Recruiting the right people
Community members are people who’ve signed up to participate in an Insight Community. An Insight Community is nothing without its members so recruiting the right people is an important job to nail. But recruitment can be one of the biggest challenges for Communities – in our survey with Insight Community buyers, half of participants said they had faced difficulty recruiting the right mix of members.
So, how do you go about solving this?
Here are STRAT7 Researchbods’ 6 top tips for recruiting the right people for your Insight Community:
Define who you need to recruit for your Insight Community
The first step is to define whose views your Insight Community needs to represent.
Are you recruiting existing customers only, prospective customers, people who also shop with competitors, or a mix? Which segments or demographics need to be included?
You can use existing segments or develop member personas to guide your messaging, channels and offer. Be clear about any specific groups whose views you need to hear (e.g. vulnerable customers or people with disabilities), rather than assuming your initial response will deliver the right mix – consider how and where you can best reach all of your different target audiences.
Check your CRM is suitable for Community recruitment
Your customer relationship management (CRM) database can be a useful recruitment source, but it requires fresh and engaged contacts. Check how recently people signed up, whether their contact details are current and how engaged they are. Does the list reflect the target customers you need to hear from?
Not every brand has a CRM, in which case you might need to get think more broadly about where you find your potential Community members, which leads on nicely to my next tip.
Choose recruitment channels that reach your target members
Think about your existing touchpoints, including where you already share feedback and or solicit opinions. Inviting people at the end of an existing research survey, after a review or following a customer service interaction can be really successful. These are moments when people are already giving feedback and so in the right mindset.
Utilise your existing newsletters. Place links on your website – but don’t hide the invitation on a page few people visit, instead place it at relevant points in the online journey. Apps, including loyalty apps, can be a great place to capture attention. We placed an in-app link in a loyalty app for one our food-to-go clients recently, which proved to be a great avenue for recruiting customers where they were already regularly logging in.
Social media can be a fruitful recruitment source but consider which platforms are more likely to be home to the members you want to recruit. Younger audiences might be more likely to respond via TikTok or Instagram stories, whilst older audiences might be more responsive on Facebook. Regular posts can support ongoing recruitment, while paid advertising can help you reach specific groups.
Consider which channels might work best depending on your business’ sector, too; for example, for a broadcaster or publisher, a QR code at the end of a programme or piece of content is a great way to reach viewers in context. We worked with one of our media clients to place a recruitment link in the show notes for a podcast episode. QR codes in store, or flyers, can work well for retailers looking to recruit.
The starting question is simple: where are the people you want to recruit already spending time with you?
Time recruitment invitations well and make sign-up easy
Consider how and where members are signing up and make sign-up easy at that moment. For B2B communities where members are likely to be signing up via laptop, a link in an email can be the most convenient, but if you’re targeting people who are on the move – for example, you’re setting up an airline community targeting frequent flyers – consider a QR code placed strategically at places they’ll dwell whilst travelling.
Think about the timing of your send out in relation to your target audience. What are the key times of day when you might be able to capture people’s attention? For office workers, timing asks so they land during the commute can be a good way to capture attention, as people have time to kill on trains or buses. If parents of young children are in your sights, work around the school run so your email lands at the right time.
Onboard new members with targeted profiling and relevant activities
When members respond to your recruitment ask, you’ll want to gather some data to check whether they meet the profile of who you want to recruit. A smooth start begins with a short, targeted Profiling Questionnaire. Keep it short, focusing on the information you need to understand to profile members and match them to relevant research. Plug in your existing data (e.g. transactional or CRM data) where available to avoid asking for information you already hold. The aim is to learn enough to tailor their experience without making joining feel like hard work.
Our dedicated Onboarding team have over 200 Community launches under their belt, and can offer support on creating the perfect Profiling Questionnaire (as well as setting up and launching your Community). They can also offer advice on common Onboarding mistakes and how to avoid them, too!
Once inside, your new members should find a welcoming Community that is easy to navigate on desktop or mobile, with clear instructions and fresh activities ready to explore. Make the first activities relevant to their interests and reasons for joining, as well as easy to complete.
Plan ongoing recruitment to maintain the right member mix
When it comes to your recruitment, it’s not a ‘one and done’ job. It’s inevitable that people will drop out along the way to becoming community members, and that even the most engaged members may churn over time.
Monitor your community health and engagement and plan to do top-up recruitment periodically. Keep checking who is joining from where: a channel that generates plenty of sign-ups may not deliver the mix of members you need.
About the author
Katie Cowan is a Senior Community Manager at STRAT7 Researchbods where she provides a touchpoint between members and the brand, helps unearth and nurture organic member conversations, flexes Ex-plor’s features to individual community needs, and tailors reward, engagement and email strategies to suit both members and the client.
