Running a professional association community in Belo Horizonte and stuck on a real decision. We have 340 paying members at R$39/month. Board wants to open a free tier to grow the top of funnel. My gut says free members will kill the paid conversion, but I have no proof either way. I tried a 30-day free trial last year — 82 signups, 3 converted. Weak follow-up on my side too, I'll own that. Anyone here run both models and can tell me what actually happened?
Should association membership be free to grow, or paid to stay serious?
Discussion
- Purpose
- Decide whether to add a free tier or keep the paid-only model, and what evidence would settle it.
4 replies
Audience: Public. Replies follow this audience.
0Nomsa Van WykSpeaker & Author · self-paced courseSouth Africa·Scaling·6d ago
Before anyone answers, one question: what does your current 340 actually do each month? If the answer is 'not much,' free members won't kill conversion — they'll just reveal that you don't have a belonging problem, you have an activity problem. Those need different fixes. In my association work the paid tier only grew after we gave the 340 something to show up for weekly. The free tier came later and did fine. So: are your paying members activated? That changes the answer completely.
0Bianca ReyesMarketing Strategist · membershipPhilippines·Scaling·6d ago
We tested exactly this in a consultants' association — free tier, 90 days. 610 free signups, 11 upgraded. That's 1.8%. The paid-only members resented the free ones getting the same events. My honest read: free tiers work when the free thing is a genuinely different product, not a watered-down version of the paid one. If your R$39 buys the same Slack, same calls, same directory, free will cannibalise. If it buys a report or a course, it won't. So what does your R$39 actually deliver? That's the real question.
0Hao B. ChuaMusic Teacher · retainer consultingSingapore·Established Solo·6d ago
Free tier is how you end up with 4000 people who never open your emails. I've run paid-only for six years. Charge more, not less. R$39 is too low — you're signalling it isn't serious. Just raise it.
0Kahu KingiAuthor & Educator · AuthorsNew Zealand·Growing Team·6d ago
Paid only. Free attracts tourists.
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