Can you imagine a world where loyal customers are organically spreading the word about your brand, defending your reputation online and consistently providing valuable feedback that allows you to innovate and grow? This is the power of tribes. Brand tribes consist of people linked by a shared belief, who are capable of collective action – these are your true believers, brand champions and ultimate promoters. And in 2023, brands are quickly realising that having a tribe is one of the most valuable assets when it comes to catapulting your business into the limelight.
Not only can a tribe of dedicated followers provide brands with a much-needed edge in the current competitive marketplace, but they can also help to boost brand recognition, promote a sense of belonging, create long-term customer loyalty and, in turn, help yield significant profits. Segmentation may have been known as the “gold standard of brand marketing”, but pigeon-holing audiences based on demographics, behavioural characteristics and psychographic research, doesn’t reflect the diversity and changing nature of today’s society; in steps the emerging new dimension of “tribal marketing”. In contrast to traditional marketing approaches where segmentation, personalisation and one-to-one relationship building are paramount, “tribal marketing” is a novel approach, where brands are choosing to shift their focus towards facilitating and gathering a group of people to create a renewed sense of community that ultimately strengthens relationships between consumers and their brand.
Some experts have even gone as far as to say that building tribes around your brand is the future of marketing, so smart content marketers should start to think about embracing this new wave. In an arena flooded with pay-per-click advertisements, gaudy pop-up banners and unimaginative marketing campaigns that miss the mark, it’s time to turn our focus back to people, customer satisfaction, and brand ambassadors to elevate your marketing game. So, join Wordsmith, as we take you through a step-by-step guide on how to bolster the “tribe effect”.
How do you start building your brand tribe?
But how do you go about identifying your tribes and building a large enough one to support your business needs? It’s not as black and white as defining a customer segment, that’s split into age, sex and income. You can no longer define your customers by demographics alone– you should start by defining them through interests and activities instead. Millennials are disrupting general life milestone markers, that marketers usually pinpoint, as they’re now waiting longer to buy houses, or have their first child, for instance. Tribes are communities that are connected by similar values, who all share a common desire to belong. And first part of creating a strong customer tribe is understanding the difference between traditional marketing segmentation and building connections with people who have shared values.
Step 1: Identify your tribe
So, it’s time to really investigate your customers – who are they? What are their values and core beliefs? What common interests do they all share? One of the best ways to effectively reach your audiences and gain a strong following is to understand them by developing a detailed buyer persona. A buyer persona should accurately identify your ideal audience, and showcase your prospects' specific desires when it comes to your brand. Normally, businesses will have more than one buyer persona to express the likely diversity of the company’s target audience. This will help you and your marketing team understand what motivates these individuals so you can create content that connects with them on a more profound level. And in today’s society, this means looking deep into their daily rituals and how they interact with other brands and people around them.
John Brackett, Founder of Smash Balloon, explains, “Identifying your customer personas won’t happen overnight. You need to spend plenty of time on social media, reviewing forms on your site and gathering information through email. Use this information you gather to divide your audience by their likes and dislikes, as well as general buying habits. Before long, you’ll have a robust list of customer personas that you can use to grow your business for years to come.” But Yana Nirshber, Managing Partner at ParadigmNEXT marketing agency, also urges content marketers to think about, “new trends or technologies that your customers may use can that can impact and shift your buyer persona along the way. Only when you consider all macro and micro environmental impacts will you have the ability to fully understand your audience and improve sales.”
Step 2: Create a sense of unity and belonging
Once you’ve established your ideal buyer personas and the people you want to attract to your tribe, the next step is to create opportunities for these types of customers to engage with your brand and also with each other. One increasingly popular way to do this is through co-creation. The process of co-creation allows your customers to take the reins (to some degree) and help in part in designing new products, improving existing product lines or providing solutions that will ultimately enhance their customer experience. You could even make customers your brand storytellers.
Choosing to collaborate with customers in these ways is becoming increasingly important in this competitive, global climate. Not only does it help both brands and their customers thrive, but it also provides a competitive advantage and has the potential to create innovations and solutions that better match customers’ needs. Also, product tests by your potential growing tribe ensure that important elements in a marketing campaign or distinctive features in product launches are not left out. Pierre Laboisse, Executive Vice President of Global Sales at ams OSRAM says, “It’s important to engage with your closest customers first because they are more likely to commit to the effort. They also have the best chance of being good partners, as they understand the market and can deliver truly valuable insights.”
Leveraging the power of brand ambassadors can also greatly amplify your marketing efforts towards building a tribe. This dedicated group of followers will passionately endorse your products and defend your brand’s reputation online, so it’s important to continue nurturing and investing in building strong relationships with them. This could be as simple as offering them exclusive perks, promoting their content on your social media channels, giving them early access to new products/services or sending them special discounts, to show your appreciation for their support.
Step 3: Create a sense of community
People generally join communities to find purpose, social connection and support. So, once you’ve attracted a good number of people into your tribe, it’s time to create and sustain a sense of community which will ultimately help to keep your members, happy, engaged and, most importantly, committed for the long haul. Being reactive as a brand on social media, organising physical events with perks or building online communities are accessible ways that will help you cultivate connections, encourage dialogue and create a sense of community with your tribe.
Launching an online community is a great way to start attracting customers with shared interests in your brand because if successful, it creates a safe space where they feel comfortable sharing brand experiences, and honest feedback that will ultimately strengthen their loyalty. Not only that, but it can provide a direct line to your customers’ needs and motivations, bolster overall customer engagement, serve as a fast track to audience insights that can enhance customer experience tactics, and act as a centralised platform where members of your key tribe can communicate. Monitoring your online community can help you analyse unique customer journeys while also finding common touchpoints that will all help your brand build tailored experiences for each buyer persona.
When people feel that they are part of something genuine and authentic, like an online community when they can talk directly to a brand, it brings them together and creates a sense of belonging and community, which can help to foster long-term relationships and create a loyal customer base. Julia Voloshchenko, Public Relations Manager at Usetech commented, “Some of the best online communities use their platforms to improve business reputation, increase expertise, and publish the user-generated content (UGC). There are several examples of successful brand communities out there including Nike Run Club, Apple, Sony, LEGO, Oracle, or Harley-Davidson. With the ubiquity of social networks, it has become easier to create and develop communities, so, don’t miss out on this opportunity.”
Step 4: Foster advocacy and loyalty
After you’ve launched your online community, hosted some online and live events and been consistently engaging to customers across your social media channels, it’s time to think about showing appreciation for all of your tribe’s support by offering exclusive perks, rewards and building a robust customer loyalty programme.
By offering rewards, through points-based systems, exclusive discounts and loyalty customer-only experiences, you will incentivise your tribe as they will see this as added value and recognition of their contribution to your brands’ success. Some brands have even introduced gamification as a way of saying thanks to special members. This could involve incorporating game-like elements into your customer experience, like digital collectables, awards and customer ranking systems to build brand engagement, and drive sales. Exclusive experiences for loyal customers that are not available to the general public can also be enticing for your audiences and can make them feel valued.
When it comes down to it, no one can deny that the future of marketing lies in harnessing the power of communities. By focusing on people, prioritising the customer experience, and cultivating dedicated brand ambassadors, you can rise above the noise, create a competitive edge and make a lasting impression on your audience. While it might appear like a daunting task initially, taking the time to build a strong community, will pay off dividends. Flashy discounts and fluff promotions may have worked in the past, but brands are expected to give more to successfully create “the tribe effect” and build long-lasting customer relationships. When you truly prioritise authentic engagement with your customers over transactional purchases – that’s when you’ll truly see sales skyrocket.