How are brands using community marketing as an effective tool to increase their sales

By Sahil Chopra

We live in a world where brands have moved in as our next-door neighbors, given the consistent technological enhancements over the years. As a result, brands continuously foster a more profound and meaningful connection with their audiences, whether a customer or potential customer.

After the successful closing of Tokyo Olympics 2020, most brands are cashing in on community marketing as a customer-centric growth strategy to forge long-lasting connections with customers. Community marketing is a crucial marketing strategy that focuses on engaging the audience with subjects directly or indirectly associated with the brand and places the customers at the heart of it all.

To fully grasp how brands leverage community marketing to give their ROI an aggressive boost, we first need to underline what makes community marketing unique and effective at building connections. In an efficient community marketing strategy, three different elements play an essential role.

1. People who have shared common interests
2. People who care about each other
3. People who feel they belong together

A good community marketing strategy aligns the elements together to achieve goals associated with the common interest of the people who belong together. Brands have begun assembling communities from them by recognising potential customers and what they are looking for that your brand offers. Brands are repeatedly harping on communications to engage more customers and sustain the already existing ones.

Community marketing is driven by human behavior and the inherent human need for connection. Community marketing offers a slew of benefits:

1. A paid marketing alternative:

Several industry experts claim that paid advertising is dead; however, organisations are eyeing at fueling their investments in paid search and social media by 10% year on year. No consumer wants to entertain an intrusive advertising approach, and hence brands have to be attentive to the needs and wants of their audience. Brands have begun taking the lead with community marketing strategy, which undoubtedly takes blood and sweat to garner an attractive number of followers and gives brands an edge to leverage the fact that humans need social interaction. Emotions drive humans, and community marketing acknowledges that a user is more likely to react to social interactions than they will to paid ads.

2. Retain customers with engagement:

Today, we live in a world of choices, and a negative review online might be all it may take for a consumer to move from one brand to another. We live in a consumer-smart world, and consumer review platforms steer purchase decisions. Brands have now adopted building stories around their product and services to attract and engage more
audiences. Brands worldwide rely on community marketing to ensure they are harboring a stable social environment for their customers and win loyal customers for the brand. Brands are set to improve the customer journey and enhance retention with the perfect blend of community marketing, network-based marketing, and direct sales.

3. Brands win when the consumers win:

Brands have begun acknowledging the fact that it is consumer success that drives brand success. Owing to the reach of community marketing, brands are launching innovative outreach programs to gauge consumer sentiments. Building an online sphere ensures consumers have confidence in the brands and know they listen to them.

What’s more, community marketing provides a fully tailormade experience to consumers that bring in features like in-app purchases, subscriptions, and discounts. Community marketing also strengthens connections by making consumers feel involved and fostering a long-lasting relationship with consumers. In addition, brands build trust by engaging with your audience at regular intervals, which shows your customers you care. Finally, community marketing is helping brands stay economical by significantly reducing the marketing costs and getting you effective marketing results.

The author is founder and CEO, iCubesWire

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