WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.779
All right gang, let's dive right into it. Welcome to another episode of Webinar Wednesday.

2
00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:06.899
It's really fantastic

3
00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.800
to be with everyone here today. I see a lot of new names there.

4
00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:13.940
If this is your first time joining us, welcome. I am Jason

5
00:00:14.474 --> 00:00:20.654
there on the left, and we are lucky to be joined by David Rocklin, the digital strategist here at Brilliant Directories.

6
00:00:20.875 --> 00:00:23.435
This is the first webinar of 2022,

7
00:00:23.435 --> 00:00:27.775
so really, really excited about that. Twenty twenty one was an awesome year.

8
00:00:28.110 --> 00:00:33.650
We had a great final webinar there in 2021, and it's great to be back with you guys here.

9
00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:37.230
So if you're not part of the Facebook group, we do recommend joining.

10
00:00:37.230 --> 00:00:39.410
You can go to brilliantdirectories.com

11
00:00:39.790 --> 00:00:42.610
forward /facebook and click on that blue

12
00:00:43.325 --> 00:00:45.105
join button there.

13
00:00:45.245 --> 00:00:51.504
And then also that's where we'll be posting the link for the webinar replay right after we're done with this today.

14
00:00:51.565 --> 00:00:56.204
And again, lots of new names and faces out there. Welcome guys. Welcome to the BD family.

15
00:00:56.204 --> 00:00:58.440
Webinar Wednesdays are a great way to keep in touch

16
00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:06.220
with each other, that you can ask questions during the q and a, but also it's a great way for us to share some of the newer features baked into the platform.

17
00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.340
So we'd like to touch on features that can help you increase your traffic or convert visitors

18
00:01:11.805 --> 00:01:13.905
into paying members or subscribers.

19
00:01:14.365 --> 00:01:22.865
I like to touch on a lot of the things that can help you improve your navigation and the flow of your website to give a better experience to your members and visitors.

20
00:01:23.325 --> 00:01:28.610
So if you have questions on any of these topics or anything about your membership website, please save them.

21
00:01:28.610 --> 00:01:33.270
We'll try to get to as many questions as we can in just a little bit into the webinar.

22
00:01:34.289 --> 00:01:36.229
All right, and we have a small handful

23
00:01:36.689 --> 00:01:37.350
of BD

24
00:01:37.729 --> 00:01:41.990
lab updates. I'll breeze right through these before we get into the tip of the week.

25
00:01:42.505 --> 00:01:46.265
This first one is something I mentioned that was coming soon in the previous webinar.

26
00:01:46.265 --> 00:01:47.245
It's now released

27
00:01:47.865 --> 00:01:50.845
on the member's profile page. If you have,

28
00:01:51.385 --> 00:01:54.045
the add on, the multi location listings,

29
00:01:54.825 --> 00:02:01.960
add on, This allows members to be found in location searches that are beyond their main office address.

30
00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:07.500
So maybe my my, main address is in Los Angeles, California, but I also service

31
00:02:07.955 --> 00:02:09.715
Sacramento, California or New York.

32
00:02:09.715 --> 00:02:13.495
So with the add on, members can select additional areas they service

33
00:02:13.955 --> 00:02:19.335
and that gives them more visibility on your website. So it always worked as intended.

34
00:02:19.395 --> 00:02:23.799
As expected, the members will be found for searches in those additional locations,

35
00:02:24.180 --> 00:02:28.519
but now you can actually display those locations on the member's profile page,

36
00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:31.959
and we are also working to show the location

37
00:02:32.739 --> 00:02:36.040
on the search results pages so we know why a member is displaying

38
00:02:36.365 --> 00:02:38.145
for a certain location search.

39
00:02:38.605 --> 00:02:41.405
Let me show you what this looks like and what we're referring to here.

40
00:02:41.405 --> 00:02:44.465
So it's connected to this add on the multi location listings

41
00:02:44.765 --> 00:02:48.385
add on under the add on section. So when you have this add on enabled,

42
00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:57.030
you can allow your members to select additional locations they want to be found for, and you can choose if they can select postal code, cities,

43
00:02:57.410 --> 00:02:57.910
etcetera.

44
00:02:58.530 --> 00:03:05.875
In this case, I have a sample member and we've selected some locations in California and one in Indiana, the entire state of Indiana.

45
00:03:06.815 --> 00:03:17.715
So this member, in addition to their main headquarters address, they also serve these locations and they will be found for these locations when people search these locations on the site.

46
00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:23.630
What we have now is the ability to display these locations. Here's the sample members profile page.

47
00:03:24.170 --> 00:03:29.770
You can actually have it in the overview tab, and you can choose what position you want this.

48
00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:32.270
And here it says also serves these regions,

49
00:03:32.925 --> 00:03:35.185
and we can see these additional regions

50
00:03:35.645 --> 00:03:36.925
that this member serves.

51
00:03:36.925 --> 00:03:46.625
It's not only good for the visitor coming to this profile page to know this information, it's also good for SEO because now you have some more unique and specific keywords on this member's

52
00:03:47.250 --> 00:03:48.230
profile page.

53
00:03:48.290 --> 00:03:55.030
So if you have the add on and you want to display this on a member's profile page, let me show you where you can do that.

54
00:03:55.410 --> 00:03:59.590
So what we wanna do is go to the finance section and click on membership plans.

55
00:04:01.405 --> 00:04:05.725
And we want to edit a membership plan that has allowed its members,

56
00:04:06.045 --> 00:04:11.665
to select additional service areas. In this case, membership plan one is the one I was testing with.

57
00:04:12.940 --> 00:04:18.399
And once you're editing the membership plan, you can head on over to the profile page tab.

58
00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:23.200
And when you have this add on enabled, the multi location listings add on,

59
00:04:23.900 --> 00:04:29.665
in this first section here, what displays in the overview tab, you you'll have a new position, position six,

60
00:04:30.205 --> 00:04:31.745
and now you can select,

61
00:04:32.205 --> 00:04:37.985
list service areas. Now you can put this, you can choose any of these to go in any order.

62
00:04:38.125 --> 00:04:40.544
In this case, I've chosen position three

63
00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:48.620
for list service areas, but just as an example, let's move this to position one, list service areas and let's save those changes.

64
00:04:50.440 --> 00:04:53.900
And we'll refresh this member's profile page and we should see

65
00:04:54.685 --> 00:04:58.145
this section at the top of the overview tab now.

66
00:05:00.365 --> 00:05:02.945
Yep, there it is also serves this,

67
00:05:03.324 --> 00:05:04.145
these regions.

68
00:05:04.445 --> 00:05:10.065
And, this is a text label, so you can edit this and make it say whatever you want it to say.

69
00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:12.080
Alright, moving on here.

70
00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:17.780
Webhooks were huge in 2021 being able to send your BD data to third party solutions.

71
00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:24.340
We're continuing to add several new webhook events so you can send your data out of your BD site

72
00:05:24.645 --> 00:05:26.025
to third party solutions.

73
00:05:26.565 --> 00:05:32.325
Later this year, we'll be focusing on sending data into your Brilliant Directories website.

74
00:05:32.325 --> 00:05:34.425
So if you're using a third party

75
00:05:34.725 --> 00:05:41.419
forms like Jotform or Typeform or Mailchimp newsletter subscriber forms, you can then send that data into your BD site.

76
00:05:41.419 --> 00:05:42.880
That's coming later this year.

77
00:05:43.020 --> 00:05:47.440
But right now, we have several new ways to send data out from your BD website.

78
00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:51.820
The first one here I think is pretty huge. It's the get matched lead form.

79
00:05:51.820 --> 00:05:57.445
So that lead form that visitors fill out to connect with your members and then the members can purchase those leads.

80
00:05:57.824 --> 00:06:02.565
When that form is filled out, you can send that data to a third party solution.

81
00:06:03.264 --> 00:06:07.845
Let me show you where you can select that. I don't wanna go through all the steps of sending

82
00:06:08.520 --> 00:06:12.600
the data out, into a Zapier or another solution like that.

83
00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:16.540
But what you can do is go to your developer hub and click on webhooks.

84
00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:19.560
And we have a few standard webhooks here.

85
00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:23.660
You can now send your get match lead form submissions right here.

86
00:06:23.955 --> 00:06:30.035
You can enable this and send it to a third party like Pabbly or Zapier. I know that's pretty handy.

87
00:06:30.035 --> 00:06:33.574
A lot of people do different things with their leads. They wanna put them in an Excel sheet,

88
00:06:33.955 --> 00:06:38.695
or just do different things with them. In addition to that, the next one is pretty cool.

89
00:06:39.330 --> 00:06:43.430
When your members update their data, so when they're logged into the member dashboard,

90
00:06:43.730 --> 00:06:46.470
you can now send that updated data,

91
00:06:46.930 --> 00:06:51.510
to solutions like Zapier or Pabbly. So let me show you what I'm referring to here.

92
00:06:52.315 --> 00:06:55.694
When a member, for example, updates their basic information

93
00:06:56.794 --> 00:06:59.694
or the additional details or the about me,

94
00:07:00.155 --> 00:07:06.014
you can now send all this information here, whatever fields you've added here, phone number, company name, position,

95
00:07:06.940 --> 00:07:13.039
whatever custom fields you may add or all these default fields when there's a value and the member updates this data,

96
00:07:13.580 --> 00:07:16.479
you can now send it, using the webhooks.

97
00:07:17.099 --> 00:07:21.840
And in this case, these would be under, and I'm gonna scroll down a little bit for the webhook events,

98
00:07:22.405 --> 00:07:26.505
contact details, form submitted, that's the basic information for the member,

99
00:07:27.045 --> 00:07:28.425
the additional details,

100
00:07:29.285 --> 00:07:31.605
and then the about me form submitted.

101
00:07:31.605 --> 00:07:40.540
So if you're looking to collect all the data from your members as they update it, you could obviously use the export tool that's available with Brilliant Directories.

102
00:07:40.540 --> 00:07:45.600
But if you want to send this data in real time somewhere else to a third party solution,

103
00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:52.240
you can now do that with these three forms here. You just wanna enable it and follow the steps

104
00:07:52.564 --> 00:07:56.104
to add the the link here that will enable that webhook.

105
00:07:56.485 --> 00:08:01.525
And lastly, and this one's pretty cool, it is now released as well when posts are created.

106
00:08:01.525 --> 00:08:05.064
So if your members are creating a job post or an event post,

107
00:08:05.470 --> 00:08:09.010
when they save it and submit it, you can now send that post

108
00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:13.169
to Zapier or a third party. So there's post standard.

109
00:08:13.790 --> 00:08:19.650
Those are things like jobs and events or articles, the ones that only let you add one featured image with them.

110
00:08:19.665 --> 00:08:23.285
And then there's the photo album types of posts. Those are your photo albums,

111
00:08:23.745 --> 00:08:29.125
classified listings, product listings, the ones that let you add a gallery of images. So,

112
00:08:29.505 --> 00:08:34.565
as members create posts, you can send that data to Zapier and Pabbly, etcetera,

113
00:08:35.419 --> 00:08:39.120
using these two here, post standard and post photo album.

114
00:08:39.659 --> 00:08:46.160
So that's a good way to again, if you wanna aggregate your data to third party solutions, that is one way to do it now.

