by Jeremy Gislason
Today we’re going to discuss “membership marketing”, and how it’s almost a requirement for a successful website. If you’re selling anything online, whether it’s ebooks, digital products or anything of that sort, then the membership system we discuss below can deliver those products in the most effective and profitable way.
Business Success Means Avoiding Churn and Increasing Revenue Per Customer.
To be a business success, you’ll need to avoid customer churn (or “turnover”). If you get 100 new members, but 99 of them quit after 30 days, it’ll be hard for your business to survive. In a membership context, it’s the period of time someone will keep paying their membership fees. So while it’s vitally important to constantly acquire new customers, it’s just as important to maximize the revenue of each customer you already have. So what we’re talking about is the backend, and the marketing funnel you have in place.
With a subscription membership model – where you have a recurring billing system in place - the backend is the recurring fee itself. The issue becomes keeping people as members at your site.
Let’s see examine how this plays out in the context of three popular business models:
- Traditional Product Sales.
Let’s first consider the traditional Internet marketing (publishing and sales) model, which is used by most online business owners. In this model, you create a product and a sales page, drive traffic to that page, and hope the traffic converts into sales. The average for that conversion rate is somewhere around 1% to 2%.
Assuming you have a $37 product at a 2% conversion rate, it means that for every hundred people you send to that page you’re going to sell two of those products at $37 ($74 total), and you’ll have a visitor value for each of those 100 people of $0.74.
- Recurring Membership.
The average conversion rate for a recurring membership site is often less than the traditional one product sale model; it’s generally 1% or less. So let’s now assume now that you’re going to charge $17 per month, rather than the original $37 product price point. But we start to encounter churn with monthly billing. In our experience, the average membership stick rate is between three and five months.
So for every 100 visitors, we’ll get one membership sale, and that customer can be expected to stick around for approximately four months. That means you’re going to generate $68 in revenue from that one signup (four x $17 = $68). That gives you an average visitor value of $0.68. When you use the membership model, you can also put backend offers in place. So once you already have a paid member, you can assume additional backend sales and commissions from that member – around $5 per month.
Now you have that one member, and they’re paid the $17 for the first month - will likely do so for about four months - and they’re also worth an additional $5 per month over that same period of time. So now you have $88 from that signup, and the average visitor value for the 100 visitors is $0.88.
- Single-Payment Membership.
The next structure is a paid membership with a single payment. Your conversion rate will increase because you’re asking people to make less of a commitment, and a membership generally has a higher perceived value than a simple product sale. You can expect a conversion rate of 2.5% to 3%.
Because there is less commitment, you can charge more still keep the conversion rate up. So let’s assume a one-time fee of $37 instead of that $17 recurring. Now your churn goes way down. The customers have already paid, so very few of them will actually terminate their membership. You’d be safe in calculating an average stay of 12 months.
So the calculation is as follows: You’re going to see a 3% conversion rate, and the total one-time fees are going to be 3 x $37 = $111. Factoring in the backend offers ($5 a month per paid member), and over 12 months you’re looking at $180 in backend sales and commissions, for total revenue of $291. This brings your visitor value up to $2.91.
But there’s an alternative model that blows all three of these out of the water when it comes to down to making money for you – the Freemium model.
The Freemium Model.
The Freemium model is basically a free membership with an upgrade offer. It works like this: you put a “free” offer in place on the front end of the site (in a later article we’ll discuss how to make this free offer not appear to be “free” – and why you’ll want to do so), and you’re likely to see a front end conversion rate around 35%.
If you then place a compelling offer on the backend, you could see a conversion rate between 5% to 10% on that offer. It can be higher but let’s use 10% for our analysis.
This means that for every 100 visitors - you’re going to get 35 free members, and then a 10% conversion rate on these 35 members on the backend. So what you end up with on average is 31.5 free members and 3.5 paid members.
