Successful brands build brand communities around their products and services.

A brand community goes beyond a group that simply buys from the brand.

It is a dedicated fanbase.

It provides brands with an opportunity to make connections, grow loyalty and foster advocacy.

And it provides consumers with an opportunity to join a tribe of like-minded people, make connections and share experiences.

But, what exactly is a brand community, how do you build one, and what brands are out there already doing it well?

What Is a Brand Community?

A brand community is a group of people who congregate, gather and connect around a shared interest or passion for a brand, it’s products and quite often, the lifestyle it supports.

Customers within such communities are more often than not, on a shared path with similar interests and goals.

Brand communities are quite often passionate groups with shared enthusiasm for the lifestyle the brand supports.

For example, GoPro has a passionate brand community who not only connect through the capturing of video, but through the extreme and exciting environments it’s often captured in.

Communities and their members don’t just support your brand by regularly making purchases of your brand’s products.

They also act as brand advocates, spreading the word about it to their friends, family, coworkers, and other people online.

They are the loyal customers who read all of your fresh content, follow your social media pages, and actively engage in campaigns and other initiatives for your company.

Brand community members enthusiastically praise your goods or services, provide reviews, and distribute your content marketing to others.

As dedicated fans of the brand, they enthusiastically track the brand experience to see what you will do next.

Like all fans, your brand supporters enjoy coming together to exchange opinions and generally enjoy the brand as a community.

To build a strong brand community, brands need to nurture loyal customers through community engagement and community management.

Customer And Market Research

The overarching benefit of a brand community relates to the idea that all marketing and branding relies on information-gathering and sharing.

Successful brands understand their audience.

Therefore, a brand community is an immensely valuable source of information that you should use to better understand your loyal customers.

Use your insights to influence your brand strategy.

A Platform For Connection And Sharing

The secondary underlying benefit is that an active brand community that trusts and supports your brand effectively acts as a marketing channel in itself.

Loyal fans of your brand will do their utmost to make others aware of your brand’s strengths and the products you offer.

Your loyal customers exist, so how can you lend a hand and proactively help to organize them into a community that can be an asset for your business?

#1. Get Clear On Your Audience & Their Passions

Brand communities aim to bring groups of consumers together through their shared interests.

The more acutely aware of those interests you are, including challenges and desires, the more engaged a community you can create.

For brands that help their customers in some way, to live a desired lifestyle, an opportunity exists to illuminate the picture of that desired life and align themselves to the positive emotions associated with it.

#2. Establish The Fundamentals Of Your Brand

So much of your branding strategy needs to stem from the fundamentals of your brand.

By fundamentals, I mean the what, how, and why of your brand.

Set out the mission and vision of your brand and establish your brand philosophy with a clear set of values.

This process should answer the following questions:

Why does your brand exist?

Who is your target audience?

Why should they choose you over competitors?

What are your unique features?

What is the future of your brand?

The more clearly you define your brand and what it stands for, the more effectively you can communicate this to your target audience.

Being clear on why you exist and how you can help, makes it easier to bring people together on that shared path through a brand community.

#3. Define Goals For Your Community

Before you invest time and effort into fostering a great brand community, consider the primary objectives of your community strategy.

What are you hoping to achieve from setting up a brand community?

Answering this question will help you make customer-oriented decisions about how you interact with the community to achieve your goals.

Think about:

How do you plan to engage with the community?

How can you turn new customers into brand loyalists?

How are you going to measure the success of the community? Engagement levels? Conversions?

What metrics will you track on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?

How do you think the community can help you achieve broader company goals?

How can you strengthen your relationship with your community members?

Consider these questions before you proceed with any community building to ensure you get the most out of the process.

#4. Choose A Community Platform

Where will your online brand community meet to socialize and share information?

You have many options at your disposal.

Forums are a great way for a larger community to get together and discuss a variety of topics related to your brand or industry.

So much of modern discourse takes place on social media platforms, and you probably already have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

You can build a brand community on social networks by engaging with members through your account or creating a dedicated LinkedIn or Facebook group.

Rewards and affiliate programs are another option for a community base.

These are specifically more focused on giving back and rewarding customer loyalty, but they can still be used as a place for discussion and an exchange of ideas.

Affiliate programs directly contribute to business growth as customers get rewards for referrals, incentivizing the spread of your brand experience.

Sometimes brands opt for a third-party moderator as a platform for their community building.

Slack and Mobilize are both great tools for community engagement that allow the brand to create various channels and topics for discussion

There’s also room for offline in-person meetups.

Many brands organize groups where customers can meet up to enjoy a brand’s products together and socialize. Gyms and sports clubs often do this to help generate that community spirit.

#5. Plan To Engage Regularly

Whichever platform you choose, you need to give customers a reason to interact with the community.

There are a few facets to this.

First, ensure you are active in responding to customer comments and queries.

Consumers expect you to answer questions promptly and you should see this as part of the customer experience you offer.

That means engaging in group discussions but also at the individual level.

This approach shows you care about your loyal customers.

Second, you need to create a content plan for things to share with your brand community and stick to it.

What are you going to share with your loyal customers that provides value and keeps them checking in to your community and actively taking part?

This could be fun competitions, educational videos or blogs, surveys, news updates about the brand and its new products, awareness pieces for your CSR drives, or anything else you feel would resonate with your audience.

Your content will vary depending on your brand personality, but what’s important is that you’re maintaining a presence within the community that encourages further engagement.

#6. Consolidate The Emotional Relationship

It’s not enough to create a space for discussion.

You need to encourage emotional bonding within the community.

Most loyal customers don’t love brands out of logic; they become fans based on an emotional connection with the brand.

That emotion comes from a consistent brand experience that aligns to their values and outlook on life.

Therefore, within your brand community, you need to inspire that connection through brand storytelling that leans into your brand personality to resonate with your fanbase.

You cement the audience’s perception of your brand by consistently showing up as they expect you to.

Create content that evokes that emotional response to reinforce your authenticity.

That’s how to make the most of your brand community’s potential to act as an army of brand ambassadors.

Let’s have a look at some examples of brand communities that showcase the power of a loyal customer base.