Building a brand community is a challenging task, but the payoff is huge. A strong and loyal community can be the difference between success and failure for your business.
Making your community members feel like they belong is key to building loyalty, and will make them more likely to share your content and message with others.
What is a brand community?
A brand community is a group of people who collectively identify with and buy your products or services because they believe in your ideas and values, and want to support them.
- Use your social media channels to connect with people who are already interested in you.
- Ask your customers for their feedback on new products, services, and programs.
- Participate in conversations on social media by responding to comments, questions, and complaints.
Why do you need a brand community?
The world is changing. More and more people are turning to social media to learn about products and brands. And these people are not just friends and family anymore. They are your customers, prospective customers, and other interested parties. The best way to stay in front of them is by having a strong brand community.
- A strong brand community helps you stand out.
- It helps you reach new customers and markets.
- It gives you a place to test new ideas and innovative projects.
- It provides a place for customer feedback and input on future products and services.
- It gives you a voice with the media and influencers (blogs).
- It increases your credibility with current and prospective customers.
- It increases the likelihood of referrals from current customers to friends and family members.
How to build your own successful brand community?
The heart of your company’s community is your brand. In order to build a strong brand community, its mission, values, and overall ethos must be well defined. Determine your business’s personality and values before launching a brand community to guarantee they are properly conveyed throughout the consumer experience.
- Know your audience. The first step to building a brand community is knowing who you want to engage with. Figure out who your target audience is and what their interests are.
- Give them something to do. Give your audience something to do. You can give them a task or you can just give them some small tasks. You could ask them to share their favorite quote on social media, or you can ask them to answer some questions about your product.
- Create an offer they can’t refuse. You need to create an offer that your target audience cannot refuse. If you are a shoe company, for example, you could offer a chance to win a branded pair of shoes for those who join your community. Another great offer is to give away free products over the course of a week or month.
- Create high-quality content. Use consumer research to generate content your audience will love. Create useful lessons, engaging articles, live digital events, and content with your community’s favorite influencers. Encourage community members to join by inviting them to express their views. Creating an area where clients can access informative, engaging, and emotionally appealing material will assure repeat business.
- Encourage user-generated content (UGC). UGC is a great way to organically grow and engage a brand community. Customers informally discuss brands 90 times every week, and 70% trust other customers’ opinions. Getting customers to write about their purchases in your brand community is crucial to influence other community members’ purchasing habits. Encourage community participation by like and commenting on UGC, conducting challenges, and partnering with brand ambassadors (passionate consumers who are micro-influencers).
The hard effort, research, and willingness to listen to your consumers will pay off in the form of customer loyalty, better goods, more brand exposure, and overall growth.
If your organization is willing to put in the effort and create content that is not solely focused on selling products, you will build a loyal following and a good reputation.