Whether you develop your own film in the scarlet light or take your iPhone to task, photography is for everyone. Challenging one another in an online community celebrates art, the art form, and the artist.

As a professional photographer, creating an online community on your website can boost your brand awareness.  Amateur, freelance and professional photographers meet and collaborate online. Host events for viewing work, exchanging ideas, discussing capture techniques, and equipment tips. Heck! You can even host a swip-swap for equipment.

Photography Is Community Building

Photography is so personal. It captures a moment in time that can never be completely duplicated. Native tribes in North America have a belief that photography steals your soul. In some ways, portrait photography reveals your soul – emotions, lines on your face, expressions, posture.

When you begin to collaborate, however, you’re bound to change your perspective. There is a magic when two artists collaborate be it paint media, musicians, writers, or photographers. Many photographers travel. Be open about your plans. Use social media to create invitations.

Apparel companies and influencers go together like peanut butter and jelly. At least once a week, I get a comment on an Instagram post asking me to be a brand ambassador. Brand ambassadors are a great way to approach fashion marketing.

In line with this, your clothing line has built up a healthy group of brand ambassadors. They are posting on Instagram, tagging you,  and maybe even blogging. How can you empower them further?

An online community with incentives can grow your brand while empowering your ambassadors. Things like VIP badges, contests and product giveaways, and tool recommendations, all create the vibe you want.

Brand Ambassadors Like Giveaways

Go beyond discussing current trends with giveaways. Teach good branding (quality copy and photography) with contests. Challenge your ambassadors each week to accessorize with the product of the week. Highlighting a product each week aligns ambassadors with your company’s marketing strategy. The top three like-getters can win a bonus product from your company.

Take “Who Wore It Best” from the Red Carpet to your online community. Choose three Instagram posts once a month and allow the community to vote. Highlight that winner in your company’s blog and award the ambassador with a product. You get the idea.

Structured giveaways empower your ambassadors to follow best practices – without having a whole slew of rules. Don’t get me wrong; you should have basic branding guidelines.

Brand Ambassadors Like Recognition

Recognition is definitely part of brand ambassador programs and it’s no different in fashion. Besides the “Who Wore It Best” award, you can assign VIP badges in your Infinite community. Establish a clear path for ambassadors to become moderators, admins, and even authors on your company blog.

Bragging rights is a huge incentive. Allow up-and-coming independent designers to sit in with your fashion team for a day. This kind of community recognition will go far with your brand’s affinity. Brand ambassadors in fashion love the spotlight.

Empowering your brand ambassadors with education – not just recognition – is the way to mentor a new generation of fashion designers. It may even help your company down the line. Fashion, after all is fickle and dynamic.

Brand Ambassadors Like Tools

What’s the best lighting rig for selfies? How about post-production editing tools? Gadgets, software, and apps are all helpful to empower your brand ambassadors to create quality content – not just content for the sake of content.

Fashionistas can become fashion bloggers, fashion designers, and fashion critics. With the right tools, your brand ambassadors can come into their own. This will cement brand loyalty – the kind that lasts a lifetime.

Empower Your Brand Ambassadors Online

Mentor, equip, and reward your fashion company’s brand ambassadors. With Infinite, your company has all the tools to build an active online community. Create your community your way. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t start today.

Your storefront is digital; but your customer appreciation doesn’t have to be. Your online store can break the digital barrier with two words “thank you.” Those two words go a long way to express gratitude.

Online Customers are Real Customers

Your shopping experience should be as friendly online as you would like it to be offline. We tend to think that an online store isn’t real. Relationships online aren’t real. Your customers are people and they have certain expectations. They aren’t robots — at least yet.

Treat people well and they will have a warm feeling toward you. We call that affinity. Affinity leads to loyalty; loyalty leads to sales. This is human behavior, not a marketing hack.

“Thank You” are Two Powerful Words

People appreciate being, well, appreciated. They took the time to find your store, choose an item, and go through your checkout process. It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to include a hand-written thank you note.

Artisans do this often. I’ve purchased jewelry and paintings online from artists who have taken that extra step. Packaging your item as a gift makes the customer feel even more special; as if they had sent a gift to themselves. Even a “thank you” sticker makes the customer feel good.

If your product is digital, send a personalized email. You can automate it with your email marketing nurture campaign if you like. Going out of the way — especially when your eCommerce website is small in volume, will make a difference.

If you’re not sure, scroll through Instagram looking at all of the people mentioning that they received a thank you from a vendor.

How Do You Thank Your Online Customers?

