WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:04.100 Alright, gang. Let's dive right into it. Welcome to another edition 2 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:08.000 of Webinar Wednesday. We've made it through another few weeks together. 3 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:10.179 It's great to be with everyone here today. 4 00:00:10.559 --> 00:00:13.455 If this is your first time joining us, welcome. 5 00:00:13.455 --> 00:00:18.835 I am Jason there on the left, and we are lucky to be joined by David Rocklin, the digital strategy 6 00:00:19.135 --> 00:00:21.535 strategist here at Brilliant Directories and so much more. 7 00:00:21.535 --> 00:00:26.320 David, thank you so much for taking the time, for joining us in the webinar today. Hey, everybody. 8 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:28.400 Glad to be back with you for another webinar Wednesday. 9 00:00:28.400 --> 00:00:36.960 We've got a great tip of the week coming up that should be helpful for every membership website owner, whether you're just starting out with your site or you've had it going for a while. 10 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:40.804 So looking forward to that. Alright. Good stuff there, David. 11 00:00:40.864 --> 00:00:46.464 And I always like to mention, if you're not already a member, please feel free to join us in our Facebook group. 12 00:00:46.464 --> 00:00:51.360 It is free to join. You can head on over to brilliantdirectories.com/Facebook. 13 00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:55.059 It's a really great way to keep in touch in between webinar Wednesdays. 14 00:00:55.600 --> 00:01:00.019 Lots of constructive conversations there every morning, people posting questions, 15 00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:03.780 strategies, and how to questions. I'm very active there, 16 00:01:04.254 --> 00:01:05.775 myself, and it's also a great place. 17 00:01:06.015 --> 00:01:09.155 That's the first place we post new updates made to the platform, 18 00:01:09.695 --> 00:01:11.135 that's in the Facebook group. 19 00:01:11.135 --> 00:01:16.354 So if you have a moment, go ahead right now and head on over to brilliantdirectories.com/facebook. 20 00:01:16.575 --> 00:01:19.315 We'll wait for you to join, and we'll meet you back here in the webinar. 21 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:23.640 Alright. And again, I do see a lot of new names and faces out there, so welcome. 22 00:01:23.860 --> 00:01:26.119 Just a little bit about webinar Wednesday. 23 00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:31.320 It's a great way for us to kinda show you some of the newer features that are built into the platform, 24 00:01:31.745 --> 00:01:35.845 but more specifically the features that can help you grow your community a bit faster. 25 00:01:36.145 --> 00:01:45.125 We like to cover topics such as how to increase your traffic, converting visitors into members, and some of the new ways to improve the navigation on your site for your members. 26 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:54.020 So if you have questions on any of these topics, or anything about your membership website, please save them, we'll try to get to as many questions as we can in today's webinar. 27 00:01:54.720 --> 00:02:00.515 All right. And the team has been busy here with quite a few lab updates to share. 28 00:02:00.655 --> 00:02:02.675 I'll do my best to stream, 29 00:02:03.055 --> 00:02:07.395 through these relatively quickly, and we'll start there right at the top 30 00:02:07.695 --> 00:02:10.915 with the ability to now manage your support tickets 31 00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:15.849 directly from your admin area. And I think this is really a big step. 32 00:02:16.150 --> 00:02:18.730 It can help you get in touch with our support team, 33 00:02:19.110 --> 00:02:22.890 a little bit quicker while you're actually working in your admin area. 34 00:02:22.950 --> 00:02:26.235 So I'd like to show you two places in the admin now where you can 35 00:02:26.635 --> 00:02:30.175 create a support ticket, and also find help documentation. 36 00:02:32.155 --> 00:02:32.655 Alright. 37 00:02:33.275 --> 00:02:44.780 So here we are in, the admin portal, and actually for most of us, who already have our site's website, not too important, but we have updated our getting started videos as of last week. 38 00:02:44.780 --> 00:02:47.360 So, for newer members there, these videos 39 00:02:47.660 --> 00:02:49.920 are more up to date to match some of the aesthetics, 40 00:02:50.380 --> 00:02:52.640 and changes made in the admin area. 41 00:02:53.260 --> 00:02:59.975 So, first thing, there is actually an updated help center pop out here. It's pretty cool. 42 00:03:00.035 --> 00:03:03.975 Depending on the page you're on, you'll see suggested articles for that page. 43 00:03:04.515 --> 00:03:10.295 And, you can also search, the entire support center here. So I'll just say, delete members. 44 00:03:10.650 --> 00:03:13.069 See what comes up. It's gonna just search the entire 45 00:03:13.530 --> 00:03:16.670 knowledge base. So here's an article on how to bulk delete members. 46 00:03:17.290 --> 00:03:28.445 So you can actually click to view the full article in the actual support center with that link there, and it'll take you there, but you can also read the article here, and I didn't know this, I just found this out today. 47 00:03:28.445 --> 00:03:30.785 You can actually click on the images here, 48 00:03:31.085 --> 00:03:36.865 and it will enlarge the images there making it a bit easier to see, and have what they look like. 49 00:03:37.430 --> 00:03:41.209 If you scroll down, and you found the article helpful, you can click helpful. 50 00:03:41.750 --> 00:03:47.190 If not, you can go back and search for a more relevant article for what you're looking for, but this is the cool part. 51 00:03:47.190 --> 00:03:48.970 You can click on not helpful, 52 00:03:49.555 --> 00:03:53.235 and it'll go ahead and create a support ticket for you. 53 00:03:53.395 --> 00:04:00.755 It'll know who you are based on the username that you're logged into the admin portal with, and it also knows the website you're currently working on. 54 00:04:00.755 --> 00:04:03.415 So you can go ahead and create a support ticket here. 55 00:04:03.620 --> 00:04:09.719 And one of my favorite things with this is you can actually include screenshots or upload attachments here as well. 56 00:04:10.019 --> 00:04:11.480 So that's pretty cool there. 57 00:04:12.099 --> 00:04:13.159 And then more importantly, 58 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:17.800 in the kind of the dashboard portal under your my account here, 59 00:04:18.115 --> 00:04:21.175 there are three key links here as well. View my websites, 60 00:04:21.954 --> 00:04:24.294 view my tickets, and create a new ticket. 61 00:04:24.675 --> 00:04:30.294 The view my websites was introduced a few webinars back, and this is the portal where you can view, 62 00:04:30.835 --> 00:04:35.540 one or multiple websites that you have, and are managing on the platform. 63 00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:41.320 So you would see a row of them here. Here's also more of the, quick start guides that we've updated. 64 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:45.780 But what you can do once you're here is right here in the main menu, those same links are repeated. 65 00:04:45.780 --> 00:04:49.080 You can view your tickets. I have some sample tickets here. 66 00:04:49.565 --> 00:04:51.805 So with this account, I've created some sample tickets. 67 00:04:51.805 --> 00:04:56.625 So this is tied to your email address that you use to log into the admin area. 68 00:04:56.685 --> 00:05:00.785 Any tickets associated with that email address would display here. 69 00:05:01.165 --> 00:05:04.305 So if you have any open tickets, you can click on view ticket. 70 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:07.060 And again, these are just some sample tickets here. 71 00:05:07.840 --> 00:05:10.180 And you can reply to your ticket, 72 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:14.020 you can view your ticket, or you can close your ticket. Pretty simple. 73 00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:20.685 In a phase two, for the replies, we're gonna be adding the ability to add attachments in your replies. 74 00:05:20.685 --> 00:05:24.865 Right now, it's just text. So, in the meantime, if you do need to send attachments, 75 00:05:25.485 --> 00:05:30.525 you can always reply to the email, response that you're getting for these tickets in your inbox. 76 00:05:30.525 --> 00:05:34.830 So, hopefully, we'll have that pushed next week, but this is really cool. 77 00:05:34.830 --> 00:05:36.610 You can see all your tickets here. 78 00:05:36.669 --> 00:05:40.770 And then, of course, this link up here is where you can create a new ticket. 79 00:05:40.830 --> 00:05:50.725 And what's really nice about this page is if you do have multiple websites here, you can select them from the drop down, or you can simply select, you know, the issue doesn't involve a specific website. 80 00:05:50.725 --> 00:05:52.185 Maybe it's an account question. 81 00:05:52.885 --> 00:05:54.905 So that's there now for everyone. 