WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:03.280 Alright, gang. Let's dive right into it. 2 00:00:03.280 --> 00:00:08.720 Welcome in to another edition of webinar Wednesday, tips to grow your online community. 3 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:11.460 It's really, really great to be with everyone here today. 4 00:00:11.840 --> 00:00:14.340 If this is your first time joining us, welcome. 5 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:19.515 I am Jason there on the left and we're lucky to be joined by David Rockland, the digital strategist, 6 00:00:20.135 --> 00:00:21.415 here at Brilliant Directories. 7 00:00:21.415 --> 00:00:24.795 Thanks, David, for taking the time to, join us and help us out here today. 8 00:00:25.175 --> 00:00:27.915 Hey, everyone. Glad to be back with you for another webinar. 9 00:00:28.135 --> 00:00:37.150 Looking forward to today's tip of the week touching on, some subjects that we've mentioned in blog articles before, but that we haven't really touched too much on in the webinar. 10 00:00:37.150 --> 00:00:38.690 So that should be a good one. 11 00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:41.310 Yeah. Really excited about that tip of the week. 12 00:00:41.470 --> 00:00:44.290 I think everyone will, take away something actionable, 13 00:00:44.830 --> 00:00:45.810 with that today. 14 00:00:46.505 --> 00:00:53.945 I always like to mention if you're not already part of our Facebook group, you can always head on over to brilliantdirectories.com/Facebook. 15 00:00:53.945 --> 00:00:56.845 It's a great way to keep the conversations going in between 16 00:00:57.225 --> 00:00:58.285 webinar Wednesdays. 17 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:03.280 Just click on the blue join button and we'll definitely welcome and accept you to that group. 18 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.980 Head on over to brilliantdirectories.com/facebook. 19 00:01:08.480 --> 00:01:11.780 And also for those of you joining for the first time today, welcome. 20 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.935 You You know, webinar Wednesday is a great platform and channel for us to talk about some of the new features, 21 00:01:17.315 --> 00:01:23.475 baked into the Brilliant Directories platform and how you can utilize them to help grow your online community. 22 00:01:23.475 --> 00:01:30.700 So some topics that we cover in addition to some of the new features that are available are how to use those features to help increase your traffic, 23 00:01:31.240 --> 00:01:34.460 convert visitors into actual signed up members. 24 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:38.860 And one of my favorites I always like to mention is improving your website's navigation 25 00:01:39.425 --> 00:01:41.745 and the flow, how you present your site to people. 26 00:01:41.745 --> 00:01:45.365 I always like to take the stance and approach that simple is best. 27 00:01:45.585 --> 00:01:52.405 So if we get to your question today, we'd love to take a look at your site and see if there's ways we can help improve on any of these topics today. 28 00:01:53.509 --> 00:01:58.649 Alright, and we do have quite a few, BD Lab updates so I'll go through these 29 00:01:59.110 --> 00:02:05.450 briefly with you, some new features that are now available for everyone in the admin area of your dashboards. 30 00:02:05.909 --> 00:02:10.675 I I think one of the biggest ones is the first one here on the list. It's actually a phase one. 31 00:02:10.675 --> 00:02:14.615 It's gonna be launched in three phases but it's gonna add a wealth of functionality 32 00:02:15.795 --> 00:02:21.320 with regards to list management and segmenting members and actually sending newsletters and things like that. 33 00:02:21.320 --> 00:02:23.420 So we now have the ability to create 34 00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:25.640 and save member smart lists. 35 00:02:25.640 --> 00:02:31.260 So let me show you an example of what that is and how you can apply this and use this in your admin dashboard 36 00:02:31.720 --> 00:02:32.540 right now. 37 00:02:33.045 --> 00:02:37.065 So in this case, I'm in a sample site that we have in the dashboard area. 38 00:02:37.685 --> 00:02:39.625 And if you go to search members, 39 00:02:41.685 --> 00:02:44.885 what you'll notice is so this is a view of all the members on the site. 40 00:02:44.885 --> 00:02:47.465 You'll all have this create smart list 41 00:02:47.990 --> 00:02:48.490 button, 42 00:02:48.870 --> 00:02:49.610 right now. 43 00:02:50.230 --> 00:02:55.770 And what you can do is you can certainly save it and just save a list of all the members on your site. 44 00:02:55.910 --> 00:03:03.645 But where this really comes in handy is if you want to use any one of these search filters or combinations of these search filters 45 00:03:04.105 --> 00:03:08.125 and then create a smart list that will be dynamic. So if any member 46 00:03:08.505 --> 00:03:13.165 starts to meet this search criteria that you've put here, they'll automatically be added 47 00:03:13.510 --> 00:03:14.810 to that smart list. 48 00:03:15.190 --> 00:03:21.110 Right now smart list can be saved and you can you can store them and then you can export those lists at any time. 49 00:03:21.110 --> 00:03:22.730 I'll show you how you can do that. 50 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:25.530 Later in the future, you'll be able to 51 00:03:26.310 --> 00:03:26.810 select 52 00:03:27.275 --> 00:03:30.895 specific smart lists that you would like to include when you're sending 53 00:03:31.355 --> 00:03:34.875 newsletters. So let me show you a quick example of how we can make a smart list. 54 00:03:34.875 --> 00:03:38.655 So let's just do a simple filter. We'll search for all our New York members. 55 00:03:39.515 --> 00:03:41.375 We'll just look for the New York state 56 00:03:41.930 --> 00:03:43.550 members and we'll do a search. 57 00:03:44.650 --> 00:03:54.430 So we have seven members who have their location set in the state of New York, so all I need to do is now click on create smart list, give it a nickname, 58 00:03:55.755 --> 00:03:57.375 just call this New York members 59 00:03:57.915 --> 00:04:03.375 and I'll just save that smart list. And I can also go to the New York members smart list, 60 00:04:03.995 --> 00:04:06.795 and what we can see here is this these are my smart lists. 61 00:04:06.795 --> 00:04:11.455 You'll notice that you can view all your saved smart lists under the emails section here. 62 00:04:11.730 --> 00:04:13.350 So you all have that now. 63 00:04:13.650 --> 00:04:15.570 So I created some lists prior to this. 64 00:04:15.570 --> 00:04:18.630 I made a list of all the members who are classified as verified. 65 00:04:19.010 --> 00:04:22.550 I did my California members and my New York members. 66 00:04:23.170 --> 00:04:26.295 So right now this is a phase one. It's working really well. 67 00:04:26.375 --> 00:04:31.575 You can certainly go and view the members, that are part of this list and these are dynamic lists. 68 00:04:31.575 --> 00:04:40.475 So if a new member joins and they happen to meet the criteria that they're located in California as an example, this number will automatically change from 18, 69 00:04:41.255 --> 00:04:41.915 to 19. 70 00:04:42.630 --> 00:04:45.270 So just a few things you can do with these smart lists right now. 71 00:04:45.270 --> 00:04:49.050 You can edit the nickname, so if you wanted to nickname it something else. 72 00:04:49.509 --> 00:04:53.449 You can delete the smart list. It won't delete the members, it's just deleting, 73 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:56.009 the saved list that you've created. 74 00:04:56.505 --> 00:04:58.485 And then you can certainly export 75 00:04:59.185 --> 00:05:00.004 these members. 76 00:05:00.224 --> 00:05:10.724 So if you just wanted all your California members or California inactive members, you know what's really cool, when you start using the different search filters so you can get really granular with how you wanna segment 77 00:05:11.039 --> 00:05:12.259 these member lists. 78 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:20.419 So this is available for everyone and we're really excited for the phase two and phase three releases of this that will provide more functionality functionality 79 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:23.780 around this with regards to sending newsletters. 80 00:05:26.025 --> 00:05:29.565 Okay. The next one on this list is being able to define 81 00:05:29.945 --> 00:05:35.225 a redirect page after a member signs up and after a member logs in. 82 00:05:35.225 --> 00:05:39.780 So logs in means they already have an account, they're visiting the site, and they're logging into their account. 83 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:42.040 That one actually already existed. 84 00:05:42.420 --> 00:05:44.760 The new one that's available is defining 85 00:05:45.139 --> 00:05:48.919 the page you wanna send people to after they sign up. 86 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:53.639 And I'll show you just one example of how this could be used and how it could be helpful. 