Best Practices When Launching an Insight Community

Launching an online insight community is an exciting time for any organization! Follow our guide below to ensure your launch is a success.

What is the number-one success factor for a good launch?

The number-one factor for success when launching an online insight community would be ensuring that the vision for the community is clearly outlined and understood in advance. You can ensure this understanding by asking the right questions during the kick-off meeting with your insight community provider. The community vision consists of who the members of the community will be, as well as what the research objectives for the community are. Research objectives can vary from evaluating product concepts to conducting IHUTs (In-Home Use Testing ), optimizing CX (customer experience), and more.

Steps When Launching a Community:

There are three major decisions to make when launching a community:

1. Community Positioning:

   An important factor to consider when launching an online community is whether you want the community to be branded or unbranded. This will determine how members view the community overall.

2. Sample Criteria:

   Knowing who you want in your community as well as having your screener questions, and profile fields ready to go and planned are necessary steps to take prior to launching.

3. Population Sources:

   Have a plan of action on how you will recruit your sample. Whether it is from customer lists, social media audiences, or panel partners, recognize what source you would like your sample population to be obtained from.

Identify key players within a company that need to be involved in an insight community launch

There needs to be at least one point of contact in an organization to work alongside the insight community provider when launching. The point of contact is typically a key stakeholder or member of the organization’s research, product, or marketing team. The individual tends to then become responsible for the community management on the client side throughout the duration of the community. This person acts as the key player in briefing the provider on what the community vision is and planning community specifics.

The organization’s internal legal team is also usually involved when drafting the terms and conditions for the community. The design team is also involved if the community is branded. Design can enhance the look and feel of the community by creating special elements (banners, welcome images, etc.) to display to members within.

Look for potential pitfalls

Screening Quotas: Having too strict of screening quotas can hold an organization back from success when initially recruiting for their community. It increases the difficulty when obtaining the sample. There is no need to focus too much on tight demographic percentages as they can vary from activity to activity. However, it is important to make sure your sample is representative .

Not Planning Objectives: Objectives are key towards an efficient community launch. If they are not outlined in the beginning, a lot of time and effort can go to waste and you may have to start from square one. A helpful method when planning is to create a content calendar for your community prior to launching.

Does My-Take do anything to ensure success when launching an online community?

My-Take takes many steps to ensure success when launching a new online community. Communication of community specifics is a priority when working alongside our clients. Also, the My-Take team always makes an effort to optimize engagement levels within the community right off the bat.

My-Take's success goes beyond the sale of a given community. Our success and the success of community is driven by our managers being well versed in our client's company, industry, and overall research objectives, which ultimately helps our team drive engagement and create a fruitful environment.

Our platform is equipped with many features to get members comfortable with the community site, from the FAQ page to the site tour and welcome messages. By capturing members in the beginning, we are able to retain them and nurture the relationship. Also, when a new community goes up, we already have activities launched that members can participate in immediately. Which overall, sets the pace for engagement and familiarizes them with the different types of activities.

The My-Take platform is also incredibly flexible which allows for community customization. Our scalable platform can fit any organization’s needs for community specifics.

Contact us to learn more.