This is chapter two of Glow’s Membership Launch Playbook, a four-part guide that covers brainstorming, building, launching, and growing a podcast membership.
You have an awesome idea of what your biggest fans will pay for. Now, let’s take this idea and design a membership program.
In this chapter of the Membership Launch Guide we’ll walk through:
- Naming your membership
- Creating a membership page
- Setting your pricing
By the end you’ll have a fully functioning page where your fans can visit, pay, and get access to your amazing membership benefits like exclusive podcasts episodes, newsletters, merchandise, you name it. Crazy, right?
Okay. Let’s get designing.
First, what is your membership called?
Memberships often have names. Think ESPN+, Barstool Gold, Kayla Itsine’s Beach Body Guides. Simply put, naming your membership is like naming any product or business. It’s your top billing for the service you’re providing, compelling your fans to take the leap and join.
So what should you name your membership? Think about names that convey exclusivity, like “Insiders”, “Gold”, and “VIP”. Alternatively, think about names that illustrate your offering, like “Kayla Itsine’s Beach Body Guides”.
Here’s an example:
Acquired, a podcast about technology businesses, has a membership called the Limited Partner Program -- a nod to a particular type of business partnerships. Members, also known as Limited Partners, get access to Acquired’s bonus podcast called “The LP Show.” Pretty cool, huh?
How to design your membership page
In order for your fans to become members, they’ll need a place to go to and sign up. And that place should describe the benefits of joining in a compelling and clear way.
We’ve designed the Glow page builder to help you build a page that does just that. You may want to create an account for free and get building as you read along.
Put your membership branding front-and-center
Remember Acquired’s membership, the Limited Partner program? On their membership page, you can see Acquired’s branding front-and-center. Once you name your membership -- let’s say the “Insider” or “Extra” program -- include the name in the headline of your page.
Describe your membership offering using a bulleted list
It’s likely that the majority of your to-be-members will land on your membership page using a mobile device. That’s especially true if most of your members are coming from your podcast.
For example, mobile makes up close to 80% of the total traffic across all Glow membership pages.
So how does that inform how your membership page should look?
First and foremost, keep your copy concise. Check out Neil Patel’s blog post on the topic of mobile landing page design. His second thing every mobile landing page needs? “Keep the copy short”.
Especially if you’re offering more than one membership benefits, breaking them up into bullet points is a fantastic way to immediately get across what you’re selling. Here's an example:
How much will your membership cost?
There’s no one-size-fits all answer to how much your membership should cost. However, here are some best practices for pricing your membership:
Consider monthly pricing
Do you offer your members content on an ongoing basis, like monthly coaching or bonus podcast episodes? If that’s the case you should almost charge your subscribers on a monthly basis.
As a benchmark for monthly pricing, we’ve found that memberships offering exclusive podcasts typically fall between $5 and $10 per month.
However, if you’re offering additional benefits -- especially those that involve interaction like coaching sessions, you might move price to the tens of dollars per month.
Finally, for programs that are listener-support only, where supporters do not receive content in return, pricing typically falls in the $3 to $5 dollar range per month, with the option to contribute more and on a one-time basis.
Give the option of yearly pricing at a discount
Lots of memberships offer their subscribers the option to pay on a yearly basis at a discounted price. This rewards fans who are committed for an entire year and reduces the risk that your members will cancel, increasing your revenue.
When to offer one-time pricing?
Charging your subscribers on a one-time basis might make sense if you’re selling a one-off offering, like a limited-run series of episodes. Also, you might want to allow one-time payments if you are collecting listener support without offering content in return.
Ready to get building?
You can create a free account here to build a membership page using Glow. Also, follow these set-up guides to offering exclusive podcasts with Glow, setting up just listener support, and integrating Glow with other services. Looking to build something else? Email us at hello@glow.fm.
In the next chapter of the Membership Launch guide, we’ll take your membership page and launch it to the world.
