Increase The Value of Your Play Cafe Membership Offer WITHOUT Discounting Other Services

I talk a lot on this blog and on my Profitable Play podcast about how crucial recurring revenue and specifically memberships can be for an indoor playground businesses’ long term sustainability and success.

We talked about the importance of memberships quite a bit recently in episode 169, and I also did a deep dive into memberships way back in episodes 63, 64, 65, 66, and 69. And in episode 69 I even talked about how creating a strong recurring revenue stream with memberships can increase your chances of eventually someday selling your business for a profit astronomically.

Because to be honest, most indoor playgrounds who end up going on the business marketplace either don’t sell, OR they don’t command the price the owner desires or needs to recoup their costs and compensate for their years of effort and blood, sweat, and tears. 

Now, I know I gave you TONS of action items this week and you probably have a lot running through your mind right now after the 2 most recent articles posted here, so today I just wanted to give you ONE quick tip that I have seen working for many play spaces recently and that might help you move that needle in your membership numbers.

But first, I want you to pull out your current membership offer.

Maybe it’s just open play that’s included in your membership– but more often than not, you likely have thrown other perks into your offer to sweeten the pot a bit and entice people to sign up.

Maybe it’s free coffee or discounted cafe offerings, maybe it’s 10% off on birthday parties, maybe it’s the ability to bring a friend a few times a month at no additional cost. And if you need some tips about how to create the perfect membership offer and integrate it into all of your other services and offerings– go back and listen to episode 69 which is linked here.

Now, I want you to highlight which, if any, of these perks are extremely valuable to your customers, but cost you nothing directly, except maybe a few extra minutes per month.

For example, if your events or classes sell out really quickly and getting a ticket or a spot is highly desirable– have you considered offering priority or early registration to your members?

To execute this, all you’d need to do is send a quick email with your monthly events to your active membership list (which should already be tagged as such in your email service provider) with the link to register maybe 5-7 days before the remainder of your email list and your followers.

And maybe you don’t do enough classes or events to make this extremely appealing to your customers– but what about preschool or summer camp options that have limited enrollment? Or co-working hours? Or drop-off care? Or a spring break camp aimed at helping working parents get through those school closure weeks a bit easier?

Something I want you to keep in mind as you continually tweak your membership offer until it feels perfect is that people join memberships or subscriptions for a variety of reasons.

It’s not JUST to save money. Reasons can also include convenience or time-saving.

So if your typical member is a super busy parent juggling tons of things– early or priority registration could be a huge service and perk to them.

Because it means they can rest a little easier knowing they don’t need to be tied to their phones or inboxes waiting for that next round of happenings to drop. They can feel confident they won’t be missing out on anything they know their children will love simply because they didn’t act fast enough.

And by the way I have seen several places do this so I can’t give full credit to one owner or business but I am going to choose one as an example so you can go see for yourself how this looks in action.

Alera from Project Play in Texas does this really well. Every month, and I will link her latest calendar post in the show notes, she shares her businesses monthly event calendar and opens it up for registration. But about a week before she posts the full calendar on her feed, she teases the calendar by posting a blurred out version on her instagram story, reminding members to check their inboxes for their priority registration links to save any spots they want before she posts the full calendar.

Not only is this a great perk for her members since her stuff does tend to sell out, I love how she creates this visual FOMO (fear of missing out!) and excitement each month which acts as a built in marketing tool to increase memberships.

But my favorite aspect of this strategy is that again this perk does not have any direct cost associated with it other than the time it takes to create that IG story and send out that email to members prior to the rest of her list. 

And this is a perfect example of NOT needing to discount your services to your members in order to increase the value of your membership. R

emember, it’s not JUST about cost savings. Many people are willing to pay for that convenience factor as well, and everyone likes to belong to something exclusive and special. 

So your play of the day is to take ONE piece of your membership offer and find a creative way to promote it like this in a way that creates FOMO for your customers but packaged in a way that brings the entire point of the offer BACK to serving and providing value.

To making their lives easier. To making your members feel special and prioritized.

And if you don’t yet have perks for your members that don’t have a direct cost to you, this is your sign to start brainstorming.

What could you offer as a convenience to your members, that would be very valuable to them but not cost you a thing?

This is the thought I want in the back of your mind as you go through your weekend. This will look different for every single business based on their model, but I promise you– there’s something you can offer that can and will move that needle for you, especially as your business grows and gains popularity and starts to book out more often.