How to Build a Community That Markets Itself

Look, if you've been scratching your head about membership marketing, wondering why your community isn't growing like you hoped… take a deep breath. While going viral is possible, marketing is a long game. And when you have the right marketing strategy in place and are consistent, you’ll see steady growth week over week.

Don't worry if this whole membership marketing thing feels like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded. We're going to break it down together, piece by piece. No fancy jargon, no overwhelming theory, just real, simple strategies that work for real membership owners like you.

What Is Membership Marketing? (Spoiler: It's Not What You Think)

Okay, let's get one thing straight. Membership marketing isn't about hammering people with "JOIN NOW!" messages until they cave. Nope. It's way cooler than that. And a lot less cringe, too.

Here's the deal: membership marketing is about creating relationships. Real ones. The kind where your members genuinely look forward to joining and logging in, where they tell their friends about you at dinner parties, where they'd actually be bummed if you disappeared tomorrow.

Course creators? They're all about that launch day high. Cha-ching, cha-ching, then... crickets. But membership owners? We're playing a different game entirely. We celebrate renewal day. We get excited when members stick around for their one-year anniversary. We do happy dances when engagement goes up, not just when sales spike.

Why? Because we're not just building a business, we're building a content and community forever home. A little place on the Internet that’s for our people!

The Two Most Common Membership Marketing Strategies

Alright, time to get into the good stuff. There are two ways to run your membership marketing, and both can work brilliantly. It just depends on what fits your style and your members' needs.

The "Always Open" Approach: When Your Members Need You NOW

Some memberships need to be open 24/7… that’s what we call the Open Marketing Plan. Think about it… if you're helping new moms who are about to give birth, they're not keen on waiting around. Same goes for people in debt who need help now, anyone trying to make a career change, or those solving an immediate health issue. These folks need you yesterday.

But here's where most people mess up: they think "open all the time" means "boring marketing." Wrong! You still need urgency, friend. Otherwise, people will "save it for later". And you know what that means, right? They're likely never coming back.

Want to know the secret sauce? Create 12 irresistible bonuses or promotions. Then, each month, roll out one of these bonuses and make it available to new sign-ups if they register before a certain deadline.

Picture this: Your membership is $20 a month, and each of these bonuses is worth $97. The moment someone sees that, they're thinking, "Hey, I can snag this $97 value for just $20 this month." And that's where the urgency kicks in.

Now, we know what you're thinking. "But won't they just join for the bonus and then bail?"

No way. Sure, they may come for the bonus initially, and that's okay. But you're going to rock their world with the value you provide. The bonus is just the golden ticket that gets them through the door. Then, they'll stay for all the other benefits: the community, the content, and the transformation you're offering.

Quick Tip: Treat your existing members like royalty too. Any new bonus you roll out, give it to them as well. It's a retention tactic that'll keep your following engaged and excited. Just make sure you communicate about it and build up excitement with your existing members.

The "Exclusive Access" Method: Work Less, Grow More

Now, this is where things get wild. Do you want to make more money while working less? Welcome to the world of the Closed Marketing Plan.

This plan involves periodically closing the doors on your membership so that people can't register. Then a few times a year you open the doors where they can join for a limited period of time (usually 5 to 7 days). When you do this, it creates a real sense of urgency.

Here's a real example: Michael Hyatt (the New York Times best-selling author of "Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World"), started with an Open Marketing Plan. They were welcoming around 100 to 125 new members each month.

But then they switched to a Closed Marketing Plan. In their very first closed promotion, they added over 600 new members. With the Open Marketing Plan, they'd welcomed about 1,500 new members per year. But with the Closed Marketing Plan, using four promotions a year, they welcomed around 2,400 members for the year. Less effort, more results.

It gets even better. They went all in with only two promotions a year. The result? They now welcomed around 1,500 to 2,000 members with each promotion. So with half the number of promotions, they were welcoming more total members each year (now 3,000 to 4,000 new members).

Jennifer Allwood, who teaches Christian women how to build online businesses, had a membership that took her three years to get to roughly 700 members. She was very reluctant to close her doors, but she gave it a try. Using the Closed Marketing Plan, she welcomed over 1,100 new members in a single promo.

Ali Kay had welcomed roughly 1,400 members over a two-year period keeping her painting membership open. Then she decided to try closing her membership and utilized a "coaching week" promotion. With that one promotion, she welcomed more than 3,000 new members!

