Marketing is an integral part of a company’s success, but the community plays a more prominent role in sales and revenue. It’s known that a business that does not reach out to the community is a business that is doomed to fail. So what do companies do now? They let the community become a part of their business structure, including marketing.
As all business owners know, marketing is an expensive undertaking. It’s estimated that companies spend at least 7.5% of their overall revenue on it. So if you’re earning a million dollars every year, $75,000 of it goes into marketing strategies. Therefore, the higher your revenue is, the higher your spending on marketing will be.
However, throughout the years, many marketers have started to look into cheaper options. Nowadays, we have marketing strategies such as guerilla marketing to help those who can’t afford to spend that much money. Another more affordable option is community marketing.
How Communities Help Build Businesses
Ever since the turn of the century, businesses have become more community-oriented, significantly smaller businesses. They have found that businesses that build a positive relationship with their community last longer and earn more revenue.
If we think about it, our business gains a decent chunk of its profit from the community, unless you’re a company that primarily exports items to other countries. However, even then, your community is an essential part of your pipeline. It’s where you’ll find your employees and people willing to support your company. So it’s vital that you get to their good side, and the first step is by reaching out.
Reaching Out
There are many ways to reach out to your company. You can start by investing in local ads, the simplest form of community marketing. Local ads such as radio, newspaper, and TV ads, tell your local community that your company exists and that they should definitely check you out. This is a very traditional way of marketing, and you’re helping local entities such as radio stations and publishing houses along the way.
Another form of reaching out is through digital ads. Google now provides people the ability to boost their community presence through local ads. This form of digital ads is cheaper and can quickly give your ROI if you’re in the right industry. Many restaurants take advantage of this just because they need a local presence more than ever.
Community Outreach
Another great way of reaching is through community outreaches. There’s no better way to market yourself than doing actions for the betterment of the community.
You can reach out to a local non-governmental organization (NGO) and become volunteers every month. You can also fund your outreach projects. Essentially, find something you want to change or improve in the community and work on it. It’s the best way to make your presence known locally and gain loyalty from your community.
Community Content
You’d be surprised how much the community can push out content for your small business. For example, supporting and hiring local SEO services on sites like mediacrew.com.au can generate a lot of independent growth, both locally and internationally. Another example is through word-of-mouth, community members can bring more people to visit and eat in your restaurant.
The number of people willing to create local content for you is staggering, and hiring these people won’t even cost you as much money. They tend to be cheap, and some are willing to do it for free if they like your business. Start having a good look around and see who is interested in making some community content for you.
More Than Just Your Community
Interacting with only your local community is not enough. You’ll have to think bigger. This means interacting with all sorts of communities in the world. You might ask yourself, how do I do that? The answer is simple: social media.
There are a staggering 620 million groups on Facebook alone, most of which are public and open to outside interaction. That’s a lot of communities under the palm of your hand. It’s not undoubtedly ideal for interacting with all of them, especially if you don’t have a dedicated social media manager (you should really hire one). Still, you must interact with the ones who can benefit from your business.
Choose a group that you think will be interested in your services or products. Try to sponsor their events or gatherings, and maybe have an employee visit their programs once in a while. It’s a simple marketing strategy, but one that is worthwhile doing.
Community marketing is more than just marketing. It’s a way for you to make the community better and reach out to people that need you the most. Your business can easily flourish by following these marketing strategies.
