Community operation: 9 minefields of community marketing!

Communities have always been controversial, especially communities with commercial brands and marketing as their themes. The contradictions between the two sides of the dispute are high cost, no effect, and easy silence. Most companies are indeed prone to encounter similar problems in the process of building communities. The cost becomes higher and higher, the effect is difficult to achieve, and there is even the situation where the business suddenly dies down.

There are too many fixed and uncertain factors to consider in order to build a good community. In particular, the operation of the community matrix requires systematic work to analyze the combined impact of several overlapping and parallel factors and make corresponding decisions based on successful experience. I believe that many readers who often read community content will find that the answers given to us in most articles are also based on logical ideas and brief experiences under certain specific conditions. When we actually implement and operate the community, it is impossible to have the same conditions and opportunities. In addition, it is impossible to fully understand the author’s methodology in just a few articles (because you didn’t pay...).

Here we are just starting from the practical point of view. In this article, we will talk about how to focus on the essence of the community and see how to avoid failure. You can understand it this way. Since it is impossible to get an effective solution through a few articles, let's combine the theories and cases we have already seen. Starting from how to avoid failure, use the method of learning from one example and applying it to three situations to avoid stepping on minefields in practice, and summarize your own feasible methodology.

The nature of online communities

The author once asked people around him from various industries about the "nature of online communities," and the answers he got seemed to be slightly different from each person. In fact, there are certain differences in everyone’s understanding and cognition of communities. Some people even believe that any network “carrier” that can gather people can be called a community. In a broad sense, it is not wrong. A community is a logical carrier for gathering people. Otherwise, it can be simply called a program.

Due to the development of the Internet, even though many industries and companies have different understandings of Internet marketing, commercial online brand marketing and product marketing have become an indispensable marketing channel and method. When operating a community from any platform or application, an important element is "people", including management planners, operations staff, sales staff, potential customers, precise target groups, and even loyal old customers.

So, have you ever thought about whether there was "community" before the emergence of Internet marketing? The answer is yes. For example, conference marketing is also called "meeting sales".

Why do you associate this way? It is not because social marketing and conference marketing are exactly the same, but because their concepts and models are the most similar. They both gather potential customers, then screen out precise and interested groups for focused marketing, and finally obtain orders and complete transactions. There may be differences in details in the intermediate links, but the model and concept are basically the same. The most core elements of both are gathering, maintaining, ordering, guiding, supporting, promoting and tracking.

Let’s set a label together. Since conference marketing is called conference sales, let’s temporarily call commercial community marketing “social sales”.

Avoid minefields and live a life of danger

From practical experience, all Internet marketing is like this: if you step on landmines, you may not die, but if you step on too many landmines, you will definitely die. Therefore, it is a wise choice to avoid entering the minefield. If you accidentally enter the minefield, find a way to live longer and find a smooth way out. Let’s take a look at the nine mines below.

1. Unclear positioning and inaccurate drainage

It is easy to understand that the positioning is not clear. Most articles have repeatedly emphasized this, and they basically belong to the content of the 5W2H analysis and positioning method, so I will not go into details here. Inaccurate traffic diversion is not "precise and clear" enough. Most operation teams or individuals, under pressure from operation planning and goals, can only generate general traffic in order to achieve performance. They may pull in people from various channels, even relatives and friends. This leaves some objective and accurate hidden dangers for future operations.

Just think about it, doesn’t an offline sales meeting start with intention and attendance confirmation? The author believes that anyone who has achieved positions above marketing manager is well aware of this point.

Don't let people who don't know the business give orders; let professionals do what needs to be done. And do what needs to be done, and give due help when help is needed. Any marketing team in an enterprise should have corresponding support, which of course should include the social marketing operation team, but the premise is that we can produce results and achievements that meet the ROI requirements.

2. No rules, no order. It is better to loosen up than to block.

If you want to establish and maintain customer relationships in online communities, you must first have a good marketing environment. During the initial screening process, potential customers entering the group may be strangers to each other. They may either wait and see, or keep asking questions, or even start a fight or provoke others if they disagree with each other. In short, all kinds of situations that you can imagine and that you can't imagine may happen. As the saying goes, "three points of courtesy when meeting someone", the online environment is affected by the psychology of anonymity. These may be common situations in most industries and are more difficult to imagine and control than offline scenarios.

Precisely because of the existence of this situation, rules must be established, but they cannot be too rigid. A good host does not manage the audience by requiring order on the spot, but guides people step by step into the planned situation by arousing everyone's interest. The principle is the same, the audience may not follow the host into the situation, but they will not jump out and disrupt the scene. This is how human psychology works. Strict demands will lead to backlash, while guidance that conforms to customer thinking will gain ideal feedback. You must know that people who occasionally make mistakes may very well become a good opportunity for operators to establish a good management image.

