In a membership program, you can sell to members over and over again, as long as what you offer them is relevant to that need which made them to sign up in the first place. This is called Membership Marketing. It is all about marketing to people who have agreed by subscribing (as free or paid members) to have access to certain services or products and all accompanying offers which a program provides.

1. Multiplying Your Income with Membership Marketing
by Dele Ogundahunsi
Have you ever come across the expression “captive audience”? A captive audience is a
person or group of persons who, willingly or not, is/are exposed to some form of
marketing message (for example an advertising message or any other form of
promotion), because of their particular situation. Take for instance, the audience in a
cinema hall, conference hall, or TV show. Or take people in a departure lounge in
airports and sports stadia. They are there for some other reasons, but they are likely to
be there for a certain time and could be exposed to a promotional message during that
time. Marketing to such captive audiences is likely to be effective because there is a
high probability of the marketing message being read, heard, or seen. They are also
much more likely to buy, if the product or service being marketed can satisfy their
immediate needs. The opportunities of Membership Marketing for a business can be
likened to the opportunities found in marketing to a captive audience.
In a membership program, you can sell to members over and over again, as long as
what you offer them is relevant to that need which made them to sign up in the first
place. This is called Membership Marketing. It is all about marketing to people who
have agreed by subscribing (as free or paid members) to have access to certain
services or products and all accompanying offers which a program provides. Offline and
online, this aspect of marketing is one of the biggest income generators, with potentials
for multiple streams of revenue. It is behind the successes recorded by such businesses
as Costco (Business & Consumer Supplies Superstore), Hertz (Car Rental) and YouTube
(the online social networking site sold to Google by the owners, for $1.65 billion after
only two years).

2. How can you generate multiple streams of income from Membership Marketing?
1. Find out what you are passionate about
If you already have some passion for a particular aspect of life in which people are
interested, you already have a niche on which you can build your membership
marketing business. Research that niche and its sub-niches, to see if the potentials for
income are huge. The tighter the niche, the more potential there is to make money. If
for instance you already have a passion for counseling and advising people, you could
look at creating a membership program in Counseling or Advisory services for any of
the following sub-niches: singles looking for marriage relationships, newly-divorced
couples or abused spouses. Visit online forums, social networks and article directories
such as ezinearticles.com to see what people are discussing about that niche.
2. Research Your Competitors
While conducting research for your niche and sub-niches, you are likely to come across
other businesses already established in that niche. At times, the number of businesses
already established in that niche may be so huge, as to make you decide against
starting your own membership program. Not to worry. A lot of times, it also means
there is a huge demand out there for products and services in that niche. All you need

3. to do is find out what such competitors offer their members and how they do it and
then try to outperform them.
3. Decide between Free or Paid Membership
When considering membership subscription, decide whether you want people to join
your membership program, first as free, non-paying members and later upgrade to
become paid members. Usually, free members like to enjoy greater benefits which are
accessible only to paid members; hence many of them want to upgrade their
membership status, later. Again, you may decide that they should pay a token sign-up
fee upfront and pay again to upgrade their membership because, often, people think
they derive more value when they pay for something. However, ensure that the
benefits of membership are worth the fees. You may have any combination of Free,
Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond and Platinum classes of membership.
4. Create a Membership Site to generate multiple streams of income
Develop a website for your membership program, for members to learn and interact
and for you to generate other streams of income apart from subscriptions.
Advertisements placed on your website by Google Adsense are another way to make
extra income from your membership program. To earn substantial income from
Adsense on your website, you will need a large volume of members. This could be
made possible, if your program is free-to-join. When selecting Adsense adverts to be
placed on your website, choose default, so that only adverts which are relevant to your
members’ interests will be placed on your website by Google. Commissions earned from
Affiliate Marketing are another stream of income. Select products which are relevant to
your niche, while making sure that they are complementary, rather than competitive to
what you offer. Publish personal reviews of the products or interviews with the owners

