.jpg)
This is chapter three of Glow’s Membership Launch Playbook, a four-part guide that covers brainstorming, building, launching, and growing a podcast membership.
Once you’ve come up with membership content and built your membership page, it’s time to launch. In this chapter of the Membership Launch Playbook, we’ll lay out some best practices to help you introduce your membership to your fans and gain your first paying members.
The key to putting your membership out into the world and seeing your biggest fans sign up is pretty simple:
Talk about it.
To best capture the attention of your audience and explain your exclusive content offerings, we recommend launching your membership across multiple channels simultaneously.
This means on your show, in emails, and on your social media platforms. Here's how:
Announcing your membership on your show
Perhaps the best place to promote your membership is on your podcast. This is especially true if your podcast is your loudest megaphone and your medium with the largest reach.
Here, you’ll be able to reach out to your listeners directly and with your own voice to persuade them to take the next step and pay for something extra.
Additionally, by announcing your membership on your podcast you’ll see the calls-to-action that work for your specific listener community so that you can adapt future appeals to what you know has worked best.
Here are a few tried-and-true methods for crafting your calls-to-action on your show so that listeners convert:
- Put a link to your membership page at the top of your show notes: This simple step saves your listeners’ time from typing out a URL or searching on Google, increasing the number of those who will ultimately make it to your page and convert.
- Emphasize how easy it is to sign up: Let your listeners know how easy it is for them to sign up for your content -- especially if you’re using Glow to support your membership. One way to position it might be “It’s dead simple and will take no more than 30 seconds. Click the link in the show notes, pay with Apple or Google pay, and click the link of the podcast player you want to use. You can listen anywhere, in any app.”
- Make the membership benefits clear: Once you’ve crafted your pitch for your listeners, highlight the benefits of membership clearly and organically. For instance, if you are planning on offering access to uncut and extended interviews with your guests, make sure that you plug your membership program before and after your conversation to let your listeners know the value of your extra content.
Here’s an example:
Acquired has a membership called the Limited Partner program where members get bonus episodes with deep-dives into topics and exclusive interviews. Ben, one of Acquired’s co-hosts, launched their membership on the podcast with this script:
"Hey Acquired listeners, we have a big announcement today. We’re launching a bonus show. For $5/month, you can become what we’re calling a ‘Limited Partner’ and get access to it.
We’re excited to use this new episodes format to do all sorts of things that don’t fit into our normal episode format and dive deeper into a lot of company building topics. Our first LP bonus show is on the jargon of what venture capitalists say and when words don’t just mean what the dictionary says they’ll mean.
We are super excited about this, not only because it’ll give us an avenue for creating new types of episodes, which we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. But, because it’ll give you all a way to support the show and make it even better. To date, with Acquired, we’ve taken every dollar we’ve ever made and plowed it right back into the show: better equipments, software, ads, travel, etcetera.
If you’d like to become an Acquired Limited Partner, you can click the link in the show notes of the podcast app of your choice or go to glow.fm/acquired.”
For more examples, see our best practices in crafting your call to action guide.
Announcing your membership via email
If you've accumulated a sizable list of your biggest supporters, announcing your membership via email allows you to get in front of the most eyeballs most easily. Announcing your membership via email is a great, fairly low-effort way to drive your first big wave of members.
Here are some tips to consider as you draft your email to announce your membership:
- Add a link to your Glow page in all of your emails so that your listeners can seamlessly navigate the process of finding your page and supporting your podcast.
- Go into detail in your membership email about all of your offerings: Successful membership emails will have an explanation of the myriad benefits that your listeners will receive when they sign up to be in your Glow community. If you’ve already marketed your exclusive content on your podcast, be sure to go in-depth on all of the benefits that come with your content in your follow-up email to seal the deal and entice listener growth.
Below, take a look at a particularly successful email call-to-action from Callie and Jeff that showcases their personalities, promotes the value of joining their listener community, and clearly pitches the exclusive benefits that come from their offerings:
Callie and Jeff do a lot of things right with their email.
First, they emphasize the value of joining their membership community by making the tone of the email informal and fun, and centering everything around their fans.
Second, they detail the exclusive offerings that supporters can get by joining the “Callie and Jeff Booster Club” (fixed monthly rate, unique community memorabilia, and exclusive access to podcast content.)
Finally, they include a link to their Glow page so that recipients of the email can join easily.
Announcing your membership on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram
Launching your membership program via social media feeds is a must. In this section, we’ll go into detail about promoting your podcast membership program across all of your podcast’s platforms with a cohesive message.
Here are some tips to consider:
- Link your Glow page in your social media posts: Make sure that a link to your Glow page is front-and-center in all social media posts so that you can provide a pipeline for both your potential and existing listeners to support your podcast and join your membership.
- Emphasize the value of membership to your listeners: Social media posts are a great place for you to advertise the exciting benefits that come with membership. Consider adapting your explanation of these benefits to the specific social media post (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) so that you can demonstrate the breadth of membership offerings.
The below example from Strict Scrutiny is fantastic. The entire campaign is about being able to pay their producer more (#PayMelody), and their Twitter post emphasizes the value of supporting the show.
That’s it! Next up in the Membership Launch Guide? How to build on the success of your launch and grow your membership over time.
