Marketing 101: Engaging in Forum Marketing

Anyone who has used the internet has, at the very least, posted a message or a reply in an internet forum. Others are certified forum junkies whose days are not complete without a visit to their favorite forum and engage others in online conversations.

Forums are, in essence, online venues where people can engage in conversation on just about anything and everything under the sun. They’re online communities where people with the same interests (and sometimes dissimilar interests as well) exchange ideas, opinions, news, information, tips, tactics, recipes, hints, jokes, etc. Just about every site on the net has a forum page (or pages). Other sites, on the other hand, are purely forum sites.

Forums are great sources of customers for companies especially if targeted. However, getting customers from forums is difficult with the hard sell technique. Marketers and advertisers are the bane of forums. Many mods (moderators) diligently police their forums against advertisers and marketers (which they consider spammers) to protect their forum readers and posters from unsolicited information and selling messages. It’s easy for a mod to delete a hard sell message. Worse, the poster of the message can also be blacklisted!

However, if done correctly and within forum rules, forum marketing can be a big boost to a company’s business since a powerful marketing element inherent in the forum can be exploited – word of mouth advertising. Here are some guidelines when a marketer wants to engage in forum marketing.


Build Up Your Credibility
The overall aim of forum marketing is to build up your credibility with those who are engaged with the forum – the moderators, the resident forum-posters, and all those who read and visit the forum. The idea is: if you have a credible standing in a forum, chances are people will heed what you say and believe in you. If you have an opinion for or against a product or service, those who read your posts will take your opinion into consideration when they themselves decide to purchase the product or service.

Building credibility cannot be done overnight unless you’re somebody already famous. Then again, proving that you’re the real famous person entails hard work especially with lots of doppelgangers online. You build up your credibility over time. And how to build your credibility in forums is done by following the other guidelines that follow.


Follow the Forum Rules
Before making your first post, make sure you read the forum rules. While many forum rules are formulaic in nature, it’s still better to make sure you know them to avoid any encounters with the law (the moderators). Some forums have rules on using links or URLs in your messages. Others have rules against posting contact numbers, names and addresses. Others have tight security over attachments. Be sure to know them beforehand unless you want to be kick-out or blacklisted from the forum.


Engage in Meaningful Discussions
Choose your topics, threads and forums carefully. Select those which you know you have knowledge of or can engage other forum posters in meaningful exchanges. Make sure every post you make imparts an idea, an advice or a piece of info, or a response to a post directed to you by another. In other words, contribute and not pollute.


Start an Original Topic and Not Another One
Before starting a topic, make sure to check the forum first if someone else has started a similar topic. It’s sometimes better to just join an existing thread than start a new one especially if discussion on the topic is already several pages long. If the topic has been inactive for some time, replying to it makes it active again unless the moderators have closed the topic.


Acknowledge
If you’re posting something sourced from someone or somewhere else, make sure to acknowledge your source. Let your fellow forum-posters know that you got this piece of news from this newspaper or television show. Tell people that it was this person who said this quote or line. Remember, stealing, even if it’s information, is a sin.


Use Subliminal and In-Content Marketing
When writing your forum posts, you can soft-sell your product or service via subliminal and in-content marketing. Try to integrate your selling message within the context of the post but be careful not to be blatant about it. A way of integrating your subliminal and in-content marketing is by first imparting pertinent info then segueing into your selling message, making it appear as a testimonial, or a recommendation.

There is no definite structure to doing this (unless you start the thread or topic) as it really depends on the flow of the exchanges. But in essence, your selling message should not be a hard-sell of your product or service otherwise readers will easily identify this as spam.


Be Courteous and Polite
As with real-world conversations, when engaging others the forums, be courteous and polite. Say hello to start a post. DO NOT SHOUT and use ALLCAPS only when stressing or emphasizing points and ideas and not the entire message. Avoid engaging others in heated exchanges and always try to maintain a neutral tone in your messages when replying to avoid pro-longing the conflict. If you need to retort, retort politely. Do not insult or use defamatory words.


Advertise with your Signature and Avatar
Some forums allow users to attach their own signatures (a line of text you can add after every message) and avatars (images, icons or graphics that appear below your screen name). You can use these to subliminally market your product or service.

Signatures are either static or dynamic. Static signatures appear as plain, unclickable text while dynamic signatures can be hyperlinked to a website. If the forum allows for static signatures then use the website URL followed by a short but catchy phrase:

Example: www.MegaSportsWorld.com – Sports to the Next Level!

If the forum allows for a dynamic signature then you can be more creative with your phrase. Be sure to check that clicking on your signature brings you to the correct website.

Example: Take Your Sports to the Next Level!

In the case of avatars, some forums allow avatars to be hyperlinked. If they do, make sure the image you put is hyperlinked correctly. Alternatively, you can use your company logo as an avatar.


Avoid the Hard Sell
This is a cardinal rule for many forums. Many forums hate marketers especially if these marketers just plan to spam the forum with selling messages, and hardcore ads. While your ads may impart information, forum readers do not like to see messages selling these and that. Be sure not to hard sell your product or service.

Some forums have special categories for selling stuff. If you plan to post hard-sell messages then be sure to place them in the correct categories.


Copyright RRagandan 2006