A membership allows you to join an organization, an entity or a group.
Membership is an adaptation of the English word membership . The notion, which can also be written as membership as accepted by the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ), is used on the American continent to refer to the condition of being a member of a group or organization .
Having a membership in a certain entity, therefore, is equivalent to being a member of it. The idea refers to a specific group of individuals who share certain privileges and rights , which are not available to those outside the group in question.
Paid and free memberships
Digital media often appeal to the concept of membership when they charge for access to their content. While all visitors to a website can read some notes or fragments of them, only those who pay the subscription and become members have the possibility of enjoying the content without limits or restrictions. Membership, in this case, makes the difference between a limited reading and a much more complete one.
Importantly, membership can be free . Suppose a supermarket chain decides to create a community of customers and launches a membership with special offers and promotions for its members. Thus, those who intend to have these benefits must complete a form with their information and, in this way, obtain membership free of charge. The initiative allows the company to reach its proposals directly to people who are interested in its products, while subscribers have advantages over those who do not have membership.
Many digital media provide access to their content only to those who pay a membership.
Loyalty
In other words, users or clients who access membership become part of a special group, of a higher category , so to speak, than the rest. This alone can be very tempting for them, as an extra incentive to continue shopping at the same store. And this brings us to the concept of loyalty: getting customers to become "loyal" to a brand, service or product through certain privileges that are reciprocal to their relationship with the company.
Membership opens the doors to a series of advantages for both parties, which may well be given implicitly, without any subscription taking place, simply through eventual discounts each time the customer accumulates a certain amount in their purchases. However, making it official by delivering a card , or processes such as the accumulation of points and the delivery of discount coupons, make it much more attractive to the customer and generate a feeling of responsibility.
Membership Benefits
At first glance, this strategy is quite simple: a company offers its customers the possibility of accessing a higher category than normal, either in exchange for a payment or for free, but always with the promise of giving them access to a certain number of special offers, such as discounts on products and services or more occasional rewards in the form of prizes that may not be part of the catalogue.
In essence, beyond the symbolic bond that the company establishes with the consumer, there must be a system of varying complexity. On the one hand, it is necessary to plan the way in which the membership will materialize: with a physical card, with access to a control panel on the Internet, using a mobile application, etc. But it is also important to keep interest alive, and for that there are limited-duration promotions, which may or may not be related to certain national or international holidays: discounts on Black Friday or Christmas, for example, with added benefits for members.