When It’s Appropriate to Energize Your Communities of Influence While using members of your communities can be a powerful strategy, they are not always the right choice for every situation. Here’s how to decide when to use someone in your network over other marketing and sales tactics: · Brand Awareness Campaigns vs. Communities of Influence Strategy: If the goal is to build massive brand awareness across a broad market, tactics like digital advertising, PR campaigns, and content marketing may be more appropriate. Leveraging a third party is most effective in situations where you need targeted trust-building with specific individuals or groups, especially in industries where credibility and relationships are key to closing deals. For example, running LinkedIn ads might be effective to create broad visibility but a well-placed recommendation from one of your connections can build the personal trust needed to engage or convert a high-value prospect. ·Inbound Marketing vs. Communities of Influence Strategy: Inbound marketing, with tactics like SEO, blogging, and lead nurturing, is ideal for attracting potential buyers who are already searching for solutions. An influencer/expert strategy works better when a company needs to tap into new networks or gain traction in an unfamiliar market. Inbound strategies typically take time to build, while your connections can provide immediate access to the right people. · Cold Outreach vs. Communities of Influence Strategy: Cold emails or calls can be effective in some cases, especially for high-volume, low-value sales. However, for high-stakes, high-value transactions where relationship-building and trust are essential, members of the right network can provide a warm introduction that can significantly improve conversion rates. Cold outreach can often feel impersonal but connections who have established rapport can provide a smoother, more credible entry point.
· Trade Shows or Events vs. Communities of Influence Strategy: In-person events like trade shows are excellent for networking and generating new contacts but a communities of influence strategy can help in follow-up and long-term relationship-building. For example, while a trade show may help introduce your company to a broad audience, engaging a network member after the event can reinforce credibility and help push those contacts further into the pipeline. The key takeaway is that communities of influence are most valuable when trust, credibility, and relationship-building are critical to the customer buying process. They should be used when direct access to decision-makers is necessary.
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