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Case Study: What to Consider with a Membership Website Redesign

We’re humbled and extremly excited to bring you this authentic case study by one of our customers – Brenda Power. Brenda talks about her experience with membership site builds and re-design projects, along with her experience working with us. Enjoy!

This post was written and created by: Brenda Power

Brenda is the owner of choiceliteracy.com – a membership site for educators. Brenda’s background also includes work as a newswriter, college professor, and senior editor for a literacy publisher.

So you’re thinking about launching a membership website, or redesigning the one you have? It’s almost impossible to convey what either experience is like. Next to giving birth, launching and redesigning my membership website are the scariest and most exciting things I’ve done in my life.

I recently worked with MemberDev to redesign my membership site, Choice Literacy. Choice Literacy is a subscription site for teachers who have leadership roles in K-12 literacy education. My site was launched in 2006, and content has been added weekly ever since. A redesign would include transferring over 3000 print features, 900 videos, and 11,000+ current and expired member information files.

If you already have a successful site and are considering a redesign, this is the case study for you. If you are just launching a membership website, consider using an “all-in-one” solution. That is what I did in 2006, and it’s by far the most economical way to launch a site and see if it makes sense to develop a more customized site later. An all-in-one solution worked for five years for me, but eventually the site grew to the point where I needed a custom solution.

Learning from Past Mistakes
The last major redesign I went through was in 2012 with a different web design firm. It was stressful. Deadlines were missed, there were lots of code glitches, and the final two months were a blur of 18 hour days trying to stamp out dozens of bugs. To be honest, I put off this redesign much longer than I should have because I dreaded going through that experience again.

I was determined to have a better redesign experience this time. I began the process by searching for the right team. I had three core criteria:

1. Experience

The redesign team had to have extensive experience with membership sites. Membership sites have sophisticated code, and different audiences present unique coding needs. A firm without experience may promise they can do the work, but you’re sure to end up with clunky code.

2. Team

I didn’t want to work with a large agency (too many people and too much overhead) or one guy working out of his garage (because what happens if god forbid that garage collapses someday?).

3. Proximity

I wanted to work with a local team, to keep the project in my home state.
After a month of research, I soon realized I would need to drop #3 off my wish list. As I looked for a design team, I discovered there is almost no one outside of large agencies that has much experience with membership sites.

MemberDev was the only firm I found that was small and had extensive experience with subscription sites.

Most important, the sites they design are beautiful and intuitively functional for members. I contacted some of the site owners who had used MemberDev in the past and asked two questions:

  1. Would you hire MemberDev again?
  2. Did your project come in on time and on budget?

Everyone who answered was enthusiastic and very positive about their MemberDev experience.

If you’re launching or redesigning a membership site, there is a continuum from an all-in-one (or one-size-fits-all) site where the coding is set and you plug in your content, to a site that has completely custom code. Having lived on both ends of that continuum, I knew the best solution would be to find a design team that could do work somewhere in the middle. I wanted coding and plug-ins that were common and standard enough that it would be relatively easy to update them in the future, but I also wanted some custom coding to reflect the unique content of my site and needs of my users.

I was impressed with the variety of designs from MemberDev for sites with very different membership audiences. At the same time, I was relieved to hear their sites were built on the WordPress platform, one with hundreds of thousands of users (and thousands of coders available) throughout the world.

I’d found my team. Now we just had to determine if the project was one they could take on.

Making Contact and Contracting

When you contact most web design firms with a bigger job, they will assure you they can take on the work and will be eager to contract as soon as possible. Ali Jafarian responded immediately to my query about working together. But I soon discovered MemberDev isn’t like most firms. Ali worked with me over a few weeks to determine if my project was a good fit for MemberDev. He and his tech team examined the code at my current site to see if they could work within it to transfer materials to a new site. We had a couple of long conversations about what worked well at my old site, and what definitely needed to be upgraded at a new site. We negotiated what a timeframe and budget would look like.

After these conversations, there was a short stretch where I waited (and hoped) MemberDev would be able to take on my project. I knew at this point they would not take on any project where they couldn’t be true to their word and meet all the deadlines and expectations, and they were going to have to find room for my project within a fairly full calendar. But they did, and we moved into the actual work.

