Announcing our new blog feature, and what to expect

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TRANSCRIPT

Hey, hey, Erin Kelly, CEO and co founder of MemberVault here.

So this is a very exciting day. Yesterday, we actually pushed the blog feature to all accounts. So it is now live in your account. And you can start writing blogs and sharing blog posts and sharing them with your audience. And this is a particularly exciting feature for me, because I think it's probably been close to two years, since I had this first idea of it would be really cool for people to have their blogs on member vaults.

And if you are a visionary in your business, you understand that we have these ideas. And there are logistical things. And there are other things that are higher on the list that have to happen before you can achieve certain certain ideas that you have. Right. So this is one of mine that I have been excited about for a very long time.

And there's two reasons why I am just initially very excited about the blog feature. And that is, one gives you another way to get people into your member of our ecosystem. So it gives you another way to share content, and get more eyeballs on your offers inside of member vault, get more tracking information on people with their logged in. And you know, tracking behavioral information like you know, getting more hot leads for paid offers that you have and see what people are checking out. You know, what is what is the offer that you have in your member all that gets like most eyes? And you know, there's a lot of things that you can extrapolate from that, like, if there's a lot of eyes on offer, but not a lot of sales, like what can you do to optimize the information that's on that offer? How can you make it more enticing, maybe there are some tweaks that you need to make, etc, etc, right.

So this is just really, really good information to you, for you to have. And by sharing your blog posts, it's on MemberVault, while you are making it that more likely that you're going to be getting as much of that information as possible and being able to do something with it. Which I don't know if you're like me, but I am I hate Google Analytics.

And as I love data, but I don't like Google Analytics, and I don't feel like it is actionable information. When I go in there, I always end up feeling kind of overwhelmed. Whereas when I look at data inside a member vault, I'm like, okay, cool. Like I've got these hot leads, what am I going to do about this, or I have all of these people that are checking out this thing, and no one's buying, or they are buying? What can I offer them next, you know, like they are completing it, what's gonna happen next, or they're answering quick questions. And so I feel like the the data that you get inside of MemberVault is just so much more actionable.

Now, Meg Casebolt, our MV expert around SEO is probably like rolling her eyes when she listens to this because she is all about, you know, analytics and search results and optimizing that and we are going to be sharing all of her expertise, definitely over like more than usual, over this next month as people are diving into the blog feature. And she definitely brings a lot of insights into how to be smart about your content and how to make sure that you're writing content that is going to allow you to be found for the thing that you do and the thing that you help people with.

So but that's that's the number one reason that I am really excited about having this blog feature is that it's going to give you the ability to share more free content. You know, there was the ability to have teaser modules and such in the past, and of course, we have the new page feature as well. And but blogs, I mean, it's so powerful. Like for example, we're putting all of our podcast transcripts as blog posts, and we're putting, you know, our video content and like it just, it gives you a lot of opportunity.

And I want to make sure and say that, as with any feature that we do, but especially the really big features. This is just phase one, like we are going to be adding all kinds of optimizations to this. And options and you know, enhancements.

One of the things that I've been paying a lot of attention to is food box because I think that food bloggers are like the OG bloggers and they really push the envelope in terms of you know, what is going to be the best experience for people what's going to get get people to hit as many pages as possible on their blog post and, you know, consume as much of the content as possible because they're ad driven. But there's so much that we can learn from them in terms of user experience and customer experience.

And so there's going to be a lot of customizations that we do that I have been, you know, picking up from some of my favorite very, very pro level food bloggers, in terms of like how you surface call to actions and how do you you know, get people into more content. How do you guide them, how do you surface it and all of that stuff.

And you know another another thing that we're going to be adding the I'm really excited this is another one of my features. I'm so excited for us to have that we are laying the groundwork for now. And that is smart search.

And so we are going to have smart search inside of MemberVault, where you can actually, in the admin this is we don't have this yet agents letting you have a sneak peek into what is coming. But when your people are searching inside of your blog posts and on your pages and inside of your products, etc, then we will be, you know, gathering that data so that on the back end, as the admin you can see, like, hey, this many people are searching for this thing that you don't have like, it doesn't exist, right?

So it'll give you a lot of insights around what are people use it, you know, what are people looking for, that you don't have and like what word choice they're using. So it's going to be really, really insightful information for you to have at your fingertips. Our knowledge base, our knowledge base tool that we use, which is called Elevio, they have that and it is just really, I don't know, it's almost like magic to be able to see what people are searching for. And be able to, to customize things based on that and create new like articles because like, oh, people keep searching for this thing, we don't have an article on it like we need to do that. So that's going to be something really cool that is coming to, you know, all of your member vault ecosystem, but definitely, it's going to be really powerful to have inside of blogs, inside of blog posts. And then the other thing that's going to be really nifty, that's coming.

