Deciding what content goes in each membership level

Once you offer more than one membership level, every piece of content raises a question: who gets this? Put too much in the lower level and nobody has a reason to upgrade. Put too little and lower-level members feel short-changed, as if they bought a demo rather than a membership. Get it wrong in either direction and you lose members, either at the upgrade point or at renewal.

The way through is to stop thinking of lower levels as a cut-down version of the top one. Each level should be a complete, satisfying membership for a particular kind of member, with higher levels adding depth, access or support rather than filling in missing pieces.

Make every level complete on its own terms

A useful test: could a member at your lowest level get real, lasting value without ever upgrading? If the answer is no, the level is really an advertisement. Members sense that quickly and resent it.

A complete level has a clear promise of its own, delivers that promise in full, and does not leave members hitting locked doors every time they try to make progress. Higher levels then serve members who want more, sooner or with more personal help, not members who were blocked from finishing what they started.

The design of the levels themselves, how many to have and how to price them, is covered in designing membership tiers that make sense. This article is about the next step: deciding which content sits where.

Sort content by what it does for the member

Before allocating anything, sort your content into types. Most memberships have some mix of:

• Foundations: the core teaching members need to get started and make progress.
• Depth: advanced material, specialist topics and extended programs.
• Tools: templates, checklists and resources that save time.
• Community: forums, groups and member-to-member connection.
• Live access: workshops, question sessions and events.
• Personal attention: feedback, coaching, reviews of members’ work.

These types scale very differently. Foundations cost you the same whether ten or a thousand members use them. Personal attention costs you time for every member who receives it. That difference is a natural guide to what belongs where.

Five principles for allocating content

1. Give lower levels the whole of something, not a slice of everything. A complete beginner program beats a sampler of every program.
2. Put personal attention and time at higher levels. It is costly to deliver and easy for members to understand as premium.
3. Never lock the middle of a sequence. If a program starts at one level, members at that level should be able to finish it.
4. Keep essential information available to everyone. Anything members need to stay safe, avoid costly mistakes or use the membership properly belongs at every level.
5. Tie higher levels to a stage or need, not to a random extra. “For studio owners with staff” is clearer than “Gold.”

A worked example

Consider a hypothetical professional association for independent music teachers with two levels. The prices here are illustrations only.

Teacher level, $15 a month: for individual teachers running their own lessons.

• The full library of teaching methods and lesson plans.
• Business basics: setting rates, policies and scheduling.
• Templates for lesson reports and parent letters.
• The members’ forum and monthly group question session.

Studio level, $40 a month: for teachers who run a studio with other teachers or want hands-on support.

• Everything in the Teacher level.
• A program on hiring, training and paying other teachers.
• Recital and event planning kits.
• A quarterly one-to-one business review.
• A small peer group of other studio owners.

A solo teacher gets a complete membership for their situation. The Studio level serves a different stage of business, with extra material that solo teachers would not need and personal time that justifies the price.

Avoid making lower levels feel cheated

How you present higher-level content matters as much as where you put it:

• Show upgrade content sparingly and honestly. A few clearly labeled items are fine; a library where half the tiles are padlocked is not.
• Never break a lesson with a teaser that stops at the useful part.
• Describe each level by what it includes, not by what it lacks.
• If you move content between levels, protect members who already had access, or explain the change clearly and early.

Your public site adds a third level to this picture: content anyone can see. The same logic applies, and why your best content should not be behind the paywall explains how public material can support both levels.

Test and adjust

Watch what members say and do. Frequent questions about content in the higher level may mean something belongs lower down. Upgrades that happen at a particular point, such as after finishing a program, tell you what the higher level really offers. It is also easier to change allocations when you have planned your levels before setting them up, so revisit that plan whenever your library grows.

Your next steps

1. List your content and label each item by type: foundations, depth, tools, community, live or personal.
2. Write a one-line promise for each level describing the member it serves.
3. Allocate content using the five principles above.
4. Check that each lower level delivers its promise without upgrades.
5. Review how locked content appears, and remove anything that feels like a tease.
6. After a few months, review upgrade patterns and member feedback and adjust.