Erin’s magic sauce for The Upside community
I’ve talked to a lot of community business operators on this podcast. But no one does so many unique things in their community as Erin does in The Upside. And the results speak for themselves:
The Upside currently charges $195/month, paid annually, is capped at 250 members and is running at full capacity. You can do the math.
So, if you are looking to build a premium community membership for busy professionals (for Erin, it’s consultants), it won’t be wrong to take them as a template and just copy what’s working for them.
You can watch my complete interview with her where she tells it all or continue reading my list of all the unique things Erin told me has worked for her:
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250-member limit
It's not good for me and my lifestyle. And it's not what members want
Members join The Upside because it is intimate. So it doesn’t serve them to have 1000 members in there and it wouldn’t serve Erin either because it would be very difficult to deliver that hi-touch experience to more than 250 members.
How does she grow the revenue?
She raises the price for new incoming members. As old members cycle out, new members join at higher prices, thus increasing revenue every year.
3 sources of new customers
- Member referrals - “I will give 30 minutes of my time in a one on one advisory session for any member who sends someone in who ends up joining.”
- Posting on LinkedIn - “[I’m] not posting about the community, just my own thought leadership. It's not about selling.”
- Weekly newsletter - “Nobody joins a community without checking out who runs it first. They'll get on the email list. They'll get to know me a lot more.”
Getting first 20 customers
Erin used a clever combination of outbound + referrals that more community builders should try in the early days.
She reached out to 20 people who she knew and trusted will be great for the community and asked them to join as a founding member. They would have a free membership for life as long as they wanted it.
Only one condition? They would each need to bring 2 paid members immediately.
Application process
Unlike most communities, Upside’s application doesn’t optimise for getting the visitor’s email ASAP. Instead, they are careful to only accept people who are really serious. Just look at the number of pages in the form before the member fills anything.
While mentioning the application process, I’ll be remiss if I didn’t mention the website which houses the application form. Notably, the FAQ section. It is one of the most thoughtful list of Q&As I’ve ever seen in a community.
1 offer per member
When a member applies to join the community, they are asked to suggest one thing that they can offer other members. It can be something that doesn’t take their time like a PDF template they might have or a guest pass for a coworking space. Or even 30 mins of their time to talk through their area of expertise like a UX audit or community strategy discussion etc.
Taken together, this means that each member now has access to a bank of 400+ offers from experts that can help them in their business.
Personal welcome
Whenever a new member joins her community, Erin records a Loom video for them where she goes through their application that’s open on her screen, talks about what stood out to them and welcomes them. This way she’s able to give them the first impression of how personalised The Upside is on the inside.
Automated matchmaking
Erin prides herself in being a great matchmaker. So she mapped out exactly how she matches people and built a tool with her Director of Automations that helps them match their members at scale. It considers different dimensions of a member’s profile to send them highly curated matches.
Side note: We’ve built a tool that does the kind of matching that Erin talks about. Check it out - you can use it in your community too.
Director of Content for every member
The Upside is a community of independent consultants and coaches who need a lot of visibility. So they encourage them to create content on LinkedIn.
In order to support them, one of the 4 people on Erin’s team is a Director of Content. Her job revolves around helping members get more visibility on LinkedIn by producing workshops, events and activities that help members with this goal.
Member spotlight campaigns
One of the ways she helps members with content is by creating a beautiful member spotlight campaign every quarter. This both helps both members and Upside with marketing. Here are some examples:
Masterminds
Creating a successful masterminds or a small group program is difficult. Erin went through 8 iterations before she found what worked. I’ve written more about it here.
TLDR:
- Wait for the members to want it
- Train the leaders
- Offer them personal assistance
- Remove members who fail to join 2 consecutive sessions
- Shut down the ones with low attendance rates
We’ve written more playbooks covering “magic sauce” of top community businesses. Get them all in your inbox.
You can also watch my full interview with Erin to hear more about her journey of building The Upside.