Try not to take it personally. People are busy.
Why should they spend time worrying about the social vibe your little coffee shop is trying to establish when they have their own problems to worry about?
This isn’t the same thing as saying that branding doesn’t matter. It simply means you need to make your brand meaningful to your audience.
After all, some people, a small powerful minority, will care very deeply about your branding efforts. You want to keep those people happy.
We'll explain what is a brand community, and give lessons on appealing to your ideal audience.
Read on to learn more about how to make your brand meaningful to your audience just like the pros do!
Appealing to Your Ideal Audience
To make your brand worthwhile it needs to appeal to the right people.
This means casting a narrower, more specific net. Instead of producing a boring, homogenized brand, you identify what the people who make up your core demographic will respond well to, and you play those traits up.
Finding Your Ideal Audience
It’s always important to create with your ideal audience in mind.
You may think of content that is clever, funny, and interesting.
Excellent, right?
But if this content isn’t also speaking to the people in your key demographic it must be left on the cutting room floor.
Think about what your audience wants to see, read, learn, hear, and find ways to give them that messaging as often and as skillfully as possible.
Drawing In Customers
When you make your brand meaningful to your audience it will naturally help bring in customers.
This will mean tying your services into your branding efforts so that your audience can get a clear idea of how the thing you are providing will solve a pain point.
Keeping Your Audience Engaged
When you make your brand meaningful to your audience it will also serve to help keep them around after the purchase.
To do this, make them part of your brand community.
So what is a brand community you ask?
Basically, it is a group of people who congregate around their shared appreciation for a service or product. Brand community examples include companies like Harley Davidson. Harley enthusiasts don’t just value the brand for its product. They feel that their motorcycle helps explain who they are.
Build a relationship with your customers
Once you make your brand meaningful to your audience, it’s important to continue building a relationship with them.
This could involve actively communicating with them on social media, giving them behind-the-scenes looks at how your product or service comes to be, and just generally making outreach a priority.
Brand Community
As you make your brand meaningful to your audience, it’s the community that will ultimately give your efforts staying power.
While the community may exist independently of your company, it’s important that you facilitate an environment through which they can engage and interact.
What is a Brand Community?
Brand community members are people who become invested in a brand in a way that goes behind what is simply behind sold.
Benefits of a Brand Community
Brand communities give your audience a place to congregate, but it also provides you with an easy and effective way to get regular feedback on your product, service, or brand.
How Is a Brand Community Useful?
Once you’ve figured out how to make your brand meaningful to your audience you will have a well-tuned springboard for getting feedback on products and services before the launch.
You will also have a wealth of data points on who your ideal customer is.
Using this information, you can then fine-tune your marketing efforts to bring even more future brand community members in.
Make Your Community Worth It
People won’t break their necks trying to figure out ways to be a member of a brand community.
You need to make it worthwhile for them.
Give them a place to interact. A website, a social media platform—somewhere they can talk.
Brand Community Examples
We’ve talked about ways that certain companies make their brand resonate with their audience. Other businesses with strong brand communities include Starbucks, Gymshark, and the Walt Disney Company.
Check out this post for a deeper dive into building a brand community.
Brand Presence on Social Media
The secret to having an effective brand presence on social media that will make your brand meaningful to your audience is to show up where and when it matters.
You don’t have to be online around the clock. You do need to figure out how to make targeted, well-timed posts that will connect with your audience.
Establishing Your Presence
Having a presence on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter allows your brand community to receive deeper insights into both your products and services and your company values.
What to Focus On
Focus on things like high-quality, purpose-driven content.
Open the conversation up to your audience, showing off the best parts of your brand to draw them in further.
Show Up
Make sure you keep up with the efforts.
Post regularly and at a predictable schedule through stories, Q&A sessions, and other engaging content that will keep your audience sticking around with great interest.
Show Out
Show off what makes your product or service special and give your audience something to remember.
The purpose of your content should be to provide value that goes beyond simply the thing you are selling.
Bring It Home
Make them want to keep doing business with you.
Through your branding, always be sure to indicate what pain points you can solve.
Keep this evident across all of our social media and brand community platforms. The people viewing your content always need to be clear on what you can do for them.
It’s Simple: Make Your Brand About Helping Them
To build an audience, you have to keep showing up.
To build a large-scale brand, you need a brand community. Keep your customers involved and watch how the relationship thrives.
Brand building can be tricky work. Don’t hesitate to call in an agency professional for guidance.
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