So it's like there's going to be designed, customization is coming to help you surface better call to action. And like really supportive customer experiences for your blog readers, there's going to be that smart search that allows you to have insights around what people are looking for. And we're going to surface it in the back end for you as the admin in a really usable way.

And then the third thing that I think is really powerful is that you are going to have the opportunity in the future. Again, not yet. But in the future. The ability to have conditional content inside of your blog post. So if someone's logged in, you're going to be able to set certain areas and certain pieces of content to be shown to people who our clients or our clients or our subscribers, you know, like, you're going to have the ability to really customize that customer experience for your blog readers.

So these are all things that are going to be coming. But even just now, being able to have your blog posts inside of member vault and send more people to your MemberVault so they can see your offers is going to be incredibly powerful. Because if they're logged in, you're getting all that behavioral tracking of what are they looking at, like maybe it reminds them to go back into that freebie that they signed up for, or that course that they purchased from you. Or maybe it's like, yeah, I bought this course from this person, I just read their blog post. And you know what, actually, I don't have time to do the course. So let me just buy their one to one.

So these are the things that you're gonna be able to do by having your blog content on site on MemberVault. And you know, whether you're a writer or a podcaster, or a YouTuber, it doesn't really matter, you can make a blog post out of any of the content that you're creating. Right. So that's really exciting.

And of course, the second thing is, and I think people are starting to realize this. And this is definitely our intent. And we are actually going to be moving our main web website, which is on WordPress over to our MemberVault as well. Now that we have pages and posts, and custom links. And so with this feature, you can now use your MemberVault as a standalone website, there is one more piece that we need to add. And that is being able to customize the menu so that you can and be able to set a homepage. We don't have that yet. But that is coming very shortly.

And that is what that intent of like, Yeah, I actually used to be a web designer, I'm very comfortable and things like Divi and WordPress, and Squarespace and you know all these things. And yet I hate because as a CEO, I shouldn't be spending time on that. And I hate dealing with our website, like it is just a pain in the butt. And I know that a lot of other people feel the same way.

So we want to make it as easy as possible for you to just go about your business and have everything all of your content inside of MemberVault. And you don't have to like go and like look for it somewhere else like it's there. And of course, like that's helpful for you as the admin, but it's also helpful for your people. I mean, we hear that all the time from our admins, that their users are loving their MemberVault, because it has all of the stuff that they've signed up for is in one place. And it's like so convenient for them. So lots of power there. So I'm really excited about this feature.

Basically, you know, that's why you should use the blog feature that we just push, and to know what's coming down the pike for you no additional enhancements. Obviously, there's also going to be the block builder that we've been talking about, which is going to, you know, be something that you can use in all of our content areas.

So whether you're building a product, or a page or a post, you'll be able to have a lot more customization and easy customization without having to do things like HTML or CSS to make a really pretty page or post or product and that is good. it'd be early summer that that will be landing. It's a fairly complicated thing to be to be building out.

But that will be something that we are working on, after comments. So that is something that is coming up next. That's the next big feature is the ability to have comments inside of your content, and MemberVault. So obviously, that's going to be really powerful for posts, it's going to be really powerful for your products, so that you can have, you can get off of Facebook, if you want to. Now, it is not a group, you won't have a group community experience, yet, it is just comments. But for a lot of people, that's all they really want. So know that that is coming within the month is very exciting.

And there's going to be a lot of opportunity for us to gamify things within comments and all kinds of fun stuff. So that is coming, I know that our intention is to release comments. And then very shortly thereafter, you know, we really want to be adding a more comprehensive community feature as well, for people that are wanting to have something that is I don't want to say like Facebook groups, because it's not going to have the ability to go live. And you know, we're going to be doing this in baby steps and CO creating with you to see, you know, what's what's important.

And there's a lot of other things that we do with MemberVault that we're going to be you know, working on as well. So the ability to go live is definitely not going to be something that's coming anytime soon to our community feature. So if that's something that's important to you, you should probably stick with something like Facebook, or circle or mighty networks actually know if you can go live. And I think that's a new feature that they just added, I think both circle and mighty networks just added that ability.

So you know if that if you want really robust community feature options, and those are probably still better solutions for you. But we will be continuing to add more community elements to member vault, so that if you want to have everything in house, and not having to use an external tool for your community, that you will be able to do that. So and it'll you know, of course, it'll have everything that is important to us in terms of like usability and gamification and tracking. You know, it's that's all going to be hooked into anything that we do for community. So that's pretty exciting.

