Taking the time to question your motives, inspirations, ideas, and goals is important to building a solid and successful business. Developing a brand community that benefits both you and its members is no exception to this fact either. It allows you to truly identify what you need to achieve your goals more efficiently. In addition, creating a solid plan of action ensures you build a strong and active brand community from the beginning.
The more you understand and work to improve before building your community, the more likely you will succeed. Online communities allow you to form better connections with your customers while giving them a sense of purpose. In addition, they increase your brand awareness, recognition, and trust as long as they start with the right foundation.
Here are five questions to answer and evaluate to build a successful brand community:
Question One: Why do you need to build a community, and how will it support your target audience?
Knowing what’s in it for your group is really important because that’s how you’ll sell the idea of joining your community to them. When you tell them why the community exists and exactly how it will support them, they’re going to be more likely to want to join because you’ve told them why.
Question Two: Where should you start and grow your community and why?
Knowing where your audience likes to get their information and which social media platforms they use most will help inform you about what type of community you need to build. For example, some audience members are more likely to join Facebook groups over joining a community on your website. It will depend on what your audience wants and needs.
Question Three: What kind of actions do you want your community to take and why?
What do you hope each member of your community does to make their lives better or solve their problems as part of your membership or group? As people join, it’s imperative that you tell them what to do next. Whether filling out their profile information, creating an introductory post, or answering a survey, letting them know what to do and why you want them to do it will ensure more do it.
Question Four: What products or resources do you need to form an engaging and active community?
Make a list of all the products, services, and resources you need to create the engaging community you want to create. For example, do you need to invest in a customer service bot, create a self-serve FAQ, or something else?
Question Five: What key performance metrics should you track to ensure you achieve your community goals?
There is much more to success than likes and even engagement if none of that leads to sales. Therefore, your metrics should include matching your actions with increased revenue, but you also want to study engagement.
Filling in these questions is essential to outline the initial framework of your online or brand community. Understanding your value and showing how you can match that value with the needs of your audience ensures you have the resources and understanding to build a successful community. The community only returns what you put in. Therefore, starting with the right framework and knowledge secures maximum returns.