Focus on the essence of community and avoid the nine minefields of community marketing

Community marketing is one of the common ways of network marketing. People who do community marketing often fall into the nine minefields mentioned by the author, which not only wastes costs, but also leads to the failure of the results. In this paper, the author provides us with a solution. Community has always been controversial, especially the community with the theme of business brand and marketing. The advantages and disadvantages of the dispute are contradictory, costly, ineffective and easy to die. Most enterprises are really prone to encounter similar problems in the process of doing community, which is costly, difficult to achieve results, and even silent when doing it. There are too many fixed and uncertain factors to be considered in order to manage the community, especially the community matrix. It is also a systematic work to analyze the comprehensive influence of several cross-parallel factors and make corresponding decisions on the basis of successful experience. I believe that many readers who often watch community content will find that the answers given to us in most articles are also based on logical ideas and brief experience under certain conditions, and it is impossible for us to have the same conditions and opportunities when we really operate the community, and it is impossible to fully understand the author's methodology (because you have not paid for it). Here, we only proceed from reality. In this article, we talk about how to pay attention to the essence of the community, so as to see how to avoid failure. You can understand that since we can't get an effective solution through several articles, we will combine the theories and cases we have seen. From how to avoid failure, draw inferences from others, and avoid stepping on a minefield in practice, this paper summarizes its own feasible methodology. First, the nature of the online community The author once asked people who are engaged in various industries around him about the nature of the online community, and the answer seems to be that everyone is slightly different. In fact, everyone's understanding and cognition of the community will be different to some extent. Some people even think that the network "carrier" that can gather people is called community. In a broad sense, there is nothing wrong. Community is the logical carrier of gathering people, otherwise it would be nice to call it a program directly. Because of the development of the Internet, even though many industries and enterprises have different understandings of Internet marketing, brand marketing and product marketing of commercial networks have become indispensable marketing channels and methods. To run a community from any platform or application, an important element is "people", including management planners, operators and salespeople, or potential customers, precise demand groups and even loyal old customers. So, have you ever wondered if there was a "community" before Internet marketing appeared? The answer is yes. For example, conference marketing is also called "marketing". Why do you think so? It is not because community marketing and conference marketing are exactly the same, but because the concepts and models between them are the most similar. It's all about gathering potential customers, then screening out accurate and interested people to focus on marketing, and finally getting orders and clinching a deal. The intermediate links may be different in details, but the model and concept are basically the same. The core elements of both are collection, maintenance, ordering, guidance, confirmation, promotion and tracking. Let's make a label together. Since conference marketing is called marketing, let's call business community marketing "social marketing" for the time being. Second, avoid minefields and live "Nine" From practical experience, all Internet marketing does not necessarily die if it steps on thunder, but it will die if it steps on thunder more. So it is a wise choice to avoid entering the minefield. If you accidentally enter a minefield, try to live longer and find a smooth way to live. Let's take a look at Jiu Lei. 1. Unclear positioning, inaccurate drainage, unclear positioning, easy to understand. Most of the articles are repeatedly emphasized, which basically belong to the content of 5W2H analysis and positioning method, so I won't repeat them here. And the drainage is not accurate, nor is it "accurate and clear". Most operation teams or individuals, under the pressure of operation planning and objectives, can only do floods in order to complete their performance-gather people from various channels, and all the seven aunts and eight aunts may be pulled in, leaving some hidden dangers on the objective quasi-line for future operations. Imagine an offline sales meeting, doesn't it start with intentionality and on-site confirmation? I believe that anyone who can hold the position of marketing manager or above knows this well. Don't let people who don't know how to command, let professionals do what they should do. And what to do, give due help when you need help. The marketing team of any enterprise should have corresponding support, including the operation team of social marketing, but only if we get the results and achievements that meet the requirements of ROI. 2. Without rules, Fiona Fang can't be achieved. It is best to establish and maintain customer relationships in online communities. First of all, we must have a good marketing environment. In the initial screening process, the potential customers who join the group may be strangers to each other, either watching, asking questions, or even making trouble and provoking if they don't agree. In short, unexpected and unexpected situations may occur, such as the so-called three-point meeting ceremony and the influence of anonymity in the network environment, which may be common in most industries and more difficult to imagine and control than offline scenes. It is precisely because of this situation that rules must be established, but they should not be too disciplined. A good host does not manage the audience with the order of the scene, but guides people into the planned situation step by step by arousing everyone's interest. The reason is the same, the audience can not follow the host into the situation, but will not jump out to disturb the scene. People's psychology is like this, strict requirements will rebound, and the guidance that conforms to customers' thinking will get ideal feedback. People who occasionally jump out and make mistakes are likely to become a good opportunity for operators to establish a good management image. 