If you’re reading this, we can bet that you’re looking for the next stage of your business. You’re ready for growth. And that means that you want to foster deeper connections with your clients and build an even stronger brand with potential customers. You need a community!

When you build a community around your business, you unlock a ton of opportunity within your existing client base and new customers. And while we won’t lie to you and tell you it’s easy, the returns can be massive. After all, a brand community is something you own entirely—you’re not reliant on algorithms, ad spend, or other factors out of your control. 

We’re going to cover exactly how to build a community around your business today! Expect to learn:

• Why building a community matters
• How to define your community’s purpose
• Knowing your audience
• Choosing the right platform
• Engaging and adding value
• Creating a sense of belonging
• How to start fostering organic growth

Plus, Laylee Emadi joined in with her thoughts on building a community (which is one of the many things she's known for!). She's also the host of the Creative Educator Conference which is coming up soon! It's a fantastic event for anyone who might be curious about the education space, or is looking to scale their current business. Grab your ticket here and put the tips on building a community here to action!

Why Building a Community Matters

Building an online community is a great way to develop two-way communication with your audience. You can build loyalty and trust with your existing customers by offering them greater value than what you already provide through your products and services. And as you build loyalty, you will increase your client retention. 

It’s also a great way to collect customer feedback and offer more support. The conversations that you spark in your community and the info you get there can lead to changes in your business that ultimately help you grow and scale. 

For example, getting a better understanding of what your customers struggle with when they’re working with you can help you make changes and offer an even better experience. 

When it comes to potential customers, building a community is a great way to market to them and get more sales. In fact, more than 27% of customers use online communities for research, making it a great marketing channel. 

There’s really nothing to lose when it comes to building a community! 

What Laylee Emadi had to say:

Building a community is about creating a space where individuals can learn, grow, and connect with others. It's about fostering genuine relationships that go beyond the digital world, putting the focus on the importance of face-to-face interactions over screen time. Avoid the trap of substituting screen time for face time; a "double-tap" will never be as meaningful as a real-life hug. Remember, a thriving community can create an impact together that can extend so far beyond any immediate circle.

Define Your Community’s Purpose

But now that you know you need a community around your business, let’s talk about how to build one. And know that no two communities are alike—so there is no wrong way to imagine yours! To get started, you first need to figure out what purpose your community will have. 

It could be any of the following or even a combination of a few: 

• Customer support and feedback - You want to offer a space where customers can get their questions answered about your product or services and share their feedback.
• Ongoing education - You want to offer educational content related to your services that help improve your customer experience.
• Monetization - You want to diversify your income and charge extra for access to your community and exclusive content for your customers.
• Brand authority - You want to increase your brand authority by offering a space for networking and collaboration within your industry. 

It’s worth noting too that you don’t always need an “extra” platform to build a community around your business. Something like a Facebook group or Circle community can be great, but the Swifties are all the proof you need that when you build a community around your brand, people will talk just about anywhere!

Laylee Emadi added,

Your community's purpose is its heartbeat; make it clear, true to your values, and focused. Start by asking: Why do people need this space, and what unique value can you provide? Involve your members in shaping the vision and stay flexible as their needs evolve. Avoid trying to please everyone—specificity in purpose attracts the right people (and this can happen over time). Define success not by numbers but by meaningful engagement and the value you're creating for the group. A community with a strong purpose will naturally grow, not just in size but in depth and connection. And remember that strong and lasting communities take time to grow—embrace patience in this process!

Know Your Audience

Once you have a vision for your community, it’s time to think about what your audience will want. 

In business, you always gotta keep an eye on the competition. Do some research to see what other communities your audience is part of and what that experience looks like. 

You can also start collecting feedback from your existing customers on what they would want from a community. How would they want to access it? Would they pay extra for it? How often would they use it? 

These questions will help you set a solid community strategy (and help you decide how much effort to invest in it from the start).

Choose the Right Platform

After you have a good understanding of what your audience wants, you can start to get into the nitty gritty. Knowing where your audience interacts online can help you pick the right platform to host your community, whether it’s Facebook, Slack, Instagram, Discord, Kajabi, or maybe even your own website.

Along with what makes sense to your audience, you should also consider the tools and features you need. If you’ll be offering a ton of educational content, maybe Kajabi makes the most sense (it’s a great platform for hosting courses!). Forums or chat sites like Discord and Slack are better suited for networking and customer support. 

One more piece of wisdom? Joining needs to be easy! You won’t get a ton of growth if people have to make a new login for a platform they never use or try to remember the URL where your community lives. 

Engage and Add Value

Really robust communities can spark a lot of engagement on their own, but that doesn’t mean you can sit back and take your hands off the wheel. 

Especially when you’re starting to build a community around your business, but even as it grows, you need to continually engage and add value. Always take it back to the community’s core purpose and make sure you’re delivering on that promise. 

Your community members will love fresh content or even prompts for what they can discuss within the community. 

At Enji, we engage with our people daily (mostly over on Instagram). Here’s a screenshot in case you want a little reality check on just how much time building a community takes (but we also believe it’s worth it, because we have the best one!).

Create a Sense of Belonging

As we talk about building a community around your business, it’s worth talking about the fact that the best communities offer a unique space that people want to keep returning to. And part of that? Is creating a sense of belonging. We all want to feel like we’re part of a club and surrounded by people who “get us,” right?

Remember when we said your business community is a great two-way channel for communication? People will feel more like a part of a community when they have the opportunity to contribute, so be sure to ask questions, highlight community members, and encourage their input. 

Even if your community is free, that doesn’t mean it can’t be exclusive. Your members will feel even more special if you provide custom offers or access to content that only they can experience. 

Foster Organic Growth

We did say community building takes a bit of work, and it honestly needs its own marketing strategy if you want organic growth. 

Here are some ideas to make sure membership continues to grow within your community: 

• Make it a prominent part of your brand - Call it out on your website, give it a unique landing page, and mention it often.
• Invite every customer - Use automations to send invite emails to every customer you work with (or everyone that signs up for a freebie!).
• Include it in your referral program - Encourage clients to refer others and offer discounts or rewards for every new member they add.
• Make it a part of your social strategy - Post about your community as much as you post about your products or services.
• Host events and experiences - Try launching courses or other content that’s hosted within the community.

If you want to build your community quickly, try Enji’s Marketing Campaign Templates. You can get a timeline and a specific set of actions to take in order to promote your community. Basically, we’ve taken all the guesswork out of it!

Keep Your Community Thriving by Tracking and Adjusting

One huge benefit of building a community is that you can simply ask your members to see what’s working and what isn’t. It removes a lot of guesswork! 

Make a point to regularly ask for feedback and make adjustments based on what you get. Qualitative data is often overlooked, but it can be really fascinating!

While we love a good conversation with our people, you can also always turn to data to see how your members engage within the community, what they’re clicking on, and more. Our KPI Dashboard makes these things easy to track so you can consistently check on your progress. 

If you need a little help getting your community started (or want to finally get your marketing sh*t together), we’d love to help! Start your free trial with Enji now!

Photo Credit: Angelica Marie Photography