With the new age of consumers turning towards AI for online shopping, brand image and visibility are becoming increasingly important for customers looking for convenience. Fewer people are going into physical stores and turning towards the easy accessibility of online stores. As a result of these structural shifts, a shopper’s behavior is important for brands to observe as more people turn towards technology for shopping.
Due to these changes, connection and brand authenticity are coveted and important to a generation that spends a lot of time seeking out community. Brands have the perfect opportunity to elevate their visibility by marketing themselves through a relatable, yet genuine image — and the most effective way to do that is by creating a brand community.
How to Build an Online Presence
In 2019, 83% of consumers admitted to paying attention to how brands treat them as much as the product they sell, with 73% willing to spend more if they love the brand. However, with the introduction of AI, consumers have an easier and more efficient way to shop, cutting down the time they spend looking for reliable brands. Recent studies have showcased that 74% of consumers are delegating tasks to AI, 32% let AI decide what to buy, and 9% are open to AI making the purchase on their behalf, eliminating much of the human interaction.
With AI usage continuing to increase, it’s important for brands to distinctly define themselves amongst the competition to make sure their names appear not only in traditional search engines but in AI overviews. This starts with visibility. Social media platforms play a crucial role in brand interaction as they shape a customer’s perception. Choosing which platforms to promote is just as crucial as shaping your image. It shows who is engaging with your brand, whether that is through follows, short-term interactions, or purchases. Consumers trust brands that others trust.
Create posts and updates that reflect your brand image, and maintain that tone across the platforms you choose. A customer’s interaction should embody the dependability of the brand, because it will, in turn, get consumers to engage with your website or profile.
Building an online presence opens more doors for interaction and makes it easier for consumers to discover your brand and its product by curating posts for the for-you page instead of wholly relying on promoted posts. Making yourself available before a prospective customer realizes they need your product or service is a good way to begin, as each brand interaction they have brings insight into how they make decisions.
Take advantage of sponsored posts and popular hashtags.
Tracking consumer behavior is an important, yet unpredictable, piece of data that brands need to keep track of. Though not everyone will click on your post, they will see it.
How people interact, consume, communicate, digest, and explore their curated feeds are viable cues where brands can not only create a picture of their audience, but also get to know them before they fully interact with you.
By doing this, you are curating a distinct brand image. What customers heavily associate with your name will filter through the AI generator and boost your visibility amongst an audience that is both familiar and unfamiliar with your product.
Building an Authentic and Transparent Brand Community
With an online presence, consumers are now familiar with your brand and product. What follows next is providing the necessary information about your brand and message. Authenticity is vital when building a personal connection between consumer and brand.
Like meeting with an investor, you need to give in order to gain. Superficial values and posts won’t be valued highly by consumers willing to look at your online footprint when they feel like something seems fishy. It is best to showcase your values throughout your entire brand and provide the necessary information about your operations.
Educated consumers will pick up on the gaps, and they want to be confident that their money is going to be well spent and towards a good cause that they can feel confident in. With an increase in scrutiny towards environmental and ethical practices, building up a customer’s trust solidifies the connection between brand and consumer. Especially in this fast-paced world, customer retention and loyalty are important, so don’t waste your community by selling your audience a lie.
With this new generation giving preference towards brands that are “real and organic” rather than “perfect and well-packaged,” community is important to a brand just as it is in real life. Authenticity and honesty work together, so provide the openness, relevance, empathy, experience, and emotion that customers value. Inconsistent messaging leads to mistrust and suspicion. You don’t want to lose a consumer’s loyalty by capitalizing on a trend that doesn’t align with your brand image.
Instead, pay attention to pop culture.
What’s in, what isn’t, and choose what fits directly with you. Customers pay attention to your interactions just as much as they value theirs. Be as authentic as you can without sacrificing your values.
And even then, create your own tone and style. Variations are great, but something wholly original is equally as eye-catching. Creating a slogan or even having an impactful color is memorable and will become synonymous with your name.
This personalization makes for a better shopping experience and builds stronger relationships between customer and brand. Instead of simply being a shopping interface, having distinctive visuals that are important to the brand value allows for product recommendations and marketing to be individualistic and garner brand loyalty.
Your slogans and colors are a community association — make them feel proud to wear and repeat them.
Capitalizing on Community Engagement
To take advantage of all of these tips, the best way brands can build a strong relationship with their customers is to open a line of communication between the brand and the consumer.
Getting in touch with your customers is a sure-fire way of building more trust and garnering a more intimate connection. Here, you have direct access to your loyal audience, the individuals who use your product day in and day out.
By providing a community space, it shows other consumers that your product is reliable, that it is real, and not something sold to them by a celebrity they’ve seen on television screens. It not only boosts your reliability but also your word-of-mouth recommendation amongst more private consumers.
Through ambassador programs, ambassadors promote your brand among their communities by completing tasks like photos and videos on their social media, and in return, you reward them through a variety of ways.
Community and ambassador programs are a great way to build your brand presence online and increase brand engagement. From college students to micro-influencers, brands can boost their sales and image among a wide variety of demographics without spending a lot of money through large-scale campaigns. American Eagle’s creator community hit 91% engagement — a clear example of why loyalty programs are becoming communities.
These programs showcase a brand’s willingness to bridge the gap and show that you are actively listening to your community, which makes them feel included and more likely to continue choosing your brand in the future.
FAQ
What is a brand community? A brand community is a group of customers who have a strong emotional connection to a brand. They purchase the brand’s products, engage with their content, and actively promote the brand to their friends and family.
Why is community important for brands? With immediate access to information and brands at the tap of their fingertips, younger consumers are exposed to a great deal of content. This leads them to spend most of their time online seeking out community spaces where they can find pieces of themselves in popular media. Your brand can be one of those spaces where they feel connected.
What are brand ambassador programs? A marketing strategy where brands transform loyal customers into ambassadors, who promote the brand and its products amongst an online audience or their inner circles, taking advantage of word-of-mouth promotion. It also allows for other customers to connect with one another and share their love for the brand’s products.
Want to Build a Brand Community?
In the digital age, where phones and other technologies are important tools for information, providing community spaces that are easily accessible is beneficial for both parties.
Ambassador programs are proven to increase community engagement and brand sales. How you create one is all dependent on the brand activation platform.
Book a Demo today to see how one works.
