Building a world class community requires that you plan for the user’s second visit. Users will come the first time to have a specific information need met. They will come back a second and subsequent time if they can engage in community activities.
When companies are launching communities, they need to think beyond the initial visit and think about how they can ensure that users come back again. They need to figure out how they can allow visitors to see that there are other people that they can engage with around their common interest and that there are people with whom relationships can be formed with over subsequent visits. All communities, even those with a primary business objective of providing customer support, should have the same goal of repeat visits – even when everything related to the product or service is fine.
If you put yourself in the shoes of your prospective member, a wide range of possibilities open up. Try asking:
- What do they do with my product/service once they purchase it?
- What interests them? What passions do they have related to my company’s offering?
- What pains do they experience on a regular basis?
- How could they benefit from being in a relationship with others like them?
I can only imagine that the people at Fiskars asked themselves these types of questions when they created their community of “Fiskateers". This global manufacturer of the trademarked orange-handled scissors focused their community on a passion of many of their customers – crafting. By enabling crafters to establish relationships in their community and foster the sharing of ideas and tips, Fiskars was able to realize significant business benefits and become the owner of one of the most effective “fan communities” in practice. They reportedly have:
- Significantly reduced Fiskars’ advertising expenses
- Increased chatter around their brand by 600%
- Generated 13 new product ideas per month
- Increased sales 300%
Fiskars was able to achieve these results not because they asked for direct feedback about issues people had with their scissors and other cutting instruments. They achieved these results because they focused on the second visit – the establishment of community. This is just an overview of the importance of getting your users to come back a second time; additional tactics that can be used to encourage repeat visits are highlighted in the first white paper in this series.