87 00:05:54.514 --> 00:05:57.014 So let's go to our dashboard area here 88 00:05:57.555 --> 00:06:01.414 and, you know, on this sample site, we can go to our membership plans 89 00:06:01.875 --> 00:06:03.814 and, you know, we have general users. 90 00:06:04.275 --> 00:06:08.134 So maybe you're telling people to just create a free general user account 91 00:06:08.520 --> 00:06:09.820 in order to access, 92 00:06:10.280 --> 00:06:13.340 in this example we'll say the photo albums on your site. 93 00:06:14.280 --> 00:06:15.580 And so after they 94 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:23.000 put their email and a password, I don't really care to send them to the page where they put like more information like a business listing would. 95 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:27.685 I just want to send them to the photo albums page that they just signed up for access to. 96 00:06:27.685 --> 00:06:30.985 So in this case, you can click to edit 97 00:06:33.125 --> 00:06:37.125 and here are the two options right now. They're located here. 98 00:06:37.125 --> 00:06:43.100 So you can see redirect page after login. So by default, it's the account homepage. 99 00:06:43.640 --> 00:06:47.980 You can certainly choose any other URL on your site that you'd like to send them to. 100 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:52.275 And you can see here I chose redirect page after sign up. I've selected 101 00:06:52.735 --> 00:06:57.055 photo albums. And we could do a sample sign up and we can see how this works. 102 00:06:57.055 --> 00:07:03.235 So instead of being taken to my member dashboard, I'm gonna be able to go and view the photo albums on the site. 103 00:07:03.695 --> 00:07:10.100 So here's the general user sign up page, for this site. I'll just do test2@test.com. 104 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:13.940 And we can go ahead 105 00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:15.540 and create my profile. 106 00:07:16.640 --> 00:07:20.180 You can also change these text labels, it could say create my account and whatnot. 107 00:07:20.745 --> 00:07:22.185 So now I'll just click on this link. 108 00:07:22.185 --> 00:07:31.305 So this is a text label so you can say, you can probably change this if you're gonna be using this to send people to different pages, continue to the next step, or get my access now. 109 00:07:31.305 --> 00:07:33.805 You can get very creative to use these text labels 110 00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:37.540 in a way that matches the the flow of your site. 111 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:42.260 So I'll click on this and it should take me to the photo albums page. 112 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:43.540 So 113 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:46.100 one thing, here's an idea also, 114 00:07:46.479 --> 00:07:48.020 maybe you have a classified 115 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:49.060 site. 116 00:07:50.095 --> 00:07:54.995 What you may wanna do is take people directly to the page where they can start adding a classified. 117 00:07:55.135 --> 00:07:58.995 I'll show you an example of that real quick. Let me log in as this member. 118 00:08:00.975 --> 00:08:01.475 And 119 00:08:01.909 --> 00:08:06.330 so you know this member is logged in and they can go ahead and add different types of content. 120 00:08:06.629 --> 00:08:10.229 Maybe your site is focused around events, let me click on this event link. 121 00:08:10.229 --> 00:08:16.169 So you may want to send them to account events add right when they log in so they can start 122 00:08:16.565 --> 00:08:24.985 adding events or perhaps you wanna if it's really an events focused site, you might wanna just take them to all their events account events view. 123 00:08:25.285 --> 00:08:31.410 This is really nice and important because you can provide a more catered feel of of the actions you want members to take. 124 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:36.289 You can direct them to the better places you want on your site after they log in and sign up. 125 00:08:36.289 --> 00:08:44.790 So hopefully, they'll take more action on the things you want them to do, just simply by directing them to the more important pages where they need to go. 126 00:08:46.505 --> 00:08:50.765 Alright. This one is more of a quality of life and actually preventing user errors, 127 00:08:51.225 --> 00:08:52.525 stopping paid subscriptions 128 00:08:53.145 --> 00:08:57.725 when you're manually changing a member status from like active to canceled. 129 00:08:58.040 --> 00:09:05.740 When you delete a member it will certainly delete them from the site and it will delete any like monthly subscriptions that they have open. 130 00:09:05.880 --> 00:09:15.444 But prior to this, if you simply set them manually from active to cancelled and I'll show you an example of this, it wouldn't necessarily stop their recurring subscriptions. 131 00:09:16.305 --> 00:09:20.245 So what we were seeing is that, you know, some members were being billed, 132 00:09:20.865 --> 00:09:28.320 when they really shouldn't have been simply because the extra step of going to the subscriptions area and cancelling the subscriptions wasn't happening. 133 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:32.560 So we've built this all into one cohesive workflow for you guys. 134 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:34.580 So let me show you how that works now. 135 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:37.220 Let's say you're in your admin dashboard, 136 00:09:37.835 --> 00:09:41.375 somebody emails in saying you know, I wanna cancel my subscription, 137 00:09:42.155 --> 00:09:45.215 that's perfectly fine. Let's say it's this Jennifer Cook person. 138 00:09:45.835 --> 00:09:53.215 So maybe you don't wanna delete their information from the site because you might wanna remarket to them later in the future, maybe ask them to rejoin. 139 00:09:53.730 --> 00:09:57.190 So in this case what you may want to do is just use the quick edit 140 00:09:57.649 --> 00:10:01.430 and change their account status from an active account 141 00:10:01.970 --> 00:10:03.589 to a canceled account. 142 00:10:04.050 --> 00:10:08.470 So prior to this update it would certainly cancel their account but it wouldn't really stop 143 00:10:08.785 --> 00:10:10.965 the recurring monthly or yearly subscriptions 144 00:10:11.505 --> 00:10:15.605 attributed to this member's account. So now when you select canceled here, 145 00:10:16.545 --> 00:10:20.085 because this person wants to cancel their account and you hit save changes, 146 00:10:20.705 --> 00:10:22.085 you are gonna be prompted 147 00:10:22.460 --> 00:10:26.560 and it's gonna ask you if you also wanna cancel active billing subscriptions. 148 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:32.960 So you can choose the blue button to keep the subscriptions active or the red button to cancel the subscriptions. 149 00:10:33.020 --> 00:10:36.320 In most cases, we are gonna wanna cancel any active subscriptions 150 00:10:36.735 --> 00:10:42.095 because the person has requested to be canceled from the site. So this is a quality of life. 151 00:10:42.095 --> 00:10:46.035 It should certainly help reduce any user errors or accidental billings, 152 00:10:46.495 --> 00:10:52.435 if you're manually canceling members from your site using this manual method in the quick edit pop up. 153 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:58.000 Okay, and this is a pretty big one. It always comes up in the Facebook group from time to time. 154 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:02.660 It seems to trend at different times of the year. But, you know, if you're restructuring 155 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:07.380 your top level categories on your site, if you were to delete a top level category, 156 00:11:08.345 --> 00:11:11.004 the members who were assigned to that top level category, 157 00:11:11.625 --> 00:11:16.524 they would essentially need to all manually be assigned to a new top level category. 158 00:11:17.225 --> 00:11:20.925 And also the corresponding subaccounts of a top level category 159 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:24.100 would basically not have a top level category 160 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:25.460 attribution 161 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:31.140 assigned to them. So with this, you can now both move members and move sub categories 162 00:11:31.680 --> 00:11:33.300 seamlessly with this workflow 163 00:11:33.955 --> 00:11:36.135 if you are deleting your top level categories. 164 00:11:36.274 --> 00:11:39.415 And you may delete top level categories for many reasons. Maybe 165 00:11:40.355 --> 00:11:47.495 they're not used on your site anymore or you're consolidating and kind of combining categories to be a little bit more broad. 166 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:49.950 So let me show you how this workflow works. 167 00:11:51.290 --> 00:11:57.390 And what's really good about it is what it's really solving here is you're not gonna have rogue members that don't have that top level category 168 00:11:57.769 --> 00:11:59.950 assigned to them or rogue subcategories. 