4 Tips for Deciding Your Online Membership Pricing
One of the biggest struggles we hear over and over from our new Marvelous teachers is about how to price memberships.
As creators and small business owners, you must get comfortable charging what you’re worth —anything less than that is a disservice to your teaching (and a severe blow to your new business).
Pricing shouldn’t be an uncomfortable discussion you have with your community. If you provide value, your clients will be thankful to pay you fairly for your work. But how do you decide the final amount? Don't worry; this post will give you four key tips for nailing down the perfect price point.
How to Price a Membership Site
Tip 1: Embrace Your Value
The number one problem we see when new teachers price their online membership is that they undervalue themselves. We cannot stress this point enough. You are a teacher with a gift and, in all likelihood, years of training and education under your belt. Your students know this. They feel a strong connection to you. They look to you for guidance. Do not aim to be the cheapest game in town. Instead, aim to be the best at what you do in your niche market.
If you have not already read The Cold, Hard Truth: Why You Aren’t Making Money Teaching Online (And How to Fix It), please do so now.
It is up to you to make this mindset shift.
If you are still shaky about your value, reach out to your community. Be open and honest. Ask your students or clients what they love about your classes or coaching sessions. What kind of teaching has your impact had on their life? It might be something tangible like mobility, increased strength, less stress, or something intangible, like emotional connection or sense of belonging. After having a few of these conversations with your students or clients, you will begin to know your value.
Tip 2: Be the Solution to a Need
Now that you’ve established your value as a teacher, trainer, or coach, it is essential to determine the value of your online classes or programs. We created the Marvelous online teaching platform as a solution to the expressed needs of our community. Listen to your community, ask them questions, and dig deep. Try to learn what their goals and motivations are. What is that driving force making them want to pay for your online classes or program?
If you are a personal trainer, do your clients have set goals that they want to reach? A stronger core or upper body? Or are they interested in learning how to prepare for a fitness competition? Maybe as a yoga teacher, your students are motivated to improve their flexibility. Or do they want to carve out 30 minutes daily for themselves (amongst the chaos of life)? Or maybe your health coaching clients want to learn how to develop a healthier eating plan.
Can you put a dollar figure on this goal? How much is a strong core or qualifying for that fitness competition worth? What is the value your quintessential client places on improved flexibility or that 30 minutes of “me-time” each morning?
Wellness is a big motivator —it might be hard to attach a monetary value to the benefit of your online class —but could your students recognize the wellness benefit they would gain from your course?
If you are having a tough time drawing out some of the benefits of your online teaching, read this post from your perspective and the perspective of one of your students: The Truth about Teaching Yoga Online Instead of in a Studio.
Knowing the exact concerns, motivations, and goals of your community means you can create the perfect solutions. You need to know that what you are about to create is something people want and will pay for. And knowing this, your membership price will align with their goals and motivation.
Tip 3: Investment or Expense?
As you learn more about what is motivating your students and clients, you can then start to present your membership and programs as the solution to their goals. A simple mindset shift needs to happen here. Your online offerings are an investment for your students. Build your membership pricing around what they will gain from your online offering. Your teachings are an investment in reaching their goals and motivations. Framing your pricing this way will transform not just your pricing structure, but also how you communicate and support your community.
Tip 4: One Price Doesn’t Fit All
You know your value. You know the motivations and goals of your community. You know how your online classes and training programs can help your students and community. You should now have a better idea of membership pricing strategy and what you can charge for your offering.
All through this process, you have communicated with your community and that continues here. (Honestly, it should continue as long as you have a business.) Offer your students a choice. Create multiple price points. Test. Refine. Repeat.
One strategy that has worked well for some of our teachers is to provide multiple pricing options and package configurations for each product. If you choose membership pricing, you could have different tiers at different price points. For your monthly membership, for example, you could offer an option that consists of only your online classes, as well as a second premium option, which includes a weekly live-stream private class with you in addition to your video-based membership. If you offer an annual membership plan, maybe you include a bonus if the student pays in full.
You don’t need to spend a lot of time creating more and more content just to have additional products for sale in your online shop. Two to three options is the sweet-spot when it comes to making sales online. Give your students a choice, but don’t overwhelm them with too many options.
By following these four steps, you will start to learn how to price your membership and other online offerings, plus gain confidence that what you are putting out into the universe has the perceived value it deserves.
