COMMUNITY HAS ITS
BENEFITS
Community marketing’s purpose is
not only for the company to interact
with
customers,
companies
create a gathering space for
their customers (and potential
customers) to interact amongst
themselves.
The
interaction
between the community members
adds to the user experience
by creating connections and
maintaining engagement levels.
As a business owner, you may
jump on the community marketing
train for a number of reasons. One
that stands out is that community
marking is less expensive to
initiate compared to traditional
marketing and advertising. When
you are bootstrapping, this fact
alone is reason enough to dive
in. Many community platforms,
like Facebook or LinkedIn Groups,
are free to use (at least for now)
loyalty. Your community members
get direct access to know and
understand you better, and as a
“YOUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS GET DIRECT
ACCESS TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND
YOU BETTER, AND AS A RESULT, FORM AN
EMOTIONAL BOND.”
so the barrier to entry is next to
nothing. Plus, with Facebook’s
addition of group analytics, you
can easily gather data about your
community’s demographics and
engagement.
Another benefit of hosting your
own community is the ability to
strengthen your know-like-trust
factor; and therefore, build brand
result, form an emotional bond.
In addition to customer loyalty
and retention, being up close
and personal with your audience
allows you to listen to comments,
praise, and concerns without
formal focus groups. You are
able to gather data continually
and make improvements and
innovations that highly valuable to
JULY 2018 • 33