Should Building A Community Around Your Brand Be A Priority?

Modern technology has created a wealth of new opportunities and approaches for businesses today.

Marketing and advertising have been transformed by the advent of social media, while developments in communication technology mean companies can provide round-the-clock, real-time customer service.

While technology has provided new ways for businesses to practice and advertise, the benefits of the social aspect of online spaces are often overlooked. Communities form around brands and on platforms in often natural and organic ways. Knowing how to identify and even foster these communities can be an invaluable tool in your marketing strategy.

Let’s take a look at what a community can offer your business and why building one should be a priority. Keep reading to find out more.  

1. Brand Loyalty

Perhaps the most important and tangible benefit you will see from building a community around your brand is increased customer loyalty. Communities create a sense of familiarity, consistency, and camaraderie, if people feel comfortable and happy in an online community, they are highly likely to return.

What’s more, dedicated members of your community may recommend your brand to other consumers, acting as a form of free advertising for your business.

2. Brand Reputation

Building and fostering a community around your brand can work wonders for your reputation and how trustworthy consumers perceive your brand to be.

If potential customers see that your company has an active, positive community built around it, it will encourage them to purchase your goods or services and return in the future. Make sure you are active in your community, engaging positively with customers is an extremely effective way to build your brand’s reputation.

3. Get to Know Your Customers

By building a community and engaging with its members, you can gain incredible insights into the opinions, preferences, and behaviors of your customers. Your community presents the perfect sample audience from which you can gauge reactions to new products or services or particular business approaches or methods.

4. Brand Awareness

Happy customers are far more likely to recommend a particular product or service to others, word of mouth marketing is often considered one of the most important marketing tools. Keeping your customers happy is crucial, to creating an engaging and enjoyable community for them to express themselves in a perfect way to do so.

If customers love being part of your community, they are certain to tell others about it or even encourage friends or family to join as well. Such a community is an invaluable promotion for your company that can drive traffic significantly. What’s more, it is substantially more cost-effective than traditional methods of content marketing to increase brand awareness. 

5. Get New Ideas

Sometimes, the best ideas come from somewhere you’d least expect. Harness the energy and creative power of your brand community to get inspiration for new ideas for products, services, and marketing approaches.

You can do this overtly, and ask your community to submit ideas for a new campaign or strategy. You can also take a more subtle approach, drop hints, clues, and teasers about something new and evaluate how your community reacts and responds.

How To Build A Brand Community

As we’ve demonstrated, a brand community can offer your business a wide range of impressive benefits and opportunities. But how exactly do you go about building one? There are several ways to do so.

Choosing a platform where your community will reside should be the first step. Most brand communities today exist on social media, using the comments section below posts to communicate and engage with other members. Using social media is an effective and free approach that works for most companies.

However, if you’re community is larger, you might want to consider launching a dedicated forum on your website. This can open up your community and allow to users to discuss topics in far more detail.

Running customer loyalty, rewards, or affiliate programs can be an effective way to kick-start a community. It will work to increase your brand’s reach and promote consumer engagement across multiple platforms.

Encourage and enable community members to express themselves and share their own content. This will create a welcoming, positive atmosphere where members feel at home and make them eager to return.

Finally, make sure you engage with your community. You don’t need to go over the top, but a consistent, sustained presence will reassure your members that you are appreciative and part of the community yourself.

Is Building A Community A Priority?

Establishing and fostering a brand community absolutely should be a priority for modern businesses. It can offer a wide range of benefits, including increased brand awareness, improved brand reputation, and customer loyalty, and can provide you with invaluable customer feedback and new ideas for your business as it moves forward.

Conclusion

Brand communities are a relatively new phenomenon, their existence is due to the social aspects of the modern digital landscape. Follow the steps we’ve outlined above to grow your community and reap the rewards.

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