If you are within the online marketing space then you’re probably familiar with Content Creation, SEO and Social Media, to drive traffic to your business website.
There is another way that you can drive traffic to your business that is not usually spoken about, and this is through forum marketing.
Online forums are places where consumers can openly discuss topics, and help by giving advice to each other. By implementing forums, businesses can increase awareness of their products and services to potential customers that may offer help with a problem that they’re having.
It’s important that you make an effort to read through a forums terms of use, so that you aren’t’t banned for something you may have said.
Here are a few tips to help you get the best experience.
Why Do Businesses Use Forums?
Businesses use forums because it helps increase customer engagement, is inexpensive, and you get valuable product feedback. You also discover problems people are having that you can help with.
The first step in forum marketing, is to look for popular forums where your customers are actively engaged in daily discussions on topics that you can help with. Look to see if you can help answer questions and solve problems that people are having.
If you can genuinely help people with solutions to their problems, you will start to earn their trust. Forums are all about being helpful, and an advertising pitch shouldn’t be the focus of your efforts.
Once you have found a top quality forum, like Reddit for example, make sure that you have read through the posts in your field of expertise. Make sure that the responses are high quality, and avoid low quality, spammy posts.
Also, make sure before you sign up to browse through the forum conversations, to ensure that there are lots of recent conversations to participate in, and those discussions are from real people. Some forums are not moderated, so if you don’t look carefully you might mistake lots of quality discussion for spam. A forum with a lot of spam is not worth your time.
It’s a good idea to focus your energy on one forum first, and do all your posting there.
What’s The Easiest Way To Find A Good Forum?
The easiest way to find good forums, is to search for keywords that are relevant to topics that your customers are talking about.
- An example is if you’re in the technology field, then you would want to look for popular forums where the community will come together discuss topics within this field. They will ask questions about problems that they’re having, and you have the opportunity to help them with a solution. You may even have a product or service that will help with their problem. Techspot.com is a technology forum, and has over 200 000 members. This is a good forum to be part of if your products or services can help someone.
- Another example is Warriorforum.com. They are a Digital Marketing forum with way over 1 million members. So if you were a social media consultant, you could help answer peoples questions. They may also choose to hire you for your services because you know what you’re talking about.
What Are The Rules Of Forums?
Every forum may have slightly different guidelines, and rules about how you should conduct yourself on the platform. These guidelines are enforced by the administrators and moderators, and if you are found in violation of the rules, this may result in you being removed from the forum.
Tips For Not Being Removed From A Forum
Forum Do’s
- Keep friendly conversation with other members
- Other people may have different opinions to your, and there may be disagreements. Be courteous and respectful to other members
- Make sure that you stay on topic. If you’re starting a new discussion thread then create a clear topic title, and insert your post in the appropriate category. If you’re contributing to an existing discussion, make sure that you try your best to stay on topic. When something new comes up within a topic that will be a great point of discussion then it would be best to start a new thread.
- Share what you know, and be as helpful as possible. People are looking for solutions to problems that they’re having, and if you can help them with that, they are likely to come back again to ask you questions.
- Make sure that your responses are great quality.
Forum Don’t’s
- Must not contain disrespectful or derogatory remarks about any person.
- Must not contain advice or content that may be damaging, unhelpful or distressing to others.
- Must not contain offensive language, not make sense or be irrelevant.
- Must not promote personal beliefs that are portrayed in a way that is disrespectful of the choice of others
- Must not be offensive to people’s lifestyle choices or discriminate.
- Don’t Spam or argue.
Do I Register To A Forum As A Business Or A Person?
Its better to create your forum account under your name, rather than a business name. This is because you’re having conversations with individual people, and having your name there is more personal.
You still have the ability to promote your business under your name.
What Should Be Included In A Forum Profile?
In your forum profile you can share some details about yourself. You can add a short paragraph about yourself, your website link, your social media profile links, where your business is situated, etc.
Make sure that you put some effort into your forum profile, as many people who read your post will be curious about who you are, and what your background is. You can be open about whether you are related to product, brand or company.
Think of something short to write in your description, that gets the message across.
You can say something simple like,
“I’m a vlogger who helps businesses get more traffic to their website by creating marketing videos that are informative and fun. If you have any questions about video advertising, I’m the person that can give you answers.”
You will also have the option to create your own forum signature. This is used to provide forum readers with a link to the author’s(your) website page. This is usually related to the forum topic itself.
Should there be any rules pertaining to how to use your forum signature, they will be included in the main forum rules, or above the space where you customize your forum signature.
Take note that some forums may have requirements you must meet before you can add a forum signature to your profile. These include
- Being a member for a certain period
- Creating a certain number of posts
- Being engaged by other members a certain amount of time for great feedback.
When you do have the green light to go ahead with your forum signature, browse the forums and look at other peoples signatures for ideas. Model your signature to fit the common theme within the forum.
Why Creating Valuable Insights To Threads Are Important?
So you have completed your profile, know the forum rules, and set up your forum signature, now you’re ready to start posting on the forum.
Make sure not to sound like a salesman. Your goal is to help people, and not to sell product and services in the forum. Rather, look for people that are having conversations around products and service that you can help with.
Let’s make use of a car dealership owner as an example. This is the discussion within the forum post.
The car enthusiast asks the person on the forum, that is from the dealership, which car is the best investment long term? He knows a lot about cars, and might be able to help him.
The person from the dealership can give the car enthusiast an example of a car that will appreciate in value over time, because it’s a special limited model and only a few were manufactured. The car enthusiast may then check the dealership owners forum signature, which will include a link to his website.
This may lead to a new sale for the owner of the dealership, without selling anything directly to the car enthusiast.
Conclusion
Using the right forums as a business will lead to more traffic to your website, and at the same time you will be helping people find solutions to problems.
Important points that what we’ve covered
- Choose the right forum for your business.
- Make sure that you have read the forum rules, and regulations and follow them.
- Create a captivating profile that will engage readers.
- Add value first and earn forum users trust. Leave marketing messages for later.
- Don’t spam or become involved in any online argument.
- When outsourcing your forum marketing make sure that the content is good quality.
Hopefully this helps, please let me know if you have any further questions.
Luciano, AdventurousWealth.com
References:
Forum marketing for small businesses
How to use online forums to promote your business
8 do’s and don’ts for marketing on online forums and message boards