Developing a sense of community among visitors is now essential for ecommerce success. Community—that sense of belonging to a particular interest group or market niche—fosters the credibility a site needs to get repeat visits…and sales.

But just posting a few articles and a link or two is not enough to create product sales. A website-based Community needs three essential elements to achieve emarketing success: 1) solid “sticky” features to capture loyalty 2) creative onsite linking that drives product sales, and 3) effective offsite marketing to encourage people to join the Community.

“Sticky” Features

Sticky features you can add to your Community include:

COMMUNITY HOMEPAGE. A Community section should have its own Homepage with a WELCOME MESSAGE and a CONTENTS INDEX to formally welcome visitors and let them know what’s in the section. If several pages long, list “hot links” to various sections, especially to the product page or online store.

MESSAGE BOARDS allow visitors to read and post messages, usually freely, but sometimes monitored by the webmaster or outside “editor.” Allowing people to express their views and read those of others is a proven sticky feature.

REAL-TIME CHAT enables visitors to have live, two-way “conversations.”

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS) describe the site’s purpose, how to participate, how to create a member profile, and other information drawn from email and feedback.

FEEDBACK FORM allows the visitor to send in an opinion, complaint, question, or suggestion, often set up with an automatic, pop-up email.

AUTORESPONSE. Allows the visitor to request pre-written information or answers to questions by sending in their email address and receiving a reply using an autoresponder.

HELP. How-to instructions covering all areas of the site, plus staff names and emails to contact with questions. Ideally should be searchable. Consider offering “Live Help”, in which a visitor can chat real-time with you. This interactive process allows you to move your correspondent closer to a product sale.

MEMBER PROFILES allow members to create “profiles” describing themselves, their interests, and their businesses. They can also check other profiles to find out about other members and even view photos, if you offer capability to upload photos into profiles.

“MEMBERS ONLY” SECTION with special information or resources available only to visitors that have created a profile, in which they set up a “User Name” and “Password.” Exclusivity creates loyalty and allows you to capture customer information…and opt-ins for your email lists. Special message boards, downloadable ebooks, articles, free software and other “members only” offers encourage sign ups and loyalty.

NEWS & ARTICLES. News about your niche Community, information, free advice, and how-to articles on topics helpful to your Community members, written by industry experts or members with particular expertise. Shows you’re helping your visitors (potential customers) become successful. Frequent updating gets better return visit rate.

PRIVACY POLICY. Now essential, it assures visitors that their personal information is safeguarded, won’t be used for spamming, and won’t be sold without their consent. They can “opt-out” from being put on an email list to receive offers or other correspondence. Anyone using a credit card to make a purchase will be looking for this privacy information.

ABOUT US details staff functions, background, credentials, and history of the company.

EMAIL. Free or low-cost email accounts give visitors a reason to come back daily.

CONTACT US. Make it easy to reach you by phone, physical address, and email, especially if you’re selling products on your site.

SEARCHABLE ARCHIVES for Community sections, specific articles or even Message boards. Saves visitors a lot of time and possible frustration.

OPINION. Your views on your niche market can help you establish credibility. Featuring opinions of members makes all visitors feel the site is accessible.

LINKS AND DIRECTORIES. Helpful links, contacts, business resources, member businesses, industry associations, affiliates and partner sites. If complete for your niche market, visitors will log on to your site more often to use them.

ONLINE CLASSES. Develop your own online courses on how to be successful in your niche market, or link up with an elearning website to offer—or custom develop—one or more courses.

ONLINE CONSULTING. Offer a free consulting session related to your products or services. You can schedule a phone consultation or “live chat” session on the site. Free consulting is an ideal feature for the “Members Only” section, too.

ONLINE STORE. The most important feature of a Community section for an ecommerce site, your store should be part of the Community or linked to from the Community section.

GUARANTEE. Prominently place a guarantee in the Community section that you stand behind all your products and will cheerfully refund money—no questions asked—for any product a customer is not satisfied with.

Don’t become overwhelmed in adding all these features at once. Select the ones that you feel are sticky and most useful for your niche market…ones that will help you best sell products. Add new features regularly and announce their debut in a press release. (For software and web-based resources you can use to add features discussed above, see the book, Poor Richard’s Building Online Communities, from Top Floor Publishing, available at BestBookBuys.com (http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/?src=hbm468x60_3b ).

Onsite Linking to Drive Sales

Remember, you’ve set up your website (in theory, at least) to sell products. Your Community page should work directly toward helping you sell them. Make the features of your Community informative. Informative advertising is not manipulative; it instructs, advises, helps and offers solutions to problems. This “informative advertising” should position your products as solutions and tools to be used for success in your niche market.

Throughout your Community section, strategically place links to your product sales page or online store. Post news items and articles that relate to your products and services, and add links at the end…or within the text…that go directly to the related product. Make sure your FAQs have an answer for “How do I purchase a product in your store?” Make sure your Help and Contact Us sections list contacts for questions related to products. Prominently promote discounts on products and services in the “Members Only” section, with links to the store. In short, do everything you can to link Community page items with your product sales section.

Promoting Your Community Section Offsite

DIRECT EMAIL/MAIL LIST. Promote your Community with regular announcements on what’s new, or that highlight specific sections. Include a “hot link” back to the Community homepage or section. Email only those visitors that created a member profile with opt-in permission to email them.

EZINE NEWSLETTER. Better yet, create an email newsletter and send it out regularly to those that opt in. Include articles from the Community section with a hot link to the section at the end, or previews of articles that can be read fully by clicking a link to your site’s Community page. Place teaser ads about your Community features in various slots throughout the ezine.

OFFLINE PROMOTION. Send out news releases about interesting Community section features to industry and general interest publications. In the release, note that all readers can take advantage of free email, software or other. Mention your Community page resources for starting a business in your niche market. The web address listed in all media exposure should contain the specific URL of your Community page. Participate in events, such as business shows and trade expos; you can offer a hands-on preview of your Community on a computer set up in your booth.

LINKS. Trade links and banner ads that broadcast your free Community services with other websites. Promote your free or low-cost email, message boards, chat room, market news and articles.

DIRECTORIES. Get your Community listed in as many online directories as possible.

SEARCH ENGINES. Submit your Community pages to search engines separately from other pages on your website, using your Community page title and metatags.

EMAIL SIGNATURE. Include a signature line in all email mentioning the benefits of visiting your Community section.

VIRAL MARKETING/ TELL A FRIEND. Ask Community members to tell a friend about your Community section. Set up a “Tell a Friend” button, with pop-up email form to make it easier for them to do so.

ONLINE EVENTS. Sponsor regular events online such as contests, polls, guest speaker chats, online seminars. Promote them in your offsite email, ezine and news releases. Gear them to relate to products or services your company offers.

POSTINGS IN ONLINE GROUPS. Post announcements about your Community in mailing list groups, newsgroups, online message boards, and online clubs. Study these groups before doing so and try not to abuse the club rules.

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Article by Herb Wetenkamp, web publisher of Home Business Magazine Online, a website featuring articles, business tools, networking contacts, business opportunities and other resources for home-based business owners, home office workers and telecommuters. A former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, his areas of expertise include website development, publishing, marketing, sales, advertising, publicity, trade show production and home office management. Starting a home business and need info? Wetenkamp welcomes questions and comments, and will personally answer all emails sent to mail to:herb@homebusinessmag.com . Please visit his website at http://www.homebusinessmag.com