Want to increase customer loyalty, reduce your marketing budget, and get fresh ideas directly from your customers? A brand community might be the answer.
Take Sephora, for instance. Their Beauty Insider Community, launched in 2017, boasts over 5 million members and has generated more than 2.7 million user-generated posts. This exclusive platform offers makeup and skincare enthusiasts a space to connect, find inspiration, and get genuine product recommendations.
Creating a brand community allows your business to cultivate engagement, provide support, and encourage word-of-mouth marketing, ultimately driving growth. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of building a successful brand community, including inspiring examples.
Table of contents
- What is a brand community?
- Why does building a brand community matter?
- How do you build a brand community?
- The best brand community examples
What is a brand community?
A brand community extends beyond just customers; it’s a group of individuals actively engaged with a brand. Similar to Sephora’s approach, brand communities often become interactive hubs where members share inspiration, recommendations, and experiences, strengthening their bond with the brand.
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Why does building a brand community matter?
Brand communities aren’t merely a marketing tactic; they represent a strategic approach aligned with your business objectives, facilitating growth in various ways.
A Data from McKinsey study highlighted the impressive performance of brands with thriving communities across several metrics:
- User-generated content makes up over 75% of content about the brand.
- Influencer engagement rate—the percentage of viewers who like, share, or comment on content—surpasses 2%.
- Over 4% of online traffic converts into sales.
- Posts about the brand, whether shared by the brand itself or a consumer, go viral at least twice a year.
Here are some additional advantages of fostering a brand community.
Enhanced customer loyalty and sales
A sense of belonging and connection with a brand often translates to greater loyalty.
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When customers feel like they’re part of a community, they are more inclined to support and advocate for the brand. Moreover, loyal community members tend to make repeat purchases and play a vital role in attracting new customers through referrals.
Fostering genuine engagement
Brand communities provide a platform for organic interactions among customers, leading to authentic insights and deepening the emotional connection between the brand and its audience.
Establishing a valuable feedback loop
Brand communities offer businesses direct access to customer thoughts and feelings. This feedback is invaluable for product enhancement, innovation, and understanding market needs.
Assistance with crisis management
A strong brand community can act as a safety net during challenging times. The company can communicate directly with its most loyal customers, fostering understanding, gathering feedback, and navigating difficult situations together.
Reduced marketing costs
Word-of-mouth marketing and organic sharing within the community can significantly reduce reliance on traditional marketing expenditures. Community members transform into brand ambassadors, often promoting products and services without direct incentives. Furthermore, 28% of customers prefer discovering new brands and products through word-of-mouth recommendations.
A breeding ground for new ideas and improvements
Engaged community members often contribute fresh ideas, perspectives, and solutions, leading to product or service enhancements or entirely new offerings.
Building a thriving brand community
Building a brand community extends beyond simply setting up a platform; it involves nurturing relationships, providing value, and consistently engaging with your audience. A successful brand community requires strategic planning, continuous improvement, and a customer-centric approach.
1. Align with your strategy
Ensure your brand community aligns with your business objectives and customer satisfaction goals.
Instead of being an afterthought or a separate initiative, a successful brand community needs a clear purpose. Whether it’s strengthening brand loyalty, gathering user feedback, or driving organic word-of-mouth marketing, the community should reflect the brand’s core values and mission.
2. Allocate sufficient resources
Effective community management requires resources, both in terms of time and dedicated personnel.
Whether integrated within your marketing team or managed by dedicated community managers, ensure clear roles and responsibilities. Choose individuals who embody your brand values, as they will shape brand perception and handle customer feedback.
HubSpot’s approach exemplifies effective community management.
3. Select the ideal platform
Your choice of platform can significantly impact the community’s success.
While established platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Reddit offer a vast user base, hosting communities directly on brand websites is becoming increasingly popular and advantageous.
This example from EA’s subreddit, where a comment became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history, illustrates how quickly things can go wrong on external platforms.
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Direct integration provides greater control, enhanced access to user data, and potential for deeper engagement with your website.
4. Utilize your website
Hosting your community on your website simplifies first-party data collection, ensures consistent branding, and potentially increases website traffic and time spent on site. This integration can provide valuable customer insights and improve conversion rates.
Lululemon’s brand community, hosted on their website, is a great example.
