We live in the greatest time ever to do business than ever in our history. The fact that I can work in my home, in a regional area two and a half hours north of Sydney, Australia and I’m able to serve tens of thousands of people around the world because I’ve got an internet connection. That to me is just incredible.
And that’s an amazing opportunity that all business owners have, that is that we now have a global opportunity to connect and serve and reach people. That’s a most exciting thing in my opinion and it gives us an opportunity as business owners to get away from one on one and now being able to serve on a one to many basis.
There are many businesses who would never have thought of building an online community, whether it’s gated, membership based or not. They might think it’s outside of their core competency and isn’t worth doing.
The reality is that your market is gathering somewhere anyway. So my question would be “Wouldn’t you rather invite them over to your place to have those conversations?”. When your market is gathering in a market that you control, it’s an opportunity for you to:
It is considerably more beneficial for businesses to own the platform that our customers hang out on rather than to rely on facebook or twitter because you get a greater level of insight and control relating to the conversation. Your own platform is an environment that you control and can shape however you want.
Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn are all great platforms for reaching out to people but the reality is we don’t control them. This means business owners are limited by the restrictions those platforms place on us. When you own your own platform and your own community, there are no limitations. You can measure anything you want, survey any way you want, engage any way you want. This can give you a significant advantage over your competition. By mobilising people in a way that suits your purposes but is mutually beneficial to your community, it immediately differentiates you.
In addition, building a community can help you get out of the mindset of trading time for dollars. You can reach a wider, even global audience that are specifically interested in and served by your niche. This means you can also create a more scaleable business model.
If you implement various levels of membership with added value at each level, business owners can also develop a recurring income model from your community by charging on a monthly or annual basis for your value added content or services. A recurring revenue model can reduce the impact of seasonality and launch fatigue on your business, as well as allow business owners to have the confidence to plan and resource more consistently throughout the year.
Still not convinced that building a community is right for your business or industry? Here are a few unexpected examples to show you that all you need is a bit of creativity and action to create a successful community or membership model in your business:
The 8 key reasons to start a membership site:
One final thought for companies that think that building a community and membership site is outside their core competency and not worth doing … If YOU don’t, who will? Will your competition become the thought leaders in your industry and command the attention of your market or will you? The best time to start building your community is now.