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3 Proven Strategies for Improving Community Marketing

‘Tis the season of having an endless to-do list and not enough time to complete it. And while you’re caught up between last-minute shopping and gift wrapping, you may not be thinking about how this could possibly relate to marketing.

Similar to how we see an increase in community engagement in our daily lives during the holiday season; from more interactions with your mail and package carriers, neighbors, family members, or reconnecting with longtime friends through yearly holiday cards, the community is everywhere during this time of year – and it’s also the perfect time to bring community into your business world also.

Here are three proven strategies to improve community marketing.

1. Participation

Time horizons should be different for planning for sales versus marketing. Sales need to think quarterly, monthly, or even weekly. While Marketing should be planning quarterly, yearly, and beyond. Collaborating with the CMO and their team’s inbound efforts can help you forecast revenue and reduce your sales cycle. Outbound sales methods (e.g. cold calling lead lists) tend to have a longer sales cycle length because the customer doesn’t have much purchase intent at the point of engagement compared to inbound leads via a website. Collecting Marketing Qualified Leads (and understanding when in the marketing timeline your leads will hit this status) not only makes the sales team’s job easier but shortens the overall sales cycle.

2. Advertise in an Informative Way

Providing business value to other community members doesn’t have to be forced or sleazy, in fact, it’s a great way to educate your audience on what you offer without sounding sales-y or rehearsed.

For example: When you answer FAQ’s or provide industry news updates to your followers, you’re keeping people engaged without forcing them to buy into a product or service.

3. Stay Consistent

You’ve heard it a million times, but consistency truly is key – especially when it comes to marketing. Even if the community you are building or engaging with doesn’t take off right away or become as successful as you had hoped when you remain consistent in the content and information you post, it will slowly grow and people will naturally build trust with you.