5. Create a seamless cross-channel experience
A brand community shouldn’t be confined to a single platform. If your community thrives on your website, share snippets of engaging discussions, testimonials, or user-generated content on social media to create interconnected touchpoints that reinforce brand messaging and values.
6. Prioritize a customer-centric approach
Members are the heart of any brand community. Their needs, desires, and feedback should be paramount. A successful community provides a platform for users to express themselves openly and feel valued. Offering exclusive content, offers, or information can make community members feel like VIPs, strengthening their bond with the brand.
7. Act on customer feedback
Open communication channels will lead to an influx of customer feedback. What truly matters is how the brand responds and adapts. Demonstrating that you value and act on user feedback can turn casual users into passionate brand advocates.
8. Encourage active participation
Thriving communities require engaged participants. Involve users in product development or other brand initiatives. This approach helps source innovative ideas and gives users a stake in your brand’s journey, deepening their emotional connection.
9. Tailor experiences
Understanding your community’s unique characteristics and preferences allows for personalized experiences. For example, a fashion brand’s community might offer members the opportunity to design their own clothes, shop exclusive collections based on their preferences, and access behind-the-scenes content.
While Uniqlo doesn’t have a formal “community,” they offer fashion enthusiasts a unique look at new designer collaborations.
10. Engage consistently
Engagement involves more than just content updates. Host live Q&A sessions, feature user-generated content, or spotlight community members. Offering tangible benefits, such as discounts or early access to sales, can also encourage participation.
11. Bring engagement offline
Don’t underestimate the power of real-world interactions. Workshops, meet-ups, or exclusive brand events can strengthen community bonds and make members feel valued.
IKEA Family members enjoy access to free and paid offline workshops and events designed for the whole family.
12. Ensure easy accessibility
Your community should be easy to find and join. If it’s on your website, use clear signage from your homepage, product pages, or checkout process to highlight its existence and benefits.
13. Run cross-promotion campaigns
Utilize branded hashtags or launch challenges that bridge different platforms. This cross-channel strategy maintains consistent brand messaging and introduces your community to a broader audience, attracting potential new members.
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Inspiring brand community examples in action
Research from McKinsey’s research suggests that successful brand communities employ five key strategies:
- Understanding their community
- Crafting compelling brand narratives
- Highlighting flagship products
- Fostering cross-platform discussions
- Simplifying the buying process
These strategies work together to create a self-sustaining community. Here are a few shining examples of this phenomenon in action:
LEGO Ideas
LEGO Ideas is a platform for LEGO enthusiasts to share creations, participate in challenges, and submit proposals for new LEGO sets. The most popular designs, chosen by community votes, may even become official LEGO products.
This community provides a direct channel for fans to participate in product development, fostering a sense of ownership and collaboration.
GoPro
GoPro’s’s online community centers on user-generated content and community-driven customer support.
User-generated content is regularly shared on GoPro’s official Instagram using the hashtag #shotongopro.
The brand encourages users to submit photos and videos for a chance to win cash prizes, with GoPro subscribers receiving double the reward, incentivizing more users to join their community.
These strategies have helped GoPro become a leading choice for adventurers and travel influencers.
Peloton
Peloton, primarily known for its fitness products, aims to be recognized as a health and wellness brand among its audience. The brand’s significant growth during the pandemic is largely attributed to its loyal user base sharing their positive experiences.
Peloton’s Chief Marketing Officer Dara Treseder explained their community-building approach to CNBC: “…for us, that intentional cultivation of community is really focused on finding where there are organic sparks of connection within our member base, and then kind of pouring fuel on that … shining a spotlight on those things.”
The company also leverages its renowned team of instructors to connect with members on social media.
Transitioning to a ‘brand community-first’ model
By integrating your brand community into your core business operations and customer support framework, you can elevate the customer experience. Intelligent search tools can make community-driven insights readily accessible, often addressing customer queries before they reach formal support channels.
Ultimately, building a thriving brand community hinges on genuine commitment. Remember these steps to create a community your most valued customers will be excited to join:
- Align with your strategy
- Allocate sufficient resources
- Choose the ideal platform
- Utilize your website
- Create a seamless cross-channel experience
- Prioritize a customer-centric approach
- Act on customer feedback
- Encourage active participation
- Tailor experiences
- Engage consistently
- Bring engagement offline
- Ensure easy accessibility
- Run cross-promotion campaigns