Why does this work? Simple psychology. When people can join anytime, they think, "Well, I'll do it later." When they know the doors are closing? Suddenly they're paying attention, making decisions, taking action.

The Marketing Secret Hidden in Plain Sight

Want to know something that'll blow your mind? The best membership marketing copy is already written. You just have to find it.

Your people will be drawn to you and feel like you're reading their minds because you're using words they've actually used! This isn't a magic trick. They've just already given you the exact way they would describe their problems, in their own words.

Here's what I mean: Your future members are out there right now, talking about their problems in their own words. They're in Facebook groups, Reddit threads, blog comments, and they’re spilling their hearts out about what they need.

Your job? Listen. Really listen. Take note of these words and phrases because you're going to use them again soon. And when you do, your audience will immediately feel a deep connection.

This isn't manipulation… it's connection. When you reflect their language back to them, they feel understood. Having this deep understanding of your market can be one of the secrets to your success.

Quick Tip: Want to know a secret that'll save you hours of research? AI tools can pull this golden info for you in seconds flat!

Let's say you're helping dog trainers build their businesses. Here's what you do: Pop over to www.reddit.com/r/Dogtraining (or whatever subreddit your people hang out in). Find a juicy thread where folks are spilling their frustrations. Copy that whole conversation, comments and all.

Then paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini with a prompt like: "What are the main pain points and problems these people are experiencing? Pull out the exact words and phrases they use to describe their struggles."

Boom! In seconds, you'll have a treasure trove of your audience's actual language. No guessing, no corporate speak… just real words from real people that you can weave into your membership marketing.

It's like having a backstage pass to your audience's brain. And the best part? They've already told you exactly how to talk to them. You just needed to listen (with a little AI help).

Content Marketing That Actually Builds Community

Here's where membership content gets really fun. You're not just creating blog posts to rank on Google (though that's nice too). You're creating content that serves two masters.

First, it needs to attract the right people. These are the folks who are ready for transformation, not just looking for quick fixes. Second, it needs to showcase what makes your membership special without giving away the whole farm.

The "Show, Don't Just Tell" Strategy

The most valuable marketing asset that exists is a success story. It doesn't matter how small it is, the headline is that you helped someone! The quickest win might be helping people define the market they serve. But quick wins come in many shapes and sizes like welcoming their first member, seeing their members get results with what they're teaching, or improving their retention rates.

These stories show your audience what's possible for them if they continue learning from you. It's not just you saying, "I promise my thing is great!" Now you have others vouching for you. You have powerful social proof that your teachings work. And that creates belief that what you're teaching is possible, and it's possible for them!

SEO That Attracts Members, Not Just Traffic

Look, ranking #1 for "yoga poses" might sound impressive, but if those visitors want free YouTube tutorials and you're teaching transformational mind-body practices? You're wasting everyone's time.

Focus on keywords that signal commitment:

"online yoga community for anxiety" (they're seeking real change!)

"yoga membership for spiritual growth" (they value the journey!)

"consistent home yoga practice support" (they're serious about showing up!)

These searches might have lower volume, but the people making them? They're your people.

Quick Tip: Oh, and here's something most membership owners and marketers miss: Instagram, Reddit and YouTube are showing up more and more in Google search results. That "morning yoga flow" search? It might show Instagram Reels and YouTube videos before your blog post. So don't just think about website content. Create short-form videos and social posts targeting these same commitment-focused keywords. Meet your future members where they're already searching, whether that's Google, YouTube, or scrolling through Instagram.

Email: Your Not-So-Secret Retention Weapon

Everyone's obsessed with getting new members. But the real money? It's in keeping the members you already have. And email is your best friend for making that happen.

The First 48 Hours Make or Break You

When someone joins your yoga membership, they're excited! They're ready! They're... completely overwhelmed by 500 classes and no idea where to start.

This is where most memberships fail. They throw new members into an ocean of content and hope they'll figure out how to flow. Spoiler alert: they won't. They'll cancel.

Your welcome email sequence needs to be like a gentle yoga teacher:

"Welcome to your practice! We're so honored you're here!"

"Start with this 7-day beginner series—perfect for where you are right now"

"Meet Sarah, who couldn't touch her toes 6 months ago and just nailed crow pose"

"Here's your first 10-minute morning flow—you've got this!"

Guide them. Hold their hand. Show them the path. When members feel supported from day one, they stick around for day 365.

