Almost 6 months ago, I had a vision. That vision was to devise a way to extend the same experience that my Dad (who sold and supported Land Surveying Equipment) had when we first began building Land Surveyors United. Over the course of about 9 months he went from a struggling local survey supply company to a global company serving land surveyors around the world during the worst period of economic recession 2007-2008. That experience changed everything for him and now that same experience of building a community around your Products and Services is now available to Vendors inside the community. We've removed all of the ads and distractions from the site in order to place focus on our Marketplace Hubs. Now that Dad has moved on to that big jobsite in the sky, I want to help you build the same type of experience...he would want that.
Building a following takes just minutes per week. Don't worry, it certainly won't take you 14 years to build your following because thousands of land surveyors have already been UNITED inside the community- so all you need to do is tap into that target audience. In fact, most of our Marketplace Hubs already have at least 30 or more followers even though they are only a couple of months old. However, building a following doesn't happen automatically. Although most of the hard work has already been done for you (ie. cultivating a community of close to 17,000 land surveyors), it is up to you to get the followers to your hub - with a little help from us of course. You can gain followers every week by simply posting regular updates to your Hub's Forum, sharing photos and videos of your operation and products and reaching out to your followers inside the community. You should run your Marketplace Hub just like your business, welcoming new members when they join your hub because they are most likely your new potential customers. The Hub Developers Hub has many tips and tricks for ways to use your hub to get the attention your products deserve.
For Vendors Who Already Have a Marketplace Hub
There are several Marketplace Hubs with a lot of followers, yet the Vendors are not regularly posting updates. In fact, I see quite a few that have questions and comments from members that have never been replied to. If you are the vendor in charge of these hubs, you are missing out on potentially a lot of money as well as followers.
Here are a few ways that you can make your Marketplace Hub take off:
- Post a link to your Hub from Your Website (Reciprocal Linking will get you authoritative traffic)
- Treat your hub like a Support Forum for your company and draw in new customers by supporting the products and services you sell
- Post at least one special deal for LSU members inside your forum every week (this attracts new followers to your hub)
- When you post a link to your hub, add =join to the end of the URL (example: https://landsurveyorsunited.com/hubs/hubs=join )
- Share photos of your products in action or demonstrate a service you provide in a video
- Post photos of events or conferences that you attend where your products are on showcase
- Use the description area for photos and videos that you upload to embed payment buttons and embed documentation and or stories about your products.
- Ask questions to your followers and see what they are interested in seeing more of
- Keep an eye on your "Members" page inside your hub. Connect with those who follow you.
- Post Manuals and Guides for how to use the products that you sell and why they are important
- Add an events page to your Hub and schedule some live streams or webinars for Members to attend
- You can also automate post to your Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin through your Hub by using RSSGround to send a post to other profiles everytime you post to your Forum, Photos, Videos, Events, etc.
- Craft a top notch About Us page for your Hub and tell your followers about your company history and your committment to supporting what you sell to surveyors.
- Add a Podcast page to your hub and host a weekly podcast interviewing your customers
- Remember this: when you post, you are not only addressing those surveyors who are already following your Hub, you are also talking to potential customers who will see your post and follow your hub. Posts that offer something special for Land Surveyors United members will always be cross- promoted by us to our Facebook Page (55k followers), our Twitter and our Linkedin Groups.
- Create a Flow of information that never stops by posting to your hub often. You will organically attract new followers over time.
For Vendors Who Want a Marketplace Hub
Forget banner ads! How about a dynamic living Hub community where you can sell your products and services for a fraction of the cost of what you would pay for expensive banner ads. In fact, you won't even be charged until your hub begins to see traction and customers!
In other words, we are officially reversing the traditional Banner Ad Model. If you are tired of throwing your money away on banner ads or print advertising hoping for clicks or calls, this is the solution for you. We'll set up your Hub, brand it according to your website or preferences and import your social media profiles for you. All you need to do is be ready to learn something new, willing to answer questions about your products from customers and followers and share new deals and specials with the community a few times per month. Marketplace Hubs can also have a dedicated mobile app built for helping you quickly post to your Hub while making shopping on the go much simpler for land surveyors in the field. Contact Justin with any questions you might have.
Visit Vendor Marketplace Presentation
Request a Vendor Hub to be set up for your company
Marketplace Hubs Now Have Dedicated Apps
We have now made it easier than ever to quickly add content to your Marketplace hub by developing individually branded Mobile Apps for your hubs. Your app will make it super simple to add posts, upload photos and videos to the Hub from anywhere, on the Fly!
To get your Marketplace Hub App all you need to do is 2 things:
1) Send us your request for your Hub to be set up and we will build both the Hub and the App for you.
2) Schedule a short video call with the Land Surveyors United team about all of the cool things you can do with your hub!
We are excited to add your company to our Marketplace and look forward to hearing from you! Once your Vendor hub is set up we'll send you an email to follow the Hub. We'll then make you admin of the hub and you'll be able to completely control the backend and all of the pages inside the hub. Pretty cool huh!
Reach out.. contact me with any questions!
Thoughts