To MVP or not to MVP!
A common dilemma for users starting a new membership site is – do I need to have all content ready before trying to market it. That causes a non-ending process of trying to perfect their courses/lessons/videos and never really going into publishing/selling.
In this blog post, we will explore the Minimum Viable Product(MVP) debate and try to help you decide which is the right path for your membership site business. We’ll look at the advantages of the approach so that you can make the best decision for your business.
Now don’t get us wrong! We are not using the Wikipedia definition of a Minimum Viable Product here that says “a barebones product with just enough features for early users to use”. NO. In the world of membership sites, MVP means creating one or two parts of the product before working on the whole curriculum. Confusing right? Let us explain!
For example, let’s say you are an awesome guitarist and are ready to impart your knowledge to the world. You also know that to create the whole curriculum, it will take you at least a good six months – from imagining the whole idea to writing it down, recording all the 30-40 videos, editing them, etc. After all, you are a perfectionist!
What we mean by our definition of MVP is – you don’t wait the whole 6 months before publishing your content all at once. Do a couple of videos first, put it out for all the guitar enthusiasts to see. Get them to buy your product and in the meantime keep working on the later videos. We hope that clears that point out.
We at Memberium have seen customers that are using our platform but haven’t really “used it”. We understand not having a product ready might not only be the only reason, but that is one of the main culprit in delaying a launch.
Here are a few reasons why you should use a Minimum Viable Product to test the waters and get started before getting fully invested in the idea.
- It allows you to validate your ideas quickly and cheaply. By creating a minimum viable product, you can test your hypotheses with real users without having to invest a lot of time and money. If you find your idea is not really appealing to your customers, you can quickly pivot.
- Start earning early. Running a membership site is not cheap. You have the cost of running a website, other platforms, CRMs, customer support portals, and so on. So it is better if you earn right from the start.
- If you wait on perfecting your idea, someone else might start with something similar and you would lose your early mover advantage. Remember, ideas are dimes a dozen – it is the execution that matters.
- Life happens! You might get stuck on something else that will take up your time. That would make your current money-making idea take backstage. Don’t let that happen. Start now!
- It helps you get feedback early and often. By putting your MVP out there as soon as possible, you can start collecting feedback from users which will help you improve as you go on. Getting feedback early on is essential in order to make sure that you are headed in the right direction.
Now that you know why you should get started early, here are a few well-thought-out tips that should make the process easy for you:
- Take help of friends and family – this is very important… they are friends and family for a reason! They should be early adopters to the program and provide you constructive criticism. Don’t make the mistake of not letting anyone know or keep a mindset of “I will only let them know when I make it big”. That seldom works.
- Survey your customers to understand their needs. Get regular feedback. Understand where your shortcomings are and how you can do better.
- Use drip campaigns using Memberium. If you are using Memberium, it has a wonderful feature where it allows you to automatically “drip” content to your user. Drip feeding is essentially the process of scheduling the delivery of content to your members so that they don’t get all the content at once. You can set it up once and forget about it. As you are creating content, those would be sent to your customers at your desired intervals. If you are interested, you can learn more about the drip campaigns here. If you are still not using Memberium, you can take a look at all Memberium features here.
- Offer discounts for feedback – get as many users as you can to adapt your program. Offer discounts to entice them but don’t overdo it. Keep a balance to keep potential customers interested.
If you’re trying to decide whether or not to launch an MVP, we hope this article has given you some food for thought. Ultimately, the decision comes down to your specific circumstances and what you hope to achieve with your product. If you’re confident that an MVP will help you reach your goals, by all means, go for it!
Let us know if you want to explore Memberium to achieve your needs. We are more than happy to help you. Write to us at support@memberium.com and we can strategize and help you launch your own membership site!
