The first question is, what is a brand community? And is it important?
A brand community is basically your circle, just like other communities, a group of people who share the same interests. Now how is it beneficial for your brand?
Your online community exists in various forms such as your social media influence, email subscriptions, etc. It is a very effective way to build brand loyalty and trust amongst existing as well as potential customers.
A community is not complete without interaction and gaining new ideas through those interactions, so anywhere your audience is leaving feedback about your brand can be considered a part of it, be it the comment section, your website, messages, etc.
If your happy customers have subscribed to your e-newsletter, it shows they are here for a long time and are interested in knowing more about your products and services, sending them information about updates or offers can build their trust even more and thus build loyalty towards our brand and it even build a space for free promotion of new launches!
Another reason why brand community is important is that it gives you insights into your audience’s minds and thus answers a few questions which are very important for any brand who wants to see their graphs rising,
What is my audience interested in?
What are they liking the most?
What are they looking for?
Am I serving them what they want?
What is my niche?
And many more…
The last question mentioned here was, what is my niche? If you want to know more about niche marketing, check out my blog, ‘HOW CAN NICHE MARKETING HELP ME BOOST MY BUSINESS?’
After reading about all these benefits, any brand would want to go for it but the main question,
How to build an online community?
There are many ways to build an online community of loyal customers and boost your brand, let’s dig in
Find your niche
A niche refers to a group, and here it refers to the group that you as a brand want to serve, in a nutshell, it means your target audience. Knowing about your niche will help you build a loyal community as you would know their interests and ways to attract them. You can design your advertisements and promotions according to their styles and serve them what they are looking for!
They should feel valued
They went out of their way and have become a part of your community, they should feel valued and different from others, give them loyalty benefits, discounts or share interesting information about your products, show them that they have a special place, this will make them feel connected to the brand.
Be consistent
Keep them updated with your whereabouts, don’t disappear for months, and expect them to keep waiting for you. Consistency is the key to fulfill any goal! You don't just have to show them your final products, they will be very much interested to know the process and the hard work that you are putting into it. Give them a sneak peek into new launches and updates!
Do not go overboard
Updating them every now and then will cause them to be frustrated and may marks your mails as spam or just ignore them, show them relevant content with a gap of a few days between them and sometimes keep them in suspense of what is about to happen, this will keep them eager to know more about you!