When starting a business, most entrepreneurs will focus almost all of their efforts on sales, and for good reason.
After all, without enough sales, brands will struggle to get their business off the ground and profitable.
But when looking at the longer-term picture, building a community for repeat sales, loyal customers and continued growth is absolutely essential.
With that in mind, here are a few ways to build a community around your brand, setting it up for a long and successful future.
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Here are six ways to build a community around your brand:
- Know your audience inside and out: Understand your target audience beyond key demographics.
- Create content that gets your community talking: Focus on creating high-value content that addresses your audience’s specific needs and challenges.
- Optimize social media to build community: Choose social platforms where your target audience is most active.
- Encourage meaningful two-way communication: Make sure your community feels heard.
- Organize impactful events and experiences: Bring your community together online or offline.
- Offer exclusive benefits to your community: Build a loyalty program that rewards and strengthens your community.
How to build a community around your brand
Let’s dive into the six steps you can take to build a community around your brand, building greater consumer trust and brand loyalty while expanding your brand awareness with new customers.
Know your audience inside and out
First and foremost, you need to make sure you know your audience like the back of your hand. Without it, you’ll struggle to develop a strategy that really resonates with them, and the benefits will be greatly diminished.
When you’re in the thick of things dealing with all the day-to-day aspects of running a business, it’s easy to forget how important the customer is in everything they do.
After all, without them, you’re just doing a very expensive solo hobby!
You can use things like customer surveys, social listening, and even data analytics of past purchases to get to know your audience better.
Tools like ChatGPT can also be extremely useful for better understanding your audience. By simply entering information about current customers and giving them some information about your brand, you can quickly develop audience personas and start brainstorming ways to attract them.
Create content that speaks to the community
Once you’ve identified who you’re going to talk to and know everything you need to know about their buying habits, daily routines, wants and needs, it’s time to create content that speaks to them.
Rather than getting caught up in what’s “cool” or “viral” at the moment, focus on creating high-value content that addresses your audience’s specific needs and challenges.
If your brand, for example, would benefit from providing customers with “too sweet, too attentive, too raunchy” content, then buck that trend. But if your content has nothing to do with such viral trends, it’s better to walk away than try to incorporate it into your content strategy.
Try to plan many weeks and months in advance, while still having enough flexibility in your schedule to allow you to adapt to relevant changes and developments in your industry.
Optimize social media to build community
If you’ve been following this blog for a while now, you’ll know how important we believe social media is to startup brands.
Not only is this a highly cost-effective approach to marketing, it’s also a brilliant way to bring your community together and connect like-minded customers, as well as respond to comments and concerns in a timely and friendly manner. in style.
Social media chats are often less formal than email blasts, and as a result, they also help bring everyone together by feeling more engaging.
Creating private groups on platforms like Facebook is a great way to add an aspect of exclusivity to your brand, adding more value to becoming a paying customer.
Foster meaningful two-way communication
When building a community, it’s easy to fall into the trap of commuting for more of your customers with they are.
Sure, you may think the processes and offerings you have in place are perfect for your customers, but how do you know if you’re not really asking them?
Collecting and acting on feedback is absolutely essential to building a trusted and engaged community, as it allows them to feel legitimately heard, not threatened.
CRM software can be extremely helpful for this, sending timely emails, push and SMS notifications to your audience to collect their feedback or address their concerns.
Organize Impactful Events and Experiences
Another great way to really engage your audience and improve the sense of community around your brand is through organized events and experiences.
It’s a great example of Nike, with a perfectly sustainable approach to experiences and events, offering customers organized runs and more sophisticated gatherings. They even have a page on their website specially dedicated to experiences.
Of course, I’m not saying you have to reach the same level as Nike, especially given the size and prestige of that brand, but everyone has to start somewhere! Digital events can have a brilliant impact even for completely remote businesses.
Provide Exclusive Benefits to your Community
Finally, one way to keep your community engaged and motivated is to offer them exclusive benefits.
It shouldn’t be anything too outrageous, but offering early access to promotions, closer interactions with your brand, and even influence on future products can be fantastic ways to keep your community engaged and provide exclusive benefits that drive other customers. come on.
The trick here is to find that sweet spot where you offer enough exclusive content and benefits to your community that entices them, without alienating those outside of your community or making too much of a margin in your products and services.
It may take some time to perfect, but some of the easiest things to try include members-only content, content that community members can access before launch, and even exclusive additional discounts.
Final Thoughts
Community is one of the strongest selling points of any brand, regardless of industry.
When your customers are your biggest brand advocates, your brand’s potential growth skyrockets!
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Frequently Asked Questions About Building a Community Around Your Brand
Why is it important to build a community around your brand?**
Building a community around your brand strengthens customer loyalty, increases engagement, and creates brand advocates who can help spread your message to a wider audience.
What are the key steps to start building a brand community?**
- Know your audience inside and out
- Create content that speaks to your community
- Optimize social media to build community
- Encourage meaningful two-way communication
- Organize impactful events and experiences
- Offer exclusive benefits to your community
What types of content are most effective for engaging the brand community?
Content that educates and inspires, such as in-depth guides, expert interviews, how-to articles, and interactive content like polls and challenges, is highly effective in engaging the brand community.