The question I am asked most frequently is whether I’ve found that people are willing to pay for access to an online community, and my answer is always yes. How much? That depends on the community’s host, its members, and the problems it solves.
In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of validating your community concept and provided some resources and tools.
I asked the Find Calm Here Community question: How did you get validation for your online community?
The answers varied, and I’m excited to share a few with you now.
Jessica B: “I presented the concept at conferences and gained feedback from attendees.”
Kelly P.: I talked to my group coaching clients and asked if they wanted to connect online.
Kristie S.: “I used to be the ideal member in another community, and I know the experience I want to offer to my community members.”
Mary Elizabeth M.: I did interview existing clients, and over the past two years, our most successful offering has 80% retention.”
These are just a few of the many other answers that community builders have shared with me about how they’ve validated their community concept.
The biggest thing many should have validated was the pricing because it can seem intimidating when just starting to ask for money; I hear that a lot and have also felt this through my two years as a community builder and leader.
I aim to align the network setup with your go-to-market strategy, ensuring that every technical aspect supports your overarching business goals. Through collaborative discussions, Deb can help you identify essential requirements and tailor the network configuration.
I was recently pointed to Alex Hormonzi’s framework course “Charge What It’s Worth” and learned a few basic lessons he shared with you here. Most entrepreneurs look at the marketplace, compare the prices of their competitors, and then offer more value for less money, leaving no room for the business to be profitable.
On the other hand, increasing the price allows clients to “invest” because they perceive the financial value of the service. The provider can increase demand and tell prospective clients how they are the best person to help them solve their problems.
Pricing your business for profit will also increase your perceived value of “We are the best” and offer better results because you can dedicate more time to working with fewer people.
In the book “Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine,” Mike Michalowicz shares tips on taking continuous actions to build momentous outcomes, focusing on making a business healthier instead of bigger. Over the past two years as a consultant, I’ve found that when I am clear about who I want to work with, pricing is no longer the beginning point with clients; it’s their afterthought.
When I speak to potential clients during a discovery call (you can book one for free here), I ask them a few simple questions: who do you bring together, why, and what do you do inside your online community?
If they don’t know these answers, that is a starting point for discovering a path forward and helping them gain clarity during a strategy session. It’s no longer about a “price.” It is about how I can help them stop struggling to do it alone.
Many people take the logical steps of hiring someone as a sounding board and an advisor or coach. However, when considering an online community, you bring an extra value beyond your knowledge.
In the past two years, we’ve all had our challenges in life. What we haven’t had (for most people) is a place to share their challenges without feeling like a burden, without feeling guilty, or without feeling like they are just “complaining” about their challenges. An online community gives your ideal members a place to be seen, valued, and heard. This is an entirely different approach than what social media offers, and it also gives them a private place (depending on your structure) so that they feel like they can be vulnerable.
Okay, so what, you might say… are people paying for this? YES.
Last year, a client I worked with increased the annual cost of his group coaching program from $2,000 to $4,000.
Since the beginning of this year, another client I worked with was able to launch a certification program in 2 months with my support and onboard members for her 10-week program and made over $20K working with less than ten people.
If you want more examples, check out this excellent tool by Mighty Networks based on the number of members compared to your social media followers that you could convert to an online community.
“Where creators earn revenue based on views or brand deals based on follower count, we estimated amounts based on publicly shared averages per number of followers or 1,000 views.”
Try the CALM Method to price your community offer.
The CALM Method has helped me throughout my community-building journey. I will break down the CALM Method of Clarity, Awareness, Learning, and Motion to help you find calm in the process. You can view a detailed description of the CALM Method here.
Finding calm has been challenging over the past two years. I’ve learned that adding layers, complexity, and several concepts can create more confusion than clarity.
The fastest way to find calm in community building is to keep things simple. (This isn’t easy.) This framework became what is now called the CALM Method, which I’ve developed and improved over the years to come up with the best way for me to help myself, clients, and community members easily find calm in the process of building, launching, and growing an online paid community.
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