By Bhumika Ramesh
A brand is what makes your company stand out. Investing in your brand through posting on social media or making use of various online platforms is great. But it isn’t good enough. To have stability, building a community is a priority. A brand community is a group of people who connect with your brand in all possible ways – they will buy/use your product, recommend it to others and consume your content proactively. Building a community ensures your brand gets feedback for new updates. It also creates engagement among other features. Let’s look into how we can build such a community.
Invest in email newsletters and blog posts
When you provide your audience with information regularly they’re more likely to remain engaged. You’ll see a rise in those click and open rates. When you communicate with them through personalized emails, people feel connected and engage more since the content is broadcasted regularly.
Share testimonials and stories
When you appeal to the emotional aspect of your customer, they tend to invest more of their time. This can be done through sharing client testimonials or stories from employees or yourself. A humane aspect to the company is never considered unnecessary. Authenticity is extremely attractive to people.
Online social communities
Communicating to your audience through platforms such as Instagram or an exclusive member-only site can foster spaces for people. To help build engagement through discussions and with your content. People perceive added benefits as great features most of the time, so free workshops or downloadable guides can be an excellent incentive.
Focus on your brand
Before building your brand community, dive into what your brand stands for and its essence. When you have your brand’s identity in place, you can develop appropriate elements. Think about what you’re trying to achieve, your company’s visions for the future and your goals. The more qualities you showcase, you attract like-minded people.
And lastly, give yourself time to build and grow your community. Rushing it is going to be of no advantage. Slowly but surely, you’ll find your engagement metrics going up. Building a trusted community is no easy feat, but the investment pays itself back tenfold.
For more on this topic, see this post from Forbes on Building a Community.
Also see our post on on building an email list to help grow and engage your community