82 00:05:55.285 --> 00:05:55.604 Alright. 83 00:05:55.604 --> 00:06:02.025 Next on the list, we've added some additional search filters in the search members page of the admin area. 84 00:06:02.290 --> 00:06:03.030 Pretty cool 85 00:06:03.490 --> 00:06:07.430 stuff. You can search members who have no top or sublevel category 86 00:06:07.730 --> 00:06:09.110 assigned to their profile. 87 00:06:09.570 --> 00:06:14.310 You can search members by, their profile URL or a portion of the URL. 88 00:06:14.825 --> 00:06:18.685 And you can also check multiple membership plans at a single time, 89 00:06:19.145 --> 00:06:22.205 when you're searching for members. Let me show you how that works. 90 00:06:23.225 --> 00:06:28.445 Alright. Let's get back to my websites. We'll log back into the admin portal for this site. 91 00:06:28.790 --> 00:06:32.570 And this is going to be under members and search members. 92 00:06:34.470 --> 00:06:35.370 Okay. Great. 93 00:06:35.670 --> 00:06:37.370 So I'll start backwards here. 94 00:06:37.830 --> 00:06:42.090 So the top and top and sublevel categories, you can only search members who 95 00:06:42.445 --> 00:06:44.705 have a specific top or sublevel category. 96 00:06:44.845 --> 00:06:49.665 Now you can actually search members who do not have a top level category assigned. 97 00:06:49.885 --> 00:06:52.145 I'll just do a quick search here on this site. 98 00:06:53.805 --> 00:06:55.585 And this is really helpful because 99 00:06:56.040 --> 00:07:02.780 what you can do with this is create smart lists, and that lets you and then you can email these people like, hey, looks like you don't have 100 00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:06.520 a top level category assigned. So let's actually do that together. 101 00:07:06.520 --> 00:07:08.540 Let's create a smart list and say, 102 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:11.180 the nickname will be, no 103 00:07:12.045 --> 00:07:12.705 top level 104 00:07:13.645 --> 00:07:16.065 category. And it's a dynamic list, so, 105 00:07:16.445 --> 00:07:23.985 at once members add top level categories, they're gonna be automatically removed from this list because they no longer meet the filter criteria for that. 106 00:07:25.449 --> 00:07:26.349 Okay. Great. 107 00:07:26.729 --> 00:07:30.669 And so we have a smart list for that if we ever wanna send a newsletter 108 00:07:31.129 --> 00:07:31.870 to them. 109 00:07:32.330 --> 00:07:38.764 And then the next thing is if you search members by their subscriptions or membership plans, before you can only search by one 110 00:07:39.065 --> 00:07:41.324 plan. So you could search all your premium members. 111 00:07:41.785 --> 00:07:46.845 Let's do a quick search for premium members, and let's remove the no top level category assignment. 112 00:07:48.185 --> 00:07:49.405 And let's search. 113 00:07:50.880 --> 00:07:55.940 Okay. Great. So, we searched for one membership plan, and there are 15 results. 114 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:00.900 Now let's search for three of them together. So bronze claimed and premium. 115 00:08:01.760 --> 00:08:09.514 So maybe we have a cluster of higher tiered plans, and again, maybe you wanna make a smart list out of those higher tiered plans so you can, 116 00:08:09.895 --> 00:08:12.794 you know email them or just know who those people are 117 00:08:13.095 --> 00:08:15.675 in one group. So we could see it was 15, 118 00:08:16.215 --> 00:08:21.655 and now we have 10,000 results. I guess most of the people on this site are part of the bronze plan. 119 00:08:21.655 --> 00:08:22.474 Let's actually 120 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.700 remove that and search just premium and claimed. 121 00:08:27.280 --> 00:08:32.240 Great. So there's 17 members who are either a premium or claimed listing plan. 122 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:37.184 And again, you can go ahead and create a smart list from a filter like this if you wanted to. 123 00:08:37.664 --> 00:08:43.845 Now the last thing, I'm gonna show you two, two benefits of this. Let's go to Enrique Price's 124 00:08:44.145 --> 00:08:47.445 sample pager. These are just some sample profiles we have here. 125 00:08:47.985 --> 00:08:52.485 Okay. Great. So we could see, his URL here because now you can search members 126 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:55.620 by their URL. So let's just search for, 127 00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:00.100 we'll do half price and half home services here. 128 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:02.820 And I'll clear all these. 129 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:05.220 K. 130 00:09:05.675 --> 00:09:09.454 So let's search by the URL. You could do it right in the name field here, 131 00:09:10.235 --> 00:09:13.935 and here he is. Now I mentioned this in the Facebook group. 132 00:09:14.235 --> 00:09:23.670 When members sign up to your site, and even if they verify their email address, a temporary profile profile URL is created for them. 133 00:09:23.889 --> 00:09:25.990 Sometimes members in rare cases 134 00:09:26.450 --> 00:09:31.190 will sign up for free, verify their email address, and add absolutely nothing else. 135 00:09:31.705 --> 00:09:35.945 In that case, a profile URL is is generated by the system for them. 136 00:09:35.945 --> 00:09:40.825 The URL is something like pro, and then a time stamp of the date and time that they signed up. 137 00:09:40.825 --> 00:09:42.125 So it'll be the year, 138 00:09:42.585 --> 00:09:45.885 the month, you know, and a a series of numbers. 139 00:09:46.200 --> 00:09:48.860 So if we ever wanna find members who have, 140 00:09:49.960 --> 00:09:50.460 basically 141 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:57.900 pro and 20 in their URL, these would be people who have not even saved the first name, last name, or company name 142 00:09:58.845 --> 00:09:59.725 to their listing. 143 00:09:59.725 --> 00:10:08.285 These are people who have effectively abandoned their their profile from the sign up process, but we either wanna reach out to them or we wanna get them off our books from the site. 144 00:10:08.285 --> 00:10:11.345 So what you can do is create a smart list of these people. 145 00:10:11.820 --> 00:10:15.360 I don't know if there's any on this sample site here, but let's just do a quick search. 146 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:20.300 There are some here, and we can see that these are, 147 00:10:20.700 --> 00:10:23.840 inactive members, probably test sign ups that happen. 148 00:10:24.245 --> 00:10:27.464 In this case, they haven't even verified their email address. 149 00:10:28.005 --> 00:10:32.345 So what we might wanna do is either create a smart list from these people, 150 00:10:32.885 --> 00:10:33.785 and we'll say, 151 00:10:35.685 --> 00:10:36.584 never saved 152 00:10:38.084 --> 00:10:39.065 member information. 153 00:10:40.930 --> 00:10:42.210 So I can create a smart list from them. 154 00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:48.230 I can email all of them so they're like, hey, it looks like you'd never came back to our site, you know, try, you know, come back. 155 00:10:48.370 --> 00:10:53.190 Or the easiest thing if you wanna clean your books is just you can bulk delete these members. 156 00:10:53.265 --> 00:10:56.325 So I would just select the bulk action, and just remove them. 157 00:10:56.385 --> 00:11:04.145 Just double check that, they are in fact kinda like test members or people who have abandoned their sign up, and they're not actually, 158 00:11:04.705 --> 00:11:06.885 real members. Someone might have, 159 00:11:08.150 --> 00:11:13.030 it could be this pro 20 could be part of a real URL that they might have part of their string. 160 00:11:13.030 --> 00:11:16.790 It's not always, it's people who haven't signed, completed their profile. 161 00:11:16.790 --> 00:11:21.690 So, just some tips there and, new search member filters there. Pretty awesome. 162 00:11:21.894 --> 00:11:24.555 This next one is a quality of life update. 163 00:11:25.015 --> 00:11:31.995 In the admin area under edit post settings, you can now click directly to see the group of posts related to that post type. 164 00:11:32.375 --> 00:11:35.675 This would be under my content, edit post settings. 165 00:11:37.589 --> 00:11:42.630 And once your post settings are set up, you don't normally come, to this area, but, in some cases you might. 166 00:11:42.630 --> 00:11:46.890 We do show you how many posts are under each post type. So digital products. 167 00:11:47.510 --> 00:11:49.910 In this case, let's look at blog articles. There are six. 168 00:11:49.910 --> 00:11:53.005 And this used to just be a badge, but now it is clickable. 169 00:11:53.005 --> 00:11:56.225 This was a suggestion from the Facebook group, so thank you very much. 170 00:11:56.845 --> 00:12:02.204 And it takes you directly to your manage post page, and it's pre filtered for blog articles. 171 00:12:02.204 --> 00:12:04.620 So we can see the six blog articles here. 172 00:12:05.740 --> 00:12:06.240 Alright. 173 00:12:06.620 --> 00:12:11.600 Next on the list, you now have the ability to copy text label variables 174 00:12:12.220 --> 00:12:17.760 and also restore the default text labels. So again, just a little bit more quality of life update 175 00:12:18.285 --> 00:12:21.345 here. You can go to settings and text labels. 