On your front end that’s 3.5 x $37 = $129.50. The paid member back-end value is $5 x 12 Months x 3.5 People = $210. The free member back-end value is $1.50 x 12 Months x 31.5 People = $567. Adding these amounts and you have $129.50 + $210 + $567 = $906.50, so your average visitor value is $9.06.
That’s a huge difference from the more “traditional” models we discussed above (and more than 10 times higher the most common product sale model)!
Discover how the Freemium model can triple your income, draw tons of JV partners and affiliates, and maximize your profits without the 'hard sell' at: http://www.marketingmainevent4.com/blog/mme4-prelaunch. This free report is brought to you by Marketing Main Event 4.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Bloom Where You’re Already Online
by Lensmasters!
If you have a Squidoo lens, chances are it’s not your only online presence. Before finding Squidoo, most lensmasters are already into blogs, personal websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Ning, or one of a dozen other online networks that they started or participate in. No matter where else you’re found on the web, if you’re not promoting your Squidoo lenses there, you’re missing out! Your online communities are already interested in what you have to say, so fulfill their curiosity and answer the question, “What have you been up to?”
If you own a website…
Chances are good some or most of your lenses are related to your website topic. If you run a website about horses, you probably have a lot of lenses on horses. Just as you refer back to your website in your lenses, refer to your lenses throughout your website. You can even use them to showcase exclusive bits of information, and they make shopping easy. There’s no need to plug all that crazy affiliate coding in to your website when you can easily organize it on a lens.
If you own a blog…
Blogs aren’t as static as websites, which means that every day is a new opportunity to spotlight one of your new lenses or a major update you made. Plus, matching your niche websites with niche blogs is a little slice of lens promotion heaven. Not only are you using the SEO friendly Squidoo to publish your knowledge, if you have Feedburner, your updates can automatically be sent to readers, newsletter style. It’s another quick way to automate your advertising.
If you are on MySpace…
One really cool way to promote your lenses on MySpace is with the rotating headline button from Feedburner. This nifty gizmo takes your lensmaster bio page RSS feed and rotates a list of your top lenses. No muss, no fuss; it’s all automatic. Plus, you can use your bulletin feature wisely to notify friends of big updates and new lenses, and create groups for your niche topics.
If you are on Facebook…
Consider using the cool Facebook Connect application on Squidoo to post stories on your timeline. You can choose from three display styles, and a post or two a day will keep your status up-to-date and your readers intrigued. There are also plenty of ways to organize and display your lenses, with link and Shoebox applications.
If you are on Twitter…
We have an app for that too! Each time you publish a lens, you can tweet your major updates and new creations right from your workshop. Or, personalize your messages with a teaser. “What does Chris’s new tattoo look like?” “Have you tried this BBQ chicken recipe?” “I got a new puppy! Update at Squidoo.com.”
Squidoo isn’t an island. It was built to play well with other applications and networks, so take advantage of your resources. If you’re curious about increasing traffic but haven’t started here, you’re missing out. Solid promotion starts with a community of readers who care about what you have to say - the people you already know.
You never know what kind of difference you might make by sharing your knowledge with others. Today is a great day to start making a difference with Squidoo. It’s Seth’s birthday! Join us in saying happy birthday, then go out and start making your own difference.
Make it a great weekend,
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer
If you have a Squidoo lens, chances are it’s not your only online presence. Before finding Squidoo, most lensmasters are already into blogs, personal websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Ning, or one of a dozen other online networks that they started or participate in. No matter where else you’re found on the web, if you’re not promoting your Squidoo lenses there, you’re missing out! Your online communities are already interested in what you have to say, so fulfill their curiosity and answer the question, “What have you been up to?”
If you own a website…
Chances are good some or most of your lenses are related to your website topic. If you run a website about horses, you probably have a lot of lenses on horses. Just as you refer back to your website in your lenses, refer to your lenses throughout your website. You can even use them to showcase exclusive bits of information, and they make shopping easy. There’s no need to plug all that crazy affiliate coding in to your website when you can easily organize it on a lens.
