Wix eCommerce | How to Build a Brand Community & Increase Revenue

Hey everyone. Welcome, welcome. We are going to be talking today all about building a brand community and increasing your revenue. Welcome to the WIX E Commerce School and that's our topic. I'm your host Brett Harrelson and today I have some very, very exciting guests. We're going to do guests really quickly. First joining us from WIX is Tali and Domas. Welcome.

Hi.

Joining us from merchants that actually use the WIX platform and are building a brand community that is outstanding is Steve with teardrop trailer. Welcome Steve.

Thanks for having me.

And Stacy. Welcome. Stacy.

Hi.

We're so glad to have both of you. So today we have a lot of things to cover. So really kind of what we're going to talk about today is we want to meet our merchants first. Then we're going to talk about learning how a community can help your business thrive. Then we want to talk about the WIX tools that you can use to build that community. And then of course we're going to have a live Q and A towards the end. So jumping into this building a brand community, it can help your business. So let's just start off. Steve, I'm going to call on you first. Can you tell us a little bit about you and what you do?

Well, my name's Steve. The teardrop trailer. We're located 25 minutes north of Toronto. Basically we manufacture teardrop trailers. Back in 2013, I started in my backyard. I didn't have a garage, had no funding. And as of today we've built over 400 teardrop trailers that are off the grid, solar powered all across North America from one end of the United States to the other and same with Canada. So that's pretty much what we do.

Well, we're glad to have you and we're excited to hear what you have to say. Stacy, will you tell us a little bit about what you do?

Hi, I'm Stacy and I'm based in New Zealand and it's 4 o' clock in the morning here and I make handmade watercolor paints and that's what I do.

Well, first off, I want to say thank you to both of you for being here. This is truly an honor and being a community guy as well. I love what you do. So I'm also a fanboy. So let's talk a little bit about communities and what you can do. And the statement here is that a strong community that's attached to your brand can actually generate three times more revenue and create more site traffic and build brand loyalty. Would you two agree to that?

Definitely.

Yes. Yeah.

So let's deep dive. When we're talking about earlier when we talked about things to cover, how community can help your business thrive, we've sort of broken that down into four distinct areas and I'd like to discuss that with you two now. And the four points are how communities can increase traffic to your site, how it can build trust with your potential customers, how it will help you get to know your customers needs, and finally maintaining a relationship after the sale. So let's start off with increasing site traffic and I'm going to put you on the hotspot. Steve, can you tell us a little bit about what you do or what your community does to actually generate site traffic?

Well, we have, obviously we're number one on Google, as you can see there on the page, how we generate traffic. It really has a lot to do with content. You know, first we had to decide what our keyword was. Once we knew what we wanted to get the public to look for, which in our case was teardrop trailer, then we needed to build rich content for our website. So, you know, there's different ways you can do it. We built a forum, we built a blog, and just you got the pictures there, you know, and that kind of morphed into, you know, customers coming and telling us what they do. Pictures of their dogs. You know, you'll see there's a theme there, there's another picture of a dog. Really, it's, you know, kind of built community. And because of that community and more people getting on our site, it gives us that rich content that we don't even have to do anymore because other members are coming in and they're putting that content themselves, which is really added value because, you know, if somebody potentially is coming on the website and they go, who is this? When they go onto our forum, they see, you know, this, this, this whole community of people discussing it kind of gets them excited and they want to get on board.

So I really like what you said there. And it kind of goes back to what was on the bullet point where we were talking about how a forum can actually generate SEO traffic. Because you know, the conversations that, that the people who have purchased a teardrop trailer from you is going to be different than your conversation to them. And so it's in that organic camper to camper lingo that they're going to use that's really going to make a lot of those native and organic conversations rank. So I love this. Stacy, what are some things that your community or you're doing that's Helping drive traffic to your site.

I utilize the many features that Steve mentioned as well, which is utilizing. So I start off with my Instagram that's linked to my website, and I'm generating the traffic there that's constant via my stories and linking them through. So that's always on the front page there. And so I'm using content that I have used from dialogue that I've had with the customers, friends via stories or via the posts, and then generating that through into forum and into blog posts as well. And people love color and they love videos and they love photos. So I'm generating that content all the time and trying to capture the dialogue and interesting topics by really unpacking it in the blog feature and then also into the forum feature. So there's always something really, really interesting that people want to know or they've got to come to the website to find out more. So the content has been generally generated from Instagram. I do have the ability for people to search engine via, say, hashtag, handmade watercolor or watercolor, but generally a lot of the traffic will be generated via me on Instagram and just having that constant loop there to encourage people to come for that content, that rich content, that interesting content, the stuff that people really want to know. Yeah.

So I love both of that. And when I was looking at some of the amazing things that both of you have done in your sites, I saw lots of native forum conversations that I think will really bring a lot of that to life. Steve, I told you earlier, I saw customizing posts, pictures, how they store food, and Stacy and yours, hot hot topic items are how to price your paintings. Right. All about binders. There's tons of organic conversations. I think, you know that if it's crawled by Google, it brings in. It's just. It's fantastic. So you guys have done such a great job. Let me, let me ask another question. And this is a hard one, right? So when you're, when you're cultivating this community, how do you build trust with your existing customers, but also how do you reach potential customers via the community?

