When selling an online course or a subscription to a membership site, businesses might consider giving the customer a flat one-time price. However, many businesses are now realizing the power of releasing content regularly and gaining more profit rather than selling it at a one-time price.
There are many tactics to go about this, but the most popular is drip content or content dripping. In this article, we have researched and compiled everything you need to know about Drip Content. Without further a due, let’s get started.
What Is Drip Content / Content Dripping?
Drip content or content dripping is the process of releasing premium content at a regularly scheduled time instead of releasing all of them at once. This business model is perfect for online courses, eBook series, films, etc. Drip content often makes more profit when done well and can be more sustainable for businesses than a one-time-payment business model.
Pros and Cons of Content Dripping
Several advantages make content dripping a viable option for businesses. However, all good things come with disadvantages as well. Here is a list of the pros and cons of drip content/content dripping:
Pros
- Increased customer retention – The most significant advantage that content dripping brings to a business is the increase in customer retention. Because the content is not released all at once, it gives the customers a reason to keep coming back for more premium content. Depending on your billing system, this might even mean that you gain more profit,
- Increased customer excitement – One of the most important parts of marketing is getting people’s attention. The best way to go about this is to hook your audience. Content dripping is one of the best tactics to hook your potential customers by giving them a reason to come back for more. This not only gets your customers hooked but also very excited for what is more to come. However, you must make sure that their first encounter with your business is superb. If not, your customers will expect low-quality content, which removes their excitement (the hook).
- Decreases refunds – Customers often get excited about the new hottest thing and purchase content without thought. This often leads to customers being anxious and contemplating their purchase. This leads to customers requesting a refund since they are regretting their purchase decision. However, with content dripping you are only giving out tiny bits of premium content which helps your customers to not get overwhelmed and anxious, therefore decreasing refund requests. This also has the added benefit of decreasing the workload on your customer service representatives, which leads to a happier workplace.
Cons
- Requires time commitment – The most significant disadvantage that content dripping brings is that it requires time commitment both from the customers and the business. Since the business is giving out premium content bit by bit and not all at once. This requires the customers to commit their time to wait for the next premium content. This waiting can often lead customers to leave your business especially if the premium content is not beneficial to them. However, if content dripping is done right, then this problem will never arise in the first place.
- May have to constantly update content – Having to release premium content bit by bit often means you might have to update them. These updates may be about cultural shifts, business law news, etc. It can also be about the content itself. Many satisfied customers often leave reviews/critiques, and these critiques need to be used for future content. Therefore, the business needs to update future content based on the reviews from the current content released which can be time-consuming.
WordPress Membership plugins that Drip Content
Now, that you know what content dripping is and what it brings to the table. How can we start implementing it to our WordPress websites? Well, look no further, since we have compiled the top 5 best WordPress Membership plugins that will help you with content dripping.
MemberPress
MemberPress is easily one of the most beginner-friendly and most widely used membership plugins which is why it is placed at number 1. The content dripping features and tools that MemberPress has is robust and it is very easy to set up. MemberPress also has some neat integrations with programs such as AWeber, MailChimp, GetResponse, and MadMimi email services.
LearnDash
LearnDash is another great tool to get started with since it is quite easy to set up and to start adding premium content right away. However, the best feature LearnDash offers is that it’s very easy to set up content restrictions for different membership groups. Other plugins often make this process a little harder and confusing, but Learndash makes it seamless.
AccessAlly
AccessAlly is on the more expensive side of the spectrum. AccessAlly is the go-to plugin if you are looking for more than just a content dripping tool. AccessAlly offers features such as recurring payments with Stripe and PayPal, coupons and discounts, affiliate programs, and many more. If you have a big budget and want to make the most of it, then AccessAlly is for you.
Restrict Content Pro
Restrict Content Pro is a free WordPress membership plugin. If you’re not sure how to set up your membership site, Restrict Content Pro can help: the plugin includes notes that will walk you through the process. This plugin also has a lot of options for controlling content access, and new features are rolling out regularly. Restrict Content Pro also integrates with Stripe, Braintree, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, PayPal, and PayPal Standard and Express. In addition, the plugin can manage several payment choices at the same time.
Paid Membership Pro
Paid Membership Pro is one of the only free WordPress plugins. Paid Membership Pro enables you to set up unlimited membership groups, coupons, discount codes, and more. However, since it is free, the budget to making the plugin easy to use and visually pleasing is not a lot therefore it can be daunting to use this plugin for beginners.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you now know what content dripping/drip content is and hopefully, you have decided whether it is the right business model for you. We have also compiled an easy and digestible list of the pros and cons of content dripping and tools that can help you get started.