If you own a blog…
Blogs aren’t as static as websites, which means that every day is a new opportunity to spotlight one of your new lenses or a major update you made. Plus, matching your niche websites with niche blogs is a little slice of lens promotion heaven. Not only are you using the SEO friendly Squidoo to publish your knowledge, if you have Feedburner, your updates can automatically be sent to readers, newsletter style. It’s another quick way to automate your advertising.
If you are on MySpace…
One really cool way to promote your lenses on MySpace is with the rotating headline button from Feedburner. This nifty gizmo takes your lensmaster bio page RSS feed and rotates a list of your top lenses. No muss, no fuss; it’s all automatic. Plus, you can use your bulletin feature wisely to notify friends of big updates and new lenses, and create groups for your niche topics.
If you are on Facebook…
Consider using the cool Facebook Connect application on Squidoo to post stories on your timeline. You can choose from three display styles, and a post or two a day will keep your status up-to-date and your readers intrigued. There are also plenty of ways to organize and display your lenses, with link and Shoebox applications.
If you are on Twitter…
We have an app for that too! Each time you publish a lens, you can tweet your major updates and new creations right from your workshop. Or, personalize your messages with a teaser. “What does Chris’s new tattoo look like?” “Have you tried this BBQ chicken recipe?” “I got a new puppy! Update at Squidoo.com.”
Squidoo isn’t an island. It was built to play well with other applications and networks, so take advantage of your resources. If you’re curious about increasing traffic but haven’t started here, you’re missing out. Solid promotion starts with a community of readers who care about what you have to say - the people you already know.
You never know what kind of difference you might make by sharing your knowledge with others. Today is a great day to start making a difference with Squidoo. It’s Seth’s birthday! Join us in saying happy birthday, then go out and start making your own difference.
Make it a great weekend,
~Kimberly Dawn Wells
YOUR Community & Charity Organizer
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Maximizing Sales in an Economic Downturn
by Jeremy Gislason
The news media would have you believe the current economic downturn or recession is the end of the world as we know it. Parallels are already being drawn to the Great Depression, while some would argue that the economic woes of the 70s and 80s would be a closer analogy. For those involved in business, marketing, and sales, especially online, it is important you play down or ignore the politics of the recession and focus on the facts. The truth is many people see opportunity where others see only crisis.
In 2007, the size of the United States economy as measured in terms of the Gross Domestic Product or GDP was in excess of $13.8 trillion. Even if the size of the economy declines by two percent (which was the average total contraction during the ten downturns since the end of the second World War we are still talking about an economy in excess of $13.5 trillion. People are still buying goods and services. Just because times have gotten harder does not mean people have stopped living altogether.
People are simply looking for ways to save money or improve their lives while other parts of their life become harder to deal with. Food prices, interest rates, and manufactured goods have all seen sharp price increases since the beginning of the downturn. This provides you with opportunities which may not have previously been there, as consumers seek out more affordable alternatives to products or services they took for granted in good times.
Online business in particular may see an increase in traffic if they effectively manage their strategies during the downturn. People are traveling less, seeking to save money on gas. They also are looking to save money on sales tax and to comparison shop for the best deal. All these things add up to give online businesses a tremendous opportunity to increase sales.
Attracting First-Time Customers with Loss Leaders
Since people are looking for bargains in a bad economy, a loss leader can be a classic but effective method. A loss leader is simply selling a good or service for little to no profit in order to attract customers in the hopes they will purchase your other, more profitable products along with your loss leader. This strategy has been employed for years by retailers as a means to get people in the store by adverting their weekly specials (or loss leaders) in the weekend newspapers. If you are an online business, you can employ this strategy in your advertising and marketing. Target your loss leader for keywords that relate to it and while your customers are purchasing it offer them the other products and services you have available.
Price Testing
Price testing, as its name would suggest, is the experimentation with different prices to determine at what price point your product is most profitable. An economic downturn is a good time to test this as many businesses will slash prices to the bare minimum and profitability to near zero. Others will raise prices as they become desperate try to increase revenue and price themselves out of business.
