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  • šŸ§  How to Make a Brand With Bloodthirsty Customers

šŸ§  How to Make a Brand With Bloodthirsty Customers

Author

Ankit Patel
July 28, 2024

Hey there,

Welcome back to the 52nd edition of Brandish,

Your guide to crafting an iconic brand.

Ever wonder what it would be like to have an army of a thousand, million, or billion strong?

Yes, billion with a B.

But not just any army.

An army ofā€¦

Savageā€¦

Relentlessā€¦

Bloodthirstyā€¦

Customers

Building an army of SUPERFANS is totally possible.

All with this little thing called a community.

This week weā€™re talking about how building a community might be the single most important aspect of brand building.

Because āŒ community = āŒ brand.

So grab a Brez,

Grab some popcorn,

And letā€™s not get into it.

WHAT!

Oh for crying out loud would you quit whining.

Weā€™ll get into it in just a moment.

But firstā€¦

This Thursday, August 1st.

Chew On This is hosting a LIVE event withā€¦

The Weekendā€¦

Bruno Marsā€¦

Drakeā€¦

Wait, wrong listā€¦

Ashvin Melwani - CMO @Obvi

Marty Borotsik - CEO @SwiftStart

Geoff Bekavac - CRO @SwiftStart

(And this is the better list)

Becauseā€¦

They will personally be showing you how top DTC brands are optimizing their Amazon listing pages to PRINT CASH.

On top of that if you have your own store and want it analyzed.

You can send it in and get it ripped to shreds by the best in the game.

So click the link HERE to sign up for completely free.

Nowā€¦

Letā€™s get into it.

What The Heck is a Community?

Listenā€¦

Iā€™m not trying to be Mr. Captain Obvious.

I know you know what community is šŸ¤¦ā€ā™‚ļø

But thatā€™s not what Iā€™m talking about.

So then what exactly am I talking about??

Thereā€™s a big difference between a community and a GOOD community. 

And that ONE difference could make or break your entire brand.

Having a bad community is like having an army full of self-destruct buttons.

And in this case. 

The bigger the army, the bigger the problem.

But an army full of self-destruct buttons doesnā€™t really make that much sense.

So let me break it down for you.

Kills Trust and Credibilityā€¦

Allowing misinformation to slip through the cracks is a big no-no when it comes to building communities.

If misinformation spreads within a community and the brand fails to correct it,

Say your farewells to anyone who trusts your brand.

Shatters Customer Loyaltyā€¦

Ignoring feedback is one of the best ways to shatter customer loyalty.

So a great idea would be to not do thatā€¦

But if you still do it for whatever reasonā€¦

Youā€™re basically giving the middle finger to your most valuable customers.

Destroys Brand Imageā€¦

If a community is inactive or has no admins at all,

Youā€™re practically begging for misconduct to happen within your community.

Having a mismanaged community is a recipe for disaster just waiting to happen.

So hereā€™s what the header probably shouldā€™ve been.

What The Heck is a GOOD Community?

Answering this question isn't just a simple this or that.

Brands are like snowflakes, no two are ever the same.

And that also applies to its communities.

If every single brand had the same community, there would be no point for communities in the first place. 

Communities are a space where your superfans or ā€œarmyā€ who are crazy about your brand, connect with others who are also crazy about your brand.

But communities arenā€™t just a place for your customers to make connections with your other customers.

Theyā€™re a place for YOU to make connections with your customers.

A place where you can have direct access to your exact target audience.

It allows you to pinpoint exactly what they want.

But above all.

It allows you to pinpoint exactly why they buy.

In short, thereā€™s a lot that goes into making your community remarkable.

The rest of this newsletter will teach you just that šŸ‘‡

Why You NEED a GOOD Community

Gone are the days when you could load up your pockets by cranking out endless paid media.

The landscape has shifted and simply pouring money into ads isnā€™t enough anymore.

These days you have to build trust brick by brick to make even a SINGLE sale.

Your prospect needs to trust you as much as the psychopath who trusts himself enough to get up before work without an alarm.

And thatā€™s a lot of effing trust.

Trust isn't built overnight.

Itā€™s a gradual process of proving your reliability, understanding your audience, and consistently delivering on your promises.

This is where a strong community comes into play.

A well-nurtured community isnā€™t just a nice-to-haveā€”itā€™s essential.

So, if you want to thrive in today's market, you need more than just a solid product or flashy ads.

You need to build unwavering trust.

You need to understand exactly what customers want.

And You NEED a GOOD Community.