169 00:12:00.810 --> 00:12:02.829 So if you go to your member categories, 170 00:12:04.625 --> 00:12:06.725 and here we see our top level categories. 171 00:12:07.585 --> 00:12:12.545 So let's say we want to delete restaurants, you know, we have 2,000 members assigned to this. 172 00:12:12.865 --> 00:12:19.560 Before if you would delete it, it would just delete the categories and those 2,000 members would not have any category attribution anymore. 173 00:12:20.040 --> 00:12:23.020 But now when you delete it, you kinda get this workflow here. 174 00:12:23.560 --> 00:12:25.100 First, you get this pop up. 175 00:12:25.560 --> 00:12:29.900 It'll show you that you've selected restaurants as the top level category to be deleted. 176 00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:33.420 You also get some nice stats here. It lets you know that you have 2,000 members, 177 00:12:33.725 --> 00:12:34.765 a 88 178 00:12:34.765 --> 00:12:35.265 subcategories 179 00:12:35.645 --> 00:12:37.645 are assigned to this top level category. 180 00:12:37.645 --> 00:12:43.265 So sometimes you may think twice or it might prevent you from doing an error of accidental deletion of a category. 181 00:12:43.885 --> 00:12:45.725 But we have these two beige boxes here. 182 00:12:45.725 --> 00:12:50.780 The first one is related to what you wanna do with the members who are assigned to this category. 183 00:12:50.780 --> 00:12:51.280 So, 184 00:12:51.660 --> 00:12:55.440 the first question is assign existing members to another top level category. 185 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:57.840 By default, it's selected yes. 186 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:04.160 And then the second option here is, okay, what top cat top level category do you want 187 00:13:04.595 --> 00:13:09.655 to assign these members to? So you can choose any one of your other top level categories here. 188 00:13:10.195 --> 00:13:12.055 So maybe, you know, it could be nightlife. 189 00:13:12.435 --> 00:13:13.655 If you choose no, 190 00:13:14.035 --> 00:13:15.895 just delete the top level category. 191 00:13:16.115 --> 00:13:25.990 You will have the rogue members who aren't assigned any top level category and that second option goes away because we're not going to be choosing, an alternate top level category, 192 00:13:26.449 --> 00:13:27.990 to move these members to. 193 00:13:28.370 --> 00:13:36.365 The second beige box here is asking you what you wanna do with the sublevel categories that are already nested underneath this top level category. 194 00:13:36.665 --> 00:13:42.845 So again, by default, we've selected yes for you because this will will help prevent rogue sublevel categories. 195 00:13:43.545 --> 00:13:46.125 So what we can do is yes assign to another 196 00:13:46.640 --> 00:13:47.780 top level category. 197 00:13:49.040 --> 00:13:54.720 So we can move these sublevel categories under a new top level category and you can choose that here. 198 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:59.205 So maybe we wanna move all the restaurant top level categories under nightlife again 199 00:13:59.525 --> 00:14:02.345 and this will work just like that. If we select no, 200 00:14:03.205 --> 00:14:07.065 then it will not move the subcategories to a new top level category. 201 00:14:07.685 --> 00:14:17.350 It seems like pretty small but this is pretty big and we're also gonna be applying the same logic in the coming weeks, maybe a month or so so you can move sub level categories specifically 202 00:14:17.890 --> 00:14:21.010 under other sub level categories and things like that. 203 00:14:21.010 --> 00:14:23.830 Or you can delete sub level categories and move the members 204 00:14:24.210 --> 00:14:28.185 to other respective sub level categories as well. So we're gonna expand on this 205 00:14:28.665 --> 00:14:31.325 workflow and logic in the coming weeks and months. 206 00:14:32.904 --> 00:14:33.404 Okay. 207 00:14:33.785 --> 00:14:34.265 And, 208 00:14:34.585 --> 00:14:38.045 a few things coming down the pipeline. I've mentioned this one before. 209 00:14:38.265 --> 00:14:45.829 The ability to force log out any staff or team admins from your dashboard area so that's related to kind of a little bit more security 210 00:14:46.209 --> 00:14:51.670 in case you're afraid there was a breach or something like that, you can do a force log out of the admin account. 211 00:14:52.050 --> 00:14:54.975 This one is pretty cool and I can show you a quick demo of it. 212 00:14:55.055 --> 00:14:58.654 The ability to add images into private member chat messages. 213 00:14:58.654 --> 00:15:06.834 So if you have the private member chat add on and you are using it on your site, right now members can send plain text messages back and forth to each other. 214 00:15:07.375 --> 00:15:08.834 But here in this example, 215 00:15:09.774 --> 00:15:10.595 you can, 216 00:15:11.510 --> 00:15:12.970 let me just remove this image. 217 00:15:13.510 --> 00:15:20.970 You can, you'll have this button here to insert an image similar to the text editor but you don't need all the text editor options in a chat scenario. 218 00:15:21.190 --> 00:15:23.370 So what you can do is drop images 219 00:15:24.644 --> 00:15:25.144 here 220 00:15:25.845 --> 00:15:28.584 and, let me find one, here's a puppy. 221 00:15:29.765 --> 00:15:31.285 And you can certainly send, 222 00:15:31.685 --> 00:15:32.505 that message, 223 00:15:33.125 --> 00:15:35.545 you know, here is my kitchen, 224 00:15:36.325 --> 00:15:38.185 that we want to remodel. 225 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:44.100 So you know you can do things like that, it'll just provide a more rich experience 226 00:15:44.560 --> 00:15:46.180 for the people who are chatting 227 00:15:46.640 --> 00:15:47.540 back and forth 228 00:15:47.920 --> 00:15:49.700 to each other, being able to share 229 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:51.460 images like this. 230 00:15:52.154 --> 00:16:02.634 This is another big one, the ability to embed code from any platform into blog posts or anywhere you see the text editor and I'll kind of show you, what this is in reference to. 231 00:16:02.634 --> 00:16:05.295 We can just use the blog articles as an example. 232 00:16:06.520 --> 00:16:08.620 So right now if you're going to create a blog article, 233 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:16.620 in the text editor really all you can embed is a video embed code and it'll really only support YouTube and Vimeo. 234 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:20.620 And this is really done for the protection of your site. You don't really want members 235 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.925 embedding a code from random domain names and things like that. 236 00:16:25.145 --> 00:16:29.805 So what you're gonna have is you're gonna have an advanced setting and you can actually white list 237 00:16:30.105 --> 00:16:32.525 the domains that you want to allow 238 00:16:33.145 --> 00:16:37.165 yourself or your members to embed content from. So if you have your podcasts 239 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:40.339 or you have audio files somewhere else, 240 00:16:40.640 --> 00:16:43.540 you know, like Podbean or you know even iTunes 241 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:49.695 and things like that and there is embed code from those sources so you can embed those players on your site. 242 00:16:50.175 --> 00:16:55.875 You can white list those domains and then you can very easily embed them into the text editor. 243 00:16:56.175 --> 00:17:03.960 So if you have podcasts or things like that on on third party solutions and platforms, now you can white list those domains and easily embed them 244 00:17:04.520 --> 00:17:09.960 into your text editor here. So we'll be unlocking that functionality soon. And then here's one. 245 00:17:09.960 --> 00:17:12.700 Right now, you know, your site comes with a lot of 246 00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:14.040 default searches. 247 00:17:14.040 --> 00:17:19.099 So like keyword and location or top level category, sub level category and location. 248 00:17:19.515 --> 00:17:23.615 There haven't been any default ones available where it's keyword and category. 249 00:17:23.675 --> 00:17:24.974 So you can type a keyword 250 00:17:25.275 --> 00:17:29.455 and select a category for your member searches and then conduct a search. 251 00:17:29.675 --> 00:17:37.210 So what we're doing by default is I think we're adding just under 10 new search modules that will be available to everyone that will include 252 00:17:37.510 --> 00:17:39.929 keyword and category mixed options 253 00:17:40.390 --> 00:17:42.789 for you to choose from based on your site's needs. 254 00:17:42.789 --> 00:17:49.515 So just as an example, you'd be able to do like, you can select the one that's keyword, top level category, and location 255 00:17:49.895 --> 00:17:53.035 and have that available in your side bar so you can search members 256 00:17:53.735 --> 00:17:54.475 with that. 257 00:17:55.015 --> 00:17:59.095 And then the last one here that's coming soon, I kind of referenced it earlier. 