115
00:08:46.540 --> 00:08:56.644
And also coming soon with the webhooks is last year, we also, created the ability to create segmented smart lists of your members and people who left reviews.

116
00:08:57.185 --> 00:09:01.845
You'll soon, coming soon, you'll soon be able to send your smart list data

117
00:09:02.160 --> 00:09:05.279
to Zapier and and of these other solutions.

118
00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.740
So you'll be able to create custom smart list and then send that data

119
00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:13.779
as you see fit to third party solutions, maybe other CRMs and things like that.

120
00:09:14.545 --> 00:09:19.345
Super exciting with the webhooks there. Alright, this one is more of a quality of life things.

121
00:09:19.345 --> 00:09:22.485
If you've ever edited a form in your form manager,

122
00:09:23.105 --> 00:09:26.805
of course there's the Google recapture field where it says I'm not a robot.

123
00:09:26.990 --> 00:09:30.930
There's a secret honeypot field to kinda minimize or prevent spammers.

124
00:09:31.470 --> 00:09:34.370
And then there's the text editors, the Fuella text editors,

125
00:09:34.990 --> 00:09:38.925
that give you the all the functionality of uploading an image and and things like that.

126
00:09:39.325 --> 00:09:42.385
Before these were custom HTML fields, really confusing.

127
00:09:43.005 --> 00:09:48.225
Now they are just simple form fields that you can select and there's also a price field coming soon.

128
00:09:48.365 --> 00:09:53.105
Let me show you what I'm referring to here because if you are building out custom forms for your site,

129
00:09:53.680 --> 00:09:56.240
this will will come in handy knowing what these are.

130
00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:00.260
So, we have some custom forms here under toolbox form manager.

131
00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.860
This is from a previous webinar and ebook download form.

132
00:10:04.560 --> 00:10:11.274
But what we've added for you now, we are familiar with selecting different form fields like check boxes, drop down lists.

133
00:10:12.055 --> 00:10:15.675
There are several new ones here. These ones, for a lot of text editors,

134
00:10:16.214 --> 00:10:22.475
for a lot of text editor with image upload, and also the for a lot of text editor with access to the media manager.

135
00:10:22.670 --> 00:10:26.290
The for well a text editors, what are those? Let's look at a classified.

136
00:10:26.430 --> 00:10:30.030
That is the text editor that comes with all these options here.

137
00:10:30.030 --> 00:10:35.170
So, the most basic one is just the regular text editor. It does not have image upload,

138
00:10:35.630 --> 00:10:40.575
but then you can select the text editors that provide image upload for your members.

139
00:10:40.575 --> 00:10:42.755
And then the access media manager,

140
00:10:43.135 --> 00:10:45.555
you only wanna do that for the post types,

141
00:10:45.935 --> 00:10:49.715
that you're gonna be creating yourself as the website owner like blog posts.

142
00:10:50.170 --> 00:10:53.550
That's gonna allow you to access media from the media manager

143
00:10:53.930 --> 00:10:58.430
that saved here in your media manager list in your admin. So

144
00:10:58.730 --> 00:11:02.910
those are available. And two also are the security ones,

145
00:11:03.545 --> 00:11:06.045
security Google Recapture and security Honeypot.

146
00:11:06.345 --> 00:11:14.204
I realize most of you have never even come to this section maybe, but for those of you customizing your forms, it's nice to know that these are now here.

147
00:11:14.584 --> 00:11:22.470
You can just select this field type and you can have the Google recapture I'm not a robot to help minimize or prevent spam, as well as the honeypot field.

148
00:11:22.470 --> 00:11:25.850
There's no custom coding you need to put like it used to be.

149
00:11:26.310 --> 00:11:31.130
And then also a price field field type is coming soon and what that's gonna allow you to do

150
00:11:32.045 --> 00:11:36.705
is right now, for example, if you're posting a classified, you can enter a price like $10

151
00:11:37.165 --> 00:11:39.505
This there's something custom going on here.

152
00:11:39.565 --> 00:11:46.110
There'll be an easy form field that you can select that will make this input field simply be a price field, no customizations

153
00:11:46.490 --> 00:11:46.990
required.

154
00:11:47.690 --> 00:11:50.430
So that will be coming down the line soon as well.

155
00:11:50.970 --> 00:11:56.329
And several things are coming down the line with post comments. One of them is already released.

156
00:11:56.329 --> 00:12:02.005
As you know, your your there's an add on where members can have badges if they're verified based on their membership plan,

157
00:12:02.465 --> 00:12:06.965
and things like that. Now the badges will display with the comments.

158
00:12:07.025 --> 00:12:14.165
I can show you that and also coming soon, the ability to sort and filter comments on the front end of the website.

159
00:12:14.810 --> 00:12:16.990
Let me show you those two examples now.

160
00:12:17.529 --> 00:12:20.010
So here's just a sample post we have here.

161
00:12:20.010 --> 00:12:24.170
And if we scroll down, we can see the badges here next to the member's name.

162
00:12:24.170 --> 00:12:27.315
So this is really cool if you have verified members on your site.

163
00:12:27.875 --> 00:12:36.535
It adds a little bit more weight to the comments that they're leaving or a little more value based on their membership plan or if they're verified and things like that.

164
00:12:37.235 --> 00:12:40.055
What's coming soon is this filter here.

165
00:12:40.490 --> 00:12:42.350
The ability to sort comments,

166
00:12:42.730 --> 00:12:45.630
so your members, your visitors will be able to sort comments

167
00:12:46.010 --> 00:12:46.990
based on oldest,

168
00:12:47.529 --> 00:12:52.430
newest, and most replies. And this is pretty cool. If you wanna do a quick search for comments,

169
00:12:53.195 --> 00:12:54.654
I'll just type my name.

170
00:12:54.955 --> 00:13:01.675
So you can do a keyword search and it'll keep all the comment threads that have that keyword as well as highlighting that keyword.

171
00:13:01.675 --> 00:13:08.334
So maybe there's a this is a product page and people have left comments about the product or a job listing,

172
00:13:08.790 --> 00:13:10.010
you can quickly search

173
00:13:10.709 --> 00:13:13.610
the keywords of the comments. So that should be pretty cool,

174
00:13:14.230 --> 00:13:18.470
coming soon. And then lastly with comments, this one is still under development.

175
00:13:18.470 --> 00:13:20.649
The sort and filter one is coming out soon.

176
00:13:20.790 --> 00:13:23.690
The star rating with comments, I think this is really cool.

177
00:13:24.375 --> 00:13:28.635
You'll soon be able to enable certain post types to have

178
00:13:29.255 --> 00:13:32.315
star ratings with the comments. So if you're listing,

179
00:13:32.935 --> 00:13:37.755
maybe product listings or something that members can rate, they can leave a comment

180
00:13:38.220 --> 00:13:40.560
with a star rating. And when this is released,

181
00:13:41.100 --> 00:13:44.060
there will be a sort, based on star ratings.

182
00:13:44.060 --> 00:13:54.615
So the the closest thing I can think of is is the post type for products, but you guys have probably come up with custom post types that you create that you want people to leave comments with star ratings for.

183
00:13:54.615 --> 00:13:57.595
So this way members will be be able to have star ratings

184
00:13:58.214 --> 00:14:03.274
as well as posts will be able to have star ratings as well. It's pretty exciting there.

185
00:14:03.975 --> 00:14:06.240
That was a mouthful. We're not done yet.

186
00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:11.860
We also have two new add ons coming soon in, it looks like the release dates are February.

187
00:14:12.160 --> 00:14:15.300
We did include these in a recent newsletter that we send out.

188
00:14:15.520 --> 00:14:20.020
The first one is the ability to include file upload fields with your forms.

189
00:14:20.325 --> 00:14:21.605
So this is pretty exciting.

190
00:14:21.605 --> 00:14:26.745
Up until now, we've been referring people to the BD marketplace to work with the developer.

191
00:14:27.205 --> 00:14:28.665
But hopefully this will alleviate,

192
00:14:29.445 --> 00:14:33.685
some of those pain points. And I can show you an example of what this will look like.

193
00:14:33.685 --> 00:14:36.720
The file uploads refer forms, it's pretty self explanatory.

194
00:14:37.420 --> 00:14:38.480
Let me see here.

195
00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:48.380
Basically, you'll be able to create a custom form or update an existing default form and add file upload fields as you can see, here.

196
00:14:48.540 --> 00:14:51.200
So you can have as many file upload fields as you want.

197
00:14:51.815 --> 00:14:56.535
The visitor can add a resume or an image of their project and things like that.

198
00:14:56.535 --> 00:15:02.395
So it's gonna help improve communication between the person who's filling out this form and you, the website or owner.

199
00:15:02.535 --> 00:15:06.395
Or if it's a lead form and you want them to add pictures of their project,

200
00:15:06.839 --> 00:15:15.339
the members purchasing the lead will have these photos and that might encourage them to wanna purchase more leads because they have more information about said project.

201
00:15:15.399 --> 00:15:18.839
So this is coming, I'd say mid February. This one is coming soon.

202
00:15:18.839 --> 00:15:23.735
We're just working on some final security stuff, and things like that, but it is underway.

203
00:15:24.355 --> 00:15:28.455
And this next one is super exciting as well, member credit system.

204
00:15:28.515 --> 00:15:31.415
And I can show you some examples of how this one works.

205
00:15:32.130 --> 00:15:33.430
You, the website owner,

206
00:15:33.730 --> 00:15:39.750
will be able to manually assign credits to members which can then be used for future purchases on,

207
00:15:40.130 --> 00:15:40.950
your website.

208
00:15:41.330 --> 00:15:47.590
And we're creating some actions where members can automatically get credit rewards based on actions like upgrading

209
00:15:48.185 --> 00:15:50.605
or signing up and things like that.

210
00:15:50.904 --> 00:15:55.485
This one is also gonna be released probably, the first week or two in February.

211
00:15:55.545 --> 00:16:00.845
Let's dive in and check out the direction that the member credit system is moving in.

212
00:16:01.140 --> 00:16:05.640
So we do have a sample demo site here just for the credits demo.

213
00:16:06.020 --> 00:16:08.760
Let's take a look at what this looks like. So

214
00:16:09.140 --> 00:16:15.305
right now we are logged into a member account and they'll be able to see if they have any credits available.

215
00:16:15.525 --> 00:16:21.285
And you as the, website admin, you can also add credits manually for a member.

216
00:16:21.285 --> 00:16:22.825
So let's go to search members.

217
00:16:24.805 --> 00:16:27.705
And let's look for that member there, number 37.

218
00:16:28.990 --> 00:16:31.089
Alright. And if we go to payment history,

219
00:16:33.069 --> 00:16:39.329
when this add on is released, you'll have a tab here under the transactions tab credits, and it'll show you

220
00:16:39.630 --> 00:16:40.449
all the credit,

221
00:16:40.990 --> 00:16:44.985
history of when this person got credits, used credits and things like that.

222
00:16:45.685 --> 00:16:48.745
So let's say a member is having an issue, there was a billing

223
00:16:49.204 --> 00:17:02.090
discrepancy on your site with the member, you could issue a refund for them, but perhaps instead to save the funds, you might want to instead give them some more credits, maybe a little bit more than what the refund is for.

224
00:17:02.230 --> 00:17:09.690
You'll be able to add credits to that member that might help smooth things over for whatever billing discrepancy or issue that happened on the website.

