Membership Growth Techniques

Building a community isn’t just a step in the process—it’s the foundation for success. Without it, even the best products or ideas will falter. I learned this firsthand when I launched Lazy Lions. In the early days, I focused on product and growth metrics. But over time, I realized the real driver of success wasn’t marketing or innovation—it was the people rallying behind the vision. Eventually, Lazy Lions has grown into a thriving community of over 8,000+ holders. Here’s what I’ve learned about building a community that doesn’t just grow— it thrives and drives long-term success: 1. Prioritize your first 100 members. Many chase big numbers too early. Don’t make that mistake. Your first 100 engaged members will define your community’s future. • They shape the culture. • They set the tone for growth. • They attract like-minded members. Make these members feel valued. Make them feel heard. Engage with them directly, treat their feedback seriously, and reward their loyalty. When you focus on building deep connections with these first 100, you lay the foundation for scalable, sustainable growth. 2. Define your purpose with clarity. Ask yourself: Why should someone join your community? What problem are you solving for them? What mission are you inviting them into? People gravitate toward clarity, not ambiguity. • Is your community about education? • Advocacy? Innovation? A shared passion? The clearer your purpose, the stronger your pull. Communities with a clear mission rally members around shared goals. Communities built on vague promises fail to inspire trust or action. 3. Establish your culture from day one. Culture isn’t optional—it’s inevitable. If you don’t define it, someone else will. Consider these key questions: • What values define your community? • What behaviors are rewarded or discouraged? • How do you respond to negativity or conflict? Every interaction within your community reinforces its culture. Over time, that culture becomes your brand. Define and protect it early to ensure your community reflects your vision. 4. Treat your first 100 as partners. Your earliest members aren’t just participants—they’re your foundation. They will: • Set the tone for discussions. • Act as advocates for your mission. • Attract (or repel) the right new members. If you treat them as partners instead of followers, they will help you scale. Their enthusiasm and belief in your vision will naturally attract the next wave of members. Building a thriving community isn’t complicated—but it requires intention. Start small. Start clear. Focus on depth before breadth. Remember: the first 100 members aren’t just the start—they’re the future of your community. Invest in them. Build alongside them. Success will follow.

Paid membership groups are leaving $30,000+/month on the table. Here’s how to fix that with SEO. 2024 is all about backlinks. Here’s the optimal link distribution for membership communities: 40% to homepage (build authority) 30% to membership tier pages (drive conversions) 20% to feature pages (highlight benefits) 10% to educational content (build trust) But SEO isn’t just links—here’s the full roadmap: 1. Website Foundation Build a foundation that converts visitors to members. Essential Pages: Membership benefits overview Community success stories Expert/host credentials Member outcomes showcase Free content samples Build niche-specific pages: Marketing for Coaches Community, SaaS Founders Mastermind. Example Structure: "Advanced SEO Mastermind Community" Monthly expert sessions Private case studies Implementation support Member success stories 2. Keyword Research Focus on niche keywords with high intent: Online communities for [topic], Best membership groups for [audience]. Target informational queries: How to join a private membership community. Include transactional terms: Best paid groups for [industry]. High-Intent Terms: "marketing mastermind group" "private marketing community" "expert marketing coaching group" "marketing accountability group" Pain Point Keywords: "marketing implementation help" "marketing expert feedback" "marketing strategy community" 3. Hub & Spoke Strategy Create hub pages for your core audience: Best Communities for Entrepreneurs. Build supporting content: How to Choose the Right Membership Group, Benefits of Paid Communities. Interlink content to establish topical authority. Main Hub: "Marketing Mastermind Guide" Spoke Content: "Why Join a Marketing Mastermind" "Marketing Community Benefits" "Expert Group vs. Solo Learning" "Mastermind Success Stories" 4. Page Optimization Write unique, persuasive copy emphasizing exclusivity and benefits. Include visuals: screenshots of member dashboards, testimonials, community event photos. Add FAQs: How does this group work? What’s included in the Premium tier? Show social proof: Member success stories, case studies, logos of companies represented. 5. Authority Building Guest post, collaborate with influencers, appear on podcasts, and submit to niche directories to build credibility. 6. Content Strategy Publish evergreen guides and comparison posts like "Why [Your Group] is the Best for [Niche]." Include strong CTAs everywhere. 7. Video SEO Repurpose webinars into YouTube videos. Use optimized titles and timestamps to highlight membership benefits. 8. Technical SEO Use schema markup, monitor Core Web Vitals, and ensure a fast, mobile-friendly site. 9. Speed & Mobile Optimize for mobile-first design with seamless sign-up flows and fast load times. 10. Analytics & Iteration Track everything. Timeline: Month 1: Build your foundation and start strong. Month 2: Expand content, build authority, optimize conversions. Month 3: Scale, refine, and grow partnerships.