258 00:17:59.095 --> 00:18:01.835 The ability to select these new smart lists 259 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:03.060 when you're scheduling, 260 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:06.260 your email newsletter campaign. So you can get, 261 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:09.300 a lot more granular and and have more precision 262 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.540 when you're scheduling your newsletters to really target the members with the right messaging, 263 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:16.005 that you're trying to get out to them. 264 00:18:16.565 --> 00:18:19.285 There's also a ton of stuff coming down the pipeline. 265 00:18:19.285 --> 00:18:23.065 These are just a few I wanted to mention, in this webinar Wednesday. 266 00:18:23.605 --> 00:18:28.805 What I'd like to do and I know I went at rapid speed here but, let me lower everyone's hands. 267 00:18:28.805 --> 00:18:34.240 If you have a question about any one of these, BD lab updates, either the ones that are released or coming soon, 268 00:18:34.620 --> 00:18:40.080 happy to take a question or two about that before we dive into the, the tip of the week here today. 269 00:18:40.299 --> 00:18:44.875 Let's see. We got a hand up here. How you doing, Peter? Hey. Good. How are you? Good. Good. 270 00:18:44.875 --> 00:18:48.235 Thank you, Peter. Where are you calling in from? From Sydney in Australia. So 271 00:18:48.715 --> 00:18:50.575 Good morning. Good good time in the morning. 272 00:18:50.955 --> 00:18:54.975 Hey. You know, I'm excited about the embed feature as well, so that's that's super cool. 273 00:18:55.995 --> 00:18:57.855 Just I like the smart list functionality. 274 00:18:57.914 --> 00:19:02.500 Just thinking for the future because we've got a few other parts of business, outside of the directory. 275 00:19:03.120 --> 00:19:09.440 Would there eventually be a capability to do so probably with a developer or something, but to do, like, an API connection to a smart list? 276 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:10.580 So if there were particular 277 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:19.855 members that that meet meet a certain criteria, it then allowed those to be sent over to, like, a CRM or something like when we use Pipedrive, for example, which is a Yes. 278 00:19:20.215 --> 00:19:21.655 Key room. Yes. So, 279 00:19:22.135 --> 00:19:25.595 we haven't decided how we wanna do it yet. That's a fantastic question. 280 00:19:25.975 --> 00:19:31.480 What we wanna do is kinda nail the smart list in the admin area. The next thing after that, 281 00:19:31.860 --> 00:19:36.840 we have to we have to explore what would be the easiest or most value for for the BD community. 282 00:19:36.899 --> 00:19:40.519 But just as an example, we might be looking at, like, a Zapier integration. 283 00:19:41.059 --> 00:19:41.559 Totally. 284 00:19:41.914 --> 00:19:45.855 Do that. And then I'll never yeah. Like, see, I'll never leave you guys. 285 00:19:46.715 --> 00:19:48.715 So so yeah. So what we can we can, 286 00:19:49.195 --> 00:19:52.735 you know, add Brilliant Directories as a Zapier platform solution. 287 00:19:52.794 --> 00:19:58.220 And then from there, you can, you know, map the different fields to all the different platforms they already hook up with. 288 00:19:58.220 --> 00:20:01.280 So rather than building the individual integrations ourselves, 289 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:02.420 Andre. 290 00:20:02.620 --> 00:20:09.465 I don't know if it's gonna be Zapier but something like this where we can add the most value in the in the shortest amount of time for the community. 291 00:20:09.465 --> 00:20:10.845 I was I was just googling 292 00:20:11.145 --> 00:20:11.645 Zapier 293 00:20:12.265 --> 00:20:17.304 and BD integration this morning. So, that was it was on my mind. So yeah. Do Zapier. So 294 00:20:17.945 --> 00:20:18.184 yeah. 295 00:20:18.184 --> 00:20:21.945 And and probably we're looking towards the end of the year, or the beginning of twenty twenty one. 296 00:20:21.945 --> 00:20:24.664 It's a little bit of a ways away, but six months goes pretty quick. 297 00:20:24.664 --> 00:20:31.310 But right after we nail all the stuff with the smart list and the admin, the next is, okay, how can we get these smart lists integrated with other CRMs? 298 00:20:32.170 --> 00:20:35.850 Yeah. It's good to know the future and, yeah, it's it's plenty to do before then. So that's cool. 299 00:20:35.850 --> 00:20:38.270 Thank you. Alright. You're welcome, Peter. Good stuff there. 300 00:20:38.945 --> 00:20:43.365 Alright guys thank you for those questions we'll get to some more questions in just a little bit. 301 00:20:43.985 --> 00:20:46.965 But David you've put together this fantastic presentation 302 00:20:47.745 --> 00:20:50.804 for us this week five tips for 303 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:52.080 finding new members. 304 00:20:52.080 --> 00:20:57.940 So I just wanna pass it over to you if that's okay, and you can take us into a deep dive about, some of these tips. 305 00:20:58.240 --> 00:21:00.740 Definitely. Thanks. Five tips for finding new members. 306 00:21:00.880 --> 00:21:05.220 We've touched on this subject more in a broader sense in previous webinars, 307 00:21:05.804 --> 00:21:09.985 but in this one, we're going to dive into, some pretty specific 308 00:21:10.605 --> 00:21:12.065 strategies that you can use 309 00:21:12.365 --> 00:21:20.384 to not only find new members, but also to help keep them active on your site, keep them in your community rather than kind of just 310 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:26.240 attracting new members and then hoping for the best and hoping that that they stay members on your site. 311 00:21:27.179 --> 00:21:30.960 So going into that, finding new members, it is a lot different 312 00:21:31.260 --> 00:21:33.679 than actually keeping and maintaining members 313 00:21:34.035 --> 00:21:36.695 and, and making sure that they're active within your community. 314 00:21:37.395 --> 00:21:47.880 The key here is to nurture and cultivate your members and try to make them feel like they're a vital partner, not only to to you in your website, but also within your community as a whole. 315 00:21:48.200 --> 00:21:52.220 And the key to that is earning their trust and having their best interests, 316 00:21:52.760 --> 00:22:01.275 at heart, addressing what their needs are and and how you can make their life easier, save them money, whatever your target demographic's goal may be. 317 00:22:01.355 --> 00:22:04.975 We've touched on that specific point in most of these webinars. 318 00:22:06.555 --> 00:22:09.375 And so tip number one, creating a community. 319 00:22:09.835 --> 00:22:13.615 People, they do wanna be part of something that's bigger than just themselves. 320 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:18.540 They wanna feel like they're part of kind of a social group of of like minded individuals. 321 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:21.020 Gives them the opportunity 322 00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:25.660 to bounce ideas off of one another, discuss related topics of interest, 323 00:22:26.325 --> 00:22:29.365 and creating a niche builds that community faster. 324 00:22:29.365 --> 00:22:42.870 We've often talked about the easiest way to get a new membership community or new membership website going is to focus on a specific niche rather than focusing on a broader topic, a broader audience, a broader industry. 325 00:22:43.090 --> 00:22:53.170 Focusing on that specific niche really helps you narrow down who it is you're marketing to, what specific problems or pain points they have, and how you'll be able to address those. 326 00:22:53.170 --> 00:22:59.995 So that'll really make it easier when you're starting from scratch to get that ball rolling with, with creating that community. 327 00:23:00.295 --> 00:23:03.835 And I just wanna just wanna touch on that too, David, about creating that community. 328 00:23:04.055 --> 00:23:10.130 You know, when when we're you're launching a website or, again, like a new online community or service, 329 00:23:10.990 --> 00:23:14.130 you you have to sell people. You have to get them behind your mission, 330 00:23:14.510 --> 00:23:18.190 your purpose, and what you're going to be providing to them as a solution. 331 00:23:18.190 --> 00:23:20.289 So when you when you're specialized 332 00:23:20.845 --> 00:23:27.405 and approaching those those people or those businesses or whoever your target is, it's a lot easier to land to make a, 333 00:23:27.965 --> 00:23:29.185 a meaningful and lasting 334 00:23:29.645 --> 00:23:35.400 connection when your site is specialized for them. So with with the other point you mentioned, 335 00:23:35.700 --> 00:23:40.440 when when sometimes when I ask people what who is your website for? Is it everything for everyone? 336 00:23:41.060 --> 00:23:46.360 When you're that broad, when your site is supposed to be everything for everyone, it's a lot of work for you because 337 00:23:46.715 --> 00:23:50.015 your marketing efforts will be spread too thin trying to appeal 338 00:23:50.395 --> 00:23:51.855 to everything and everyone. 