Having an audience for your brand is amazing, especially if they stick around. That’s never to be discounted. But while they’re there, it’s also important that businesses maintain a kind of push and pull positive relationship with them, where they cultivate that brand audience in the best way without making it seem like an ultra-secret club.

Of course, sometimes a company will do its best to cultivate clients that last a lifetime, and they could be considered ‘the audience’ worth chasing. For instance, a top law firm will seek to cultivate many corporate and personal clients they can work with for decades, especially if they can be kept on retainer.

But as a humble firm that might sell a given product or service, it’s important to make do with the audience you have and encourage them to grow in the best possible sense. In this post, we’ll discuss a few reliable ways of achieving that and what this could mean for your brand going forward. Without further ado, let’s consider:

Consider A Forum / Community Website

Customers/clients that are able to come together and express their interest/connect with other fans/are able to follow and become part of your story often feel appreciated and as if they’re listened to, which can be healthy. A forum or community website utilized via a group building system can be a fantastic means of connecting your audience and giving them somewhere to occupy. It’s why many owners forums, or community discussion panels dedicated to small businesses (this is often seen by companies developing software, for example), can be so worthwhile.

Offer Additional Investment Benefits

The more that an audience is willing to become your community, the more you may be willing to invest in them. For instance, many businesses are starting to turn to Kickstarter in order to crowd-fund products they find worthwhile, with additional tier lists dedicated to reaching certain funding goals. This democratic means of developing a product (even for established industry names), is becoming more and more common, and can allow customers to feel as though they’re part of the product development process, too. That could be food for thought depending on your development strategy.

Inspire Modifications/Additional Learning

Those companies that inspire creativity with their products or service can often make good on customer investment and build goodwill as necessary. For instance, it might be that for a certain anniversary, you wish to ask for stories on how certain children are enjoying your toys, or how your fitness supplements have helped people get in shape. Then, perhaps you can share the stories and pictures of the latter on Instagram and showcase just how worthwhile your product may be. Additionally, inspiring additional learning in the community, such as how to get the best out of your software, can also help people come together and willingly share and improve what you have to offer. Businesses that do that tend to be cherished by their clients.

With this advice, we hope you can foster your community out of your brand audience.