I’ve coached many of the most successful community leaders. A few are businesses that have grown every year for a decade. I've learned that the key to compounding growth is not complicated funnels, hiring a marketing team, or hanging out on TikTok. The secret to growth for community businesses is… friendship. Helping members make and keep new friends in your community is how you reduce churn, increase your referral rate, and turn your existing members into leaders. And it’s also a really fun metric to build a business around. In her excellent book Platonic, Marisa G. Franco outlines the six elements of starting and deepening friendships. What if we applied these elements to a community business context? Here are the 6 elements, each with one way that we might create an environment that encourages them in our communities: 1. Initiative 💥 One way to encourage: Help your members take initiative by normalizing reaching out and providing them with a clear guide on how to initiate connections. 2. Vulnerability 🤲 One way to encourage: Model vulnerability by sharing your own experiences, challenges, and personal stories in the way you’d like your members to open up to each other. 3. Authenticity 🤸🏻♀️ One way to encourage: Make it clear that the community is different from social media platforms and invite members to show up more joyfully, and less polished than they otherwise would. 4. Productive Anger 🔥 One way to encourage: Be transparent about how conflicts are handled and don’t freak out when they come up. Having clear member guidelines and reminding members of what’s expected of them makes it easier to mediate conflicts when necessary. 5. Generosity 💐 One way to encourage: Encourage members to share what they can offer others, whether it's knowledge, support, or skills. Then, when those exchanges happen make it a point to celebrate them. 6. Affection 💞 One way to encourage: When someone thanks you for introducing you to a new friend because they’re amazing, invite them to also share that message directly with the new friend. It’s a great way to deepen a budding friendship! Cultivating a culture of friendship in your community has the potential to ultimately grow and sustain your business. And it's also a beautiful way to meaningfully improve the lives of your members. What are the ways new friendships have sparked for you in the communities you lead and/or are a part of? Friendship stories are my favorite. ☺️

The legendary Ali Abdaal asked me to coach him on creating a high-value community membership. Here's what I told him: 1️⃣ Emphasize the initial experience The initial experience after a new member swipes their credit card is crucial for creating a positive perception. 2️⃣ Slow Growth is GOOD in community Slow growth actually helps with integrating and retaining community members because you can offer more personalized support. 3️⃣ The power of a No-Sell Selling Approach I like to take a no-sell selling approach because the power of honest testimonials and compelling case studies can do the selling for you. 4️⃣ Recurring revenue requires recurring value If you want recurring revenue from memberships, you need to offer recurring value that aligns with your members' incentives and expectations. If you stop providing new value, there's no reason to renew. 5️⃣ Invest in onboarding When someone buys something, their first question is, "Now what do I do to get the value out of this?" An effective onboarding experience addresses the 'now what' question by introducing members to the community through personalized interactions and training. 6️⃣ Niche communities are easier to sell Standing out is just as hard with communities as it is with content. The more specific you can be in what you promise to deliver in your membership, the easier it will be to get buy in. 7️⃣ Transformation is the key Transformation is a key value proposition in a community. But it's the connection and a sense of identity that makes people stick around. – If you liked this, follow me (Jay Clouse) for more! If you REALLY want to get good at membership building, listen to our full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/ecTNgrxJ

Community-led growth is emerging as perhaps the most powerful, flexible and accessible growth lever right now. The CLG flywheel helps you turn customers into champions, and champions into growth. My next guest, mallory contois (Mercury, Cameo, Pinterest) harnessed this flywheel to turn a passion project -- a community called The Old Girls Club -- into a $300k ARR side hustle with a $0 CAC. Here's how she did it & how you can, too. Don't miss the full story in today's Growth Unhinged newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e3zhVdDm 1️⃣ Hone your unique POV Your community needs to be interesting in format, function or fashion. Nobody needs yet another Slack or WhatsApp group that they immediately mute. At The Old Girls Club, Mallory's insight was that as you become more senior, you have fewer peers, and even fewer of those peers are women. That's the problem she set out to address. 2️⃣ Attract early champions Don't focus on scale, focus on alignment. You need your first believers. There are future collaborators and super users. At The Old Girls Club, Mallory started with ~75 women who'd expressed interest in the space. This quickly ballooned to ~1,000 members in 60 days. The tactics: Private beta invites, 1:1 outreach, thought leader meetups, landing pages & waitlists 3️⃣ Enable contribution Once you've built trust and rapport, open the door to participation. Invite early champions to co-create the product, the culture and the behaviors. Mallory curated her Slack space with 6 specific threads, all with a purpose. The most unconventional: yell-in-caps-here (😂). This was a last minute follow-her-gut add, but would turn out to become one of OGC’s pillars of success. The tactics: Creator tools, content prompts & templates, feature voting, focus groups 4️⃣ Repeat to create the new wave The visible and in-public momentum pulls in the next wave of superusers. Each cycle gets easier as your champion base grows & self-sustains. Mallory was nervous about being the only one with eyes on potential joiners, so she spun up member-referrals, adding a public element and additional accountability to referrals that were made. The tactics: Product-led shareables, social loops, invite & onboarding rituals, referral processes & programs 5️⃣ Reward & amplify Shine a light on those who contribute, adopt, advocate and amplify. Social recognition fuels retention, loyalty, sharing and viral growth. At The Old Girls Club, Mallory uses Memberful for subscription management, Disco for new member onboarding, MeetWaves to archive chats, Trova to create rich member profiles, and Curated Connections to help members match with others. The tactics: Community badges or titles, leaderboards & streaks, shoutouts and rewards & loyalty programs --- Hope y'all enjoy this framework (& story) as much as I did 🙏