339 00:23:52.715 --> 00:23:55.215 Rather than being hyper focused and specialized, 340 00:23:55.835 --> 00:24:03.830 which will give you an edge to tell people like look, this is what we're specializing in and we're gonna do x, y, and z for this specific group of people. 341 00:24:04.210 --> 00:24:14.805 And immediately that already eliminates a hurdle or roadblock for people who might have doubts or questions about joining your organization or community because you're already telling them our organization 342 00:24:15.425 --> 00:24:16.405 is for people 343 00:24:17.105 --> 00:24:19.445 or or companies like you. So 344 00:24:19.825 --> 00:24:24.485 specializing is a really really big, an important thing especially when you're starting out. 345 00:24:24.545 --> 00:24:31.400 And as you grow, you can always expand to new markets or new categories, you know, member categories and things like that. 346 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:44.855 So, if your site is if you're thinking that your site is everything for everyone, I would highly recommend rethinking your idea and find a way where you can specialize either within a certain vertical or a certain location or a combination of those two. 347 00:24:46.915 --> 00:24:49.655 And there's a great quote by Daymond John. 348 00:24:49.955 --> 00:24:53.955 If you're not familiar with the show Shark Tank, he's, an investor on the show. 349 00:24:53.955 --> 00:24:59.570 A lot of us here at PD enjoy watching it. And he said you'll get a more positive, meaningful, 350 00:24:59.870 --> 00:25:00.610 and enthusiastic 351 00:25:00.910 --> 00:25:04.290 response when you appeal to a specialized intimate community. 352 00:25:04.350 --> 00:25:10.130 So, again, that touches on focusing on that specific niche, whether it's a specific location, a specific 353 00:25:10.485 --> 00:25:11.625 professional industry, 354 00:25:12.005 --> 00:25:12.485 or, 355 00:25:12.965 --> 00:25:15.625 another type of of niche like dog owners. 356 00:25:17.125 --> 00:25:23.065 And tip number two, getting in front of these new members. The key here is really to be proactive. 357 00:25:23.480 --> 00:25:25.660 Don't wait for your members to find your website. 358 00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:28.700 You wanna be able to show up where they already are. So 359 00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:32.220 the big area for this would obviously be social media. 360 00:25:32.600 --> 00:25:33.100 Specific 361 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:34.220 target demographics, 362 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:36.140 they'll tend to 363 00:25:36.615 --> 00:25:41.115 cultivate, you know, on a specific social media platform. For example, the fitness industry, 364 00:25:41.415 --> 00:25:42.555 they're most prevalent 365 00:25:42.935 --> 00:25:44.635 on YouTube and Instagram, 366 00:25:45.015 --> 00:25:47.015 not so much on Facebook and Twitter. 367 00:25:47.015 --> 00:25:54.040 So if that's your target demographic and your target industry, then those are the platforms that you'd really wanna be focusing on. 368 00:25:54.260 --> 00:25:55.320 Some specific, 369 00:25:55.940 --> 00:25:56.840 target demographics, 370 00:25:57.300 --> 00:25:59.000 they might not be so much into, 371 00:25:59.380 --> 00:26:04.440 specific social media platforms, but they might have their own pages or groups. 372 00:26:04.500 --> 00:26:05.720 Facebook is obviously 373 00:26:06.195 --> 00:26:07.715 really expanding their groups feature. 374 00:26:07.715 --> 00:26:11.815 There's a lot of new groups out there, maybe some, forums, like, 375 00:26:12.115 --> 00:26:13.015 different subreddits. 376 00:26:13.475 --> 00:26:18.934 So there's different areas where you can find your target demographic are online, and so you wanna identify those locations 377 00:26:19.475 --> 00:26:21.490 and go directly to them. 378 00:26:22.029 --> 00:26:22.529 Another 379 00:26:22.830 --> 00:26:28.049 alternative would be for more of that professional side of the membership or or directory websites 380 00:26:28.510 --> 00:26:31.649 would be if your target demographic or industry 381 00:26:32.350 --> 00:26:39.365 is more local, if they have trade shows, conferences, or events that you can attend and spread the word that way. 382 00:26:39.825 --> 00:26:51.380 We've heard sometimes from some website owners that they kinda just set their website up and let it do its own thing, and they just start to get members signed up on it, you know, by themselves, and they don't really have to touch it. 383 00:26:51.380 --> 00:26:53.640 It's kind of a set it and forget it kinda thing. 384 00:26:54.020 --> 00:26:59.080 That has worked in the past. We typically wouldn't recommend that. It's better to be proactive 385 00:26:59.540 --> 00:27:03.045 rather than reactive and kind of just sit there and and wait for things to happen. 386 00:27:03.125 --> 00:27:09.465 Being proactive, you'll also be able to, to get feedback directly from the people who you're actually targeting. 387 00:27:10.245 --> 00:27:18.750 And then a key with this is also connecting with those influential industry leaders, finding what platforms they most utilize, and kind of piggybacking off of them. 388 00:27:19.310 --> 00:27:22.430 And and to get more specific, you know, getting in front of them, 389 00:27:22.910 --> 00:27:29.810 you know, it's you can show up on in Facebook groups and things like that, but also creating some useful assets or what we call lead magnets. 390 00:27:30.270 --> 00:27:31.330 So, you know, 391 00:27:31.895 --> 00:27:36.395 and creating lead magnets can take a lot of work but if you create just a few quality ones, 392 00:27:36.774 --> 00:27:37.995 it's like some good ebooks, 393 00:27:38.455 --> 00:27:46.955 and you have some decent landing pages on your site, you have something to put in, not only get in front of them but you have to have things to put in front of them. 394 00:27:47.620 --> 00:27:50.600 Something of value that's gonna want them to engage 395 00:27:51.059 --> 00:27:52.120 with your community. 396 00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:54.660 You definitely wanna have those assets ready. 397 00:27:54.660 --> 00:28:03.455 So you know, how to pdf's, top 10 tip pdf's or or ebooks, you can easily create a word document and save it as a PDF and make it available on your site. 398 00:28:03.995 --> 00:28:15.455 Having landing pages where they can register for things, maybe it's webinars, you know, we've talked about some of these ideas in in previous webinars, but not only get in front of them but put something in front of them that has some value 399 00:28:15.830 --> 00:28:18.330 and shows not only credibility and authority 400 00:28:18.710 --> 00:28:33.845 from your community that you're an expert or you're the place to be for a certain niche but it's also something that can you know bring them in so you have some inbound marketing and those assets are working for you to not only to get in front of them but to put things in front of them that they want and need. 401 00:28:34.304 --> 00:28:38.164 So think about what you're actually putting out there that people are gonna want. 402 00:28:38.625 --> 00:28:43.340 And then use that as your method to get in front of them. Say hey we have a new blog post. Okay. 403 00:28:43.340 --> 00:28:50.160 So you're putting the blog post into existence, and that's where you're gonna get in front of them, to to get your brand name out there. 404 00:28:50.620 --> 00:28:51.980 And that plays right in, 405 00:28:52.300 --> 00:28:57.274 to something that you can use when or if you're choosing to have brand ambassadors. 406 00:28:57.335 --> 00:29:09.674 So a brand ambassador is just simply a person with influence who will represent your community and who can help spread the word, not only online about your community and your website, but also offline. 407 00:29:10.110 --> 00:29:17.070 So this could be anyone from social media influencers, and depending on their size, that might be a little difficult to, 408 00:29:17.630 --> 00:29:23.090 to to connect with. But, you could also go with industry leaders. Going back to the professional 409 00:29:23.470 --> 00:29:25.490 directory example, if you have 410 00:29:25.924 --> 00:29:30.905 a business directory in in the medical field or, say, even in the in the law field, 411 00:29:31.525 --> 00:29:36.745 if you're able to form a connection with, say, a prominent or a successful doctor or attorney, 412 00:29:37.700 --> 00:29:39.460 they could be a a good, 413 00:29:39.860 --> 00:29:43.240 voice and and person to share your website with, 414 00:29:43.620 --> 00:29:45.640 those within their inner circle. 415 00:29:46.100 --> 00:29:48.200 Trying to, to build these ambassadors, 416 00:29:48.660 --> 00:29:50.360 you really wanna do it organically. 417 00:29:51.145 --> 00:29:53.405 You don't wanna kind of throw 418 00:29:53.785 --> 00:29:58.105 all the darts you have at the wall and and see which ones stick. Try to target them. 419 00:29:58.105 --> 00:29:59.885 Don't go for the really big fish. 420 00:30:00.025 --> 00:30:04.925 You're probably not spending your time as wisely as you could be if you're doing that. 421 00:30:04.985 --> 00:30:09.220 Go after the more attainable ones, and make sure that the people that you are targeting, 422 00:30:09.520 --> 00:30:11.539 that they do truly believe in 423 00:30:11.840 --> 00:30:15.539 your community, what it is you're offering, the niche that you're focused around. 