Of course, you can find the time to interview at least 1 member per week.
Talking to members saves time.
It lets you stop working on things that won’t succeed, it lets you zero in on what members are passionate about, and it lets you phrase messages in the language of your members.
I wish we each had a timer counting the amount of time we wasted on initiatives which weren’t as successful as we thought they would be. This would show the value of community so clearly.
Participating in discussions and replying to questions isn’t enough. You need to proactively set aside time each week to interviewing members in depth.
Find out how they found the community, what were they looking for, what problem did they want to solve (that’s your landing page copyright there).
Find out how they participate in the community, when do they remember to participate, what do they visit the community to do (that’s your site structure and autoresponder campaign).
Find out what their biggest problems and aspirations are. What’s stopping them from achieving those aspirations or keeping them in fear? (this is your activities and content).
Feel free to probe and go deeper in more interesting areas.
It’s easy to be super active in a community and not really know members well at all. Make sure you regularly speak with members. Just one member a week can suffice.
The reason you don’t have the time is because you’re so inefficient with your time today. Interviewing members regularly will help.
Try just 1 interview this week. You will learn something you didn’t expect.