You asking me?

Yes, Steve. I should have directed that to Steve.

Go ahead. You know, it's all about transparency. And the more that you can get out there and communicate to the public, the better it is for you and the easier it is to get more customers. One of the best ways I found, you know, when we sell a customer a trailer and they come pick it up, that's at their happiest point. They're so excited to see It. And we literally give them a bumper sticker that says, I love my teardrop trailer right there. Every single one of our customers, we give my love my teardrop. And they get up and they pose and they're so excited. And that's twofold. You know, you're selling an experience to the customer themselves because you know, they're not just coming. It's not, you know, congratulations, here you are, you're off. It's a full experience. You know, they feel that they're part of something. They know they're going to be on Instagram. They even tell us, wow, yeah, sure, we've been waiting for that picture. They know what to anticipate when they get there. So there's the experience with the customer, there's the experience with the customer. But then what happens is somebody who's viewing it and thinking, oh, I know I would like a teardrop, then they see this and they see the looks of people and you get over and over and over again the same picture. I love my teardrop. I love my teardrop. I love my teardrop. It's a no brainer. It's easy.

Steve, I love your energy. I love what you're doing here. Stacy, tell us a little bit about what you're doing. How are you building trust with other customers?

So exactly what Steve said, Transparency, people love to. What I've learned, this is the honest truth, is that people will trust you if they know about you. Who are you? Who are they buying this product from? You know, so there's a personal relationship and a connection there because I've seen a lot of people that are selling watercolors and they don't share things like, what's your first name? Where are you from? People want to know that stuff about you as well. So that transparency, and that's why I utilize the story feature as well, is because I'm sharing about, you know, what I'm doing during my day or during the process of actually making the paints. People want to see me doing that so it's authentic, it's genuine, and they can connect with the process while I'm doing it. So they feel like they're part of it and they want it so they're hooked in. They're right there with me on my journey and they want to be part of that. And that relationship continues. And that's because I worked so, so hard, especially in the first six months to the first year, just making sure that I was really, really present to my customers, more so than I probably should have been. You know, a lot of sleepless nights. But I wanted to really make sure that I was building that trust. Authentic, genuine relationships with my customers that have turned into friendships, for example, so that people are in there for the long haul. They want to be part of your life, they're hooked in. And so it's almost like I've become part of partly the brand as well. So I've become like one of the most recognized hand makers in the world. So it's just. Yeah, and I just, I'm constantly keeping active and present and I think that's the most important thing for people so that they. That reciprocal relationship. So you've always got that connection that's open all the time.

There's a couple things here that you said and from me crawling both of your sites. I spent a lot of time on it. It's interesting. And I think you and Steve nail this and you're both approachable, present and active when there's a thread going on. I have seen many of these conversations where, Stacy, you jump in. Steve, you jump in.

Right.

You're very much there. And I really love what you said about the personal thing, Stacy. And it's really interesting internally in the WIX community team, our mantra is we make it personal. And that is exactly what you're supposed to do. It gives another layer, doesn't it?

It does.

That's. This is y'.

All.

This is my favorite webinar ever. So let's jump. Let's jump to another conversation here. And I'm going to put you on the hot seat, Stacey.

Yeah.

Let's get to know what your customers needs are and connect with them. What are things that you do via the community to actually listen to them? And I think we kind of touched on it. But more specifically, are there other things you do?

So a lot of the time I'm always trying to generate dialogue with customers. So I'm utilizing my stories by asking questions because you can use question boxes and then from there people can put their question in and you have a bank of information you can pull from. So that's where I'm getting some of my queries from. Also from posts on the main grid, that is on Instagram, which is on my first page on the blog, on the website, where people can see the most recent contact content generating dialogue from that. So there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff as well, like direct messages and then people sending messages via the website via the contacts form. It's really important to have the contacts form there so that people can ask you questions if they don't have Instagram, and then utilizing the blog as well so that people, the blog and the forum, so people can see that I am actually following through with the content that they want to know about. I am either using the forum to generate a dialogue outside of Instagram and make it a safe place where they can continue to talk about these things, or I'm using a blog where I'm talking about the content, I'm unpacking it, or I'm inviting a guest blogger on to talk about a specific topic so that people can learn more about it. So there's that generation of content that is constant every day throughout the day, and that's by using Instagram and using that to generate into my website. See, if you don't have an Instagram, you can use your Facebook because you're using that media portal and you're generating it into your website. So you want to bring that traffic to your website, which is the most important thing. But you've got to have content there that you're generating that's as constant as you can make it without, you know, losing sleep over it.

That makes a lot of sense. I really, everything, everything you all are saying, I just completely resonate with Steve. Can you tell us a little bit about some things that you're doing also? Same question, how do you get to know your customers needs and connect with them?