Taking Time to Get It Right

What’s different about MemberDev from many firms is how much time goes into the early or conceptual phases of the work. After contracting, Ali developed a “mood board” for the site before beginning any real design work. This board contained a few photos, colors, and words to convey what the “feel” of the final design would be. We went through four revisions of that dinky little board to get it right — the first drafts had images of kids at work that were too solitary, used stock photos I didn’t like, and included descriptive words that weren’t quite right. But eventually, the mood board was perfect. And when Ali did the actual design, it needed almost no revision, just the most minor tweaks, because he took extra time at the start to understand exactly what I was looking for.

Because we took the time to write out reams of specs for what was required at the new site, as well as lots of time to negotiate what I wanted in the design, the actual coding and design process was streamlined.

There was no need to renegotiate the timeline, specs, or budget during the heavy design and coding phases of the work because of misunderstandings. Every deadline we’d negotiated at the start was met, and my site launched on the day promised (even though we had a tight schedule).

If you’re considering a redesign of your website that will cost tens of thousands of dollars, I encourage you to read some of the horror stories on the web of redesigns that have run amok. They almost always start and end the same way — contracts signed quickly with little in the way of clear benchmarks and expectations. Then halfway through the project, deadlines are missed, specs are renegotiated, and costs skyrocket. MemberDev has a process in place to ensure this doesn’t happen with their projects. They were clear about their deadlines, and also firm about which ones I would need to meet in providing materials and critiques of their work.

MemberDev is not for you if you have trouble sticking with deadlines and plans. They have the gift of making you feel like you are their only client. But you aren’t. Seriously, they work with a lot of clients. Their timelines are reasonable, but their work is terrific so their calendar is full or will fill up quickly.

The Final Countdown

The last few weeks before the launch of my new site were a blur of testing out new features, tweaking content, hunting for bugs and helping the tech guys squash them. What was remarkable was the level of responsiveness from MemberDev, especially Ali.

One incident in particular sticks out in my memory. We were less than a week from the launch date, which was just before the Christmas holidays. One important element of the site, the ability to download and print articles, was still not working correctly. Ali and I both explored lots of alternatives and none of them were great. I finally said, “Let’s go with this one since it’s the least terrible of many bad options — it’s not great but we need to do something.”

Ali replied, “Let’s step back and rethink this. This isn’t a good solution. We can do better.” Ali never settles for “barely good enough.” Within a day he had come up with an elegant, smart solution that was completely different than any of the plug-ins we’d been considering (and involved no plug-in at all).

Even at the end of the process, when we were rushing to complete work at the site, there were no compromises in quality.

After the Launch

Ali and the tech crew were immediately available for tweaks throughout the first hours, days and weeks of the site launch. My members are older, and I expected complaints about the changes because no one ever likes changes to a site that they use often and are comfortable with as is. But the complaints never came. The site is familiar to subscribers in terms of the color scheme, content, and photos, but so much better in terms of functionality and attractiveness. And MemberDev made sure all the member files transferred cleanly, so there were no issues with subscriber accounts or passwords working.

On the administrative end, it’s a pleasure to post articles and update files on such an intuitive and functional system. I never realized how many “work arounds” I’d developed at my old site till I had a new site that just… works.

Now I’ll answer my own questions about working with MemberDev:

Would you hire MemberDev again?

In a heartbeat. I was almost sorry to see the redesign process end, and believe me, I never thought I would say THAT about a website redesign.

Did your project come in on time and on budget?

Yes, and it was a challenging timeframe and reasonable budget.

I love being my own boss and what I learn from the members at my website. Occasionally redesigns are an essential part of the work, and it’s a relief to know I can return to MemberDev to upgrade and enhance my site in the future.

Find the Right Pricing Strategy

Cost is the biggest factor in member retention.
It can be difficult to find a balance between managing the bottom line while still offering the best competitive prices for your members. Some membership and subscription businesses never really find that balance.

Take the Meal Kit subscription, for instance.

In a poll by Money Magazine, 49% of members who canceled their meal kit subscription cited cost as the top reason for cancellation, and of those who had never tried the service, 59% said that cost was the biggest deterring factor.

Other studies showed that members hate being locked into their subscription, feeling obligated to use services even when they wanted to do something else, simply because they’ve already paid for it.

The simplest solution — especially if you’re targeting Value Seekers — is to find a lower-cost pricing strategy that works for both you and your members.

We’ve written about the different types of pricing strategies you can use in more detail here.

