Top 5 hacks on how to build your online community and increase brand engagement

CommunityCommunity building has been catching up like wildfire among brands. To remain competitive and cut through the noise, it is becoming a prerequisite for your business to have a community around its products. With billions being invested in this new” runaway train”. Web3 has proved to be “strong with the force” and can be used for good.

Increasing customer engagement and loyalty is a growing trend in business and most brands inclusive of love brands, gaming and fashion designers are relying more on this tactic than ever before. But what is the rationale behind this growing trend that has seen much growth since the mid-2020s?

Why brands need to increase engagement and loyalty

Social media and PPC platforms are becoming more expensive and have lesser ROI per given year.

It’s a given, even my 90-year-old granny knows this too – no good thing is coming from social media marketing lately! By the end of 2022, US companies were spending no less than $56 Billion on social media in efforts to reach consumers (Statista, 2023). Picture this, running a social media campaign is like requesting some playtime in your neighbour’s backyard. Your neighbour (the centralized platform) will continue to define how much playtime and access to their platforms and whom you have access to at any particular time.

Followers are dead too, communities are the new way to market

Social media marketing is already dead: You do not have access to 98% of your followers anyway! The social algorithm does not give you access to most of your followers but you still pay huge sums to place your Ads. A community, on the other hand, is a homogeneous group of people that tend to have the same characteristics and purchase behaviour but followers are just that – followers. Social followers tend to be unlikely to relate to your product and often lack an emotional attachment to your brand. The followers and likes on your favourite social platforms do not necessarily translate into sales.

Customer engagement is great for brand recognition

When customers engage with a brand through community, they are essentially creating a buzz around it, which in turn leads to increased brand recognition. This is because as more people talk about the brand, either online or offline, more people become aware of it. Studies have shown that brand recognition is directly linked to customer engagement. The more engaged customers are with a brand, the more likely they are to remember it and recognize it in the future. Increased customer engagement encourages community building. Overall, brand loyalty is essential because it creates a foundation of trust, reliability, and consistency between a brand and its customers. 

Save on that marketing buck through brand loyalty

The more customers engage with your brand, the less financial effort it takes to reach them. So, by prioritizing customer engagement, brands can effectively increase their brand loyalty and create a positive reputation in the minds of their customers. This can ultimately lead to more sales, as customers are more likely to choose a brand they are familiar with and trust. Brand loyalty is a currency that you should tap into. Brand loyalty is essential because it creates a strong, long-term relationship between a brand and its customers. When customers are loyal to a brand, they are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend the brand to others. This can lead to increased revenue, cost-effective marketing, and a strong competitive advantage

Business is becoming more human

We are social animals and tend not to do better when we are in isolation. Humans tend to relate better with other homo sapiens too. Why should your brand be any different? The age of transactional brand marketing is dying and customers are now demanding more than just impersonal brands but rather the relational side of how business is now conducted. When brands communicate in a human-centric way, this has shown a positive impact on sales for many companies that are tapping into this for example brands that utilize marketing collateral that includes their behind-the-scenes pictures of their staff, tend to perform better as opposed to those that do not.

Data Privacy Laws Will Make Communication Through Third-Party Social Platforms Increasingly Difficult

It’s no secret that the bulk of 3rd party marketing and communication platforms are harnessing your user data for their profit-making.In 2022 alone, Google was fined $391.5 m for tracking users’ locations, Instagram was fined another $403m in 2022 and the list goes on. It’s no secret that 3rd party cookies and methods of data collection are falling out of favour and will soon be a thing of the past. The need for first-party data to make business decisions is an indisputable requirement.

Focus Groups

The most inexpensive source of brand audits is through the use of a selected group. Focus groups can be a useful tool for brands to gather feedback and insights from customers, which can ultimately help them make better decisions and improve their products, services, and marketing strategies. It is used to learn about opinions on a designated topic and to guide future action on the direction of product development or improvement. Behavioural scientists have long established that polls and research on customers that are carried out on those who lack attachment to a brand often than not tend to be unreliable and may mislead your R&D.Creating a community of raving fans around your commodity often will translate to getting much more reliable information and feedback since a community is emotionally invested.

Top 5 pro tips to create your brand community and increase engagement

 Brands can engage with their community by finding (or creating) the place where brand & community intersect, anticipating or listening for a need. The Decommerce community module makes it very easy for your brand to have its community by integrating your community directly into your website or website. A community space is where brands can be more creative, realign to their ethos and understand their mission on how that impacts sales and revenue.

1. Define your brand values and mission: To build a community around your products, it’s important to clearly define your brand values and mission. This gives people a sense of purpose and belonging and helps them understand what your brand stands for.

2. Foster engagement through social media: Social media platforms are a great way to connect with your customers and build a community around your products. Encourage users to share their experiences with your products and then encourage them to join your brand community space. respond to comments and messages, and share user-generated content to foster engagement.

3. Create events and meetups: Organize events and e- meetups to bring your customers together and create a sense of belonging. This could be a virtual product launch party, a pop-up shop, or a meet and greet with the founder or CEO.

4. Offer exclusive perks: Nothing screams “VIP” more than a limited range of products for a select few. Offer exclusive perks and benefits to members of your community, such as early access to new products, exclusive discounts, or special promotions. This not only makes your customers feel valued but also encourages them to remain loyal to your brand.

5. Encourage user-generated content: Encourage your customers to share photos and videos of themselves using your products on your community platform. This not only creates a sense of community but also helps to showcase your products in a more authentic and relatable way. You can even feature user-generated content on your product reviews, social media accounts or website to showcase your community.

The case for brand community building :

As brands are becoming more personal and the need for community is on the increase. Decommerce is an enabler in this web3 community building space which guarantees you the autonomy and the power to own, influence, control and reach 100% of your community. Talk about bringing the power back to your brand!

Your brand should regularly engage with its community to boost customer retention, loyalty, and involvement using gamification and reward systems that are now easily integrated with your website. Brands like Mcdonalds’ and Starbucks launching their community in 2022. The solution lies in creating a raving and loyal brand followership and owning the channel that you use to reach your customers and getting rid of the middle man.

From Decommerce, our mission is simple: We help people grow their businesses by empowering their community to directly engage, create and collabora