When you start a new business, one thing that is often overlooked is the power of building a community around your products and services. As you may have noticed, when you are about to leave a company, say for example our broadband provider, and call them to let them know, customer service representatives bend over backwards to try to keep you on board. They offer discounts, additional services for the same price, and upgrades on your hardware.
Why is that? Well, simply because it is much easier to keep an existing customer than to get a new one. Think about it. An existing customer knows who you are and what you offer. If you want to get in front of some more eyeballs, you would probably have to pay for advertising or communication services, sponsor a local event or get premium placements in the local directory. All of this costs money. And usually more money than simply offering a discount to returning customers. But discounts are not all it takes.
If you have a blog, or are selling online products, you can build a community around you, and then market any new products to a loyal base of customers. This is priceless. When online marketers and bloggers are being asked about their one regret, or one thing they wish they had known when they got started, many reply “build a mailing list” or “focus on growing your community”.
With the new General Data Protection Rules (GDPR) that became mandatory on May 25th, 2018, what you can and cannot do in terms of direct marketing with your community has changed a little bit. For example, people used to offer freebies, such as an ebook or premium materials, if you would join their email list. This is not acceptable anymore, and people have to be offered a special tick box on your website to say they agree to receiving your newsletter.
But this doesn’t mean you need to offer your lead magnets for free. You can ask people to join your mailing list, and present your freebies as “subscribers only material”. All this community growing and newsletter talk may seem like a lot of upkeep for you, especially if you are just getting started with your business. But the good news is, it does not have to take a lot of time and effort. Even building your website can be done easily.
You can use a free website builder such as Wix to create a beautiful website in just a few clicks. There is no need to learn how to code, or any other specific skills. You just need to have a rough sense of the aesthetics you would like for your website, and the functionalities you need to offer your users. For example, a restaurant website will need to display menus, pricing, location, opening hours, and maybe offer an online table booking calendar. On the other hand, a soap making company will need a more formal online store, detailing each product and its price, with a payment facility and automated email to warn you of new orders so you can ship.
Wix allows you to build all that, and much more. You just need to create an account, tell them what your business is about, and they will offer website templates that best fit your niche. You can even use the Wix Logo Builder to create your logo and business graphics in a matter of minutes. Once you have found a template that works for you, you can click on every widget on the page in order to change the colors, fonts, text and so on, and make the website truly your own.
Wix also offers a couple of neat functionalities to help you build your community. As a Wix user, you can use the Shoutout email marketing service in order to create your marketing campaigns easily. The program takes you through all the steps you need to make your email appealing and professional. Images, headers, copy, it’s all there. Wix helps you keep track of your subscribers and monitor your statistics to evaluate your impact for each campaign.
You can also use Wix Forums to create a community right on your website. This add-on is free, and you can customize the layout to fit your website. There are tons of functionalities for you to monitor comments, users, and even pin your favorite posts. The forums are optimized for mobile use and members can sign up in minutes using their social media profile.
Having a forum on your website is a great way to keep it lively. Not only will users be able to communicate with each other, you could get inspiration from their questions and posts and turn them into more revenue, by creating products and services that are exactly what your audience is looking for. The time you invest by growing your community is likely to offer a great return on investment, as these engaged users have already shown an active interest in what you offer.