Drawing a balance between these two extremes is the key to success. By maximizing your sales and profitability in a bad economy, you will be able to grow your business when your competitor’s are shrinking theirs. This will position your business for rapid growth once the downturn ends. It is important to remember that all economic downturns eventually end. While we may not know when, we do know unquestionably that it WILL.
Better Targeting Your Customer Base
You focus on developing better targeting techniques in your marketing, but it is even more critical in a bad economy. Most businesses will have to cut costs somewhere, but ideally it should be done by trimming the fat of your operation, not by reducing sales and marketing. One way to “trim the fat” is to improve and streamline your marketing. Focus on keywords and marketing techniques which bring you the most success. Now is also a good time to experiment with low-cost marketing techniques such as creative offers, viral marketing, or competing in niches with less competition.
Do Not Fear the Worst
To say that future is uncertain may be the worst cliché ever written. However, there is no guarantee that this recession will not be the worst in a generation. While few people wish to say the dreaded “d” word, a depression could very well be on the horizon though for now it still seems unlikely. But the economy does not end even in a depression or bad recession.
As stated above, people will still continue to live. They will still need things. A transition to a barter economy is not in the future anytime soon. So be cautious and avoid big gambles that could fall flat if the economy continues to worsen, but do not let worry consume you.
For instance, the worst case scenario for Internet marketers would be the total collapse of Google AdWords and online advertising as a whole. But even in this bleak scenario there is potential. Such an event would essentially “correct” Google. We would return to a time when web pages were ranked by legitimate popularity and not by optimization.
Where does that leave online marketers? With a prime opportunity if they tough it out and don’t hang their career up. With so much competition departed, scoring a high search listing would become easier and cheaper than it has been in years. And people will continue to search the web, this is not going to change so long as the web as we know it exists, people will use search engines to make sense of it.
The above was only one example of how simply outlasting your competition can reap big rewards. If you make any changes to your business or sales strategy, make it simply a goal of survival. However, avoid the hunkering down, massive cost-cutting survival mode that many businesses are entering. This will only leave you in a weakened position when things begin to turn around. Instead, cut costs where you are able, but continue to lay the groundwork for growth when things do begin to improve.
Jeremy Gislason is a leading expert on membership sites, marketing and online business. Check out the world's leading client and content management system to skyrocket your sales at http://www.memberspeed.com
The news media would have you believe the current economic downturn or recession is the end of the world as we know it. Parallels are already being drawn to the Great Depression, while some would argue that the economic woes of the 70s and 80s would be a closer analogy. For those involved in business, marketing, and sales, especially online, it is important you play down or ignore the politics of the recession and focus on the facts. The truth is many people see opportunity where others see only crisis.
In 2007, the size of the United States economy as measured in terms of the Gross Domestic Product or GDP was in excess of $13.8 trillion. Even if the size of the economy declines by two percent (which was the average total contraction during the ten downturns since the end of the second World War we are still talking about an economy in excess of $13.5 trillion. People are still buying goods and services. Just because times have gotten harder does not mean people have stopped living altogether.
People are simply looking for ways to save money or improve their lives while other parts of their life become harder to deal with. Food prices, interest rates, and manufactured goods have all seen sharp price increases since the beginning of the downturn. This provides you with opportunities which may not have previously been there, as consumers seek out more affordable alternatives to products or services they took for granted in good times.
Online business in particular may see an increase in traffic if they effectively manage their strategies during the downturn. People are traveling less, seeking to save money on gas. They also are looking to save money on sales tax and to comparison shop for the best deal. All these things add up to give online businesses a tremendous opportunity to increase sales.
Attracting First-Time Customers with Loss Leaders
Since people are looking for bargains in a bad economy, a loss leader can be a classic but effective method. A loss leader is simply selling a good or service for little to no profit in order to attract customers in the hopes they will purchase your other, more profitable products along with your loss leader. This strategy has been employed for years by retailers as a means to get people in the store by adverting their weekly specials (or loss leaders) in the weekend newspapers. If you are an online business, you can employ this strategy in your advertising and marketing. Target your loss leader for keywords that relate to it and while your customers are purchasing it offer them the other products and services you have available.
