Business Benefits
Find your target audience and increase sales.
Type Keyword + discussion board, Keyword + forums, or keyword + message boards on Google search to find communities with your target audience.
For example, if you are in the nutrition industry and in juicing niche, you can search for Juicing + forums, or juicing + discussion board. Check out the results and see which ones to work with.
On Facebook, go to Search, type your niche and click See More Results > Groups > Ask to Join next to the name of the group you’d like to join.
On LinkedIn, enter a keyword or name in the Search field in the top navigation bar.
Alternatively, click the Work icon in the top right of your homepage and choose Group from the menu. Then, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Search.
Once you find a community you’d like to join, click Request to Join and wait for confirmation from group admins.
Follow existing clubs on Clubhouse to get notifications for all upcoming events.
To discover clubs in Clubhouse:
- Open the profiles of other members to check the clubs they’ve joined.
- Look at the scheduled events on the calendar.
- Scroll through the feed to check the club events happening in real-time.
Join local networking groups and meetups like Chambers of Commerce, or check with your local governments for local communities to promote your brand.
Local communities offer a great way to network with your prospects and also sell through word of mouth. Pay more attention to niche communities as they are rich sources of marketing opportunities. Communities don’t need to be large to be valuable, niche is good. That’s because it’s a smaller subgroup of people who share the exact needs, wants, and preferences. You may offer other solutions or serve a broader audience. But niching helps you set your business apart.
For example, if you’re a landscaper who targets residential homes instead of college campuses or office courtyards: within your target audience are different homeowners based on lawn size, income level, neighborhood type, and region. A niche would be wealthy homeowners with interest in green solutions. You can find this audience in communities like Homeowners Association or tenants and homeowners forums.
Promote your product organically to your online and in-person communities.
Organic promotion:
- Share organic content on social networks to promote opportunities, initiatives, and events in your community. Create shareable content to optimize your reach.
- Attend industry events: stay up-to-date on the industry’s state and meet potential business partners.
- Word of mouth: tell everyone in the community about your product and how they should buy it.
- Network with industry peers and keep checking for important events coming up that you could attend.
- Refer a friend: offer discounts to niche members who refer others.
Promote your product through sponsorships to your online and in-person communities.
Provide support in the form of resources, funding, or services to another party, who in turn allows you to take commercial advantage. The other party could be a community member, the community itself, or even an event.
Sponsorship helps improve the public perception of your brand. The partnership creates good will, where positive associations with the beneficiary of the sponsorship are reflected on your brand. Sponsorship promotion is indirect and subtle, lowering prospects’ defense mechanism.
Promote your product through paid advertising to your online and in-person communities.
Paid social ads allow you to target audiences in communities and groups. It is highly targeted and lets you showcase your ads to prospects in a specific geographical area. This mitigates the chances of ad spending waste.
Ads also let you narrow your target to critical demographic information, like your niche’s estate homeowners interested in green solutions. Promote little league registration to parents interested in sports.
Take advantage of the communities to promote your products organically, but don’t be overly promotional.
Try sharing content and promotions subtly so as not to be overly promotional. Aim to get feedback on new product development in communities to avoid promoting only. Collect feedback through email, survey, phone, or in-person to gain insights into which solutions your customers enjoy. Feedback shows the community members you care without having to be in their faces. It also tells you who your evangelists are and helps you find ways to better your solutions.
User-generated content is another great way to advertise in communities. It gives you a chance to connect with people who already love your products. But since the content is from other members or customers, it increases credibility and brings your brand’s promises to perspective. When sharing organic content:
- Always include a video or photo.
- Include links to more details of your website.
- Use social platforms to promote key events and initiatives.
- Mention key community partners in your message, like niche groups and businesses.
- Be consistent.
Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T11:07:45Z