176 00:12:23.325 --> 00:12:25.725 And we can see here what the system variable is. 177 00:12:25.725 --> 00:12:30.065 So if you wanted to use the text label, in coding or on a page, 178 00:12:30.524 --> 00:12:32.940 you can quickly copy the text label here, 179 00:12:33.660 --> 00:12:36.080 And then, you could paste it if you needed to 180 00:12:36.460 --> 00:12:40.160 into a page or your code. So it'll kind of reduce user errors, 181 00:12:40.540 --> 00:12:42.000 in typing these out manually. 182 00:12:42.460 --> 00:12:45.360 And if you wanted to, you could always restore, 183 00:12:45.795 --> 00:12:49.175 the default value clicking this kinda the sync icon here. 184 00:12:49.635 --> 00:12:52.995 And it'll just confirm your action and it'll just reset it there. 185 00:12:52.995 --> 00:12:54.915 When you do that, you still need to save your changes. 186 00:12:54.915 --> 00:12:59.095 So in case you do that by accident or just messing around with it and you wanted it previously, 187 00:12:59.570 --> 00:13:02.310 just refresh your page, don't save your final changes. 188 00:13:03.410 --> 00:13:08.050 Alright. This one I'm really really excited about. It's gonna be a two phase update. 189 00:13:08.050 --> 00:13:09.350 Phase one is complete. 190 00:13:09.730 --> 00:13:15.110 You can now view more statistics about each post in the manage posts area. 191 00:13:15.785 --> 00:13:19.725 So we can head on over there together, and let's go to manage posts. 192 00:13:20.985 --> 00:13:25.644 And I think I have a post that has some good stats with it. Let me go to 193 00:13:26.024 --> 00:13:26.764 the website 194 00:13:27.225 --> 00:13:28.605 blog articles here. 195 00:13:30.090 --> 00:13:30.910 Okay. Perfect. 196 00:13:31.930 --> 00:13:36.270 So what we have here are more indicators. Here's an example of just a sample post. 197 00:13:36.650 --> 00:13:46.625 If you have the profile analytics or the bookmark my favorites add on, and the post has views as well as any bookmarks if anyone saved or liked the post. 198 00:13:47.005 --> 00:13:48.945 You can now see the count here. 199 00:13:49.805 --> 00:13:54.145 And then also if the post has any comments, if you're using the community comments, 200 00:13:54.605 --> 00:13:59.310 feature, and the post has comments, you can see it here as well. 201 00:13:59.690 --> 00:14:02.670 So phase one was getting the data to display here. 202 00:14:03.050 --> 00:14:06.970 In phase two, what's really cool is we're gonna add a sort by option. 203 00:14:06.970 --> 00:14:09.550 So you can sort your post by most views, 204 00:14:10.005 --> 00:14:11.785 most bookmarks, most comments, 205 00:14:12.165 --> 00:14:19.765 and that'll kinda give you a pulse as to the content that's most popular on your site or that visitors are interacting with the most. 206 00:14:19.765 --> 00:14:26.360 So we're excited to to do that, and that might lead to a phase three where you can you'll be able to click to the comments. 207 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:29.580 You'll be able to see which members bookmarked a specific post. 208 00:14:30.040 --> 00:14:34.300 And then we also wanna extend this eventually to the search members page. 209 00:14:34.839 --> 00:14:38.825 Again, with the profile analytics add on is showing you here 210 00:14:39.205 --> 00:14:42.645 just a quick stat of how many profile views the member has. 211 00:14:42.645 --> 00:14:46.025 So that's a really good retention tool if the member is thinking about canceling. 212 00:14:46.325 --> 00:14:54.980 Having that profile analytics gives you a little bit of data in your back pocket that you can kinda share with them to show them the value of their listing if it ever comes to that. 213 00:14:55.280 --> 00:14:58.580 Alright. And then the last thing also shared in the Facebook group. 214 00:14:58.640 --> 00:15:03.780 Again, more quality of life updates here. The ability to drag your homepage sections, 215 00:15:04.145 --> 00:15:07.205 and let It's better to be for me to show you this than explain it. 216 00:15:07.585 --> 00:15:09.765 This is gonna be in the design settings, 217 00:15:11.585 --> 00:15:13.125 and under home page, 218 00:15:13.905 --> 00:15:19.360 what this is with regard to are the additional sections of your home page. 219 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:23.780 So on your home page, you have your hero section, and then you can stream additional, 220 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:26.260 content on your home page. 221 00:15:26.640 --> 00:15:31.300 And prior to now, if I wanted to move, for example, my newest blog articles 222 00:15:31.625 --> 00:15:38.045 to be at the top, I'd have to manually move the sections 1 x 1, which is fine, but a bit cumbersome. 223 00:15:38.345 --> 00:15:44.045 And again, thanks to your suggestions in the Facebook group, under the enable additional sections here, 224 00:15:44.920 --> 00:15:47.320 So there's section one, two, three, four. 225 00:15:47.320 --> 00:15:50.860 But before I'd have to just change each one and move them down. 226 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:58.700 Now I can move section five to the number one spot. I can move streaming members to the last spot, 227 00:15:59.205 --> 00:16:04.505 and just kind of move them around like that. So let's just save the changes here. So streaming, 228 00:16:04.885 --> 00:16:07.545 articles should be there, and members should be last. 229 00:16:08.565 --> 00:16:13.145 And, we can test that out. So these members should be last after this saves. 230 00:16:15.530 --> 00:16:17.310 Okay. And just refresh the homepage. 231 00:16:19.370 --> 00:16:19.870 Great. 232 00:16:20.250 --> 00:16:22.830 So the member articles are at the top now, and, 233 00:16:23.450 --> 00:16:25.130 the recent members are at the bottom. 234 00:16:25.130 --> 00:16:31.485 So pretty self explanatory there, but that is now available so you can configure your homepage a bit quicker there. 235 00:16:32.345 --> 00:16:36.925 Some cool items coming down the line. We've been mentioning these, and they're just on the cusp. 236 00:16:37.065 --> 00:16:42.500 Better design for newsletter as well as how we present you stats with the campaigns that you send. 237 00:16:43.040 --> 00:16:48.340 Additional custom content on home pages, I can actually go back here. Right now with your home page, 238 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:49.620 you can select, 239 00:16:50.160 --> 00:16:52.500 one thing for custom home page content. 240 00:16:52.745 --> 00:16:57.565 We're gonna change this from one to five options for custom content on your homepage. 241 00:16:58.024 --> 00:17:09.089 So you can have custom content in section one, and then stream events, stream coupons, and then you can, if you wanted to, have another custom content section in section four and so on. 242 00:17:09.089 --> 00:17:11.270 So you're gonna have up to five custom content, 243 00:17:12.210 --> 00:17:12.710 modules 244 00:17:13.010 --> 00:17:15.589 for your home page if you wanted to use that. 245 00:17:16.130 --> 00:17:19.430 We are continuing to work on Google page speed updates. 246 00:17:19.865 --> 00:17:22.765 Round one was completed last month in May, 247 00:17:23.065 --> 00:17:26.365 organizing and delivering JavaScript and CSS a bit more, 248 00:17:27.385 --> 00:17:27.885 efficiently. 249 00:17:28.265 --> 00:17:37.779 And now we're working on two more things, the response times, initial response times that the sites load with, and also deferring image loading, using lazy load images. 250 00:17:38.080 --> 00:17:39.700 Those two things should dramatically, 251 00:17:40.159 --> 00:17:43.860 improve scores across all BD sites. So we're excited about that. 252 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:48.665 Additionally, the ability to exclude smart lists when you're sending newsletters. 253 00:17:48.665 --> 00:17:49.885 Right now, you can choose 254 00:17:50.185 --> 00:17:52.425 smart list to include when you're sending newsletters. 255 00:17:52.425 --> 00:17:59.885 You can also choose to exclude newsletters, give you a little bit more granular control over the contacts receiving an email. 256 00:18:00.230 --> 00:18:03.530 We're improving the workflow for matching member leads. 257 00:18:03.750 --> 00:18:07.510 And as always, we're just continuing to push, more and more updates. 258 00:18:07.510 --> 00:18:11.350 And especially thank you guys for all the suggestions in the Facebook group. 259 00:18:11.350 --> 00:18:15.050 It's really helping to shape the product nicely. So thank you so much. 260 00:18:15.765 --> 00:18:17.785 Alright. Well, that was a mouthful. 261 00:18:18.005 --> 00:18:26.025 Before we move on to the tip of the week, maybe we can if anyone has any questions about these updates, we could take a question or two, 262 00:18:26.325 --> 00:18:29.330 or comments are fine as well. Alright. We got, 263 00:18:29.810 --> 00:18:30.310 Colette. 264 00:18:30.770 --> 00:18:35.730 How are you, Colette? Hi, Jason. I'm well. How are you? We are doing great here. Thank you so much. 265 00:18:35.730 --> 00:18:38.150 What's, question or comment about the updates? 266 00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:38.930 Good. 267 00:18:38.930 --> 00:18:44.445 Well, I was interested to see this because I submitted a ticket about half an hour ago, so it's perfect timing. 