Price Testing
Price testing, as its name would suggest, is the experimentation with different prices to determine at what price point your product is most profitable. An economic downturn is a good time to test this as many businesses will slash prices to the bare minimum and profitability to near zero. Others will raise prices as they become desperate try to increase revenue and price themselves out of business.
Drawing a balance between these two extremes is the key to success. By maximizing your sales and profitability in a bad economy, you will be able to grow your business when your competitor’s are shrinking theirs. This will position your business for rapid growth once the downturn ends. It is important to remember that all economic downturns eventually end. While we may not know when, we do know unquestionably that it WILL.
Better Targeting Your Customer Base
You focus on developing better targeting techniques in your marketing, but it is even more critical in a bad economy. Most businesses will have to cut costs somewhere, but ideally it should be done by trimming the fat of your operation, not by reducing sales and marketing. One way to “trim the fat” is to improve and streamline your marketing. Focus on keywords and marketing techniques which bring you the most success. Now is also a good time to experiment with low-cost marketing techniques such as creative offers, viral marketing, or competing in niches with less competition.
Do Not Fear the Worst
To say that future is uncertain may be the worst cliché ever written. However, there is no guarantee that this recession will not be the worst in a generation. While few people wish to say the dreaded “d” word, a depression could very well be on the horizon though for now it still seems unlikely. But the economy does not end even in a depression or bad recession.
As stated above, people will still continue to live. They will still need things. A transition to a barter economy is not in the future anytime soon. So be cautious and avoid big gambles that could fall flat if the economy continues to worsen, but do not let worry consume you.
For instance, the worst case scenario for Internet marketers would be the total collapse of Google AdWords and online advertising as a whole. But even in this bleak scenario there is potential. Such an event would essentially “correct” Google. We would return to a time when web pages were ranked by legitimate popularity and not by optimization.
Where does that leave online marketers? With a prime opportunity if they tough it out and don’t hang their career up. With so much competition departed, scoring a high search listing would become easier and cheaper than it has been in years. And people will continue to search the web, this is not going to change so long as the web as we know it exists, people will use search engines to make sense of it.
The above was only one example of how simply outlasting your competition can reap big rewards. If you make any changes to your business or sales strategy, make it simply a goal of survival. However, avoid the hunkering down, massive cost-cutting survival mode that many businesses are entering. This will only leave you in a weakened position when things begin to turn around. Instead, cut costs where you are able, but continue to lay the groundwork for growth when things do begin to improve.
Jeremy Gislason is a leading expert on membership sites, marketing and online business. Check out the world's leading client and content management system to skyrocket your sales at http://www.memberspeed.com
5 Secrets to Creating a Powerful Google Profile
by Donna Gunter
I often want to find out more about someone before I decide to do business with that person. To get the information that I need, I Google the person's name and see how well-known they are online and what they have to say. What I discovered in my search is that their social media profiles, like those found on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook, show up high in the search results. Google, however, has started giving these well-known social networking sites a run for their money by creating their own online profile option.
Google Profiles are simple web pages where you can list general information about yourself. Anyone who can create an account on Google and verify their real name through a screening routine can now have a personal profile page on Google. The most powerful aspect of this system, however, is the ability to include links in your profile, which can pack a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) punch for you. Best of all, Google provides this service at no cost to you.
Profiles are public and include your actual name and/or a nickname. You can list your occupation, where you are located (your profile will be used for Google Maps), a list of links, your photo and a short introduction. Google even provides a way for visitors to click a link on your profile to contact you directly.
Here are 5 secrets to creating a powerful Google Profile:
1. Upload your photo. One of the keys to creating relationships online is to let others know you're a real person. The easiest way to do that is to provide a visual cue, like a photo, to help them remember you.