Well, a lot of times we just get, we get the same questions when they have needs, you know, for example, a solar panel, you know, they don't know, you know, do I get a 100 watt solar panel? Do I get a 50 watt solar panel? Do I get can I use my coffee machine off the grid? So what we've done is we've taken a lot of questions that customers have asked and put it into a blog or put it into a forum. And, and then when I have new potential customers and I get an email and they ask me a similar question, I direct them with a link to that forum or to that blog. And it's great because they think that they're asking a unique question and I already have the answer for them and it's already out there displayed and then they're on to the next question. And a lot of times I can be asked multiple questions about things that I've already talked about and already had on a topic. And I've more than once actually done multiple links from solar panel to what size cooler can I use? To 110 power bars and I've Been able to just send links, so it's actually made it easier for me. But it's also been really easy to give these customers emails with content. Not just because sometimes you're on the go and you're in a hurry and they ask you a question and you're like, oh, you know, you try and give them a detailed description, but you don't have the time. So if you prepare it in advance and you have a blog or you have a forum where you know that this question is going to be asked again, it's just a quick link and they're satisfied because they're getting the answers that you're looking for.

Now, not everybody got to see this, but I did. Stacy, I saw you nodding vigorously with some of the things he was saying. So this is a tactic you use as well, I suppose.

Yes, definitely. Because this was actually because I sell watercolors and I make them. People want to learn how to make them. And these people buy the watercolors still that make them as well. So we all support each other. But the great thing is that what I found was I was having a lot of direct messages, and it was the same questions, like Steve said, and it was, you know, when you're out and about, you know, you don't have the time, you know, but you want to give the time. And so what would happen is, you know, you'd get the same generic question. For me, often it's, you know, like, troubleshooting about making paints, or maybe they've received other handmade paints and they want to know, like, how they can, you know, is this normal? Or it could be anything. And so what happens is, what I did was I set up the forum so that I could direct the traffic to the website so that there was, as Steve mentioned, information that's already there that they can access of the questions they've asked. But also what I did was I was inviting people who were making their own paints to the forum to answer questions for me. So if I didn't answer the question, sometimes I would get to the post, maybe it might be an hour later, for whatever reason, somebody who makes paints themselves has already answered the question for them because there's that community there and community over competition where everyone supports each other. So it was like it was running itself without me. And it just. It was a relief that, you know, that pressure, you know, because you really want to make sure that you're available. You can answer the questions, but it's all there. The content is there. So it's just Redirecting them, as Steve said, to the posts or to the actual forums so that they can get that information that they want.

Love it. Steve, did you want to add to that?

I saw, you know, I've had the exact same experience where, you know, I had a cut. I had a previous customer ask about towing questions and I didn't even know it was asked. And then I came across my thread and it was like a full blown discussion. One customer was explaining to another customer that he was telling them where he could get locks and the type of lock he got. Exactly like Stacey said, they're answering questions for you. It's like you've got free workers.

And again and again, what I think so special about all of this is what you're doing with it.

Right.

You're taking conversations that are happening naturally, organically and you're learning their lingo, how they're talking to each other, which is will attract like minded people. Like you're talking about Stacy, you're actually attracting people who are doing kind of the same thing you're doing in your space.

Yeah.

And they're helping you.

You're learning from them too.

Exactly.

They'll say things that you're like, I didn't even think of that. So yeah, it's great both ways. Yeah.

So I love this. I'm going to put Stacy on the hot seat again. I've got another question for you, Stacy. So, and we've kind of talked about this, but let's focus a little here about, you know, once someone comes to your site, buy some paint, how do you make, how do you maintain that relationship?

So I maintain that relationship with them because they know that I'm, you know, like there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff I have to be honest about that, you know, like messaging with each other. People that have received my paints, they'll post in their stories or on their main grid that they've received them, they'll tag me in it and then I'll be sharing that. So they get featured in my stories, which people get really excited about because through that there's that community where you're supporting other artists. You're actually helping them with their reach to meet other people, like followers by sharing their content. So people want to tag you because they want people to see their art, they want to make friends. So you're generating just by getting them to tag them using the product, you're sharing them, say unpacking the product, using the product and then the end result of using the product, which is you know, like the painting that they made. And then because I make different colors and there are ever so many colors that you can make, I'm constantly generating new colors. So. And what I'm doing as well is I'm. I'm also keeping an eye on what it is that people are really interested in in terms of color and trying to tap into that so that I get people hooked on being a return customer by wanting to collect all the colors, but also, you know, really interesting, unique colors that they can't get anywhere else. And so that's. That's that hook in there. And they know that there's going to be content that they can access on my website in relation to watercolor. They might want to learn about a pigment that's in a paint or how they can use that paint for a certain technique. So that's why I invite artists to share techniques on my blog as well. So there's that content there that they can come from. So that's something that I've tapped in just recently in the last year, is inviting guest bloggers onto the website so that, again, I don't have to generate that content. That's being done for me. I'm using my platform and my reach to support artists, to meet other artists and learn about art or paint or color or pigments. And so what I will get is I will get people coming to the forum as well that will be learning about paint. So there's lots of different things going on on there, but generally, like as I said, with getting people to come back for that sale, I'm constantly sharing the new products that I'm making and my stories on the page, on the main grid, so that they're really wanting that product. Yeah.

