creating a highly engaged community

Andrew Godish
Nov 5 · 3 min read

I’m sharing this as inspiration to others who are considering starting or currently working to build a brand or business. You will not read anything groundbreaking here, and I am by no means an expert in any of these topics.

Feel free to reach out if you have questions. (@permanenthangover)


Last summer, I created an eCommerce brand, Permanent Hangover, as an experiment. As someone passionate about marketing, brand building, and entrepreneurship, I sought to find how effectively I could grow a business from scratch while familiarizing myself with eCommerce and social along the way.

Fast forward to the near completion of its first full calendar year… in YTD 2019, Permanent Hangover has

- fulfilled over 3,500 orders

- held events in seven states

- exceeded six figures of sales

- ranked in top 4% for traffic among all Shopify stores launched in the same week (not really sure if this is impressive, but it makes me feel good inside)

- inspired at least ten individuals to willingly have our unofficial mascot tattooed on their bodies (obviously the coolest metric)

It’s been surreal to say the least… and much of it nonsensical, really. But super fun, exciting, and humbling!

So I’d just like to share my 2 cents on what has been working well. (FOR US)


1) Embed the brand into culture as genuinely and intimately as possible

Similar to the brand building beliefs shared in Bobby Kim’s book, This Is Not a T-Shirt (I strongly encourage any marketer to read it), I set out to create a community of like-minded individuals built on trust and authenticity. The brand has to exist within some cultural context, otherwise it is synonymous with a commodity.

For the cultural backdrop in which my brand could live, craft beer was a logical first choice, given my passion for and intimate familiarity with the category.

We leverage existing and foster new, genuine relationships with others in the industry to collaborate and create memorable, unique experiences and products highly curated to the clientele. These partnerships generate buzz, lend credibility (probably the most important), and grow affinity.


2) Thoughtfully curate the followership, trading quantity for quality

Building the community of like-minded individuals has definitely been a grind. We have not spent a single dollar on advertising and our Instagram account has less than 7,000 followers, but our engagement is incredibly strong.

Since we do not advertise, most followers come from product release buzz, pop up events, and collaborations… basically all word-of-mouth or hashtag exposure.

This probably takes way f*cking longer than boosting posts (ASSUMPTION), but anecdotally, the engagement we earn with each follower is worth several for other brands affecting broader, higher-funnel tactics. (ANOTHER ASSUMPTION)

I publish polarizing content with the expectation that we will lose followers at the expense of strengthening our bond with those who stick around. The more emotionally evoking the personality can be, the more we can resonate with our community.

To reinforce strong bonds with our following, we draw a very bold line in the sand regarding the brand’s voice and perspective. We have not compromised it for broader appeal or to capitalize on opportunistic activations.


3) Foster meaningful relationships with the followership

I try to reply to every message, email, and comment as if I am their friend from high school. We have met up with random people from the internet to buy them a beer when we happen to be in their city… simply taking advantage of all opportunities to create meaningful connections with our followership.

This sets very high, demanding expectations of the consumer, but it is the most important key to the brand’s success.

These meaningful relationships reinforce credibility, affinity, authenticity, etc., but importantly, they have enabled us to become even more intimately familiar with our consumer.

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