2. Include keywords in bio. The "About Me" section is where you can use outbound keyword-rich links to your advantage. As you compose this section, be sure and include several keywords others might use to find you, and link those back to your web site. For example, if you're a divorce attorney in Houston, you might have the keyword phrases, "Houston divorce attorney" and "family law attorney" as links back to your primary web site.
3. Link to your sites and profiles. You can link to any number of sites from your Google profile. Just like in your bio, use keywords to your advantage here as well. So, if you run a cleaning business and have produced several videos demonstrating what you do, instead of listing your link to your YouTube videos as "YouTube.com," you might instead use "Professional Cleaning Videos," which links to your YouTube stream instead.
You should add the following links to your profile:
--web site(s)
--blog
--all of your social networking profiles (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin)
--YouTube.com or UStream channel
--Squidoo lens
--Social bookmarking profiles (Delicious, Reddit, Digg
--Article syndication page
--Free giveaway sign up page
--Products page
--Services page
4. Showcase your products and services. The page editor allows you to upload images through photo sharing sites Flickr and Picasa. Upload images of your physical or information products or shots of you in action delivering your service.
5. Take care when choosing your profile URL. If you have a Gmail account, Google will ask you if your want to use that username as part of your profile URL. Be aware that if you choose that option, you are inadvertently giving away your Gmail address. I chose instead the longer profile URL with the long string of numbers. I don't like my email address appearing anywhere online, so even though this profile URL is longer and more difficult to reference, it beats filling my inbox with spam.
If you don't use Gmail, you can select any available username to be part of your profile URL. If later on you sign up for Gmail, you can choose this username as your Gmail username. Once you've selected your customized URL, you won't be able to change it or delete it. However, you can make it private at any time by selecting your old URL on the "Edit profile" page.
Take a few minutes today to claim your name and create a powerful profile for your business. It costs you nothing, creates powerful one-way inbound links back to your site, and will help you get found online.
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.OnlineBizU.com
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com
I often want to find out more about someone before I decide to do business with that person. To get the information that I need, I Google the person's name and see how well-known they are online and what they have to say. What I discovered in my search is that their social media profiles, like those found on Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook, show up high in the search results. Google, however, has started giving these well-known social networking sites a run for their money by creating their own online profile option.
Google Profiles are simple web pages where you can list general information about yourself. Anyone who can create an account on Google and verify their real name through a screening routine can now have a personal profile page on Google. The most powerful aspect of this system, however, is the ability to include links in your profile, which can pack a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) punch for you. Best of all, Google provides this service at no cost to you.
Profiles are public and include your actual name and/or a nickname. You can list your occupation, where you are located (your profile will be used for Google Maps), a list of links, your photo and a short introduction. Google even provides a way for visitors to click a link on your profile to contact you directly.
Here are 5 secrets to creating a powerful Google Profile:
1. Upload your photo. One of the keys to creating relationships online is to let others know you're a real person. The easiest way to do that is to provide a visual cue, like a photo, to help them remember you.
2. Include keywords in bio. The "About Me" section is where you can use outbound keyword-rich links to your advantage. As you compose this section, be sure and include several keywords others might use to find you, and link those back to your web site. For example, if you're a divorce attorney in Houston, you might have the keyword phrases, "Houston divorce attorney" and "family law attorney" as links back to your primary web site.
3. Link to your sites and profiles. You can link to any number of sites from your Google profile. Just like in your bio, use keywords to your advantage here as well. So, if you run a cleaning business and have produced several videos demonstrating what you do, instead of listing your link to your YouTube videos as "YouTube.com," you might instead use "Professional Cleaning Videos," which links to your YouTube stream instead.
You should add the following links to your profile:
--web site(s)
--blog
--all of your social networking profiles (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin)
--YouTube.com or UStream channel
--Squidoo lens
--Social bookmarking profiles (Delicious, Reddit, Digg
--Article syndication page
--Free giveaway sign up page
--Products page
--Services page
4. Showcase your products and services. The page editor allows you to upload images through photo sharing sites Flickr and Picasa. Upload images of your physical or information products or shots of you in action delivering your service.