Having a pricing strategy that works for your membership doesn’t mean you have to charge bottom-of-the-barrel prices, however.
Netflix frequently raises their prices and still retains a large percentage of their membership, for example. But they also offer cost-sharing benefits for their members, like multiple account creation.

If you can’t lower costs without negatively impacting your bottom line, you will have to make sure that the value provided is equal to the price tag.

How to Increase Your Member Retention Rates In the Next Year

One retained member is worth a hundred new members.
Studies show that 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% of your existing customers, and retained customers will make it much easier to grow steadily over time.

The probability of selling or upselling a current member is around 60-70%, while the chances of selling your membership to a new prospect is only 5-20%.

But member retention isn’t always easy. The average business loses 20% of their first-time customers and 15% of their total customers over the course of a year.

If you want members to stick around for the long haul, you need to figure out why they’re leaving so you can course correct before it’s too late.

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Member Retention Quick Wins You Can Start Today

Why Do Members Leave?
A recent study on membership retention and preferences found that the biggest reasons for member churn had to do with high costs and low-value offerings.

Of those surveyed:

34% said their membership costs were too expensive
26% said that the organization offered too little value
19% said they no longer needed the membership
13% said they simply forgot to renew

For those that indicated they would renew their membership, 52% said they would stay with a brand if they were given benefits like industry information, educational resources and opportunities related to their own interests.

In other words, the more value the membership provides, the higher the retention rates.
The study also broke down member types into three distinct categories:

Super Members — “Brand Evangelist” members who are the most committed to the brand and most likely to refer others
“Rank and File” Members — Members who are satisfied with their membership but don’t feel completely connected to the brand or business
Value Seekers — Members who stay solely based on the value provided and are at the highest risk for churn
Interestingly, these member types were also broken down by generational divide, with Millennials making up the highest percentage of Value Seekers and Boomers making up the majority of the Super Members (Gen X fell in between).

How To Build a Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) Platform

How much content do you produce on a daily basis?

From emails to blog posts, web applications, free guides and downloadables, social media posts, videos, webinars and every other bit of content in between — you’re creating (and consuming) way more than you realize.

Every minute over 300 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube. 347,222 Tweets are sent. 4 million Facebook posts are liked.

Over 2 million blog posts are published every single day.
People want content. More importantly, people want your content. But the real issue for most online businesses isn’t creating content, it’s delivering content.

How will you make sure that all of your content is readily available on multiple channels exactly when and where your audience wants it? How will you manage all of your content? How does your audience find it?

Enter: Content-as-a-Service (CaaS).

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5 Key Facts About Content-as-a-Service (CaaS)You Should Know

What is Content-as-a-Service (CaaS)?
Content-as-a-Service (CaaS) is a strategy for delivering CMS-managed content to Web applications and other channels.

According to Roland Benedetti, VP of Product Management and Marketing for eZ Systems:

“The main idea behind CaaS comes from the digital revolution. We went through a paradigm shift where content does not carry its meaning and value in the context of […] a fully operational website, but as an independent asset that can be delivered and live in many different places [at once].”

In other words, content you’ve created doesn’t have to stay put. It can be delivered to different websites, different web pages, different social networks, and even through different mobile and web apps.

With CaaS, content is free to live where it pleases, regardless of where it was created.
Building a CaaS Platform on a CMS
A CaaS platform allows you to create content that can be distributed to other channels through APIs. Think of it as a structured content source that turns content into data.

There are two ways that you can go about creating a CaaS Platform: You can either “layer” CaaS architecture onto an existing CMS, or replatform to a “headless,” cloud-based CMS.

The Best Tools To Track Membership User Engagement

Engagement shouldn’t be hard to track.
Yet many membership businesses struggle to find the right tools to track engagement metrics. Even if you have some solid figures on user behavior, it can be harder to know their significance.

What does it mean if your member-only content gets plenty of clicks but retention numbers are slowly dwindling away? Should you measure engagement by things like interacting with content at all, or should you be focused purely on the bottom line?

There are plenty of tools out there that can give you cold, hard numbers about the way your members behave. Which you will absolutely need to succeed.

But before you start looking for the right tools, it’s important to know what you’re measuring and why.

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6 Member Engagement Metrics You Need to Measure for Retention

What Metrics Should You Track for Member Engagement?
Measuring user engagement isn’t just about one activity or metric.