3. Free lunch, doing everything possible to attract customers

We all know that unless we go back to our loved ones’ homes and meals are free, there is no free lunch outside. Even if it is claimed to be “free”, we have to pay something in exchange. So, when we do community operations , we always claim about the benefits. How many people will believe it? It may also cause silent ridicule from old customers. Isn’t that embarrassing?

OK, someone might say, if I give away products for free, isn’t that still a free lunch?

What will the customers think? Customers will think, there was a free facial mask given away a while ago, wasn’t it just for me to try it out, and then they will keep asking me to buy the product. Although this is an example made out of thin air, what the author wants to express is that even if we don’t chase the customers and ask them questions, we cannot restrict them from using their own “wild” imaginations.

Experienced marketers will create the most "comfortable" imagination area for potential target customers, that is, let the other party think of what we want customers to think of. If this is done, it means that the guidance has basically been successful. So, we may need to set a little bit of a "threshold" here.

For example, we want to get old customers to join the shopping guide community to further promote consumption frequency, and establish a community development system with loyal consumers as the core. Then you can use the "BUG marketing method" to set up a "free" product. When old customers purchase this free product, they will be eligible to join the shopping guide group. In ordinary external channels, our way of publicity is that customers must "purchase designated products" or meet minimum consumption standards in order to be eligible to enter the community, and at the end we further emphasize the "benefits" that the shopping guide community can bring to customers.

Don’t make any wild guesses. This simple example is not meant to tell you how to reap the benefits, because it is just a simple explanation. We must actually give our customers corresponding "benefits" in order to achieve our assumed ultimate goal. The enhancement of brand value starts with the accumulation of sincerity and trust.

4. Is there nothing we can do about customer loyalty?

Companies all hope to have a group, or even a large number, of loyal customers to support their brands and markets. These customers are important resources and support for companies to stand out in the fierce market competition. With the rapid development of the domestic economy, the "rise" of the consumer market is a foregone conclusion. Consumers have become accustomed to the combination of online and offline, pay more attention to the consumption process and results, and are more inclined to consume products with brand value. The brand value includes the entire service process we provide to customers. The "loyalty" experienced by consumers is the result of our customer-centricity and our implementation of the brand concept. We also want to gain customer loyalty to the brand. First of all, we must have "loyalty" to our customers. When I write here, I suddenly think of an advertising slogan - "If you don't manage your finances, your finances won't manage you."

Many marketing executives have valuable experience working in the market, so we should indeed learn this spirit and philosophy from those who have rich practical experience, and truly be customer-oriented and serve customers, which is our top priority to make customers loyal to us.

5. Failure to start from the customer’s perspective and output real value

Through a number of channels and resources, we may be able to quickly establish a community matrix, but when maintaining each group, we will always encounter various things that we are powerless to do. The enthusiastic and hardworking operators have put in great enthusiasm, but have not received the expected feedback. Why not just cut the Gordian knot?

If we put ourselves in the shoes of community participants and experience this, we will understand why this happens.

For example, when an operator participates in an interest community, at first both managers and other participants are sharing content that everyone is interested in. Occasionally, there will be actions to grab red envelopes of varying amounts. As everyone discusses topics of interest in the group and extends them to people and events around them, the activity level is very considerable. But after a while, except for the administrators who are still regularly sending content that becomes repetitive and unclear, the discussions among participants gradually decrease, and maybe in the end everyone will only jump out when red envelopes appear.

The situation in the example is most likely that because the manager has not achieved continuous and effective output at the value level, the members of the group have gradually faded their impressions and lost focus, and the red envelopes can only arouse short-term interactions with a strong purpose. At this time, it is necessary not only to solve the problem of value output from the customer's perspective more quickly, but also to make certain adjustments to the members and extended relationships in the community matrix through customer relationship management, so that a brand new experience appears in the group and customer focus is refocused.

6. Mechanical delivery and interaction, lack of emotional communication

This mine is deadly and is the natural enemy of the social matrix and must be avoided.

Although online communities are used as a marketing tool, their advantage is that they can narrow the psychological distance compared to other platforms. If the costs we incur in building and maintaining a community are limited to copying and pasting a few paragraphs of scripts, posting a few pictures and texts, and putting in a few videos, it would be better to give up. In this way, we can use the invested costs to expand and maintain customers in the offline market.

The advantage of online communication lies in the scope of time and space. We don’t have to rush to the client or communicate through inefficient voice calls. Online, we can combine voice and video to effectively complete display and communication. This not only improves work efficiency, but also makes it easier to narrow the psychological distance between you and your customers. Marketing is about creating a "comfortable" environment for customers, making it easier for them to understand and communicate with each other, thereby enabling customers to accept our brands and products more quickly.