5. Take care when choosing your profile URL. If you have a Gmail account, Google will ask you if your want to use that username as part of your profile URL. Be aware that if you choose that option, you are inadvertently giving away your Gmail address. I chose instead the longer profile URL with the long string of numbers. I don't like my email address appearing anywhere online, so even though this profile URL is longer and more difficult to reference, it beats filling my inbox with spam.
If you don't use Gmail, you can select any available username to be part of your profile URL. If later on you sign up for Gmail, you can choose this username as your Gmail username. Once you've selected your customized URL, you won't be able to change it or delete it. However, you can make it private at any time by selecting your old URL on the "Edit profile" page.
Take a few minutes today to claim your name and create a powerful profile for your business. It costs you nothing, creates powerful one-way inbound links back to your site, and will help you get found online.
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.OnlineBizU.com
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com
Most Effective Online Continuity Program Models
by Donna Gunter
Continuity programs are the "new" online business model that has recently escalated in popularity. No longer is it good enough to simply sell information products for a one-time sale or sell your services online. Instead, online business owners need to seriously think about changing their business model to include the concept of recurring revenue. This passive revenue model brings in regular recurring income on a weekly or monthly basis from the same customers. While there is still some work required to continue to market these programs, overall you will find it much more profitable to sell to one customer over and over again rather than having to go and find new customers repeatedly for a one-time information product sale.
Many companies have been offering continuity programs for years. Proactive does it with face cleanser. Leeza Gibbons does it with Sheer Cover makeup. Doubleday does it with books. Columbia House does it with DVDs. Each of these companies offers an option in which subscribers pay a set fee each month and receive something new in return (books, DVDs, etc.). I've belonged to all of these continuity programs at some point in my life, and chances are, you have, as well. How can you incorporate this recurring revenue model into your business?
Here are the 5 most effective online continuity program models to consider for your online business:
1. Retainer. Attorneys and accountants have done this for years -- their clients go on a regular retainer and the client can contact the attorney/accountant whenever needed as defined by the parameters of the retainer. Consultants, coaches, and virtual assistants offer this option, as well, as a way of providing services over an extended period of time. While having this in place makes for less client turnover, this model is the most time-intensive model of all of these models, as the model requires trading time for dollars. Most retainers offer x number of hours of work or x projects to be completed in return for a set monetary amount.
2. Subscription Membership. In this model, you are providing new content regularly to your members via a membership web site. Members log in and access new articles, audio, checklists, ebooks, discussion forum posts, etc. This is a content-driven model, as you need to continue to provide new content for your returning members as well as to attract new members. The upside of this model is that many members retain their membership for a year or longer, especially if offered the option of a reduced annual membership fee.
3. Fixed-term membership. In this model, you are providing new content on a weekly basis to your members for a fixed period of time. While initially time-intensive to set up, this model runs fairly seamlessly once all of your program modules are written. As long as your topic isn't one that needs continual updating, you can create this once and resell this again and again. However, unlike the other models, you keep your members only for a limited time (3 months, 6 months, 12 months) and then need to boost your marketing to continually replace members for this program.
4. Club or Inner Circle or VIP Program. This is a model that coaches, consultants, and speakers often use and may be marketed as a group coaching program. Typically the participant gets access to the program leader or an expert via a teleclass, and a printed teleclass transcript and CD are mailed to the participant each month. The program leader may also include open Q&A/coaching sessions, sporadic 1:1 coaching mini-sessions, and access to various resources and contacts to further help the participants. As long as members feel they are receiving value, they'll generally remain a participant in this type of program.
