Online Membership Guide for Coaching Businesses
Guide

The Online Membership Guide for Coaching Businesses



We’ve worked with a lot of coaches over the years.  Many of them have built successful offline businesses.  However, coaching businesses can be stressful and time consuming as they grow.  As a result, we’ve helped a lot of coaches transition their business online.

First, let’s discuss why you might consider an online coaching business.

Time Freedom

The biggest advantage of an online coaching business model is buying back your time.  By moving your content and offerings to the cloud you have an advantage of distribution.  This distribution can help you get more time back by offering DIY (do-it-yourself) resources.

For example:

  • You can offer DIY courses and training.
  • You can offer a resource library with recordings of previous training and content.
  • You can manage an event calendar with exclusive in-person trainings.

Having an online membership site can open up new opportunities for time savings and automation.  Which leads to our next point.

Automation

Running a coaching business can be very labor intensive, especially if you have multiple coaches in various locations.  By moving to an online model you can simplify and automate some of your processes.

For example:

  • Consider a transition to 100% remote coaching sessions.  This eliminates the need for private offices and/or staff to manage them.
  • Leverage tools like Zoom and Calendly to automate the scheduling piece of your business.  This eliminates the need for an executive assistant.
  • Automate your client payments and billing by letting them pay online through your membership site.  This eliminates the need for accounting staff.

Moving to an online model will allow you to eliminate previous labor expenses and further automate your business.

Revenue Expansion

The last major advantage is expanding your revenue lines.  Traditional in-person coaching has limitations and constraints on how you can drive revenue.  Most of this revenue is tied to one-on-one coaching sessions or live events.  By moving to an online model you can expand your offerings and generate more passive income.

For example:

  • Offer online membership options for access to content only.  This provides value for clients who need coaching but don’t require human support.
  • As mentioned above, offer DIY courses for specific types of coaching.  This allows your clients to move through guided coaching at their pace without all the scheduling and rescheduling issues.
  • Offer one-to-many group coaching calls.  This allows you to maximize revenue on “in-person” (virtual) coaching sessions.

All of these examples offer clients the same type of value with passive revenue streams that aren’t tied to human coaching.

Great, now that you understand the benefits and advantages the next question is how to get there.

Here’s our general framework for online coaches –

Pricing & Offerings

The first step is outlining all the things you plan to offer online.  This includes the type of coaching or training, what it includes and how it’s priced.

Here’s an example:

Tier 1 / Basic membership
  • Access to content library and DIY training courses
  • $49/month
Tier 2 / Community membership
  • Everything in Basic, plus:
  • Access to community forums and monthly group coaching calls
  • $99/month
Tier 3 / VIP membership
  • Everything in Community, plus:
  • Access to private 1-on-1 coaching sessions
  • $249/month
Pricing tips:
  • As one of our member(dev) clients, Isaac Kuhlman from GTR, explained – there is a significant difference between “coaching” and “teaching” (or training).  Coaching is intimate and personal via 1-on-1 mentorship.  Teaching is something students can consume by themselves. So make sure you price your offerings accordingly.
  • Leverage your 1-on-1 coaching time at higher price points.  This coaching time with you is extremely valuable and should be priced at a premium to differentiate the offer from group coaching and DIY training offers.

Content Planning

The next step is establishing your content plan. This includes your content schedule, production workflow and distribution strategy.  If you already have existing content this step should be a breeze. 

A well thought out content plan generally includes the following:

  1. Content planning / topics spreadsheet
  2. Content calendar or spreadsheet
  3. Content production playbook or SOP
  4. Social media promotion integration (i.e. Buffer or similar tool)

This will keep you and your team organized as you plan, produce and promote your content.

New Content Production

If you’ve never created content before this will be your biggest effort in the project.  Creating content takes time, especially if you’re new to the game.  But don’t let this discourage you!  Everyone has to start somewhere.  Below are some quick tips,

Content Production tips:
  • Outline your process and put content creation time on the calendar.
  • Content does not need to be perfect or “production quality” in the beginning.  Just hit record or start typing and get your thoughts out.
  • Keep your content short and concise (i.e. 5-10 min).  You can always create longer content after you refine your process.
  • Create content when inspiration strikes you.  This is the best time to get in the zone and share your unique coaching knowledge.
  • Defer full blown courses unless you have significant time set aside.  Courses take much longer to record and package than traditional “library” content.

The goal with content is to build some momentum and establish a regular cadence.  For example, commit to a 5 min video or article once per week.  Do this for 3 months and you’ve got 12 pieces of content ready to go.  There’s your foundational library.

Platform Setup

Once you have content ready it’s time to think about the platform you will use for your online membership.  There are various  types of platforms and offerings on the market.  It’s important to figure out which of the types below you fall into:

DIY = Do It Yourself

This is the type for people who want to roll up their sleeves and configure all the things.  It will be the most cost-effective and the most time consuming.  You will learn a lot with this approach.

DWY = Done With You

This is the type for people who want a coach or guide to help them along the way.  Our member(dev) platform offering is a great example of a DWY package.  This is a great approach if your budget is flexible and you value an expert helping with setup.

