4 Ways To Build A Strong Community Around Your Brand
This connection post comes from our guest Ashley Wilson. Ashley is a content creator, writing about business and tech. She has been known to reference movies in casual conversation and enjoys baking homemade treats for her husband and their two felines, Lady and Gaga. You can get in touch with Ashley via Twitter.
Having a strong community around your brand can help you grow your business in numerous ways. It makes your customers feel like they are part of something larger than simply the product or service you offer.
In these uncertain economic times, it is crucial to create a great sense of community so that your brand doesn’t become forgotten. Instead, you can enjoy more customer loyalty, referrals, and repeat purchases to boost your bottom line.
Here are four smart ways to view your market through the lens of a community and not just numbers:
1. Engage Your Market with Social Media
Today, 70% of people in the U.S. use social media. What started as a simple way to keep in touch with friends, family and classmates has ballooned into a new pastime of its own.
In fact, many of your customers might think that “if it’s not on social media, it doesn’t exist.” It is becoming a primary way to receive information, talk with like-minded people, and shop for products and services.
Make sure that you are getting the most out of social media. It is an incredibly powerful tool for building a community for your brand.
For instance, you can create a Facebook group for your business. This allows customers to interact with each other and share their love for your business or share tips about getting the most out of your brand. It also lets you get a better feel for what your market is thinking and saying in real-time.
2. Have a Higher Purpose to Bring People Together
People will pull out their wallets to buy a product that they want or need. However, they will happily shout from the rooftops about their passions, purposes, and bigger missions in life.
As a business owner, you can leverage this by doing something truly special. Think about ways to give back to your community, rally around a mission, and stand for something bigger than money.
Your loyal customers will feel like a part of the family and bring more of their friends to discover your brand. For instance, think of how popular technology, health, and lifestyle brands create an almost “cult-like” following due to their connection with a bigger picture.
3. Always Iterate on Your Customer Service
Customer service is not set in stone. What was the best practice years ago may not be as relevant in today’s world. For instance, just a decade ago, consumers would not be comfortable using an online chat service to receive help from a brand.
Today, technology is a fact of life. And customer service must adapt to this new reality. Take another look at your customer service systems and ask yourself if there is a way to automate, delegate, or revise your protocol to serve a more modern market better.
Excellent customer service is some of the best advertising you can have. And it creates a natural community around your brand of people who love how they’re treated.
Instead of viewing customers as one-off transactions, embrace the long-term potential of impressing them with incredible service. One customer can turn into 5, 10, 20, and more down the line due to reviews, testimonials, and enthusiastic referrals.
4. Embrace the Mobile Revolution with Your Own App
Smartphones are really supercomputers that happen to fit in our pockets. And because you can do almost anything on your phone that you can do on a computer today, customers prefer to go the mobile route.
If you have a quality mobile app developed, you’ll be able to foster a better sense of community. Imagine the spare time throughout the day that customers have: waiting in line, commercial breaks, passing the time at home, etc.
If the chance to interact with other like-minded customers from your brand is right within your app, they will be less hesitant to participate. And luckily, you don’t need a whole IT team to accomplish it.
You can find professionals to build the app for you from scratch. The end result is a digital asset that works for your 24/7. It helps you customize your communications with your market, answer questions faster, and collect valuable intel to keep up with changing consumer behavior.
Conclusion
Having a strong community for your brand has never been more important. The shift of consumer behavior to the digital world was already happening. Covid-19 has only sped up the process.
Therefore, if you want to create an excellent sense of community and customer loyalty, take the actions above. It will set up your business to be more successful now and into the future.