And I really love your call to action. Watercolor nerds unite, right?

Oh, yeah, I love it. There's a hashtag.

I love it. So, I mean, that's a real deep dive, and that's worth solid gold. Steve, I want to turn that over to you as well. I'd love to hear your opinion. What are you doing to maintain a relationship after a sale?

Well, we've got a few different ways of doing that one. You know, you might sell to a trailer to somebody. And I remember there was one time a gentleman contacted us and his wife passed away, and he was done. He didn't want to camp anymore. So he came to me and he says, you know, I'm looking to sell my trailer. Can you sell it for me? And I'm like, well, you know, we're I'm six months booked right now for new existing trailers. I said, well, let me see what I can do for you. So we, we set up used teardrop trailers for sale and it's been really nice because everybody has different situation, different circumstances. They want to maybe, you know, they just don't, they don't need it or whatever. We give them that platform where they can come on our site still, they've got a used trailer, they can, they can post it. And you know, some people, they may come to our site and because my deadline dates are, you know, six to eight months and they don't want to wait for a new one, they go on to the used teardrop and they'll buy a used one instead. So, you know, we may lose that sale per se, but at the same time, our existing customer that we had before, we're kind of, we're helping them out as well. And sometimes I'm actually competing against myself because some customers I know have tried to sell the trailers for more than I actually sold it to them for because they've done some little upgrades themselves. So it's been kind of interesting that way. Another thing that we started with teardrop trailers for rent. When I first started this business, I was originally going to go into the rental business, but I started selling and I never had a chance to get into the rental side of it. But we have actually in BC if you click on British Columbia there. Yeah, we've got a couple customers in B.C. that to this day they're, they're still renting out their trailers. So it's been kind of nice that way too. My wife and I have talked about actually flying out to B.C. and actually rent from one of our customers and do a little trip out there.

So that would be awesome.

Yeah, it would be really awesome. And it'd be a tax write off too because it's a business trip. Right.

This is great. Sorry, go ahead.

Another, another thing we'll do is proper maintenance. So, you know, a lot of times people don't know how to take care of their trailer. Do they take the battery out? Do they leave the battery in, in the wintertime? Should they leave their mattress in? How do they do their lug nuts? How tight is it? What's the torque on it? So on the bottom of our invoice, every single one of our invoices, we say go to teardrop trailer forum. Proper maintenance. And that is another way that we maintain a relationship with them because we want them to take care of their trailer because, you know, it's our name that's on the back of it. So there, there's a there. And that's only, that's only like three parts that I'm giving you as an example. It's such an endless array of ideas that you can use to build and maintain relationships with customers. You just got to be a little creative with it. And that the forum, really, the forum and the blog, but especially the forum, really, really helps when you're trying to maintain that relationship with your customer.

And I'll say this, and then we'll segue into tools. I've studied both of your sites and it's impressive how accessible you are, how friendly you are. You have a bit of a cult following, right? And that's kind of what community is. When you actually, when it's a good community, everybody kind of feels like they know everybody and we know the temperature of the water. And you've done a great job setting that pace. And you're extremely awesome examples of what it is to build a brand community. But let's talk, let's segue. Now, Tali, before we jump into this, we want to talk about the tools. But Tali, will you tell us a little bit about you and what you do for wix?

Yes. So, hi everyone. I'm part of the Community Tools product team. And everything that we do is we create tool for communities and like, for building a community and growing a community. And like Stacy and Steve, the story that they told us, how they build a community around their business and how they grow their revenue because of their community and recurring customers and like having a member of a community, this is like, truly inspiring and this is the reason that we're creating those tools. So thank you. And yes, Brett.

No, no, no, no. I 100% agree. And we're so glad they're here and we're glad that you're here. So Tali, can you tell us a little bit about, about the WIX community tools and sort of what's in that tool chest?

So actually we have many tools that Community Builder can use. And I think that the main idea is that you have everything in one platform. So you have a site, you have a store, like Steve and Stacy have a store, and they also have a community. And everything is in one platform. So you manage your customer, you, your potential customer, and also your member of the community all in one place. And we think that this platform is giving lots of opportunity. So you can use Forum. And later Domas, the product manager of Forum, will dive in and show us some Demo but you can also use other tool like for example group. So group it's a tool where you can create many groups. You can decide what will be the types of group, if it's like per location or per interest. And you can invite member to join in. We will show an example later how you can do it for your store for example. And we also have a members area. So this is where you can have like your member can have their own personal profile page so you can see the other member, you can read about them, you can even chat with them, like send them a message if you're using the website or you're using the WIX mobile app. So this is really cool. And we can also. You can also use a shared gallery or a file share just for your member to share their photo to showcase your product and what they did with him. And for challenges and mobile app, I want to give a few examples. So let's jump into that. So Brett, we are showing the weeks a partner community, a community that you know very well. And this is an example of how you can use the WIX mobile app. So the Wix mobile app is for you to manage your site and this is a great tool to manage your site on the go. But it's also a tool where you can invite your member to the member view area and they can see everything that you have on your site. So it's very easy to engage with tool they can post, they can like you can put there your forum, your blog, groups, events and your store as well. And you can send them push notification and they can do everything from their mobile device. So this is great. And Brett, I know that partner community are using the mobile app as well, right?