There are hundreds or even thousands of ways someone might interact with your business over the course of their membership.

You need to know which interactions are actually meaningful.
Member engagement types can be broken down into roughly three categories:

Informational — Members who only access free products, services or content
Transactional — Members who pay to have access to your product, services or content
Emotional — Members who support you in other ways (attending events, volunteering, etc.)
Each member engagement type will interact in different ways, and some you might care about more than others.

Typically speaking, almost all engagement types will interact with your business in the following ways:

Traffic and clicks — This includes traffic to your specific membership areas (sign-in pages, etc.) as well as the rest of your site
Content interactions — This includes how often members are reading blog posts, viewing webinars or podcasts, etc.
Sales — This includes the number of new conversions as well as monthly revenue generated by long-time members
Other communication — This might include email open rates, social media metrics, and so on.
Errors — This includes any user errors or bugs a member experiences on your site.
These metrics should give you the best overview of how members are interacting with your business on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.

They will also tell you where new members are coming from, how long they’re staying members, and how they feel about your content.

So how do you measure all of these metrics effectively? Here are the tools we use and recommend.

1. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is the king of engagement tracking tools.

GA allows you to see all the important engagement metrics, like general site traffic, site speed, and conversion data, which might apply to all member engagement types.

It also one of the best tools for tracking ecommerce (sales) data for your current paying members. (Funnel.io has a great guide for using GA for sales event tracking here.)

Enabling event tracking will give you major insights into how well your core membership is doing by letting you monitor almost any website interaction.

This includes things like:

Video plays
Link clicks
PDF downloads
Popup viewed
Image clicked to enlarge
Form field abandons
Scrolling down a page
Printing a page
Etc.
If you want to monitor specific member interactions, like how many times members are signing in to the member area each day, or how many times a piece of content is downloaded… use GA.

It’s fast. It’s free. It’s basically essential if you want to know what your members are doing.

Pro Tip: Integrate GA with your other tracking or engagement tools, like Facebook Ad Leads, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Salesforce, PayPal, GotoWebinar, Survey Monkey, ActiveCampaign, and so on using Zapier.

2. Mixpanel
If you need more tracking beyond what GA can offer — for example, knowing when or if users are coming back after you’ve added features or services — Mixpanel is an awesome tool for custom event tracking.

The nice thing about Mixpanel is that you not only get cold, hard data (user clicks, form submissions, conversion rates, etc.), you get insights into specific user behaviors.

It will alert you to specific events that are more likely to lead to retention.

It will also allow you to create unique member profiles to target specific engagement types.

If you want to know how new members behave versus members that have been with you for 5+ years (or those who stopped participating), you can measure specific metrics around churn and retention.

If you have a SaaS product and want to know exactly how users are interacting with it, Mixpanel will tell you.

We recommend Mixpanel because it gives you customizable analysis of your sales and content funnels so you can see which events are the most beneficial for members.

If you love looking at numbers but you’re never sure what actions to take based on your data, this is the perfect tool.

3. Heap Analytics
In terms of measuring retention and user behavior, one of the tools we love is Heap Analytics.

Aside from capturing a bevy of information around things like clicks, sales transactions, email opens and so on, you also have access to what they call user-centric data.

Heap Analytics gives you the ability to tie data points back to individual users. They use data models (called Schema) to analyze and predict user behavior on a micro and macro level.

You can see a specific user’s history of behaviors and combine that data with the rest of your data to predict what they’ll do next.
One of the best parts of this tool is that you can analyze your data retroactively, meaning that you don’t have to create a live tracking code on your website.

So if you want to know how certain users behaved last week but you just signed on to use Heap Analytics, you’ll still get results.

And the best part is that most features come ready to use out-of-the-box.

If you’re not so tech-savvy (or even if you are) and you really want to do a deep dive into your member base, check out Heap Analytics.

4. FullStory
One of the challenges with tracking user engagement data is knowing the “why” behind user behavior.

Did someone leave your site because of an error or bug? Or did they just not find the content very thrilling?

FullStory gives you… well, the full story about your website interactions.
Or as they put it: “See your site through your user’s eyes.”

FullStory will give you traditional metrics like clicks, session lengths, visited links, names, emails, and so on.

