Create a whole hearted community!

W&W.com forum and messageboard

WheelsandWood.com Forum

Most experts these days will tell you that if you want to be able to sell your products/services you must have some sort of loyal following, whether it be through a newsletter or via social bookmarking means like twitter. Having a good targeted customer base is very important, because ultimately those are the people who will purchase things from you and if they are faithful will probably tell their friends.

Now, there are many ways to gather a list of followers, you could do things such as host contests through your blog, give away free merchandise, but all in all these methods are mainly a one way street. Although blogs have a comment system, people are not as inclined to comment and join in on a discussion than if they were say members on a forum alongside other users who share the same interests.

Some may think that creating a forum is just a whole lot of trouble for nothing, they don’t believe that the forum could prosper and increase their conversions in the long run, so they don’t even bother. Well establishing a successful or semi successful forum (because that’s all you really need) is easier than you might think. Say you are an e-commerce business bringing in sales of about $3000 a month, maybe 10% of those customers weren’t just one time, one off customers? Maybe they constantly need that product or service, and MAYBE that product or service is their livilyhood and/or interest?. Well what is a better way to feed their interests than a community of people that are fond of the same thing? These customers WILL join and begin sharing their thoughts and feelings therefore staying loyal to your product because they begin to feel a belonging to the community and your brand. Ergo without realizing you may have a LOYAL customer on your hands, who not only buys your products but also recommends them to their friends and relatives,  why? you might ask. All because they feel part of a similar niche community.

And lets not forget, all those customers that decided to become members on your messageboard, gave you their email address upon sign up? I’m not saying you should start sending unsolicited spam, but most members would appreciate and update of whats been happening around the forum with a newsletter. WITH this newsletter you can then start indirectly pushing your products.

In conclusion, whether it be a forum, blog,  myspace page, or a twitter account one of the key aspects of increasing your sales is to develop a following of consumers. In this case through the means of a forum you can establish a very loyal customer base that will not hesistate to purchase from you, as you begin to look like a familiar face, someone they can relate to, somebody nice.  Why do you think all the big stores and business’ always appear to be acting so kind and humble, convincing you that the customer comes first? It’s not like that they care, it’s so that one may acquire the illusion of familiarity, hence making him/her less hesistant to purchase a product.

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