I use it, I use it extensively daily. I think it's the app I probably use the most. I get messaged, I can control the forum, I can see what's going on, I can reply. It's really awesome too because for those who are using the app, when we publish a blog and Stacey, it's interesting, we have guest bloggers as well. Actually our entire blog is pretty much written by the community. So when they post it gets push notifications. Any events that we have coming up for partners, it's all right there. They can see everything, right? I'm addicted to it.

Yeah, they're asking, they can post, they can comment. Everything they see and they get notifications. So the other tool that I wanted to discuss is challenges. So actually challenges, many, no challenges for like fitness and wellness. But you can also use it for Other products. So, Stacy, this is example of an art site that decided to create a challenge for a daily comic challenge. And you can invite your members. It can be even a tool to create a challenge and to inspire potential customers to bring them to your site and then to keep them returning to your site. So this is a great tool as well. They can do it from their website, they can do it from the mobile app. It's their choice. You provide a platform for them. And another example that we want to give you is like using groups to build a client loyalty. So you can create a new group and this will be only for VIP customers. You can make it a private or a secret group. You can totally customize it, pick a name, pick a photo, cover. And then the great thing is that you can share only with your VIP or your top customer. So you can send them at discount prices and also to share maybe product that you want to launch before you share it with all your customers. So this is a great tool for you to really focus on a specific group of your customers. And Bretta, now that you are using groups mainly for location based,

the beauty of the groups is, Tali, the members get to make their own groups. Right. So kind of in a space of a community, sometimes communities want to sort of make their own space. Now I can have the option of making certain groups, but I've sort of turned that loose and let them do what they want to do. And in this space they've created regions of their own choice. However, I could focus it on certain things if I wanted to, but it's kind of their space or at least it's how I've used it. Right. Doesn't mean that that's how you have to use it.

Right, Right. So now we'll move to Domas and he will show us a demo of the forum.

Let's deep dive into these. But first, domas, tell us a little bit about you and what you do at wix.

So thanks, Tali. Thanks, Brett. I'm a product manager for Forum and we are a team of 20 actually in Lithuania, based here in Lithuania. And we are all about communities and all about Forum. So it's super great to hear that these businesses that we just heard about were supercharged by form and your life were made easier because of Forum.

Well, we're really glad to have you here. This is super exciting. So, Domus, where do you want to start? Where do we start? Kind of deep diving into the forum.

So I just want to go over the core functionality that the Forum has And really just showcase how easy it is to use basically. So if you can go to next slide you will see that for example, if you want to create a post, we have two kinds of posts. We have discussion types posts and question type posts. So for example, creating a post is super easy and it's extremely configurable. For example, if I want to add some media, which is super important for businesses like that, we just heard it is just as simple as that. You can resize the image, move it around in the post, you know, do all that thing really intuitively. Also if you want to write about around it, make it look really, really nice, you know, WIX and forum allows to do that. But also not only images, videos, files and even GIFs, you know, you can add them to the post as easy as one click basically. So you can do that.

That's great.

So this is for discussion type post. So if we take a look at now at the next slide, you'll see that there's also this question type post. And we heard that people are asking questions and looking for answers and we kind of focused these kind of posts to be to get to the knowledge as quickly as possible. So now when I type how can I change? I can see already the answer a similar post to the title that I just typed in. So I'm not creating another post, I'm getting like a link to a post that the question was already asked and the answer is there. So instead of creating two posts about the same thing and waiting for the answer, I can quickly discover that there was a post before and the question is already answered. So this is also super powerful and it helps the users to get to the knowledge much quicker. And now in the next slide you can see even when users ask questions and users can start answering them and even the users can start upvoting or demoting the answers. So the knowledge kind of sorts itself. So as you can see, the answer now is sorted a bit higher and you can even mark it as best. So it will automatically go to the top and stick to the top. So anybody else coming across this topic will find the best answer without needing to scroll through a lot of pages of answers.

And this is done by members of the forum and not necessarily the site owner or the admin. This is sort of. Is that correct?

