Building a membership program with Unlock Protocol

Transcript

GM GM welcome back to another episode of web3 Academy a place for entrepreneurs business professionals and creators to learn how to use web3 to build thriving communities and sustainable business models we're all about bringing your business on chain and teaching you how to do it the right way because let's be honest figuring this stuff out can be complex and confusing sometimes so I'm gonna break it all down for you as we do every week today is the Deep dive and we're deep diving on memberships and specifically on chain memberships and how to build them using unlock protocol

this is going to be an awesome episode for everybody out there that has a community whether or not that Community is on chain currently if you have a community and you are looking to engage them in better ways in the future to activate them to use them for your product for your service in any way this is an episode for you so buckle up this is going to be a really good one and it comes from our friends over at unlock protocol Friends of the show and they've just got an incredible breakdown of why membership programs are so effective how we bring them on chain and how to use unlock protocol to do that and that's

what we're here with today so let's hear from our sponsor before we jump into the show unlock protocol is the nft membership protocol for web3 Content subscriptions Community Access event tickets are all forms of memberships one of the most common business models for creators and entrepreneurs today building an nft membership opens many new possibilities for your members everything from tailored multi-platform experiences to the ability to sell an unfinished subscription on secondary markets these are things just not possible in web 2. however in order for this business model to work creators need nfts which are time bound or have

built-in recurring payments unlock protocol does this for your nfts better yet with a few simple steps you can create your own nft contract without code what WordPress has done for websites unlock protocol is doing for membership nfts if you're an nft Creator you can't rely on royalties as they are likely going to zero you need recurring Revenue you need unlocked at web3 Academy We Believe nft memberships are the future of business and community and that's why we decided to build on unlock learn more at unlock Dash protocol.com don't trust verify that's the unlock of

blockchain Technology the ability to store information in an open transparent and permissionless manner that information may be in the form of money value Access Data content and so much more regardless this Innovation is going to change the way that we use the internet and the way business and economies function forever how valuable would it be to you if you were ahead of one of the most influential technological innovations of our lifetime staying on the Forefront of web3 will teach you where and what to build if you're an entrepreneur where to focus your time and energy as a Creator or business professional trying to stay ahead of the curve or where to put your money if you're an investor that's exactly what web3 Academy Pro is doing for people just like you I'm putting all my time and energy into these weekly

reports combining on-chain analysis and Industry insights to uncover what business models and technologies will win or are winning in web 3 rather than discuss and speculate on what's happening in the space myself and the pro team are verifying through analyzing what's happening on on chain giving you the realest analysis in web 3. we're sending Pro members weekly on-chain reports directly to your inbox we've opened a private Discord Channel exclusively for pro members to ask questions and finally we're also running monthly live q and A's exclusively for pro members signing up is simple head to W3 academy.io Pro today log in with your email you use to subscribe to webview Academy and sign up today if you're

ready to level up in web 3 then it's time to go pro the number one resource to learn how to build and invest in web 3. for all you Pro members out there listening thanks for support and I look forward to continuing to go deeper down this rabbit hole and learning with all of you and remember when in doubt look on chain [Music] all right we're back let's jump into how to create a membership program with unlock protocol there's no doubt that nfts will become the de facto technology used for memberships and subscriptions in the future but that doesn't mean the program you build will be successful simply because it uses web3 Tech equate the

contrary yes nfts do unlock a host of extra use cases thanks to interoperability and the transparency of blockchains but they're only one piece of the puzzle first you need to know how to structure your membership program and to share the Playbook with you we've got this deep dive courtesy of nft membership experts unlock protocol so in today's episode we're going to break down what memberships are and what makes a successful program how to think about your membership tiers and benefits measuring the success of your program and then technical examples that show you exactly how to create your membership so first let's start with Basics a membership program allows individuals or organizations to become