424 00:30:15.600 --> 00:30:27.405 This could also be your existing members if you already have, some a a bit of a community built up and you notice that some of your members are really engaged and and energized by your community, 425 00:30:28.105 --> 00:30:38.205 and you notice that they have a decent following elsewhere online, you might wanna reach out to them, and see if they'd be willing to act as kind of a voice for your community. 426 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:40.520 And you can reward these ambassadors. 427 00:30:40.900 --> 00:30:48.200 It doesn't necessarily have to be with, you know, actual money, but you can provide them with either free or exclusive access 428 00:30:48.580 --> 00:30:53.625 to different areas of your website or, maybe provide them with upgraded features. 429 00:30:54.405 --> 00:30:58.565 You could also start an affiliate program. ShareASale is a great one. 430 00:30:58.725 --> 00:31:04.085 We actually have an integration with ShareASale and the BD platform, so that's really easy to set up. 431 00:31:04.085 --> 00:31:13.660 Basically, they have a link, and anytime somebody clicks on the link and they sign up on your site, they get a certain percentage of that membership sale, whatever you choose to, to set that as. 432 00:31:13.800 --> 00:31:16.380 So there's a few different ways you can go about doing this. 433 00:31:16.600 --> 00:31:25.905 It doesn't necessarily have to cost you that much money or any money at all, but I think the key here is focusing on those attainable ambassadors 434 00:31:26.205 --> 00:31:28.385 and not just looking for ambassadors 435 00:31:28.845 --> 00:31:35.585 who are outside of your community already, but also looking within your community and see who within your community 436 00:31:36.110 --> 00:31:39.970 might act as a as a good brand ambassador for you both on and offline. 437 00:31:40.430 --> 00:31:44.450 And, actually, you know, talking about brand ambassadors, you know, these are people who can, 438 00:31:45.550 --> 00:31:49.490 speak nicely about your company and and maybe get word-of-mouth referrals, 439 00:31:50.190 --> 00:31:51.250 sent to your site. 440 00:31:52.105 --> 00:31:57.005 Rather than just social media influencers and industry leaders and gurus and icons, 441 00:31:57.385 --> 00:32:03.404 some of your best brand ambassadors can be simply your founding members, the people who have been following your journey 442 00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:05.260 since since you started. 443 00:32:05.640 --> 00:32:08.620 You should hopefully have the best relationships with them, 444 00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:11.960 and they can help you get the word out about your website. 445 00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:18.540 There's no doubt that they have friends or colleagues who's who share similar interests who may want to join your community as well. 446 00:32:18.675 --> 00:32:24.835 So the founding members who first join your site, those are great and and it's actually gonna be point five here that we have in this slide. 447 00:32:24.835 --> 00:32:26.295 But building some good relationships 448 00:32:26.995 --> 00:32:39.460 because that those loyal relationships and the word-of-mouth you'll get from referrals from your founding members and if you have an ongoing practice to turn every new member into kind of a brand ambassador making them feel special. 449 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:46.740 It's gonna that's part of your marketing strategy and your marketing budget because your customer or member acquisition cost, 450 00:32:47.465 --> 00:32:54.605 if we can get them to kind of share your site whether on social media or word-of-mouth or referring people to your site, 451 00:32:55.145 --> 00:33:01.830 that's gonna save on your marketing budget when your members are perpetuating some of your marketing efforts for you. 452 00:33:01.830 --> 00:33:04.410 So that really is the goal of brand ambassadors is, 453 00:33:05.510 --> 00:33:11.290 finding and identifying people who can help perpetuate your brand's marketing efforts in a positive way, 454 00:33:12.070 --> 00:33:15.670 you know, because they they believe in your product and the community that you've created. 455 00:33:15.670 --> 00:33:18.884 So keep some of those things in mind when you're thinking about brand ambassadors. 456 00:33:19.024 --> 00:33:28.644 Think about the people close to you first, and then, of course, you can always look for gurus and icons who can, you know, give you a mention in one of their posts or or blog articles or something. 457 00:33:29.320 --> 00:33:29.640 That's right. 458 00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:35.660 And relating it back to point number two, when you do have the brand ambassadors, it's a lot easier for them to 459 00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:42.620 share your website and your community with others if they have something of value to show that your website is useful. 460 00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:44.440 So if you have, you know, those, 461 00:33:45.195 --> 00:33:45.934 those informational 462 00:33:46.235 --> 00:33:58.575 PDFs or the ebooks or videos that they can share with their followers or their community, people within their inner circle, that'll make their job a lot easier in helping to bring people over to your website. 463 00:34:00.059 --> 00:34:02.400 So tip number four, don't be afraid to upsell. 464 00:34:02.780 --> 00:34:06.559 We have touched on this a little bit in some of our previous blog articles, 465 00:34:06.940 --> 00:34:08.160 but don't think of 466 00:34:08.540 --> 00:34:11.920 upselling as, kind of trying to go after a hard sell. 467 00:34:12.234 --> 00:34:24.655 Target the members who are already happy on your website, the ones who have been with you for a while, the ones who are interacting on your site, or if you have a Facebook community to go along with your website who are interacting over there. 468 00:34:24.989 --> 00:34:25.889 Show that you're committed, 469 00:34:26.429 --> 00:34:29.810 to helping make their experience even better than it already is. 470 00:34:29.949 --> 00:34:32.050 And these upsells, they should be relevant, 471 00:34:32.750 --> 00:34:40.174 so you don't want to offer them something that's totally unrelated to your website or your community or or that target niche, 472 00:34:40.474 --> 00:34:45.454 that you're focusing on. It it should still all be within or under that same umbrella, 473 00:34:45.835 --> 00:34:47.694 and demonstrate how that upsell 474 00:34:48.074 --> 00:34:54.680 can save them time or money, or whatever benefit it is that you're marketing to your your target demographic. 475 00:34:54.739 --> 00:34:59.140 So some examples of upselling would be just the simple membership upgrade. 476 00:34:59.140 --> 00:35:02.280 If you have different levels of membership plans, 477 00:35:02.885 --> 00:35:03.385 if 478 00:35:03.685 --> 00:35:15.704 a member is either on, say, a free membership plan or maybe a lower tiered plan, you can upgrade them, offer to upgrade them even at a discount or maybe sometimes even for free, depending on the circumstance 479 00:35:16.005 --> 00:35:26.080 to your higher tier membership level so that they can unlock more features, maybe different areas of your website, whatever the differentiating factors are of your membership plans. 480 00:35:26.780 --> 00:35:30.240 Another one would be additional services. So if you're offering 481 00:35:30.735 --> 00:35:38.515 additional services outside of the website community itself so, for example, going back to the professionals directory. 482 00:35:38.655 --> 00:35:39.875 Do you have a directory 483 00:35:40.255 --> 00:35:42.435 for attorneys or law professionals? 484 00:35:43.055 --> 00:35:45.555 You can offer those attorneys not only a membership 485 00:35:46.160 --> 00:35:48.020 or listing on the website, 486 00:35:48.400 --> 00:35:51.540 but maybe you're also offering a live webinar 487 00:35:51.840 --> 00:35:57.780 showing them or giving them tips on how to attract more clients or where to go to to find 488 00:35:58.175 --> 00:35:59.555 clients that they're specifically, 489 00:36:00.255 --> 00:36:03.395 focused on in the the area of law that that they're practicing. 490 00:36:03.775 --> 00:36:06.994 So there's a few different ways you can craft these additional services 491 00:36:07.535 --> 00:36:08.515 that you're providing 492 00:36:08.815 --> 00:36:10.355 outside of the membership 493 00:36:10.734 --> 00:36:11.234 itself. 494 00:36:11.820 --> 00:36:14.080 Another one that a lot of people kind of overlook 495 00:36:14.380 --> 00:36:17.280 is the discounted lifetime plan. So with this, 496 00:36:17.820 --> 00:36:19.200 most membership websites 497 00:36:19.580 --> 00:36:22.720 offer membership plans either on a monthly 498 00:36:23.100 --> 00:36:25.265 or a yearly payment basis. 