
Creating a thriving online community can be a highly effective way of marketing and growing your business through brand awareness and user engagement – but that’s not all. Did you know that your online community can also be a source of revenue?
By offering users added value through paid-for services via online community platforms, it’s possible to boost user engagement and earn some additional income at the same time.
Before you start introducing fees to your online community, though, you need to make sure your community is already adding value, and that monetisation tactics will increase that value to users. More often than not, people are happy to pay more if they feel the perceived value is worth the additional cost.
If this isn’t the case, it may be better to focus on further community growth and value to ensure you don’t alienate existing members.
Assuming you’re ready to take that next step with your community and tap into its earning potential, here are 6 monetisation ideas to consider.
1. Paid membership and subscriptions
Most communities start out by offering membership access for free, which is a highly effective way to attract users and grow an engaged audience. However, as your community grows, so does the opportunity to diversify your membership options with different membership and subscription tiers.
A good place to start is by offering existing (and new) users paid membership. This can be done in two ways.
The first is to switch to being a fully paid membership site that charges all members a fee to access all content. This is only recommended if you’re confident your users will be happy to pay to continue accessing your platform.
The second is to introduce membership levels or tiers, maintaining a free membership option alongside paid subscriptions. The former would offer access to basic content to entice users in, while the paid-for option would offer exclusive access to unique, in-depth content and other perks.
Some ideas on how to deliver real added value to paying members include:
- Providing access to high-quality blog posts, white papers, ebooks and webinars
- Offering discounted event prices, exclusive access and special offers
- Providing access to additional platform features
2. Offer product or service promotions to members
One of the benefits of online community platforms is that they bring together individuals and businesses with a common interest – providing the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas.
For some members, this can also allow them to build brand awareness with a relevant audience – for instance, by answering a user thread that naturally promotes their product or service. It’s worth noting, though, that some community admins don’t allow self-promotion.
However, proactive hosts could see this as an opportunity to offer one-off product or service promotions for business members – allowing them to promote their business to an engaged and relevant audience.
This extra exposure through a one-off advert can provide a worthwhile incentive for businesses wanting to quickly and easily market their brand, as well as a source of extra income for hosts.
But you don’t have to stop at one-off opportunities – you can offer a suite of display advertising options that can help members and other external brands market their brand and generate income for your community.
3. Create a community hosted promotion area
Of course, it shouldn’t only be your members reaping the benefits of your engaged audience through product and service promotion.
As a host, you can also seize the opportunity for a little self-promotion. This shouldn’t take the form of a hard sell and should be done in the right space – we’d suggest setting up a dedicated community hosted promotion area.
With a defined space within your community where, as a host, you can promote your own services, you can make sure promotional content has maximum impact without negatively affecting the user experience in main community areas.
From exclusive content to job offers and new platform features (including some of your upgraded paid-for packages), a promotional area can be a great way to give your community monetisation tactics some focus.
4. Create sponsorship opportunities
Similar to display advertising, you could look to offer sponsorship opportunities across your online community platforms.
One option could be to offer sponsorship of a regular feature, or new virtual events that are hosted on your platform. In return for paid sponsorship, brands will receive onsite sponsorship banners and an agreed number of promotional plugs during that particular feature or event.
Alternatively, you can create sponsored post opportunities within your news and polls areas, where posts can contain promotional content to be pinned to the top of the board for an agreed period of time.
From a user perspective, with sponsorship opportunities, the key is to make sure they’re relevant and don’t negatively impact on the integrity of your community ethos. From a sponsor point of view, make sure you’re offering value to brands through high-traffic areas of your site.
5. Host paid events
Events can be a highly effective way to build a buzz within your community and drive engagement. In the early days of your community, you may look to offer free access to events as an incentive.
However, as your community grows and becomes more established, your events could be a viable source of income – from tickets to merchandise and sponsorship.
For users, events can be the perfect place to learn and network in one fell swoop, and most people are happy to pay for the privilege. To attract paid attendees, be sure to keep your pricing reasonable and make sure you’re offering them value – for instance, at least one keynote speaker, presentation or discussion with networking opportunities.
To maximise attendance, be sure to promote the event within your online community – offering incentives such as early bird discounts, VIP packages and more.
During the event, look to sell branded merchandise and swag like t-shirts, hoodies and reusable bags at a reasonable additional cost for attendees.
Equally, use your event as the ideal opportunity to partner up with other brands, either as co-hosts or event sponsors for an agreed fee – allowing them to gain exposure among a relevant, engaged audience.
6. Cross-sell to members
With ecommerce websites, many brands use their checkout process to cross-sell to customers with ‘suggested picks’ or ‘customers who bought this also bought’ – and this is a tactic you can use within your community platform, too.
Using community behaviour data, you may be able to identify user trends such as content connections or complementary features. From there, you can introduce content suggestions or community picks, along the lines of ‘you may also like this…’
As with the other methods, to gain access to these content and feature suggestions, users can opt to upgrade their subscription or pay a one-off fee.
Monetising elements of your online community can be a great way to double down on your marketing efforts, as this additional revenue stream can pay for your marketing while also supporting reinvestment into other areas of your business.
At Six Circles, our platform has a range of useful features that can help you to grow your community online and earn money from it while you’re at it. To find out more, get in touch with Six Circles today.