Rethinking plain member area dashboards

The dashboard is the first page your customers see when they log in.

And they are greeted with a blank page most of the time.

We all make this mistake.

Most digital product companies have their member area dashboards plain. Mostly because that is how the selling system they use, has it. A plain, simple member area homepage with one or two lines.

Now here’s the thing. Whether your customers visit other pages on your site or not. But it is guaranteed that they would visit some important pages for sure, which we often take for granted. Such as…

Sure these pages serve a specific non-transactional purpose and they serve it good.

But this is also an opportunity for you to convey some important message, warn a user about something, or even upsell some products or services. If Sure, it is not always guaranteed that this will convert the best. But it sure is creating awareness about something you want.

In this article, we will see what we can do better with thank you page and different pages of the member area.

1. Since the customer purchased a digital product, we tell the users that not only we have sent you an email separately with log-in information, but here’s a link to the member area where you can download the product. This addresses the first question users have about what happened to the money I paid. If you want, you may also add how they could download receipts for the payment as well.
2. Next, we show them a big CTA which takes them to the member area – the page they actually want to visit. Along with this, we show other helpful links. In our case, a link to the helpdesk and documentation was necessary.
3. Now that we have addressed their immediate concern, here’s our opportunity to upsell/inform about a relevant product or service they might be interested in, now or in the future.
4. Most digital product companies just promote some hosting company for a few affiliate bucks. But it is also worth testing whether they are interested in different services? For example, since they purchased a digital product, they might be interested in having it professionally installed by you. Or maybe request a paid customization. These are just examples but you may offer a service which is really valuable to them.

Thank you pages are also used as one time upsell offer by some marketers and I have seen nice results by trying this. We will address that use case in some other articles. For now, let’s move on to the dashboard.

And here’s a wireframe concept on what you can do for the member area dashboard visitors.

Showing the “Upgrade” option to the users often makes them aware of upgrade possibilities. And in the long run, this results in increased recurring revenue.

Here’s an explanation of the design above.

1. Use in-page info/alert notifications to inform users about a product update, important change, or an important guide you wrote for them that helps them or even informs them about a service.This is a very good opportunity for user engagement and should be used selectively at regular intervals.
2. Always allow users to hide these notifications and other upsell offers in the member area. This is important so as not to annoy users with repeated reminders that they may not want to see.
3. If a user tried purchasing a product but did not complete the transaction, it’s nice to show them that pending transaction with an option to either cancel the order or buy the product.
4. If a user has already purchased a non-recurring subscription that is either expiring soon or has expired already, show them relevant options to either upgrade, renew or cancel a subscription. This makes it very easy for them to make a decision and often results in more revenue.

1. If you have products in multiple categories, it’d be nice to use tabs at the top to separate them. This keeps things clutter-free and organized.
2. Show list products, with only minimal information visible. Such as the product guide and download button. On hover, you may expand the row to show additional information such as license, version number, etc.
3. If a product membership is expired, hide the download button and show upgrade/renew information instead.
4. Lastly, if membership is about to expire (in case of auto-renewal is not enabled), it is good to show “access expires” with action buttons.

Tip: If you have many products, it is a good practice to show them in alphabetical order. Most companies show products in the order they are released, regardless of the product name. This makes it easier for the users to locate them. The users don’t really care in which order the product is released.

1. It’s good to have notes written on relevant pages for the common questions users have. In our case, I wanted to convey that they can upgrade to a higher plan by paying the difference amount. Or they can renew at 1/3 of the product price.
2. The list of customer subscriptions showed helpful information in the right structure. Invoice number, payment method, subscription name, subscription terms, subscription status, cancel, upgrade or renew buttons and when the subscription expires. All in a single row with appropriate highlights to relevant elements as per their importance.
3. When a higher plan was not available, I hide unnecessary options. Such as the “upgrade” button in our case.
4. A sidebar could always be used to either upsell, show important banners, or convey a message.
   Conclusion

Member area dashboard is the first interaction a paid customer would have on your site after they pay. Make them believe the quality is equally good on the other side and, you care about them.

Plus, utilize member area and transactional emails to not only show necessary information but also utilize it to…

1. Upsell or show an offer
2. Promote something or give them a coupon code
3. Remind them subtly about pending transactions
4. Nudge them to renew expired subscriptions.
5. Show them how to ask for support via the right channel
6. Highlight documentation hub so they can serve themselves.

Hope this was a useful guide for you. If you loved this or implemented some of these ideas into your dashboard, please shout out to me on Twitter.