499 00:36:25.964 --> 00:36:31.404 A lot of people, especially if your community has already gotten the ball rolling and there's 500 00:36:31.885 --> 00:36:39.345 shows that there's some activity within it, they'd a lot of times, they'd rather pay an upfront fee, say, maybe a hundred dollars 501 00:36:39.690 --> 00:36:42.349 instead of $5 every single month. 502 00:36:42.730 --> 00:36:48.349 So maybe after they've signed up and they've been a member for a couple months, you might want to send them an email, 503 00:36:48.650 --> 00:36:51.230 and provide them with a special exclusive, 504 00:36:52.250 --> 00:36:55.535 plan that's not offered on the front end of your site, 505 00:36:55.994 --> 00:36:59.994 for a discounted lifetime plan so that they can save money in the long run. 506 00:36:59.994 --> 00:37:04.895 And then another one would be what's called a tripwire offer. 507 00:37:05.115 --> 00:37:09.055 So this would be something that kind of gets them in the door to your community. 508 00:37:09.410 --> 00:37:15.270 So you won't be focused on the membership plan first. You'd actually be trying to sell them, 509 00:37:15.810 --> 00:37:20.950 maybe a downloadable PDF or an ebook or a video series or a webinar, 510 00:37:21.410 --> 00:37:24.150 something on its own, an individual offering. 511 00:37:24.775 --> 00:37:28.235 And then once they see the value in that specific offering, 512 00:37:28.775 --> 00:37:35.515 maybe at the end of it, or somewhere within it, you can relate it back to your membership website, your directory website, 513 00:37:35.895 --> 00:37:39.035 and and try to move them over to your community that way. 514 00:37:39.490 --> 00:37:49.670 Actually, that tripwire method is is it's basically the goal of these lead magnets is to, you know, exchange something of value like access to a video or an ebook or or something, 515 00:37:50.050 --> 00:37:51.730 in exchange for an email address. 516 00:37:51.730 --> 00:38:04.980 And now they're now you can market to them, in the future with the things that they might be interested in with the ultimate goal of piquing their interest enough to join the community as an official member for your paid, you know, whatever your model is. 517 00:38:05.380 --> 00:38:09.400 But those tripwire offerings are are very similar to creating lead magnets 518 00:38:09.859 --> 00:38:13.960 and providing them with, something a small exchange at first 519 00:38:14.260 --> 00:38:19.060 leading up to the bigger transaction of, you know, paying for, you know, a $2,000 520 00:38:19.060 --> 00:38:24.435 yearly access to to something special on your site. So, yeah, some things to keep, in mind. 521 00:38:25.375 --> 00:38:27.695 So, yeah, here's, here's one of our blog articles. 522 00:38:27.695 --> 00:38:36.680 This was an article that we published quite a while ago, but if you wanna get a little bit more information on some upsell techniques specific for specific to membership websites. 523 00:38:36.820 --> 00:38:38.180 This might be a good one to check out. 524 00:38:38.180 --> 00:38:42.900 We talk about the benefits in manually upgrading individual members for free. 525 00:38:42.900 --> 00:38:47.720 I know it doesn't seem like it could be an upsell, but we explain how that is in the article. 526 00:38:47.945 --> 00:38:52.285 Sending out leads to the members and capitalizing on that and then also 527 00:38:52.665 --> 00:38:58.744 the kind of umbrella idea of giving them an offer they can't refuse, we expand on that idea as well in this blog article. 528 00:38:58.744 --> 00:39:03.460 So you might wanna check that out if you want to explore this topic a little bit more. And lastly, 529 00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:05.940 nurturing personal relationships. 530 00:39:06.559 --> 00:39:13.940 So this idea, I think, isn't focused a lot by smaller or new membership website owners. 531 00:39:14.160 --> 00:39:15.700 You can actually focus 532 00:39:16.265 --> 00:39:18.285 more on personal relationships 533 00:39:18.985 --> 00:39:23.165 with the smaller brand than something a big brand would be able to do. 534 00:39:23.385 --> 00:39:29.005 We see it all the time, big brands, you know, they have a lot of they have big marketing budgets and they market a lot, 535 00:39:29.305 --> 00:39:31.645 but smaller brands can actually form those 536 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.420 really intricate and and important 537 00:39:35.200 --> 00:39:39.380 personal connections with their their customers, their clients, their members. 538 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:42.339 So you can create those one on one connections 539 00:39:42.640 --> 00:39:44.500 with each and every one of your members. 540 00:39:44.694 --> 00:39:49.914 You can do this by responding to all the messages you receive, both positive and negative. 541 00:39:50.375 --> 00:39:52.954 The positive ones, obviously, you can thank them for their feedback. 542 00:39:53.494 --> 00:39:58.170 If you wanna offer them some kind of discount or upgrade as a thank you, you can do that. 543 00:39:58.250 --> 00:40:02.349 But also reply to the negative ones. We've touched on this a couple times in previous webinars 544 00:40:02.809 --> 00:40:05.470 where this is actually presents a great opportunity 545 00:40:06.170 --> 00:40:09.049 to turn a bad scenario into a good one. 546 00:40:09.049 --> 00:40:18.454 And you can do this by you know, if somebody comes to you and they're having a problem or they're not thrilled with something on your website or within your community or how something's functioning, 547 00:40:18.914 --> 00:40:23.734 you can show that you're always available there to help them. You want them to succeed. 548 00:40:24.035 --> 00:40:27.000 You wanna provide the best support that you can for them. 549 00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:31.980 And oftentimes, if you're able to make good on this, these people become the the biggest champions 550 00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:32.780 of 551 00:40:33.080 --> 00:40:35.580 your offering, your your website, your community. 552 00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:40.780 So this is actually a a really important point to, to focus on. 553 00:40:41.145 --> 00:40:45.405 And going back to the or focusing on the receiving the negative feedback, 554 00:40:45.785 --> 00:40:46.985 this is also a good, 555 00:40:47.385 --> 00:40:48.205 point where 556 00:40:48.905 --> 00:40:51.885 once you make good on that situation, 557 00:40:52.425 --> 00:40:55.165 you can then ask that person for a testimonial 558 00:40:55.465 --> 00:40:56.285 or a review 559 00:40:58.370 --> 00:40:59.510 that you can put on your site. Oftentimes, these people believe 560 00:40:59.810 --> 00:41:02.070 the best testimonials that you could ask. 561 00:41:02.930 --> 00:41:11.750 Another one would be, by default, we touched on this earlier in the webinar, but the the welcome emails, they're automatically sent out to the members when they sign up. 562 00:41:12.095 --> 00:41:13.954 They can personalize and customize 563 00:41:14.494 --> 00:41:18.194 those email templates. So make them more applicable to your members 564 00:41:18.494 --> 00:41:21.795 and your membership community. That way, it doesn't sound so, 565 00:41:22.494 --> 00:41:24.755 generic. You can also ask new members 566 00:41:25.180 --> 00:41:28.560 If they need a helping hand with anything, you can proactively do this. 567 00:41:28.620 --> 00:41:32.960 It lets them know that you're available, that you're there to help, and that you want them to succeed on your website. 568 00:41:33.660 --> 00:41:36.080 And, lastly, you can show your appreciation 569 00:41:36.620 --> 00:41:43.325 to all of your members, both new and and long term members by offering them free upgrades, holding contests. 570 00:41:43.944 --> 00:41:45.484 If you have a local website, 571 00:41:45.865 --> 00:41:47.164 maybe you wanna do meetups, 572 00:41:47.625 --> 00:41:50.924 that would be a a great form of of really strengthening 573 00:41:51.305 --> 00:41:53.244 the community aspect of your website. 574 00:41:53.780 --> 00:41:56.040 So all of this nurturing these personal relationships, 575 00:41:56.660 --> 00:42:01.560 the big thing here is that it strengthens the relationships with not only your existing members, 576 00:42:01.940 --> 00:42:04.520 but it can also act as a good lead generator 577 00:42:05.140 --> 00:42:08.040 when those existing members share their experiences 578 00:42:08.664 --> 00:42:15.005 with their friends or family, coworkers, whoever else that they know that might be interested in your website as well. 579 00:42:15.545 --> 00:42:19.944 Yeah. I think, you know, let's remember the title of this converse this, tip of the week. 580 00:42:19.944 --> 00:42:22.345 It was five tips for finding new members. 581 00:42:22.345 --> 00:42:27.500 So, you know, when we're nurturing personal relationships, that goes again ties into the brand ambassadors. 582 00:42:27.500 --> 00:42:29.520 You're gonna create good relationships. 583 00:42:29.820 --> 00:42:36.000 The more you're talking to someone or staying top of mind for someone, the more they're thinking about you, the more they might, 584 00:42:36.540 --> 00:42:40.075 talk about you to their friend, family, or or colleague. 