The Life of a Brand Community — ROIs
Just like when the first morning light hits the dark land, all things living come to life, and every living thing starts running and working. Exactly like that when a community gets its first successful ROIs, it starts growing more.
When building a community, it’s crucial to prioritize qualitative values over quantitative ones. This ensures that community members feel a sense of belonging and connection, rather than feeling used as another sales funnel. The community should remain true to its purpose of helping members grow and create value in their lives.
It’s important to remember that when a community is started with the thought of making more sales, it’s already headed in the wrong direction and will never thrive. Members will never be able to connect with the vision of the community (Credit: Building Brand Communities by Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl).
However, it’s crucial to remember that every community must align with at least one of the brand’s goals, otherwise, it becomes a dead asset for the brand and the leadership may pull the plug on it at any time. When starting a new community, it’s important to have one of the following goals in mind: acquisition, retention, content, or research. Each goal has its own set of measurements and is good for specific types of brands.
Acquisition
What it means: When we provide the right value in our community, some members will turn into customers.
Measured by: Community qualified leads.
Good for brands that:
- Are looking for long-term investments in the community before ROI shows up.
- Are looking for a great growth catalyst for their brand and are building a community before the actual product.
- Are looking for a better conversion ratio in returns to investments.
- Have a premium/enterprise-level product that will also need continuous support.
Retention
What it means: With the right intention served in the community, members will stay customers for a longer period of time.
Measured by: Comparison of community members vs. non-members on metrics like lifetime value and churn.
Good for brands that:
- Have a business model based on a subscription-based product.
Content
What it means: Community members can help us validate and generate our most valuable content, which plays a major role in our marketing ecosystem.
Measured by: Time and money saved ideating for content cadences, and producing content.
Good for brands that:
- Use content marketing as a large part of their marketing strategy.
- Emphasize featuring customer success stories and use cases.
Research
What it means: Community members can help make the right decisions for the brand by including the voice of the customer in everything that the brand does.
Measured by: Time and money saved building the wrong product, easier access to customer research for all teams.
Good for brands that: Basically everyone.
In the initial year of any community, “content” and “research” should be the main focus as they create the most value for members and for the business. After that, “retention” or “acquisition” becomes the primary focus depending on the product roadmap.
But this doesn’t mean that the community loses focus on “content” and “research” after the initial year. We always keep them in our focus when building and growing the community.
Also, it goes without saying that any community should only be focused on either acquisition or retention unless there is an abundance of bandwidth and resources.
Now that we have talked about what the ROIs of a brand community is on a broader scale, What exact metrics to track?
To know about 8 metrics you can track (according to your community ROIs), you can read my last blog where I have added 8 measure points — A community Builder proves their community ROIs
In summary, building a brand community requires thoughtful planning and an understanding of the brand’s goals. Prioritizing qualitative values over quantitative ones will ensure that community members feel a sense of belonging and connection. By focusing on the right goals and tracking the right ROIs, brands can build and grow successful communities that provide value to both members and the business.
Got something to add to it? please do share your thoughts in the comments
Don’t forget,
Community Builders are the unsung superhumans who don’t wear capes.
Hi there, I am Akash, an avid storyteller, a meditator, and a community builder. To know more about me, you can visit here: Akash
In the next blog, we will talk about what you can do to achieve each of these.
