How to bring your existing clients into your Collective

You've decided to give your work a home of its own. Now comes the part that makes most people nervous: asking your clients to come with you.

Here's the good news. The people who already love what you do aren't hard to move. They just need to hear it from you, know when it's happening, and have one easy thing to do when they arrive.

This is how I did it with EMBODY, my small-group movement class of seven or eight women, and what I'd do the same way again.

Tell them in person first

I didn't open with an email. I told them during one of our sessions, about a month before anything was ready.

I kept it simple. I said I was excited about a new project I'd been working on: a place where we could finally have our community in one spot. Somewhere for our chats, since social media wasn't the right fit for us. Somewhere for them to book sessions, and for any online sessions I might run later, so they'd have the resources whenever they needed them.

Telling them face to face mattered. They could hear that I was excited, ask questions on the spot, and feel part of it before they'd seen any of it.

If you don't see your clients in person, a short voice message or a quick video can do the same job. What you want is your voice first.

Give it a start date

We agreed to start with term 4. That gave everyone a clear "from this point on", and it gave me a deadline to have everything ready.

A start date tied to something your people already know, like a new term, a new program intake or the first of the month, is far easier to remember than "soon". Tell them when the details will come, too. In my case, I told them I would email them a few weeks before term started, and then I did.

Set up the first thing they need to do

Before you send any invitation, decide what you want your people to do first, and make sure it's ready.

For EMBODY, everyone had already decided they were coming back for term 4, so the first step was paying for their term pass. In our Collective they can choose how many sessions a week they want, and whether to pay up front or in weekly instalments. I then get a notification when each payment that came through.

For your group, it might be enrolling in a Pathway, booking a Gathering, or joining a free introduction. Whatever it is, have it set up and tested before your email goes out. Nobody wants to arrive somewhere half ready.

Send one clear email

A couple of weeks before the term started, I sent an email with the link and what to do. Because they were the very first people on the platform, I added a couple of screenshots so they could see where to click before they got there.

Since then I've made Fresh Collective easier to find your way around, so now I would just send the link to the Collective's Gathering page and keep the email short. Something like this:

Hi [first name],

As I mentioned in class, our new home for EMBODY is ready. From term 4, this is where you'll pay for your term, book your sessions and chat with the rest of the group.

Here's the link to get started: [your Collective link]

It only takes a few minutes. If you get stuck, just reply to this email and I'll help.

See you next week,

Linds

Three ways you can bring your people in

The simplest way:

• Share your Collective link. One link you can put in an email, a text or a newsletter to everyone. Simplest for a small group you're already talking to. If you just want them to join the Collective, I'd send the link to the About page. But if it's for a gathering or a pathway to join, send them the direct link to those places. Keep it as easy as possible for them.

Two other ways - in Creator Studio, under People, you can also:

• Invite people by email. Fresh Collective can send each person their own invitation directly from the studio (no external email required).
• Upload a list. If you've got a spreadsheet of clients, you can invite them all at once from a CSV file.

And for anyone who won't create an account at all, you can still add them as an offline member with just their name. This way, you can still record their passes, payment status and Pathway access, so nobody falls through the gaps.

The first week: give them a reason to come back

Once my clients had paid, they could book their sessions, cancel and rebook if something came up, and post in the Conversation section of our Collective. It was so easy for them.

What's made the biggest difference since is notifications. When I post something now (as the Collective Creator), all of my members get an email letting them know there's something new, so they don't have to proactively remember to go back into the platform and check. They just need to click on the link in the email. That's one of the gaps social media never filled for us.

So in that first week, post anything. A welcome, a photo, a question about how everyone's feeling. Give people a reason to open it again.

What I'd tell you before you start

Tell them in person, or as close to it as you can.

Pick a start date that already means something to them.

Have the first step ready before you invite anyone.

Send one short email with one link.

Post in the first week so there's something to come back to.

Your people already trust you. Moving is mostly about making the first step feel small.

If you'd like the invitation email and a checklist for the whole move, they're both in our free Creator Starter Kit.