6 Strategy To Build Community Around Your Brand
Earlier brands had only advertising to market themselves and to reach out to new and prospective customers. But in the last decade, things have changed a lot.
With the advent of the internet wave, digital has become assessable, which has made many customers smarter. They have become aware of what they want, and how to get it.
Now they don’t want brands to only talk, but also to listen to them. Simply put, they want a brand to have a conversation with them. It has opened lots and lots of opportunities for brands to market their product.
And one of the best ways for brands to do that is by building a community around their brand.
Many successful brands like Harley Davidson, Nike, Apple, Adidas, etc have done this in the past. And many new brands are joining this wave too, and they are benefiting as they are converting their customers into ambassadors.
So if you are also looking to start building a community around your brand, use these 6 easy, actionable strategies, to begin with.
1. Set your brand personality and tone:
Customers today want a strong connection with brands that they are engaging with — this is the same way that they do while engaging with people. That’s why having a brand personality and tone should be the first thing your business should do.
You will be astonished to find out that but in one research by Harvard Business School it was found that 95% of the time customers’ purchasing decision is based on emotions and feelings, instead of logic.
In brand personality, define what set of characteristics you want your brand to show to your customers. Your brand personality has the power to shape your customer perspective about your brand.
Coming brand tone is used to define what is your mood, or emotion and how you convey your message to your audience.
This should be the first step you should make to start building a community around your brand.
2. Define what your brand should stand for:
What problems you are solving what are your opinions and most importantly what steps you are taking to solve those problems?
When customers join the community they look for brands that offer them value, and define that also. What are you offering your customers, that your competitors are not solving.
3. Find ways to connect with your community:
After setting your brand tone and voice, and identifying what your brand’s mission is and what it stands for next comes finding ‘where’ and ‘how’ to connect with them.
The decision can be based on your requirement, like:
- what is your budget,
- what is the size of your audience?
- How your audience generally prefers to engage?
And other factors.
In beginning, you should start small, like using Facebook Group and slowly move to other channels.
4. Make your community feel valuable and exclusive:
These are the reasons for an individual to join a community:
Your community content should be centered around making your community members feel the same. Here having an interesting and likable brand personality and voice helps you a lot.
Because it makes you approachable and customers start liking you.
5. Make your community members engage with each other:
Okay, you have to accept that in the initial phase it will be awkward for your community member to engage with each other or with you. It is an accepted fact, and if you are taking initiative to engage and being consistent with your content, slowly and gradually this will pass on.
But there are certain things you can do:
- Post engaging content.
- Use the power of humor to connect with your audience.
- Post insider memes and comments which make your brand look humanized.
- Post content where you are sharing your opinion and feeling on some social issue.
6. Give More value than you are getting:
In the end successful community building boils down to one thing, it is value.
If you are planning to build a community, you should offer more than you receive. Today every online transaction your customer make has one thing in common they are looking to get more than what they give, make sure you use this to your advantage.
offering your customers a good community experience. Post helpful resources, and support them in their journey with you. In the end, it will give you more followers and engagement.
