Community Building Strategy
Creating engaged customer communities around shared interests or brand values to foster loyalty and drive word-of-mouth marketing.
Definition
Community building strategy involves creating spaces where customers can interact with each other and the brand around shared interests, challenges, or values. This goes beyond follower counts to create meaningful engagement.
Successful communities provide value through exclusive content, peer support, expert advice, or early access to products. The focus is facilitating customer-to-customer connections rather than purely brand-to-customer communication.
Why It Matters
Strong communities generate higher customer lifetime values and organic word-of-mouth marketing. Community members typically show 2-3x higher retention rates and become brand advocates who drive acquisition.
Communities also provide valuable customer insights and feedback for product development. The peer-to-peer support reduces customer service costs while improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Examples in Practice
Fitness brand: Peloton creates online communities where members share workout achievements, motivate each other, and participate in virtual group challenges and events.
Software platform: Salesforce's Trailblazer Community enables users to share best practices, get technical support, and network with other professionals using their platform.
Beauty community: Sephora's Beauty Insider Community allows customers to share makeup tips, product reviews, and tutorials while earning points for engagement.