It’s easy to blame the pandemic or the resulting budget cuts for failing B2B marketing initiatives, but the uncomfortable truth is that old marketing strategies are getting stale and ineffective, and they need to be refreshed.
It’s time to come up with a new strategy if every B2B marketer is following the same playbook. CBM (community-based marketing) is one such strategy.
Because digital communities have experienced a revival in recent months, including CBM in your plan can help you win prospects’ attention, action, and loyalty. Businesses are embracing social media to reach out to communities and leveraging their customers’ networking networks to expand their market reach.
Businesses can sell without advertising by forming online communities and get the rewards of customer intelligence and loyalty. Online community marketing has emerged as a viable marketing method for large-scale communities. Having said that, let’s understand what community marketing is all about.
What is Community Marketing?
To create and enhance brand persistence, community marketing entails engaging with a community of existing customers. Facebook groups, message boards, online forums, and Twitter accounts are all examples of social platforms or websites where community marketing takes place. These communities give members a place to communicate their needs, allowing businesses to respond and making them feel valued.
Unlike most other marketing methods like advertising and public relations, community marketing is primarily concerned with strengthening consumer relationships and increasing involvement. Getting a new customer is far easier and less expensive than keeping an old one. Community marketing aids firms in focusing on current consumers’ requirements and achieving a higher retention rate.
4 Battlefields of Online Community Marketing
Several social networks that operate as online communities and allow for group marketing include:
WhatsApp Marketing
Bulk WhatsApp Sender is one of the most widely used messaging apps, with more than 1.5 billion users globally. WhatsApp is mostly used as a personal messaging tool that allows users to communicate with their family, close friends, and social networks.
WhatsApp is used to build social groups that are comparable to communities, where people who share the same interests may engage in meaningful and healthy conversations with one another. Businesses can form WhatsApp groups with existing clients to strengthen their bonds.
Group marketing via WhatsApp has the added benefit of allowing group members to easily convert to loyal customers and bring in other customers through personal referrals.
Facebook Marketing
This name needs no introduction when it comes to social media sites. Facebook was one of the first social networking sites that allow people to connect with friends and family and establish communities around shared interests.
Facebook is utilized by people of all ages and has over 2.45 billion members globally. Businesses frequently utilize Facebook as a social media platform to establish a strong brand presence and raise awareness. Businesses use Facebook communities to communicate with present and potential consumers, as well as to better understand their needs.
Quora Marketing
Quora is a social networking site where users can contribute information on any topic they want. Some questions receive more thorough responses than others. But now and then, you’ll hit gold and come upon a thread with more significant responses than you ever expected. Quora is the best site to find passionate communities that contribute useful insights and demonstrate a high degree of curiosity.
Contrary to many other community marketing platforms, customers undertake their marketing, which has a considerably greater impact on present and potential customers.
Instagram Marketing
Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels for businesses to easily establish massive communities. Instagram is a photo and video-sharing app that is also frequently used as a marketing tool for e-commerce enterprises. According to recent research, 72 percent of Instagram users report making a purchase choice after viewing something on the platform, with clothing, beauty, shoes, and jewelry being the most popular categories.
Businesses utilize Instagram to establish a strong community of fans of their brand or products, as well as sell them directly. Instagram also allows businesses to communicate with their customers and generate new prospects in real-time.
Popular Examples of Community Marketing
There are a few prominent brands that show off their community marketing talents in a unique way and manage to attract a lot of attention. Listed below are a handful of them.
Whatso
Whatso is one of the top and leading customer engagement platforms that provides its customers with top-notch products that automated their business marketing and increases their overall conversions. Whatso is a single platform that integrates best-in-class Bulk WhatsApp Messaging, SMS Marketing Software, and reporting. It provides easy-to-use marketing automation software so you can provide outstanding support to your customers.
Whatso is used by practically every type of business, including restaurants, hotels, real estate, institutes, IT companies, grocery stores, beauty salons, and large corporations such as pharmaceutical and chemical companies. It also offers a free demo for download.
Starbucks
Starbucks is one of the most well-known multinational coffee brands. Starbucks has also managed to establish a significant social media presence. Starbucks is one of the top ten brand pages on Facebook, with over 37 million fans. One of the things Starbucks does well is provide customers with suggestions on how to use their products.
Starbucks also displays holiday-themed graphics and quirky photographs that give a pleasant aspect for customers to enjoy and keep them engaged in the community.
Hellman’s Mayonnaise
Hellmann’s is a household name owing to its mayonnaise and innovative marketing strategy. Hellmann’s sponsored a campaign called “WhatsCook,” in which customers were invited to take a picture of the items in their refrigerator and submit it to them over WhatsApp. A true chef would next suggest a recipe that could be prepared with those items. This campaign was a big success, with over 5 million impressions and around 13000 signups.
The Bottomline
Digital connectivity has played an increasingly essential role in how we stay connected throughout the epidemic, which has exacerbated many people’s dependency on online groups, with Facebook groups, in particular, witnessing a large increase in involvement. Online communities have taken on new meanings during this time, and they have played a critical role in assisting individuals in overcoming isolation, mental discomfort, and technical obstacles brought on by the pandemic. Many other social entities, such as governments, institutions, enterprises, and workplaces, have struggled to strategize the use of online infrastructures for social gathering, making it the best time to tap into this arena in 2021.