Ongoing Nurture Emails That Feel Like Friendship

Your regular member emails shouldn't feel like corporate newsletters. They should feel like notes from a friend who really gets it.

Share wins. Celebrate milestones. Point out conversations happening in the community. Give them reasons to log in that have nothing to do with consuming more content and everything to do with connecting with their people.

Social Media: Your Community Billboard

Social media for memberships isn't about viral videos or influencer partnerships (unless that's your thing). It's about something way more powerful: letting your community tell your story.

The Circle of Awesomeness in Action

Here's the truth: The best way to get people to share their wins with you is to simply ask them.

When you share member wins everywhere—Instagram stories, Facebook posts, email highlights—it creates what Stu McLaren calls the Circle of Awesomeness. This inevitably leads to more people signing up... which leads to more people getting results. 

Share wins → Attract new members → Create more wins → Share more wins. It's a self-perpetuating cycle of growth and engagement.

Numbers That Actually Matter (Hint: It's Not Followers)

Let's talk metrics, but not the boring vanity stuff everyone obsesses over.

In membership marketing, these are the numbers that actually move the needle:

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): This is your real business health. Not how many members you have, but how much predictable revenue comes in each month.

Churn Rate: How many members leave. If this is high, nothing else matters. You're filling a bucket with holes in it.

Lifetime Value: How much each member is worth over their entire time with you. A member who pays $30/month for two years is worth $720. That changes how you think about acquisition costs, doesn't it?

Engagement Rate: Are members actually using what they're paying for? Ghost towns don't retain members.

Here's the thing: A membership priced at $20/month with 5% monthly churn beats one priced at $50/month with 20% churn. Every. Single. Time.

Quick Tip: Go deep on all things membership metrics. Check out our blog sharing 9 Membership Growth Metrics to Track (and How to Improve Them). 

Turn Members Into Your Growth Team

Want to know the ultimate retention hack? Make your members feel like partners in your success.

When members love what you've built—really love it—they can't help but share. It's human nature. We share restaurants we love, shows that blow our minds, and yes, memberships that change our lives.

Make it easy for them:

• Create "brag badges" they can share when they hit milestones
• Set up a simple referral system (doesn't have to be fancy)
• Celebrate members who bring friends

The key? Don't make it feel like marketing. Make it feel like what it is—friends sharing something awesome with friends.

Quick Tip: Affiliate marketing is one way to explode the growth of your membership business. Need the ins and outs of how to get started? Check out this blog post.

 

The Tech Stack That Doesn't Make You Want to Cry

Listen, we've seen too many membership owners trying to tape together seventeen different tools, and it's painful to watch. You've got your course platform over here, your community software over there, your email system somewhere else... it's a hot mess.

That's exactly why we built Membership.io as a dedicated membership platform. Everything you need, nothing you don't:

• Copilot AI helps you create content your members actually want
• AI Chat lets members find exactly what they need
• Real community features built in (not bolted on)
• Analytics that make sense

Stop trying to make tools built for courses work for memberships. Stop retrofitting tools. When your technology supports your marketing naturally, everything flows better.

Your "Stop Reading, Start Doing" Action Plan

Alright, enough learning. Time to actually DO something. Here's your homework:

This Week:

Decide: Open membership with monthly bonuses or closed with launch periods?

Go spy on your audience. Find three places they hang out online and just... listen.

Help one person get a win. Just one. Then tell everyone about it.

Next Week:

• Write your welcome email sequence. Make it feel like a warm hug.
• Pick ONE social platform. Master it before adding more.

This Month:

• Set up your basic metrics tracking. Know your MRR, churn, and engagement.
• Ask members for success stories. Seriously, just ask.

Remember: Perfect is the enemy of done. Your membership doesn't need to be perfect to start growing. It just needs to exist and serve real people.

Let's Build Something Amazing Together

You don't have to figure this all out alone.

We built Membership.io because we've been in your shoes. We've felt the overwhelm before. We've made the mistakes before. And now? We're here to help you skip all that pain and get straight to the good stuff: building a thriving membership that serves your members and sustains your business.

Your future members are out there right now, searching for exactly what you offer. They need your expertise, your community, your unique way of solving their problems. Don't let another day pass without giving them a way to find you.

Questions? Stuck on something? Just want to say hi? Email us at help@membership.io. We actually read and respond to every email. Because that's what a real community does, we show up for each other.

Ready to build your content and community forever home? We can't wait to see what you create! Start your free trial today!