Community Marketing

Community marketing is a strategy to engage an audience in an active, non-intrusive prospect and customer conversation. Whereas marketing communication strategies such as advertising, promotion, PR, and sales all focus on attaining customers, Community Marketing focuses on the needs of existing customers. This accomplishes four things for a business:

  • Connects existing customers with prospects
  • Connects prospects with each other
  • Connects a company with customers/prospects to solidify loyalty
  • Connects customers with customers to improve product adoption, satisfaction, etc.

There are two types of community marketing:

  • Organic or natural marketing occurs without the assistance of the company. Organic marketing is word-of-mouth marketing and is one of the most effective marketing methods
  • Sponsored community marketing is promoted by company through activities like investments in the local community improvement initiatives or corporate social responsibility.

Recent skepticism building among consumers as a result of blatant advertising and other unethical communications has affected the success of the sponsored form of Community Marketing. Continuing success in community marketing strategies has been found in engaging and cultivating the natural communities that form around their product/service.

Read more about Community Marketing:  Benefits, Tools Used in Community Marketing, Reasons To Use Community Marketing - The Power of Community in Marketing

Famous quotes containing the word community:

    Stories of law violations are weighed on a different set of scales in the Black mind than in the white. Petty crimes embarrass the community and many people wistfully wonder why Negroes don’t rob more banks, embezzle more funds and employ graft in the unions.... This ... appeals particularly to one who is unable to compete legally with his fellow citizens.
    Maya Angelou (b. 1928)