Group Discussion: Customers or Community?
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In our current era of internet marketing, we’re becoming bombarded with the concept of building community oriented websites. And rightly so. Facebook, Twitter and other online communities are bringing in users by the millions. Communities are where it’s at.
But the customers pay the bills. So why waste time focusing on those who are only at your site to chit-chat when you can give some special attention to the ones who are lining your pockets with cash.
So here’s the question and today you get to be the judge: Who do you focus on, your customers or your community?
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 200 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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30 Vibrant Comments
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Derek Jensen said:
I focus on my community because they inspire and give me insight into what I need to accomplish next.
If I had customers and were to focus on them, I feel I could just focus on the community and they would still be happy. They obviously benefited from the community and my content.
And when focusing on customers I feel we lose passion and fun when focusing on customers because when I try to engage a whole community it takes more effort and passion in my content that if I were to do the same with my customers.
I would see my customers as the leaders of the community who have already been engaged and just need some reminders every now and then.
If you want more customers you better focus on your community.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
You make great points, Derek, but if you ignore your customers for the sake of maintaining your passion for community then think about this. Don’t you think that your clients…those people who are paying for your services…don’t they deserve to get a great value for their money. If they’re paying then shouldn’t they get the premium attention?
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Derek Jensen said:
Yes, they should should get the premium content. So then you should make sure your customers are happy and then your community should be happy.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
i think you should focus on adding value to your customers to the extent that they will demand that they pay you for something more in depth like a private coaching or membership site.
And talking of membership sites, why don’t you ask them if they would be interested?
Dana @ Blogging Update said:
Why do not We focus to convert community member become our best costumers?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Of course that’s a great goal and you can certainly do accomplish it by building your credibility and building up a strong level of trust with your community.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
Dana,
some community members are so smart that they can glean enough information and go and apply it to their situations rather than buy anything.
Atimes, your readers might not just be able to afford it. I know an A-list blogger that had to create a cheaper version of his products so that the readers who could not afford the more expensive version could buy.
But this was based on popular demand though.
Latief@AnotherBlogger said:
Agree with Dana, in offline activities some people love to hanging around on communities with he’s/her product. These people always looking for people hanging out. Turn your communities friends in to your customer is really a great idea.
What do you think Nick?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I agree that it’s a great idea but it’s also important to note that some members of the community will never be customers but they can still provide value through other means like recommending your site and your products and such.
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saad @ Make Online Money said:
For me the ultimate goal is of course to gain monetary benefits. But for this end to be met focusing on and developing a particular community can be a good idea.
Not focusing only on online community is because here in my country we already enjoy the luxuries of physical interaction with our family, friends, cousins e.t.c so definitely virtual community does not come in our top priorities
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Jordan Cooper said:
As I said recently on my blog – if you’re looking to make money blogging, you must prioritize customers (people that buy things) over all else.
Even if you’re not in the monetization stage as of yet, saying that all your readers are potential customers is likely incorrect. Just as with any target market, some demographics will be more prone to buy your product than others. So why not focus your attention on them? (while still caring about your other readers, of course)
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I think it’s important to balance your time but always remember that your community can bring you terrific value by driving traffic to you and your products so they certainly shouldn’t be forgotten about.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
i partly agree Jordan but it would have been better if the segmentation had been done before starting the blog. That way, only your potential customers will be the ones visiting.
Believe me few things are worse than having a chunk of your readers leave your log due to neglect and it won’t just end there. They will spread the word like a plague on forums, in blog posts etc.
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Shane said:
If I may, I would like to bring up the concept of the “free-line”. It’s not mine (sadly), I think Eben Pagan coined this term.
The free-line is the line that separates the things you give away for free from the things you charge for.
Very commonly, the free line is placed after a short report or ebook (e.g. “Get the 5 Simple Strategies report for free!”). Anyone can download and read it and for a more extensive report or further services, they have to pay.
I think customers vs. community is about where you place the free-line.
If you push your free-line back (offer more stuff and more valuable stuff for free), the community portion of your readership will grow and they will create more buzz around you and your brand. Some of the community will transition to customers, but of course, never all of them.
But basically: Community = buzz creators, customers = money.