members in exchange for certain access benefits or privileges some membership programs offer access to exclusive events or content discounts on products or services or other perks for members membership programs can be used by organizations or projects as a way to engage loyal customers and encourage them to continue using their products or services this same concept of membership can drive Revenue as well paid members only access to benefit can be a core part of an organization's business model for example a staggering 80 percent of Costco's profits come from its membership fees totaling 3.9 billion in 2021. what does it mean to be a member

of something at its core membership means belonging being a member means that you're part of a community of like-minded individuals membership in a group group or Community can provide a sense of purpose and belonging this sense of belonging can help feel more confident more capable and more connected the positive emotional feeling of membership and belonging is an important aspect of the human experience and it contributes to an individual's sense of well-being and happiness being a member of something also means you have access to resources and opportunities that may not be available to non-members for example the membership benefits of being part of a book club can be around human connection

and having the ability to regularly interact with others around a shared passion in a comfortable space at a practical level the benefits or privileges that come with membership can vary widely depending upon the specific organization membership at a gym grants you access to the gym to connect with other people who are focusing on Fitness as well as access to discounted rates on Fitness classes and of course use of the gym facilities themselves in other other instances being a member of a Professional Organization might give you access to networking events or webinars or industry resources or mentorship but wait what's the difference between a membership and a subscription mechanically and technically memberships

and subscriptions are similar and the differences come down to the concepts of time and recurrence as well as belonging memberships can be of any length of time for instance some memberships are Perpetual with Perpetual memberships access to membership benefits last forever with no additional payment or effort required Perpetual memberships are very difficult to sustain if any type of funding or expenses required from the organization in order to continue providing benefits to members with more sustainable membership programs having a membership often involves a fee that is paid on a periodic basis such as annually or monthly in order to maintain membership in the organization this fee May provide

access to certain benefits or privilege edges such as discounts on products or Services access to exclusive events or resources or the ability to participate in decision making processes memberships that have monthly yearly or other periodic membership fees can become self-sustaining a subscription usually refers to paying for ongoing access to a product or service such as a newsletter a streaming service or a software program a subscription may be a fixed period of time for example a year or maybe an ongoing Arrangement where the customers charge on a regular basis such as monthly until they choose to cancel the subscription the main difference between a recurring membership and what

is commonly referred to as a subscription is that feeling of belonging members typically feel a connection with other members in the same group whereas a group of subscribers to the same service may not be aware of each other however at a technical level time bound memberships recurring membership ships and subscriptions can be built with similar components such as the capabilities provided by unlock protocol okay let's talk about how to build your membership program building a sustainable and effective membership program is about more than just selling access nfts you need to consider who should be eligible to join your program what privileges benefits and tiers will make up your

membership the role status plays in your program and how to measure your success so let's break down each of those four considerations for any membership program first how can you determine eligibility for a membership program determining eligibility is about setting up requirements or limitations for who can join the program this can involve setting specific eligibility criteria such as requiring a certain level of experience or education or requiring that an individual meet certain age or residency requirements it can also involve setting fees or charging form membership or requiring that members meet certain expectations or obligations in order to maintain their membership there are several ways to determine

eligibility for a membership program for example an organization might require individuals to apply for membership and grow through a review process before being accepted this can help the organization ensure that only qualified individuals are granted membership and can also help the organization identify who are particularly interested in or committed to the organization's Mission another way to structure a membership program is by offering different levels of membership with each level offering a different set of benefits and privileges this can allow the organization to reward its most loyal or committed members with additional perks and incentives while still offering a range

of options for individuals who may be interested in becoming members but may not be able to commit to the highest level of membership Airline line mileage programs typically gate their various levels of membership benefits based on usage of their service over the most recent year finally gaining access to membership may be entirely Financial in nature in these cases one becomes a member solely by purchasing access to the membership with no other commitment or criteria required these types of memberships are very transactional in nature and members may be more likely to leave or churn if their financial situation changes or if they don't feel they are getting value out of the benefits they believe they were