268 00:18:45.145 --> 00:18:47.485 Under the search members in the admin panel, 269 00:18:48.025 --> 00:18:50.605 you can search by top category and then subcategory, 270 00:18:51.465 --> 00:18:52.845 but not sub sub, 271 00:18:53.600 --> 00:18:58.100 which is a pity because I want to search for all builders and make a smart list, 272 00:18:59.040 --> 00:19:02.500 but I can only get to trades and services and not get into, 273 00:19:03.520 --> 00:19:04.500 the sub subcategories 274 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.745 there. Is this a possibility of adding 275 00:19:08.205 --> 00:19:10.764 adding to that? I don't think it's a possibility. 276 00:19:10.764 --> 00:19:15.904 I think it's something we should definitely do, that you mentioned it because when you select your top level category, 277 00:19:17.245 --> 00:19:21.920 when the sublevel categories only populate when you do your top level categories. 278 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:26.500 So it would only naturally make sense to after you select a sublevel category, 279 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:29.700 the system does support sub sub levels. So, 280 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:32.955 having that there. I'll make a note here and, 281 00:19:33.395 --> 00:19:38.195 we'll see about putting that in the mix for an upcoming push. So thank you so much, Colette. Great. 282 00:19:38.195 --> 00:19:40.615 Great suggestion there. Thanks, Jason. You're welcome. 283 00:19:41.235 --> 00:19:42.755 Alright. So lots of lab updates. 284 00:19:42.755 --> 00:19:47.640 Thank you all for your suggestions, and we have a pretty awesome tip of the week here. 285 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:49.800 David, you created this here. 286 00:19:49.800 --> 00:19:54.860 We were talking back and forth a bit, and we thought it'd be a good idea to get back to, fundamentals. 287 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.740 So if it's okay with you, may I pass it over to you, David? Yeah. Definitely. 288 00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:02.860 So the majority of websites here are successful, 289 00:20:03.415 --> 00:20:06.055 but some websites never seem to get off the ground. 290 00:20:06.055 --> 00:20:09.195 So, we thought we would kind of take everything back to the basics 291 00:20:09.495 --> 00:20:13.355 down to the ground level and address some reasons why some websites 292 00:20:13.975 --> 00:20:15.355 may not get off the ground. 293 00:20:15.700 --> 00:20:16.200 Oftentimes, 294 00:20:16.660 --> 00:20:19.140 it can be solved using simple solutions. 295 00:20:19.140 --> 00:20:22.840 So hopefully, we'll help give you guys some ideas whether your website, 296 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:25.240 has been a success or it hasn't. 297 00:20:25.380 --> 00:20:36.745 If it's a new website or a website that's been online for quite a while already, we should have some, some interesting ideas and solutions in here that maybe you can implement into, the management of your website. 298 00:20:37.125 --> 00:20:39.625 So the first slide here, don't spin your wheels. 299 00:20:39.924 --> 00:20:46.710 As I mentioned, some sites never seem to get off the ground just like, any business or any venture, But the majority of sites here do. 300 00:20:46.710 --> 00:20:49.670 But we've noticed a few things in common with the websites that don't. 301 00:20:49.670 --> 00:20:53.050 So we wanted to address those and and hopefully change that in the future. 302 00:20:53.190 --> 00:20:55.050 So some of the most popular reasons 303 00:20:55.510 --> 00:20:59.235 why websites might not get off the ground is due to perpetual 304 00:20:59.695 --> 00:21:00.895 never ending development. 305 00:21:00.895 --> 00:21:10.275 Kind of getting stuck in this development loop where they feel need to keep iterating and and making changes to the website prior to launch in order to make it perfect. 306 00:21:10.575 --> 00:21:13.475 And that's a good goal to have to have your website perfect. 307 00:21:13.850 --> 00:21:18.830 But when you're first launching, that's not always necessary, and oftentimes, it can be a hindrance. 308 00:21:19.290 --> 00:21:21.710 This kind of goes right in with, overthinking 309 00:21:22.090 --> 00:21:25.550 website features or benefits to include in your membership plans. 310 00:21:26.115 --> 00:21:30.375 Obviously, you do wanna have a solid foundation when you're launching, but the goals initially 311 00:21:30.915 --> 00:21:32.935 shouldn't be to get it 100% 312 00:21:33.155 --> 00:21:34.215 absolutely perfect. 313 00:21:34.515 --> 00:21:37.155 As long as you have the basics down, you can launch. 314 00:21:37.155 --> 00:21:43.100 You can get great early feedback, which we'll talk about coming up in this webinar, And that can help you move forward with your website, 315 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:44.780 and make some great improvements. 316 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:47.660 Other than the features side of things, 317 00:21:47.960 --> 00:21:54.940 maybe you do have all the features and benefits and everything that your target demographic is looking for in a website or a membership community. 318 00:21:55.235 --> 00:22:00.195 But maybe those benefits and features just aren't being communicated effectively to them. 319 00:22:00.435 --> 00:22:03.255 So that could be something to address and look into. 320 00:22:03.395 --> 00:22:09.575 On the opposite side of that, maybe your website isn't totally meeting the needs of your target demographic. 321 00:22:10.190 --> 00:22:22.590 It's really important to put yourself in the shoes of your prospective members and really understand what exactly it is they're looking for in a membership community or, whatever product or service it is that you're offering. 322 00:22:22.590 --> 00:22:30.965 So as long as you can, you have a complete understanding of what they're looking for, and you're able to effectively message that to them, then that should be a winning combination. 323 00:22:31.345 --> 00:22:35.684 And you might have that, and you might have the website built and online, 324 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:38.880 but maybe your members just aren't signing up. 325 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:42.900 Maybe they just don't know about your website, so that might be due to a lack of marketing, 326 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:46.340 something very simple. So we'll address that as well. 327 00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:50.320 The big key thing here, though, is even if your site isn't 100% 328 00:22:50.320 --> 00:22:55.865 ready prior to launch, you should still go ahead and launch it as long as you have the basic groundwork done. 329 00:22:56.005 --> 00:23:00.505 And then you can get some great early feedback from your website visitors, your perspective members, 330 00:23:00.805 --> 00:23:06.350 and make the necessary changes that they're telling you they wanna see. I'm a big advocate for 331 00:23:07.450 --> 00:23:08.590 reaching 80%. 332 00:23:08.810 --> 00:23:12.570 You know, having a strong phase one of something, whatever it could be. 333 00:23:12.570 --> 00:23:14.190 It could be cleaning or reorganizing 334 00:23:14.730 --> 00:23:16.270 a closet in your room. 335 00:23:16.330 --> 00:23:21.885 Getting it to 80 or a phase one will really help you knock out and complete tasks a lot quicker. 336 00:23:22.105 --> 00:23:26.425 It takes a little bit of the pressure off, and it also helps you move forward, with something. 337 00:23:26.425 --> 00:23:32.765 And, again, launching is the most important thing. So editing and cutting back can help you get to, 338 00:23:33.145 --> 00:23:34.765 the phase one version of whatever 339 00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:38.680 task or thing you're trying to put out there, for the world. 340 00:23:38.680 --> 00:23:44.540 So don't be afraid or ashamed of 80%, and don't let a perfect be the enemy of good as they say. 341 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:47.340 So one of our previous webinars, we discussed 342 00:23:47.745 --> 00:23:51.205 the value of early member feedback and how to go about getting that. 343 00:23:51.425 --> 00:23:58.805 So I'll post the link here in the chat linking to, our previous tip of the week, why you need early user feedback, 344 00:23:59.345 --> 00:24:03.180 the value of early member feedback, why every membership program needs a beta launch. 345 00:24:03.420 --> 00:24:08.500 We, dive a little bit into the benefits of having a beta launch, how to actually roll one out. 346 00:24:08.780 --> 00:24:11.980 I know that could be a little confusing, kind of not knowing where to start with that. 347 00:24:11.980 --> 00:24:14.000 So we dive a little bit into that as well. 348 00:24:14.300 --> 00:24:16.160 This could be a a great resource, 349 00:24:16.460 --> 00:24:18.400 if you're just starting out with your website. 350 00:24:18.875 --> 00:24:26.155 And if your website hasn't gotten off the ground yet and you're not exactly sure why, a simple change in mindset could be all you need. 351 00:24:26.155 --> 00:24:33.775 A website, like any venture, as long as the goal is to generate revenue, then you should be treating your website as a business. 