Online memberships are one of the best ways for businesses to generate a reliable income stream each month. Recurring revenue from membership sites not only helps your business quickly scale for growth but is a great way to add more value to your products or services.
However, deciding on an online membership model that works the best for your business can be challenging, especially if this is your first time. There are many ways to generate recurring income from selling online memberships, like giving access to premium content already published on your site or offering exclusive content drops for each month.
In this article, we’re going to cover in-depth some different ways you can start selling online memberships to generate a monthly recurring income for your business.
How does an online membership work?
An online membership subscription works by offering customers new exclusive content in exchange for a recurring monthly payment. For example, you can let users access high-quality, “members-only” content on your site if they pay $120 each month or subscribe to your membership plan.
A recurring subscription model works by encouraging your customers to keep spending money with your business each month. When you offer high-quality content, a sense of exclusivity, and community features, it encourages subscribers to keep renewing their membership plan subscription each month. As a result, this helps your business generate a steady stream of income each month without having to continuously focus on getting new subscribers or sales.
Compared to a non-recurring income stream, you don’t have to focus on making one-off sales that won’t guarantee your customers will come back. Instead, a recurring subscription model helps offer more value to your customers and encourages them to stick with your brand for a longer term.
Benefits of a monthly recurring income
Offering a monthly recurring income can be beneficial for your business and even for your target audience. Let’s take a closer look at some of the significant benefits of generating a monthly recurring income for your business.
A steady stream of income
With a monthly recurring income, it gets easier for businesses to generate a steady stream of income each month. While it’s not guaranteed that existing subscribers will also subscribe next month or renew their subscription, it’s still highly likely that they will decide to stick with your brand, especially if their experience has been great so far.
For instance, once a user joins your membership site and starts interacting with high-quality content or team members, it encourages them to keep coming back for more. It makes them feel like they’re a part of an exclusive group and gives them a good reason to renew their subscription next month so they can remain a part of your “Exclusive members” group.
With your online membership subscription site, you can also reduce the churn rate by offering more value to your subscribers. The churn rate is essentially the rate at which your customers stop subscribing or renewing their membership plans. Ideally, you want a low churn rate so more users are willing to stick with your brand for longer and renew their membership subscription the next month. This not only gives you a better way to predict your business’s income but also helps better understand how much effort you need to put in when acquiring new subscribers.
Growing your business
Setting up a monthly recurring income through an online membership site is a great way to grow your business effectively. Recurring revenue is the ideal way to start scaling your business for future growth. This essentially means you can start small when you first start and then start offering more value to your subscribers to generate more income. For example, if a user has renewed their subscription for the third month in a row, you can start offering them additional services or products that they might be interested in.
Since they’re already associated with your brand, you can start offering them more products and services that better cater to their unique needs and requirements. It not only helps offer more valuable membership subscriptions but is a great way to increase your income streams and start growing your business. Additionally, a monthly recurring subscription also helps add to the overall customer lifetime value. This is the total estimated amount of money or resources a subscriber or customer will spend with your business during their time on your online membership site. Once you start scaling your product offerings to members or subscribers, you can expect to increase revenue and boost business growth in the long run.
A COMPLETE STEP-BY-STEP CHEATSHEET
TO CREATING, LAUNCHING & GROWING A SUCCESSFUL MEMBERSHIP WEBSITE
More value for your target audience
A monthly recurring subscription offers more value not only to your business but also to your target audience. This is because you can offer higher quality content which helps them feel like they’re getting more value for their money.
An online membership site also encourages business owners to focus on increasing content value and making membership subscriptions more valuable for their target audience. You don’t have to worry about generating new content every day or every week. Instead, you can put more resources towards catering to subscribed members and offering them more value for money so they renew their subscriptions the next month.
Best ways to sell online memberships
Let’s talk about some of the best ways you can sell online memberships to generate a monthly recurring income for your business.
Monthly evergreen content subscriptions
An essential monthly evergreen content subscription is when you sell online memberships that release new content every month This means no matter when your subscribers join during the month, they will only have access to the content your business released the following month. For example, if a customer joins your membership site in January, they will have access to more content than a customer who joins in April or March. In a monthly evergreen content subscription model, all membership content is released sequentially according to the join date of your subscribers.