4. of the products on your membership site and encourage members to buy. You may also
develop your own products and sell to members. These can include downloadable
ebooks and software, audio and video files, workshops and tutorials which can be
promoted on your website.
5. Promote Your Membership Program & Website
In order to continuously get people to sign up, you have to promote your membership
program and website. Also, when you get your membership site noticed out there,
businesses which have complementary offers will often come to you. On the Internet,
you can offer free information products such as ebooks which are rich with hyperlinks
to the sign-up page of your membership site. Article Marketing is another way to
promote your membership site. Write articles (or get them written for you) on topics
relevant to your niche and get them published in offline publications and online article
directories, not forgetting to include at the end, hyperlinks to your membership site.
Other ways to promote your membership program include free trial membership,
speaking at seminars/workshops, contributing to relevant blogs, forums and social
media websites (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc), where you can
place a hyperlink to your membership site, as part of your signature or closing credits.

5. 7. Keep Members Engaged
Members are not only interested in what you have to offer for sale. They also want to
interact with you and other members. It is therefore a good thing to have a forum on
your website, where members can share ideas and experiences and ask questions from
other members and get them answered. Your website can also include a blog where
articles can be posted for others to read. Also, constantly interact with members
through e-mails (when they buy a product, when you have added something new to the
website, etc) or periodic newsletters with resources to help them. You can also have a
customer support live chat on your site, for members to have their questions answered
in real time.
8. Develop Co-Marketing Opportunities
Don’t forget that as your membership grows, so does your database (or mailing list).
This database in itself is another stream of income for your business. Look for other
businesses which sell to people who have the same interests as your members. Discuss
with them and see if your membership program and their business could work together.
You can introduce their products to your members through free trials and collect
commission on each sign-up for their products; work out special discounts for your
members, etc. It is however important that you let your members know upfront as they
are signing up for your program, that third party offers from other businesses can be
made to them.
9. Get the Right Tools
Running a membership program or website efficiently, requires a number of tools.
These may include a Good PC (must have a lot of memory and storage capacity), fast
internet connection (such as broadband) and a web host with reliable servers which can

6. support a lot of hits (i.e. visits to your membership website), Audio-visual apparatuses
such as hands-free headphone and microphone to record your audio tutorials, videos or
teleseminars, autoresponders, newsletter software, accounting software, affiliate
management software, audio and video recording software, web design software,
subscription management software, billing & shopping cart software for payments made
on your website, forum and blog software, article submission software, etc. I suggest
you sign up at Member Magnet (http://bit.ly/hgwCVU) OR (http://cli.gs/15hmS3) for
their eCourse, to teach you more about Membership Marketing and get you acquainted
with all the tools you need (their package includes a software!).
10. Determine and Prepare Your Exit Strategy
I once read the book by Michael E. Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small
Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It , where he says people should run
their businesses as if they wanted to sell it. Sure, if you have driven a car for some time
and now want to sell it, chances are you will take care of the dents on it, do some
repainting and put a few other things in order, to make it look attractive. You need to
run your membership program and website in a way as to make its value worth more
than what you have spent on it (remember how much the owners of YouTube sold it to
Google?). Suppose you want to retire from the day-to-day running of this membership
business and take some long vacation, or look for some other exciting business into
which you can put money and efforts? You may sell off your membership site or have
an arrangement with the new owners, where you still have a percentage of the profits.
Your exit strategy is how you want to quit the business when the time comes. A careful
planning of your exit strategy will ensure you make some whopping income even when
you no longer run the show.
Finally, always have it at the back of your mind that instead of selling that single
information product and smiling away with a few thousands in income, you can make
millions of extra income if you build a membership program and website around the
niche which the information product is about. Look for other products, services and
resources complementary to your information product, put them together, build a
membership program and website and you could be on your way to making millions
from Membership Marketing.
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A 360° marketing professional, Dele Ogundahunsi consults on Marketing Strategy &
Business Growth. He is CEO at The Field Marketing Company.