How to use online communities for market research
Last week I. wrote about how to make sure that your outward-facing messaging was customer-centric, and this week I’m exploring how to use online communities to enhance your understanding of your customers, and their needs and wants.
Over the weekend, I was reminded that online communities can be a rich treasure-trove of information about your ICA including:
Spending time in online communities and groups where your ideal clients congregate is a great way to find out more about their needs, wants, painpoints, objections and perceptions.
Photography by Thought Catalog via Unsplash.
their assumptions about your profession and the range of services you offer;
their fears about engaging an architect;
their misconceptions about the cost/value of using an architect;
their reasons for working with another type of design/delivery professional; and
whether they’d recommend an architect for a particular project type.
There are plenty of Facebook Groups for home builders and renovators, where members are people who are researching before undertaking a new project, often located within a particular geographic area. And there are groups based around professional interests on LinkedIn that offer similar access to your ICA.
What’s a good example of an online community that architects can access?
One such Facebook group is Renovating Mums Sydney, which boasts more than 9,000 members, and also has a website and blog, and an email newsletter for subscribers.
The rules of the group prevent me from sharing content outside the group (most online groups are like Fightclub in that respect!) but several recent posts – and the responses they generated – provided an incredible array of insights, information and data about the perceptions, assumptions, beliefs and objections of that particular online community in relation to architects and architecture.
Gaining access to this type of actual feedback and commentary from your ideal customer around their issues, concerns, pain points and objections, can be nearly as useful as conducting your own surveys and putting out requests for testimonials.
Because when you have this information – whether from your own clients or a group of your ideal customers – you can start to create content such as social media captions, blog posts, even publication and awards entries that addresses their stated concerns, and dispels any misconceptions using evidence and case studies based on your past projects.
How you can apply what you learn in online communities?
Armed with this direct knowledge about what your ideal customers think and believe, you can develop content that describes:
how your practice and service delivers much more value over time than the upfront cost;
how the delivery of great architecture extends beyond the initial “design” and DA process;
how architects collaborate with builders, other consultants and experts to create the best result for each client and site;
and you can respond to particular objections and assumptions that your ideal customers express about using an architect.
It’s important to remember though, that being part of an online group is not all about take, take, take. You can also be generous with your knowledge while staying within the rules around self-promotion, which is usually banned.
Engaging with your ICA directly in online groups gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as a subject matter expert in your chosen sectors, and may even lead to new clients, especially if your past clients are also members of the same groups, and recommend your services.
How you add value as an architect, in online groups?
Let me give you an example from my business. Yesterday, a member of a Copywriting group that I belong to asked for some suggestions about her new freelance business, so I conducted a quick review of her website and provided some personalised feedback, and pointed her towards some useful free and paid resources, based on my own experience of working in the same sector.
She was grateful for my input and now has some new avenues to explore in her business. Is she going to engage me in future? Unlikely, because we work in the same space. Might she recommend my services to one of her clients? Maybe; time will tell. Will other people in the group benefit from my input and expertise. Most probably.
So, depending on your appetite for joining and engaging in online communities – you might already be a member of local groups in your neighbourhood, or school or sporting-based groups – you could do some research about communities that serve your professional needs and your ideal customers.
I’m not talking about groups made up of your peers and the profession, which of course do exist and are valuable for different reasons. Ideally you’re searching for Facebook or LinkedIn groups whose members are your ideal customers, and that serve your target geographic area.
As a guide, again from my business, I’m a member of Facebook groups for freelance journalists, copywriters, and business owners; as well as Future Women, which is for women in business and leadership (and carries a small monthly subscription fee); and several architecture- and design-based groups for homeowners and renovators.
Through these forums, I learn plenty about my ideal customers, and my customers’ ideal customers, and I’m happy to share my own knowledge and experiences to help others.
If you decide to opt in to these data-rich sources of free market research, be sure to abide by the group’s rules, and remember to give as much as you take.
Want more tips on how to market your practice?
Download our brochure about how to build a pipeline of clients and projects you love, by clicking on this link.
And get in touch to let me know – by commenting below or sending me an email – if you’ve gleaned some useful market research insights from any online communities you already belong to, or if you have any other suggestions about how to learn more about what your future clients need and want, that you’re happy to share.