purchasing Finance only gating also has the weakest connection between members themselves as members may not share any traits with each other besides the fact that they are willing to pay the membership fee overall thoughtfully determining eligibility or requirements for a membership program can help an organization attract and retain the right members it can also help ensure the program attracts the right members to be successful and be sustainable over time traits of successful membership programs let's talk about the different traits I Want to Break these down there are several traits that contribute to a successful membership program some of these include number one a clear reason to join a successful membership program should offer clear and compelling value

to its members this may be based on interpersonal belonging benefits and can also include exclusive access to products or Services discounts or other perks that are valuable to members for example a gym membership program might offer discounts on Fitness classes and access to a variety of equipment which would be valuable to individuals interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle so a clear reason to join number two a sustainable membership model a successful membership program should be sustainable and able to meet the needs of both the organization and its members over the long term this could involve carefully managing the size of the membership program and ensuring that it is a financially viable

over time through having ongoing Revenue an ongoing Revenue model Beyond a one-time entry fee third trait of a successful membership program thoughtful Community Management in membership communities that include peer-to-peer interactions active and thoughtful member and Community Management is a must members should be onboarded to understand the ethos of the community an effort should be made to keep interactions civil between members and conversations should be brought on track if they drift too far from the topics at hand on the other hand if the members benefits are purely transactional in nature members should have access to high quality customer service including prompt response to questions and concerns and access to helpful and

knowledgeable staff if you want to go back we have an episode a few weeks ago where we talk about how to build great communities specifically in Discord but in that episode we talk about some of the important aspects of building great community and one of the ones is a simple and clear on onboarding program so you might want to go back if you want to learn more about how to build a great onboarding program for your community number four trait for a successful membership program is levels flexibility and customization a successful membership program should offer flexibility and customization to meet the needs and preferences of different members this could include offering different levels of membership with different benefits or allowing members to tailor their membership to their

specific needs number five an efficient and user-friendly enrollment process if a project is aiming to gather a large membership the enrollment process should be efficient and easy to navigate so the potential members can quickly and easily become members one of the reasons why we suggest using unlock protocol is because of their efficient sign up and enrollment process we'll talk about that in a bit strong marketing and Outreach efforts is the sixth trait of a successful membership program if the goal of the membership program is to scale the program should have strong marketing and Outreach efforts to attract act and retain members this could include engagement on social media email marketing campaigns advertising campaigns or other types of awareness

and growth strategies now it's important to note that not all memberships need this or need all of these trades if the goal of the membership is to curate a small and tight-knit community of members organic growth is preferable to large ad campaigns or large marketing that attract a mass audience some of the most liked memberships within web 3 are small they're tight-knit communities they're not everyone can join and those can be very effective so you need to think about what you want out of your membership in your community okay let's talk about how to think about your membership identity and the benefits stack when you are putting together your membership program there are several

Dimensions to consider including identity Privileges and benefits let's talk about membership and identity thinking through identity is somewhat elusive yet it's a critical part of defining the feeling and core of your membership what do members call themselves how do they recognize each other if they were to see each other on the subway or on the street is there a name is there a logo is there a Vibe here's what Sarah Lester a fan of the band fish had to say about her membership in the fish head Community the first thing I noticed as I pull into the parking lot and park my car is the energy of these people massive amounts of tie-dye and flowy dresses flood my view for those who don't know fish they're a very popular band with a

cult-like community of the more hippie type of music genre Sarah says as I watch mesmerized at the colorful hula hoops Barefoot toes dancing and the contagious laughter of everyone music fills the scene hugging old friends and new ones catching up on life between shows reminiscing about past shows and memories and visibly excited of what's to come I breathe in deep and feel the Earth beneath my feet look around and feel an immense sense of being home that's when it hits me I have found my people this is exactly the kind of feeling that you want to invoke with your membership although it doesn't need to include tie-dye clothes or Barefoot