3. Free lunch, do everything possible just to attract customers. Everyone knows that there can't be a free lunch outside unless you go back to your relatives' house for dinner. Even if it is called "free", you have to pay something in exchange. Then, when we do community operations, we always declare what benefits we have, how many people will believe it, and may even attract the silent ridicule of old customers. Isn't it embarrassing? Well, some people may say that if I give away the product for free, isn't it a free lunch? What will the customer think? Customers will think that there was a free mask a while ago, just let me try it out and then keep asking me to buy products. Although it is an example made out of nothing, what the author wants to express is that even if we don't chase customers, we can't limit their own imagination. 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 it is done, it means that the guidance has basically succeeded. So, we may need to set a little threshold here. For example, we want old customers to join the shopping guide community, further increase the frequency of consumption, and establish a community development system with loyal consumers as the core. Then you can set up a "free" product with "BUG marketing method". Old customers who buy this free product can get the qualification to enter the shopping guide group. In the ordinary external channels, our propaganda way is to "buy the specified goods" or meet the minimum consumption standards to get the qualification to enter the community, and finally further emphasize the "benefits" that the shopping guide community can bring to customers. Don't guess that this simple example is not to tell everyone how to cut leeks, because it is only a simple explanation. We should give our customers the corresponding "benefits" in order to achieve our ultimate goal. The promotion of brand value begins with the accumulation of sincerity and trust. 4. Customer loyalty, there is nothing we can do? Enterprises 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 enterprises to stand out in the fierce market competition. With the rapid development of domestic economy, the "rise" of 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 prefer to choose products with brand value. Brand value includes the whole process of our customer service, and the "loyalty" experienced by consumers is the result of putting the brand concept into practice with customers as the center. To gain customers' loyalty to the brand, we must first have "loyalty" to customers. Writing here, I suddenly remembered a slogan-"You don't manage money, money ignores you". Many market executives have valuable market experience. We should really learn this spirit and concept from people with rich practical experience and truly face and serve customers. This is the primary task for customers to be loyal to us. From the customer's point of view, we can't output real value. We may be able to establish a community matrix quickly through multiple channels and resources, but when maintaining each group, we will always encounter various things that are beyond our power. Enthusiastic and diligent operators have paid great enthusiasm, but they have not received due feedback. Why not cut the gordian knot? If we experience it from the standpoint of social participants, we will understand why this is the case. For example, operators participate in a hobby community. At first, both managers and other participants are sharing what everyone is interested in, and occasionally there will be irregular red envelopes. Because everyone will discuss their own topics of interest in the group and extend them to people and things around them, the activities are very impressive. However, after a while, apart from the content sent by the administrator on a regular basis becoming repetitive and unclear, the discussion among the participants gradually decreased, and maybe in the end everyone would only jump out when there was a red envelope. For example, it is probably because managers fail to achieve sustained and effective output at the value level, which leads to members in the group gradually fading their impressions and losing their focus. Red envelopes can only arouse a short-term interaction with strong purpose. At this time, we should not only solve the problem of value output from the customer's point of view more quickly, but also adjust the members and extended relationships in the community matrix through customer relationship management, so that a brand-new sense of experience will appear in the group and the customer focus will be reunited. 6. Mechanical delivery and interaction, lack of emotional communication, this thunder is fatal, is the natural enemy of the community matrix, and must be avoided. Although online community is a marketing tool, its advantage lies in that it has the advantage of bringing psychological distance closer than other platforms. If you can only copy and paste a few paragraphs, put a few pictures and texts, and put a few videos, you might as well give up, so that you can use the invested cost to expand and maintain customers in the offline market. The advantage of online lies in time and space. We don't have to rush to find customers, and we don't have to communicate through inefficient telephone voice. We can combine voice and video online to effectively complete the presentation and communication. This can not only improve work efficiency, but also more conveniently close the psychological distance with customers. Marketing is to create a "comfortable" environment for customers, making it easier for them to know and communicate with each other, and making customers accept our brand and products more quickly. 