225
00:17:10.675 --> 00:17:12.355
So you can enter a credit amount.

226
00:17:12.355 --> 00:17:17.015
Let's say we wanna give them a hundred dollars, you can add an internal note, so to prevent,

227
00:17:17.555 --> 00:17:18.455
paid refund,

228
00:17:18.994 --> 00:17:21.255
and we'll go ahead and save the changes.

229
00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:27.030
And just like you can add credits, you can also deduct credits.

230
00:17:27.170 --> 00:17:30.850
So let's look at this person's, billing information here in their dashboard.

231
00:17:30.850 --> 00:17:32.950
Right now it was zero, but I added a hundred.

232
00:17:33.650 --> 00:17:35.910
We should see this update to a hundred.

233
00:17:37.155 --> 00:17:41.415
Okay. Perfect. So how can credits be used? Well right now,

234
00:17:42.355 --> 00:17:46.775
credits can be used if they're going to upgrade, if they're going to pay per post,

235
00:17:47.235 --> 00:17:50.935
if they're gonna purchase a digital product, purchase a lead on the website.

236
00:17:51.679 --> 00:17:52.340
In this case,

237
00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:56.580
let's purchase use the paper post and purchase a classified listing

238
00:17:57.120 --> 00:17:58.100
using credits.

239
00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.559
So new classified, this is the paper post. This one says I have a credit.

240
00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:04.500
So let me just use this real quick.

241
00:18:05.035 --> 00:18:08.335
Alright. Let's use this up, test, save it.

242
00:18:09.515 --> 00:18:10.015
And

243
00:18:11.435 --> 00:18:14.315
let me just move past this part. Alright. Great.

244
00:18:14.315 --> 00:18:17.035
So I should be able to now go through the purchase process. Okay.

245
00:18:17.035 --> 00:18:22.450
So a new classified now is $20 if I want to post a classified on this website.

246
00:18:22.830 --> 00:18:24.530
I have $100 of credits.

247
00:18:25.630 --> 00:18:26.770
So new classified.

248
00:18:27.550 --> 00:18:31.730
So here is my review order. It says $20 of my 100

249
00:18:31.790 --> 00:18:33.810
available, of available credits

250
00:18:34.475 --> 00:18:37.455
will be used. So I'm gonna continue with the purchase.

251
00:18:38.555 --> 00:18:43.455
So the member's not gonna come out of pocket for anything. Their their credits are going to be used.

252
00:18:43.515 --> 00:18:45.375
And now I can post a classified

253
00:18:46.250 --> 00:18:50.190
listing. So what's cool is if I go to my billing history as the member,

254
00:18:54.410 --> 00:18:58.350
so you can see I had a hundred credits, now I only have 80 credits.

255
00:18:58.894 --> 00:19:02.754
Because if I look at my payment history, I purchased Ad New Classify

256
00:19:03.134 --> 00:19:10.115
and it was $20 and $20 of credits were used. So I was actually charged $0 for my credit card.

257
00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:21.320
So this is a really great way to you can give credits to your members, you know, if they you know, if they sign up for free, you can actually grant credits during the sign up process.

258
00:19:21.320 --> 00:19:23.580
I'll show you how that works. Let's actually

259
00:19:24.040 --> 00:19:25.260
log out of here.

260
00:19:27.345 --> 00:19:30.645
And if we go to the finance tab and go to membership plans,

261
00:19:32.145 --> 00:19:37.345
let's look at the membership plan three, the free account. Now you can assign credits right now.

262
00:19:37.345 --> 00:19:44.190
The action that this is gonna be released with is you can give credit rewards when members sign up or when members upgrade.

263
00:19:44.250 --> 00:19:51.930
So maybe when people sign up for free, you give them $50 worth of credits that they can then use on leads or paper posts around the site.

264
00:19:51.930 --> 00:19:55.230
A great way to incentivize people to sign up to the site. So,

265
00:19:56.225 --> 00:20:00.085
let's say this free sign up here, this free account, if we scroll down,

266
00:20:00.945 --> 00:20:06.865
over here we can see, you have a few options displayed available credits inside the member's dashboard.

267
00:20:06.865 --> 00:20:11.845
So that's their ability to see if they have credits or not in their billing section of the dashboard.

268
00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:15.900
And here's the cool part, reward credits to assign after sign up.

269
00:20:16.280 --> 00:20:20.620
You could do a hundred dollars reward credits to sign after upgrading to this plan.

270
00:20:20.840 --> 00:20:28.904
Now this is the free sign up, so the free account, so I don't think anyone will upgrade to this, but let's sign up as a free member and see these hundred credits assigned,

271
00:20:29.304 --> 00:20:30.284
to my account.

272
00:20:30.825 --> 00:20:32.605
So let's go to the sign up page.

273
00:20:36.825 --> 00:20:38.684
Just a moment here. There we go.

274
00:20:39.065 --> 00:20:46.270
Let me get rid of this admin bar here. All right. So we'll just do jasonjason.com.

275
00:20:53.725 --> 00:20:55.265
Now in a phase two,

276
00:20:56.525 --> 00:21:07.929
and this is really cool and I don't wanna get ahead of myself here, but you'll be able to have a field here and the person signing up can put a referral ID, the member ID of of the person who referred them,

277
00:21:08.309 --> 00:21:12.950
and you'll be able to give credits to people who are referring new sign ups to your site.

278
00:21:12.950 --> 00:21:15.210
So it's quasi like an affiliate program,

279
00:21:15.510 --> 00:21:16.970
and you'll be able to,

280
00:21:17.565 --> 00:21:19.825
have a, an input field here,

281
00:21:20.125 --> 00:21:24.945
and it can give credit to a member's ID who referred the sign up.

282
00:21:25.245 --> 00:21:30.625
So that's a cool direction that this can go in as well. So I just signed up as a free member.

283
00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:33.539
Let's go to the billing information tab.

284
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:39.440
And it says here I have a hundred dollars.

285
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:43.220
So I got a hundred dollars of credit rewards just for signing up to the site.

286
00:21:43.360 --> 00:21:45.860
In this case, we can also use it to upgrade

287
00:21:46.665 --> 00:21:47.385
my plan.

288
00:21:47.385 --> 00:21:55.165
You can choose if you want to grant credits and things like that, but once somebody has credits they can do things like the pay per post purchase leads with their credits.

289
00:21:55.225 --> 00:21:58.605
Let's upgrade my plan to membership plan one.

290
00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:00.660
So this is a paid plan

291
00:22:01.600 --> 00:22:02.980
and we'll do the monthly.

292
00:22:03.280 --> 00:22:08.980
And again here it says $20 of my $100 available credits will be used.

293
00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.100
So go ahead and change my membership plan.

294
00:22:13.065 --> 00:22:17.565
And because this is a paid subscription, I will still need to put a credit card on file.

295
00:22:17.865 --> 00:22:19.245
And this is just a test,

296
00:22:20.825 --> 00:22:25.164
test payment process, payment gateway here. So we should be able to put a card on file

297
00:22:25.890 --> 00:22:29.030
and then continue with upgrading my plan with credits.

298
00:22:31.410 --> 00:22:33.750
There we go. So credit card's on file,

299
00:22:34.210 --> 00:22:37.030
authorizing the payment. It's gonna be use my credits,

300
00:22:38.785 --> 00:22:42.805
And it should upgrade me to membership plan one. There we go.

301
00:22:44.305 --> 00:22:45.505
So that's coming soon.

302
00:22:45.505 --> 00:22:50.610
Both of these file uploads for forms and the member credit system, both really cool cool things.

303
00:22:50.610 --> 00:22:53.990
I think there's gonna be a lot of use cases for the member credit system.

304
00:22:54.210 --> 00:22:59.190
We're gonna roll out of phase one mid February and I'm excited to see how the community uses

305
00:22:59.490 --> 00:23:02.690
that add on. Alright. Let's roll into it.

306
00:23:02.690 --> 00:23:06.015
David, you have a really great tip of the week for us today.

307
00:23:06.015 --> 00:23:10.355
I do see a lot of new names and faces here, so I think this tip of the week is gonna be a hit.

308
00:23:10.655 --> 00:23:12.595
Five lessons for managing a membership

309
00:23:13.135 --> 00:23:18.115
website. I can pass it over to you, David. You can kind of take us into this tip of the week here.

310
00:23:18.230 --> 00:23:19.210
Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely.

311
00:23:19.590 --> 00:23:35.455
So being the first webinar of the new year and kind of leaning on the theme of new year's resolutions, we figured it might be good to take a step back, look a little bit in the rearview mirror, and try to get some lessons out of what you might have learned from managing

312
00:23:35.755 --> 00:23:39.135
either your first or your second or your third membership website.

313
00:23:39.595 --> 00:23:46.654
This would probably be most beneficial to some of our newest users who are just now launching their membership websites.

314
00:23:46.860 --> 00:23:51.679
But if you've had your site online for a few weeks, a few months, a few years,

315
00:23:51.980 --> 00:23:57.020
we'll be curious to see if you agree with, with the five lessons that we list here.

316
00:23:57.020 --> 00:23:59.600
Maybe you have your own to share as well.

317
00:23:59.794 --> 00:24:08.375
So diving right into it, lesson number one, this is probably the point that we've hammered home most in our past webinars is launching fast

318
00:24:08.755 --> 00:24:10.375
and making gradual improvements

319
00:24:10.995 --> 00:24:15.174
along the way. A quote that we love here is perfection is the enemy of progress.

320
00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:18.380
We really want to focus on our MVP,

321
00:24:18.919 --> 00:24:22.220
not most valuable player, but minimal viable product.

322
00:24:22.679 --> 00:24:28.620
What we can put the least amount of effort and time into, but get to market successfully.

323
00:24:29.505 --> 00:24:33.025
So, a good benchmark that we'd like to shoot for is 80%.

324
00:24:33.025 --> 00:24:34.785
Get the website 80%

325
00:24:34.785 --> 00:24:35.265
set up.

326
00:24:35.265 --> 00:24:40.325
It has pretty much everything, but there is room to make some improvements and tweaks along the way.

327
00:24:40.385 --> 00:24:42.065
Once we get to that 80%

328
00:24:42.065 --> 00:24:43.045
level ish,

329
00:24:43.570 --> 00:24:52.390
then we can launch and we can get some early feedback from our first website visitors and members, and we can use their feedback to make updates.

330
00:24:52.850 --> 00:24:56.070
The reason why we want to do this is because oftentimes,

331
00:24:56.705 --> 00:25:07.525
an idea might be really good to start, but it will probably require some changes along the way to really fine tune it and make it as attractive as it can be to our target demographic.

332
00:25:07.745 --> 00:25:15.320
So we wanna find out what we can change sooner rather than later because we don't wanna invest a bunch of time and energy into something

333
00:25:15.620 --> 00:25:18.840
that we might end up needing to change down the road anyway.

334
00:25:19.379 --> 00:25:24.919
Another benefit of this is that we can gather early feedback and we can fine tune our talking points,

335
00:25:25.220 --> 00:25:30.355
our sales pitch, the language that we use in our marketing materials, everything like this.

336
00:25:30.355 --> 00:25:37.495
So there's a lot of benefits that come from launching fast, kind of lean and mean, and making gradual improvements along the way.

337
00:25:37.554 --> 00:25:45.710
And also with this, I think, the MVP or the minimum viable product here, it doesn't have to be just for your entire website project.