But the real beauty of this tool is that it uses Session Replay and heatmaps to ascertain other metrics you might not find elsewhere, like “dead clicks, error clicks, and rage clicks,” and it helps you troubleshoot problems for members.

In other words, if your users are frustrated with something on your site, FullStory will tell you and they’ll help you fix it. Which, if you’ve ever tried to troubleshoot for WordPress, you know is a huge challenge.

FullStory will also alert you to suspicious activity, or if users seem lost when browsing your site.

This gives you a more detailed look into what users are experiencing from their perspective, which can be hard when you’re so familiar with your own site.

So, if you want a tool that can give you better metrics about your site’s functionality, go with FullStory.

If you’re especially struggling with things like troubleshooting and providing support to members, this will be a must-have tool for your tool belt.

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6 Member Engagement Metrics You Need to Measure for Retention

Final Thoughts
If you’re not sure where to start the engagement tracking process (or you’re stuck and looking for help), it’s good to start by breaking down your users into specific types.

Identify who is using your site and why (are they long-term paying members or just in it for the freebies?).

Then look for tools that will give you some general insights into user behaviors (Google Analytics and MixPanel) for your entire site.

From there, start to break down your data based on your specific users. Use tools like Heap Analytics to do a deeper dive into segmented audiences to find out what it is they’re doing and why.

And if you’re looking to troubleshoot problems, find specific errors, or really see how users are interacting with your online presence, go for something like FullStory.

The more tools you have at your disposal, the more complete and helpful your data will be.

New Member Checklist

This is a sample post for how you might create a new member checklist.

Here are some tips for new members in the community:
  1. Checklist item #1
  2. Checklist item #2
  3. Checklist item #3

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Why You Should Start a Subscription Business

The subscription model is nothing new. The idea of recurring revenue is as old as newspapers and periodicals. But if you feel like you’re seeing subscription pricing everywhere these days… you’d be right.

From multivitamins to home maintenance, snacks to shaving kits, workout programs to wine-of-the-month clubs, many businesses are capitalizing on the subscription boom. Even using a word processing program or ordering groceries can cost you a monthly fee now.

The beauty of the Subscription Economy (a fitting phrase coined by Zuora) — and the reason the model is becoming so popular among businesses of every industry — is that it opens the doors for accelerated growth and revenue while still providing convenient and often necessary services for customers. In other words, it’s a win-win.

Here’s a look at the stats behind the current Subscription Economy and why it’s a good idea to get in on it any way you can.

How to Create a Great Sales Page

A well written landing page can cultivate new clients, and even upsell current customers.  Let your sales page work the most effectively for you following this guide:

One particular avenue that continues to grow is the subscription model, also known as membership websites. To be specific, websites that offer users content in exchange for a recurring price (ex: $9.99/month). These websites continue to pop up in all shapes and sizes, from small micro blogs to enterprise level learning sites. Technology is allowing more entrepreneurs to distribute their content easily and affordably, which in turn allows them to launch and scale new online businesses.

However, it’s important to note that this wasn’t always an easy task… since the tools didn’t exist 10 years ago to make this possible. But now you can launch an online business with proprietary content and some time. In other words, if you have experience in a specific field and you’re willing to put the work in, you can launch an online business within months!

Now is the time.

Great. So how do I do it?
The first step is to give some initial thought to your business model – what kind of content you’ll be offering and at what price points. For example, you might sell online lessons for a specific craft. You’ll offer access to your lessons via 2 membership options:

Monthly @ $12/month
Annually @ $99/year

Next, let’s discuss some tools needed to launch your new site.

1) Website Hosting
The first thing you’ll need is web hosting, which allows you to build a website that will host your content. There are tons of options out there, and you may already have [or be aware of] a preferred hosting company. If not, my recommendation is to use GoDaddy. It’s super simple to setup and they offer solid support for times when you get stuck.

You’ll want to choose one of their WordPress Hosting plans (more info on that below). I recommend the Deluxe Plan for $9.99/month. You can sign up for that here.

2) WordPress
If you’ve never heard of WordPress before it’s the most popular [and powerful] content management system available. It’s also free and very powerful. WordPress was originally designed for blogging years ago, but has become the industry standard for building custom websites. Some people might disagree, the same way they disagree on politics, but I can assure you that WordPress is the right choice for your membership site.

