This week, Lee-Ann is joined on the Affiliate Marketing Podcast by Michelle Goodall. Michelle has spent 25 years in the marketing and communication industry and is currently CMO at Guild, a mobile-first platform for creating branded communities.
The ladies come together to discuss a range of affiliate marketing topics, including the Periodic Table of Community Strategy, which outlines the elements that make up a successful marketing strategy. Listen into the podcast for the full details.
How can brands build a community?
A community of affiliate marketers might be easier to come by than you would think. As Michelle says, you’ve got all the ingredients there. You just need a recipe.
Michelle said: “What you were asking about how busy program managers can build community: they’ve got the community already. They’ve got the contacts, they’ve got the stimulus and the content, they’ve got the events, they’ve got everything that they need to convene the right people into a community.”
“And what I would say is it’s not just the virtual platform, it’s also the opportunities to be able to meet people in person, whether that’s sort of virtual meetups or whether that’s events, etc. as well. … Because if you think about, you know, just email or even social media one-to-one, or any messaging at all, you are likely to have exactly the same conversation over and over and over again.”
Why is collaboration in communities important?
Collaboration has a lot of benefits. If done right in fact, it should benefit both you and your collaborators. However, communication is key in any partnership, so brands might want to think about how they are communicating with their collaborators and if that is gaining both parties as much as they want out of the relationship.
Michelle said: “One thing that I would say the secret of a good community is it’s not just another space to push out your messages, but it’s, we, so how can you do things collaboratively? And you know, that was a tactical example. Something like a quiz for example.
“But, you know, we work with a lot of, um, media owners and publishers and they talk about this thing, which is audience led publishing. So actually, the publishers who are using Guild have set up communities maybe to support their subscription models, but actually more importantly, to generate insights that allow them to go away and then write articles about things.”
What is the Periodic Table of Community Strategy?
We mentioned the Periodic Table of Community Strategy, which is Michelle’s design for effective community growth and sustenance.
As Michelle explains: “I took 25 years of community strategy and I put it onto a page and it’s something called the Periodic Table of Community Strategy.
“And it breaks everything down into the things that you need to think about on paper before you build a community. So, you know, organizational objectives, aligning it to that is really important. What type of community do you have? You know, is it a community of practice? Is it a community of product, place, play, et cetera?”
“And then how are you going to resource this internally? What are the roles for different members? What are the things that members have to do in order to be in the community and what’s that value statement for people?”
If you are interested in more affiliate and social media marketing insights, take a look at our blog for all the latest news and advice. Or for a more personalised approach, book a free call with a member of our team.
Or, for the very best advice from industry peers, register to gain access to our Amplify Action Day. Taking place in January 2023 doesn’t mean you’ve missed it. Amplify aims to bring you the latest affiliate, performance, and partner marketing insights from across the globe and it’s all available to stream from our website.
Listen to find out more about:
- The benefits of building an affiliate community
- The importance of collaboration in a community
- The importance of communication and trust in affiliate marketing
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune into go direct
[05:00] – Michelle’s history in affiliate marketing
[15:00] – What does building a community really mean?
[25:00] – Stories from former clients
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