Empower your ambassadors 

Once you’ve galvanized your community, identify brand ambassadors who can give you a direct line to your customers’ voices. Engage with them regularly through polls, discussions, focus groups and personal conversations and empower them to know that their opinions are valued and have real influence on the business.

Trinny London has ambassadors across the world who organize local meetups several times a year and act as spokespeople for the region, collating and passing on feedback, requests and wish lists. Our ambassadors are supportive but aren’t afraid to share their honest views on opportunities for improvement. That kind of unfiltered customer insight is invaluable. 

Leave it alone!

But with all that said, I remind you of an important point: The power of a community is in its autonomy. It shouldn’t be driven by a sales team with an agenda.

Communities that are given space to grow become more trusting of the brand, so insights shared become more authentic and therefore more helpful. In this kind of open environment, a community becomes not just a space for brand discussion, but also for personal connections and friendships to be established and for opportunities beyond the brand to be discovered.

A thriving and engaged community remains one of the most efficient routes to growth. Through word-of-mouth and knowledge-sharing, your community will fuel itself, with new members being brought along to discover the brand at little or no cost to you. If you can find the most relevant customer motivations to develop and nurture a community for your brand in 2023, you will discover huge possibilities and benefits to your brand as you watch it thrive.