Unlocking Community Growth: Performance Marketing Strategies for Community Leaders
Want to supercharge your community's growth? Muge Ovali, Founder and Managing Director of Mergen and former Shopify expert, joined me on Talk About Your Community to share her insights on how performance marketing can attract new members and expand your community's reach.
In our conversation, Muge emphasized the importance of user acquisition as the core goal of performance marketing. Unlike traditional marketing, which might focus on broader awareness or engagement, performance marketing is laser-focused on measurable outcomes, making it a powerful tool for community growth.
Here are some key takeaways for community leaders:
1. Close Collaboration is Key: Muge highlighted the need for strong collaboration between community managers and performance marketers. Community managers possess invaluable insights into member needs and motivations, which can inform and optimize performance marketing campaigns.
2. Segmentation is Crucial: Identifying and segmenting your target audience is essential. By understanding the diverse needs and motivations of different member groups, you can tailor your messaging and content to resonate with each segment, increasing engagement and attracting new members.
3. Leverage Social Media Ads: Muge recommended social media advertising as a highly effective strategy for community growth. By selecting platforms aligned with your target audience (LinkedIn for B2B, TikTok/Instagram/Facebook for B2C, Reddit for niche communities), you can reach potential members with targeted messaging.
4. Harness the Power of Lead Magnets: Lead magnets, such as quizzes, webinars, or exclusive content, are valuable tools for attracting and capturing the contact information of potential members. By offering valuable resources in exchange for email addresses, you can build a list of prospects to nurture and invite into your community.
5. Don't Underestimate Referrals: Referral programs can be a powerful driver of community growth. By incentivizing existing members to spread the word, you can tap into the organic power of word-of-mouth marketing.
6. Authenticity Matters: In the age of AI, Muge stressed the importance of human-centric marketing. Ad creatives and content should feel organic and authentic to avoid being dismissed by ad-fatigued audiences.
7. Embrace Experimentation: A data-driven approach is essential. Continuously test different ad creatives, landing pages, and messaging to optimize your campaigns and gain insights into what resonates with your target audience.
This conversation with Muge provided valuable strategies for community leaders looking to leverage performance marketing for growth. By understanding your audience, creating compelling content, and embracing a data-driven approach, you can unlock the power of performance marketing to expand your community's reach and impact.
Want to learn more about how performance marketing can help your community thrive? Watch the full interview with Muge below!
About Muge Ovali
Muge is a Growth Marketing professional specialized in Performance Marketing.
She holds an MBA from Cardiff Metropolitan University and Economics degree from Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi. She has worked for tech giants like Shopify, agency groups like Publicis Group, as well as start-ups. Now, as the Founder and Managing Director of Mergen, she offers Growth Marketing services, including SEO, PPC, and Paid Social.
Driven by her passion for social impact, Muge created the Ubuntu program, allowing clients to donate a portion of their fees to a charity of their choice.
Show Notes
Performance Marketing (7:50): Muge Ovali defines performance marketing as user acquisition is the main goal. Growth marketers should work closely with community managers due to the overlap of goals and shared information of metrics.
New Community Basics (15:33): When it comes to newer communities, a minimum audience size of 1,000 members is advised to launch a performance marketing campaign within a community. Your target market can help you identify which social platforms to target ads on for community growth, as well as budget. It is important to define the goals and objectives when launching a lead gen campaign.
Persona Segmentation (26:57): Perks like exclusive content and discounts for referrals can vary vastly depending on what community members are interested in. Segmenting various personas within a community makes it easier to examine what matters most to each persona.
Give Them What They’re Looking For (30:57): The bottom line is a community will grow when it provides value to its members. AI has changed the internet rapidly, and marketers need to adapt to the current environment. People are sensitive to the amount of noise of sponsored ads and being ‘sold’ to online, so more organic, authentic, and creative content is ideal.