WordPress offers complete flexibility and control, which many other solutions can’t offer. You can also choose from thousands of themes, which are pre-made templates that already have basic design elements. Lastly, there are many developers that build for WordPress all over the world, so you’ll have no problem finding a contractor if you decide to hire help for your site.

Using a hosting provider like GoDaddy makes installing WordPress a breeze. In fact, their WordPress hosting plans allow you to install and configure a WordPress site within minutes. Or, they’ll set things up for you as part of their service. This is one of the reasons I recommend using GoDaddy for hosting.

3) Membership Platform
Once you have WordPress installed the next step is to choose a membership platform (or plugin). WordPress has many membership plugins available. These plugins allow you to create membership levels, accept online payments, and protect your content (among many other features).

I’ve used quite a few of them and found that the industry leader is MemberMouse. MemberMouse separates itself from other plugins with these key features:

Flexibility
API Integration
Ongoing Support
These features are essential if you plan to scale your business. If your goal is to just make a little extra money on the side you could probably get by with a different solution, but MemberMouse still works for simpler business models as well. The only thing it’s not great at is the shopping cart experience – for that, you’d want to use something like WooCommerce.

MemberMouse also has a great knowledge base with step-by-step tutorials, so you don’t have to wait for anyone. You simply select a plan and get started. I recommend their Starter Plan for $19.95/month, which includes a 14-day Free Trial. You can sign up at membermouse.com (click “Get Started for FREE”).

4) Setup a Merchant Account
Once you have MemberMouse installed the last step is to create a free account with a provider like Stripe or Braintree. These tools allow you to accept online payments, and they integrate directly with MemberMouse so all you have to do is enable a few settings and you’re ready to go.

And that’s all there is to it. Within hours you can have an operational membership site. The only thing missing is your content, which is up to you!

Final Notes
This article was meant to convey how easy it can be to create a membership site. The actual process and effort will vary depending on your aptitude and willingness to learn, which is the case with any new task. For many people it’s much more effective to hire someone to do this… but for the “go-getters” this is a great starting point for their next venture.

Social Media Marketing

Knowing how to best utilize your budget for social media marketing will help you to get one step ahead of the competition.  These days, when marketers are flooding the social media newsfeeds, it can be hard to standout.

And no, guest blogging isn’t just for the super cool or super famous. Anyone can do it.
The fundamentals of guest blogging are as follows:

Find sites that accept guest posts (or pitch to an influencer from your list)
Develop and send your pitch to the right person
Write your guest post
Follow up after publishing (respond to comments, etc.)
To find guest post sites, tap into your list of influencers and publications you already follow and check to see if their sites allow guest posting (or email the influencer if you already have a relationship).

Some sites will give you information on their contact page for pitching articles, like HuffPost.

The digital landscape has changed dramatically for content generation and consumption over the last decade. Tools and strategies emerge every day that offer new ways to broadcast and monetize your content.

How to Use a Lead Magnet

What is a lead magnet?

It’s when you offer a free product of value to potential customers in order to get them hooked on your services.  Often times, this will include a free tutorial or guide.

3. Connect with Influencers and Name Drop in Your Content
If you’re struggling to grow your traffic, it can help to borrow traffic from those who already have a massive following.

Make a list of the influencers in your industry.

Don’t just look for the biggest names. Consider influencers that you already follow (big and small), those that might have unique insights into your industry, even if their follower counts are similar to yours, or those that have sway in a related industry.

If you’re not sure how to find influencers, use a tool like NinjaOutreach to find specific leads in your niche.

Once you have your list, start interacting:

Follow them with your social media accounts
Ask questions or respond to questions their followers have asked
Share their content on your social media accounts
Include them in your blog posts as resources, tag them on social media and send them an email letting them know you’ve mentioned them (also called “ego bait” content)
Create visual content relating to their content and link it back to them
By engaging with influencers, you open the door for their followers to become your followers. And you might even form a real relationship with the biggest names in your industry.

4. Pitch Guest Blogs to Higher-Traffic Sites
If your site struggles to get regular traffic, it can be difficult to truly promote your awesome content or grow through organic search.

One way around this is to guest blog on more popular sites. Guest blogging allows you to grow your reach, create referral links back to your site and gives you some decent social proof (look Ma, I’m published on Inc.com!).

Guest blogging can drive new leads, too. In fact, one SaaS startup used guest blogging to go from five daily signups to 25 signups a day in just six months.