We’ve talked about positive reinforcement when it comes to getting customer reviews. Thank you gifts are not that different.

It doesn’t make too much sense to send hoodies with every order. No, but at the end of the year, you can recognize affiliates and those high lifetime value customers.

“For example, handing out a swanky gift package with every order is a surefire way to blow your budget. But segmenting high value customers and sending them a handwritten note with a branded gift can cement an already positive relationship.”

Gratitude and Online Stores

You do what you practice. It’s that simple. When you feel gratitude for your customers, it will manifest in your behavior. You’ll want to randomly do something nice for them. You’ll pay it forward. You’ll donate to a cause in a customer’s name.

“Saying ‘thank you’ to your customers gives them a sense of satisfaction and demonstrates that you’re a not just a faceless corporation processing a transaction.”

What are you grateful for? How can you express it toward a customer?

Your Community and eCommerce

Your community wants your products. The products bring people to your site and the community keeps them there. With Infinite EDD and WooCommerce extensions, you can have the best of both worlds — eCommerce and Community.

Company website: check. Online community: check. Now what? You need a content marketing strategy — and content. How about some easy tips to help form a consistent content marketing plan? We have your back.

Publishing once a week can feel like a daunting task. Especially, since you know that participating in your online community means being — well — online. You can easily publish once a week with the following prompts:

• Highlight A Member Each Month
• Expand FAQ with In-Depth Articles
• Invite Members to Guest Post
• Product and Service Updates

Highlight Members Each Month

You have community VIP members, right? Go beyond the badge with a profile on your blog. This helps others see why they should also become members of your online community.

Consumers do business with people like themselves. This is a way to help bring light to the value of your community while promoting the members who make your online community unique. Everyone has something special about themselves.

Write seven to ten questions and use them for everyone. Be sure to ask something about their personality to let that shine!

Expand FAQ with In-Depth Articles

Frequently asked questions are a good source of content for any type of business or service. It’s the same with online communities — especially when they revolve around products. The questions your members ask should be kept in a Google Doc somewhere so that they can be added to your FAQ page.

In addition to the short answer to members’ questions on a FAQ page, you can take each question and, once a month, write a bit more in-depth. Think 300 words. Include reviews if you have them. It’s a great way to help your site be found, as well. We all like SEO (findability).

Invite Members to Guest Post

Every member of your online community has something valuable to contribute. You’ve probably already noticed the shining stars. Why not invite them to write for your website?

They have unique perspectives that intrigue new customers. Sometimes the most vocal community members can be your best advocates. This elevates the branding of your online community.

Product and Service Updates

Products and services always have updates and changes. Maybe your pricing is going up (or even down). Perhaps there is a new product on the horizon. Even an improvement to a current product is valuable (rinse and repeat did wonders for the shampoo industry). Your software may have improved documentation. Highlight this in a blog post.

How Will You Market Your Community?

With these four categories, you can easily publish regularly on your website while building your community your way. You have all the tools you need to engage your community. What will be your first post?

Great support can make or break your eCommerce store. Your online products may sell now, but what about when people need help? How? You can create a community around your products while you’re offering support.

This is precisely how we support our users at Infinite with a Support Group, of course. And this isn’t foo-foo self-help either. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) We’re talking product support.

Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get.

Product Support Options for eCommerce

There are many SaaS solutions for product support including Zendesk, Freshdesk, HelpScout, and more. Many brands also use chat support or chatbots. If you feel you must, then do it. Understand, however, that the perception of chatbots is that they are like call center loops that never end. They’re frustrating to customers who are already frustrated. They’re calling support for a reason.

Facilitating a friendly area for support also allows experienced users to answer questions. This helps to create friendships while easing the burden on you. Not that people are a burden, but it does take time (and human resources) to provide human support. Reward customers who help answer support questions with VIP badges and maybe even exclusive swag or discounts!

How Can We Improve the Support Process?

Improving the support process is much like improving your product development. Understanding that you are not your user is the first step. They don’t know your product as well as you do; nor should they. Where are they mentally when they use your product? What solution does it solve? This helps you develop empathy.

Empathy is the key component to treating your customers like humans. Support departments that are angry, annoyed, or disgusted by their customers show little-to-no empathy. When you acknowledge your customer’s experience as valid, that’s the beginning of a good rapport. You need to work with them to solve their issue. Once you do, you become their hero!

You’ve worked hard to build your community but now you see people leaving. That can be hard. Here’s the thing: any community — online or off — should allow ebb and flow. It’s really okay. It’s not personal. (But if it was, that’s okay, too. Let them go, but that’s another post.)