7. Lack of continuous and coherent operational actions

If we cannot achieve continuous and coherent operational actions, it will be difficult for us to gain the focus of our customers, and we will not be able to achieve the goals of brand marketing and fission marketing. Both we and our customers need time and opportunities.

Reasonable planning of continuous and coherent operational actions is one of the primary tasks to ensure the activity of the community matrix. Regular group-customized activities should be held, brand activities for the community matrix should be held from time to time, as well as marketing activities at different nodes, etc. Many continuous operations can not only promote the activity of participants and strengthen customer relationships, but also promote more marketing opportunities. We can implant brand concepts into the consciousness level of customer groups more quickly and effectively, and complete brand communication and value enhancement.

8. Lack of innovative ideas and practical actions

Repetitive and non-differentiated operational actions, marketing activities that can be recited by heart, and tape-like rhetoric are all fatal factors that make customers feel bored and uninterested in online communities. After an event, many community participants may leave the group because there is no novel attraction or focus on subsequent event announcements. Because people are curious and expectant about new things, what we should pay attention to is to make good use of this mentality and create opportunities.

We need to think from the customer's perspective and integrate ourselves into the community. If simply sending red envelopes can solve the problem, then such success will undoubtedly be a "bottomless abyss" with a tragic ROI.

9. Customers will lack a sense of authenticity in communities with only official voices

We all know that endorsements by stars, celebrities, internet celebrities and KOLs are a connection of credibility and emotion, which will graft their public influence on potential customer groups onto brands and products. In many industries that are oriented towards the consumer market and are highly competitive, such as digital appliances, medical beauty and cosmetics, daily FMCG products, and health care, many companies are willing to spend large sums of money to hire celebrities and internet celebrities, even at the risk of their capital chain. The reason is that they simply want to enrich the reputation and credibility of their brands and products through the popularity, influence, and public image of third parties.

For example, when we as consumers are looking for a product, there are two options available: Brand A and Brand B. Overall, our understanding of these two brands is basically the same, and the purchasing channels and prices are all within an acceptable range. Brand A has the celebrity endorsement that we have always "yearned for" in its advertising, while Brand B wants to use the same funds to advertise across all channels and on a large scale, so Brand B does not have a celebrity endorsement. Then, at this time, consumers' focus is likely to be influenced by the celebrity effect for the first time, resulting in a stronger focus and a closer psychological distance. They may even naturally and subjectively use Brand A as a measurement standard to a certain extent, and then examine Brand B based on Brand A as a benchmark. In other words, due to the celebrity effect of the third party, Brand A successfully gained a strong mental influence advantage on consumers in the first place.

Even in the social matrix, companies may not be willing to spend a lot of money to hire spokespersons. At this time, we have to use another kind of influence and credibility to complete similar tasks, that is, the real cases of many customers and the third-party effect of old customers.

In cases of converting customers, we must grasp the authenticity and appropriate presentation methods. Even if we can invite converted customers to tell their stories, we must be fully prepared to avoid doubts about the authenticity, otherwise it will hurt both ourselves and others.

The third-party effect of old customers requires more careful planning and design. For example, if we ask old customers to cooperate in the general traffic group, it will not only fail to achieve the desired effect, but also waste our costs and the "good mood" of old customers. Only by using the old customer effect in a more precise "prospective customer group" or "new customer group" can we achieve the optimal efficiency.

Word of mouth marketing is not just about being “good”

I believe that friends who have certain brand and marketing experience are aware of how important the trinity of brand, product and market is to the survival and development of an enterprise, and what supports these three elements is "word of mouth." Judging from the penetration of online social networking in today's society, mobilizing a wide range of customers in the market to "endorse" the company can create a strong mental influence in another dimension. Therefore, it is not the same kind of influence as the celebrity effect, but its ultimate effect is exactly the same as the celebrity effect.

We often say that doing well does not mean becoming strong. Therefore, while we focus on online communities and avoid the nine minefields of community marketing, we must also pay attention to the building of word-of-mouth influence in community marketing. It is an indispensable link in community operation planning and execution, and is also the top priority in forming a closed value loop. We need to apply appropriate strategies in different environments and, through the effective implementation of these strategies, gradually transform the bumpy road of online social marketing into a smooth and correct path.

Related reading:

1. Demonized growth, fission and community!

2. Community operation: How to create a good community atmosphere?

3. Community operation: 6 thoughts on community operation!

4. Community operation: How to use the community to achieve a daily turnover of one million?

5. Community operation: Why are more and more communities dying?

6. Community operation: How to increase the conversion rate of fission communities by 10 times?

Author:Leon

Source: PR Home