(Newswire.net — July 4, 2021) — Do you ever find yourself wondering how some businesses find such loyal customers that keep coming back for more?
There is one simple answer.
These companies spend time and resources dedicated to building brand communities. It’s not just about posting daily on social media. There’s a lot of work that goes into building a brand community that continues to grow over the years.
So how can you do it? Here are eight must-have tips to developing a brand community that boosts your sales and brand awareness.
Brand Communities Explained
What is a brand community? It’s not the customers who make one purchase and never visit your store again. It’s those customers you see time and time again. It’s the people on your email list and your Instagram followers.
A brand community is a group of people who actively engage with your brand on a regular basis.
They believe in similar values as your business, or simply adore the products and services you provide. Most importantly, they know you value their business and have a positive, personal relationship with your brand.
Cultivating an online brand community is extremely important. Not only does it turn one-time customers into return customers, but it keeps your brand and what you offer on your customers’ minds every day. It reminds them why they love your products and encourages them to keep coming back for more.
So how do you cultivate strong brand communities online? Here are eight tips and tricks to building a platform that helps people connect to and resonate with your brand.
1. Who Is Your Audience?
First, you need to figure out who exactly is your ideal customer. Building a brand community is impossible if you don’t target your marketing strategies towards the right audience.
If you’re selling car insurance but the only people who see your ads are kids under the age of 12, you’ll be out of business in no time.
Ask yourself a few questions. What are you selling? Who is likely to be interested in what you offer? Once you answer those questions, you can move forward and develop a strategy to increase brand recognition.
If you already have a business Instagram account for your brand you can use a tool to gain insight into your current audience. You get the numbers on the demographics of your page’s visitors, like their gender, race, and where they are located.
This feature can give you a great idea of the type of person who loves your products and resonates with your brand’s personality. It will help you market towards them and turn them into potential customers. It can also give you great ideas to get more Instagram likes!
2. Cater to Your Customers
Once you’ve identified your audience, you need to figure out your customers’ values and needs.
Think about it in terms of problem-solving. How can your products help your customers achieve their goals?
Maybe you provide a service that saves your customers precious time. Perhaps you can help your customers save some money. How can your products heighten their quality of life?
Focus your brand community development strategies on how you can help your customer succeed. When you put the customer first, they’re more likely to return to your store. Catering to your customers is extremely important because you need to foster a trusting mutual relationship between your brand and its community.
3. Develop a Personable Brand Voice
The best way to develop a relationship with your customer and build brand awareness is to develop a personable and unique brand voice that stays consistent across all of your online platforms.
Your brand voice must be engaging to your particular customer base. A prank toy company may employ a snarky tone and even mess around with or make fun of its customers. A divorce lawyer’s website will convey information more gently and with an air of professionalism.
Your brand voice must focus on connecting with your customers. Make your brand feel as human as possible. People prefer engaging with a brand on social media if it doesn’t feel like it’s run by robots.
Use empathy and humor in your branding to communicate with your audience that real people are behind your business. That gives them all the more reason to support you!
4. What Is Your Mission?
One integral aspect of building brand community is developing a strong brand mission tied to values your customer base believes in. Here’s a great example of how business owners can align their brand’s mission with the values of their audiences.
Take people who buy vegan soaps. They often value supporting small businesses, sustainability, environmentalism, and natural ingredients. Smart vegan soap vendors know this, so they package their soaps in recycled paper and make sure to source their ingredients sustainably and from natural ingredients.
Even smarter soap sellers make sure all of their customers know just how much they value environmental protection and using only natural ingredients. They will ensure that their marketing strategy includes a heavy focus on these topics.
It makes people more excited to buy your products when they feel in tune with your brand. They want to give you money and support you if they believe you’re on the same team.
5. Ask for Customer Input
Asking your customers what they want helps you to improve your offerings to better suit their needs, but it also shows them that your brand cares about their input.
If you have a good-sized email list of past and potential customers, send out a survey asking them to provide feedback on your brand and what you offer. Remember to emphasize that the purpose of the survey is to improve your products or services and thus your customers’ experiences.
Past customers can give you feedback on the products they liked and what you could change to improve them. Potential customers who signed up for your email newsletter but have yet to make a purchase can tell you why that is and what you can do to entice them into clicking that Checkout button.
6. Offer Rewards and Freebies
Companies with strong brand communities offer their customers free samples, rewards programs, and other freebies to keep them coming back for more.
When you offer up freebies, your customers feel like you’re giving them a generous gift. It may not seem like a lot for an ice cream shop to offer a little sample spoonful to help you choose your flavor, but even the little things make a big difference.
Brands with rewards programs tend to build incredible brand communities that keep customers happy and wanting more. When you give your loyal customers a free cup of coffee every month, or you let them rack up points for a small reward, it shows your customer that their happiness is your number one priority.
7. Constantly Post on Social Media
If you don’t have a detailed marketing strategy in the works to develop brand awareness and connect with your existing customers, you need to change that ASAP.
It’s extremely important to utilize social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter when you’re cultivating brand communities online. Social media growth is a great tool for finding new customers, and for engaging with your loyal customers, that make up your brand community.
That means creating posts in your brand’s unique voice that let your followers know your brand’s mission and values. It also means advertising current and upcoming promotions, answering customers’ questions, and connecting with people online.
Cultivating a strong brand community comes down to building relationships and connecting with others.
8. Get Creative
Don’t be afraid to unleash your creativity!
Creativity stands out and naturally brings people in. When brands find new, unique ways to engage with an audience, it can be a game-changer for the success of their business.
Keep your Instagram interesting by hiring a creative photographer to stage your products in a whole new artsy fashion. Plan an event for your community that brings people and your product together. Amp up your website by adding enthralling graphics and compelling copy.
If you don’t stand out, potential customers won’t remember you from among the crowds of other businesses offering similar products.
Learn More Brand Awareness Strategies
Now you have some insight into how successful business owners cultivate strong brand communities. If you follow the tips laid out above, your business will surely stand out from the crowd.
Do you want to learn more strategies to develop your brand and gain loyal customers? Keep browsing our site for articles on topics like marketing, SEO, brand awareness, and more!