Launching Your Brand's Community: A Beginner's Guide
Being part of a community is a special experience. Whether it’s your local running group, book club, or happy hour group text, belonging to something is meaningful. Our lives are continuously shaped by the people we meet and the connections we make, and so communities are the lifeblood of human growth, change, and enrichment.
This fundamentally human need to belong and be part of something bigger than ourselves is exactly why it’s crucial that brands focus on building and growing strong communities made up of loyal, engaged members. Think of the Salesforce Trailblazer community sharing resources or the passionate following of fitness brands like GymShark or SoulCycle. Many successful organizations rely on the power of community to not just grow their business, but build authentic relationships with their consumers, which leads to many benefits in the long-term.
So how does community work on a brand’s scale, and what can you do to start building your brand’s community? In this beginner’s guide, I’ll cover the benefits of building a community for your brand and tangible steps you can take to start launching yours today. Let’s get started.
What does community mean and why should I start one?
Community Defined
Before we get into how to launch your brand’s community, it’s important to understand exactly what “community” means in this context and the many benefits a solid brand community can bring to your business.
When I talk about “community,” I don’t just mean your audience or user base. Your audience is not your community. A community is a two-way interaction: they have a relationship with the brand and with each other, and they play a fundamental role in shaping your business’s strategy and values. An audience relationship is mostly transactional. They buy your product or service, but otherwise have little to do with your company’s evolvement.
A community can take many forms: a forum, group message, online platform, or custom app. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a community. At its core, a community is a group of engaged people that rally around a common interest or mission, in this case, your brand and what it stands for.
If you want to chat about what community means for your business, fill out the form to get started.
Benefits of Launching a Community
So why should you invest time in building a community? While community building is tough work (relationships take time!), the resulting benefits are invaluable. When you have a loyal brand community, you also have: organic growth and referrals, increased brand visibility and recognition, a direct source for feedback and idea generation, brand loyalty and user retention, and team/company support that stems from others believing in you and your mission.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of community and why you should launch your own brand’s community, let’s discuss some steps you can take to start.
Building a Community: The Basics
“Community” can seem like a theoretical concept that’s hard to implement in real life, but with the right steps, you can easily begin work on launching and growing your brand’s community. Let’s go over five key steps to build a community strategy that aligns with your business goals and values.
1. Describe your community’s mission
At the top of the list and the most important part of your strategy should be your community’s mission. Why are you building this? How are you improving people’s lives? Why would someone join your brand’s community?
Tip: Limit yourself to 1-2 sentences while keeping it as specific as possible, such as “I’m building ____ community to help members ________. This will help you keep focused and find a target audience to build from.
2. Identify your prospective member
As a marketer, you know the importance of audience personas. Building a community is no different. Think about your ideal member. Where do they live? What are their interests, hobbies, or passions? Where do they hang out online? What motivates them? What would an onboarding journey look like? Remember to keep it specific!
3. Think about your community’s vibe
Your community’s tone should align with your brand’s vibe. Are you a quirky fashion newsletter brand? You’d probably want your community to be creative, fun, and edgy. Are you a health tech startup company promoting healthy lifestyles? You’d probably gear more toward a professional, trustworthy space where people come to find answers. When you find a tone, you can start thinking of rituals you can introduce to your community, like a fact of the day or weekly challenge.
4. Pick a platform
Where you choose to host your community is up to you. Platforms like Circle, Slack, Facebook, or Discord are popular with certain audiences depending on your target personas. If you’re starting a small community, you can even consider a WhatsApp or GroupMe message to start. The important thing is that your members have somewhere to go to ask questions, meet each other, and interact with the people behind your brand.
5. Write down three goals you want to accomplish with your community
Last but not least, hold yourself accountable by drafting measurable goals for your brand’s community, whether that’s increasing engagement by X amount, gaining X more followers, or onboarding X new members to your community. Remember to keep it specific and measurable. If you can’t confidently answer “yes” or “no” to your goals, you need to hone in on the details!
Conclusion
So you’re launching a community for your brand. While often a long game, community building is one of the most rewarding things you can do for your business. Not only will you establish relationships with your most engaged users, you’ll also have a direct place to go for feedback, support, and organic referrals. A loyal community can take your brand the extra mile. People will come for the product, but they’ll stay for the community.