This model works great for running online course formats on your membership site, where content is released in multiple stages for your customers. By drip-feeding content, you can build on the previously released content and keep your users engaged for longer. In some cases, your subscribers will have to complete the previous month’s content before they can make use of the next lesson or batch of membership content. For instance, if you’re running a “Day photography 1-year course” on your membership site, users who join later in the year will also have to go through all the previously released content so they can stay on track with other subscribers.
A monthly evergreen content subscription works excellent for businesses that want to drip-feed content to their subscribers and create a content sequence that keeps target audiences engaged while encouraging them to renew their subscriptions each month.
Month-specific content
Another solid way to start selling online memberships is by offering month-specific content. A month-specific content model works by giving your subscribers access to content that’s released exclusively for the month they join. For example, if a user joins the “Cooking Mastery” membership plan in January, they will have access to the same content as a subscriber who joined later in the year. The only difference is that the subscriber who joined in January will have access to the prior or previously released content, while new users joining the following month will only get the month-specific content and all content moving forward.
While your subscribers can still purchase the previous content, it helps keep all of your currently subscribed users on the same page and offers more customer lifetime value. It is also an excellent opportunity for your business to increase average order value by encouraging new subscribers to purchase the previous month’s content.
Full access to previous and upcoming monthly content
You can also sell online memberships for recurring monthly income by giving your subscribers full access to previous and upcoming monthly content. This is the best way to offer the most value to your subscribers while encouraging them to keep renewing their subscriptions each month.
For example, when a new user joins your membership site, they can access all previously released content and will have access to new content your business releases the following month. It’s an ideal way to encourage more users to join your membership site and helps build long-lasting customer relations with your subscribers.
While this type of membership subscription model can overwhelm new subscribers with a lot of information, it’s also great for convincing your customers that they’re getting the best value for money when joining your membership site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What are some ways to generate recurring revenue?
A: Some ways to generate recurring revenue include selling subscriptions and memberships and offering ongoing services for a fee.
Q: Why is it beneficial for a business to earn recurring revenue?
A: Earning recurring revenue provides a stable income stream, builds customer loyalty, and allows for better long-term business planning.
Q: How can I create an online membership program?
A: To create an online membership program, you can use membership website platforms or build a customized solution using available membership plugins or software.
Q: What are the best recurring revenue business ideas?
A: The best recurring revenue business ideas include subscription box services, online communities, membership sites, and offering ongoing digital products or services.
Q: What are the benefits of a recurring revenue business model?
A: The benefits of a recurring revenue business model include predictable income, customer retention, and the ability to build a strong, sustainable business over time.
Q: Do I need to sell online to earn recurring revenue?
A: Yes, selling online memberships, subscriptions, or digital products is a popular way to earn recurring revenue, but it’s not the only option. You can also offer ongoing services or products with a recurring fee.
Q: How can I sell memberships online?
A: You can sell memberships online by using specialized membership website platforms, creating a membership section on your existing website, or using e-commerce platforms with membership plugins.
Q: What is the best way to earn recurring revenue from an online course?
A: The best way to earn recurring revenue from an online course is to offer it through a membership site with a monthly or annual subscription fee, providing ongoing value and updates to the members.
Q: How can I make recurring revenue through a subscription box business?
A: You can make recurring revenue through a subscription box business by offering a monthly subscription service for physical or digital products, providing customers with ongoing value and convenience.
Q: How can I create an online community to generate recurring revenue?
A: You can create an online community to generate recurring revenue by offering memberships with a monthly or annual subscription, providing exclusive content, networking opportunities, and ongoing community support.
Conclusion
A monthly recurring income not only helps you grow your business in the long run but is a great way to add more value to your brand’s product offering or services.
While deciding on an online membership subscription model depends on your brand’s unique requirements and target audience, you need to make sure the membership platform you choose has everything you need. Your membership platform needs to have the ability to set up recurring payments in a way that’s suitable for your business while having solid security and payment features to facilitate subscribers.
Do you have any questions about how to sell online memberships for a monthly recurring income? Let us know in the comments box below.