Yeah, exactly. So this is built to be self serving, so the customer can ask the question, the customer can answer the question that for example already used the product. And then some other customers could say, okay, this is a better answer than the Other answers and kind of sort it out itself without needing to, you know, going and replying to every single message yourself. And this is also, you know, much more motivating for customers seeing that other customers saying okay, this customer is saying that this product is good or you need to do it like that. It's so much more convincing than some other customer answers the question than you yourself. Now in next slide we can see how we can set up private categories. So similar to private groups, we can do categories that are only visible or accessible to some specific selected members. So I can select member on member per member basis. So let's say I want to invite only some people to be in this category. Or even better I can say only the badger owners of Top Fan will be able to access this category. So you can create this exclusive kind of locations for your members to discuss with each other. And in the next slide, even better, you can make that category paid like only paying members will be able to access that category. So it's really simple to do. As you can see here, I just click subscriptions, click Create a Plan. It takes me to the dashboard of wix and here I will be able to create a plan, choose the time frame, choose the price, choose when it's cancelled, what kind of access this plan gives, and you know, so on. So as you can see I just type in the name, I just select some things that will be accessible by that plan. You know, give it a price,

just

don't forget to select the length of the plan and just hit save. Then if you go back to the site you will automatically see the plan already created and connected to the category. Just click done, click Update and suddenly that category is not only accessible to those badge owners, but also to the people that paid for access to that category. Now in the next slide we can also so every single post is done by a person, by a member. So you can dive in into the profile and see, you know, the description of the member. You can see what kind of badges he has, what kind of posts or comments the members the member already made. So you can get like a good picture of what is this member about and even click one button and start a one on one chat with him or her. Yeah, that's it from my side.

Well, I think this is a great, very clear, concise, so deep dive into the forum and what the possibilities are. So thank you dullmas. And for those of you who are with us, we've sort of talked a little bit about logistically what you can do to build community around your brand. We've talked a little bit about the tools and as promised, there is a Q and A session. So I do have a few questions that and if anybody has any that we didn't answer, please go ahead and drop them now. By the way, thank you, Domus, for showing us that. So here's a couple questions and I'm going to try to rapid fire these as fast as I can to get as many out. Stacy, I'm directing this one to you. Maybe someone asks, how can I bring my social media audience to my personal website?

So there's the opportunity on when you're setting up your website to put in the links for whichever social media platform that you use. So for me, it's Instagram. So I have the ability to choose where I want to share on what page I want to share my Instagram. So I made the decision to put link in my social media Instagram on my front page so that when people come to the page, they'll recognize that's my Instagram there, so they know they're in the right place. And so it's as simple as just being able to go into the settings and adding in that link for your actual, you know, literally your link for the social media platform. And I highly recommend it because you want to keep generating that traffic from the other social media source. So hopefully that answers the question.

No, that's a perfect answer. So thank you for that, Stacy. Now, Steve, I have a direct question to you. Wesley's asking you a direct question. Does a majority of your customers come from your site, trade shows, social media or social media?

Zero shows. I've never done a single show. I get between 15 to 20,000 visits per month and I've never done a show. And when I started my business, I literally had no money. I had a backyard. And all I did was created this website. And as I built on it, my first delivery, this girl, she paid me a deposit, she paid me final amount, and then she paid me for delivery to Calgary, which is the other side of Canada. And I told my wife, I said, this girl trusts us. I've never spoke to her. I didn't even speak to her. She was only emails. And the first time I spoke to her, we packed our bags and we went to Calgary and I hand delivered it. And the first time I spoke to her was in her driveway. And I said, my name's Steve, nice to meet you. Here's your trailer. So when I talk about transparency and videos, because we also did little videos of it and we Just kept promoting it on our website. I mean it. There's no. In this day and age, personally, for me, I think trade shows are an absolute waste of time because a trade show is positioning yourself in front of a customer. Well, if you can create a search engine optimization and get yourself to the top rankings, that is your position. You're already there. Because when people are looking for you and you can be found, you don't need a trade show. That is your trade show.

That's it. That's incredibly valuable. I couldn't add anything to that, Steve. That's amazing. And by the way, there's lots of people. Dawn and Leticia both are very thankful that both our merchants are here. They're getting great ideas, so they're excited. This is awesome. So let's. I'm going to ask you a question, Tali. How can we offer paid subscriptions to content? Is it possible to sort of gate our content?

Yeah.

So we have like I think that what domas show us about a paid plan. This is one way when you want to create a paid category in your forums and you can also have selected pages in your site just for your members or your paid member. So you can connect a paid plan with content. And this is something that we see that user do with their site. Yes, perfect.

Perfect.

By the way, for those of you who may not have joined in the beginning or you're just joining or joined shortly a while ago, this will be recorded and you can go back to watch it. So don't worry about that. Domus. I'm going to. This is a product question. I'm going to direct this one to you. Tell us a little bit about the ratings and scores for members that are adding in the discussion. What sort of metrics can people do? You talked about the upvote and the best answer. Are those the forum metrics when members respond to each other and provide answers for each other.