dancing in the dirt the key lesson here is that strong membership is tribal as you're developing your membership program think through the example above do your members have a name they call themselves for example members of the unlocked protocol Community or for themselves as locksmiths members of the fish Community refer to themselves as fish heads are there logos or another visual iconography that someone would wear to show their membership in the tribe are there rituals in which members regularly participate well the fish example above illustrates a kind of membership community that has been growing over decades you can apply these same principles around your membership identity to your membership program today let's talk about membership

privileges benefits and tiers membership programs typically have Privileges and benefits as you are thinking through your membership program there are a few reasons why you may consider starting with a single membership tier with a single set of privilege and benefits this would be my recommendation unless you already have a membership and you're looking to enhance it by bringing it on chain but if you're starting one now you want to start with Simplicity starting with just one tier can make the membership program simpler and easier to manage especially if you're just starting out it can also be less confusing for potential members as they won't have to choose between different levels of membership also investment of time and complexity for your members

offering multiple tiers of membership can require additional time and resources as you'll need to create and Implement different levels of content and benefits for each tier by starting with just one tier you can focus on creating high quality services and products and benefits that will appeal to your membership without having to worry about the complexity and Men management of creating multiple levels and Privileges and then finally feedback and learning starting with a single membership tier enables you to gather feedback from your initial members and use it to improve the membership program this can help you identify what works well and what doesn't and allow you to make any necessary adjustment before adding additional tiers starting with a

single tier can be a good way to test the waters and see how your membership program is received before committing to offering and investing and creating multiple levels of membership but as your program grows you may want to consider additional tiers with additional privileges for example most Airline membership programs have multiple tiers and grants increasing levels of Privileges and benefits for the higher tiers regardless of whether you start with one tier or multiple tiers unlock can help you with this unlock natively supports any number of membership tiers each with its own smart contract this is one of the many reasons why we love building on unlock protocol is for this a flexibility and adaptability to the way you want to

start your program but also it can grow along with you let's talk about different kinds of Privileges and benefits that you may want to offer so whether your membership program has one tier or many you'll need to think of through the different types of privileges that you're going to offer and setting up this benefit stack you can think things through using a model defined by Gabe zeicherman a gamification expert and author who has developed a framework called saps or saps model to help organizations design effective gamification strategies the saps model stands for status access power and stuff let's break down each one of these status refers to the social recognition and status that people

receive as a result of their actions status can be used to create a sense of accomplishment and reward people for their contributions access refers to the exclusivity or special privileges that are granted to people as a result of their actions one of the key benefits of membership is exclusive access to people resources or experiences that are not afforded to non-members power refers to the influence that people have as a result of their membership and stuff refers to the tangible rewards that people receive as a result of their actions membership can be used to reward people with tangible rewards such as prizes merchandise swag discounts Etc so the saps Model status access power and

stuff great model suggests that a complete definition of a benefit stack May motivate and engage members by offering them a combination of social recognition exclusivity control and tangible rewards let's talk about the importance of status as you are defining your membership program you need to note that membership can convey status for some individuals status in a membership program can be a significant motivator people care so much about clout and they care about showing it off and members are motivated by this and may be more likely to continue their membership if they feel they are making progress and advancing through different levels of status over time this is why

gamification is so important and the saps model holds true status can provide incentives for individuals to engage more members may be more likely to increase their level of Engagement or investment in order to reach higher levels of status and unlock additional benefits benefits in the form of access power and stuff after status access is the most frequent benefit offered to members for many membership programs so access benefits can include access to members only conversations in Discord telegram or other online community hubs access to ticketed in-person events access to exclusive members only content on a WordPress or other website access

to behind and scenes videos or live streams access to members only newsletters access to exclusive events with Founders or well-respected members of the community access to allow lists or pre-sales to discounts to a VIP areas at a live in-person event or an online event access to a directory of fellow members of the community for networking I mean there's so many this is by no means an exhaustive list of what you can provide access to the list really is very long similar to status access is a powerful motivator for membership as you are thinking through the definition of your benefit stack status and access are the two aspects that will be the most

