proven strategies to leverage your customer community to grow your business

PROVEN STRATEGIES TO LEVERAGE YOUR

CUSTOMER COMMUNITY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Joshua Paul, Socious

Community for

Community Sake

Three Parts to Today’s Discussion

1. The real reasons you should care

2. Why build community

3. Strategies to grow your business

The Typical Business

Awarenes

s

Resea

rch

Short List

Considera

ti

onSele

ction

Pre-

Conce

ption Set Up

Getting Started

First Roadblock

How Others

Do It?

Am I Close

to Getting

Results?

What Else

Can I Do?

Before the Initial Purchase

After the Initial Purchase

Spend, Effort, and Interest• Branding• Pricing• Positioning• Marketing• Lead Generation• Converting Leads Into Customers

Revenue Opportunity

Remain a Customer

Use Your Product

Provide Constructive Feedback

Purchase Add-Ons

or Services

Become an

Advocate or

Reference

Renew Their

Contract

Upgrade Your

Solution

Attend a Customer

Event

Utilize Specific Support

Resources

THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS YOU WANT CUSTOMERS TO

DO.

HIGHER CUSOMER ENGAGEMENT LEADS TO MORE CUSTOMER

DOING WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO AT A LOWER COST.

What It Takes to Keep Customers

Engaged Has Evolved

Why Community is an Effective Strategy for

Generating Sustainable Customer Engagement

Training FeedbackConferenceServices

HIGHER ENGAGEMENT = HIGHER CONVERSIONS

(AT A LOWER COST)

TOTA

L CU

STO

MER

BAS

E

TOTA

L CU

STO

MER

BAS

E

TOTA

L CU

STO

MER

BAS

E$$$$$

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$$

$

TOTA

L CU

STO

MER

BAS

E

Cost With Lower Customer Engagement

Cost With Higher Customer Engagement Average

Engagement

$$$$$

$$$$

$$$

$$

$


Cost With Higher Customer Engagement

$$$$$

$$$$

$$$

$$

$



$$$$$

$$$$

$$$

$$

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Average Engagement

Average Engagement

Average Engagement

Increased Engagement




Strategies to Grow Your Business by

Leveraging Your Online Customer Community

Make Better Decisions With Actionable Data

• Who to contact• When to contact them• What to contact them about

1

Get Found & Watch Community Members

Become Leads

Customer Community Strategy Set up SEO-optimized discussion forums

Open your community to prospects

Make joining the community easy

Shortening the Sales Cycle

2

Customer Community Strategy Show Rather Than Tell

Better Lead Intel

Connect the Right Prospects to the Right Advocates

Cultivating Advocates and Customer Stories

3

Customer Community Strategy Monitor Activity

Profile and Recruit

Nurture Relationships

Deliver Advocacy Opportunities

Revenue Opportunities Within Your Customer Base

4

Customer Community Strategy Positive experience with products and

services

Trust

Awareness

Be proactive

Create More Profitable Products Using

Consistent Market Data

5

A Typical Product Management Process

Col

lect

Dat

a Fr

om Y

our T

arge

t Mar

ket

•Market problems

•Product feedback

•Win/loss analysis

•Competitive landscape

•Buying process

Valid

ate

Mar

ket D

ata

•Confirmatory surveys

Gen

erat

e S

olut

ions

•New products•Added features• Improvements•Complimentary services

•New processes

•Product roadmap

Test

Idea

s W

ith M

arke

t

•Products•Functionality•Services•Positioning•Messaging•Distribution strategy

Dev

elop

Pro

duct

or S

ervi

ce

•Product development

•Marketing & launch plan

•Sales process & tools

•Delivery•Customer retention

More Product Hits and Fewer Product Misses

Uncover Market

Problems and Trends

Confirm Conclusions

Crowdsource

Prioritization

Validate Ideas With

Small Groups

Market-Driven Innovation Methodology

TWO TYPES OF INSIGHTHow to Have More Product Hits and Fewer Product Misses

Customer Retention

6

…WITHOUT AN ACTIVE ONLINE CUSTOMER COMMUNITY

None of This is Possible…

Where Do You Go From Here?

6 Strategies to Grow Your Business Get Found & Generate More Leads Pull People Through the Sales Cycle Identify & Recruit Advocates Generate More Revenue Per Customer Create More Sellable Products Keep Customers Longer

Questions

Josh PaulSocious

@Joshua_d_paul@SociousSoftware