Yeah, so. So, so if you hover any member avatar you will see what kind of how many comments, how many likes, how many posts that member made and what we see like popular communities do they see. Okay, this member is very active so I'm gonna give him a badge. So after like 10 posts or something like that, I'm gonna give him a badge that instantly is visible anywhere on the forum. So this is a top fan. This is a post from a top fan. You know, it really motivates people. When we released badges, it was incredible how people happy were about badges. It was one of the biggest releases and the forum our Own forum was, like, filled with joy that day. So anytime when you can kind of incentivize participation, you know, doing. Giving presents, like little presents as a badge for commenting or answering or upvoting or downloading questions, that's a perfect way to engage your audience.

Thank you for that. It was a great question that Digi asked. And thank you, Domus. Okay, here's, here's. This is going to be a really good question and really good conversation that follows. There's talks about, you know, what you. Stacy, what you and Steve both have done here is you've created communities within your site, within your space. A lot of people create communities in other platforms and in other spaces. My question is, you know, and let's sort of have an open discussion about this. Why would you build it there as opposed to somewhere like Facebook or another platform? It's an interesting discussion, and I'm just tossing it out there. I certainly have an opinion on it, but I'm gonna hear from our expert merchants. Steve, I'm gonna call on you first.

You're asking why would. Yeah, why would I post a form on my own website versus going through other social media? You've got control. You know, it's. It's yours. You. You can create it and put it in the direction that you want. You know, there's other. Other platforms that are available that we also do use. And I think it's. It's not. It can be compatible. And I'll give you an example. For example, Facebook, I have 3,000 members on teardrop trailers for sale. But on my Facebook page, I'm the only admin, and I have my website, the teardroptrailer.com and I've actually generated business from that because I bring it back to my website. So the forum is more specific because it's my customers. It's my customer base. I don't allow anybody else in my forum that hasn't either purchased a teardrop or is in the teardrop trailer or that wants my product. It's so specifically targeted that if somebody else came in with another trailer, a homemade trailer, I wouldn't even allow them in my forum. So that's one thing that's nice, is you have control. There is compatibility with other forms. But when it's specific to your website, not only that, like I said earlier, you're trying to create content, rich content, so that Google recognizes you, so that you can optimize yourself to the top. So when you're talking about the same thing, the same product, instead of giving another Social forum, that credibility, you're giving yourself that credibility instead. And at the same time you're also increasing your webpage.

That's an awesome response. That's a solid gold answer. Stacy, I want you to weigh in on this too.

Basically, the reason why I came to WIX is because I was on Etsy and I was on Instagram and there was still between the two of them so many restrictions about what I could do with my community. And so that's what I was looking for. I was looking for a platform that can offer all of those things. And so that's why I'm with wix is because I am able to blog, I can have a forum, I can link in the social media so I can generate traffic and I can generate newsletters. And then there's new exciting things coming in now that WIX is going to be able to offer me, which means I don't have to go and seek out other platforms. For example, Patreon. A lot of people in my field use Patreon, which is another platform. Why do I want to have another platform when I can have it all in one place? So I am able to have those subscriptions available that behave the same way as a patron would and I don't have to pay extra and people don't. And I've been told this, people don't want to be going to all these multiple different sources. They want a one stop shop. So they want one place where they can get all the tools that they need and where I have as the ability, as Steve has mentioned, you have that control over the content that you're generating and putting out there. So that's why it gives you that empowerment there. So it's really exciting to hear that there's new tools coming available within groups because that's where I'm going to be going next. I'm going to be using those to set up little subscription color groups so that people can subscribe and they can collaborate with me on making colors. And it's an experience that they're paying for and a product at the same time and friendship and dialogue and all those things. So it's really exciting. So why would I go anywhere else?

So I love what both of you said. It's really solid gold here. And I'll weigh in because community is kind of my wheelhouse too. I found when we talk about where to place a community, I think you kind of need to first, before you do anything, understand what your business goals are, what you're trying to do with your Business and what your focus is and goals for the community. Right. So, for example, Steve, you and Stacy, you both have conversations in this forum that's organic. Right. And the value of that, you can't, you can't think of this very lightly because that's a conversation that you can't have with them because you're the owner or the marketing and it's kind of a top down message. But shoulder to shoulder in an open space is transparent. It builds trust. Right. Honesty and honesty. Right. And other places, specifically Facebook, these groups, they don't get that organic conversation is never going to get seen by Google. So it's not that you can't be in those spaces like you talked about earlier. Steve, you have a Facebook page, but it just sends people back to your homes, the home base. Right, yeah. So I think you just kind of as a business need to focus on what you're trying to do and what your goal is and then it helps you make a decision better later. So I hope that wasn't.

You want to be the center of your own universe, not somebody else's.

Absolutely, absolutely. And you can't, you know, then we can get into the ads and how you can't control that. But that's another question.

That's another story.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Great. Yes, ma'. Am.

