Advice On Lead Gen For A Paid Forum

[Canuker]

Hey guys,

So I was approached by a well-renowned business owner (in his niche) for some digital marketing services. Instead of asking me for help marketing for his service business (which is what I was hoping for) he asked for help marketing his membership-based forum.

I'm confident in my lead gen abilities for service businesses but don't have any experience marketing online communities. The forum is similar to TMF only focused on another niche. It has an active community but they have been slowly losing members over the last couple of years. He strongly believes its due to all the free content available elsewhere. I both agree and disagree with that statement.

I told him that I would strategize and get back to him because it's not something I've done before. We have a meeting coming up where we're going to dive more into the demographics of his community, popular material etc.

I believe the value is there. It is a premium product with a good heap of social proof and quality content.

I have a google doc with strategies to explore but I figured I'd ask TMF if anyone has experience marketing web subscriptions. (@MJ DeMarco)

Cheers!!

 

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[Ika]

Hey there! Before your take my advice, I have never done this. It is just what I would do in the situation, hopefully it helps.

Does he have a free part and a paid part? Or does the whole forum require a membership?

Generally I would say the private part needs to offer real value. Enough to pay for it, and way more than one can get in the free part.
But you already got this covered:

I believe the value is there. It is a premium product with a good heap of social proof and quality content.

So now he has to show this value to the people.

To new Readers:
Write a (free) book? A Blog, a youtube channel or social media profile, depending on the niche?
Contact influencers to talk about this membership, its USP and what its going to do for the user?
I have seen plenty Blogposts comparing The Fastlane Forum INSIDERS to the Dynamite Circle (and to the Warrior Forum), helping the readers decide where to spend money and attention.

To established Readers:
Offer more than the free part. And remind them about this. Backlink into the paid section in posts in the free section. Get experts roaming around in the private section. Offer other benefits (Non Crawlable, Privacy, not Noisy, INSIDERS Calls, Center of Attention).


I'm interested to what MJ is going to say to you, as he has worked it out with the INSIDERS Part.

 

[Canuker]

Hey there! Before your take my advice, I have never done this. It is just what I would do in the situation, hopefully it helps.

Does he have a free part and a paid part? Or does the whole forum require a membership?

Generally I would say the private part needs to offer real value. Enough to pay for it, and way more than one can get in the free part.
But you already got this covered:


So now he has to show this value to the people.

To new Readers:
Write a (free) book? A Blog, a youtube channel or social media profile, depending on the niche?
Contact influencers to talk about this membership, its USP and what its going to do for the user?
I have seen plenty Blogposts comparing The Fastlane Forum INSIDERS to the Dynamite Circle (and to the Warrior Forum), helping the readers decide where to spend money and attention.

To established Readers:
Offer more than the free part. And remind them about this. Backlink into the paid section in posts in the free section. Get experts roaming around in the private section. Offer other benefits (Non Crawlable, Privacy, not Noisy, INSIDERS Calls, Center of Attention).


I'm interested to what MJ is going to say to you, as he has worked it out with the INSIDERS Part.

The free section is just his blog. There is no free forum, which I think he should change. I also think he should work on attracting more high-level industry professionals for the paid section. Which would add a ton of a value for the new readers who want to learn from big names.