Three metrics that can boost your business

The above cartoon is an example of today’s businesses how they take their decisions based on data analytics and not just intuition. as numbers give you the power to make better decisions for the business and have better marketing strategies in place. the below three metrics that should be measured and kept an eye on are important for the website that your business has.

The first metric that is important for your website is –

Conversion rate and goal completion- for any website to measure its success there has to be a goal first that what the website is intending to do and then comes conversion rate which is the follow on step once your website goals are designed. doesn’t matter if the purpose of the website is to educate your customer or lead to a sale there should be an call to action that customers should take after visiting the website only then the goal is achieved. it could be subscribing for the newsletter or trying out the free samples or purchasing the product on the first visit with some discount offered by purchasing that instant. the two tools that can be utilized to understand your website metrics can be google analytics and KISSmetrics.

The second metric that is a helping hand for the first one is-

Back link profile- it is the link connecting your website to some other webpage.there are two types good ones and bad ones. you should be aware of the bad one metrics. like visitors are taken to porn sites after coming and clicking on your website. this can be accessed through Majestic SEO or other third party SEO tools. this is important as search engines can penalize you if your back link was coming from a site solely built for the SEO. you will know if the search engine has penalized you via the reduction in the website traffic or decrease in the search result rankings.

The third and most important one to keep a track of is-

Customer Engagement- this is most important as this will lead to more conversions and increase in traffic of your website. to engage the customer first you need to understand your customer as a any customer online is faceless and profile is not known clearly but once they visit your website you need engaging methods to keep them longer or push them to take the action of purchase or subscribe to your newsletter. this metric is also important as your website is the first step to know your brand. make sure the content on your website is neat and interesting. you can have a poll where it can be relevant to your business or the industry your business is in.  include a freebie option as every person likes free gifts. have live chat option to know what is the customer looking for. have social media plugins as customers will generate the buzz for your brand and bring in more traffic. have discussion forums giving them a chance to speak out and leave their ideas or comments this is a good idea as every human being likes getting attention and importance.

to sum it up, it is very important to measure metrics as you get clear picture of what is happening with your website and business which in turn helps you to make strategies for your business.

References- https://thenextscoop.com/increase-customer-engagement-website/

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224291

 

 

PALIKKATAKOMO – an effective brand community in terms of engagement and empowerment

All of you are wondering what does the above word mean? It translates to Brickbuilders in English.

This community is a platform where Finnish LEGO enthusiasts who are recognized but not sponsored by LEGO brand, engages other LEGO enthusiast in Finland. In this post I will walk you through how other new communities can learn from this community to engage and empower its members Below a video link from their Expo to give you an idea.

3 building blocks of this community

Sense of belonging- for this community the first thing that u need to have to belong is have a craze for LEGO bricks their history and this like-mindedness connects the community in one big thread. Members discuss and share new ideas about LEGO spreading the buzz about what is happening in the world of LEGO. Activities and sharing has led to members gaining organisation skills, trust cooperation and courage.

Presence of shared rituals and traditions – after this belonging is established the next step is to share the rituals, here older member welcome new members and assist them in learning about the brand history orient them with the values and norms of the community, rules of the online forum like a proper functioning organisational culture.

Sense of moral responsibility– the third and important building block that keeps the members accountable is bringing a sense of moral responsibility. The member’s purpose or goal is to mingle with other members and assisting other members in the proper use of LEGO products.

Collective Value creation in the community

There are 4 known practices in which brand communities create value and Palikkatokamo has strategically used the following to create value that has ultimately lead to the community growing and becoming popular and still alive from the time it started in 2008.

The community is praised by the new members for the way its members do social networking as they positively welcome and govern the community with good overall team spirit. The highlight is members also deal with non brand issues like if any member is dealing with illness or young teenage members are being bullied, the older members guide them with how to deal with it this creates and trust and loyalty towards the community.

Internal impression management occurs when the members share news about LEGO in the forum and encourage them to use original LEGO bricks and not getting tempted to use the pirate brick no matter what. One of the member acts as a LEGO ambassador who maintains communications between the LEGO hobbyists and LEGO Company. External impression management occurs when the community takes part in the events where they recruit new members and gain media attention which will create buzz about the community and attract new members in the future.

Community engagement is done beautifully by the community leaders by running the forum online by discussions, sharing ideas and supporting members. The community also participates in global events, community can build a large stand structure with the bricks collection all members have. They have effective Skype and doodle platform through which the activities are organised. members in other country can discuss with members in Finland and also travel for the events held in Finland.  Below website link to see how the community functions.

http://palikkatakomo.org/static/esittely

 

This community has a major activity to practice Brand use and development is to modify the products and create new ideas, one of the members developed a platform called basebrick.com where the members can maintain their inventory of the bricks digitally. This is an exemplary example of how a brand can grow its legacy with such ideas of brand use. The ambassador project is another way where members guide the members about taking care of their LEGO collection in terms of insurance or regular wash and care.

Overall this community is a successful example of how the brand communities can build and grow their brand through the foundations and tools mentioned above. But the key is every community has to be authentic to their core values and maintaining and expressing that authenticity to attract loyal members who will keep the community alive and act as brand champions.

Reference- Kurikko, H., & Tuominen, P. (2012). Collective Value Creation and Empowerment in an Online Brand Community: A Netnographic Study on LEGO Builders. Technology Innovation Management Review, 2(6), 12-17.

 

 

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