One of the most effective ways to promote your idea or product online is through forum marketing. Using a forum as part of your marketing efforts is a good way to get people visiting your site. Then, once they are there, you will have the opportunity to give them more in-depth information about whatever it is that you’re offering. But before you jump in, you need to be aware that building relationships on any forum is of the utmost importance. Here are a few things to keep in mind when using a forum for marketing purposes.
A forum is basically an online community of people that exchange messages online. Forums are usually centered around a particular topic, giving you the chance to target the right market. However, you need to be an established member of a forum before people will respond to you.
The first thing you need to do is register for the forum you wish to target. Fill in the information as completely as possible, but do not start plastering your link everywhere. If you do, you will be telling people you are only there to advertise. Now, that may be exactly why you’re there, but you don’t want to give that impression. Some forums also allow you to have a signature line where you put a link to the site of your choice. However, every forum is different so be sure you read and understand all the rules before adding a signature.
Posting is how you interact with people. You should take a few days to read the forum before you make your first post. Once you get a feel for how members interact with one another, you can either start threads of your own, or reply to threads started by others. Even though your ultimate goal is forum marketing, you need to do your best to interact with people in a friendly way. That means sharing your experiences, opinions and advice in a way that adds value to the community. Do not mention your offer in your posts (don’t even hint at it), at least not for a while. Also, if you are allowed to have a signature at the end of your posts do not say thinks like “check my sig for more info”, as this will mark you as a spammer.
The real key is to build up a solid reputation within the community. This takes time and can’t be faked. You start creating your reputation with your very first post, and every post thereafter. As you start to gain more status within the community, you will notice that your signature links get more clicks. You may also find that people contact you privately through the forum looking for help. If they ask you privately, then you can point them to your offer.
Forum marketing isn’t an autopilot solution, but it is incredibly powerful. There are some marketers who rely heavily on forums to generate income. As long as you go about it the right way, you can do very well with it.