Connecting to the right audience is the most critical step in setting up and growth of a brand. The communication with the target audience then helps to build the brand around this community.
All efforts must be focused on identifying, connecting and communicating with this group, which is interested in your product or service.
Ecommerce has taken a completely new shape in the post-Covid scenario. The phenomenal growth of online stores and online shopping culture has increased the importance of community building manifolds. The modern trend of growing a business and the community around it is with the help of social media.
Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube etc. have emerged as a very effective way to communicate with a brand’s community. The power of social media, if harnessed in the right manner, can help in the fast-paced growth of the brand community and loyal clients.
Advantages of community building
This article discusses seven reasons to focus and work and on community building. This will be followed by examples of some of the brands that succeeded because of their effective community building strategies.
More repeat order clients
When you take good care of your customers and your community management team proactively communicates with them, the faith of the customers and community grows and cements. A devoted customer tends to return to your brand instead of experimenting with other brands and services.
Effective community growth because of meticulous management thus enhances your orders and revenues with a little expenditure of dedicated but regular time.
Satisfied community members spread a good word about your brand. This positive feedback is even more effective than some paid advertisements.
Economical yet effective
Online ads cost money. Moreover, the reader generally tends to ignore these ads. The modern way of engaging the user through Webinars, live streaming sessions and social listing etc is not only much more economical but fruitful as well.
Earning the loyalty and trust of the customer takes time and patience. However, direct contact and communication with potential customers have a high probability of securing clientele.
It is, however, important to use and conduct the above-mentioned methods of engagement in the right manner to reap full benefits.
Better Customer Service
Nowadays, the customers immediately contact the online community, in the case; they face any issue regarding product or service. The comments and remarks of the community members are very significant in fostering the standing of the product or service provider.
It is therefore crucial to promptly and efficiently handle the issue being faced by the customer and win his/her satisfaction. Moreover, negative comments (if any) must also be dealt with tactfully. Efficient handling and response to negative reviews build the trust of the brand community as well as potential customers.
Read more: Smart Way to Build Strategy for Customer Engagement in Trinidad and Tobago
Develop a loyal and trusted customer base
If you are honest and candid with your community, its trust in your brand develops further. Moreover, contact with the community as well as individual customers on a case-to-case basis helps cultivate a faithful customer base.
Try to communicate with your brand community as frequently as possible, preferably, daily. Work on a deliberated schedule and ensure to take some time for this communication session. Not every message needs a reply but all the messages regarding any issue must be replied to appropriately and promptly.
This helps in taking your customers along in a very economical manner. However, make sure that the customers get facts and authentic information from your side. The clients appreciate your efforts if they are satisfied that you do not hide anything and are genuinely concerned about resolving the issues highlighted by them.
This should form the core of your marketing philosophy and would be critical in your overall marketing practices
Learn more: Final Best Six Marketing Practices to Adopt and Succeed in Trinidad and Tobago
Provides you with the chance to become the industry leader
New innovative ideas and their successful implementation, in line with the business goals and ethics are what make an industry leader.
Listen to your community carefully. Most of the good ideas for your business might come out of their feedback and suggestions. Keep them involved and encourage them to communicate more frequently.
The brand that innovates and manages its community well is the ultimate industry leader.
It breathes life into your brand
The messages and posts created by your community management team need thorough deliberation. The phrasing and tone should be such that the reader feels like talking to a human being with feelings and not to a computer.
Avoid standard and run of the mill replies. The social media interaction by your team should reflect your brand’s priorities regarding customer care and efforts to provide excellent customer care. If the message fully gets across to the customer and experienced in your dealing, the client will be your unofficial brand ambassador.
Gives you a greater insight into your target market
A successful business stands on a solid foundation of knowledge. It is the in-depth knowledge of its target market and its preferences. Properly conducted community management keeps you updated about your target audience. The communication, down to even personal level (if possible) gives you a fair idea about the inclinations and likes/dislikes of your target customer.
This knowledge and the data, collected from social media channels are very useful in tweaking your products and services to make them more desirable and approachable to your clientele.
This, however, has to be a continuous process if far-reaching dividends for the business are sought.
Some successful community builders
Let us now take a brief look at some of the brands that take their community building and management very seriously. This is one of the main factors behind their success.
A community of adventurers and outdoor activists follows this brand. This company is primarily a vacuum water bottle manufacturer.
The brand community members share their experiences as well as with the brand. This communication helps in the improvement of the company’s product line, not to mention a healthy digital presence.
The company is a proud donor of 50 per cent of its profits from product sales to non-profit organizations that are helping to fight against pediatric cancer.
This noble cause is a great motivational and binding factor for its community members who learn from each other and in the process, help boost the company’s sales also.
This site is built around the philosophy to help alleviate some degree of poverty. It provides hammock-weaving jobs to women who have some spare time and they want to help their households financially.
The company helps train them also. It is thus a close-knit community of both the job seekers, suppliers and the customers.
Conclusion
Community building and management will gain more and more importance in future e-commerce. Online stores and businesses with better community management and a larger community of satisfied customers will emerge as business leaders.
The key lies in proactive, candid and authentic communication, followed by prompt corrective actions aimed at improvement of the overall system.
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