Forum marketing is one of the easiest and most productive methods online marketers have of promoting their businesses. Any marketer, in any niche, can participate in this form of online marketing. Some products or services will have better forum representation but most will have some.
Also, some businesses prefer to avoid it in favor of what they consider higher value marketing methods. You'll be able to meet many of your marketing goals, however, if you apply these simple tactics to your forum marketing efforts.
Marketing online can be difficult at times, especially if you have no idea about the method you are using, or even how to use it. So if you try out forum marketing, you should have an idea of how it will be beneficial for you and your business, before you spend any time doing it. Forum marketing is based on networking with other businesses and your niche audience. It's not just networking, per se, but actually relationship marketing to some degree. The latter is the most important of the two, and it's what you'll use in most other forms of marketing. Using a completely different approach to traditional marketing, forum marketing can actually help you build your brand name as well. And while gaining exposure, your brand name will soar, but only if you offer exceptional value for what you have to offer. If you offer so much value that people won't forget, your reputation will grow leaps and bounds on the forum.
Don't just comment on existing threads. Start your own threads as well. It's quite common to feel a little bit shy about going out there and starting threads of your own. Just remember what you have to offer and want to share with the forum and begin your own thread. Encourage readers to ask any questions they have too.
If you're looking to fill the pages, consider saying something that's going to bring controversy. Just be helpful site wary of crossing lines or coming across as uninformed and/or judgmental. Don't go outside the niche when you start threads, whatever else you do.
Just present yourself in a casual manner. You'll see all kinds of people if you're there long enough or over a long enough period of time. There are those that will always try to belittle you. There are also those who like to constantly gripe about things. A majority of member will ignore these people, which will make them drop out of sight. These are the unwritten rules of social and forum etiquette and they're very real. So you have to determine what is important to you. You will have to make a few tweaks if you want to succeed with forum marketing.
You can work a lot of forums and still only devote about five hours a week to the effort and, bring in a ton of profit from forum marketing. You won't find many ways to get a higher ROI for your time than this. Of course diversifying is the best bet to keep your business insulated from the ups and downs of doing business online.