A brand community is a group of people who love how your brand makes them feel SO much that they can’t wait to tell other people about you. Word of mouth advertising is 50X more effective than any sales pitch, advertisement, promotion, or marketing strategy in existence. Creating word-of-mouth advertising is the #1 way for a brand in 2021 and beyond to Come Out of Nowhere and Become an Inspiration to Millions.
In this episode, I’m going to give you The First Three Things a Brand Needs to Build a Community, check out the link below too, because I’m going to give you access to an amazing resource we’ve created to help your brand start making connections with people that convert like crazy.
Your ideal individuals are out there, and whether they know it or not, they need your brand. You’ll get your products or services to them faster by focusing your energy on building your brand community, and then your brand community will do the selling for you!
So let’s dive right in!
The First Three Things Your Brand Needs to Build a Community
First we have: Throw the Right Party
Human beings are communal by nature, we are tribal. And we thrive on a sense of belonging, feeling accepted and embraced by the communities we circulate in. The desire to belong is already there, and what your brand must do is throw the kind of party that will make your Ideal Individuals feel at home.
A marketing study a while ago revealed that Volvo had the largest brand community of people with a college degree. And so Volvo decided to publish this fact, basically saying that Volvo owners are an intelligent and impressive crowd! Then the next year, Volvo did the same study and found that the number of college educated Volvo owners had increased by 30%!. The reason is because the decision to buy is emotional, and we are driven by a need to be where we feel we belong. When Volvo went public saying we have the most intelligent community, they basically triggered people who wanted to feel like they belong in a group of intellects, to buy a Volvo! And that’s the power of community in branding.
So the first thing you need to do is get to know you’re ideal individuals best. The brand that knows them best is the brand who wins brand loyalty, so ask yourself, what problem does my product or service solve for my Ideal Individuals? What are the things that are most important to them? Is it family? Is it their career? Is it their pets? Their status? Remember: You’re not your Ideal Individual. If you were, then they wouldn’t need you. What other brands do your ideal individuals enjoy? Go to those websites and social media platforms, and read their conversations. Read their reviews. What do they stand for? What would they never stand for? And structure your brand around throwing them the kind of party that makes them say “YES, this party is for ME!” You wouldn’t throw a tailgate party for the Mercedes Benz community, and you wouldn’t throw a formal gala for the Ford Pick-up Truck community.
Get to know your Ideal Individuals best, and then use your brand to throw them the party they would throw for themselves! Because the brand that knows them best is the brand that wins brand loyalty. And brand loyalists are the ones who will create the word-of-mouth advertising that will grow your brand.
Second: You Need Enthusiasm!
I always say that enthusiasm is catching, and it’s true. There’s actual consumer science to back it up. No other emotion triggers the reward center of the brain faster than enthusiasm. And studies in neuroscience show that of all the emotions, enthusiasm is literally the most contagious. Enthusiasm is the secret formula that explains why people wait in line overnight to buy the new iPhone, or Air Jordans. Enthusiasm is the culprit behind that rowdy spirited tension that fills a stadium during a playoff game for the Super Bowl, that feels so thick you could cut it with a knife. Enthusiasm is the fabric that binds everyone together at Madison Square Garden as they sway in unison to an epic rock ballad. Enthusiasm inspires people in a way that brings them all together, to form communities.
Creating enthusiasm is a branding superpower for building communities, and I’d go so far to say that it isn’t possible to build a brand community without it. In fact, if you would like to learn more about the power of enthusiasm in branding, type #enthusiasm in the comments below, and I will get that to you right away. Generate enthusiasm in your ideal individuals by surprising them with unexpected gifts of appreciation. Delight them with humorous content that has nothing to do with selling them anything, and is purely to put a smile on their faces. Engage them in exciting drawings, and special giveaways. These are the little things that will make your ideal individuals feel like your brand really knows them best, and cares about what your brand can do to make their lives easier, better, and more fun.
And, Third: Make Them Proud
In today’s fast-paced digital marketplace, people are looking more closely at brands than ever before. The internet brings us SO MANY OPTIONS, that we no longer have to make product-based decisions anymore. Instead we look to the brands and we ask ourselves, “Is this me?” And the way they will know whether or not they want to align themselves with your brand will be by looking at your brands Values and Ethics. Today’s ultra-discerning customers only want to align themselves with the brand that makes them feel good about themselves, and so how well your brand is able to build a community of brand loyalists is going to largely depend on how well your brand upholds it’s values and ethics. A good brand is a promise kept, but a great brand with a thriving community is the result of a promise kept over and over and over again. When you make your Ideal Individuals proud to be associated with your brand, you make them feel proud of themselves for being so smart, and so savvy for choosing your brand.
And it even goes much deeper than that. A brand community is, in essence, a series of meaningful relationships that your brand has forged with each and every person. Your product or service is making their lives better and delivering on a promise for a greater future that they are all living into with the help of your brand. Deepen these relationships by reaching out beyond your business, and use your brand to do good in the world. Make donations, participate in community outreach…Find out what causes are important to your ideal individuals and then offer support to those causes in the name of your brand community. Now you’ve created a deeper layer of emotional exchange because every time they support your brand, they are also making the world a better place by association.
Thank you so much for joining me! If you enjoyed this article, let’s be a community! Follow me on Youtube and Facebook where I release new videos every Tuesday and Thursday. Treat these episodes as a masterclass for becoming an Inspiration to Millions with branding, and always remember to Love What You Do, and Love How You Do It.