The Pro’s Guide to Squarespace Member Sites
Content can do more than bring new prospects through your client’s digital door. It can serve as a revenue stream itself. That’s where Squarespace Member Sites come in. With Member Sites as an extension of their Squarespace website, your client can earn recurring revenue with a membership that fits their brand and business.
Continue reading to learn more about Member Sites and how to sell setup services to clients. Select a section to begin.
Product overview
Member Sites empower you and your clients to build dedicated online communities through paid memberships, offering access to curated, paywalled content and services. Content and memberships are managed within Squarespace, so you never have to leave the platform to share new paid content like articles, videos, ebooks, and podcasts. With Member Sites, pages are hidden behind a paywall, accessible only by members who sign up for a plan. Your client can offer free or paid memberships, paid one time via a fixed amount or on a subscription basis.
Customize homepages
Each member site has its own homepage where your client can welcome members and link to the rest of the gated content. This and every page of the member site is fully customizable, while also inheriting the site style. That way, you can create a consistent, premium experience, ensuring the member site feels like an extension of the overall site.
Manage members
When a visitor signs up for a membership, a member profile is created, which you can view and manage from the Contacts panel. This is a powerful way to see all members in a single place, find key information like email address and total money spent, and organize members with notes and tags.
Integrated promotion
You can promote a member sites on any page or blog post with a digital product block. If your client has multiple members-only areas, consider building a sign-up page merchandising each member site your client offers, so visitors can easily compare, consider, and convert. Your client can use these to upsell site visitors to other memberships. You can also create and offer unique discounts for paying members only, incentivizing new members to join and providing existing ones more value.
Tailored member experiences
When you create a member site, you can customize the entire experience for that community, including:
Member homepages
Member navigation
Checkout experience
Customer email notifications
Paywall
Learn more about customizing the Member Sites experience.
Gain insights
When a member pays the membership fee or navigates to different pages, these actions are captured in the Analytics panel, providing real-time, detailed metrics of member site activity. Member analytics includes data for membership sales, such as money spent by each member, either on a one-time and recurring basis.
Who uses Member Sites?
Whether your clients teach on-demand yoga, host workshops, or offer cooking recipes, Member Sites help them create and deliver compelling content and services to their most committed customers. Here’s how clients across different industries can use Member Sites to engage their audiences.
Health and nutrition experts and coaches
Food and wellness clients, including chefs, nutritionists, and therapists, can offer members their own transformative digital space with Member Sites. These experts can use Member Sites to monetize workshops, meal plans, coaching sessions, newsletters, and more.
Content creators
Customers who make and sell creative content, like artists, designers, and bands, can use Member Sites to give exclusive access to their work. Whether they sell music, instrument lessons, videos, podcasts, or limited edition merchandise, Member Sites can help your clients reach their revenue goals.
Influencers and thought leaders
Customers with expert-level advice or content creators with a large social following can offer gated content through Member Sites, differentiated by member demographic or skill level. For example, a parenting influencer might create separate member sites for child-oriented activities varying by age levels, parent how-to’s, and virtual events like lunch and learns.
Fitness instructors
Yoga, meditation, and other fitness instructors often need a paid portal where customers can access online resources and class recordings. For example, a yoga studio can offer meditation tips, as well as certifications and different class plans—all within their main site. You can separate these into distinct member sites so they can gate and organize information and options that site visitors can view.
Web designers and developers
As a professional web designer, you can use Member Sites to monetize your web design expertise. Gate instructional blog posts and videos showing how you manage your business or develop particular site elements. Sell website templates, plugins, and extensions that enhance the visitor’s website or customize their Squarespace design experience. If you have graphic design experience, sell user interface asset kits that include buttons, font packs, and other layout elements to other designers.
Learn how to set up Member Sites on Squarespace.
Selling Member Sites to clients
As you expand your web design offerings, consider adding Members Sites setup as a service. You can help clients define the goal and content, set prices, and design the page(s).
The following are common client questions and a sample email to help you pitch Member Sites setup to clients.
Frequently asked questions
What are the benefits of selling memberships and content through Member Sites over other services?
Member Sites are a part of Squarespace, so you never have to learn another tool. What’s more, your customers won’t need to leave your Squarespace site to access it or their purchased content. All transactions made through Member Sites appear in the site editor, showing you how your content is performing and selling.
What does it cost for me to include Member Sites on my site?
Member sites are free to build and include on a site. You’ll need a paid website plan to sell memberships to your customers. I can help you determine which Squarespace plan is right for your business.
What do I do once the Member Site is live?
You can start adding content to your member site you want to charge for from the Member Sites section of the Pages panel.
How do I communicate with my paying members?
Send members targeted email campaigns updating them on your latest products and services—including new paid member sites content—news about your brand, video and podcast appearances, or anything else you think will interest them.
Client email template
Let clients know that you offer setup services for member sites. Here’s a sample email you can use to help them understand the value of Member Sites and upsell this add-on.
Hi [Client name],
As I design your Squarespace site, I’ve been considering ways to help you generate revenue through it, in addition to the products you already sell and services you offer.
I thought you’d be interested to know that Member Sites, which integrate natively with your Squarespace site and plan, help you sell access to members-only content. They’re a great way to set and forget your expertise so you can start earning more from what you already know and do.
Since you’re a [client vocation (example: chef)], I figured you could use Member Sites to: [industry-specific examples below]
Monetize access to special seasonal recipes
Gate videos of behind-the-scenes moments like grocery runs and blooper cooking sessions
Write a blog for paying members detailing what you’re cooking and eating during your off time
Sell live digital cook-a-long sessions at the highest tier of membership
Let’s connect this week to talk about adding a member site to your Squarespace website.
Best,
[Your name]
[Your phone number]
[Your email address]
Save and earn on annual subscriptions with Circle
Squarespace Circle offers partners a percentage off new annual subscriptions. Eligible partners can also earn commissions on qualifying subscriptions through Circle referral payments.
Further reading
Member Sites empower your clients to use their Squarespace sites to earn more from their most dedicated followers. By tailoring membership sites to audience demographics and skill levels, you can encourage greater, longer-lasting customer loyalty.
Related resources:
This article was originally published on May 27, 2021. It has since been updated.
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