- Price a membership around two events per month, so regulars save money by joining.
- One clear headline benefit beats a long list of small perks.
- Launch with a 7-day founding window and personal invites to your top 20 members first.
Ticket revenue resets to zero every month. You start again from nothing, chasing the same people to buy in again and again. A membership breaks that cycle: 50 members paying $20 a month is $1,000 before you've run a single event.
Here's how to build one that people actually want to join.
Design the offer around one headline benefit
Don't lead with a long list of small perks. Pick one thing that's easy to explain in a sentence — priority booking, members-only events, a discount at partner venues — and build everything else around it.
Cheap-to-you, valuable-to-them perks work best: a welcome gift, a shout-out at events, first access to new formats. None of these cost much per member, but they add up to a membership that feels generous.
Pricing it
A simple rule of thumb: price a membership at roughly the cost of two of your regular events. That way, anyone who comes twice a month saves money by joining, and anyone who comes more often saves even more.
| Input | Example |
|---|---|
| Average ticket price | $15 |
| Membership price (≈2 events) | $25/month |
| Annual price (2 months free) | $250/year |
Offer an annual option at a discount. It locks in cash flow and tends to attract your most committed members.
Launching to your first members
Don't announce a membership cold to your whole list. Work outward from your core:
- Message your top 20 members personally before announcing publicly. These are the people who'll set the tone.
- Announce in person at an event. Conversion is far higher face to face than through a post.
- Open a 7-day founding window with a price that's locked in for as long as they stay subscribed.
A simple 7-day launch sequence
| Day | Action |
|---|---|
| −3 | Personal messages to your top 20 |
| 0 | Announce at an event and on social |
| 1 | Explain the perks; welcome first members publicly |
| 3 | Share the founding-member count so far |
| 5 | Answer common questions (can I cancel, what if I miss a week) |
| 7 | Last call before the founding price closes |
Keeping members once they've joined
The first week decides whether someone stays for a year or cancels within a month. Send a welcome message, get their first event booked, and give them one members-only moment early on so the benefit feels real immediately. If someone hasn't shown up in 30 days, a short personal check-in goes a long way.
Handling this manually gets hard past your first 50 members. Most organisers running paid memberships eventually move billing, access and renewals onto a dedicated platform like Tribe IRL rather than tracking it in a spreadsheet.
Module 2 of Community Leaders Club walks through the full offer design, pricing and a ready-to-use 7-day launch sequence template.
See membership optionsFrequently asked questions
Price it around the cost of two of your regular events, so anyone attending twice a month or more saves money by joining. Offer an annual option at roughly two months free.
You don't need a minimum. What matters is having 15–20 highly engaged regulars to personally invite first, since they set the tone for everyone who follows.
Most community memberships work better with a founding-price incentive (a locked-in low rate for early joiners) than a free trial, since it rewards commitment rather than delaying the decision.