Online communities are shaping up to be the wave of the future and while that may sound like a cliché, it’s actually all too true.
It used to be that your business needed to get a website in order to get business. Then, you needed to get on social media.
Now?
Well, now you should have an online community where your customers and audience can interact with one another.
Digging Deeper Into Online Communities
An online community means that your audience is taking the conversation off of social media and, instead, bringing the conversation to your website.
Your content should be laser-targeted to your audience so that it sparks discussion among them, creating a community.
Let’s say you make your living selling dog products and accessories like collars, toys, treats and even training tools.
How do you draw people to your website?
Start a discussion about dog breeds or your dog favorite toy. If your content is interesting and relevant to your audience, standby for the snowball effect.
What might start as an intimate discussion between a few people can grow into a larger, more engaged conversation.
Keep in mind that your topics don’t have to be directly related to your product. So if they’re talking about dog breeds and you’re not in the dog breeding business, that doesn’t necessarily matter.
Talking about dogs is a step in the right direction because it relates closely enough to your business. It’s has the potential to draw people in who are interested in what you have to offer. That’s the whole idea.
Think about when you login to Facebook and you see an article about a trending news topic or celebrity gossip. If you look at the comments section of that post, you will see people having off-shoot conversations based on a single comment or series of comments. That’s what you want on your site.
When you draw in more people you’re able to build your business more than you would have thought possible. That’s because the more people show up at your website the more are likely to purchase something that you have available to them.
Make sure that you’re not using your online community as just a way to sell to them.
Your community is a way for you to immerse yourself with your audience and get on-the-ground knowledge of what sparks interest and what turns people away, as well as serves as a feedback channel.
The Customer Focus
If you’re focused on your customer you’re going to be setting yourself up for the success that you want.
Think about it this way, would you rather buy a product from someone who seems actually interested in what you need, or someone who is more interested in upselling you to make a higher commission?
You want someone who cares about you and is paying attention. Someone who will sell you the $5 item if that’s all you need rather than upselling you to the $50 one. You need to be that person.
The best way to do that on your online community is by focusing on the customer with your posts.
Think about ways that you can help your customer with problems they may be having. If they’re dog owners maybe they could use some help training their dog. Start a discussion about training methods.
Maybe they want to know about different types of dog food, start a discussion about that. Focus on what they want first and what you want (as a business owner) somewhere down the list.
Don’t worry about selling your product. In fact, don’t even include information about your products in your discussion if you can help it.
It’s not about selling to them or turning them into customers (though that’s what’s going to happen) instead, it’s about helping them with their dog. Make sure you’re writing a quality blog post about all the right things.
Find out even more about the writing process right here and get started building your online community.
