How I Built a 200,000-Person Paid Membership Community With $0 in the Bank to Start | Network Tech

By Posted on


If I may give one piece of recommendation on one of the simplest ways to begin a profitable neighborhood, it might be to construct the one you want your self.

I launched Tech Girls for egocentric causes. I labored in know-how, however I did not have many feminine colleagues, and I needed to construct a community that might assist me develop and cope with any job modifications. Plus, it was enjoyable and comforting to fulfill different ladies who had been coping with the identical points I used to be having at work.

It seems that many different individuals additionally felt the identical method at work. As one of many first communities to everyone Girls in tech, not simply engineers, the Tech Girls had a large pool of potential members and so they began exhibiting up en masse. Our neighborhood was including lots of of recent individuals each week with no paid promoting.

During the last six years, Tech Girls has continued to develop steadily with little or no cash spent on acquisitions (which was particularly essential on condition that I made the choice to begin my firm slightly than search exterior financing). With over 200,000 members, we are actually one of many largest communities for ladies in tech. And most significantly, we have made a measurable influence within the lives of our members, serving to them get jobs, develop of their careers, and discover assist they might not have entry to at work.

The methods that introduced my neighborhood right here weren’t sophisticated; most of them I used to be capable of implement myself whereas constructing the corporate from my sofa. They only concerned a deep dedication and understanding of the individuals he was right here to serve.

Listed below are 4 easy approaches that labored for me whereas constructing my neighborhood on a price range.

1. Made becoming a member of simple and tempting to remain

When constructing a neighborhood, it isn’t sufficient to draw members; You additionally should know maintain them.

To consider this, I did a lifecycle evaluation of my goal member. I began questioning: Why would somebody be part of Tech Girls? I knew that most individuals got here to us by way of the job board when searching for their subsequent alternative, and since that was our most essential acquisition route, I needed the job board to be free and simple to entry. We merely require individuals to join a free account to begin making use of, which additionally indicators them up for our publication.

Had he left the neighborhood at the moment, members would depart as quickly as they acquired a job, maybe returning in just a few years when they’re prepared for a brand new position. So, I requested myself, what would make somebody keep? My thought was that at any level in an individual’s profession, they need assistance with something-How may we offer precisely what they want at every step?

This impressed me so as to add a free neighborhood discussion board, the place individuals can ask for assist after they have issues at work. It additionally inspired me to guarantee that the occasions we host weren’t nearly networking for job seekers, but additionally centered on different matters that may assist members construct their careers. This train additionally helped me see the potential of including a paid membership stage, with much more studying assets and networking alternatives, for members who needed a deeper funding of their profession.

Due to this train, a lot of our members have been round for years and years. And after they see the worth they get from the neighborhood, they refer others, making this buyer lifecycle a flywheel that helps Tech Girls proceed to develop.

To maintain neighborhood engagement excessive, I appeared for repeatable methods to assist us change into part of our members’ each day lives.

Within the early days, this was our work supply electronic mail. We had been posting new jobs to the neighborhood on daily basis, however by rounding it up and marking it as “Jobs Drop Tuesday,” we had a function that members appeared ahead to each week. We test in with our paid neighborhood weekly with a “objectives and wins” put up that everybody can contribute to. And we now have at all times been conscious of getting an everyday cadence of occasions.

This repeatable content material has been actually key by way of constructing relationships and thought management with our members. Give it some thought: With weekly emails alone, members hear from us 52 instances a yr and start to think about us as the place to go for brand spanking new job presents. Weekly neighborhood posts and common occasions turned a straightforward method for members to attach with one another and remind themselves of the worth we provide.

The important thing to this strategy is to ease and select actions that my workforce may feasibly do on an everyday cadence. One mistake I see many communities make is over-promising and under-delivering: for instance, internet hosting a large occasion after which getting busy and by no means having one other occasion once more. I’ve discovered that it is best to begin small with one thing we will actually follow so our members by no means really feel like we’re letting them down.

As a enterprise proprietor, my incentive is to generate income, no less than sufficient to assist myself, pay my workforce, and develop the enterprise. However I by no means need members to really feel like we’re continually making an attempt to upsell them on the paid membership stage. The truth is, that is a fast option to compromise the well being and integrity of the neighborhood.

So we constructed a income mannequin that works regardless of how a member engages with the neighborhood. Clearly, it is nice if somebody joins as a paid member, as a result of it gives direct revenue to the corporate. However a free member who finds a job by way of us can also be invaluable – it is a win for our recruiting companions and encourages them to maintain renewing with us yr after yr. Individuals who contribute to the neighborhood make it extra invaluable to everybody and might refer somebody new to hitch Tech Girls.

Finally, there are such a lot of ways in which members can profit our neighborhood and our firm, that I’ve discovered it would not serve us to obsess over who can pay us and when. By creating a number of streams of revenue, we have made it simpler to concentrate on supporting our neighborhood in precisely the way in which they want so that they’re excited to proceed supporting us.

4. I’ve at all times been obsessive about what my members need.

Sure, I began Tech Girls as a result of it was the neighborhood I personally wanted. But it surely seems that one of the simplest ways to construct up the neighborhood was placing apart my very own wants, needs and imaginative and prescient obsessive about what my members really need.

My workforce investigates customers continually. Generally it is formal: sending out a survey asking members what they’d prefer to see from us, or A/B testing new options to see what individuals have interaction with. However, most of the time, this merely means staying engaged with our personal neighborhood and paying consideration. What are the matters that come up in the neighborhood most frequently? What occasions have the very best attendance fee and the way can we develop these themes?

That is how the concept of ​​launching a Management Accelerator arose. We noticed time and time once more that when members acquired jobs, they usually struggled to continue to grow. We simply launched the primary accelerator cohort this fall and plan to proceed working with our members to refine how we will finest assist them on this subsequent step of their skilled development.

In different phrases, our neighborhood’s obsession with studying by no means stops. We launch one thing new, study extra, modify our strategy or give you new concepts to supply our members. Rinse, repeat, and watch because the Tech Girls neighborhood continues to develop and thrive for years to return.

Do you need to know extra about my development methods? Subscribe to my publication, Bootstrap to Tens of millions (with Allison)for extra common ideas and tales on the expansion of Tech Girls.

– How I Built a 200,000-Person Paid Membership Community With $0 in the Bank to Start