Episode 24: Sell Your “Always Open” Membership Without Discounts or Fake Urgency
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EPISODE DESCRIPTION & RESOURCES:
If you run an always-open membership, you already know the challenge: without a deadline, it’s harder to get people to join now instead of “someday”… which often never comes.
In this episode, I’m sharing three ways to create urgency for your membership without discounting, free trials or fake urgency (like saying the doors are closing when they’re really not).
You’ll learn how to use what’s already happening inside your membership to attract new members, re-engage existing ones, and keep your promotions feeling fresh — so you can sell consistently all year round.
We’ll cover:
The mindset shift you need to make around urgency when you have an “always open” membership.
Why your membership is naturally built for authentic, timely reasons to join.
Three urgency strategies you can use right away to grow your membership more quickly (and why the third one is my favorite and working like gangbusters for my clients right now).
Timestamps:
07:15 a new way to think about urgency and growing your membership
11:32 creating urgency through TEACHING
15:01 creating urgency through ACCESS
23:54 creating urgency with... my favorite... "Activator" Events & EXPERIENCES!
Listen now (and let me know what you think) or keep scrolling to read the article. ⬇️
Links and Resources:
🎯 Work with me 1:1 to grow your membership in the Membership Growth Gameplan Intensive: themissingink.co/gameplan-introductory
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Contact Natalie: themissingink.co/connect
See how you can work with Natalie: themissingink.co/services
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PREFER TO READ? HERE’S THE ARTICLE FOR THIS EPISODE:
Does Growing Your “Always Open” Membership Feel Like a Slog?
When I work with clients who have an always-open membership (meaning: people can join any time of year) they usually give me two reasons for designing it this way…
Reason 1️⃣: Financial
You want recurring revenue coming in all year round. You want people to be able to join and invest in you, your business, and your membership at any time. You don’t want your income tied only to one or two big launches each year.
Reason 2️⃣: Values
You don’t like the idea of telling someone who needs your help that they can’t join right now just because “the doors are closed.” If someone’s ready to take action, you want them to have a way to get the solution they need now, instead of waiting until your doors open again.
“Always Open” Means Making Sales Anytime… Right?
It sounds great in theory, but the reality is often very different.
Whether your decision was based on finances or values, you’ve probably discovered something else along the way: selling without urgency is really hard.
When people know your membership is always available, they often delay joining until something urgent happens in their own life.
As the business owner, that can leave you feeling like you’re at the mercy of other people’s timing. You might be wondering:
How can I get back in control?
How can I predict sales more accurately?
How can I influence who joins and when?
… without switching to an “open-shut” sales model or using tactics that make you feel gross. That’s what we’re talking about in today’s episode.
What You’ve Already Tried Before
If you’ve been trying to “jolt” people into joining your membership, it might look like this:
Discounts or free trials: which feel gross, undervalue your work, and often attract the wrong people who don’t stick around.
Price-increase deadlines: effective in the moment, but you know you can’t raise the price forever.
Evergreen countdown timers or “doors closing!” messages when they really aren’t closing… which feels inauthentic.
Automation funnels that create a few sales here and there — but never add up to anything consistent.
Meanwhile, you’re talking about your membership all the time: in your newsletter, on your podcast, across your social media.
Maybe you even have a welcome email sequence for new subscribers that tells them how great your membership is, or other automated pathways into your membership…
And still… nobody’s joining.
It’s frustrating. And exhausting.
Welcome to: The Pattern Interrupt 💥
What you need is a shake-up.
Something that cuts through the noise, breaks the autopilot cycle for both you and your audience, and gives people a fresh reason to join now.
In this episode, I’m going to show you:
How to create urgency without fake scarcity or discounting.
Why your membership is naturally suited to this if you know how to package and position it.
Three ways to use what’s already happening inside your membership to get people to act.
Why Your Membership Is Perfect for Creating Urgency
One of the biggest mindset shifts I want you to make is how you think about urgency in the context of a membership.
