The Value of Vertical Communities

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The Value of OnlineVertical Communities

Helping Meaningful

Customer Segments Succeed

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What is a Vertical Community?

• A vertical online community is an environment where customers and their vendors come together to help each other succeed.

• Vertical communities reflect meaningful customer segments. The more narrowly defined, the more relevant the content, the more value they provide to all parties.

• Communities facilitate interactions that are both synchronous and asynchronous, and also in person.

• Successful communities must be based on candor, trust, helpfulness, and discretion.



Community Drivers & Enablers

• Technology:– There are more digital “feeds” of information than ever before with

more people watching, reading and participating in those feeds– Cross-channel integration of feeds– Explosion of devices enabling 24/7, location agnostic feed access– Cloud computing– Measurement and analysis tools

• Culture:– Far greater willingness of participants to engage and share content– Content Creation has become democratized– Age of the Customer: customer empowerment– Socialization of marketing– More unity between IT and marketing



Challenges Addressed

• Customer Challenges– Lack of responsiveness from

vendor– Frustration using purchased

products– Long learning curves– Use of expensive consultants to

succeed– No or little acknowledgement from

vendor of suggestions, ideas or complaints

– No way to learn purchase criteria or best practices from other customers

– No community recognition of good ideas/suggestions

• Vendor Challenges– High cost of support– No brand loyalty– Limited referrals– Unclear how to be customer-

focused– Unclear how to “do” & measure

customer engagement– Difficult to learn what customers

want/need– Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities

not based on knowledge of customers

– Customers expect to interact with vendors online 24x7

– Less than satisfactory search results



Benefits of Vertical Communities

• Customer Benefits

– Responsiveness from vendor

– Ensure success in use of product(s)

– Build expertise and domain knowledge

– Easier access to broader pool of subject matter experts

– Feedback heard and magnified with potentially greater impact

– Learn new approaches from other customers

– Recognition

• Vendor Benefits

– Reduced support cost

– Increased loyalty, support for brand

– Makes being customer-focused a reality

– Source for innovative product, service and business model ideas

– A place to float new ideas to customers

– Cross-sell and up-sell opportunities based on customer knowledge

– Unity driver for IT and marketing

– Analytics – of members, as a reason to build community

– Employee community



Dimensions of Vertical Communities

• The value of the web lies at the intersection of content, community and commerce. Communities will vary on the degree to which they emphasize each depending on purpose.

– Training & support

– Customer experience

– Word-of-Mouth referrals

– Purchase decisions and sales

Content

Commerce

Community



Measuring Success• Community success metrics include:

– Revenue tracked back to community members– Referrals by community members to prospective customers– Revenue generated directly or indirectly by ads, sponsorship,

membership fees– Reduction in customer support costs– More efficient/faster close rate– Number of visits and members, free and premium– Active participation of community members/engagement– Improved brand reputation– Improved customer satisfaction– Amount of User-Generated Content (UGC) and user comments– Amount of third-party tweeting, posting, links, etc.



Core Processes

• There are several processes that must be defined and managed for a vertical community to succeed.



Vertical Community Participants

• Host company: marketing, sales, support, IT, product development, executive management

• SMEs – bloggers, journalists, technologists• Content catalysts• Evangelists• Participants• Lurkers• Rabble rousers• Problem solvers• Problem sufferers



Pathways to Community Engagement

•Email/newsletters•Twitter•Customer support•Traditional marketing•Events

•Twitter•Facebook•LinkedIn•Blogs•YouTube•Bookmark sites•Virtual Events

Vendor

Customers

Social Media

Direct Contact

Vertical Community

Traditional marketing and social media marketing must be integrated in order to maximize the effectiveness of both.



How to Stimulate Engagement

• Develop a deep understanding of the audience through demographics, psychographics, support and education needs, problems and challenges, satisfaction with status quo, and others

• Narrow the focus and purpose of the community

• Create & maintain relevant content– Content sources include internal, external, user generated (UGC), crowd sourced

• Add new content on a regular schedule & promote its availability

• Recognize and reward UGC and referrals

• Use multiple social media platforms AND traditional marketing to drive traffic to community



Attitudes for Community Success

• Host– Customer centric– Open-minded– Candid– Listening– Helpful– Staff are empowered to

address issues– Committed to convictions– Willing to recognize

contributors– Clearly set customer

experience expectations– Shares “ownership” of

vertical community

• Participants– Supportive– Candid– Collegial– Willing to provide content

and insight– Take “ownership” of vertical

community



Target Company Attributes• Products / Services

– Have complex products/services

– Offer products/services that can be customized

– Customization requires users to have significant knowledge

– Evolutionary: products/services can be co-created in collaboration with customers.

– Products/services that have commodity or near commodity status but can be used in innovative ways

• Operational– Growth in customer base taxing support

staff and budget

– Want to provide customers with access to expertise 24/7/365

– Want to augment existing support capabilities without driving substantial budget increases

• Customer Attributes– Want access to expertise 24/7/365

– New to product/service or upgrading

– Want insight into performance metrics and value

– What is impact of product/service on customers’ culture

– New staff need to get acclimated quickly

• Brand– Care about customer loyalty, referrals,

satisfaction, levels of engagement

– Want a platform to address issues being discussed socially

– Want a platform to announce new initiatives

– Want a platform to gather real-time feedback

– Care about reputation management

– Want regularly, high value contact with customers and prospects



Target Company Commitments

• Internal culture– Every action taken tells customers their

value

– Listen more than talk/push

– Embrace customers teaching & helping each other

– Deliver what is promised

– Organization structure driven by what’s best for customer

– Committed to customer centricity

• Internal processes– Integrate community insights with

traditional databases

– Integrate into existing marketing, sales & support messaging

– Sales, marketing, IT & support participation in development & information sharing

• Customer experience– Interactions = moments of truth when

customer learns if promises made will be kept

– Employees are empowered to care for customers

– Experiences should match the level of importance, value, meaning of the interaction

• Technology enablement– Driven by internal culture, internal

processes and customer experience



Developing Vertical Communities

Community

Assessment

• Market research and analysis

• Define community segments

• Identify strategic opportunities

• Prioritize segment needs

• Define success metrics

Community Design

• Define benefits

• Define supporting features

• Look and feel

• Define needed content

Community Implementation

• Determine best technology platform

• Build out community platform

• Content acquisition and/or creation

• Identify and incorporate measurement tools

• Recruit members

Community Management

• Marketing and social media strategy design and implementation

• Editorial review

• Content acquisition and/or creation

• Success measurement and analysis

• Capture community innovation ideas

• Retain members

• Primary research with members



Thank you.

Harry Klein

Customer Engagement Strategies1-781-559-8202

[email protected]

Twitter: @CustEngagement



mailto:[email protected]

http://www.twitter.com/custengagement

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The Value of Vertical Communities

Business

community employee community

vertical online community

community members referrals

content content creation

customer support costs

new content

relevantthe content

usergenerated content