The secret trick to increase sales is to focus on meeting the people you serve.
A famous quote from Zig Ziglar states that “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
There is so much truth to this quote as people would much rather do work and buy products and services from friends rather than from strangers.
When you become active in your community and value your target audience, you can quickly separate your company from its competitors.
It’s also good practice to do cause-related marketing, to let people know your business donates a portion of its profits to a worthwhile cause, whether cleaning up the environment, curing a disease, or helping the less fortunate.
Here are 3 Reasons Why Community Centric Marketing is Profitable
1. Serving Your Community Costs Less
- Some of the world’s strongest brands were initially built through low-cost community-based marketing, such as Nike, Starbucks, Google.
- When companies focus first on meeting the needs of the people they serve, they don’t have to spend big money to attract new customers.
- Success has been driven by products tailored to customers’ needs, word-of-mouth promotion, free in-store product trials, and the personal connections forged by requiring active community involvement of any company
2. Serving Your Community Grows Loyalty
- When companies begin to focus on building communities–getting closer to an existing one or helping one start–it makes a powerful impact that forges emotional bonds.
- When a new community is established, people who once felt left out now find kindred spirits. They begin to have a place to belong.
- When an existing community is strengthened, people who once felt marginalized now find validation. They discover that they have an essential role to play.
- Nike has done a fantastic job of connecting with under-appreciated consumer segments and fostering communities that build empowerment, from making running mainstream, supporting inner-city basketball, and empowering girls as athletes. The reward has been intense customer loyalty.
3. Community Drives Innovation
- There’s no better source of growth and innovation than a passionate brand community.
- For example, Harley-Davidson understood that while its community shared a core passion for the brand, they also had a wide variety of unfulfilled needs and challenges. By methodically focusing on meeting these, the company built substantial new businesses around motorcycle customization, riding gear, motorcycle-inspired fashion, and home decoration.
In tough times more than ever, people crave a sense of community support.
Companies provide this–by building communities that deliver tangible and emotional value, through employees and customers working together to solve collective challenges–they make lasting bonds of loyalty and discover new sources of growth.
Good marketing always puts people at the center. Innovative marketing in tough times taps the collective power of the community.
If you need help to implement a community-centric marketing program in your company that will quickly increase sales and profits, we invite you to book a FREE Quick Wins Growth Session!