5. Association. Becoming the founder or president of a national or international association offers the kind of leverage not found in any other model. Because associations connote expertise, being the leader of an association automatically makes you the expert in a particular area. Reporters and writers often look to leaders of associations to comment on trends in an industry, which will result in much media attention for your business. Membership benefits and membership packages are the key offerings here, whether that's a monthly teleclass, access to specific downloadable content, networking opportunities, direct mail membership welcome packets, etc. This model is generally the least time-intensive, as 80% of your members will receive their membership package and not be heard from again until it's dues renewal time.
Why continue to trade time for dollars? Take a look at these continuity program models and see which one(s) make sense for your online business. If you pick the right target market at the right time, one of these models may become your full-time business.
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.OnlineBizU.com
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com
Continuity programs are the "new" online business model that has recently escalated in popularity. No longer is it good enough to simply sell information products for a one-time sale or sell your services online. Instead, online business owners need to seriously think about changing their business model to include the concept of recurring revenue. This passive revenue model brings in regular recurring income on a weekly or monthly basis from the same customers. While there is still some work required to continue to market these programs, overall you will find it much more profitable to sell to one customer over and over again rather than having to go and find new customers repeatedly for a one-time information product sale.
Many companies have been offering continuity programs for years. Proactive does it with face cleanser. Leeza Gibbons does it with Sheer Cover makeup. Doubleday does it with books. Columbia House does it with DVDs. Each of these companies offers an option in which subscribers pay a set fee each month and receive something new in return (books, DVDs, etc.). I've belonged to all of these continuity programs at some point in my life, and chances are, you have, as well. How can you incorporate this recurring revenue model into your business?
Here are the 5 most effective online continuity program models to consider for your online business:
1. Retainer. Attorneys and accountants have done this for years -- their clients go on a regular retainer and the client can contact the attorney/accountant whenever needed as defined by the parameters of the retainer. Consultants, coaches, and virtual assistants offer this option, as well, as a way of providing services over an extended period of time. While having this in place makes for less client turnover, this model is the most time-intensive model of all of these models, as the model requires trading time for dollars. Most retainers offer x number of hours of work or x projects to be completed in return for a set monetary amount.
2. Subscription Membership. In this model, you are providing new content regularly to your members via a membership web site. Members log in and access new articles, audio, checklists, ebooks, discussion forum posts, etc. This is a content-driven model, as you need to continue to provide new content for your returning members as well as to attract new members. The upside of this model is that many members retain their membership for a year or longer, especially if offered the option of a reduced annual membership fee.
3. Fixed-term membership. In this model, you are providing new content on a weekly basis to your members for a fixed period of time. While initially time-intensive to set up, this model runs fairly seamlessly once all of your program modules are written. As long as your topic isn't one that needs continual updating, you can create this once and resell this again and again. However, unlike the other models, you keep your members only for a limited time (3 months, 6 months, 12 months) and then need to boost your marketing to continually replace members for this program.
4. Club or Inner Circle or VIP Program. This is a model that coaches, consultants, and speakers often use and may be marketed as a group coaching program. Typically the participant gets access to the program leader or an expert via a teleclass, and a printed teleclass transcript and CD are mailed to the participant each month. The program leader may also include open Q&A/coaching sessions, sporadic 1:1 coaching mini-sessions, and access to various resources and contacts to further help the participants. As long as members feel they are receiving value, they'll generally remain a participant in this type of program.
5. Association. Becoming the founder or president of a national or international association offers the kind of leverage not found in any other model. Because associations connote expertise, being the leader of an association automatically makes you the expert in a particular area. Reporters and writers often look to leaders of associations to comment on trends in an industry, which will result in much media attention for your business. Membership benefits and membership packages are the key offerings here, whether that's a monthly teleclass, access to specific downloadable content, networking opportunities, direct mail membership welcome packets, etc. This model is generally the least time-intensive, as 80% of your members will receive their membership package and not be heard from again until it's dues renewal time.
Why continue to trade time for dollars? Take a look at these continuity program models and see which one(s) make sense for your online business. If you pick the right target market at the right time, one of these models may become your full-time business.
Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.OnlineBizU.com
Copyright (c) 2009 OnlineBizU.com
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