352 00:24:33.930 --> 00:24:40.190 And so we've come up with, this fundamental four, which are are four things you should do to effectively run 353 00:24:40.490 --> 00:24:44.350 a a membership website. And that's bring awareness to your product, 354 00:24:44.730 --> 00:24:46.665 convince prospects to buy. 355 00:24:46.905 --> 00:24:51.405 Once they are convinced, then to actually be able to convert them into members, 356 00:24:51.785 --> 00:24:57.565 and then, of course, to deliver on their expectations in order to maintain them as paying members on your website. 357 00:24:58.105 --> 00:25:01.405 So the goal here is to adopt the business mindset 358 00:25:01.780 --> 00:25:03.240 in order to grow your website. 359 00:25:03.540 --> 00:25:06.360 So number one, bringing awareness to your product. 360 00:25:06.580 --> 00:25:09.559 The most important thing is to target the right group of people, 361 00:25:09.940 --> 00:25:16.695 and not to wait for them to find us, but to actually get out in front of them and show up where they already are. 362 00:25:16.774 --> 00:25:20.475 So a really easy way to do this is to target them on social media. 363 00:25:20.855 --> 00:25:22.634 If we have a target demographic, 364 00:25:23.014 --> 00:25:27.995 a certain type of member who we want to register on our website as a member, 365 00:25:28.695 --> 00:25:32.550 who our entire community is built around, They're probably 366 00:25:32.930 --> 00:25:33.430 interacting 367 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:35.910 on a specific social network. 368 00:25:36.290 --> 00:25:40.790 LinkedIn is very popular for professionals or business oriented 369 00:25:41.250 --> 00:25:42.470 individuals or industries, 370 00:25:43.170 --> 00:25:43.670 Instagram 371 00:25:44.265 --> 00:25:48.125 for maybe designers, the fitness industry, things like that. 372 00:25:48.345 --> 00:25:51.725 So these different industries and these target these different target demographics 373 00:25:52.345 --> 00:25:55.885 tend to spend the majority of their time in one area online. 374 00:25:56.340 --> 00:25:58.919 So if you can get into that space 375 00:25:59.299 --> 00:26:02.980 and get out in front of them, that would be a huge benefit to you. 376 00:26:03.220 --> 00:26:05.960 It might not be an entire platform itself. 377 00:26:06.660 --> 00:26:09.640 Facebook has a lot of groups and pages now. 378 00:26:09.835 --> 00:26:18.015 If you can join a specific group of people who may be perfect for your website, then maybe you wanna join that group and get out in front of them that way. 379 00:26:18.235 --> 00:26:19.055 Some industries 380 00:26:19.355 --> 00:26:22.655 work better on a local level, not necessarily online. 381 00:26:23.010 --> 00:26:31.410 So if that's the case, maybe you wanna go down, and join a a trade show or go to a conference or any other sort of event and spread the word that way. 382 00:26:31.410 --> 00:26:34.230 We had Corey Barnes on a couple webinars, 383 00:26:34.610 --> 00:26:38.605 and that's worked really well for him. I believe he was in the the Chattanooga 384 00:26:39.065 --> 00:26:42.205 area, and spreading the word about his membership community, 385 00:26:42.745 --> 00:26:44.684 both online in Facebook groups, 386 00:26:44.985 --> 00:26:46.445 but also in person, 387 00:26:46.904 --> 00:26:53.419 was a great way for him to bring new members in, but also really form a strong sense of community with those members. 388 00:26:54.279 --> 00:26:57.580 Another great way to bring people in is to demonstrate your authority, 389 00:26:58.120 --> 00:27:03.659 in whatever industry that you may be in. So you can do this by sharing ideas, solutions, advice, 390 00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:12.435 helpful pieces of content online, whatever it may be, to build trust with people who may not be aware of who you are, who who your website is yet. 391 00:27:12.515 --> 00:27:21.815 But if they're receiving valuable information from you for free, that might be an easy way to kind of hook them in and then get them to, to sign up to one of your membership plans eventually. 392 00:27:22.309 --> 00:27:24.809 And lastly, you can always connect with influential 393 00:27:25.350 --> 00:27:26.330 industry leaders, 394 00:27:26.710 --> 00:27:27.210 influencers. 395 00:27:27.830 --> 00:27:31.050 They typically have a large following of people who trust them. 396 00:27:31.350 --> 00:27:34.365 So you might wanna start with the smaller fish. 397 00:27:34.605 --> 00:27:39.985 In this case, if your website's brand new and you don't have much social proof behind you yet, 398 00:27:40.365 --> 00:27:45.425 but this would be a great way to kind of piggyback off of somebody who already has an established following 399 00:27:45.885 --> 00:27:49.025 and, has credibility and has built trust with their followers. 400 00:27:49.480 --> 00:27:50.919 Something I I really like on this list. 401 00:27:50.919 --> 00:27:54.940 Two things, the demonstrate your authority by focusing on on sharing ideas. 402 00:27:55.399 --> 00:28:00.059 People don't want to be sold to. They wanna be inspired and enlightened. 403 00:28:00.360 --> 00:28:04.700 And the best way to do that is, again, to share your ideas and and why you know 404 00:28:05.025 --> 00:28:09.205 the information that they're after and and how, they can look at you, 405 00:28:09.585 --> 00:28:10.965 as a beacon of information, 406 00:28:11.665 --> 00:28:14.065 for that industry or the community you're serving. 407 00:28:14.065 --> 00:28:18.220 And then the second thing what David said about connecting with influential industry leaders. Yeah. 408 00:28:18.220 --> 00:28:21.280 If you're starting out, you probably don't wanna go after the a listers. 409 00:28:21.660 --> 00:28:25.760 You might wanna go after the c or b listers right now who are also up and coming. 410 00:28:26.060 --> 00:28:27.120 They'll be more approachable. 411 00:28:27.260 --> 00:28:32.880 They'll probably respond to messages, and they're probably just as hungry as you are to gain some traction. 412 00:28:33.514 --> 00:28:37.914 Rub two nickels together, two pennies together to make a nickel, whatever the saying is, and, 413 00:28:38.794 --> 00:28:39.595 and to grow. 414 00:28:39.595 --> 00:28:45.960 So connecting with, influencers or influential industry leaders that are not the A listers just yet, 415 00:28:46.360 --> 00:28:50.860 might be a better way to get your foot in the door and to work together with them. 416 00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:53.820 Absolutely. So moving on to number two. 417 00:28:53.960 --> 00:28:58.059 Once we, have cultivated some awareness and we brought people to our website, 418 00:28:58.360 --> 00:29:00.675 then how do we actually convince them to buy? 419 00:29:00.755 --> 00:29:06.295 So prospective members, they need to know that they're going to see results if we're trying to make money from them. 420 00:29:06.435 --> 00:29:10.935 We're asking them to pay us for some sort of service or product. 421 00:29:11.155 --> 00:29:14.615 They need to be getting something out of it. Their money needs to be worth something. 422 00:29:14.920 --> 00:29:18.460 We can help build that trust and credibility with these prospects 423 00:29:18.840 --> 00:29:22.140 by addressing their possible concerns and doubts. This goes back into, 424 00:29:22.600 --> 00:29:23.580 wholly understanding 425 00:29:24.040 --> 00:29:25.340 what our target demographics, 426 00:29:25.800 --> 00:29:26.300 concerns, 427 00:29:26.760 --> 00:29:27.260 needs 428 00:29:27.560 --> 00:29:30.105 are, and what solutions we can provide them with. 429 00:29:30.184 --> 00:29:33.804 And then an important thing is providing social proof. 430 00:29:33.865 --> 00:29:36.205 We've mentioned this in several webinars in the past. 431 00:29:36.424 --> 00:29:43.785 If you already have some members signed up on your site, you can ask them for reviews or testimonials, and you can sprinkle those throughout your website. 432 00:29:43.785 --> 00:29:45.325 You can place one in a sidebar 433 00:29:45.910 --> 00:29:49.210 on, one of your checkout pages or sign up pages. 434 00:29:49.590 --> 00:29:53.210 You can place them right on your pricing page as well where you're listing, 435 00:29:53.590 --> 00:29:55.430 all your different membership plans. 436 00:29:55.430 --> 00:30:02.955 So there's a few areas on your website where you can sprinkle testimonials and case studies so that people understand that your solution, your product, your service 437 00:30:03.495 --> 00:30:08.795 is working for other people similar to them. You can also provide live demos or video tutorials. 438 00:30:09.255 --> 00:30:11.835 Something as simple as recording your screen, 439 00:30:12.190 --> 00:30:14.610 showing them how your website works, 440 00:30:14.910 --> 00:30:17.810 what's offered within your, membership community. 441 00:30:18.110 --> 00:30:21.070 Just hearing somebody's voice is a huge selling point. 442 00:30:21.070 --> 00:30:29.385 It lets them know that there actually are people on the other end of the website managing it, running it, making sure everything goes smoothly, and who care about their members. 