If you really want to learn more about your audience, find more people to promote your products, and get new ideas for more offers, groups are one of your best investments outside of email marketing.

Nurturing groups is inexpensive and can really help you accomplish a lot. Check out these important ways groups help your business grow and you’ll know what’s the right thing to add to your marketing efforts.

1. Conduct audience research

Groups are an effective and fun way to conduct audience research. You can use your own group that you create with your target audience, customers, and prospects, or you can use other people’s groups that consist of an audience just like yours. You can be stealthy and just watch and learn, or you can ask questions, send polls, or invite them to group chats to discuss topics related to your niche.

2. Experience increased engagement opportunities

Groups are an easy way to engage with your audience because they come to the group to chat and learn. So it’s a way to have a conversation, take a poll, share images and talk to your audience in a more informal way. Email is great for sending messages, but sometimes it’s not conducive to real discussion like a group is.

3. Increase brand credibility

Having a group that your customers go to where they talk to your prospects is a great way to increase brand credibility. People who don’t know you very well yet will see people who have bought from you and are happy talking in the group, and that will increase your credibility in many ways, more than one-way emails.

4. It’s cheap

The wonderful thing about having an online group today is that it is very inexpensive. You can start groups for free on Facebook. You can start groups on platforms like Delphiforums.com, Ning.com and others without much money too. But they pay off big once you build them, as long as you contribute often and engage with the audience.

5. Find Joint Venture Partners

Groups are great places to find your next JV partner. When you’re in a group that has lots of other people marketing complementary products to your audience, you may find someone who’s perfect to work on your next idea with. Ideally, it will be someone who can contribute something that you cannot and vice versa.