course that gives you the exact steps to follow to get ranked in the next 48 hours?
Unless you are a masochist, you’ll choose the 2-hour course…as long as it can deliver on the promise.
The overwhelming amount of content in most markets is only going to increase with the AI revolution.
Being a trusted guide applies to everything you publish, but I’m focusing on memberships here.
Simplify your delivery.
Choose one primary way you deliver content.
It could be a monthly newsletter (by mail or PDF online). It could be a weekly video. Or it could be group coaching calls each week which are also recorded.
Or perhaps you go super-simple and just have an email list and blog with some posts open to all…and other posts hidden behind a membership area.
Substack is an example of that. They allow anyone to write content, build an email list, and run a membership on their platform (they have podcasts also, but it’s primarily writers).
They have over 20 million subscribers and 2 million paid members across all their writers’ channels.
Those are all ‘simple’ memberships…primarily written content.
Choose a content schedule that fits you and the audience.
If you publish so much content that it’s difficult for members to keep up, they’ll cancel because they don’t feel they’re getting all they can out of the membership.
Deliver the content that fulfills the promise you make, but don’t overwhelm them.
Provide some way for members to communicate with each other. It could be as simple as comments on your posts, a discussion area, a Whatsapp group, or Zoom meetings.
Choose one of those.
Add a quick start onboarding sequence to help your members achieve a quick win.
For example, one of my clients has a membership using a 10-day series with simple action steps. He polls them at the end of this to see what improvements they’ve already made (which creates a good source of proof also).
You don’t need any more complexity than this:
- One consistent form of content
- Community interaction of some type
- Help them achieve a Quick Win
Consider carefully before adding extras.
And stay tuned. Next week I’ll be releasing a new course about how to earn more in less time.
It’s about simplification instead of addition.
Cut back and leverage everything you’re doing to maximum return on your investment.
