Custom Access Membership

Custom Access Membership

With Membership Plans, you can organize your members and pages to provide access to exclusive content on your site. Plans can be free or paid. For example, one of your customers has asked you to create a site that includes online cooking courses. With membership plans, users can join in order to get access to online video courses.

Creating a custom access membership site involves one to three steps, depending on whether it will be free and how members will sign up for the plans.

Note

• Media uploaded to the media manager and added to membership pages are not secured and are still available using their direct link.
• Dynamic pages are not able to be assigned as membership pages.
• You can only test your membership plans on a published site, it does not work in preview mode.
• In accordance with industry standards, membership pages are by default not indexed and will not be searchable.
• Paid plans by default are set to auto renew.

Configure Custom Access Membership

1: Create New Membership Plans (Free or Paid)

To create new Membership Plans:

• In the side panel, click Membership.
• Click Membership Plans.
• Click + New plan, and complete the fields.
• Pricing. Select the plan type
• For paid plans:
• Click Paid.
• Choose a billing cycle (weekly, monthly, or yearly)
• Enter a price into the Price field.

Note

Paid plans by default are set to auto renew.

• For free plans:
  
• Click Free.

• Assign pages. Select the pages that only members with this plan will have access to. If a page isn't assigned, members only assigned to this plan won't have access to any pages.
• Members with this plan. If there are already site members, they can be added to free plans here. Members are not yet able to be added to paid plans.

• Click Save.
  

2: Configure Member Sign-Up or Purchase Availability

Once a plan has been created, if you want site visitors to be able to sign-up or purchase a plan, a button for the plan will need to be added to the site.

If you will only be giving access by assigning members, this step can be skipped.

To add a button to the site and configure it for a membership plan:

• Navigate to the desired location for the button.

Tip

If there are multiple plans and you would like to add a section comparing the available plans, there are pre-designed sections. There is a category in Sections titled Plans with a variety of options.

• In the side panel, click Widgets.
• Search for the Button widget. Click and drag the widget to the location you want in the site.
• Click the widget to open the content editor.
• Enter the text for the button.
• In the link picker options, click Membership plan checkout and click into the drop down menu to select the desired plan for the button.

3: Connect Payment Gateway

If you will only be offering free memberships, this step can be skipped.

To accept payments for paid membership plans, Stripe needs to be connected to accept payments. Note that if you disconnect your Stripe account, all active memberships will be canceled.

To connect Stripe to accept payment for membership plans:

1. In the side panel, click Membership.
2. click Membership Plans.
3. At the top of the page, click connect a payment gateway. Alternatively, in the side panel click Settings, and then click Payment gateways.
4. Currently, you must connect Stripe as the payment gateway. Next to Stripe, click Connect.
5. Follow instructions to log in and set up Stripe. To manage changes to your Stripe account, click Manage.

Discounts in Membership

Note

Discount will apply to duration of membership. It is not able to be set as a one time discount.

1. In the side panel, click Membership.
2. Click Settings, then click Discount.
3. Click +Add discount.
4. Complete the fields.

• Name. Internal name for the discount. It is only visible to you and will not be seen by shoppers.
• Effective date. When the discount will become available.
• Expiration date. When the discount expires.
• Usage limit per customer. How many times the same customer can use the discount code.
• Total usage limit. How many times the discount code can be used in total by all customers.
• Combine with other discounts? Whether or not this discount code can be used at the same time as other discount codes when checking out.
• Select your discount type. A percentage or specific amount off.
• Percentage off or Amount off (dependent on the selected discount type).
• How will customers apply this? There is currently only one option and by default, it is selected.
• Enter the discount code. The code you would like customer's to enter.

Edit and Delete Membership Plans

To edit or delete existing plans:

1. In the side panel, click Membership.
2. Click Membership Plans.
3. Click the three dots () icon next to the plan you want to edit or delete.

• Edit membership plan. Edit any details, add additional assigned pages or members, and then click Save.

Note

• You cannot change a plan from Free to Paid if there are members on the Free plan.
• Changing the price of the plan will only apply to members that sign up after the price has been changed.

• Delete membership plan. Click Delete to confirm.

Warning

Deleting a plan will cancel any existing subscriptions prompting an automated email to any members informing them of the cancellation.

Add Members to a Free Plan



1. Access Membership Plans (In the side panel, click Membership > Membership Plans).
2. Click the three dots () icon next to the plan you want to edit or delete.
3. Click Edit membership plan.
4. Scroll down to the Members with this plan section.
5. Click + Add Members.

Note

• Members must already have been added (invites are not able to be sent from this screen).
• Members can currently only be added to free plans. Adding to paid plans is coming soon.

Automated Membership Emails

The following are the different membership emails that can be sent.

Note

If you need to email your members outside of the automated emails sent by Website Builder, you can export a list of email addresses to a CSV then upload it to most email marketing tools. On the Site Members page, click Export to CSV.

Member Emails

The following emails can be sent to members:

• Confirmation of purchase.
• Notification once membership has been approved (if memberships need to be approved).
• Notification if their payment declines. A link will be provided in the email to update their payment information.
• Confirmation of cancellation at the time of cancellation (whether by the site admin/client or the member).
• Follow up confirmation of cancellation at the end of the membership period.
• Notification when a refund has been provided.
  

Site Admin / Client Emails

The following emails can be sent to site admins or clients you have added to the site:

• Membership requests (if memberships need to be approved; only those approved will receive them).
• Copies of customer notification emails if enabled in the Store Business Info.

To enable copies of customer notification emails:

• In the side panel, click Membership.
• Click Settings, then click Store Business Info.
• Fill out all the fields.
• In the Contact email field, enter in the email that should receive notifications.

Note

Currently, only one email address can be entered into the field.

• Click the box under the field, Send me copies of customer notification emails.
• Click Save.
  

Member's Plan Management Dashboard (Paid Plans Only)

The member dashboard is a central hub where your members can manage their membership details. This is only available for paid plans.

Through the dashboard, members can:

• View their invoices.
• Manage their membership, including canceling their plan.
• Update their payment information.
• Update their billing address.

Note

A login widget need to be present on the live site for the dashboard to be available.

Membership Troubleshooting and FAQs