338
00:25:46.090 --> 00:25:48.270
It can be about a part of your website

339
00:25:48.730 --> 00:25:49.610
that you're creating.

340
00:25:49.610 --> 00:25:54.909
Let's let's take an example of, the add on that's coming through the member credits system.

341
00:25:55.485 --> 00:26:02.365
We have a lot of features we wanna bake into that, but we're gonna release a minimal viable product just for that add on.

342
00:26:02.365 --> 00:26:04.684
So we can release something, we can get feedback.

343
00:26:04.684 --> 00:26:07.665
We don't wanna overdevelop or over invest in something

344
00:26:08.090 --> 00:26:11.770
that we don't even know if people want or need right off the bat.

345
00:26:11.770 --> 00:26:20.190
So the minimum viable product can be for the entire scope of your of your website or just pieces of your website if you're are if you're planning to release

346
00:26:20.570 --> 00:26:23.925
new features to your site over time. That's a great example.

347
00:26:23.985 --> 00:26:30.885
And our users who have been with us for a while have probably recognized that most often with our add ons, we typically have a phase one

348
00:26:31.185 --> 00:26:38.549
and then a phase two and maybe a phase three where we roll out some additional changes a little bit down the road once we get some feedback from our users.

349
00:26:38.549 --> 00:26:40.570
And going along with that idea,

350
00:26:41.029 --> 00:26:45.450
we figured this previous tip of the week would be useful in this respect.

351
00:26:45.750 --> 00:26:49.769
The value of early member feedback and why every membership program

352
00:26:50.265 --> 00:26:51.305
needs a beta launch.

353
00:26:51.305 --> 00:26:56.585
So what this covers is the goals of a beta launch, and it doesn't even really need to technically be a beta launch.

354
00:26:56.585 --> 00:27:00.125
It could just be launching early with that minimal viable product,

355
00:27:00.505 --> 00:27:04.765
and then making those those changes along the way. But the goals of a beta launch,

356
00:27:05.309 --> 00:27:09.010
why we want to do it the benefits of it how to roll one out and

357
00:27:09.470 --> 00:27:17.570
maybe most importantly the metrics the KPIs the feedback that we want to look out for during that initial launch process

358
00:27:18.525 --> 00:27:20.065
Alright. Lesson number two,

359
00:27:20.445 --> 00:27:21.345
solid onboarding

360
00:27:21.725 --> 00:27:23.025
increases retention.

361
00:27:23.805 --> 00:27:28.205
So, the quote that we thought went along great with this is preparation is the key to success.

362
00:27:28.205 --> 00:27:35.050
Now, preparation doesn't just apply to us, the website owners, the ones who are rolling out the website, but it also applies to our members.

363
00:27:35.430 --> 00:27:38.250
The more prepared they are, the more knowledge they have.

364
00:27:38.390 --> 00:27:41.050
As soon as they start their membership on our website,

365
00:27:41.510 --> 00:27:44.970
the greater chances they are to have success within our community.

366
00:27:45.304 --> 00:27:48.684
So we want to get our members on the right track as soon as possible.

367
00:27:49.065 --> 00:27:52.445
And to do that, we want to provide them with some simple first steps.

368
00:27:52.745 --> 00:28:02.890
We don't want to bombard them with all the information in the world, but we also don't want to just leave them hanging after they sign up for their membership and hope that they figure everything out on their own.

369
00:28:03.270 --> 00:28:05.690
Overwhelmed and or confused members

370
00:28:06.390 --> 00:28:08.809
will have a tendency to cancel early because

371
00:28:09.270 --> 00:28:16.325
either they feel like this is just too much for me to digest right now or they'll feel like, well, I can't really figure out what to do right now.

372
00:28:16.325 --> 00:28:18.345
This isn't really what I signed up for.

373
00:28:18.645 --> 00:28:24.905
It's not worth my time. So, happier and more engaged members will mean less overall work for us.

374
00:28:25.250 --> 00:28:29.350
If we can set them on the right track initially as early as possible,

375
00:28:29.810 --> 00:28:33.430
we're getting them engaged in our community, engaged with other members.

376
00:28:33.970 --> 00:28:36.610
They had a clear understanding of what they signed up for.

377
00:28:36.610 --> 00:28:41.505
And now that they are signed up, they can see the value in what they signed up for.

378
00:28:42.044 --> 00:28:46.044
That means we'll have less work in the future. We'll have less support inquiries to deal with.

379
00:28:46.044 --> 00:28:47.904
We'll have less cancellation requests,

380
00:28:48.445 --> 00:28:49.565
everything like that.

381
00:28:49.565 --> 00:28:57.400
And the feedback that we get from early members, going back to that previous lesson, the feedback that we get from the early members will help us fine tune

382
00:28:57.700 --> 00:28:59.160
our onboarding process.

383
00:28:59.620 --> 00:29:10.305
Maybe we find out from our initial members and initial website users that a video tutorial like a screen share would really benefit them showing them the different areas of the member dashboard

384
00:29:10.845 --> 00:29:22.385
or a couple initial welcome emails letting them know what features they have available to them, what type of content they can find on the website, things like this, setting them up for success as soon as possible.

385
00:29:22.900 --> 00:29:24.600
And really onboarding starts

386
00:29:25.060 --> 00:29:26.200
with the homepage

387
00:29:26.740 --> 00:29:28.040
and your offering,

388
00:29:28.420 --> 00:29:31.880
when they're just in the awareness stage, when they're just learning about

389
00:29:32.260 --> 00:29:34.020
your service or your solution.

390
00:29:34.020 --> 00:29:39.205
So, you know, we often hear sometimes why aren't members signing up to my site?

391
00:29:39.665 --> 00:29:45.765
The short answer is we haven't compelled them or given them the right reason to sign up, to a site.

392
00:29:45.905 --> 00:29:54.540
Even an ugly clunky website, if they do a good job of of compelling people to sign up, the people are gonna click around and figure out how to get onto that portal.

393
00:29:55.160 --> 00:30:01.480
So why aren't people signing up sometimes is because we haven't compelled them or shown them that there's enough value to sign up.

394
00:30:01.480 --> 00:30:07.845
The second thing we hear is members aren't completing their profiles or they sign up and then abandon the website altogether,

395
00:30:08.145 --> 00:30:12.865
and that's mainly what David's talking about here is the onboarding them with simple first steps.

396
00:30:12.865 --> 00:30:19.200
We need to educate them on how to use the site, what they can get out of the site as well.

397
00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:28.960
So this onboarding is think of it as an educational experience, letting them know what they should do next, and what they can expect if they do those steps.

398
00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:32.105
So if you have members that are abandoning their profiles

399
00:30:32.405 --> 00:30:36.265
early on, immediately after sign up, or not completing their profiles, or not utilizing

400
00:30:36.725 --> 00:30:44.345
all the different sections and services that your website has, it's an education thing, and we want to provide them with welcome emails.

401
00:30:44.940 --> 00:30:51.840
Videos are great, you know, two minute video welcoming them to your site, explaining to them what to do next, and some cool areas

402
00:30:52.220 --> 00:30:53.039
of the site

403
00:30:53.740 --> 00:30:55.440
goes a long way. And

404
00:30:55.899 --> 00:31:10.355
those two simple things, good welcome emails and a one to two minute video explaining welcoming them to your site and what they can get out of it would probably change things 20 x, from the current experience if you're not doing those things, for your members.

405
00:31:10.595 --> 00:31:12.054
So that will help with retention,

406
00:31:12.450 --> 00:31:17.429
will eliminate early cancellations, and people abandoning their profiles over time as well.

407
00:31:18.130 --> 00:31:18.850
Very well said.

408
00:31:18.850 --> 00:31:25.669
And so going along with that, another previous tip of the week, how to onboard new members with an inviting welcome plan.

409
00:31:25.809 --> 00:31:26.309
This

410
00:31:26.625 --> 00:31:29.025
covers a lot of great aspects of a welcome plan.

411
00:31:29.025 --> 00:31:36.565
We focus a lot on kind of the welcome email and maybe even an email sequence if you want to, employ multiple emails.

412
00:31:37.025 --> 00:31:42.799
But we go through kind of the things to think about before you actually do set up your onboarding plan,

413
00:31:43.100 --> 00:31:45.120
defining your audience, their expectations,

414
00:31:45.980 --> 00:31:48.080
how to meet and exceed their expectations,

415
00:31:49.020 --> 00:32:03.455
what kind of assets to include in your onboarding plan, whether it's an initial welcome email or if it's more of a kind of drawn out process, maybe you're gonna follow-up with them with a phone call, make sure they're happy with everything.

416
00:32:03.755 --> 00:32:09.080
If you're gonna kind of drip feed them a few emails along the way, things like that. So we go into,

417
00:32:09.560 --> 00:32:13.400
quite a bit of depth in this tip of the week here. Yeah.

418
00:32:13.400 --> 00:32:19.420
I think if you can nail if you can compel people to sign up and then really nail the the onboarding,

419
00:32:20.040 --> 00:32:22.875
and the welcome plan that you have for your members.

420
00:32:23.174 --> 00:32:28.615
One is you're gonna have happier members because they're utilizing your services correctly and getting the most out of it.

421
00:32:28.615 --> 00:32:38.510
But you're engaging them and they now know how to use your service, and that's kinda how word-of-mouth advertising starts to work is because they're actually getting the benefits of the service, that you're offering

422
00:32:39.050 --> 00:32:39.870
them. Exactly.

423
00:32:40.010 --> 00:32:45.470
And kind of going along with word-of-mouth marketing, number three, brilliant customer service

424
00:32:45.930 --> 00:32:46.830
pays dividends.

425
00:32:46.890 --> 00:32:53.345
So we've all probably heard the the phrase, the quote, it takes months to find a customer, but only seconds to lose one.

426
00:32:53.645 --> 00:32:56.285
No matter how prepared we are, no matter how,

427
00:32:56.605 --> 00:33:00.225
well thought out our website is, our onboarding processes,

428
00:33:01.005 --> 00:33:05.585
members will always have problems, whether it's a member or just a a website visitor.

429
00:33:06.120 --> 00:33:06.620
Customers,

430
00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.940
no matter which form they take, there's always gonna be problems that arise.

431
00:33:11.240 --> 00:33:15.100
But it's how we handle those problems and the resolutions we provide

432
00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:18.780
that they'll remember more than the problem itself.

433
00:33:19.375 --> 00:33:32.034
It's really important to keep in mind that the members who might get the most upset, you know, the ones who write raging emails or maybe you're on the phone with them and and they're just extremely upset and frustrated,

434
00:33:32.495 --> 00:33:34.914
it's probably because they're the most passionate

435
00:33:35.350 --> 00:33:38.009
members that you have. They're the most passionate of your users.

436
00:33:38.149 --> 00:33:40.970
They care the most about your product. They had high expectations

437
00:33:41.429 --> 00:33:45.129
that they think you can meet. They're just having some trouble on that path.

438
00:33:45.509 --> 00:33:48.169
And so exceptional customer service can oftentimes

439
00:33:48.549 --> 00:33:50.730
turn those most upset

440
00:33:51.825 --> 00:33:52.565
members into

441
00:33:52.865 --> 00:33:54.325
our biggest advocates.

