Everyone Wants a Membership. Almost No One Should Have One.

Every January.
Every Q2 slowdown.
Every time someone opens Stripe and thinks, “There has to be more recurring revenue in here somewhere.”

The idea appears:

“What if we start a membership?”
“Or an association?”
“Or a private community?”
“People pay monthly for access to us.”

And look — we get it.
Predictable revenue is sexy. Subscriptions are the dream. Investors love MRR. Your accountant will smile for the first time in months.

But here’s the part where a good marketing firm ruins the fantasy.

Stop. Right. There.

Unless people are already knocking down your door begging for your insight, launching a paid membership is one of the hardest things you can do in marketing.

Harder than lead gen.
Harder than selling services.
Harder than ads.

Why?

Because a membership isn’t a product.
It’s a relationship.

And relationships are earned, not announced.

The Uncomfortable Qualification Test

Before you even think about a membership, ask yourself:

• Are people regularly asking for your opinion without being pitched?

• Do your emails get opened at rates that make ESPs nervous? (We’re talking 70–80%, not “industry average.”)

• Would your audience follow you to a new platform if you disappeared tomorrow?

• Do people quote you, forward you, reference you, and trust you?

If the answer is “eh… kind of?”
Congratulations — you’re like 90% of companies.

And 90% of companies should not have a paid membership.

“But Other Brands Do It!”

Yes.
The brands that pull this off tend to have:

• Cult-level loyalty

• A clearly defined enemy

• A strong POV they’re willing to defend

• Years of trust built in public

They don’t launch memberships because they need revenue.
They launch them because the audience is already asking:

“How do I get closer to this?”

If you don’t have that pressure, you’re not launching a membership.
You’re launching another thing you now have to market.

The Brutal Math of “Eh” Brands

Here’s the truth no one puts in the pitch deck:

Driving membership for an okay company is brutally hard.

You’re asking people to:

• Pay you every month

• Remember why they joined

• Continue believing the value outweighs the friction

That’s a tall order when your brand feels interchangeable.

Recurring revenue doesn’t come from clever pricing pages.
It comes from obsession.

And obsession is rare.

So What Should You Do Instead?

This is where we actually earn our keep.

Instead of jumping to a membership, focus on:

• Becoming unmistakably good at one thing

• Publishing opinions people argue with

• Building demand before monetization

• Making your audience feel like insiders for free

When people start saying:

“You should charge for this.”

That’s when you listen.

Until then, the job of your marketing firm isn’t to help you build a membership.

It’s to protect you from building one too early.

—
Ritner Digital
We don’t sell fantasies. We build demand.

FAQs

“Are you saying memberships are bad?”

No.
We’re saying premature memberships are bad.

When they work, they’re incredible.
When they don’t, they quietly drain time, energy, and brand trust while pretending to be “long-term strategy.”

“But recurring revenue is the goal, right?”

Recurring revenue is a result, not a starting point.

If you need a membership to stabilize cash flow, the problem isn’t your pricing model — it’s demand.

“What if our competitors have a membership?”

Cool.
They also probably have:

• Low engagement

• Churn they don’t talk about

• A Slack community that’s mostly lurkers

Copying a weak strategy doesn’t make it stronger.

“What if we already have an audience?”

Great. Now get honest.

If that audience would:

• Follow you to a new platform

• Pay for access, not just content

• Miss you if you stopped publishing

Then you might be onto something.

If not, you’re still early — and that’s okay.

“Can’t we just test it?”

You can.
But “just testing” a membership usually means:

• Building content you’ll resent making

• Managing expectations you didn’t set clearly

• Explaining value every single month

That’s not a test. That’s a commitment.

“So what should we focus on instead?”

Demand.

Specifically:

• Clear positioning

• A strong, repeatable POV

• Consistent visibility with something to say

• Being known for one thing, not everything

Memberships work best when they feel inevitable — not experimental.

“When is the right time to launch one?”

When people ask:

“How do we get more access to you?”

Repeatedly.
Unprompted.
Without a checkout link.

That’s your signal.

“Is this advice self-serving coming from a marketing firm?”

Absolutely.

Our incentive is to help you build something people actually want — not another offer you’ll quietly sunset in nine months.

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