One of the most ill-used words in common usage is ‘community’. It has an almost universal application to any group of more than one, and as such it has become meaningless as a description. If you split your email marketing list, you could call either group a community, yet they only have responses in common.
I’ll use the word community, probably through gritted teeth, for the balance of this post, to describe a method of encouraging loyalty and, just as importantly, interest among your subscribers. I’ve joined a number of on-line communities. One in particular was a blatant attempt to get me, and a number of others, to commit to a product and develop it, receiving no money for all our effort, yet for some strange psychological reason, feeling pleased to do so.
Oddly, I knew my expertise was nothing more than coming under certain criteria on an email marketing list, yet I still felt special. The idea of others like me (a nerd) being a ‘community’ was quite exciting. We can exploit this need to feel part of a group. With the right emphasis, your subscribers will join, and be happy to do so.
One method I’ve seen is where an email marketing company wanted images for its website and emails. It organised a competition. The new aspect was that they gave feedback on submissions, pointing out good and bad. Comments were allowed from competitors, and soon we were calling each other by our first names. I didn’t get paid, but I was really pleased to see my submission on the website and the 10% off was rather a minor point.
A forum on your own website can be used to develop commitment in subscribers to your email marketing list. It needs tending. It needs a bit of money. Most importantly of all, it needs a response should criticism arise.
There’s nothing like feeling part of a community. There’s nothing like feeling that the company you are dealing with it takes notice of what you think both as a group and individually. Gets your subscribers onside and half of your problems of generating completions in email marketing campaigns is over.
