If you really want to learn more about your audience, find more people to promote your products, and get fresh ideas for more offers, groups are one of your best investments outside of email marketing.
Foster groups are inexpensive and can really help you accomplish a lot. Take a look at these important ways groups help your business grow, and you’ll know it’s the right thing to add to your marketing efforts.
1. Conduct an audience research
Groups are an effective and fun way to conduct audience research. You can use your own group that you build with your target audience, customers, and prospects, or you can use other people’s groups that consist of an audience like yours. You can be stealthy and just watch and learn, or you can ask questions, send surveys, or invite them to group chats to discuss topics related to your niche.
2. Experience greater opportunities for participation
Groups are an easy way to interact with your audience because they come to the group to talk and learn. So it is a way to have a conversation, take a poll, share images, and speak to your audience in a more informal way. Email is great for messaging, but sometimes it doesn’t lead to a real discussion like a group does.
3. Increase the credibility of the brand
Having a group that your customers turn to where they talk to their prospects is a great way to increase brand credibility. People who don’t know you very well yet will see the people who bought from you who are happy speaking in the group, and that will increase your credibility in many ways, more than one-way emails.
4. It is inexpensive
The wonderful thing about having an online group today is that it is very inexpensive. You can start groups for free on Facebook. You can also start groups on platforms like Delphiforums.com, Ning.com, and others without a lot of money. But they pay off big once you develop them, as long as you contribute frequently and engage with the audience.
5. Find joint venture partners
Groups are great places to find your next JV partner. When you participate in a group that has many other people marketing complementary products for your audience, you can find someone who is perfect to work together on your next idea. Ideally, it will be someone who can contribute something that you cannot and vice versa.