In terms of the blog feature, I know that there are a couple of different use cases, like user cases of people that are going to potentially be thinking about using this blog feature. So there's going to be people who are fairly new to blogging, that don't have really any content yet, there's going to be people who are fairly beginner to blogging who do have content that is still, you know, that is related to their business and is hosted somewhere else. And so they're trying to figure out like, Okay, well, what should I do with the content that is living on my work? Well, that's, and that's where we are is like, we've never really played that much with SEO, that we have quite a few blog posts over on our WordPress site. So it's like, okay, well, what do we do with that? Do we spend the time and, you know, invest team hours and, you know, cost into moving those old blog posts over? Or is this an opportunity to, you know, start fresh and like, or maybe just bring over the best blog posts. And then the third person is going to be, you know, that really established knowledgeable blogger who is using SEO and is very, like knowledgeable about, you know, search results, and like how it has been optimizing their, their blog content, and they have so many blog posts over on their external website, that it doesn't make sense for them to move completely over to the MemberVault blog feature.

And so I am not the SEO expert, but we do have an expert on hand, our MB SEO expert Meg casebolt, so she is actually going to be doing some special content for us this month, as part of the release of this feature. And of course, she'll be continuing to beyond this month. But I have asked her to go and give it like a an overview of the feature. So that will be coming this week.

And then she's also going to be doing some hot seat discussions with these different kind of personas, right? So the beginner that doesn't really have content, how to get started the right way, the beginner who does have content somewhere else, and like how should you really like what's the smartest way to start using the the member vaults blog feature, which is where we're at. So I'm very curious to hear that one. And then of course, that more established blogger and how they should handle that. So she's going to be doing hot seats with some real life users who will be asking questions and getting insights around their own business and we'll be sharing those here on the podcast so that you can self select the one that fits you the best and get really smart SEO advice from someone who knows what they're doing to guide you on how to go about using the MemberVault blog feature in a really smart way. So those will be happening this month.

So if you have not subscribed to this podcast, make sure that you do so that you don't miss out on those episodes they will be going live here. I also wanted to make sure and remind you that if you are not a paid user of membervault yet that our prices will be going up as of April 1 of this year. And so we are giving everyone the opportunity to lock in legacy pricing with our lower pricing before April 1.

So if you like what you're hearing, and you're not a paid user, yet, I highly recommend checking out our monthly and annual pricing, we also have a lifetime offer that will no longer be available as of April 1, I'll put the links to the lifetime offer in the show notes. And you can see our monthly and annual pricing inside of your account. If you go to the top right hand side, and click on your profile and then account plans. For most people, the starter or the bass. So starters, $19. And bass is $49 a month, those are going to be a really good fit for most people, and are also a really good option because as a thank you for being an existing paid user before our price change. If after our price changes on April 1, you need to you outgrow the paid plan that you are currently on, you will be able to upgrade it to our unlimited offer, which will be the only play will be the only paid plan that we have after April 1. And so it's unlimited everything and it's $99 a month. And we also have an annual plan, you'll be able to switch over to that plan from your legacy paid plan with 30% off. So that's kind of just a thank you. So at this point, it really only makes sense to upgrade to a starter or a base anything more than that. And you basically will be paying about the same amount, or paying the same amount but with limits. So my recommendation is to go for a starter or base whatever fits your business best, or the lifetime plan if you want to upgrade to a paid plan before April 1. So that is something to be aware of.

And if you do not have a free plan with us yet, so you don't have an account at all with MemberVault. And you're listening to this. Know that we will no longer have a free plan as of April 1. So make sure that you snag one before April 1. And then you won't have to change your plan until July 1. So if you want to stick around on a free plan for a few months, and then you know that you would be going to the Unlimited Plan, which is nine $9 A month or annual, you'll be able to have that option. So we are giving people that are on an existing free plan until July 1 to continue using their free plan as is. So I think that's pretty much everything on the the the disclaimer heads up, pricing changes everything.

So again, I'll put the links inside of the show notes. And then I just want to let you know that now that we have this new feature, we are definitely going to be wanting to spotlight people who are using the blog feature and honestly also the page feature but but also but really the blog feature. I'm so excited about that. So if you're doing something really cool with pages, I want to know about it.

But we are definitely going to be actively looking for people to spotlight that are using the blog feature. So make sure that you go check that out and know that every week we will be in the collaborative on Facebook, we will be asking people to share like, Hey, have you written a blog post with a new blog feature like make sure you drop it. So that's gonna be another opportunity for you to get exposure to your account.

So that is just sort of a push for me to start using the blog feature, even if it's a fairly quickie so that you will have something that you can share on those weekly kind of round up posts in the collaborative and get more eyeballs on your offer. And today I will be posting in the collaborative asking people to volunteer to be one of the hotseat guests with meg casebolt. So make sure that you go and check that I will put the link to the post in the show notes once it's live.

So if you are interested in being on a video interview, and sharing what your business is, and get insights around how to use SEO in a smart way and your business and content and all that good stuff. Make sure that you keep an eye out for that. I think that's pretty much everything. We have some really good stuff coming to the podcast this week. So again, it's basically going to start becoming a daily podcast. If you don't want to miss any of this great content, make sure that you subscribe and I will be talking with you next Monday.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Interested in learning more about Meg Casebolt, our SEO expert? Check out her site here.

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