442
00:33:54.865 --> 00:33:59.525
If we can provide them with exceptional customer service, just really exceed their expectations

443
00:34:00.225 --> 00:34:06.840
every which way, they can end up being our our biggest advocates and and telling everybody they know

444
00:34:07.400 --> 00:34:10.699
how good our community is, how good our website is,

445
00:34:11.080 --> 00:34:14.460
the management behind the website instead of telling everybody

446
00:34:14.839 --> 00:34:20.139
how terrible we are. The other benefit about turning members into advertisers

447
00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:21.260
or advocates

448
00:34:21.935 --> 00:34:25.554
is that that lowers our cost per acquisition. So if we're paying for advertising

449
00:34:25.935 --> 00:34:26.675
or we're

450
00:34:26.975 --> 00:34:35.315
boosting posts on Facebook and other social networks or whatever it may be, if we're paying if we have some sort of cost for acquiring

451
00:34:35.855 --> 00:34:36.594
new members,

452
00:34:37.230 --> 00:34:40.369
Using our existing members to bring in new members,

453
00:34:40.750 --> 00:34:46.130
well, that's not only cheaper for us, but increases our revenue, it continues to grow our community,

454
00:34:46.429 --> 00:34:48.210
and it gets everybody engaged.

455
00:34:48.750 --> 00:34:53.585
A really important thing to keep in mind when you are dealing with customer service issues

456
00:34:54.285 --> 00:34:57.745
is just put yourself in the mind of the member or the customer.

457
00:34:58.205 --> 00:35:03.185
How would you want the issue to be resolved if you are the member who's having difficulties?

458
00:35:03.405 --> 00:35:05.380
And what would it take to make

459
00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:09.140
you really be wowed by the customer service experience?

460
00:35:09.680 --> 00:35:14.740
I think a lot of times it might take a little extra work on our part to exceed their expectations.

461
00:35:15.040 --> 00:35:20.260
You know, we could put in the minimal amount of effort and solve their problem and they'd be happy.

462
00:35:20.405 --> 00:35:23.145
But what can we do to really make them feel special?

463
00:35:23.365 --> 00:35:29.865
Because if we can really make them feel special, we'll have a better shot that they'll end up telling their friends, their family, their coworkers

464
00:35:30.325 --> 00:35:34.425
about our website and about our community and bring them in with them.

465
00:35:34.630 --> 00:35:38.070
There's a problem with this slide, David. I'll tell you what the problem with this slide is.

466
00:35:38.070 --> 00:35:49.750
And I and I hear it in the Facebook group and and things like that is sometimes people when they're launching a membership site or a directory site for a local region, they don't think customer service that they're supposed to offer customer service.

467
00:35:49.750 --> 00:35:58.065
They just create the website and people will join and pay and upgrade and add their profiles and their listings and that's the end of the experience.

468
00:35:58.365 --> 00:36:00.305
And it can be in some certain cases.

469
00:36:00.605 --> 00:36:07.319
But if you're you know if you're a solopreneur, you have an idea, you're launching, you have to create customer service experiences because

470
00:36:08.260 --> 00:36:09.400
you need that feedback.

471
00:36:09.940 --> 00:36:11.160
You need to be proactive,

472
00:36:11.460 --> 00:36:17.079
reach out to new sign ups, call them, welcome them to the site, ask them if they need help completing their profile,

473
00:36:17.540 --> 00:36:19.400
ask them why they joined the site.

474
00:36:19.985 --> 00:36:24.725
If somebody cancels, call them and say if there's any see if there's anything that you can do,

475
00:36:25.185 --> 00:36:30.485
to help them find out why they canceled so you can prevent that for other people. So part of this is

476
00:36:30.785 --> 00:36:33.845
not just providing customer service because it might it might be nonexistent

477
00:36:34.145 --> 00:36:38.560
for you right now because there's there's no way there's no engagement. There's no touch points.

478
00:36:38.860 --> 00:36:41.520
So what we need to do is create those touch points.

479
00:36:41.900 --> 00:36:47.175
Once they engaged with our community, so they know that there's real people behind it, it's not just a void.

480
00:36:47.335 --> 00:36:50.855
It's not just a shell company running this, you know, this website that's online.

481
00:36:50.855 --> 00:36:53.835
It has a soul and a personality and people behind it.

482
00:36:54.935 --> 00:36:56.055
But when we reach out,

483
00:36:56.615 --> 00:36:59.595
we're creating engagement opportunities, we're gaining feedback,

484
00:36:59.920 --> 00:37:03.300
we're building loyalty and trust and creating evangelists,

485
00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:04.260
and,

486
00:37:04.560 --> 00:37:10.100
we're we can then provide exceptional customer service that people will rave and rant about. So

487
00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:18.194
if you're not calling your members, if you're not reaching out to members and you're just passively waiting for things to happen on your site, I would highly recommend

488
00:37:19.134 --> 00:37:23.055
start reaching out to your members, whether it's a simple email, ask them simple questions.

489
00:37:23.055 --> 00:37:26.595
How did you like the sign up experience? Why did you sign up to the site?

490
00:37:26.920 --> 00:37:30.840
Maybe put a chat tool on your site so you can engage people as they're browsing your site.

491
00:37:30.840 --> 00:37:32.060
They can leave you messages.

492
00:37:32.520 --> 00:37:34.220
Open up the channels of communication.

493
00:37:34.840 --> 00:37:40.665
We need to create those touch points to provide customer service for customer service to exist in the first place.

494
00:37:40.985 --> 00:37:46.045
And to the third point here of exceptional customer service can turn members into advertisers

495
00:37:46.585 --> 00:37:48.285
and lower your cost per acquisition,

496
00:37:48.745 --> 00:37:50.205
a lot of us might not

497
00:37:50.745 --> 00:37:58.819
be spending money on paid advertising like Google ads and Facebook ads, but you are paying with your time that you're putting into your site.

498
00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:04.019
And when you have members that are telling their friends and colleagues about your site,

499
00:38:04.400 --> 00:38:06.880
it lowers your cost per acquisition whether it's,

500
00:38:07.359 --> 00:38:08.180
it's financial

501
00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:13.335
with, you know, paid ads or the time you're spending trying to get new members signed up to your site.

502
00:38:13.335 --> 00:38:13.995
Your time

503
00:38:14.375 --> 00:38:16.955
matters as well, and word-of-mouth referrals,

504
00:38:17.495 --> 00:38:23.575
again, will save you time and money, for acquiring a new member. So keep that in mind as well.

505
00:38:23.575 --> 00:38:27.460
But remember, you have to create those customer service touch points

506
00:38:27.760 --> 00:38:30.260
for customer service to exist in the first place.

507
00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:34.660
Those are great points, which are great segues into

508
00:38:35.200 --> 00:38:37.440
this additional piece of,

509
00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:40.515
content as well as the next lesson that we have.

510
00:38:40.515 --> 00:38:44.055
But before we get there, this doesn't cover customer service

511
00:38:44.435 --> 00:38:49.095
so narrowly as, you know, replying to customer inquiries or member inquiries.

512
00:38:49.395 --> 00:38:56.140
But it does cover it more broadly in the terms of getting personal with them, noticing your most active members, celebrating their achievements,

513
00:38:56.680 --> 00:39:00.460
really promoting the content that they're contributing to your website,

514
00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:01.500
and

515
00:39:01.880 --> 00:39:06.300
cultivating and and energizing your community as a whole. So this is a great article

516
00:39:06.775 --> 00:39:11.995
to go through, maybe to get some new ideas about how to kind of invigorate

517
00:39:12.375 --> 00:39:15.195
your community and your website a little bit more.

518
00:39:15.735 --> 00:39:17.895
Alright. Lesson number four, it takes work.

519
00:39:17.895 --> 00:39:25.710
So, going back to what Jason said, when you're first starting your membership website, a lot of people, they might not think that there's a customer service element to it.

520
00:39:25.710 --> 00:39:29.089
But what comes easy won't last, and what lasts won't come easy.

521
00:39:29.470 --> 00:39:30.849
Now what's easy is subjective,

522
00:39:31.310 --> 00:39:36.045
but ultimately, it comes down to how much time and effort you put into

523
00:39:36.345 --> 00:39:37.565
launching and managing

524
00:39:38.184 --> 00:39:39.805
your website and your community.

525
00:39:40.265 --> 00:39:45.645
One of the most common questions that we get asked here at Brilliant Directories by some of our new users

526
00:39:46.184 --> 00:39:47.405
is if there's

527
00:39:47.780 --> 00:39:55.160
one thing you could point to why some membership websites and directory websites don't don't succeed, what would that be?

528
00:39:55.619 --> 00:39:57.880
I think one of the most common reasons

529
00:39:58.339 --> 00:40:02.280
is that some people just don't look at the website as a business.

530
00:40:02.855 --> 00:40:07.194
Now, maybe their goal initially isn't to generate revenue. Maybe it's for a nonprofit

531
00:40:07.494 --> 00:40:08.875
or some other,

532
00:40:09.414 --> 00:40:09.914
community

533
00:40:10.295 --> 00:40:13.835
where the website itself isn't the generator of revenue.

534
00:40:13.895 --> 00:40:18.550
But, we still want to think of the website as a business and the members as customers.

535
00:40:19.170 --> 00:40:31.335
You can't launch a business in one day or a week or a couple weeks and just put it out there and hope that customers continue to come to you and they're not gonna have any problems and they won't need hand holding or questions answered

536
00:40:32.695 --> 00:40:34.474
Running a business takes work.

537
00:40:34.615 --> 00:40:40.474
So, whether it's a side hustle that you're starting with your website, or you're hoping it eventually turns into your full time job,

538
00:40:40.855 --> 00:40:42.055
it will take work.

539
00:40:42.055 --> 00:40:49.230
And the level of success you see will depend on how much time and effort you put into launching and continuing to manage

540
00:40:49.530 --> 00:40:51.069
the website and community.

541
00:40:51.369 --> 00:40:57.549
Along the way, initially, you're gonna have to bring awareness to your website and your community, and you're gonna have to convince website visitors

542
00:40:58.170 --> 00:41:03.355
and prospective members to eventually join, whether it's for a free membership or a paid membership.

543
00:41:03.735 --> 00:41:05.995
And then once they're joined, you're going to have to maintain

544
00:41:06.535 --> 00:41:14.800
members on your website so that if they're paying, let they keep paying, or if they're free members, that they keep coming back to your website and engaging in the community

545
00:41:15.180 --> 00:41:18.320
so that the community can continue to grow and flourish.

546
00:41:19.180 --> 00:41:20.560
So it does take work,

547
00:41:20.860 --> 00:41:24.800
but there's so many rewards that come from having a successful

548
00:41:25.365 --> 00:41:27.465
membership website and community.

549
00:41:28.005 --> 00:41:31.705
Obviously, there's the recurring revenue aspect, which I'd say the majority

550
00:41:32.165 --> 00:41:34.985
of membership website owners are after.

551
00:41:35.285 --> 00:41:39.065
But there's also the freedom and flexibility that comes with managing your website.

552
00:41:39.549 --> 00:41:40.930
Some of our most successful

553
00:41:41.230 --> 00:41:44.849
customers here, they've put so much time and effort into the websites

554
00:41:45.549 --> 00:41:49.869
that they're generating, you know, 7 figures. They've had to hire employees now.

