Everyone can copy your landing page, product, or marketing tactics. However, nobody can copy the unique sense of belonging you can build through a customer community. This sense of belonging results from the personal connections, shared experiences, and mutual support that only your brand can foster.
Compared to an audience based on one-to-many engagement, a community encourages many-to-many conversations that aim to strengthen people’s connections with the brand and other customers or stakeholders.
According to Tribe, “An audience is the group of people who follow a brand or creator and consume the content it produces. Their interaction with the content is much more passive. They don’t discuss the topic in an organized way with others, and they don’t have the platform to share their knowledge with other audiences.”
On the other hand, a community is a dedicated space where people get together to:
- Talk about common interests
- Exchange knowledge and ideas
- Build meaningful connections
- Teach or help others
As Tribe highlights, “Communities form in a single location such as an online group or space. And while a brand or creator can be the facilitator of the community, all members have an equal voice.”
All these dynamics are essential for a company’s growth. When people feel connected to a community, they are more likely to:
- Become loyal customers
- Recommend the brand to others
- Provide valuable feedback and insights to the business
This, in turn, creates a virtuous growth cycle where your company and the community benefit from each other’s success.
Understanding the Power of Community-Led Growth
More and more companies and conglomerates worldwide have discovered the power of user or customer communities. Moreover, there’s an entire movement called “Community-led growth.”
This movement is initiated by Commsor, a community operating system that aims to educate companies on how they can achieve their revenue goals by investing in building communities.
As Commsor notes, “Community doesn’t operate in a vacuum — it has tangible benefits and impacts on all teams within your organization. When you invest in community, you invest in all of your teams.”
According to Commsor, a strong community will positively impact a company’s product, marketing, sales, support, and success.
Let’s take them one by one:
→ Product:
- A strong community will provide insights and feedback on improving your product(s) or services.
- Your community members can help you identify new product ideas or use cases.
- You can find optimal community members who can help you with product development research or product testing.
→ Marketing:
- Your community members can become your best product advocates and ambassadors.
- Having a community can position you as a thought leader.
- A community will help you reduce dependency on paid advertisement.
→ Sales:
- Building a community will give you insights into a better understanding of your ideal customers.
- You can always engage your existing customers and drive up-sells or cross-sells.
- As Commsor suggests, you can “source potential leads within the community without risking losing trust.”
→ Support:
- You’ll control the narrative. Usually, people with product-related issues may go to a third-party platform to complain. A community provides the space for asking questions and finding solutions.
- Reducing your customer support service’s time spent answering tickets is also possible. Usually, the community members will take the time to find solutions or answer your customers’ questions.
→ Success:
- A community will allow you to understand better how people use your product.
- By engaging with your community members, you can contribute to their overall success, strengthening your connections with them.
As Commsor highlights, “Community is the beating heart of the business. When done right, community enables and improves customer acquisition, streamlines support and success, bolsters retention, and provides crucial product insights. Community is the beating heart of the business that keeps the rest of the team running.”
Now that we discussed the significance of customer communities in ensuring business growth let’s delve into how you can use recurring events to build these communities.
Recurring Events For Building Customer Communities
Recurring events are a powerful tool for building and nurturing customer communities. By providing a consistent and predictable customer experience, recurring events can create a sense of belonging and help you build strong relationships between your brand and customers.
Quick note: Compared to on-off events, recurring events have a regular frequency, such as weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly, and occur multiple times over a specified period.
→ Providing a reason to return
Recurring events help build strong community ties thanks to the sense of routine and predictability they establish. This can be especially important if your company relies on repeat purchases or customer loyalty, as it gives people something to look forward to and a reason to return.
Example: A coffee brand might hold a monthly coffee-tasting event where customers can sample new blends and learn about the coffee-making process. This can drive customer engagement and help position the brand as a rich and trustworthy source of information about coffee.
→ Fostering many-to-many connections
Recurring events can contribute to the ongoing engagement between the brand and your customers and foster community and connection among members. Moreover, these events can be instrumental in creating a sense of belonging. This can be especially valuable if you cater to a niche or specialty market, where customers may feel a strong sense of shared interests and values.
Example: A cycling store might host a monthly group ride where customers can socialize and share their passion for cycling. This can help create a loyal and dedicated customer base and drive word-of-mouth referrals and repeat business.
→ Building trustworthiness and credibility
By running recurring events, you’ll also build a platform for your business to showcase your products, services, and expertise. As a result, you’ll be able to build trust and credibility with customers, subsequently driving sales and customer loyalty.
Example: A clothing retailer might host a monthly fashion show featuring the latest styles and trends, which can position the retailer as a trusted source of information and inspiration for customers.
→ Cultivating a sense of ownership
Recurring events can also help you increase customer engagement and drive customer advocacy. By providing a memorable and enjoyable experience, recurring events can encourage customers to become more invested in your business and more likely to recommend it to others.
Example: A fitness studio might host a monthly fitness challenge where customers can compete against each other and track their progress. This can drive customer engagement and increase customer loyalty, as customers feel a sense of ownership and investment in the business.
Finally, recurring events will contribute to community and business growth by creating the space for attracting new customers and generating positive word-of-mouth referrals.
Wrap-up
If you decide to run recurring events, you’ll add a powerful tool for building and nurturing customer communities to your playbook. By building a recurring events strategy, you’ll be able to create a consistent and predictable experience, ignite many-to-many conversations, showcase expertise, increase engagement, and ultimately strengthen the ties between your community members.
Whether it is a monthly coffee-tasting event, a group ride, a fashion show, or a fitness challenge, a well-designed and executed recurring events strategy will help establish your brand as a trusted and valued partner for your customers, driving their loyalty and commitment for years to come.
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