443 00:30:29.684 --> 00:30:31.845 So that could be a huge boost for you. 444 00:30:31.845 --> 00:30:38.325 If you don't wanna have an actual video where, where you're talking to a camera and everything, a simple screen recording would be fine. 445 00:30:38.325 --> 00:30:39.544 If there are competitors 446 00:30:39.845 --> 00:30:40.745 in your industry, 447 00:30:41.250 --> 00:30:44.630 similar websites or similar membership communities, you can always compare 448 00:30:44.930 --> 00:30:47.970 to them and place that comparison right on your website. 449 00:30:47.970 --> 00:30:52.450 Make it known what features you have that they don't or what benefits you have that they don't. 450 00:30:52.450 --> 00:30:54.710 Maybe you maybe you're undercutting them on the price. 451 00:30:55.065 --> 00:30:59.404 Whatever you can do to either siphon off members into your community 452 00:30:59.784 --> 00:31:02.445 or just attract them over to you instead of your competitor. 453 00:31:02.664 --> 00:31:06.284 It's important to mention that on your website. You can also offer consultations. 454 00:31:07.080 --> 00:31:09.740 This might not be worth it. If your membership plans 455 00:31:10.120 --> 00:31:14.360 have a very low price, then it might not be a great return on investment for you. 456 00:31:14.360 --> 00:31:17.100 But if you have moderately priced membership plans or, 457 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:18.700 your target demographic 458 00:31:19.325 --> 00:31:24.625 or some sort of professionals, maybe, and a directory for attorneys or or medical professionals, 459 00:31:25.005 --> 00:31:30.445 then maybe you you can take the time to fifteen minute, thirty minute phone consultation with them. 460 00:31:30.445 --> 00:31:31.485 Get them on the phone. 461 00:31:31.485 --> 00:31:38.410 Let them know what it is your membership community is offering, what solutions you can provide them, and and how you can benefit them. 462 00:31:38.550 --> 00:31:41.690 And the biggest thing here is to focus on building a community. 463 00:31:41.910 --> 00:31:44.890 People want to be part of something bigger than just themselves. 464 00:31:45.165 --> 00:31:51.005 So maybe you might also want to have a community like on Facebook, similar to what we do. 465 00:31:51.325 --> 00:31:52.545 Our Facebook community 466 00:31:52.845 --> 00:32:00.385 now has over 5,000 membership website owners in there, and it's a great way to cultivate a community of like minded individuals. 467 00:32:01.020 --> 00:32:03.520 So that might be something you might want to explore. 468 00:32:04.460 --> 00:32:11.040 Summing this entire slide up would be that you want to cultivate some sense of FOMO. 469 00:32:11.100 --> 00:32:16.265 You want people to have a sense of fear of missing out if they're not signing up on your website. 470 00:32:16.325 --> 00:32:16.825 So, 471 00:32:17.205 --> 00:32:30.780 that really goes into understanding what your target demographic wants and needs and what solutions you can provide to them and making it clear that if they don't join your membership community, they're gonna be missing out on something, whatever it may be. 472 00:32:30.780 --> 00:32:32.460 Yeah. I like I like that one the most. 473 00:32:33.260 --> 00:32:40.720 Besides everything they're gonna get, and and by the way, when when you're trying to convince prospects to buy, listing off a hundred features 474 00:32:41.115 --> 00:32:42.415 can be one overwhelming, 475 00:32:42.955 --> 00:32:45.375 and two, kind of lose the the key focus 476 00:32:45.995 --> 00:32:51.375 of the benefits of joining of how their lives or their businesses are going to improve 477 00:32:51.915 --> 00:32:53.375 with the specific access 478 00:32:53.835 --> 00:32:56.575 to information or features that you're going to deliver 479 00:32:57.010 --> 00:33:00.950 to them. But more importantly than what users are going to receive, 480 00:33:01.570 --> 00:33:05.830 we have to explain to them what they're missing out on, and what they stand to lose 481 00:33:06.289 --> 00:33:09.190 by not joining a community or getting involved, 482 00:33:09.785 --> 00:33:14.765 and how and I like this number three here, testimonials and case studies is showing how others are thriving 483 00:33:15.145 --> 00:33:19.965 and benefiting from the solution. That's what we call social proof when you show others, 484 00:33:20.505 --> 00:33:26.410 how people in your community are loving your solution, loving, the service that you're providing. 485 00:33:26.410 --> 00:33:29.610 So, yeah, those that was this is a really good slide, David. 486 00:33:29.610 --> 00:33:33.790 And and just for fun, because I like to do this, I guess, one of our, competitors, 487 00:33:34.570 --> 00:33:39.835 Wild Apricot, they have us on a on a comparison chart, and I've I've done it in a few webinars in the past. 488 00:33:40.695 --> 00:33:41.195 Normally, 489 00:33:41.575 --> 00:33:46.935 a company wouldn't, do this going and showing their for us to show a competitor, but they're more of a colleague. 490 00:33:46.935 --> 00:33:50.475 But under their pricing, they have wild apricot versus competitors. 491 00:33:51.280 --> 00:33:52.960 And I figure it's out of fear, 492 00:33:53.280 --> 00:33:54.260 because they actually 493 00:33:54.560 --> 00:33:57.460 like our product so much. So kind of take it as a compliment. 494 00:33:57.920 --> 00:33:59.220 They have brilliant directories, 495 00:34:00.080 --> 00:34:01.120 way down here, 496 00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:03.220 with regards to low functionality. 497 00:34:03.600 --> 00:34:04.100 So, 498 00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:08.605 they're trying to anyone who's trying to compare us, they're trying to kick us out of their mind. 499 00:34:08.605 --> 00:34:12.145 But here's a comparison chart, and look at the way top there, wild apricot. 500 00:34:12.764 --> 00:34:13.665 God bless them. 501 00:34:14.045 --> 00:34:17.425 They are the best solution at the lowest price with the most functionality. 502 00:34:17.645 --> 00:34:20.625 So they also do this is a comparison chart. 503 00:34:21.389 --> 00:34:24.049 You can also do a, a checklist. 504 00:34:24.989 --> 00:34:28.270 But again, with the community, you're not really comparing yourself to competitors. 505 00:34:28.270 --> 00:34:35.409 You're kind of it's not like a software or something like that, but, just to give you an idea of how, some others have done it. 506 00:34:36.165 --> 00:34:38.745 Alright. Moving on. Always fun to do that one. 507 00:34:39.125 --> 00:34:40.085 Great stuff there. 508 00:34:40.085 --> 00:34:50.505 So once we're able to convince prospective members that we have a solution for them, and that they do stand to lose something if they don't join our membership community, 509 00:34:51.320 --> 00:34:53.800 then we actually need to convert them into members. 510 00:34:53.800 --> 00:34:59.340 So we wanna make the sign up process as seamless, as easy, as fast as possible. 511 00:34:59.400 --> 00:35:03.720 Most of the hard work has already been done, for you with the brilliant directories platform. 512 00:35:03.720 --> 00:35:07.484 You know, the sign up pages are automatically created when your membership plans are. 513 00:35:07.625 --> 00:35:10.205 But we still want to reduce sign up friction. 514 00:35:10.505 --> 00:35:15.724 When we say sign up friction, we did a a webinar not too long ago specifically on this, 515 00:35:16.265 --> 00:35:18.685 but you don't wanna make your prospects 516 00:35:19.010 --> 00:35:21.730 jump through a lot of hoops in order to actually get signed up. 517 00:35:21.730 --> 00:35:23.750 We don't wanna ask them for a lot of information 518 00:35:24.050 --> 00:35:24.770 right up front. 519 00:35:24.770 --> 00:35:28.869 We just wanna allow them to create their account, and then they can add their information. 520 00:35:29.250 --> 00:35:32.135 As long as we get them through the door initially, 521 00:35:32.435 --> 00:35:37.095 then we can start making sure that they're filling out their profile and and all that sort of stuff. 522 00:35:37.155 --> 00:35:41.255 But we wanna make the actual initial sign up process as fast and easy as possible. 523 00:35:41.395 --> 00:35:43.415 We also wanna make it easy to understand 524 00:35:44.115 --> 00:35:45.175 our membership 525 00:35:45.860 --> 00:35:47.480 and our pricing plans. 526 00:35:47.940 --> 00:35:49.800 Part of this is not offering 527 00:35:50.180 --> 00:35:52.280 a a slew of membership plans. 528 00:35:52.420 --> 00:35:56.980 So, you know, some websites might offer six, seven, eight, nine, 10 different membership plans. 529 00:35:56.980 --> 00:36:00.520 And at that point, it can get really confusing and difficult to to compare, 530 00:36:01.065 --> 00:36:05.244 the features and benefits within each plan. It's almost like going to a restaurant, 531 00:36:05.704 --> 00:36:10.185 Cheesecake Factory comes to mind when you have a menu that's, you know, a dozen pages long. 532 00:36:10.185 --> 00:36:14.380 It can make it really difficult to eventually decide on what dish you wanna order. 533 00:36:14.760 --> 00:36:23.580 So, to start at least, you might just wanna have maybe three membership plans, you know, a free general user one, and then maybe two premium plans that you charge for. 534 00:36:23.800 --> 00:36:27.500 Again, this really does depend on your target demographic and your target industry. 