Top 6 Benefits of Using Drip Content in Your Membership

Drip content is membership content that unlocks gradually, on a schedule, instead of all at once. Each lesson or post opens a set number of days or weeks after a member joins, or on a fixed date. The main benefits are higher engagement, lower churn, less content theft and a faster launch.

When it comes to your membership content, you have a couple of options. You can release the content immediately or you can release it on a drip feeding schedule. Drip feeding your content can increase the engagement in your membership. Drip content has a few other benefits for both you and your members.

But what exactly is drip content and how does it work? And how does it help you with your membership? This post answers those questions, then shows you examples, best practices and how to set it up.

What Is Drip Content?

First things first: let’s answer what content drip feeding or drip content is. Essentially, drip content is content that gets released to your members on a timely schedule. That way, your members have ample time to go through each module, lesson or masterclass instead of feeling overwhelmed with the amount of content available.

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This also means that the pace they go through your content is slowed down and they can only access bite-sized pieces at a time.

How Does Drip Content Work?

So drip content is content released on a schedule. But how does that schedule work? The schedule is completely up to you, and there are two common ways to set it:

• Relative to the join date: each piece of content unlocks a set number of days, weeks or months after a member joins. Every member follows the same path at their own pace.
• On a fixed date: content unlocks on the same calendar day for everyone, which suits live cohorts, challenges and launch bonuses.

You could release a new lesson every week, every two weeks or every 30 days, or open a new module on a specific date each month.

For example, let’s say that you set a lesson to be released 15 days after joining. In that case, anyone who joins your membership will get access to that lesson 15 days after they join, regardless of when they actually joined.

In other words, if John signs up in September and Sarah joins in November, they’ll get the same content on day 15 of their membership.

Six Benefits of Drip Content for Memberships

Now that you know what drip content is and how it works, let’s talk about the benefits of using it in your membership.

1. Boosts Membership Engagement

Drip content is one of the best ways to boost engagement in your membership. Since the content is released on a regular schedule, your members have something new to look forward to. It gives them a reason to keep coming back to the membership site, log in, and engage with other members in the community.

Another reason why drip content can boost membership engagement is because they have time to reflect on the content and implement it. Pair that with action steps that they have to complete and it’s easy to see how your members might be more motivated to complete the content instead of getting overwhelmed and never logging back in.

2. Reduces the Chances of Content Theft

Unfortunately, when it comes to memberships, courses, and other digital products, content theft is a fact of life. If all your content is readily available upon joining, it’s not uncommon for some users to join, download all of that content, and then promptly cancel the membership. They could then, unlawfully, distribute your content on other platforms.

In some cases, they might even ask for a refund which means you could be losing money, on top of having your content stolen.

But when you release the content on a drip feeding schedule, there’s less incentive for those users to steal your content. It wouldn’t be worth their while to only steal partial information so drip content acts as a good deterrent against dishonest internet users.

3. Helps You Improve Your Content

Drip content can help you improve your content. When all your content is available immediately, you don’t know whether your members will love it or find it boring. And since some of them might not even complete the content due to overwhelm, you won’t be able to get specific feedback.

Contrast that to when you release content gradually. You can see how your members are engaging with the content, where they’re getting stuck, what questions they have, and what other issues are arising. This means you can tailor future content to address those concerns and create content that your audience wants.

In other words, when you release content gradually, your members are helping you shape the content and you end up giving them exactly what they need.

4. You Can Launch Your Membership Faster

One of the biggest hurdles of launching a membership is having all your content ready to go. While this eliminates some of the stress of constant content creation, it also means you keep pushing back the launch date.

With drip content, you don’t have to worry about that. You can launch your membership with the content you currently have and release the rest on a drip feed schedule. This also means you’re able to start generating revenue faster.

5. Lowers Your Membership Churn Rate

A common pitfall of many memberships is the lack of new content. As a result, many members decide to cancel their membership as they see no benefit in continuing.

Drip content, on the other hand, allows you to keep your site fresh and engage your members with new content regularly. As such, the incentive for them to remain active members is quite high. This can help reduce your membership churn rate and minimize the number of refunds. For more ways to keep members subscribed, see these tips to boost member retention.

6. Gives You Ongoing Cross-Promotion Opportunities

Lastly, since your members keep coming back to your site to log into the membership hub, this gives you the perfect opportunity to keep your other products top of mind. The same applies for your services.

Your members can check them whenever they log into their member portal, which can lead to additional purchases, especially if they’re satisfied community members. They already trust you and know you can deliver great content and results so it makes sense for them to continually invest in your brand.

As a result, drip content can lead to an increase in your earning potential. The best part is that you don’t have to do a lot of heavy sales pushes or rely on launches to close the sale.

Drip Content Examples

Drip content works for almost any membership where members benefit from a steady pace. Here are some common ways to use it:

• Online courses: open one module per week so students finish each lesson and its exercises before moving on. This is the classic setup for online courses sold through a membership site.
• Onboarding sequences: show new members a welcome guide on day one, a quick-start checklist on day three and your best resources in week two, so they find value before they have time to forget why they joined.
• Challenges and programs: a 30-day fitness challenge or a 12-week coaching program naturally unlocks one day or one week at a time.
• Monthly content libraries: add a new template pack, workshop recording or report each month, and reward long-term members with access to bonus material after a few months.
• Limited-time content: make a live event replay or a launch bonus available for a short window, then close it again.

Drip Content Best Practices

A drip schedule only works if members understand it and look forward to each release. Keep these tips in mind:

• Give value on day one. Never make new members wait for their first piece of content. Unlock something useful immediately, then start the schedule.
• Show the roadmap. Tell members what unlocks when, so locked lessons feel like something to look forward to rather than a barrier.
• Announce every release. Send an email when new content opens. It brings members back to your site and reminds them what they’re paying for.
• Match the pace to the content. Short lessons can open daily, while in-depth modules with homework need a week or more.
• Don’t lock everything. Reference material, FAQs and community areas usually work better when they’re available from the start.
• Review your data. If many members cancel right before a certain release, rethink that part of the schedule.

How to Set Up Drip Content on Your Website

If you’re wondering how to set up drip content on your website, it’s not hard to do. On WordPress, all you need is a membership plugin with drip scheduling, such as Ultimate Membership Pro.

With Ultimate Membership Pro’s drip content feature, you set the schedule on each page or post and choose which Memberships it applies to. Every plan lets you:

• Open content instantly, a set number of days, weeks or months after a member subscribes, or on a specific date
• Close content again after a period or on a date, which is useful for replays and limited-time offers
• Email members automatically when a dripped post becomes available to them
• Show each member a list of the posts they can currently open, based on their active Memberships

The Full Package plan adds options such as showing new members only the content published after they joined. Drip content works together with content restriction, so locked content stays protected until its release date, and access ends automatically when a Membership expires.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, drip content can help you boost engagement, reduce your churn rate, and reduce the chances of your content being stolen. It also helps you improve your content and allows you to launch your membership faster rather than waiting for all your material to be done.

Ultimate Membership Pro includes drip content in every plan. It’s sold as annual plans, and you can compare them on the pricing page.

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