Getting your first members starts way before your membership is open. When you do it my way, you have members waiting to join the moment the doors open, which is always a lovely thing.
The mistake I see most often is people building in silence for weeks, then popping up on launch day expecting a queue. The queue doesn't appear, because nobody knew it was coming. Your first members are won in the run-up, not on the day.
Here are five easy ways to get those first members in the door.
1. Start before you are ready
In the days and weeks after you come up with your membership idea, you need to build a buzz and create a feeling of excited anticipation for what is coming.
You do not need the membership built to start talking about it. In fact, talking about it before it is finished is the whole point. People buy from people they have watched create something, so let them watch.
Bring your audience along on the journey. Share your thoughts on the name and ask for votes. Tell them what type of membership it will be and who it is for. If you are working on a logo, show them the options. Let them see a bit of the messy middle, the deciding and the changing of your mind. That is far more interesting than a polished reveal, and it gives people dozens of small reasons to pay attention.
Whatever you do, don't disappear, build the whole thing behind the scenes, then reappear on launch day with a big 'ta-dah!'. Do that and you have missed every marketing opportunity along the way. Worse, you have asked people to go from never hearing about it to handing over money in a single moment, which is a big leap. Anticipation does a lot of the selling for you, so give it time to build.
2. Founding member offer
Create a special founding member offer for those first joiners. Give it a deadline to create urgency, and don't make it any longer than 10 days or it won't feel urgent enough.
Usually a founding offer is a lower rate that those members keep for as long as they stay, even though the price will go up later. This works because it is honest. Two things are simply true at the same time: the price will rise, and the membership is brand new. You are not inventing scarcity, you are rewarding the people brave enough to join first.
Make the offer easy to understand. One price, one deadline, one clear reason to act now. Then talk about it everywhere. Send emails, post on socials, use stories with a countdown timer, mention it on your calls. People need to see something several times before it sinks in, so say it far more often than feels comfortable. Market like you mean it.
3. Can I pick your brains?
How often do you get asked this, or something like it? Most of us get it all the time, and most of us say yes and give our time away for free. Your membership is a better answer.
Next time someone wants to pick your brains, point them to it. It is far less expensive for them than a 1:1, and they still get access to you on group calls or in your Facebook group if you have one. You get to help them, they get ongoing support rather than a one-off chat, and you are not giving your expertise away an hour at a time. Imagine if all those past brain-pickers had been directed to your membership instead.
4. Go out to your current clients
Your existing clients are your best source of new members. They have worked with you, they know, like and trust you, and they have already spent money with you. That is a far shorter journey to a yes than starting cold with a stranger.
Your membership gives them an affordable way to keep working with you between bigger courses or VIP sessions, so they don't have to drift away when a project ends. Don't assume they have seen your posts about it, either. Go to them directly. A short, warm message saying you have built something you think is perfect for them, and you would love them to be one of the first in, does more than any amount of social media.
5. Get in front of new audiences
Once your own people know about your membership, the fastest way to grow is to borrow someone else's audience.
Find other business owners offering non-competing services who would love a guest teacher for their clients or Facebook group. You are doing them a favour by bringing value to their people, so it is a generous ask, not a cheeky one.
Come up with a topic that helps their audience and leads naturally into your membership, then ask your host if you can mention it once your teaching slot is over. Teach something really useful, give them a real win, and the invitation to learn more with you will feel like the obvious next step rather than a pitch. Offer to return the favour for their business too, and you build a relationship rather than a one-off.
One member makes a membership
There are lots of ways to get new members, and these are just a few of the easy ones.
The main thing is to FOCUS on your membership. Where you put your attention is where the magic happens, so be consistent with your marketing and keep bringing your audience on the journey. Share the excitement of your new members, let non-members know what they are missing, share your enthusiasm.
And remember, one member makes a membership. You do not need 40 on day one. You need the first one, then the next. With these tips and lots of consistency your membership will soon grow, and 40 members at £25 a month is £1,000 of recurring income that does not reset to zero each month.
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