Methods to Construct a Significant (and Large) Community, From Someone Who’s Executed it Twice

You probably already know the value of building a community behind your brand: stronger word of mouth, stronger customer loyalty, better organic growth. And yet, I find that many small business owners are not entirely sure how to nurture real communities or don’t believe they can if they don’t have the money to really do it successfully.

I’ve built two thriving communities with startup budgets, first as # 1 Employee and Director of Marketing and Community at theSkimm and now as the founder and CEO of Puzzle Company JIGGY. Here is my advice to get it right.

1. Find ways to support and celebrate your organic ambassadors

You probably already have a community of champions – people who love what you do and want to tell the world about it – even if it’s only a small one. If the cheapest customer is always your existing customer, the easiest way to build the community you already have. So find ways to help your current advocates and thank them when they do.

At JIGGY, we make it clear on our product packaging and website how puzzlers can share their progress on social media by tagging ourselves and the artist who created the puzzle artwork. We also always react or share their posts in our stories to show how much we value them (and encourage them to keep sharing!).

JIGGY customers love to share their enigmatic journey – and we’ve made it easy for them to help promote our brand.

At theSkimm, a simple request in our daily newsletter to share it with a friend evolved into an entire ambassador program (called Skimm’bassadors), with detailed instructions on how to best spread the word, and tiered perks based on the number of Recommendations. For a long time we even chose incentives that cost us next to nothing and that pushed our community engagement further: access to a private Facebook group, invitations to skimm events and the opportunity to get to know the team.

Whatever you do, taking a little time now to support and appreciate your biggest fans will save you big money in the long run when it comes to your community growth.

2. Bring your followers into the business building process

Traditional marketing is a one-way conversation, but to build a strong community, you should give your customers the opportunity to have a voice too.

This does not have to be complex either. Our JIGGY team responds to every customer email we receive so our users know they are being heard. We have an open ear and make product decisions based on the wishes of our customers. We’ll let you know when we’ve processed your feedback. We ask our followers for their opinion on ideas we are considering instead of just trying to read their minds. Even a simple Instagram poll can be engaging and insightful.

When we brought out our first children’s puzzle, we emphasized that this decision was based on customer wishes.

By treating your client base as a very large piece of advice from advisors, you can also feel confident trying out half-baked ideas to see what kind of reaction you get. For example, when we were thinking about how we could monetize our newsletter at theSkimm, we simply said to our readers: “We’re going to start running some ads, let us know what you think!” By staying transparent and opening this channel of communication, we felt our users invested more in what we did – and more indulgent than we found out.

The real magic of a branded community begins when you help users connect with one another.

About a year after we started hosting events for our Skimm’bassadors, we conducted a user survey and found that the people our users met through the group were a great indicator of satisfaction: new friendships, professional ones Connections, even some romantic relationships.

Early on at JIGGY, we saw a lot of organic social engagement between our clients and the artists who create the work for our puzzles, and we’ve found that both communities are more committed to what our brand is doing. More recently, we’ve noticed users hosting puzzle parties through Zoom – so we decided to start that Puzzle club to further promote this type of engagement.

Puzzle Club members receive the same exclusive puzzle each month to share all of their progress, as well as the opportunity to interact with JIGGY artists – both great drivers for a deeper community.

Think about ways you can bring your community together, then take a step back and watch how real connections are made.

4. Stay guided by your why

Ultimately, none of this works unless you have a deeper why behind your brand. TheSkimm was about being informed and connected to current events in the world around you. JIGGY is about connecting with downtime and practicing mindful self-care while supporting independent artists at the same time. People want to be part of these communities because they want to be with like-minded people.

It’s not just about formulating your values ​​- it’s about living them in your branding, text, and even your business decisions. In the first few months of Covid-19, we ran out of product and we were unable to top up due to supply chain issues. After hearing about our artists’ financial troubles, we only had access to blank puzzles. After hearing about our artists’ financial difficulties, we had them draw unique puzzles on these blanks and auctioned them off for charity and artist aid. This didn’t benefit our bottom line, but it helped puzzlers stay in touch with our company even when we couldn’t sell them anything, supported our artist community, and empowered what we are about as a company.

During the first few months of Covid, our Jiggy Originals campaign supported our artist community and built a closer connection with our puzzlers.

Communities don’t stand behind a product – they stand behind values ​​that are important to them or a lifestyle with which they identify. Find out yours, live it out in the brand, and make sure you really care about your customers along the way.