Pagan himself has perfected this, giving away stuff for free that others might charge a lot of money for, but then doing things like holding $10′000-a-pop seminars with his most dedicated customers.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s a terrific concept and I’ve never actually developed that thought out before. I really like it. I’m definitely going to spend some time thinking more about that concept. Thanks for bringing the great value here. I appreciate it.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
I believe that if you have a niche blog and give your best value to your readers and they see that, they will naturally evolve into buyers. This what happened to Pat Flynn and Alex Jeffereys – organically, readers practically begged them to create products that they would buy and so, they did and SOLD like crazy.
Morale of the story – Niche Blog, Super Value, organic Demand, UberSales.
Cheers.
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Ana Goncalves said:
Nicholas,
I feel it is important to focus on each individual within the wider picture of the community, to understand what community you have created. Sometimes what you envision as a community may not be in fact that, because of the lack of integration or communication in that group.
The customer part of it falls in place when you interact with people, and that can often be natural, or constructed.
I think treating people as a mass can have it’s downfalls because it creates segregation at some point.
Each individual plays a bigger part of the puzzle, and whether that is within a community setting or not, it always has the greatest value.
Good to be back!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Those are some fantastic thoughts. Everyone is a piece in the puzzle and we’ve got to be working to figure out where everyone belongs.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
Yes Ana,
You’re so right. I once read a Philip Kotler Book on Marketing and he was EMPHASIZING on demographic segmentation of a community and then creating products that meet their needs even within the larger community.
And no greater example than the new Disney movie “The Black Princess” a remake of the Princess and the Frog.
Cheers
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Ron Leyba said:
My choice: community first. Although at first, you can’t really attract much customers when trying to build a great community. But when the time comes that you already had a great community, customers and clients will follow along. This is a long term success.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
Well, i somewhat agree.
I think there are various points of view. Digg was not profitable using the same community model and Amazon wasn’t running losses for about 7 years before declaring profit.
The challenge is to make customers by. That’s why Sir Rich. Branson is the go-to guy if you want to learn how to do turn a community into a community of buyers.
But no community, no buyers anyway.
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Ron Leyba said:
Never knew Sir Rich Branson but I will check him out. That’s quite true that when there’s no community, there will be no buyers at all. I love the fact and the idea behind turning your community into loyal buyers or customers. I think this is a long term success if I can make it to that point.
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marshall | genverters.com said:
Community first. Doesn’t everyone want to be part of one? When someone in it finds something really cool or valuable (your product?) they always share their experience with – The Community!
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
Yep! you are very right but a community of buyers is what keeps a business flourishing.
For Instance, i read that FB loses some serious millions yearly and that it might be acquired by investment bankers like Digg was
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
It is the true business genius that can convert the chit-chatters to passionate customers. It’s been done before. Check out WAYN – a profitable travel social network.
WAYN is an acronym for Where Are You Now?
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Keith said:
This seems to be a great topic over the last week or so, and Jordan’s write up was great on this topic.
I own a fence products website, and I have a few repeat customers, but mainly one time purchases. I tend to put any potential customer to the “front of the line” because of that.
Just to verify, a “potential customer” is one that has contacted me for a quote or with questions, not just a visitor to my site.
On my other blog (hotblogtips) I don’t have any services or products (yet, planned over next 6mos though), but when I do, I think it is best to balance time between readers and paying customers, but a paying customer wins every time.
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Olusegun Adedokun said:
Definitely Keith.
The truth is none of us is Santa Claus.
I think a lot of bloggers are not sure of how to take the next step – converting readers into buyers.
I once heard blogger say he’s got a friend with a design based blog that gets 1,000,000 views a month earn just $4000 for Google Ads !!
I wish i could trade visitors with the dude
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Eric said:
I strongly feel you should give your customers more attention as they’re the ones putting money in your pocket. However, without the community getting the attention they deserver, they may not turn into customers later on if and when they’re able to.
Something to think about also.
Give attention where it’s deserved… Community and customers get the same over all but the customers get more. However, community should not be neglected at all considering they make up who your next customers could be.
Yeah I believe I just entirely repeated myself but that’s worth the point I’m making.
What does everyone think of this idea?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric » I like that attitude. We should give customers the attention that they deserve to get value for their money but at the same time we don’t want to neglect our community.
Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks said:
I think it’s natural and obvious that we should treat customers a little bit more special and extra than the ordinary community. After all, they are the ones who keep you, who keep us all running and they are to thank to maintain the blog and the blog community.
However, community~credibility and authority, so the rest of the people must not be ignored too
It’s a tricky question you asked, it really made me think about it.
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