Why Should You Join an Online Marketing Community?

Do you want to use online communities to help boost your marketing skills?

Marketing is an evolving process. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow as new technologies and strategies are introduced and discovered.

You’ll need to hone your marketing knowledge to grow your business and maintain a competitive advantage.

In this article, we’ll go over what online marketing communities are, share a few of the best ones, and how to use them to boost your marketing results.

What are Online Marketing Communities?

Online marketing communities are platforms that people can use to discuss various topics, share opinions and feedback, and network with others.

You’re probably already using at least one online community platform to promote your products or services and gain relevant information about your industry.

A few of the most popular online communities include Facebook Groups, Slack, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

Why Join an Online Marketing Community?

The benefits that come with joining an online marketing community are pretty substantial. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs find online communities powerful resources for boosting their marketing efforts.

Let’s discover some significant benefits you’ll receive by joining an online marketing community.

1. Free Knowledge and Advice

The primary benefit of joining an online community is the free knowledge you acquire by reading conversations and asking questions. You don’t even have to participate to learn. You’ll gain a lot through simple observation.

2. Exposure to New Ideas

It’s easy to look up solutions to problems you know. However, online communities are full of relevant and topical conversations that can expose you to ideas and topics you’ve never heard of before.

For example, you couldn’t learn about eCommerce tools for selling and marketing digital products if you didn’t know they existed. However, an online community conversation might make you aware of some of the ones you didn’t already know about.

3. You Meet Interesting People

Working alone or with a small group makes falling into an isolated bubble of information and experience easy. You need to meet interesting people with unique viewpoints, backgrounds, and knowledge bases to grow as a marketer, which is precisely what you’ll get by joining an online marketing community.

4. Get Honest Feedback

Does your landing page look right? Does your payment form have everything it needs? Could your pricing tables use a boost?

How can you answer any of these important questions if you don’t seek feedback from outside your organization?

Online communities are great places to get feedback, especially if you are new to a particular topic. Honest community members will tell you what you’re doing wrong and how to improve.

5. Learn About the Industry

It’s hard to keep up with a rapidly changing industry, especially when new apps and tools are created daily. A marketing community will keep you “in the know” about significant events, changes, ideas, or techniques.

This is an especially powerful benefit if you join a closed community that screens its members. People are much more likely to share inside information when they believe it will be kept within verified group members.

6. Collect Leads or Conversions

Trying to sell to other members of an online community is a bad idea, but that doesn’t mean you won’t make any sales. As community members learn to trust you as an expert, they will turn to you for your products and services. In many cases, they will join your email list and convert later.

7. Be Part of a Network of Like-Minded People

If you’re a solo entrepreneur or a remote worker, you know how stressful work can feel daily. Sometimes, connecting with people who share similar interests and understand your life and struggles is nice.

Where to Find the Right Marketing Community

Now that you understand the benefits of online marketing communities, you probably want to know where to find them.

1. Facebook Groups

Facebook is one of the best platforms for finding marketing communities that meet your needs. Regarding features, it’s not the best medium for this kind of thing, but since just about everyone is on it, it tends to be a popular hub for communities of all kinds.

You can explore groups by navigating to the Groups section of your Facebook account and searching for your topic. You can also opt-in to some of Facebook’s suggestions.

2. Slack

Slack is another popular place where members of communities meet online. You might already use Slack for work purposes, so joining a workspace won’t affect your day-to-day workflow much.

Unlike Facebook Groups, there aren’t any public versions of Slack workspaces. You need to be invited by a group administrator. In some cases, this involves an application process. Check out this big list of Slack groups and this list of marketing groups to get started.

3. Forums

Forums are great places to learn about marketing because they are privately owned. The forum creators can customize the site to meet the community’s needs. They aren’t locked into the platform’s features like Facebook and Slack.

For example, a forum about graphic design might offer a better way to display photos that users attach to their posts. A podcast marketing forum might allow you to embed audio files into your comments. Forum creators can do whatever they like.

Plus, privately owned forums don’t have to operate within the rules of an established platform. They might allow certain types of content or actions that Facebook Groups bans.

Reddit is one example of a network of communities that lets members discover, connect, and share their passions freely.

Let’s say you’re new to WordPress and want to learn more about creating a site for your business. Reddit provides a forum for WordPress community members, such as web developers and content creators, to share their thoughts and questions.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another common place where you can find marketing communities. Like Facebook, these groups get traffic because people already use the platform.

Once you’ve created a LinkedIn account, you can search for marketing groups and request to join. With over 2 million groups on the platform, you’ll surely find a few valuable ones to meet your specific needs.

How to Leverage Online Marketing Communities

Before searching for marketing communities to join, take a minute to learn how to behave once you’re in. You’ll need to follow these best practices to get the most value out of a marketing community.

1. Follow the community rules. Every community will publish regulations somewhere. Be sure to adhere to these rules, especially when you are a new member.

2. Don’t ask people to do things for you. This will annoy the other members. Instead of asking someone to change your site, ask them how you can do it yourself or where to find more information. This will help you learn.

3. Keep your conversations on topic. You’ll eventually get banned for posting irrelevant content, especially if it breaks the community’s rules.

4. Give far more than you take. Communities only work when everyone contributes more than they take. Be sure to answer questions, link to resources, and offer your polite opinion as much as you can. Eventually, people will see you as a valuable member and jump at the opportunity to help you when needed.

5. Move relationships to other mediums and platforms. If you meet someone interesting in a community, don’t hesitate to move the conversation to email or other more suitable platforms.

6. Stay up to date with the feed. Try to read as much as possible, even if you think someone’s post isn’t relevant to you. You never know what you’ll learn. If you know the topic well, that’s an excellent opportunity to contribute.

7. Stimulate discussion, even if it doesn’t help you personally. Pose questions and post your insightful comments to the group, even if the discussion won’t benefit you immediately. This will cement your value as a member and make people respect your authority.

There are a lot of online marketing communities out there, so you’ll need to find the ones that suit your personality and meet your needs. Join a few to see if they’re right for you.

Remember, high member counts indicate popularity but not quality. The only way to know if a particular community serves you is to spend time with it.

That’s it! We hope this article has helped you learn how to use online marketing communities to boost your marketing results.

If you liked this article, you might also want to check out 6 Tips for Sending Better Marketing Emails.

What are you waiting for? Get started with WP Simple Pay today!

To read more articles like this, follow us on Facebook and Twitter.