535 00:36:27.835 --> 00:36:31.455 But three, initially, at least to start does tend to be kind of 536 00:36:31.755 --> 00:36:33.055 a a happy medium there. 537 00:36:33.275 --> 00:36:38.815 And, another thing you can do is if you're just starting out is offer some special early bird pricing or benefits, 538 00:36:39.275 --> 00:36:43.640 to get people signed up. You can make this very apparent on your pricing page. 539 00:36:43.860 --> 00:36:46.040 You can add a message in your website's header. 540 00:36:46.340 --> 00:36:52.200 If you're active on social media, you can make social media posts and add some exclusivity to it. 541 00:36:52.340 --> 00:36:54.760 Let people know that the time is limited, 542 00:36:55.140 --> 00:36:59.244 that you're not gonna be running this promotion forever. You know, maybe you're you're doing 543 00:36:59.625 --> 00:37:01.625 50% off or 75% 544 00:37:01.625 --> 00:37:06.665 off of a memberships for, you know, the next sixty days or something like that. 545 00:37:06.665 --> 00:37:11.660 So, that could be an easy way to get people in the door quickly. And, again, that creates, 546 00:37:12.059 --> 00:37:13.119 a sense of FOMO 547 00:37:13.500 --> 00:37:15.760 where, you know, they don't wanna miss out on any, 548 00:37:16.140 --> 00:37:30.025 special promotions or deals that they might be able to get and save money on if they are kind of on the fence or kind of already even sold on, your community, providing them with that special early bird discount might be an easy way to kinda get them across that finish line. 549 00:37:30.085 --> 00:37:37.465 And one last option, we haven't talked about this in too long, but you can implement a live chat feature on your website, whether it's 550 00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:38.540 Facebook Messenger 551 00:37:38.840 --> 00:37:39.320 or, 552 00:37:39.800 --> 00:37:41.420 a solution like live chat, 553 00:37:41.800 --> 00:37:44.460 which is what we actually use on the the BD site. 554 00:37:44.520 --> 00:37:47.800 You might not want to include the live chat on every page on your website. 555 00:37:47.800 --> 00:37:51.285 You might only wanna utilize it for prospective members. 556 00:37:51.285 --> 00:37:55.865 And so in that case, you might wanna have it only show on your pricing page. 557 00:37:56.005 --> 00:37:57.925 So that might be one thing you can do. 558 00:37:57.925 --> 00:38:01.845 You know, you can just leave the chat software open on your computer during the day. 559 00:38:01.845 --> 00:38:04.025 If anybody comes along your pricing page, 560 00:38:04.460 --> 00:38:06.960 your join page, and they have any questions 561 00:38:07.339 --> 00:38:12.880 and they see you online, maybe they'll initiate a live chat or you can even initiate a live chat with them. 562 00:38:13.099 --> 00:38:14.720 Ask them if they have any questions. 563 00:38:15.260 --> 00:38:21.934 Again, this lets them know that there's people behind the scenes who really do care about the community, want it to succeed, want their members to succeed, 564 00:38:22.315 --> 00:38:25.454 and that could be a great way to really get off on the right foot, 565 00:38:25.755 --> 00:38:27.454 with new members. So 566 00:38:27.835 --> 00:38:29.375 be sure that they understand, 567 00:38:29.914 --> 00:38:36.950 what they're going to be get when they sign up on your website and what to expect after signing up, which leads us into tip number four, 568 00:38:37.410 --> 00:38:39.110 which is to deliver on expectations. 569 00:38:39.250 --> 00:38:42.230 Now there's nothing wrong with underpromising and overdelivering. 570 00:38:42.530 --> 00:38:43.990 Everybody likes a surprise. 571 00:38:44.530 --> 00:38:46.950 So your new members are signed up now. 572 00:38:47.265 --> 00:39:00.480 The goal is to actually keep them signed up on our website, keep them happy, and for us to keep delivering on the promises we made during that process when, when we were convincing them that we did have a solution for them. 573 00:39:00.720 --> 00:39:02.260 So setting expectations 574 00:39:02.560 --> 00:39:09.060 is important every step of the way, from the time they first initially visit our website or see us on social media 575 00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:14.020 to long after they actually sign up and purchase a membership plan with us. 576 00:39:14.080 --> 00:39:16.455 We wanna make sure that they know what to expect 577 00:39:16.935 --> 00:39:19.195 from our website, our service, our community, 578 00:39:19.495 --> 00:39:25.115 and that we can actually deliver on that. One of the things we can do to help facilitate this 579 00:39:25.495 --> 00:39:27.755 is to have introductory and training videos. 580 00:39:28.135 --> 00:39:31.780 If one of the benefits of your membership community is community generated 581 00:39:32.080 --> 00:39:32.580 content 582 00:39:32.960 --> 00:39:37.460 where your mem you're allowing your members to publish different pieces of of content on your website, 583 00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:39.780 you might wanna do a quick screen recording, 584 00:39:40.080 --> 00:39:44.740 embed it in their member dashboard. So as soon as they log in, they see the video 585 00:39:45.040 --> 00:39:47.805 that shows them how to actually go about 586 00:39:48.185 --> 00:39:49.245 publishing content. 587 00:39:49.625 --> 00:39:54.925 That's a a great way to get people started quickly immediately after they sign up. 588 00:39:55.225 --> 00:39:58.525 You can also create custom thank you pages and emails 589 00:39:59.250 --> 00:40:01.750 after, somebody purchases a membership plan. 590 00:40:01.970 --> 00:40:13.830 We do have the, the default welcome email that somebody receives after they purchase a membership plan, but you should definitely go in there, customize that email template, personalize it, make it more applicable to your target audience. 591 00:40:14.045 --> 00:40:15.645 The default one is that's, 592 00:40:15.965 --> 00:40:17.025 there on your website 593 00:40:17.405 --> 00:40:20.145 is great to get started, but it is generic. 594 00:40:20.525 --> 00:40:24.865 So if you can tweak that a little bit and make it more applicable and appealing 595 00:40:25.325 --> 00:40:29.025 to, to your new members, that would be a great thing to do. 596 00:40:29.180 --> 00:40:35.660 You can also, in that email or in a separate email if you'd like, ask them if they need a helping hand getting started. 597 00:40:35.660 --> 00:40:38.860 Maybe they have some initial questions now that they actually have signed up. 598 00:40:38.860 --> 00:40:42.160 Maybe they're not sure how to do something or where something is, 599 00:40:42.575 --> 00:40:48.914 or maybe they're confused about you know, they thought they were gonna get something when they signed up, but now they're not sure about it. 600 00:40:48.974 --> 00:40:50.835 So you might want to be proactive 601 00:40:51.375 --> 00:40:53.875 and address any initial concerns they have. 602 00:40:54.015 --> 00:40:58.800 Maybe it's something super simple where if they weren't able to get a hold of you, they might just, 603 00:40:59.180 --> 00:41:01.840 cancel their account, which isn't good for us, obviously. 604 00:41:02.380 --> 00:41:11.280 But if we're proactive and we ask them if they have any questions and we open that door to those questions and we're given the opportunity to address them, 605 00:41:11.685 --> 00:41:14.025 that might save a potential cancellation. 606 00:41:14.725 --> 00:41:17.145 At the very least, it would make the new member 607 00:41:17.525 --> 00:41:21.305 happy knowing that we're always here to address any concerns that they have. 608 00:41:22.005 --> 00:41:24.745 And then, obviously, we wanna show our appreciation. 609 00:41:25.125 --> 00:41:28.230 You know, at different periods, we might wanna offer free upgrades. 610 00:41:28.230 --> 00:41:29.930 If somebody comes to us with a complaint, 611 00:41:30.230 --> 00:41:30.890 we wanna 612 00:41:31.430 --> 00:41:32.730 take that as an opportunity 613 00:41:33.110 --> 00:41:37.050 to show them how much we care about them, how much we value our members. 614 00:41:37.190 --> 00:41:43.385 So if somebody comes to us with a complaint, maybe we can upgrade their membership or provide them with a couple other benefits, 615 00:41:43.765 --> 00:41:46.505 whatever it might be, something that they didn't expect. 616 00:41:47.045 --> 00:41:49.065 Again, under promising and over delivering 617 00:41:49.365 --> 00:41:54.745 is never something bad to do. So those are our four tips to effectively 618 00:41:55.299 --> 00:41:56.760 run a membership website. 619 00:41:56.980 --> 00:42:03.799 They are pretty basic, but we thought we would, kind of take it back to to the ground level here and address some of these basic, 620 00:42:04.339 --> 00:42:04.839 elements 621 00:42:05.299 --> 00:42:08.119 of running and managing a membership website 622 00:42:08.735 --> 00:42:13.635 from the first day to once you're already building and growing your community. 623 00:42:14.655 --> 00:42:15.795 And as a bonus, 624 00:42:16.495 --> 00:42:17.955 one of our previous webinars, 625 00:42:18.655 --> 00:42:20.675 was five daily tasks 626 00:42:21.055 --> 00:42:23.075 that membership website owners 627 00:42:23.490 --> 00:42:26.070 need to take in order to keep their website growing. 