Terms

"For us, it's a matter of keeping membership at the core of everything we do. There's no way to lightly offer a membership; it has become a priority," begins Dan Carson, our Head of Product. "If there's a serious intention to pursue establishing a membership We believe that this is the most comprehensive set of options. Although we initially used WordPress as the sole entry point to those features, that's no longer an option."

Dan says that we're not going to eliminate the original features of the software, such as integration with WordPress: "If that's how one wants to create their membership site, it's just the same as in the past - we're giving them a more straightforward on-ramp."

Streamlining navigation

"There are a bunch of people out there who are using third-party tools However, it's not always just because they'd like to. It's because they felt that it was the only choice," Dan adds. "People maybe have WordPress, but they've just made a fairly basic website or use MailChimp and don't make use of 50% of the functions."

They just need a method to make individuals sign up to be able to email them with no nonsense cloud enterprise version. "Maybe they signed up with Mailchimp in 2014 and they are still using it as that's where they are. But are they still an ideal target for the direction Mailchimp will be going?"

"We believe there are some in the world who were if it were easy enough, could simplify all these different instruments into one place and have it be more well-integrated - so in the sense that it could still do all the things they needed it to accomplish," Dan says.

Our tools for email will include all of the features you want. The author adds: "We're not trying to serve enterprise marketing teams. We're trying to help creators who want an affordable and simple way to communicate and distribute content to their target audience."

For us, it's not so much about the tools you have, and much more about what you're trying to do. If you want people to be able to sign up to the newsletter of your choice, we'll simplify and make it cheaper as you do not need to purchase additional tools.

It's dependent on everyone's individual usage scenario, naturally. Many people desire the ability to integrate multiple integrations but others worry that it's more expensive and harder to handle, particularly when it's only one operator. "Previously we'd exclusively creating for one of the groupings. We're now building for both of them," Dan says.

Managing member access to Posts and Pages

If you're a particular type of customer, the 2014 version of MailChimp is the one you're looking for; it's the version you fell in the love. "If I'm in the market for a straightforward web page, I'll probably prefer not to utilize WordPress. It's true that Squarespace can be overkill for a subscription-based website. It's also not fully connected to membership at its base," Dan adds. We thought to ourselves, "What would happen if there was an entire product designed around that?'.

That's our mindset for podcasting and online communities as well. "We're not going to be creating a brand new Libsyn. We'll build an easy version to operate and can do the majority of what you care about, integrated with everything else and all at the same price," Dan believes.

It seems to be an innate law that the longer software exists, the more it wants to develop. It would like to be more complicated and complex.

This isn't necessarily bad However, it is an issue for the customers when the person the company is building it for is no longer you. "People are hungry for software that does just what they want and isn't looking to become greater than that. As with jazz, there are times when it's the notes you don't play!" Dan laughs.

Making something simple is actually very difficult. Dan says: "It's about paring down to its essence. It's easy for us is to add everything to the site and then make it an option and let customers find it in the settings section somewhere." We don't think that's what our clients are searching for. We want to synthesize all of our experience over a decade of creating membership tools, incorporating customer feedback and distill it to simple-to-use tools.

"It's easy to overlook the value of simple tools. Being easy to use is an essential need that is not being met. Many things are more complex than they ought to be." Dan adds.

The dashboard is updated.

The biggest change we've made this quarter is the way we've rearranged the dashboard. Instead of having all options visible at the top level as well as the features divided by feature, we went back and said, 'Why not arrange everything around the things you're trying to accomplish in the moment or moment?'.

The new dashboard

Based on our experience, and speaking with those who run membership businesses generally, your work is something that is a part of the four categories that include designing and building your website or publishing exclusive content, managing your members, or increasing revenue. Dan explains: "Everything you're doing as an operator of membership is likely be categorized into one of those four categories. Therefore, we decided that this was a logical approach to categorizing the benefits of ."

Website

This is for those who wish to develop a membership-based website. Historically you may have needed to use WordPress or some other specific to. You can now utilize our website builder natively. The first part is about building the site initially as well as customizing the appearance. And setting up your publicly-facing web content. "You're creating the place for people to visit," adds Dan.

Content

The second task is publishing information. A modern-day membership business usually involves publishing exclusive content for members. This includes emails post, articles, downloads and podcasts. "The second job is creating content or sharing exclusive benefits. It's all about creating value that your customers get out of your membership," Dan explains.

Members

The last task involves managing the members. "Part of managing a profitable membership is having a really intimate relationship with your customers which is a major reasons why they're backing the organization," says Dan.

Management of members - download invoices

"You have to be able provide excellent customer service to these people by understanding their background along with solving problems if they aren't functioning properly," he adds.

Revenue

"If you're building a membership site, you're trying to create revenue and there's a million things involved in this: creating your plan knowing what charges to make as well as monitoring the health of your organization to find the things that are working," says Dan. This is a section that covers discounting for retention, and running acquisition campaigns as well as referral programs.

"We've introduced a variety of functions over time. Not having them organized caused it to be difficult to find the right things, especially those who were new. We wanted to reduce the amount of learning required," concludes Dan. This will provide a solid foundation to us as we add more exciting features. We'll find more intuitive ways to place things. This makes it much easier for people to discover and find this new feature, and you'll be able to get value out of these features immediately.

Builder for websites

The second big development this quarter focused on the web builder. "We'd began to create these new tools last year and we were trying to thread the needle of introducing this new capability, however, we didn't want to disrupt existing methods of use ," says Dan. "We put ourselves in the shoes of someone coming to specifically seeking to create the membership-based website."

The process of joining and registering for the service is much quicker and we offer a much more advanced starting location, complete with the default options, plans for membership already made and the design of your website designed. What you need to do is sign up your Stripe account, and then you can start your site in a matter of just a few minutes.

The builder of websites

Now, the editing experience is that of contemporary WYSIWYG (What you see is What You Receive) site builder. It is capable of directly interacting with your membership website. "You can directly type on the page, move elements around, and hide or reveal elements, and then you will be able to view what the page looks at a moment's notice," says Dan.

Dan states that this is only the beginning of future website builder improvements: "We had to redo the foundation of everything in this way, now we can step on the gas to begin adding the new features."

The concept has been introduced in blocks. They are basically content modules. We have at present a basic content block and a title banner which could be textual or an image that has a button. The framework is now in place, we're working on a new block types, creating different types of content on the page. You will be able to organize them within the pages and will be able to customize who is able to view the content based on which members are paying for.

Blocks to build with

Dan states: "It's everything you need to create a fully-featured subscription site. It's also integrated with subscriptions. The membership component is the basis of everything." The end result is a website-building experience that's easier to begin with as well as more user-friendly and more in-line with what the modern consumer expects.

Conclusion: A brand new method to utilize

"We have described it in the past that glue which holds the members to one another," recalls Dan. "But if a machine is integral to the business you run, having parts glued together does not always seem like something positive. Sometimes you want that they are welded, like steel - you want it to be the same piece, not two separate pieces glued together," says Dan. These two pieces that were built simultaneously and joined from the beginning.

If you're someone with a thriving WordPress website or millions of people in your MailChimp list that you'd like to increase subscriptions instead of starting again, that's still perfectly possible. The tool is still available that allows you to plug in and connect it. We don't believe it's the only option people have to construct anymore.

" is a place for those looking for a space for their people to come together on the internet, as a central point for their audience and their users. Today, anything you could want, in terms of making it look like your brand and having everything you have to share together could be what you create with ," Dan concludes.