DFY = Done For You

This is the type for “busy” professionals who want minimal responsibility in the project.  You simply want it done and you’re willing to pay a premium.  Your role in these projects will be minimal but it will likely be a significant financial investment.  We also execute these projects with qualified clients.

Features

It’s also important to evaluate your platform feature set and ensure it will meet your current needs.  Below are some common features to look for as a coaching business:

  1. Member registration / checkout
  2. Member CRM
  3. Content library
  4. Courses
  5. Event management
  6. Forums and Community features

You’ll also want to make sure the platform you choose can integrate with the following:

  • Payment gateways (i.e. Stripe, Authorize.Net, PayPal, etc.)
  • Email marketing tools (i.e. ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, etc.)
  • Zapier

Anything else will be icing on the cake.

Platform tips:
  • Don’t think too far into “future” land with your needs and requirements.  This is a common trap that keeps people in purchase paralysis.  You can always upgrade or migrate to another platform when the time comes.
  • Most platforms offer similar features.  Choose one that feels “easy” and aligned with how you work so you can stay focused on coaching, instead of being bogged down with technical configuration.

Pre-launch Strategy

Once your platform is built the final step is to prepare for launch!  This is where you strategize how you’re going to reveal your new online coaching membership to the world.  If you want to optimize sales and revenue, the launch process for any membership or online course is critical.

Pre-launch tasks

Here are some important pre-launch tasks you should consider:

1) Testing

Be sure to test all the major features of your platform as if you were a paying member.  This includes registration, checkout, content access, etc.  You should have basic knowledge of how things work so you can properly support your members when questions arise.

2) New member onboarding

Your members’ first interactions with your platform will set the tone for their online membership experience.  Put time and effort into a proper onboarding experience to make them feel welcome and appreciated.  This can include a welcome email, personalized video and getting started steps inside the platform.

3) Email campaigns

Email is still the most effective way to reach audiences whether they’re existing members or future prospects.  Be sure to craft a new member email campaign at a minimum.  This will support your onboarding and help with retention metrics.

4) Pre-launch beta feedback

If you have an existing audience that is hungry for your new online platform you may entertain a “beta” period to gather early feedback before launch.  This can be useful to get member insight from a few folks before you let the world in.

5) Launch offers

If you plan to drive significant revenue during launch you’ll want to strategize true “launch” promotion offers.  This should include:

  1. Scarcity (i.e. 100 spots)
  2. Time restricted (i.e. 48-hour window)
  3. Discounted (i.e. 60% off normal price)**

Check our our membership site special sale offer video for more guidance on launch offers.

**For special [discounted] offers like launch promotions we always advise to make the discount compelling.  People take action when they feel like they’re getting a killer deal, and these early member sign ups will be crucial to early revenue and feedback.  You can always charge more later.

Launch

Now that your pre-launch tasks are complete there is only one thing left to do – launch!!  This is where you get to see your hard work come to life.

However, the work is not over!  This is also where you need to kick your marketing into full swing.  Launching a membership platform is a critical step to building your online business.  Marketing is the next step that will help you achieve true growth.

Here are some launch tips:

1. Launch on a weekday morning, preferably Tue-Thur.  Here’s why:
  • People are busy on Monday… they won’t have time to react.
  • People are shutting down by Friday… they won’t be as purchase ready.
  • They are checking their emails regularly the other days of the week 🙂
2. Have launch emails ready.  This should include:
  • Email 7 days before launch
  • Email 3 days before launch
  • Email 1 day before launch
  • Email on launch day
  • Email before launch period closes
3. Leverage social media to support your launch.
  • This is where most people hang out online so be sure to supplement your email efforts with social media posts.
  • Incentivize other people to share your launch via their social profiles and/or email.

Once you’ve completed your launch period take some time to rest and reward yourself.  This is a big achievement that most people never accomplish.  So it’s important to fully acknowledge that before getting back to work.

After launch you will have a new business model that needs attention and support.

Here are some post-launch tips:
  • Focus on member feedback early on.  They will help inform the future direction of content and online coaching you provide.
  • Don’t stop marketing!  This is what makes or breaks the membership businesses that grow.  Invest in email, SEO, content marketing and/or paid traffic to keep people coming in.

Summary

By now you should have a better idea of all the major considerations for your online coaching platform. This is not a light task, especially if you’re new to managing online platforms. However, it will be well worth it in the long run as your clients seek online options.

Need help launching your platform?

Are you a coach or entrepreneur looking for help with this type of project?  If so, get in touch via our “Get Started” button below!

Get Started

We’ve guided hundreds of clients through this process.  We’ll provide you with a free platform demo and then schedule a quick intro call to see if we’re the right fit for your project.

Ali Jafarian

Ali is the founder of MemberDev. He's a serial entrepreneur and software engineer with over 15 years of experience building technology. Ali's spent the last decade focusing on membership websites and the subscription business model. He enjoys helping small businesses with early stage development and growth.

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