significant and the importance to your members power is the next level of the benefit stack can members invite other members to join or can they confer benefits to them that's how you use power and then finally when we talk about stuff in the form of Swag or other tangible items undifferentiated unbranded stuff is fungible and is not typically a strong motivator on the other hand project branded items unique items or items that convey status can be used as valuable to members especially when there is a strong group identity so stuff that members only receive when they've achieved certain levels of status is better than just generic stuff okay how

do you measure success this is so important earlier we discussed key traits of a successful membership program these include having clear benefit to members a sustainable model for you where expenses if any are covered over time and other important traits a sustainable membership program has a way to measure and track its progress where do you want it to be in a year in three years you could measure this in a number of ways the number of members the rate of member growth the engagement of membership member contributions sustainable Revenue churn in the membership The Vibes some sort of survey that demonstrates the qualitative

value of being a part of the membership these are all ways that you can measure your membership so how to define your membership terms so you've thought about a lot of things so far with regard to your membership program now it's time to use unlock to make that a reality and let's talk about how you could use unlocked to do that there are a few items you'll need in order to set up these smart contracts for your membership these include the number of tiers will your membership have one tier or multiple tiers the duration how long does a membership last one month a year forever the size of membership is there a maximum number of members that the program can have this becomes important

when memberships are used for event ticketing based on the size of the venue the cost does the membership of a cost is it free recurring subscription if paid does the membership renew automatically and turn into a recurring paid subscription identity what is the name of your membership do you have art or a logo and then benefit stack using the saps model what are the Privileges and benefits of each tier okay now let's talk about how to use unlock to deploy the smart contracts and manage your memberships this is the technical side of building a membership unlock protocol enables users to create and deploy membership smart contracts unlock calls them locks

that can be used to Mint nfts which are called keys to convey status and Grant access to membership benefits or privileges to create a new lock you need to go to the unlock protocol home page connect your wallet and launch the app on the unlock protocol dashboard you'll click the create lock button as a reminder here are some things to finalize before you build your membership first you'll need to know the network on which the smart contract will be deployed ethereum mainnet are you going to use polygon you need to figure that out the name of the membership or membership tier such as silver or gold bronze the duration of the membership the number of membership nfts that can

be minted the supply in other words and the price of the membership which could be free once all of the terms have been set and you can confirm that they are correct you need to sign the transaction to create and deploy the smart contract on the chosen Network see how easy that is see how simple that is the deployment government process can be tracked on the relevant block Explorer and once the contract has been deployed it will appear on the lock list on the unlock protocol dashboard you can view the details of the law can confirm all the terms that have been set and will include in the show notes a link to this article where you can watch a tutorial video if you need more description on how to do this there's a video that tells you step by step exactly how to do

this but trust me this is quite simple it's amazing how easy it is to make a on-chain membership that's it a single tier on-chain membership you've created you've deployed the smart contract boom you're ready to go now if you have multiple Tios you'll need to create one smart contract per tier for example a membership program with a silver gold and platinum levels would deploy three smart contracts one for each level okay now you're ready to implement gating and membership access based on the unlock membership smart contract that you set up so once your smart contract has been deployed the smart contract can act as the access control mechanism of any of the benefits or privileges you have defined and thanks

to the magic of smart contracts setting up a membership smart contract once opens up membership across all of the touch points where you have granted membership benefits in most cases setting up membership only access for many common platforms can be done by configuring the platforms noted below with the smart contract address from the lock you deployed in the prior step I'm not going to go through each one of these in details but basically there is links that will show you step by step how to do the following how to have member only access to Discord or telegram how to member only access for tickets for an event how to remember only access to content on a WordPress site content on a paragraphs