555
00:41:49.869 --> 00:41:54.930
It's it's really turned into an actual full time job and business for them.

556
00:41:55.445 --> 00:41:59.065
So there's some amazing rewards that come with,

557
00:41:59.445 --> 00:42:04.665
putting in the time and effort and energy into launching and managing your membership community.

558
00:42:04.885 --> 00:42:06.025
And then also

559
00:42:06.325 --> 00:42:08.585
there's, there's the obvious benefit

560
00:42:09.080 --> 00:42:12.140
of the fact that you are providing some value

561
00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:16.140
to your members and and everybody in your community.

562
00:42:16.280 --> 00:42:20.460
They're not joining just because they have nothing better to do. They're looking for something.

563
00:42:20.680 --> 00:42:24.460
They're looking for a solution to a problem, and you are their solution.

564
00:42:24.815 --> 00:42:27.395
So if they're sticking with you and they're

565
00:42:27.775 --> 00:42:29.715
continuing to be engaged in the community,

566
00:42:30.095 --> 00:42:34.195
that's a huge benefit that you're making to your community as a whole.

567
00:42:34.575 --> 00:42:39.930
And here's here's a kicker, actually. It's it does take work, but we wanna work

568
00:42:40.329 --> 00:42:45.450
smarter, not necessarily harder. Right? So our time is limited. Our resources are limited.

569
00:42:45.450 --> 00:42:52.510
We wanna find we wanna bring things to the their lowest common denominator, whether it's the marketing or maintaining

570
00:42:52.890 --> 00:42:55.470
member engagement. Like, we don't have

571
00:42:55.835 --> 00:42:59.214
full time resources for every aspect of our business.

572
00:42:59.515 --> 00:43:05.214
I think on the next slide actually David, here it is. Five daily tasks for membership website

573
00:43:05.755 --> 00:43:10.494
owners. This was a really good tip of the week, we did a while ago, but it really

574
00:43:10.890 --> 00:43:11.849
it's not only

575
00:43:12.250 --> 00:43:15.549
like a mythology and an idea of how to

576
00:43:15.930 --> 00:43:19.390
tackle the tasks on your website. It kinda shows you shortcuts

577
00:43:20.010 --> 00:43:26.270
to achieve things like maintaining a pulse, a marketing pulse on your site, or how you can continuously recruit new members,

578
00:43:26.675 --> 00:43:29.335
you know with minimal energy, time, and effort.

579
00:43:29.635 --> 00:43:33.795
Again because most of us are are one man and one woman shows here, so

580
00:43:34.515 --> 00:43:39.255
knowing how to focus your time and work smarter not harder is key.

581
00:43:39.460 --> 00:43:44.500
Especially when you need to create content, may do your own customer service, do your own marketing, and things like that.

582
00:43:44.500 --> 00:43:47.860
So I think, David, did you share the link in here? I did.

583
00:43:47.860 --> 00:43:54.195
And, yeah, this is a great tip of the week because we do mention, you know, these aren't these don't have to be tasks that you do every single day.

584
00:43:54.275 --> 00:44:00.135
You could do this once a week or once every other week, and they'll make a they'll make a big difference for your community.

585
00:44:00.435 --> 00:44:02.195
This was one of my favorite tips of the week.

586
00:44:02.355 --> 00:44:08.375
It actually gave actionable steps on what you should do after your site launches just to keep things moving forward,

587
00:44:08.755 --> 00:44:14.910
staying top of mind and things like that. And moving on to the last lesson here.

588
00:44:14.970 --> 00:44:16.990
Ask yourself the right question.

589
00:44:17.530 --> 00:44:26.415
A lot of you have, as you've joined Brilliant Directories and you've started to get your websites up and running, you might have initially spoken with Dennis from our sales team here.

590
00:44:26.415 --> 00:44:33.315
And he brought up this point that a lot of people ask initially, well, how much money do you think I can make if I start a membership website?

591
00:44:33.535 --> 00:44:37.714
And oftentimes, that's not really the the right question that you wanna be asking.

592
00:44:38.030 --> 00:44:42.050
What you do wanna ask yourself is really how many members can I attract?

593
00:44:42.510 --> 00:44:46.130
By asking how many members can I attract, we then have to think,

594
00:44:46.430 --> 00:44:47.950
well, what do we need to offer?

595
00:44:47.950 --> 00:44:52.530
What do we need to provide of value that's going to actually bring people to the website?

596
00:44:52.825 --> 00:45:00.125
Because if we're not offering anything of value, if we're not offering something that people really want or need, then we're not going to be making any money anyway.

597
00:45:00.345 --> 00:45:03.645
So that's really the big question we want to ask ourselves is

598
00:45:04.185 --> 00:45:06.765
who our audience is and what are they after?

599
00:45:06.920 --> 00:45:12.300
What can we be providing them that's really going to be something that they're willing to pay for,

600
00:45:12.840 --> 00:45:21.875
whether it's a one time payment, maybe you're offering an ebook or a downloadable PDF or a lesson course or something like that, Or maybe you're offering an ongoing membership.

601
00:45:22.015 --> 00:45:24.915
They have a recurring membership fee. Maybe it's monthly

602
00:45:25.375 --> 00:45:28.195
and you're consistently providing them with valuable content.

603
00:45:28.575 --> 00:45:31.470
Well, instead of asking, well, how much money can we make?

604
00:45:31.470 --> 00:45:37.730
That's a broad question because it depends on who our target audience is and what they're after and most importantly, what we're providing.

605
00:45:38.030 --> 00:45:47.535
So, that's the thing we we want to keep in mind throughout the whole lifespan of our membership website and our community is how much value am I really providing

606
00:45:47.995 --> 00:46:01.650
to my members and and my prospective members am I providing them enough value where they're willing to to pay for what they're getting out of the website yeah that that goes back to I think it was this point let's go back a little bit

607
00:46:02.030 --> 00:46:05.090
here. Yeah. It goes back to the to the welcome to onboarding,

608
00:46:05.630 --> 00:46:07.170
number two. And

609
00:46:07.710 --> 00:46:08.850
being able to

610
00:46:09.470 --> 00:46:11.330
have the right compelling offering,

611
00:46:11.950 --> 00:46:12.770
and education

612
00:46:13.150 --> 00:46:16.434
during the sign up process and after the sign up process.

613
00:46:16.434 --> 00:46:21.494
So instead of asking again just to repeat what David said, how much am I gonna how much can I make with my website?

614
00:46:21.875 --> 00:46:27.575
It's how many members can I attract, how many people can I compel to sign up, complete their profiles,

615
00:46:27.875 --> 00:46:29.494
follow through with the other services,

616
00:46:29.875 --> 00:46:33.950
that the the portal or the website offers? So this is this is,

617
00:46:34.350 --> 00:46:36.530
goes on to the website owners hands,

618
00:46:37.070 --> 00:46:41.170
to be able to connect with their community and engage their community with those resources.

619
00:46:41.550 --> 00:46:45.330
So their members and the the website owner gets the most out of the the experience.

620
00:46:45.390 --> 00:46:48.845
So it's it's for it's a benefit the website owner and

621
00:46:49.145 --> 00:46:49.885
their members

622
00:46:50.585 --> 00:46:58.285
that's right and so going along with that another previous tip of the week that we had five tips for attracting new members to your website

623
00:46:58.760 --> 00:47:02.059
Again, we kind of took kind of a more holistic approach

624
00:47:02.359 --> 00:47:07.420
in this tip of the week, not so much focusing on, well, how much money can you make, but discussing

625
00:47:07.880 --> 00:47:12.780
how you can actually create a community atmosphere, how you can get in front of your target audience,

626
00:47:13.355 --> 00:47:14.174
how bringing

627
00:47:14.714 --> 00:47:16.974
influencers into the fold or turning

628
00:47:17.275 --> 00:47:20.414
your most successful or engaged members into

629
00:47:20.875 --> 00:47:23.295
kind of walking advertisements for you,

630
00:47:23.595 --> 00:47:24.575
upsell techniques,

631
00:47:25.290 --> 00:47:26.110
creating relationships,

632
00:47:26.570 --> 00:47:29.550
not only from member to member, but also

633
00:47:29.850 --> 00:47:30.670
you creating

634
00:47:31.130 --> 00:47:37.790
individual relationships with your members so that they know that there's somebody who cares about them and cares about the community behind the scenes.

635
00:47:38.135 --> 00:47:41.015
These are all topics that we discuss in this tip of the week.

636
00:47:41.015 --> 00:47:47.194
So this is a really great presentation that we did that takes kind of that more bird's eye, top level,

637
00:47:47.655 --> 00:47:48.155
holistic

638
00:47:48.535 --> 00:47:50.395
look at, at this question.

639
00:47:51.130 --> 00:47:55.310
Awesome. David, thank you so much for putting these slides together.

640
00:47:55.450 --> 00:47:57.850
I think we want to ask you guys a question.

641
00:47:58.570 --> 00:48:07.505
What's one thing you wish you knew, especially for our seasoned BDers, what's one thing you wish you knew when starting your membership community or website?

642
00:48:07.744 --> 00:48:11.525
Maybe you can share one or two things that you've learned during your journey

643
00:48:11.984 --> 00:48:14.165
and along the process about

644
00:48:14.785 --> 00:48:16.964
starting a business, creating your website,

645
00:48:17.550 --> 00:48:20.370
and things like that. I think we've got a couple hands up here.

646
00:48:21.390 --> 00:48:25.710
Steven, let me unmute your microphone. How are you doing, Steven? I'm fine. How are you?

647
00:48:25.710 --> 00:48:27.730
Pretty good. Pretty good. Thanks for joining the webinar.

648
00:48:28.030 --> 00:48:30.830
Thank you for having me. So, yeah, for me, it's,

649
00:48:31.390 --> 00:48:32.770
when I launched my website,

650
00:48:33.494 --> 00:48:35.595
I spent quite a bit on customizations

651
00:48:36.295 --> 00:48:38.795
that now, because my website has evolved,

652
00:48:39.255 --> 00:48:44.154
I'm not even using it anymore. So I guess the thing I would not do is, spend

653
00:48:44.694 --> 00:48:46.430
too much on the customizations

654
00:48:46.810 --> 00:48:49.390
until you, as you mentioned earlier, get feedback.

655
00:48:50.010 --> 00:48:53.070
And because it you know, it may it may evolve in a different direction,

656
00:48:53.450 --> 00:48:54.670
and you may not use them.

657
00:48:54.970 --> 00:48:59.790
That's interesting. So did you think your site needed, like, certain features or certain workflows

658
00:49:00.125 --> 00:49:02.385
for members to want to even wanna use it?

659
00:49:03.085 --> 00:49:06.065
I did. Yeah. And and I think, really, in retrospect,

660
00:49:06.444 --> 00:49:09.184
I didn't get enough feedback to realize that

661
00:49:09.565 --> 00:49:13.825
I didn't need them in the end, or that I was gonna go in a slightly different direction.

662
00:49:14.849 --> 00:49:16.170
So I think I jumped the gun on that.

663
00:49:16.170 --> 00:49:19.910
I think they would attract more members if I had x, y, and z customizations.

664
00:49:21.730 --> 00:49:27.809
And it it may have, but again, my my site shifted a bit. Gotcha. Let me ask you another question.