We like stable communities, but people are social. They will move from physical locations, jobs, and even friend groups. Many communities serve a purpose in our lives that is seasonal in nature.

Seasonal Groups

Seasonal groups are those who focus on a specific time period in your life. A great example is the MOPs group (Mothers of Preschool Children). When your youngest child has graduated from high school, that season is definitely over.

Now, you can mentor others in that season from your experience, but for the vast majority of members, they now have to participate in a group for soccer, piano players, or mathletes. These types of online communities should experience a cycle of incoming and outgoing members. This is why onboarding new members (and welcoming them) is so important.

Activity-Based Groups

If I’m in an online group that is about kickboxing but end up stopping, why would I stay in the group? After a while, there’s not only no value in me belonging to the group, but it makes the group itself stale. There should be a fresh group of people entering that group. Mixed Martial Arts is a huge passion and growing incredibly.

Regardless of the activity, your online community should be growing and thriving. This means keeping engaged people in your online community. These active members participate it the sport or activity. When they post, blog, and comment, it matters because it’s relevant. It’s natural for people to leave and join activity-based groups as their own interests grow and change.

Location-Based Groups

Location-based groups also serve a purpose. If you live in Dana Point, like I do, there is a Facebook group that helps keep people connected. I wish it was an extension of the Chamber of Commerce but they haven’t grown that much yet. Imagine if people could actually leave Facebook? But that’s another blog post.

Point being, if I move to Montpelier, Vermont, for example, I no longer need to be part of the Dana Point local group. I don’t live there. It’s not relevant to me and not good for the group to have me there. I live elsewhere. Gaining and losing members in a location-based group is normal.

How Will You Manage Your Community?

It’s your community, your way with Infinite. Allow it to ebb and flow, with members changing their interests. It’s natural. You have all the tools you need to engage your community. Create your community your way. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t start today.

Well-written product descriptions can make or break your online store. They shouldn’t be too short or too long. It’s a little bit like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Product descriptions need to be just right. And, interesting enough to buy.

In one of our latest posts we talked about updating your product images and optimising it for site speed. Make sure those are up to date, too.

How Do I Write Good Product Descriptions?

Good product descriptions say just enough to help your buyer find your page and confirm it is the product they need. If your products have technical information (dimensions for furniture, battery life for electronics), include that information as well.

For example, I’m currently shopping for a dining table. You can’t imagine how much I have to scroll just to find the dimensions.

Be clear. What is the intent behind the search? Your product should be the solution they’re looking for. The indicator of whether your product description is good is conversions (sales).

And, by the way, if your product pairs with another (table and chairs) then make suggestions for what coordinates. That’s going to make upselling much easier.

What Keywords Should My Product Descriptions Have?

When people are searching for your product they will use their language not yours. This is the hardest thing for online store owners to understand.

The other day, I was looking for a product that would allow my phone to screencast — without AppleTV. I knew it was called “screen mirroring” so that was my search. I found a great product and was happy to pay for it.

Let your searchers help you. How? Look at the way people write about your product in the reviews. Look at the search terms in Google’s Search Console. Pay attention to how people describe your product.

If you’re reselling a product, don’t use too much of the manufacturer’s wording. This can potentially hurt your own rankings, reminds SEJ.

“If you’re not generating unique product descriptions, you’re taking a gamble. There isn’t an official penalty from Google for duplicate content. But it muddies up the waters and impacts your search engine rankings.” Search Engine Journal https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ecommerce-site-unique-product-descriptions/364458/

How Long Should Product Descriptions Be?

There are a lot of marketers who tell you that your products should have a story. Well, if I’m ordering a flight of whiskey, I don’t care what the story is. I care about the flavor profile.

Remember, that people don’t read. They scan. Enumerating features or putting them in a bulleted list helps. If your products have a lot of competition, those features will matter. Or, if you’re offering three different versions of your software, what is the side-by-side comparison?

If your sales pages aren’t converting, then revisit. Look to your analytics to see what people are searching for. It might be that your product descriptions don’t answer their questions.

The good thing about selling products online is that the web easily expands. It’s not print. If you’re not sure which direction you should go, why not have two product pages and A/B test the product descriptions? Let your buyers decide.

Your Community and eCommerce

Your community wants your products. The products bring people to your site and the community keeps them there. With Infinite’s EDD and WooCommerce integrations, you can have the best of both worlds – eCommerce and Community. In fact there’s a whole range of Monetization plugins.