site or to an online community within Geneva or zealous or Trope or to live streams with beam or to an online Forum with Discord like these are just a few common examples of what you can gate access to using your membership smart contract you can get access to all these things and they're step-by-step information on how to do this within their tutorials and their education or you can go to the show notes and click on the article and we have these all broken down also if you have any questions about how to implement access benefits to your membership the unlock locksmith community is readily available to support you the unlocked Discord is a

great place to go we spend tons of time there and they're super helpful so they'll answer any questions you have okay now let's talk about selling minting and airdropping memberships to your community so so far you've learned how to create the plan for your membership approach deploy the smart contract and how to set up the various member benefits your members can enjoy now it's time to get memberships into the hands of your members so they can get access memberships are typically delivered in two members in one of two ways number one members claim or purchase memberships from a website they would mint these memberships or members are airdropped free memberships from the program itself if you are selling or minting memberships or you want your members to claim free memberships from

your website prospective members typically go through a checkout process the checkout process is very similar to the common e-commerce checkout process that users are familiar with from using sites like Amazon or Shopify the example is you set up a checkout flow using a checkout link for a membership ticket the same process can be used to set up any membership purchase or claim it's very simple it's a simple checkout flow where you can purchase your membership using cryptocurrency using credit card or if you set it up for your members they can claim it for free but it depends upon the way you set it up and the choices you make airdrops if you want to airdrop your members directly

into their wallets airdrops are a great way to distribute membership nfts to fans attendees influencers and community members the no Cloud unlock protocol dashboard enables create Traders and Brands to airdrop membership nfts to wallets and email addresses in less than a minute you can also airdrop nfts in bulk to multiple addresses listed in an uploaded CSV file you just need to take that step of if you're going to do the airdrop you have to either have the email addresses of all your members or their wallet addresses and then it's super simple you upload a CV and unlock protocol will AirDrop it directly to

your wallet or send them an email with step-by-step instructions of how to claim their airdrop that's it you did it you've taken the first steps to set up the mentorship program for your members on chain this is a huge step that I think we are going to see play out over the next decade but it's still so early and unlocked protocol is really the best out there at making it simple for anybody to do this I hope with this episode you've learned how to define the goals of your membership how to think about the things that will make your membership program successful how to create an identity for your members how to define a benefit stack that includes status access power and stuff how to

define your membership terms how to deploy your smart contract for one or more membership tiers using unlock protocol how to integrate your smart contract into other systems or processes and enable members on the access and finally how to Mentor airdrop membership to your members well done you did it thanks so much for listening I hope that if you're considering setting up a membership you'll go over and check out unlock because they're just awesome as I said if you need extra help make sure to stop by the unlock Discord so you can talk to one of their friendly locksmiths who more than gladly give you a helping hand and if you're launching a membership let us know we'd love to check it out at web3 Academy we're

always learning about new on-chain memberships we'd love to check it out we'd love to become a member ourselves who knows maybe we'll feature your membership in our weekly roll up on the show let us know if you're planning to do that in the meantime have yourself a great week thanks so much for listening in everybody I hope you are feeling a sense of belonging whatever memberships you are a part of and if you are launching your own I hope you offer that sense of belonging to your community and I hope that we offer a sense of belonging to you in the web 3 Academy Community because we care so much about you guys and we wouldn't be able to do this show without you and if you want to support the community take a quick second and give us a like or review or a

follow on YouTube or on Spotify or on Apple podcast wherever you're listening to this however you can engage makes such a difference for the show and we greatly appreciate your feedback and your support have yourself a great week everybody bye-bye thank you for listening to web3 Academy we hope this helps you along your web 3 journey and if it does please share this episode And subscribe so you don't miss the next one nothing in this podcast was Financial advice crypto and web 3 can be risky you can literally lose it all in fact if you invest on account of what we say you probably will lose it all so don't do that in all honesty the point of this podcast is to remove the noise of markets and price and focus on utility implementation anyway so you should not

take any of this as Financial advice thank you friends and see you in the next one