RELATED: 5 Incredibly Valuable Ways Marketers Can Use Branded, Online Communities [Part 1] | [Part 2]

Our list of the ways marketers can use branded, online communities is growing. Whether it’s putting your community to work with product ideation or giving them opportunities to engage with customer support, there are many ways that online communities can add value to the customer experience. Here are six more!

1) Product Feedback: Gather product feedback from community members

Customer feedback is important to any company. It provides organizations with information they need to continue developing products and features that customers really want. Online communities can offer many different ways to solicit feedback from community members, from online surveys, to discussion forums or ratings. 

Feedback gathered from your community should be able to tell you what your customers like and don’t like. In return, companies should use feedback to improve products or services.

Hotcakes Commerce uses an online community to gather product feedback. The feedback gathered helps inform their product roadmap. Read the full case study:

2) Product Testing: Have members beta test new products and services

Product testing aims to ensure that consumers can understand what products will do for them and which products are the best value, while giving companies feedback about what works and what needs to be improved. By creating and facilitating an online branded community, companies have a group of engaged customers poised to beta test new products or features.

While some companies may have programs through which customers can apply to test new products, an online community provides opportunities for all members to participate, which can result in a variety of experiences and feedback. Additionally, members who test products are likely to be more invested in the outcomes and will foster a stronger connection to the brand.

3) Peer Networking: Let customers, prospects, employees and partners connect

Your online, branded community has the potential to facilitate peer networking opportunities.

While social media and other online outlets play a role in driving sales, it takes time for a user to turn into a consumer. Research shows that 43% of social media users have purchased a product after sharing or favoriting it on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter. Half of all social media-inspired purchases are made within one week of sharing and 80% are made within three weeks.

Comparably, when engaging within a branded community, consumers are able to interact with other members, ask questions of sales representatives and access relevant and accurate information, all from within a single site. Research shows that customers prefer that branded communities tightly integrate with a company’s website, link with social networks, and have the community managed proactively by companies.

4) Brand Affinity: Create greater brand affinity via the community

Brand affinity is about a consumer having an emotional connection with a brand. When customers develop a strong, emotional connection with a brand, it can accelerate building their consumer loyalty. Using traditional marketing methods, it can take time and money to develop one’s brand affinity. However, an online, branded community can expedite the process. Once developed, community members become brand ambassadors spreading news and information about your products organically in their own networks.

The goal of developing strong brand affinity should be a by-product of your branded community marketing efforts, however. It can’t be forced, and will only result from transparent and authentic communication and actively listening and responding to your community’s needs. As community members get to know you, trust you and glean value from the customer community experience, they will build a relationship with you that is quite invaluable.

5) Brand Advocacy: Identify your best brand advocates

Research from BzzAgent has shown that brand advocates create and curate more than twice as many communications about brands as the average web user. As well, brand advocates also influence the opinions and purchases of their friends: they are 70% more likely to be seen as a source of reliable information. How can you begin to turn customers into advocates?

Thanks to your online community’s analytics dashboards, you probably already know who your most engaged community members are. Likely, they are your biggest fans and greatest sources for feedback and ideation. While they’ve already added value to your company, they can be even more valuable as a brand advocate.

Ask them to become a brand advocate and give them the tools they need to make it easy to share information with others in their networks and beyond. In return, be sure to offer them a chance to be recognized or provide them with meaningful incentives that thank them for their efforts.

6) Search Engine Optimization: Boost organic rankings with keyword-rich content the community creates on your site

In order to optimize your site for search engines, one must consistently create quality content. Such content can come in all forms. Lucky for you, the time spent cultivating your online community and facilitating conversations about your products and services has also provided you with vast amounts of quality content. The beauty is, this high-quality content was generated from your end users!

And for most of your prospective and current customers, quality content is what they want to read, not what you want to tell them. Within your community, the discussions include actual customer scenarios, real questions and tangible advice, in their own words.

Why Online Communities Help Lift SEO in a Google Hummingbird World

By Steven Roth

By taking the time to invest in your community -- by actively and authentically listening, engaging and giving back to your members -- you’re also creating valuable and trusted content that is more resilient to changes in search engine algorithms. While branded communities can provide a boost in online rankings, like so many other benefits, it is a by-product of purposeful engagement with your customers.

Conclusion

There you have it! Don’t underestimate the impact an online, branded community can have on your marketing efforts. In the course of this series, we outlined 21 incredible ways that marketers can engage and build valuable relationships with customers, while benefiting from their insights to improve products and services. Not all of these ways may be right for your community, but we’re sure there is something for everyone. Go ahead, create your branded community today!

The Infographic

Have a look through the full infographic, “21 Incredible Ways Marketers Can Use Branded Communities.”