In this day and age of gamification and offering people the low-hanging fruit in order to score a sale, enroll an online-course participant or gain members for a cause, online groups or online communities are the perfect tool for marketing.
E-Mail Funnels vs. Online Communities
More commonly, marketing used to be done using sales funnels or e-mail marketing tools with automation and a complex set of features. On top of these tools, the use of online groups or online communities is a great way to both acquire customers or leads and then also retain them: groups or communities are great at doing CRM (customer-relations management).
A Great Alternative to Facebook
One of the best tools or platforms for running online groups or online communities is Skool.com. Unlike ads-based Facebook with its infamous data mining business and dismal privacy track-record, Skool.com comes as a distraction-free environment that much better facilitates learning or any other type of quality-based content. Just as the saying goes. Youtube is for finding information but Facebook is for killing time you might say that Skool.com is for focused learning and seriouis communities while Facebook is about distraction for Facebooks own sakes.
Steer Clear of Facebook: Here’s Why
Facebook’s business is selling ad space and making users spend as much time as possible on the platform. To achieve this, Facebook floods users with “news”, “interesting” bits of info, or “funny” images all the time. Skool.com is built without these distractions, yet it is equally FREE to use for participants (but the platform charges Group owners a monthly flat fee; this is how Skool.com makes money without data mining and without privacy invasions).
Integrate Your Marketing with Sales Funnels and Online Communities
Marketing and CRM can be integrated using both options together: e-mail automation on one hand and online groups or online communities on the other. We will get into more detail on recommended tools for this, beyond Skool.com for groups and communities here.
