Terms

"For us, the concept of membership sits an integral part of what we do. It's not enough to just have an organization with a membership. It has to be a focus," begins Dan Carson, our Head of Product. "If you're serious about joining We believe that this is the best combination of attributes. We started out with WordPress as the sole access point for those options, this is no longer the case."

Dan says that we're not going to eliminate the original features of the software including the ability to integrate to WordPress: "If that's how one wants to create their website for membership, it's as feasible as it was before - we're just giving them a more straightforward on-ramp."

Streamlining the navigation

"There are a bunch of users employing third-party applications however, not because they want to. This is because it was the only option available," Dan adds. "People maybe already have WordPress However, they've created a basic site, or they have MailChimp but they don't even use 50% of the features."

These people simply need a way to have people sign up and then be able to send them emails, without the fluff a cloud enterprise version. "Maybe they signed up for Mailchimp in 2014 and so they still use it because that's where they are. But are they still the primary market to which Mailchimp will be going?"

"We think there are people out there who were if it were easy enough, they would reduce all the applications into a single location and then have it closely integrated, as 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 the features that you need. In addition, he says: "We're not trying to serve enterprise marketing teams. We're trying to serve authors who need a cost-effective and straightforward method to share information and distribute content to their target audience."

For us, it's not so much about the tools you have, and more about the things you're doing. If you want people to be able to join the newsletter of your choice, we'll simplify and make it cheaper because now you don't require the expense of external tools.

This is dependent on the individual application, obviously. Many people desire the ability to connect multiple integrations but others worry that it's more expensive and harder to manage, especially as an individual operator. "Previously we were kind of exclusively building for one of those groupings. We're now building for both," Dan says.

The management of access rights for members for Posts and Pages

If you're a particular type of user using the 2014 version of MailChimp is what you want; that's the one you fell in the love. "If I'm in the market for a straightforward site, I might choose not to go with WordPress. Even Squarespace can be overkill for a subscription-based website. The site isn't tightly linked to membership in the basis," Dan adds. We thought to ourselves, "What if you had an entire product designed around that?'.

We're the same way about podcasting and online communities as well. "We're not creating a brand new Libsyn. We're going to be building the first version, which is simple to operate and can do 80percent of the things you want, and is integrated with your other tools all in one location for the same price," Dan believes.

It is an innate law that the longer software is in existence, the more it wants to develop. It is always looking to get more complicated and complex.

This isn't necessarily bad However, it is a bad thing for clients if the customer they are building for has changed and is not you. "People are hungry for products that do exactly what they need and isn't looking to become more than that. Like in jazz, sometimes it's the notes you don't have to play!" Dan laughs.

Making something simple is actually very difficult. Dan is in agreement: "It's about paring down to what's important in. One of the easiest things for us is to simply put everything in there and create an option and let customers locate it on a settings panel somewhere." But we do not believe that's what our clients are searching for. Instead, we'd like to bring together all of our experiences over the last decade of creating the tools for membership, including customer feedback and boil it down into easy-to-use tools.

"It's easy to underestimate the power of basic tools. Easy to use tools are an unmet need. Most things are more complicated than they need to be." Dan adds.

The brand new dashboard

The most obvious change this quarter is how we have reorganized the dashboard. Instead of having all options available at the top, with the capabilities divided according to feature, we took a step back and thought, "Why not organize everything according to what you're trying to do during the time?'.

The brand new dashboard

Based on our experiences, as well as talking to people who manage membership-based businesses, you're usually doing something which falls under one of the following four areas: building and designing your website, publishing exclusive content, managing your members, or growing the revenue. Dan explains: "Everything you're doing as a membership operator is going be categorized into one of those four buckets. So we thought that was a logical method of organizing the functions of ."

Website

It is designed for users who would like to create a membership site. In the past, you might have had to utilize WordPress or a specific to. Today, you are able to use our native website builder. The first area is dedicated to building the site in the first place as well as customizing the appearance. And setting up your publicly-facing information. "You're creating the place that your viewers can visit," adds Dan.

Content

Another task involves publishing the content. The modern day membership company typically includes publishing exclusive content to members, such as emails or posts, downloads, as well as podcasts. "The next step is to develop special content or sharing advantages - it's about generating value that your customers get out of your membership," Dan explains.

Members

The third task is managing your members. "Part of running a successful member base is having a intimate relationship with your customers which is a major reasons why they're backing the organization," says Dan.

Members management - download invoices

"You need to be able provide excellent the best customer service for these individuals and also understand their past with you, and solving problems if they aren't functioning in a way that is correct," he adds.

Revenue

"If you're creating a member-based site, you're trying to generate revenue, and there are a million things involved in the process of creating your plan knowing what charges to make as well as monitoring the health of your business to see how it's performing," says Dan. This section includes discounting to boost retention as well as running campaigns to acquire customers as well as referral programs.

"We've introduced a variety of functions over time. The lack of organization caused it to be difficult to find the right things, especially for people who are new to the site. We wanted to lessen the time to learn," concludes Dan. It provides a more logical framework for us going forward as we add more exciting features. We'll have more intuitive places to place things. This will make it easier for users to locate and explore these additions so you can gain value from the features right away.

Website builder

The other major change this quarter focused on the builder for websites. "We'd started to build these new tools last year and were trying to make sure that we were the new capabilities, but not disrupt the previous methods of use ," says Dan. "We put ourselves in the shoes of someone who was seeking to create the membership-based website."

The process of enrolling and joining the product is much faster; we provide you with a more sophisticated starting place, including the default options, plans for membership already made and the design of your site already designed. All you have to do is create your Stripe account and begin your website within just a few minutes.

IFtWQKYe3Vls3PTpn6KK The builder of websites

The editing user experience is similar to the modern WYSIWYG (What It is You see Is What You get) site builder. It is capable of connecting directly to your membership website. "You are able to type directly on the page, move objects around, conceal and display elements and are able to see the layout at a moment's notice," says Dan.

Dan explains that this is only the beginning for further website-building enhancements: "We had to redo the basis of everything in this way; Now we're able to kick off the gas to begin adding the new features."

We've discussed the idea of blocks. They are basically content modules. Right now we have a basic content block and a title banner block that can be text or an image that has the button. This framework is in use, and we're currently working on new blocks, and creating various kinds of content for the page. You will be able to organize them on the page and you will be able to customize who is able to view these based on the membership plan people are paying for.

J4UXZCXXXVRVFxqRpCLFE Building with blocks

Dan adds: "It's everything you need for a complete website for membership. And it's all linked to subscriptions. Membership is at the core of everything." The result is a website-building experience that's simpler to begin with as well as more user-friendly and is more in tune with what the modern consumer expects.

Conclusion: A new way to use

"We have described it in the past the glue that holds your membership in place," recalls Dan. "But in the event that the machine is essential to the business you run and has parts that are glued isn't always something positive. In some cases, you'd like them to be welded together, like steel - you want to have the exact piece, not two separate pieces that are glued together" says Dan. Two pieces were constructed simultaneously: membership was integral from the beginning.

If you have an incredibly successful WordPress site or a million users in your MailChimp subscriber list, and want to use to simply add subscriptions rather than start again, that's still perfectly possible. We still offer the tool to drop in, to connect it. However, we do not believe that's the only way people want to build any more.

" is a place for those who want a place where their members can come together on the internet, as a central point for their audience and their users. In the present, all you want, in terms of creating a look that reflects your company and putting all of your content all at one location could be what you build with this software ," Dan concludes.