Every business would love a community of ideal buyers who are raving fans—giving credibility, repeat business, and built-in focus groups to launch new products and services. 

 

Community building is a critical component of advanced demand generation. 

 

How does one start to build a community? It starts with the ability to tell a strategic story (narrative) that is bigger than just your products and services. 

The first step is finding the proper significant Purpose – the following provides a framework for achieving this.  

Big Purpose – motivation

Your business’s Purpose is the motivation for your community. 

The motivation taps into and ignites your future ideal buyers – 

• The joy of being a part of something bigger than your products and services,
• In working towards a common shared goal,
• Building your skills and getting better at achieving,
• The community permits people to be vulnerable and navigate significant challenges together,
• The power of your community comes from people mastering something interesting together.

Choosing a Big Purpose 

• Specific​: Your ideal buyers can picture the end state and how each of us will be better for joining the new community. (yesterdays newsletter spoke of – Who Gives A Crap – toilet paper. Their big Purpose is – that 2.4 billion people across the world don’t have access to a toilet – that’s roughly 40% of the global population, meaning that around 289,000 children under five die every year from diseases caused by poor water and sanitation – the world’s number 1 most sustainable toilet paper was born.)
• Exciting​: The community is going to be fun and challenging every step of the way, 
• Achievable Only Together​: It won’t be easy, but if we work together, it’s possible, 
• Incredibly Rewarding​: The rewards for achieving this Big Purpose make it worthwhile, 

Tips on getting your Big Purpose Pitch – just right

 

These are proven to get your creativity flowing.

• To access exclusive connections and knowledge where we can learn faster and better to create a competitive edge with less friction to help each of us achieve our goals – SO THAT WE CAN …
• To build practices, habits and skills essential to us which are nearly impossible to do on our own, SO THAT WE CAN…
• To ensure each of us contributes our valuable stories, worldviews, experiences, and ideas SO THAT WE CAN…

Show your leadership and compassion.

 

• Be accessible and human. Put your face at the front of your business and tell your strategic narrative.
• Make time to get to know your community – your potential future buyers. Reach out on social to say how much you love that they have joined your community. Ask them if they need help over and above your products and services. 
• Collaborate often – ask questions – seek feedback – plan engagements well in advance, 
• Complementary communities – partner with and consolidate your communities to access potential buyers with crossover interests. 
• Consistently create content that answers your community questions and challenges their views,
• Add additional community members via social media channels like LinkedIn and Twitter. 
• Be your authentic self – Be authentic. Engage with everyone. Only some people will be like you – diversity is excellent. 
• Be consistent and accurate when creating content and engaging with your community. Build a thriving community with authenticity, which will feel like something other than an effort.
• Pick the right medium – where will your community hang out – how will they know what’s going on – how can they share insights and learn the next steps? Consider your demographics. Is it a specialist platform or Facebook? 

Morning Brew shared four steps on how they have built communities:

Step 1: Relentlessly focus on creating a great product.

Step 2: Build an effective referral system that turns users into mini-brand hype – Get that flywheel turning – so more and more are signing up. 

Step 3: Write content pieces telling people exactly how you executed steps 1-2.

Step 4: Be funny on Twitter.

Any business delivering products or services can grow faster, unlock extraordinary competitive advantages, and create a superior business model. 

• Enthusiastic community members help acquire new members, resulting in lower customer acquisition costs and a tight viral growth loop,

• Members of a community are less likely to abandon it, resulting in increased retention and improved lifetime value.

• Members of a community support other members in that community, resulting in higher gross margins due to a lower cost of service.

The financial result of this is powerful network effects: as engagement grows, the community gets more intelligent, faster to respond, more globally available, and generates more long-term value. 

What is your business plan?  

Need help – Let’s chat. 

These newsletters may also be of interest.

Regards 

David