COMMUNITY LEAD MARKETING

WHATS?HOT??is a series of articles that speaks about various marketing trends in the industry.?

Instead of?keeping a track of ever changing technology & algorithms;?the newsletter's short & crisp articles are an attempt?to keep its reader's focus on what's required, what's simple to understand & easily implementable by brands & businesses.

Today let's talk about Community Lead Marketing & Online Communities.

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What are Online Communities ?

Online Community is an amalgamation of people who like your product, service / brand & want to be associated with you in the longer run. Communities can be created on Fb, Instagram, Linkedin or WhatsApp.

Why is it important for a business?

To acquire customers. To build a positive rapport with the customers.

Positive associations help in building an easily recallable online brand.

Most importantly, for customer retention, repeat orders & increasing average ticket value.

Where to build a community?

The most easiest, versatile & real time interactions happens on Whats App groups. Whats App messages is known to have a 98% open rate as compared to emails, which is at 40-50%.

It's alive becos of real-time updates & doesn't seem as pushy as ads. No bling, no pop-ups, no jazz!

Brands are able to personally address customer issues, resolve it & develop real relationships?- which is very important when it comes to brand recall & brand loyalty. If a customer likes the brand, most often the brand gets recommended to friends & family - which is what we marketers call - WoM - Word of Mouth marketing.

Instagram & LinkedIn communities also add value in the B2C & B2B spaces. Instagram is for selling products & keeping up with trends. While LinkedIn is a platform for professional networking within the b2b space; it helps in getting business leads & helps in building a solid credible brand. Be it personal branding, biz-page or newsletters, keep it alive & consistent. Thumb rule? At least 1 post a day.

Credibility is another important aspect. If you are new in the market, trying to find your space & feel demotivated because no one 'has heard of you'; Community building helps you break down all those barriers.

The more often brands are seen & heard, the more often customers will warm up to the brand & remember you.

How do you keep communities going?

There are many, many, many ways.

But here are a few suggestions,

If it's a Whats App group. Have at least 2-4 updates a day. It could be about products, services, industry updates, positive interaction with participants, give-aways, employee recognitions etc.

Encourage User Generated Content - UGC, so that participants have a sense of belonging.

Two-way communication groups work best as opposed to closed groups (where only admin can send messages), but if content goes beyond the objective of the group, then streamline it.

Don't encourage spams & take action if anyone is sending personal chats.

Try to create a positive environment.

Professional content and industry knowledge work well on LinkedIn. Be consistent in your posts to initiate engagement. Respond to all comments & DMs. Initiate virtual audio events, live webinars & podcasting. Everything leads to adding value to the brand & the community participants.

Hope this short write up encourages you you start a community of your own. In case you have any questions feel free to write to us @?[email protected]

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