Why it’s worth building a membership website in Drupal 8
The Drupal community does a lot to provide developers and users with the advanced and effective tools for a development of the websites on a regular basis.
If you face some issues (from improving website’s security to making it multilingual), Drupal modules and other features can help to quickly fix them. It is a reliable CMS for any type of website, whether it is sports, educational or ecommerce. It seems nothing is impossible for Drupal. That is really true. And today, we’re going to tell you why it’s worth making membership websites in Drupal 8 as well.
What is a membership website?
If you are asking yourself how to turn a customer into a loyal customer, you’ve come to the right place. We have the answer — and the answer is to create a membership. A membership site is basically an online business site. It can be a school, club or a training centre where you provide access to your content. When we talk about “content,” we mean various digital materials (articles, courses, webinars, trainings etc.) in various formats (podcasts, videos and ebooks). For example, if you are a personal trainer in a local fitness club, you could shoot informative videos and offer your own recommendations on how to keep in shape. There’s your content!
Access to the site: paid or free?
Your membership site can be paid or free, and as the owner you decide to provide admission for free or for money. The most common scenario is a mix of both, i. e. you create two levels of membership — free and paid. Let's consider some options:
- For access to introductory material, a person will need to subscribe to your newsletter. To have access to the advanced materials, new subscribers should pay.
- The other good alternative is to give visitors access to some parts of your content for free at regular times (e.g. each week or month). To see all the information, they should pony up for a subscription. The great example of such web resource is The New York Times. They offer visitors the opportunity to read 10 articles for free each month and then charge visitors a subscription for access to exclusive information. The customers can also have access to archived content.
Usually, a membership site is created on a long-term basis. That’s why it is crucial to regularly provide new content. Your subscribers are the most important potential customers. It is much easier to sell them your paid products. They do not have to doubt whether you publish content of high content. They exactly know it as they already pay you. So before making your own membership site, determine how long you will be able to generate new ideas and create valuable materials.
Benefits of memberships
Running memberships can be a big deal. At the same time, such websites have many advantages. The most obvious are as follows:
- It is one of the main trends throughout the world, and visitors from different parts of our planet can be your customers and use your valuable material.
- Having regular contact with your subscribers, you will increase their loyalty to your brand and have a fixed customer database.
- You will have a constant flow of customers, as every month the old ones will pay extra and new members will constantly join to your membership.
- It is a steady source of income. If you regularly provide new, useful content to your customers, they will continue to pay the subscription. In this way you can make more money than with a one-time fee.
Memberships in Drupal 8
Drupal is the best platform for a membership website thanks to its large flexibility. You can easily add new users, create roles, give access to your content, and more. There are great Drupal 8 modules which allow building brand new customizable membership websites (Membership Entity Commerce, Membership Entity, Membership, Scheduled Message Module etc.). What is more, the combination of various Drupal tools goes long ways towards making a flexible membership system.
It’s pretty simple, isn’t it? Membership sites can be really powerful. If it takes a long time to create, or you need a professional assistance in building your own membership, feel free to contact the Drudesk experts.