665
00:49:27.809 --> 00:49:28.630
Do you foresee

666
00:49:29.184 --> 00:49:35.845
any customizations you do wanna execute now that that you have a clear picture of what your members want, or are you done with customization?

667
00:49:36.065 --> 00:49:38.944
No. No. No. No. No. So I'm not done with customizations at all.

668
00:49:38.944 --> 00:49:40.645
In other words, I haven't done it recently,

669
00:49:41.105 --> 00:49:42.085
but I do foresee

670
00:49:42.630 --> 00:49:46.329
I have a better picture of the customizations that I will do now in the future,

671
00:49:46.630 --> 00:49:49.829
and I'm at a place where I believe that they'll have staying power.

672
00:49:49.829 --> 00:49:52.329
In other words, you know, I've sort of evolved a bit,

673
00:49:52.630 --> 00:49:56.805
and I'm at a better place than when I started out in terms of knowing that those customizations

674
00:49:57.265 --> 00:49:59.845
will run the life of the of the site.

675
00:50:00.385 --> 00:50:04.005
That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that, Steven. Thank you.

676
00:50:04.545 --> 00:50:06.325
Good stuff there. Good words of wisdom.

677
00:50:06.785 --> 00:50:09.685
And, we got another hand up here. Our good friend, Vincent.

678
00:50:09.985 --> 00:50:11.845
How's it going? Happy New Year, by the way.

679
00:50:12.200 --> 00:50:14.539
Hey. Hey. I I agree with him,

680
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:18.940
the last guy. I think that was a big mistake doing any customization

681
00:50:19.319 --> 00:50:22.220
in the beginning. Like, I hardly do any customization now

682
00:50:24.395 --> 00:50:27.454
unless I'm absolutely positive I need to do it.

683
00:50:28.315 --> 00:50:31.135
So I try to use the stock website as much as possible.

684
00:50:32.474 --> 00:50:34.494
But I think the biggest thing I learned

685
00:50:34.875 --> 00:50:35.615
was probably

686
00:50:36.420 --> 00:50:37.160
how important,

687
00:50:37.859 --> 00:50:42.680
you know, whatever website you're gonna build, that you are really interested in that subject

688
00:50:43.380 --> 00:50:45.319
or really interested in that community

689
00:50:46.500 --> 00:50:49.319
or have some sort of knowledge about it because content

690
00:50:50.205 --> 00:50:51.425
is king. Right?

691
00:50:51.885 --> 00:50:57.085
And being able to answer questions and show up in the search results is super, super valuable. I,

692
00:50:58.445 --> 00:51:03.405
I found that out with my first website. I, created a blog post in 02/2017

693
00:51:03.405 --> 00:51:05.430
with my very first website from you guys,

694
00:51:06.069 --> 00:51:08.730
because I was sick of people calling me asking me

695
00:51:09.190 --> 00:51:09.690
why

696
00:51:10.150 --> 00:51:14.170
I'm looking for discontinued auto parts. My first site was a auto parts website.

697
00:51:14.790 --> 00:51:18.069
So people were calling me all the time. Hey. How do I find discontinued auto parts?

698
00:51:18.069 --> 00:51:23.755
So I I made the mistake of creating a blog post about how to find discontinued auto parts

699
00:51:24.295 --> 00:51:29.994
and it hit number one in America for years. It's still finally somebody has beat me.

700
00:51:30.135 --> 00:51:33.115
I'm number two or three in America under the

701
00:51:33.470 --> 00:51:37.410
number you know, if you search under how to find discontinued auto parts in America,

702
00:51:38.029 --> 00:51:41.650
I went from getting, like, five calls a day to getting 50 calls a day.

703
00:51:42.270 --> 00:51:43.890
And it just absolutely

704
00:51:44.190 --> 00:51:45.089
drove me crazy.

705
00:51:45.869 --> 00:51:46.270
But,

706
00:51:47.165 --> 00:51:49.425
so the content is what's king.

707
00:51:49.724 --> 00:51:56.285
Answering questions, writing interesting stuff, getting, you know, updating people's websites for them or their pages.

708
00:51:56.285 --> 00:52:07.039
If if if you want that customer to look like they're part of your plan, just up upgrade their whole program for them, You know, so it looks like there's some major players in your team already and even if they're paying or not paying.

709
00:52:07.039 --> 00:52:07.539
Right?

710
00:52:07.839 --> 00:52:08.079
So,

711
00:52:08.640 --> 00:52:14.740
I think that's that's been the fun part is just sticking with, you know, making sure that you

712
00:52:15.045 --> 00:52:18.825
have the time to take care of that website because it takes a lot of time,

713
00:52:19.285 --> 00:52:20.825
especially when you're building it.

714
00:52:21.365 --> 00:52:23.785
Yeah. So what what Vincent is referring to,

715
00:52:24.165 --> 00:52:25.305
is, you know, he

716
00:52:25.684 --> 00:52:30.580
he he has a wealth of knowledge and he's made his website and himself a beacon of information

717
00:52:31.360 --> 00:52:34.900
for his industry or people seeking out what he knows.

718
00:52:35.280 --> 00:52:37.780
And being that beacon of information will trump

719
00:52:38.320 --> 00:52:39.140
any customizations

720
00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:42.885
you you can do on your site because people know they're in the right place.

721
00:52:42.885 --> 00:52:44.905
I'm I'm assuming your trust,

722
00:52:46.325 --> 00:52:50.085
and authority on the on the subject is is what keeps people coming back, Vincent.

723
00:52:50.085 --> 00:52:55.065
Is that is that what it sounds like? Well, I I found a niche by accident

724
00:52:55.525 --> 00:52:55.685
that,

725
00:52:57.119 --> 00:52:59.539
originally, the site was built for an auto dealership,

726
00:53:00.319 --> 00:53:02.900
who wanted to sell more parts to,

727
00:53:04.720 --> 00:53:10.259
collision repair shops and auto repair shops and other car dealerships and used car dealerships.

728
00:53:10.720 --> 00:53:12.740
But what happened by accident was

729
00:53:13.224 --> 00:53:19.565
people started calling up wanting discontinued parts or hard to find parts or they were retail customers.

730
00:53:19.945 --> 00:53:21.645
They were trying to fix the car themselves.

731
00:53:22.265 --> 00:53:25.085
And it this was completely was a shock for

732
00:53:25.385 --> 00:53:32.280
us and the the company wasn't the company wasn't really interested in selling discontinued auto parts or used parts or aftermarket parts.

733
00:53:32.280 --> 00:53:36.619
They just wanted to sell, at the time, new new parts. They were auto dealership group.

734
00:53:37.400 --> 00:53:40.380
And so here, all of a sudden, I had all these leads.

735
00:53:40.920 --> 00:53:44.954
I didn't know what to do with. I still have all these leads that I don't know what to do with.

736
00:53:44.954 --> 00:53:47.694
But I finally found a group, an auto group that is

737
00:53:47.994 --> 00:53:49.855
is now going ahead and they're gonna,

738
00:53:52.075 --> 00:53:55.435
you know, because people call up and they want Ford parts. They want Chevy parts.

739
00:53:55.435 --> 00:53:58.619
They and the original store only wanted Toyota parts leads.

740
00:53:58.619 --> 00:54:04.320
So I finally got a group, that we're building it right now that wants that has all the brands,

741
00:54:04.700 --> 00:54:07.900
and we're gonna be able to handle any call that comes in. So,

742
00:54:08.460 --> 00:54:13.915
it took a while to find the right client for it. But but it's been good. It's and the shocker was

743
00:54:14.215 --> 00:54:17.435
so I found out that 80% of the traffic to your website

744
00:54:18.295 --> 00:54:23.335
is research. Google found out that 80% of the traffic on the websites is research.

745
00:54:23.335 --> 00:54:25.115
It's not the buying process.

746
00:54:25.500 --> 00:54:26.720
So people are researching

747
00:54:27.340 --> 00:54:27.840
whatever.

748
00:54:28.380 --> 00:54:32.320
And in the process of researching, you wanna link to your page where you're selling stuff.

749
00:54:32.700 --> 00:54:34.300
But so you answer questions.

750
00:54:34.300 --> 00:54:38.160
So now I have software that tells me all the questions about any subject.

751
00:54:38.565 --> 00:54:41.385
I try to every day go in there, pick a pick a subject,

752
00:54:42.325 --> 00:54:43.305
answer the question,

753
00:54:43.845 --> 00:54:46.185
write an answer, and post, and keep posting.

754
00:54:46.805 --> 00:54:51.685
Because I'm more in the lead generation side than the kinda typical membership side.

755
00:54:52.370 --> 00:54:54.210
People that I work for, they want leads.

756
00:54:54.210 --> 00:54:59.170
They want auto parts leads or new car dealership leads or they want pest control leads or whatever.

757
00:54:59.170 --> 00:55:04.470
So I I build lead generation websites primarily, and content really moves the needle

758
00:55:04.850 --> 00:55:05.590
with Google.

759
00:55:06.684 --> 00:55:06.924
Right.

760
00:55:06.924 --> 00:55:14.065
With attracting the consumers, and then they they share their need or what their want, and then you connect them with the professionals on the other side of your marketplace.

761
00:55:14.285 --> 00:55:15.325
Is that the Right. Right.

762
00:55:15.325 --> 00:55:19.900
So I have, like, one person who's getting all the leads from that website primarily.

763
00:55:19.900 --> 00:55:20.700
That's what I want.

764
00:55:20.700 --> 00:55:25.660
I remember your class where you said, do you want, you know, 500 people to pay $25?

765
00:55:25.660 --> 00:55:27.980
Or do you want, you know, this many people to pay a hundred bucks?

766
00:55:27.980 --> 00:55:29.920
Or do you want this guy who pays 5,000?

767
00:55:30.380 --> 00:55:37.974
I realized I want the one guy I want one customer that'll pay the 3,000, 5 thousand a month, and I'm just gonna take care of him

768
00:55:38.595 --> 00:55:39.335
all the time.

769
00:55:39.635 --> 00:55:41.414
And that's kind of my philosophy.

770
00:55:41.714 --> 00:55:45.815
That class was perfect. That was a while ago, but I still remember it very clearly.

771
00:55:46.790 --> 00:55:48.550
Do you remember that? I can share that. Yeah.

772
00:55:48.550 --> 00:55:51.750
I'm gonna I I I'm gonna share that blog article with everyone. It was,

773
00:55:52.630 --> 00:55:56.950
I think the keyword is yeah. Three free formulas to generate $5,000.

774
00:55:56.950 --> 00:55:58.974
Let's see if this comes up here. Here it is.

775
00:55:58.974 --> 00:56:03.935
And so I I I went after I wanna make 5 a thousand, 3 thousand, 2 thousand.

776
00:56:03.935 --> 00:56:06.195
I wanted thousands of dollars per client

777
00:56:06.895 --> 00:56:12.755
and that's what happened is that all my sites now revolve around one client that is paying for those leads.

778
00:56:13.130 --> 00:56:15.310
That's great. That's a great you know what?

779
00:56:15.770 --> 00:56:19.950
I I just learned a lot chatting with you just now. I'm sure a lot of people had a lot of takeaways.

780
00:56:20.890 --> 00:56:28.750
That's a great journey and great that you figured out your niche and you know how you who you wanna work with and how you wanna and what service you wanna provide.