11 growth tactics that have actually worked for my SaaS clients: 1. Create custom annual reports for your users, like Spotify Wrapped. People love sharing these, and it’s a goldmine for social and SEO. 2. Drop weekly data trends in your industry. Super shareable and gets you backlinks from media and influencers. 3. Build simple Chrome extensions that fix tiny frustrations with popular tools—and use them to nudge people to your product. 4. Add growth loops like "Unlock this feature by sharing with 1 friend." Instant virality. 5. Hunt down companies on GitHub working on tools like yours. Offer them a free enterprise trial—win-win. 6. Find complementary startups on Product Hunt and hit them up for day-one partnership deals. 7. Steal TikTok ad trends. Use the best hooks and visuals for your niche—it works. 8. Launch free, single-purpose apps or widgets. Collect feedback, make them better, and cross-promote your main product. 9. Create "[Product] Alternatives" pages targeting competitor searches. Easy way to snag high-intent users. 10. Build "Top 20 Tools for [Industry]" lists. They rank well in SEO and make you look like an industry boss. 11. Find people venting about ChatGPT frustrations and hit them up with your tool. They'll love you for solving their problem. More ideas like this coming soon—hit follow to stay in the loop! 🔔

Like many in B2B, I’ve seen my clients struggle with building an engaged community. That's why we decided to try something out of the ordinary: focusing on relationship-building over broadcasting. Here’s how we did it: Step 1: Engage with your audience on a personal level. Step 2: Create value-driven content that sparks conversation. Step 3: Build a space where your audience feels heard (forums, groups, etc.). Step 4: Consistently nurture those relationships with follow-ups. These steps address the challenge by fostering genuine connection instead of just pushing content. The results were nothing short of remarkable: Increased engagement by 60% in just three months. This experience has taught me that community-building is key to sustainable growth.  It's clear that the power lies in creating two-way conversations, not one-way broadcasts. Have you ever considered or tried something similar in your field? #b2b #communitybuilding

Remarketing your best community events and members isn’t just about exposure—it’s about building momentum. When we share community wins and insights publicly, we’re creating a feedback loop that draws in ambitious, aligned members who want to contribute. 🚀 This strategy doesn’t just drive growth; it raises the caliber of members and reinforces our mission. Are we thinking big enough about the potential impact of our own community stories? 🤔 Here are five actionable steps to implement our community-led growth strategy for yourself: 1. Identify Key Moments & Highlights: Regularly pinpoint standout events, member insights, or achievements within your community that exemplify its value and energy. These are the moments that will resonate with potential new members. 2. Create Shareable Content: Turn those highlights into engaging content for public channels—short videos, quotes, or mini case studies work well. Make it authentic and focus on what makes these moments impactful for current members. 3. Engage Members in the Process: Invite your members to share their own experiences and wins publicly. This can create a ripple effect of enthusiasm and trust, as potential members see authentic stories from those who are already part of the community. 4. Leverage Testimonials as Social Proof: Reach out to engaged members for testimonials about how the community has impacted them. Use these testimonials to create a narrative that connects potential members to your community’s purpose and value. 5. Analyze & Adjust for Engagement: Track engagement on these public posts—comments, shares, and follower growth—and adjust your approach based on what resonates most. This will help refine the feedback loop and continuously attract high-quality, aligned members. By building momentum through these steps, you’re not just growing; you’re amplifying the right values to attract the right people. ☀️ If you made it this far—this is your sign to join us! Comment DARETOSHIFT for an invite to our private founders group where we are learning, building, & growing together! ⚡️ Ft. Side quest in Montréal with Brian Dawson & Elizabeth Shively