Your membership is always in motion.
Every month you’re doing something new in there — maybe you’re hosting a live call, creating a resource, supporting members in new ways, having new conversations in the community, or running events.
If you’ve had your membership for a while, those things start to feel like the wallpaper.
They’re part of your routine.
You forget that for someone outside, these things are new, exciting, and potentially the exact reason they’d want to join now.
The shift: urgency isn’t about “something is going away”. It’s about creating a “this is happening now and I want in” moment for your audience. Think:
“That train is leaving the station and I want to be on it.”
“I want to be in that room.”
“I want to go to that party.”
That’s the type of energy we want to spark when you talk about your membership.
If They’re Tuning You Out, This is Why!
If it feels like potential members have stopped listening when you talk about your membership, it’s probably because you’ve been saying the same things on repeat.
“We have a monthly call.”
“We run a Q&A.”
“We release a new resource each month.”
That’s autopilot language.
And if you’re bored saying it, they’re bored hearing it.
You need a pattern interrupt just as much as your members do.
Your Membership Sales System
For an always-open membership, you need two things:
A baseline: regular, ongoing mentions of your membership in newsletters, podcasts, and social media. This is the part you (probably) have nailed down.
Pattern interrupts: strategic moments in the year where you talk about your membership more loudly. This is the part almost everyone with an “always open” membership needs to work on!
A pattern interrupt can look like:
A bigger, signature launch that you do once or twice per year.
A smaller promotion that you do just for your existing audience, to smooth out your recurring revenue and create small bursts of new members.
Something timely happening inside the membership that you spotlight as the reason to join now.
Most people with an always open membership are good at mentioning their offer casually. You might feel like you’re talking about it all the time (because you are).
You’ve worked hard on setting up automations and flows into your membership…
But what you’re missing is energy — something live, in the moment, that will “activate” people to buy and give them a new reason to join.
You can and should be creating these moments for your membership, even if the doors don’t close.
So, if your membership feels low-energy, ask yourself:
Have I actually been putting energy behind how I sell it?
Or am I on autopilot, going through the motions… which leaves me and my audience feeling BORED?
If you’re on autopilot, it’s time for a shake up.
Here are three ways to do it:
Three Ways to Create Urgency Without Fake Scarcity
1. Teaching-Based Bonuses
If you’ve never created a juicy, timely bonus for your membership, this is your lowest-hanging fruit. I always say to start here if you’re beginning to play with incentives to move people off the fence.
(If you’re further along, you might find the other two recommendations in this episode are a better fit for you.)
Nonetheless, a teaching-based bonus can be a great strategy if:
You’re earlier in your membership journey and haven’t experimented with bonuses.
You’re noticing a hot topic in your audience or industry that’s coming up again and again.
You want something quick to spotlight as a reason to join right now.
Think about:
A live class or workshop.
A resource or tool.
A custom GPT or interactive guide.
If it can accelerate or amplify the core result your membership offers, it’s worth exploring.
What to do:
Spot the topics your audience is talking about most right now.
Create a bonus around that — in a format that feels fun for you to make.
Run a small promotion: “Join by this date and you get X.”
Even if you’ve done plenty of bonuses before, pause and ask:
Where’s the energy for me right now?
What am I most enjoying with members?
What would be fun to create and easy to deliver?
In the Gameplan Intensive, I often help my clients to brainstorm this — not as “another thing to add” but as a way to inject excitement for both you and your members.
2. Increased Access or VIP Support
This is about offering more of you — strategically, and often temporarily — as a motivator to join now.
It might look like:
Voxer or DM access for a set period.
An additional group call or Q&A.
Personalised feedback.
A separate VIP tier at a higher price point.
When it makes sense:
You have a low-volume, higher-priced membership where extra access is feasible.
You’re in the first year and want to learn exactly what sells and what gets members results.
You’re in a slump and need to reconnect with your audience’s needs.
Offering more of your time isn’t for everyone, but it can:
Accelerate member results.
