Member Programs: Charge users for membership + convince businesses to join the program, or charge the businesses?
My idea is ambitious. This excites me. Both models rely on the assumption that I was able to convince the business partners to join my member program AND give away some type of perk or reward to active members in the program. This could be ACCESS, CREDITS, OR DISCOUNTS to their product or location. Based on my analysis (below), I think charging end-users is the better option, but would love your feedback or experience.
Incentive for the business:
- Visibility (from users or other businesses)
- Advertising potential
- Increased usage, sales
If I charge end-users, I can onboard businesses at no charge = business more likely to join. Drawback is increased pressure on me to add value to the program over time (new or better rewards), in order to keep users subscribed.
If I make membership completely free for users = users more likely to join and less pressure to increase value of program over time. Drawback seems to be hyper-increased difficulty in onboarding businesses, since they would need to pay to join AND give perk/reward).
If your idea is in its early stages, you could run the different options by 5-10 potential users/business customers to ask them what they would be comfortable paying and if either variation (paying or free members vs. paying or free businesses) would change that decision for them. In my experience, I've found that people are generally transparent about sharing how they think through pricing if you ask them in a 1-on-1 phone/video conversation and the context is very valuable.
Sorry if it's not too specific, but hope that helps! 🙂