Create a Membership Site for Email Subscribers with SureMembers

In this tutorial, we’re going to walk through how to use SureMembers to create a membership site that adds value to your email subscribers. This setup allows you to give your email list subscribers exclusive access to certain portions of your website, and if they unsubscribe, their access is automatically revoked. We’ll be using SureMembers in combination with FluentCRM (or any email service you prefer) to accomplish this.

I have a detailed step-by-step video tutorial showing the complete process below. The written version of this tutorial will walk you through the general steps and concepts.

Let’s get started!

Why Create a Membership Site for Email Subscribers?

Providing exclusive content to your email list subscribers is an excellent way to add value to your newsletter, retain subscribers, and keep them engaged. A membership site can offer protected content such as downloads, special resources, or members-only articles, giving your subscribers something unique that non-subscribers can’t access.

Step 1: Setting Up the Access Group in SureMembers

The first step is to create an access group in SureMembers. This group will define which content your email subscribers can access.

  1. Create an Access Group: In SureMembers, start by creating a new access group. This group will be where your subscribers are added to give them access to your protected content. Name the access group something that reflects its purpose, like “Email Subscriber.”
  2. Protect Content: Choose which content you want to protect on your site. This could be a members-only page, downloadable resources, or other special content. You can also protect files like PDFs or lead magnets that only your subscribers can access.

By protecting this content, you ensure that only active email subscribers have access to it.

Step 2: Set Rules for Unauthorized Access

Next, you’ll want to set up rules for what happens if someone who isn’t subscribed tries to access the protected content.

  1. Redirect Non-Subscribers: You can set up a redirection page for unauthorized users. For example, if someone tries to access a subscriber-only page but isn’t on your email list, you can redirect them to a subscription page with a message like, “This content is available only to subscribers. Click here to join!”
  2. Custom Message: Alternatively, you can display a custom message letting visitors know they need to subscribe to view the content.

Step 3: Sync Access to User Roles

SureMembers allows you to sync access groups to user roles in WordPress. This is particularly useful for automatically managing access when a subscriber joins or leaves your email list.

  1. Create a User Role: In the SureMembers settings, create a user role called “Email Subscriber.”
  2. Sync Access Group with User Role: Once the user role is created, sync it with your access group. This ensures that anyone with the “Email Subscriber” role gets added to your protected content access group automatically.

NOTE: The user must log in before the sync happens. Once they are assigned the user role, the next time they log in they will automatically in real time get added to the Access Group. You won’t see them in the AG until they have logged in.

Step 4: Importing Your Existing Email List

If you already have an email list of subscribers, you can import them into the membership system so that they get immediate access to the content.

  1. Export Subscribers as CSV: Export your current email list as a CSV file.
  2. Upload CSV to SureMembers: Use the CSV to import subscribers into your WordPress site and automatically assign them to the access group. Make sure to include a SureMembers Access Group column in the CSV file to assign them directly to the correct group.

Step 5: Automating Access with FluentCRM

Once the basic setup is complete, we need to ensure new email subscribers are automatically added to the membership site.

  1. Create an Automation in FluentCRM: Set up an automation that triggers when someone subscribes to your email list or gets added to a specific tag.
  2. Create a WordPress User: In the automation, add an action to create a WordPress user for the new subscriber. When creating the user, assign them the “Email Subscriber” role you set up earlier.
  3. Send Welcome Email: You can customize a welcome email that includes their login information, a link to reset their password, and instructions on how to access the members-only content.

Using Other Email Services and Integrating with SureTriggers

If you don’t use FluentCRM, you can still manage membership access for email subscribers using other email services like ActiveCampaign, Kit, HighLevel or any service that can trigger a webhook or integrate with SureTriggers. SureTriggers, part of the SureMembers product family, allows you to connect various email platforms to manage access groups dynamically.

Here’s how you can use SureTriggers with other email services:

  1. Set Up SureTriggers: Go to SureTriggers and create a new workflow to automate the addition and removal of members from your access group based on their email subscription status.
  2. Connect Your Email Service: Depending on your email service, you can either use native integrations or webhooks. For services like ActiveCampaign, SureTriggers offers direct integration. If your service doesn’t have a native integration, you can use a webhook to send the data from your email provider into SureTriggers.
  3. Add Members to Access Group: In SureTriggers, map the incoming data from your email service (like an email or tag) and set an action to add the user to the appropriate access group within SureMembers.
  4. Remove Members: Set a second workflow that triggers when a user unsubscribes or is removed from a list or tag. This workflow will automatically remove the user from the SureMembers access group, ensuring their access is revoked when they leave your email list.

This integration allows you to use any email tool that suits your business while still managing your membership content through SureMembers efficiently. Whether you’re using a webhook or a native integration, SureTriggers helps bridge the gap between your email platform and your membership access system.

Step 6: Handling Unsubscribes

It’s important to remove access when someone unsubscribes from your email list. I’ll proceed with my example using FluentCRM since I’ve already covered this process for alternative email providers in the previous section.

  1. Add a Goal in FluentCRM: Set a goal that triggers when a subscriber is removed from your email list (e.g., unsubscribes or removes themselves from a list).
  2. Remove User Role: Use the goal to trigger an action that removes their WordPress user role (the “Email Subscriber” role). Once this is done, they will no longer have access to the protected content.

Step 7: Login and User Experience

To ensure a smooth experience for your subscribers:

  1. Customize the Login Experience: You can use the Login Customizer in SureMembers to brand your login page and provide subscribers with a seamless experience. Add your logo, customize colors, and adjust the login process to reflect your brand.
  2. Password Management: New subscribers will need to set up their passwords. You can include a password reset link in the welcome email to make this easy. Ensure that this process is clear in the email to avoid confusion. Alternatively, you can utilize dynamic variables when setting the user’s password manually via the “Create WP User” action in FluentCRM. I go into more detail on this in the video version of this tutorial.

Conclusion

Creating a membership site for your email subscribers using SureMembers is an effective way to offer exclusive content, increase engagement, and retain subscribers. By automating the process with FluentCRM (or any other email tool), you can seamlessly manage access without constant manual updates.

This setup not only adds value to your email list but also strengthens your relationship with subscribers by offering them something unique. Whether you’re protecting downloadable resources, blog posts, or other content, SureMembers makes it easy to manage who gets access — all while keeping the process automated and user-friendly.