628 00:42:26.370 --> 00:42:31.430 This was a great tip of the week that we had. We gave a five item list 629 00:42:31.730 --> 00:42:40.655 of maybe not daily tasks, but certainly weekly tasks to do in order to, maintain a pulse on your website, keep your community active. 630 00:42:40.955 --> 00:42:44.875 This is was a common question that we would get from membership website owners. 631 00:42:44.875 --> 00:42:48.015 So we wanted to address it in a webinar, and we did so. 632 00:42:48.075 --> 00:42:51.295 So this would be a great one to check out if you have the time. 633 00:42:51.549 --> 00:42:54.609 And just to recap those four, the fundamental four, 634 00:42:54.910 --> 00:42:56.690 bring awareness to your product, 635 00:42:57.309 --> 00:42:59.089 convince prospects to buy, 636 00:42:59.549 --> 00:43:03.089 convert prospects into members. So we wanna reduce friction, 637 00:43:03.630 --> 00:43:08.595 make the decision making process easy for them, and then lastly, we wanna deliver on expectations, 638 00:43:09.454 --> 00:43:10.915 and give them a satisfactory 639 00:43:11.615 --> 00:43:12.115 experience 640 00:43:12.415 --> 00:43:12.915 after, 641 00:43:13.295 --> 00:43:14.915 they're joining our community. 642 00:43:15.615 --> 00:43:21.970 Thank you so much, David, for this, but what we'll do now is, we'll take a few questions here. 643 00:43:22.510 --> 00:43:26.609 So Brian is the sharpshooter here. Brian, I'll unmute your microphone. 644 00:43:27.069 --> 00:43:30.049 Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. How are you doing today, Brian? 645 00:43:30.349 --> 00:43:33.730 Pretty good. And you? Pretty good. Pretty good. Thanks for joining the the webinar. 646 00:43:33.790 --> 00:43:35.355 What question do you have for us today? 647 00:43:35.835 --> 00:43:37.275 I just have, like, a, 648 00:43:37.755 --> 00:43:40.255 like, a request for, like, a future update, 649 00:43:40.955 --> 00:43:43.375 if I can, like, show you. Sure. 650 00:43:43.915 --> 00:43:45.455 It's in the admin section. 651 00:43:46.155 --> 00:43:48.095 Alright. So if you go to, 652 00:43:48.715 --> 00:43:49.215 settings 653 00:43:50.650 --> 00:43:52.190 and then go to admin accounts, 654 00:43:54.730 --> 00:43:58.030 and then if you go to create, like, a new administrator 655 00:43:58.570 --> 00:43:59.070 k. 656 00:44:00.890 --> 00:44:04.990 On this form here, in the password section, do you see where it says generate 657 00:44:05.525 --> 00:44:06.025 password? 658 00:44:06.405 --> 00:44:12.425 Right. It'd be nice if you had something like that, like, when you were going to create a new member 659 00:44:12.805 --> 00:44:14.265 in the admin as well. 660 00:44:14.645 --> 00:44:15.865 And Absolutely. 661 00:44:16.245 --> 00:44:17.385 That's a great suggestion. 662 00:44:18.540 --> 00:44:22.300 Alright. Thank you very much. That's a good one. Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Alright. 663 00:44:22.300 --> 00:44:25.820 Good suggestion there. Two good suggestions in the webinar today. Alright. 664 00:44:25.820 --> 00:44:29.200 Let's see if anyone else has their hand up here. Yep. 665 00:44:29.740 --> 00:44:30.880 Let's go with William. 666 00:44:31.260 --> 00:44:34.555 Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Thank you very much. This is a real basic question. 667 00:44:35.015 --> 00:44:39.835 It's been a minute since I've been into the directory k. But things have changed so much. 668 00:44:39.894 --> 00:44:46.555 So since there's so many things that have changed and I if when someone makes changes, like, say, for example, to the home page, 669 00:44:47.300 --> 00:44:48.020 do you need to 670 00:44:48.580 --> 00:44:54.200 when you go into the edit view or the edit admin view, is that a quick way to access, 671 00:44:55.140 --> 00:44:57.480 certain parts of the website so you can make changes? 672 00:44:58.500 --> 00:45:03.025 I hope it's not making sense. Yes. That is making sense. So what you're referring to is, 673 00:45:03.425 --> 00:45:05.845 when you click on the visit website link here, 674 00:45:06.385 --> 00:45:10.405 and then the system knows that you're an administrator looking your site, and, 675 00:45:10.865 --> 00:45:12.965 what you're referring to is the show widgets 676 00:45:13.820 --> 00:45:17.760 module. Is that correct? Okay. So this is this is a good tool for developers 677 00:45:18.060 --> 00:45:19.520 and web designers. 678 00:45:20.300 --> 00:45:23.120 Most of us don't need to to do this method. 679 00:45:23.340 --> 00:45:28.965 For example, we could see the the the header left area is coded here. I'll I'll just go ahead here 680 00:45:29.845 --> 00:45:30.665 and click it. 681 00:45:31.045 --> 00:45:36.345 I would recommend so let's see. We can we can actually, you know, customize this if we wanted to. 682 00:45:36.885 --> 00:45:40.980 Again, see, what we're seeing here is the code logic that makes that 683 00:45:41.460 --> 00:45:42.600 area of the page 684 00:45:42.980 --> 00:45:46.280 render the way that it does. So, again, this isn't this isn't for everyone. 685 00:45:46.340 --> 00:45:47.940 What I would recommend is, 686 00:45:48.340 --> 00:45:58.855 if you're unable to find something in the design settings or the edit post settings, I first email the support team or ask in the Facebook group, like, hey, where do I change this, or how can I modify this? 687 00:45:59.155 --> 00:46:06.390 It might be that you do need to to edit the widget or do a small, like, change to this if there isn't an explicit setting for it. 688 00:46:06.549 --> 00:46:12.089 But I would try the design settings first, or the edit post settings are are two pretty popular areas, 689 00:46:12.630 --> 00:46:19.450 to control some of the default areas of your site beyond what you do in the web page builder, which is building out custom pages. 690 00:46:19.965 --> 00:46:24.205 Okay. Thank you very much. Alright. Good question there, William. Thank you. Alright. 691 00:46:24.205 --> 00:46:27.745 We got time for a couple more, questions here. Good friend, Terry. 692 00:46:28.045 --> 00:46:32.685 Terry, looks like you're self muted on your end. There we go. Hi, Jason. Can you hear me? 693 00:46:32.685 --> 00:46:36.200 Can hear you loud and clear, Terry. Yes. How are you doing today? Great, mate. Great. 694 00:46:37.140 --> 00:46:39.800 Yeah. Look. It's more about a feature update. 695 00:46:40.260 --> 00:46:41.480 With the multi 696 00:46:41.940 --> 00:46:43.240 member add on, 697 00:46:43.780 --> 00:46:46.280 when a parent account creates a subaccount, 698 00:46:47.385 --> 00:46:50.445 the subaccount has the same publishing permissions 699 00:46:51.145 --> 00:46:53.645 as the parent account, except, of course, 700 00:46:54.185 --> 00:46:55.325 to be able to, 701 00:46:55.705 --> 00:46:57.245 publish further subaccounts. 702 00:46:58.025 --> 00:46:59.005 I was just wondering, 703 00:46:59.545 --> 00:47:01.645 if you could put it on your future list 704 00:47:02.105 --> 00:47:02.605 where 705 00:47:03.210 --> 00:47:03.790 a parent 706 00:47:04.410 --> 00:47:05.869 is creating a subaccount, 707 00:47:06.170 --> 00:47:07.310 and they can actually 708 00:47:08.250 --> 00:47:09.390 give the subaccount 709 00:47:10.490 --> 00:47:15.310 different publishing permissions to the main parent account, if that makes sense. 710 00:47:16.085 --> 00:47:18.424 Right. So they could limit publishing permissions 711 00:47:19.045 --> 00:47:22.265 and add no more permissions than the parent account has themselves. 712 00:47:22.805 --> 00:47:23.944 Correct. Yes. 713 00:47:24.565 --> 00:47:28.085 Yes. Because you might want the parent account to be able to say, 714 00:47:29.125 --> 00:47:34.220 make blog posts, but they they don't want their subaccounts to have that same 715 00:47:34.520 --> 00:47:36.380 ability, that type of a thing. 716 00:47:36.840 --> 00:47:41.400 That's that's an interesting one. I'll bring it up to the team, see what we can do with that. 717 00:47:41.560 --> 00:47:42.920 First time I'm hearing that, but, 718 00:47:43.605 --> 00:47:45.685 I I understand what you're saying. Okay. Yeah. 719 00:47:45.685 --> 00:47:49.845 We'll bring it up to the team and see what we can do with that, Terry. Thank you, Jason. Cheers. 720 00:47:49.845 --> 00:47:50.345 Cheers. 721 00:47:50.805 --> 00:47:51.545 Thank you. 722 00:47:52.085 --> 00:47:53.305 Alright. Good stuff, 723 00:47:53.685 --> 00:47:59.600 there. Alright, guys. I think, that'll do it for us, for the webinar today. I see a couple hands up. 724 00:47:59.760 --> 00:48:01.380 We're just about out of time. 725 00:48:01.520 --> 00:48:06.480 If I didn't get to, your question, please ask it in the Facebook group. 726 00:48:06.720 --> 00:48:11.040 You can head on over to brilliantdirectories.com/Facebook. 727 00:48:11.040 --> 00:48:16.705 Great way to keep the conversations going there. The next webinar, everyone, will be in two weeks. 728 00:48:17.085 --> 00:48:19.265 So we look forward to seeing you there. 729 00:48:19.565 --> 00:48:24.145 And, fantastic webinar. Really fun, great questions, great suggestions here. 730 00:48:24.205 --> 00:48:26.705 So we'll see you in two weeks. On behalf of myself, 731 00:48:27.022 --> 00:48:31.362 David, and the entire Brilliant Directories family, thank you guys so much for joining us today. 732 00:48:31.422 --> 00:48:35.602 Have a great day and a brilliant week. We will see you soon. Take care.