How Obvi Built a GOOD Community

Five short years ago, we took a leap and started building our community not long after launching Obvi.

We didnā€™t really drive traffic to it other than an email trigger that would go out after someone bought.

And thatā€™s how the little olā€™ FaceBook group with 50 people started growing in the early days.

Early on the conversations were primarily about our products.

But as the community evolved, so did the conversations.

Members started sharing more personal stories, life successes, and challenges.

Women started talking about their health journeys, sharing their struggles, and celebrating their victories. 

Itā€™s not just about the wins, members openly discuss setbacks tooā€”like those cheat meals or missed supplements. 

And being part of this amazing community encourages them to get back on track.

Today the Obvi community has over 100,000 members and is rapidly expanding.

Itā€™s our most valuable resource for gathering insights.

We run surveys to get feedback on product flavors, launch ideas, and more.

With over 100,000 women providing input, weā€™re able to make the best decisions for whatā€™s next.

In essence, our community isnā€™t just a group of obvi superfans.

Itā€™s a powerful tool that helps us refine our products and stay connected with our customers.

Their input guides our decisions, and their support drives our success.

Itā€™s truly the backbone of our brand.

How YOU Can Build a G.O.O.D. Community

As I said earlierā€¦

Trust isn't built overnight.

Itā€™s a gradual process of proving your reliability, understanding your audience, and consistently delivering on your promises.

There is no plug-and-play system that will make your community exceptional but there is a structure.

I call it the G.O.O.D. method.

G.  Goals

The first step to building a good community is defining your goals.

You need to really figure out who your target audience is.

Is itā€¦

Current customersā€¦

Potential customersā€¦

Influencersā€¦

Or whoever it may beā€¦

You also need to set the tone for what you hope to achieve with the community.

Whether itā€™sā€¦

Customer supportā€¦

Product feedbackā€¦

Brand loyaltyā€¦

And once youā€™ve CLEARLY defined your goals you can move on to step two.

O.  Opting for the right platform

Okay,

So now that youā€™ve set your goal.

Itā€™s time to pick the actual platform to build your community on.

There are countless platforms out there so donā€™t spend an entire year thinking about which one youā€™re going to use.

At Obvi we use FaceBook groups but there are a bunch of other alternatives out there.

Instagram groupsā€¦

Twitter communitiesā€¦

And Slackā€¦

Are all great options.

O.  Outlining your content strategy

Cool,

Now we have our goals and actual community set up.

But what happens in the community?

You need to be posting exclusive content that only community members have access to.

Otherwise, what would be the point of having a community?

D.  Driving traffic to the community

Finally,

We have our goal.

We have our actual community.

We have our content strategy.

But our community has a grand total of ZERO members.

Sad right šŸ˜¢

But you can turn that frown upside down byā€¦

Sending out invites to your email listā€¦

Promoting it on social mediaā€¦

And putting CTAs on your websiteā€¦

There you have it.

I just taught you how to build your own world-class community.

Youā€™re welcome.

Tool of the Week

If youā€™ve ever tried influencer marketing you know it CRUSHES.

But you also know itā€™s an absolute pain in the assā€¦

But what if you could have all the benefits of influencer marketing without having toā€¦

Spend hours on outreachā€¦

Stalk socialsā€¦

Or play hide-and-seek with contractsā€¦

SARAL has EVERYTHING you need when it comes to influencer marketing.

And itā€™s all on ONE platform.

  • Influencer seeding/management 

  • A best-in-class search engine where you can find and contact any influencer in the world

  • In-depth reporting so we could see which relationships were actually working for us

  • And so much more

This tool is our literal knight in shining armor and has helped us save countless hours and resources.

And I think SARAL can do the same for you.

Actually, I take it backā€¦

I donā€™t think it can.

I KNOW it can.

So click the link HERE to join the hundreds of other brands that are seeing phenomenal results all without the headaches.

One last thing before wrapping upā€¦

CRO this CRO thatā€¦

Zip it ā€“

Are you seriously still tracking CRO???

Drew Marconi, Founder & CEO of Intelligems says otherwise.

Catch our recent podcast episode where he reveals why CRO is a stupid metricā€¦

Wrapping Up

Building a community from the ground up is no small feat.

And sorry to burst your bubble but building a community like Obviā€™s wonā€™t happen overnight.

But itā€™s definitely possible.

Especially after what youā€™ve learned in today's newsletter.

As always,

Thanks for taking the time to read along!

And Iā€™ll see you next week!

Ankit