#94 2025 Community Predictions
Hello & Happy New Year!
I'm sweating this morning – the bar is high! Last year my predictions issue was one of the most popular of the whole year.
And it was 🌶️ spicy.
This year? It's even 🌶️🌶️ spicer.
We're talking pricing strategy, the new expectation bar to have a successful community, and why you need an in-person strategy.
Let’s get into it –
The new year is a great time to set hypotheses and so last year I started the tradition of doing this publicly.
The 6 predictions I'm sharing below are based on the trends that I'm witnessing by (1) connecting with hundreds of creators and education brands, and (2) through my experience working with top clients in the industry at Affinity.
I'd love to hear whether or not you agree with any of these predictions. Please reach out and let me know!
01 Cohort programs are in (again)
This has fluctuated over the past few years. We saw a huge boom in cohort-based courses during COVID because people were home. Then there was a drop-off. People were buying self-paced programs (typically on-demand, working in a silo) because we had zoom fatigue.
But what really makes transformational programs successful is the community experience – accomplishing your goal with a community of people on the same journey.
Now we’re going to see cohort style programs come back.
But we can get creative with it:
They can still be evergreen from a sales perspective, but you’re filling slots for start dates so that people have the opportunity to learn and grow with a community of people on the same path.
You can cohort people within a membership by organizing small groups with similar start dates within the community forum. This is ideal if you can assign an ambassador to each group.
The most successful programs will have an in-person experience included, or as an upgrade opportunity. One of my clients added an in-person graduation to the end of an 8-week program after the program had started and 50% attended. 🤯 They flew in from all over the world.
02 In-person events become the standard expectation for any online community
This doesn’t mean you have to throw an insanely fancy 5-day retreat in Costa Rica, but you do need to give your community a way to connect and meet up in person.
Once your community truly connects online, they're excited to finally meet in real life. It's why conferences are so popular – we want to meet the people we chat with in LinkedIn comments every day.
These are the most common patterns I'm witnessing:
Member maps in the member directory to find who is near you, ideally paired with a meetup space in the community forum
Free member-led meetups in satellite cities – often self-organized by members
Paid member-led or ambassador-led meetups in cities, often positioned as VIP dinners, organized by the brand/creator
Retreats 1-2x per year that is only available to members organized by the brand/creator
03 High ticket masterminds must include an in-person benefit
No one is paying $10k+ anymore without some sort of in-real-life experience unless it includes a high-ticket service.
A $10k+ price point for small group access to certain industry leaders used to be a trend, but it's getting harder and harder to be competitive.
Unfortunately masterminds have been one of the most volatile experiences when it comes to customer satisfaction. Almost everyone I know that has joined masterminds in the past has felt burnt.
At this price point, customers will expect an insanely high-value customer experience, that includes high touch support with their life and/or business, and a luxury in-person event.
The top $10k+ masterminds are including:
In-person VIP days
Group retreats
Retreats allow mastermind members to connect more deeply, which is the general idea of a mastermind anyway. It's not about the organizer, it's about the highly curated group of individuals supporting one another.
04 Quality customer experience is the only way to stay competitive
We can't get by with an OK experience anymore – the landscape for programs, courses, memberships, masterminds, retreats – it's all gotten much more competitive. There are more people entering the space every day, and they're setting the bar high.
I've witnessed companies put all their resources and effort into their marketing plan, which is important, but they're lacking the same rigor when it comes to the post-purchase experience.
Programs without program emails means your customers miss out on important information and events.
Courses without any support or community means your customers don't complete it, and probably regret their purchase.
Memberships without an onboarding experience that connects them to other members means they won't renew.
I could go on and on. This year, we need to focus on customer experience – and not just base level what was promised on the sales page – but also exciting surprises that delight customers.
We need to focus on how we make our customers feel, and the success rate of our programs. That's how we'll stay competitive.
05 Brands will be known for one program or membership – their flagship offer
This one has been the advice for years. But I still find myself working with clients that have 10+ digital products and don't know why their sales aren't higher. They keep adding more products, but that's the wrong solution.
Instead of many different options, streamline your products into a few:
Low-ticket offer
Program or Membership – this is the flagship offer you should be known for
High ticket offer(s)
You can still have upsells and downsells working for you in your back-end marketing – but on the front-end you should be known for your flagship offer.
The most important thing is that these offers all serve the right moments in your customer journey, and work together in harmony. If you need help cleaning up your offer-suite and/or identifying your flagship offer, that's what we do in our product sprints at Affinity.
06 Memberships are going to increase in price and be more exclusive, intimate experiences
We'll see less content subscription style memberships (ie, the monthly masterclass drop), and more memberships focused on connection for those that are serious about the path they're on.
Pricing will start at $150/mo + for this kind of experience but can go much higher. It will include smaller group experiences, mastermind sessions, and you guessed it, in-person meet ups.
Because of the investment, these are highly engaged groups.
These are a great opportunity for adding on digital product revenue to service-based businesses, where there is a service associated with one of your membership tiers.
If you loved this, you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter here for free! I send a bunch of resources & share a bts happenings of my business in the email version.