7. Lack of continuous and coherent operational actions If we can't achieve continuous and coherent operational actions, it will be difficult for us to have customers' focused attention and achieve the goals of brand marketing and fission marketing. We and our customers need time and opportunity. Reasonable planning and continuous operation actions are one of the primary tasks to ensure the active community matrix, such as holding group customization activities regularly, brand activities of community matrix irregularly, marketing activities of different nodes, etc. Many continuous operations can not only promote the activity of participants, draw customers closer, but also promote more marketing opportunities. Brand concept can be implanted into the consciousness of customer groups more quickly and effectively, and brand communication and value promotion can be completed. 8. Lack of innovative ideas and practical actions, stereotyped operational actions, marketing activities that can be memorized, and repetition of machines are all fatal factors that make customers feel bored in the online community. Many community participants may leave the group after the activity, because they have no novel attraction or the focus of the announcement of follow-up activities. Because people are always full of curiosity and expectation for new things, we should pay attention to making rational use of this psychology and creating opportunities. We should consider the problem from the customer's perspective and integrate ourselves into the community. If red envelopes can solve the problem blindly, then such success is undoubtedly just a sad "bottomless pit" of ROI. 9. In a community where there is only an official voice, customers will lack realism. As we all know, the endorsements of stars, celebrities, online celebrities and KOL are a connection of credibility and emotion, which will graft their public influence on potential customers to brands and products. Many consumer-oriented and highly competitive industries, such as digital home appliances, medical beauty cosmetics, daily necessities and medical care. Many even risk the capital chain, invite stars at high prices and find online celebrities. The reason is nothing more than enriching the reputation and credibility of brands and products through the popularity, influence and public image of third parties. For example, when we are looking for a product as consumers, there are two brands A and B to choose from. Generally speaking, our understanding of these two brands is basically the same, and the purchase channels and prices are acceptable. Brand A has the celebrity endorsements we have been expecting, while brand B wants to use the same funds for omni-channel and large-scale advertising coverage, so brand B did not invite celebrity endorsements. Then, at this time, consumers' concerns are likely to be influenced by the celebrity effect at the first time, resulting in stronger concerns and closer psychological distance, and even to a certain extent, brand A is naturally and subjectively measured, and then brand B is examined by brand A as a benchmark. That is to say, brand A successfully gained the advantage of strong spiritual influence on consumers at the first time due to the celebrity effect of the third party. Even if it is a community matrix, enterprises are not necessarily willing to pay a lot of money to invite spokespersons. At this time, we will accomplish similar tasks through another kind of influence and credibility, that is, the real cases of many customers and the third-party effect of old customers. In the case of changing customers, we must grasp the authenticity and appropriate display methods. Even if you can ask the transformed customers to show up, you should be fully prepared to avoid questioning the authenticity, otherwise you will hurt yourself and others. The third-party effect of old customers needs more detailed planning and design. For example, we invite old customers to cooperate in the flood group, which not only fails to achieve the expected results, but also wastes our costs and the "good mood" of old customers. Only by using the old customer effect in a more accurate "prospective customer group" or "new customer group" can we get the best efficiency. 3. Word-of-mouth marketing is not just "good". I believe that friends with certain brand and marketing experience know how important the trinity of brand, product and market is to the survival and development of enterprises, and it is "word of mouth" that supports these three elements. As far as the penetration of social networks into today's society is concerned, mobilizing a wide range of customers to "speak for" enterprises in the market can have a strong mental influence in another dimension, so it is not the same influence as the celebrity effect, but its final effect is exactly the same as the celebrity effect. We often say that doing well does not mean being strong. Therefore, while paying attention to the online community and avoiding the nine minefields of community marketing, we must pay attention to the construction of community marketing word-of-mouth influence, which is an indispensable link in the planning and implementation of community operation and the top priority in forming a closed loop of value. We need to apply appropriate strategies in different environments. Through the effective implementation of these strategies, the rugged road of online community marketing will gradually evolve into a smooth road. Author: Lyon