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

So far we’ve learned a lot about how marketers can use branded, online communities to engage customers and leverage insights to improve the overall customer experience. From promoting events and creating content that attracts new members to building significant relationships with customers, there are so many ways to tap into the potential that branded communities have to offer. But, we’re not done yet! We’ll now examine another five incredible ways marketers can use branded communities.

1) Customer Support: Encourage members to assist and help one another

Sometimes those who know your services or products the best are the ones that use it the most: your customers! A branded community can put their knowledge to use by empowering them to help other users answer questions or troubleshoot common issues.

Not only does this help to assert your customer as an authority to others, it also serves to free customer service representatives to focus on more in-depth issues and problems. For customers who step up to help others, branded communities can serve as a way for them to share their experiences, while helping companies streamline their customer service workflows.

Check out this case study, which highlights how Microdesk is using an online community for customer support.

2) Online Events: Host webinars for the community

We all know how helpful webinars can be in facilitating relationships and leads with your members, but it’s not always clear what topics to focus on. A branded community can provide an opportunity to learn more about the issues customers are facing and the challenges they may have, as well offering a convenient platform through which to provide engaging solutions.

When community members are able to engage with content that directly addresses their questions, they’ll understand the value that your branded, online community has to offer. Webinars also provide additional value for facilitating engagement.

3) Content Creation: Crowdsource great original content from your community

User-generated content can be a powerful source of information for companies and customers alike. Not only can it provide valuable insights, it can also give prospective customers an unfiltered, transparent source of information. A study from Bazaarvoice showed that “over half (51%) of Americans trust UGC [user generated content] more than content on a company website (16%).” How can you facilitate effective user-generated content within your community?

It can be as easy as monitoring what your customers are already saying or asking your community members to share their experiences with their networks. When a brand advocate posts a comment, shares a photo or creates a video about your product or service, their audience is going to take it more seriously than content coming from you—because it’s authentic. These insights can then be incorporated into your community’s testimonials and sales enablement strategies.

4) Executive Briefings: Have executives brief members on key topics

Executive briefings aim to deliver a unique experience that stimulates discussions between a company’s top executives and its customers and partners. Typically, briefing programs attempt to work with customers to propose solutions for their most pressing challenge, but identifying the right customers to participate isn’t always easy. Fortunately, a branded community can bring together the right people and resources so you can seize new opportunities, respond to competitive pressures, and meet evolving customer requirements.

Additionally, branded communities provide advanced capabilities that can make it easier to facilitate one-on-one briefings, video tours, peer-to-peer collaboration with customers and employees around the world. No travel required.

5) Product Ideation: Collaborate with customers on new product ideas

One of the biggest challenges companies face is staying relevant as your customers’ needs grow and evolve. Will your product meet their needs while staying competitive in the marketplace? A great way to ensure that your company remains relevant is to probe your customers for product ideas.

5 Incredibly Valuable Ways Marketers Can Use Branded, Online Communities

Part 4

Marketers can use branded communities to create opportunity statements, identify customer wish lists, facilitate brainstorming as well as other product ideation techniques. Giving community members the opportunity to contribute to new product development not only shows that you value their insights, it also gives your company valuable information and ideas to navigate the way ahead.

Hotcakes Commerce is using their online community as the authoritative source to inform their product roadmap. Read their case study below.

15 down, 6 to go!

With five more tools in your marketing tool box, it’s becoming quite clear that branded communities can offer many incredible ways to engage with customers. Stay tuned for my next post, in which I’ll share more invaluable ways that marketers can use online communities.

The Infographic

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