Yeah. So I want to add something. So this is amazing. Like Stacy, she just heard about like the groups and already with her creative mind she's thinking about, okay, how I'm going to use that. And this is something that, this is why we build those tools. So

again, exactly. I'll take one more. And this was something that was, that was asked from the viewers here. Infinity kind of asks about engagement and Stacy, I want to kind of toss this towards you. How can someone sort of engage with their members? What's some ways I know you and Steve both do it? Well, I'll let both of you answer, Stacy, if you'll start off with what do you do to engage?

So I use my stories feature on the Instagram. So that's like a big part of generating that traffic and engaging because it's real time. The 24 hour story feature, which I know Facebook has as well. And so I'm using that to basically share with people. Like as Steve said, transparency. I'm actually sharing with people what I'm doing during the day just about every day. So it's almost like in a way like I am the brand because I'm sharing with people, you know, like I'm relating to them and connecting with them on commonalities. So that's how you're engaging people. You're tapping into things that you might share about yourself that people like, oh, I love cats or oh, that's such a funny, because I've got a name on Instagram, I'm known as the cat meme lady. So I share lots of funny things about cats, but also I'm also sharing things about pet, my paints all the time. But if I haven't got that content there, I'm always generating that relationship with them so that I'm always sitting at the top as well, right in their face. Because if I'm always active, I'm always going to be there, algorithm wise. So it's that engagement that links into your algorithm so that you're constantly active. Instagram will know, oh, you're a hot one to watch. And so engagement, it has to be authentic, it has to be honest and as Steve said, transparency and relevant as well. So it's being very careful about what you write, how you write it, what you're sharing all of that stuff and then linking that again into your main grid and then that's linked into your website as well, so that you're generating that content all the time. So engagement is really about being authentic and being available and being present with those people and answering your direct messages. I hear so many times from so many other customers how frustrated they are that they've sent a message to another paint maker and they haven't heard back. And I've been on the receiving end of that and it's frustrating. So it's really important to be available and present to your customer base as well.

That is some great advice. Steve, same question to you, last question and I'll let you have the final say here. Hot seat.

I forgot the question.

How do you engage? How do you engage your members?

Well, there's a. I mean, there's so many different ways. You know, for example, instead of having a Frequently Asked Questions page, you know, sometimes you see websites, they got FAQ and you go in there and they have a few lines and that's your answer and that's it. Instead, put it on the forum, have frequently asked questions, questions and answer the questions. And the nice part about having it on the forum is people that have that question. A lot of times there's other leading questions into that and you're able to build it. And essentially all you want to do is immerse yourself in the subject, whatever the subject is, whatever your business is, it doesn't matter if you're selling toilet paper, doesn't matter. Immerse yourself in the subject. So you know, if, for example, for us teardrop trailers, that's what we live, eat and breathe. You know, Stacy, she's into watercolors, but I'm sure she's the exact same way. And that's what you do. Instead of just having FAQ start a thread, ask a simple question. How do I use a solar panel? What is a solar panel? And just build as much content, again, I can't say it enough. Build as much content as you can so that you get more people actively participating in your forum. Which ultimately brings you back to the top. Because the whole idea is if you immerse yourself on the subject, for example, teardrop trailer, and you have that content on your website, you're going to be on the top. So when somebody does a generic search, boom, you're there. And that's exactly what you want. You want to be on the front row, center.

I love it. So thank you.

Steve.

What great questions. What great audience, great questions, great panelists. I want to thank everybody. So just to sort of summarize this, we've talked about, we met some real life merchants who are building communities around their brands. We talked a little bit about what they're doing in some ways that they've excelled at this. We talked about the tools. We just had an awesome Q and A and I think that's a wrap. So I want to say first and foremost, thank you to Steve and thank you to Stacey for coming and representing amazing brand community builders. Awesome job. We love seeing what you're doing.

And I just want to say one thing as well. And you know, this is not a paid advertisement. This is coming straight, straight from the heart. I look before I started my business without, and I mean this 100% without Wix, I would not be where I am today. And this website changed my life because instead of me having to go and pay, you know, companies or graphic designers or artists to build a platform for me, it's already there. You guys have provided it for me. I get to do the creative side of what I do and that's to build teardrop trailers. So I, so I just want to say to the entire team of Wix man, and I've been since 2013 with you guys and I just give you a two thumbs up. I really appreciate the work that you've done and it's just an amazing cloud based platform and I think together we're going to continue to rise.

You know, it's so good to hear. It's good to hear that. I mean, I can't take responsibility for building the product. Some people on this panel can though. Right? But it's good for the folks at WIX to hear that too because that's our dream. That's our vision. Our vision is to give that space to everybody in the world so they can be successful in their endeavors. That's what it's all about, right? We all do hear that.

We all do best and you guys do best at cloud based and we build trailers.

Well, thank you. And I want to thank both of you again for being here. And Tali and Domas, thank you so much for coming and spending your time and sharing your knowledge. And for everybody watching, be safe, stay healthy and we'll see you next time. And before we close though, do remember we do have some resources. We have the WIX Help center, the WIX Ecom School, and there's also WIX EECOM Blog and there's a lot of more resources there. And yes, this was recorded. Okay, thanks everybody. Have a great week.