Are you looking for instant customer feedback and ideas to improve your product or service? What about a free focus group with a targeted set of customers? Do you want to increase positive customer referrals? Do you want to lead the online discussion in your industry?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then it’s time to look at your community marketing strategy.
The term ‘community marketing’ traditionally referred to a local marketing strategy – promoting your business within a local community through PR and advertising. Today, the term is increasingly being used in the context of engaging a group of customers in an online community. This group of customers has shared interests and they develop a relationship over time by talking about their interest online.
Community marketing is important because customers trust other customers’ opinions more than anything else. The internet has increased the number of conversations between customers and the reality is – you can’t shut down the conversations. So listen to the views of target customers, participate in and influence the discussion and use the insights to develop or improve your products and services.
Community marketing can emerge in one of two ways. First, it can be ‘organic’ – that is, created by users without any company intervention. Second, it can be ‘sponsored’, which means that the online community has been created and hosted by a company.
Organic online communities
Organic online communities are those that are created and sometimes managed by customers themselves. Users are creating their own forums on just about every topic imaginable – like the Balanced Life Group and The Dog Zone on Yahoo and the Smell the Cheese Group and The Random Conversation Group on Google.
Some of the most sophisticated and active online communities are those created for parents-to-be. Often started by new mums frustrated by the lack of information available in the marketplace, these communities offer product information and comparisons, classifieds and well-used discussion forums.
Pregnancy websites such as Belly Belly and Babyology have answers to every question a parent could ask and members often discuss their opinions on baby products such as prams and cots. These discussion forums offer valuable customer insights for manufacturers and retailers and are just like a focus group that doesn’t cost the company any money! They can also be a valuable source of customer referrals.
Sponsored online communities
Many companies are setting up sponsored online communities in the form of forums and blogs. Some of the best ones have been developed by global technology companies. Xbox’s website has a community section that promotes news, videos, events and hundreds of online forums to discuss gaming strategies. The site has 2.4 million members and thousands of guests.
New communities have developed from the site including the Xbox GamerchiX, which celebrated its second birthday in June 2008. This online community was set up by ‘TriXie’, ‘Dirty Diva’, and ‘PMS Kitty’, who together posted a message about wanting to set up an all-girl gaming group. Today 4,000 women (or rather ‘gamer girls’) from dozens of countries around the world enjoy the non-intimidating environment offered by an all-female gaming community.
This example shows how such communities can offer companies access to an untapped market and provide a perfect platform for introducing new products and services. They can also improve the level of trust between a customer and company because the company is providing a valuable resource.
The rules for community marketing are simple.
- You must listen.
- You must participate.
- You must offer a valuable contribution.
- You must keep it simple. Don’t over structure the discussion, let it emerge naturally.
- You must create a conversation. Ask questions or ask for feedback
A word of warning
Developing an effective community marketing strategy can be a drain on time and resources. There are literally thousands of blogs, social media sites and forums to be monitored. And once you start, it’s difficult to stop because stopping could have a negative impact on your brand.
Some companies are hiring dedicated community marketing managers to build a community around a product or service, to monitor and track emerging communities and to participate in discussions. It’s very likely that we’ll see more of this as Generation X moves up the management ranks and companies really start to understand the benefits of community marketing.
Renee Hancock is a marketing and communications specialist whose experience spans finance, government, education, not-for-profit, telecommunications and law. She has consulted for two of Australia’s most prestigious public relations agencies and now works in-house for a leading financial services organisation.
