You’ve finally launched your online forum. Hurrah! Now comes the hard part: getting people to come back for more. Even when users are having fun and connecting with friends, they still want more content. So you need to keep pumping out fresh material to keep them engaged. As a matter of fact, engaged users are about 12x more likely to purchase a product or service compared to users who rarely or never engage with content.

If you want to market your online forum successfully, you need to consider a few key points. This article will give you the tools to effectively market your forum and engage your audience.

Marketing Channels

The first thing you need to do is determine which marketing channels to use. You may decide to use Facebook ads, Twitter ads, or both. Each of these platforms is effective for different types of content and has its perks. For example, Facebook is more effective for getting your web content out to the general public, but Twitter is better for getting your blog post’s out to your audience.

If you want to attract potential users to your forum, you should look at your target audience and determine which platforms they are most likely to be on. For example, if you are targeting millennials, you may decide to use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to get the word out about your forum. You may also want to consider creating YouTube videos for your website because Gen Z, the demographics after millennials, prefer watching videos rather than reading articles.

Content Calendar

The next step is to create a content calendar. This calendar should be tailored to your target audience and should have content published at regular intervals throughout the year. Having regular content updates will help establish your blog or website as a reliable source of information. Furthermore, consistency is important because it provides a sense of stability to users. They know that you will always keep pumping out new content because, well, you said you would. Consistency also builds credibility with potential users because they know you’ll always keep your word.

You don’t want to rush the process and put out content just to increase your page views, so take some time to plan out a solid content schedule. Once you have your content calendar, you can begin creating content and posting on a regular basis.

Guest Posting & Brand Ambassadors

Another important piece of the puzzle is guest posting and brand ambassadors. Guest posting is when someone from a similar industry or niche to yours provides content that looks like it was written specifically for your website. For example, if you are a fashion blog, you may decide to have a fashion guest post on your site. Guest posting is often used to attract more traffic to a site because people in your target audience are more likely to trust content that was written by someone they are familiar with.

Brand ambassadors are just what they sound like — people who are affiliated with your brand (i.e. Nike, Coca Cola, etc.) and represent your brand in some way. People in your target audience may know someone who is a brand ambassador and are more likely to trust content from a person they know is associated with your brand. When someone is promoting your brand, it is very important that you provide value and build credibility. How are they promoting your brand? What materials are they using to reach the people they are promoting your brand to? Create a list of top blog posts, videos, and other content that is related to your brand. This will help you figure out what materials you need to provide to your brand ambassador. Depending on how much time they are willing to spend, you may want to consider paying them or providing them with exclusive materials to promote your brand.

Once you have all of this content, you can begin marketing your forum. First, identify the demographic you are trying to reach and which platforms they are using. From there, you can begin creating ads for each platform based on their usage. When choosing your advertising platform, make sure you take into consideration cost, performance, and audience reach.