585 00:42:40.075 --> 00:42:43.535 So nurturing these relationships and providing good vibes, 586 00:42:44.234 --> 00:42:46.654 to the people who are interested in your community, 587 00:42:47.434 --> 00:42:51.615 it goes back to that word-of-mouth and creating brand ambassadors of people who, 588 00:42:52.140 --> 00:42:54.780 you know, talk about your community. Hey, there's this cool thing out there. 589 00:42:54.780 --> 00:42:56.720 You might want to join it. I'm part of it. 590 00:42:57.260 --> 00:42:58.480 And things like that. So 591 00:42:58.859 --> 00:43:06.880 creating those relationships are built into your not only saving on your marketing budget because again, they're perpetuating some of your marketing efforts 592 00:43:07.235 --> 00:43:07.975 for you. 593 00:43:08.515 --> 00:43:11.495 But it does create loyalty and 594 00:43:13.155 --> 00:43:13.735 it definitely 595 00:43:14.595 --> 00:43:18.455 saves you from, again, the marketing budget really comes down to it becomes 596 00:43:18.755 --> 00:43:27.750 a huge savings and that's how you can build an edge over competitors who may just be spending ad dollars on Google ads and Facebook ads and Google ads and Facebook ads. 597 00:43:28.130 --> 00:43:33.250 Getting these personal relationships you can't really just pay for with a Google ad. 598 00:43:33.650 --> 00:43:37.910 And that's how you can gain an edge on lowering your overall marketing costs 599 00:43:38.445 --> 00:43:42.145 and also growing your community at the same time with people who really value 600 00:43:42.525 --> 00:43:43.985 what you're offering. So, 601 00:43:44.445 --> 00:43:48.705 yeah, all this building a community and things like that, it's really tied to, 602 00:43:49.405 --> 00:43:51.505 helping your marketing plan and turning 603 00:43:52.290 --> 00:44:00.310 the idea of good relationships with your members as part of your marketing strategy, which ultimately helps you find new members, 604 00:44:01.490 --> 00:44:02.790 as the end game here. 605 00:44:03.170 --> 00:44:06.470 That's exactly right. And I think that really ties this whole presentation 606 00:44:07.045 --> 00:44:09.785 together well going into the the final slide, 607 00:44:10.085 --> 00:44:12.745 how finding and keeping members, it requires a balance. 608 00:44:13.125 --> 00:44:15.765 A lot of strategies, they can be seen as totally separate, 609 00:44:16.245 --> 00:44:22.050 strategies for finding new members and strategies for maintaining your existing members and and keeping them happy. 610 00:44:22.270 --> 00:44:27.550 But a lot of the times, they can kind of, intertwine and work with one another. 611 00:44:27.550 --> 00:44:37.075 So the big three takeaways here are to be proactive in making those authentic connections and to build trust through those connections and to do the right thing. 612 00:44:37.075 --> 00:44:46.050 So if somebody comes to you with, less than stellar experience on your side or they're having some difficulty with with anything, maybe you wanna provide them with 613 00:44:46.530 --> 00:44:48.150 a free month of membership 614 00:44:48.690 --> 00:44:53.830 or give them a discount on one of those external services that you're offering. 615 00:44:54.050 --> 00:44:55.990 Maybe give that give it to them for free. 616 00:44:56.050 --> 00:45:01.465 If you charge for leads, maybe provide them with, you know, their next three, four, or five leads for free. 617 00:45:01.685 --> 00:45:03.385 Those small gestures, 618 00:45:04.245 --> 00:45:09.845 they really make a big impact, especially on those new members and when they're having a less than stellar experience. 619 00:45:09.845 --> 00:45:12.025 Seeing that you're proactively 620 00:45:12.325 --> 00:45:26.410 taking a step to try to right any wrongs that there are whether it's your fault or not, it really does make a big impact, and and those people can become the biggest champions of your community and act as brand ambassadors for you in the future. 621 00:45:26.875 --> 00:45:28.955 Yeah. And, again, I'm just gonna repeat what you said. 622 00:45:28.955 --> 00:45:37.215 I think the whole point of this, tip of the week here is a strong community can can help find new members for you, because those happy community members 623 00:45:37.595 --> 00:45:38.475 are going to, 624 00:45:39.280 --> 00:45:42.260 refer you and and do a lot of the heavy lifting when with word-of-mouth 625 00:45:42.640 --> 00:45:43.140 advertising, 626 00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:45.460 for for your company. So, 627 00:45:45.920 --> 00:45:48.400 yeah, all good things to to keep in mind here, David. 628 00:45:48.400 --> 00:45:52.980 And, I learned a lot of new things here today too. So, hopefully, we could take some of these 629 00:45:53.395 --> 00:45:54.695 actions here and actually, 630 00:45:55.235 --> 00:45:59.415 bake them into what we do here at Brilliant Directories as well. So thanks for sharing that, David. 631 00:46:00.115 --> 00:46:00.595 Alright. 632 00:46:01.075 --> 00:46:04.215 We're right on time here. We have time for a few questions. 633 00:46:04.515 --> 00:46:11.640 And if you have a question about your website or something that was presented on today, we'll try to get to a few questions here now. 634 00:46:11.640 --> 00:46:14.280 So we'll look for anyone who has their hands up. 635 00:46:14.280 --> 00:46:19.340 Keith was asking, how do you create an authentic connection with some with someone during, 636 00:46:19.640 --> 00:46:20.140 COVID? 637 00:46:21.414 --> 00:46:26.135 Well well, honestly, online huddles have been huge. We've all heard of Zoom now. 638 00:46:26.135 --> 00:46:30.954 I don't know how Skype missed a vote on that video conferencing, but we've all heard of Zoom now. 639 00:46:31.575 --> 00:46:34.395 And you might wanna find ways to engage your community 640 00:46:35.020 --> 00:46:39.840 with watch parties that Facebook offers or Zoom meetings and you guys can talk about a discussion. 641 00:46:40.700 --> 00:46:46.800 Anything, you know, you've created your community to help solve a problem or help connect like minded people together. 642 00:46:47.325 --> 00:46:51.345 So, you know, just like a teacher or a professor might have a lesson plan, 643 00:46:51.805 --> 00:46:56.625 what you might wanna do is schedule a time for a webinar or an online meeting, 644 00:46:57.244 --> 00:47:03.480 invite some members, you know, allow them to register, and start a discussion on a topic that may be of interest, 645 00:47:03.960 --> 00:47:05.500 to your group members. 646 00:47:06.040 --> 00:47:08.200 Not everyone has to share their video and their face. 647 00:47:08.200 --> 00:47:12.620 You can just put a photo of yourself or something like that, so if you're a little camera shy. 648 00:47:13.415 --> 00:47:16.035 But but Zoom meetings have been very popular. 649 00:47:16.495 --> 00:47:17.475 Facebook groups, 650 00:47:18.335 --> 00:47:27.155 you know, those are a great way or or another way any other group platform out there so people can start discussions and talk and and you as the, 651 00:47:27.740 --> 00:47:32.960 you know, basically the moderator or owner of the group can respond to people. So, 652 00:47:33.339 --> 00:47:37.520 anything to open a dialogue to be honest, is a great way to create, 653 00:47:38.460 --> 00:47:47.005 authentic relationships especially during, the COVID when a lot of people are most people are staying home and in front of the computer and looking for people to talk to, 654 00:47:47.464 --> 00:47:48.744 to keep their mind busy. 655 00:47:48.744 --> 00:47:54.125 So, so Keith, those are some ways to connect with people during, during this pandemic here. 656 00:47:54.680 --> 00:47:56.920 Alright guys, it was a really great webinar. 657 00:47:56.920 --> 00:48:04.940 Thank you so much to David for putting together this tip of the week and just to reiterate it really talks about how a strong and loyal community can help 658 00:48:05.320 --> 00:48:12.355 with your online marketing efforts because of the word-of-mouth advertising that these happy members, can perpetuate for you. 659 00:48:12.895 --> 00:48:14.655 Awesome lab updates coming down the line. 660 00:48:14.655 --> 00:48:18.195 Hopefully we'll definitely have more to share with you, soon. 661 00:48:18.735 --> 00:48:23.715 And then, join us in our Facebook group. You can head on over to brilliantdirectories.com 662 00:48:23.980 --> 00:48:28.320 forward slash Facebook and we'll definitely see you there, and get your questions there. 663 00:48:28.540 --> 00:48:29.840 On behalf of myself, 664 00:48:30.140 --> 00:48:34.700 David, and the entire Brilliant Directories family, thank you so much for joining us today. 665 00:48:34.700 --> 00:48:39.685 The next webinar will be in two weeks. We're actually very lucky this July we get three webinars. 666 00:48:39.905 --> 00:48:47.685 There's thirty one days in July and the first day is on this Wednesday, so we're gonna have room for three total webinars this July, very exciting. 667 00:48:47.905 --> 00:48:51.025 And I definitely look forward to seeing you guys in the next one. 668 00:48:51.025 --> 00:48:54.405 Have a wonderful day and a brilliant week. Take care guys.