781
00:56:28.785 --> 00:56:31.285
And then more importantly, how to continuously stimulate,

782
00:56:32.065 --> 00:56:33.664
you know, leads coming through.

783
00:56:33.664 --> 00:56:40.565
You're answering questions and in forums and posts and things like that so that that's working for you as your marketing tool, it sounds like.

784
00:56:41.025 --> 00:56:45.390
Right. And then a little bit of AdWords because you have to feed the beast, you know, Google.

785
00:56:45.930 --> 00:56:48.650
Sure. Sure. Sure. Well, thank you, Vincent, for sharing that story with us.

786
00:56:48.650 --> 00:56:52.490
It was really It's a good time for you again. Yeah. Yeah. I'll chat with you later this year.

787
00:56:52.490 --> 00:56:53.630
Cheers. Bye bye.

788
00:56:54.090 --> 00:56:58.110
Alright. Good stuff there from Vincent. I think we got one more, hand up here.

789
00:56:58.490 --> 00:56:59.310
Let me see.

790
00:56:59.915 --> 00:57:03.835
Yep. We got our friend, Ryan here. How's it going? Hey. Great. Thanks, Jason.

791
00:57:03.835 --> 00:57:07.855
How are you doing today? Good. Good. Good. So What's one thing you wish you knew?

792
00:57:08.234 --> 00:57:08.474
Yeah.

793
00:57:08.474 --> 00:57:15.530
So this one there's a couple parts to this, but I'll make the the simple thing is that that I think a lot of people have inside the directory.

794
00:57:15.670 --> 00:57:19.290
They ask themselves about you and the company. Is is BD worth it?

795
00:57:19.830 --> 00:57:22.570
And so I wish I knew when I started to

796
00:57:22.870 --> 00:57:24.470
to know that the answer is yes.

797
00:57:24.470 --> 00:57:30.835
And so I I I turn this in sense of, several things that I think that people go through when they look at directories.

798
00:57:30.835 --> 00:57:35.795
Like, the first one is, a lot of times, they don't know if if your software is gonna work for their niche.

799
00:57:35.795 --> 00:57:37.815
Right? And we just heard a couple examples,

800
00:57:38.595 --> 00:57:43.095
across the board where there's always so many different varied business models and niches or whatever.

801
00:57:43.395 --> 00:57:47.130
And so, you know, I wish that they knew that BD can do that. Right?

802
00:57:47.130 --> 00:57:48.650
You can do anything under the sun.

803
00:57:48.650 --> 00:57:53.790
Any any niche that you want that you're listening to or think about for your business, you guys can do.

804
00:57:54.090 --> 00:57:57.530
And then the other one that always comes up with BD is like, hey.

805
00:57:57.530 --> 00:57:59.770
I don't know if BD is the right design for me. Right?

806
00:57:59.770 --> 00:58:03.605
There's the themes are there's a lot of themes, but I don't know if it's the right design.

807
00:58:04.305 --> 00:58:10.645
And we've seen, you know, many, many instances of the BD sites even out of the box with zero

808
00:58:11.185 --> 00:58:11.685
design,

809
00:58:12.305 --> 00:58:16.485
you know, efforts or whatever making, you know, 6 figures a year.

810
00:58:16.740 --> 00:58:22.520
We've seen, you know, Corey's, when we started with this site, it's just out of the box stuff, but it's because he's running the business,

811
00:58:23.460 --> 00:58:28.180
you know, and actually doing stuff. They're making, you know, a lot of money on the service.

812
00:58:28.180 --> 00:58:29.000
So the design

813
00:58:29.305 --> 00:58:35.005
is is good enough, right, for you, and then you can always, you know, flex from there as you go as we've as we've heard.

814
00:58:35.625 --> 00:58:39.405
People always ask is BD, you know, does it have enough features for me? Right?

815
00:58:39.945 --> 00:58:45.050
And you guys have pumped out, and, you know, you guys always do it every year, 1,500, I think,

816
00:58:45.350 --> 00:58:47.690
you know, feature add ons last year.

817
00:58:48.310 --> 00:58:54.730
And even looking back at the the system, like, a year ago or two years ago, it's not even recognizable because you guys

818
00:58:55.030 --> 00:58:57.765
add so much effort and feature development that,

819
00:58:58.164 --> 00:59:01.285
if it doesn't have all the features you want now, it's going to. Right?

820
00:59:01.285 --> 00:59:04.805
Because you guys keep pumping it out, and we appreciate that. And then the,

821
00:59:05.365 --> 00:59:09.065
and then the two other thing two last things that come to my mind is the future capabilities.

822
00:59:09.125 --> 00:59:11.819
Everybody wonders, hey. Is it gonna grow with me?

823
00:59:11.819 --> 00:59:17.240
Does BD good enough for me to, you know, launch my business on, now and or into the future?

824
00:59:17.859 --> 00:59:23.800
And the answer is yes because it's one of the only platforms that, you know, you can get in the code and change anything.

825
00:59:24.474 --> 00:59:26.815
You can add plugins. It's totally flexible.

826
00:59:27.115 --> 00:59:29.595
It is not sterile like some of the other sites out there.

827
00:59:29.595 --> 00:59:34.494
You can you can make and design and build it to whatever you guys want, and so it's future proof.

828
00:59:34.635 --> 00:59:35.615
And then the last

829
00:59:35.915 --> 00:59:38.974
the last thing I I think everybody always thinks about is, hey.

830
00:59:39.380 --> 00:59:40.500
Is the support good enough?

831
00:59:40.500 --> 00:59:45.700
Am I gonna just kind of launch out on a limb here, rely my entire business on a a model?

832
00:59:45.700 --> 00:59:50.580
And I don't know that they're you know, the support's gonna be there, and and you guys have the best support.

833
00:59:50.580 --> 00:59:52.200
I think everybody here would agree,

834
00:59:52.895 --> 00:59:53.555
out there

835
00:59:54.015 --> 00:59:54.595
of timeliness,

836
00:59:55.214 --> 00:59:55.875
a completeness,

837
00:59:56.494 --> 01:00:01.315
and just general community support both through the Facebook and your entire team there,

838
01:00:01.935 --> 01:00:05.855
that that just, you know, ties the bow on support that no other system does.

839
01:00:05.855 --> 01:00:12.569
So the so my my I know it's a multiparty answer, but I guess the the answer is what the question in their mind, is BD

840
01:00:13.269 --> 01:00:13.829
worth it?

841
01:00:13.829 --> 01:00:18.869
And and so that that's the the thing I wish I would've known, and hopefully everybody else realizes that you guys are.

842
01:00:18.869 --> 01:00:21.915
So Thank you. Thank you. Everything you guys do.

843
01:00:22.315 --> 01:00:23.435
Likewise. Likewise, Ryan.

844
01:00:23.435 --> 01:00:27.595
You're you're an all star in the community, so thank you, for sharing that with us. Yeah.

845
01:00:27.595 --> 01:00:29.595
BD BD does do a lot,

846
01:00:30.235 --> 01:00:37.400
and I think that goes back to to Steven's point and Vincent's point is and the the fact we were talking about minimal viable product.

847
01:00:37.619 --> 01:00:40.760
I think there's enough baked in so that you can quickly

848
01:00:41.380 --> 01:00:45.320
succeed or quickly fail. There's there's a benefit to quickly failing.

849
01:00:45.859 --> 01:00:48.305
That there's a saying fail fast. Right?

850
01:00:48.305 --> 01:00:52.865
Because you don't wanna waste all your time and money just to learn that something's not gonna work out.

851
01:00:52.865 --> 01:00:53.605
And I think

852
01:00:54.065 --> 01:00:58.405
personally, as the cofounder of BD, I think that's the one competitive advantage

853
01:00:58.785 --> 01:01:03.700
users of BD have when they when they launch their site with BD is you can fail quickly.

854
01:01:03.700 --> 01:01:05.799
I mean, let's be honest, not every idea

855
01:01:06.099 --> 01:01:08.440
is gonna take off and and shoot to the moon.

856
01:01:08.740 --> 01:01:13.299
But if we could find out quickly, then yeah, we've saved ourselves a bunch of time and money.

857
01:01:13.299 --> 01:01:14.839
And to the point about design,

858
01:01:15.665 --> 01:01:20.325
there are some ugly websites out there. Who has used Craigslist in their lifetime?

859
01:01:21.425 --> 01:01:24.645
It's clunky. It's there's it's really just

860
01:01:24.945 --> 01:01:26.545
the most basic website in the world.

861
01:01:26.545 --> 01:01:32.420
But goes back to the point of if you can compel people that there's gold at the end of the rainbow for using

862
01:01:32.720 --> 01:01:34.260
the service or the website,

863
01:01:34.560 --> 01:01:38.880
people will click as many times as they have to to figure out how to get that gold at the end of the rainbow.

864
01:01:38.880 --> 01:01:44.185
You just have to let them know what the value is that they're gonna get when they reach the finish line.

865
01:01:44.185 --> 01:01:47.705
So I think that there's one takeaway here. It's minimal viable product.

866
01:01:47.705 --> 01:01:52.205
Get your on your your solution online quickly. Figure out how to compel people

867
01:01:52.585 --> 01:01:53.085
to

868
01:01:53.385 --> 01:02:03.220
sign up to your site, use your site, figure out how to provide value if value is missing, call people who cancel, try to connect with people before the sign up process to figure out,

869
01:02:03.920 --> 01:02:07.935
why they're not signing up or what they wanna see in order to sign up.

870
01:02:08.255 --> 01:02:09.395
And that's gonna help

871
01:02:09.695 --> 01:02:16.655
you succeed quickly, fail fast, whatever it is, but you're gonna get to an end result much faster without wasting your time and money.

872
01:02:16.655 --> 01:02:26.200
And lots of us, many of us have multiple ideas so that's another thing the platform is good for and you know as Vincent was saying, he is servicing different industries like pest control,

873
01:02:26.500 --> 01:02:30.200
auto parts, and some other things. And once you figure out a formula for

874
01:02:30.500 --> 01:02:36.440
running a membership site, you can replicate that in different markets, different verticals, different industries,

875
01:02:37.325 --> 01:02:38.845
and just repeat that process.

876
01:02:38.845 --> 01:02:43.265
So I really appreciate everyone who's shared their insight with us today.

877
01:02:43.404 --> 01:02:47.904
I do notice that we are a bit over time so I am going to end it there.

878
01:02:47.964 --> 01:02:51.960
But I know we didn't get to Q and A today guys. We just ran out of time a little bit over time.

879
01:02:51.960 --> 01:02:52.940
If you do have questions,

880
01:02:53.480 --> 01:02:57.960
we'll be manning the the Facebook group. You can go to brilliantdirectories.com

881
01:02:57.960 --> 01:02:59.339
forward /facebook.

882
01:02:59.720 --> 01:03:01.160
Go ahead and join that group.

883
01:03:01.160 --> 01:03:06.060
Ask your questions in there, and the next webinar will be in two weeks.

884
01:03:06.280 --> 01:03:11.475
So on behalf of myself, David, and the entire Brilliant Directories family, thank you guys so much.

885
01:03:11.535 --> 01:03:13.455
The first webinar of 2022.

886
01:03:13.455 --> 01:03:18.495
It's been lots of fun, and we'll see you guys in two weeks. Have a great day and a brilliant week.

887
01:03:18.495 --> 01:03:19.395
Take care, guys.