You’ve heard the term “brand community” shouted from the marketing grapevines. And by now, you understand the importance of building a brand community to boost customer engagement for your brand!
What you may not be sure about is how to start and what key factors will set your community up for success.
At BrandChamp, we took a deep dive into 1,000+ brand ambassador communities to find out the secret to keeping a brand community engaged.
At the end of it all, we uncovered five pillars that contribute to a thriving and engaged brand community, and today we are sharing them with you.
Pillar 1: Ambassadors and User-Generated Content
Did you know 88% of consumers mostly trust recommendations from people they know?
A passionate customer base for your brand is essential to success. Your most loyal clients can be your biggest brand champs and cheerleaders. Encouraging them to spread the word about it is something that you should do regularly and in a number of different ways.
One way to do this is through authentic user-generated content (UGC), created by brand ambassadors, which you can repurpose. BrandChamp helps you manage your ambassadors and UGC all-in-one single platform, making it simpler to connect with and reward your most devoted customers. Empowering your customers to share their stories and experiences with your brand fosters a community of devoted enthusiasts who’ll naturally amplify your brand’s reach.
There’s a reason word of mouth remains one of the most powerful forms of community-based marketing. Enthusiastic customers can promote your brand to their friends or followers on social media, helping to spread your message far and wide.
Pillar 2: Incentives and Rewards
You could wait for your customers to organically start promoting your products, or you could incentivize them with rewards and create a wave. One way to do this is by offering exclusive discounts, cash rewards, loyalty points, free products, or early access to new products for members of your community. Gamifying your marketing is a great way to boost engagement. BrandChamp makes rewarding the community easy, fun, and time-efficient, freeing up valuable resources in your team for maximum productivity!
Types of Rewards:
- Product Discounts
- Free Products
- Loyalty Points
- Cash Rewards
- Gift Cards
- Custom Reward
Pillar 3: Authenticity
For a brand to successfully create and maintain an online community, authenticity, transparency, honesty, and direct communication must be at the forefront of its community-based marketing strategy.
Authenticity is essential in order to establish trust from the very beginning. When customers feel that they can trust a brand to communicate openly with them, it helps to foster an environment of mutual respect.
Transparency is key; brands should be open about their goals, objectives, and policies. When customers feel heard and respected, they are more likely to stay engaged and recommend the brand with their own original content.
Source: HerbaLand – https://www.herbaland.com
Pillar 4: Communication and Engagement
Frequently keeping in touch with your online brand community is critical for fostering a lively and enthusiastic environment. This can be anything from responding to direct messages or comments to engaging in conversations on social media platforms or even hosting virtual events or webinars. Participating in conversations can build trust with customers and strengthen the relationship between the brand and its community.
Keep the community engaged by sharing fun facts, competitions, polls, networking events, insights, and exclusive knowledge and information. Knowledge sharing is also a great way to free up valuable resources within your team, as it reduces strain on your customer services team. No more answering the same question over and over!
The secret to success is to make every member of your community feel that they have a voice, and their voice matters more than anyone else’s.
“88% of consumers mostly trust recommendations from people they know. A passionate customer base for your brand is essential for success.”
Pillar 5: Personalized Experience
Offering a personalized experience is a must if you want to build an engaging brand community. Understanding their individual needs, preferences, and interests goes a long way. A flourishing and captivating community feels like a family, not only to its members but also to newcomers encountering your brand for the first time.
Monitor and analyze your customers’ social media behavior and product preferences and boost their engagement with a personalized experience. Segment this data, and you can provide them with content, activities, rewards, and personalized communication that resonate with them.
BrandChamp allows brands to personalize their community’s experience by examining data and insights and aligning them with your business plan and customer demographics.
Build an Engaged Brand Community Today
Creating an active and engaged brand community can be tricky, but building a strategy around the five key pillars of engaged communities can help you set strong foundations.
Imagine your loyal customers enthusiastically promoting your brand to their friends, sharing their positive experiences, and bringing new customers into your community of brand enthusiasts! BrandChamp has all the tools you need to help you do exactly that, and take your brand community and customer engagement to the next level.
Book a free consultation today and let’s discover if BrandChamp is the right fit for your brand.