Give you real-world insight into your members’ challenges.
Reignite your own energy and connection to the work.
If you’ve been in business for a while, you might resist this — maybe because of burnout in the past, or because you feel “beyond” being that hands-on.
But short-term, high-touch moments can be a game-changer.
You can design them with boundaries so they’re sustainable and energising rather than draining, which is something I explore with many of my clients behind the scenes.
3. Activator Events (My Favorite!)
Design a short, focused experience inside your membership that sparks action and excitement.
What they are:
Timely, theme-based experiences that members and potential members want to be part of now.
Designed to be delivered at scale — no 1:1 work required.
Aimed at a specific, achievable result.
Examples of “activation” events you can host inside your membership:
A 3-day or 5-day challenge.
A themed sprint or co-working week.
A one-off workshop, or a series.
A seasonal reset or planning event.
These events are member-only and happen on a set date.
This gives people a new reason to join your membership and a deadline to make their decision.
This is a big part of the work I’m doing with my clients in the Gameplan Intensive. The results my clients are achieving from these events are exceptional. Activator events will bring an entirely new kind of energy to your “always open” membership and I can’t recommend them enough.
You Might Be Wondering: Does This Require Me to Be “On” All the Time?
The point of these strategies is not to burn you out or constantly be “on.”
It’s to intentionally create moments in your year that bring energy, relevance and urgency to your always-open membership.
Why activation events work:
They re-engage existing members, which drives back-end revenue.
They give you fresh, relevant reasons to promote your membership between big launches, which increases your sales on the front-end.
They boost perceived value by showing your membership is alive and timely, which builds your positioning for the long-term.
I often recommend mapping out at least two “activator” events per year for always-open memberships.
These function like sales “side quests” that support your main membership promise, giving people multiple doors in — instead of waiting for your next big promotion or until “someday” when they feel ready to join (which is likely never coming, unless you give them a jolt to make their move).
Recap: Three Ways to Create Urgency Without Fake Scarcity
1️⃣ Teaching-Based Bonus
Add something timely and relevant to what your audience cares about now.
Use it as a time-bound reason to join.
If you’ve never used incentives before, this is a good place to start.
2️⃣ Increased Access or VIP Support, if they join by a certain deadline
Offer more of your time or personalized help in a way that’s strategic and temporary.
Works especially well for higher-priced, lower-volume memberships or in early validation stages.
3️⃣ Activator Events — a time-based experience they want to be a part of
Create a short, focused, scalable experience that gives members a quick win.
Plan at least two a year to add energy between bigger promotions.
I recommend every membership owner includes a couple of “activator” events as part of their growth strategy throughout the year.
Your Membership is a Mirror… and Maybe YOU Need a Pattern Interrupt, Too!
If things feel stagnant, it’s often because you need a pattern interrupt as much as your potential members do.
When your membership feels timely, exciting, and fresh to you… that energy is contagious.
Ask yourself:
Where do I need a reset?
Where do I want to bring more energy?
What would be fun to create and promote?
When you follow that energy, you’ll land on a new idea that doesn’t just excite your members… it also excites you.
Ready to Build Your Membership Growth Plan?
If you’re ready to design a full-year gameplan for growing your membership → one that blends multiple approaches, so you’re not relying only on big launches (or simply talking about your membership all the time, but not growing in the way you want)…
It might be time for us to work together.
The Gameplan Intensive is my 90-day, one-on-one service where we:
Strategize how you’ll grow your membership.
Decide which activities make the most sense for you (with your unique mix of signature launches, activator events, and evergreen pathways that work for you behind the scenes).
Identify the assets you need to polish or create to grow your membership this year.
Map out your month-to-month growth gameplan so sales happen consistently — with my feedback and support, each step of the way.
There are so many creative and innovative ways to bring more members in the door — ways that feel good to you, align with your business, and let you deliver without sacrificing your life outside of it.
If you’re ready, I’d love to help you create yours.
