The best way to construct a brand that resonates with your subscribers is to assemble a community around your subscription box. Collaborating across the entire community, connecting with different audiences, and offering a brand filled with items that subscribers really connect with could prove highly fruitful for your business.
If you already see your business growing, or if you're just getting started, it's never too late to start connecting with your audience — and giving them a way to communicate with each other as well. Let's dive into what building a community means and what it could look like for your brand.
What is community-conscious branding?
Community-conscious branding revolves around being mindful of the social, economic, and environmental impact of your products, services, and advertisements. Connecting with your community means considering their needs and concerns from every angle.
Your business is built upon more than just the glass and bricks that surround your office; it's the people who show up to work every day and the customers who support you. These individuals make up the community that has helped shape and grow your company from the ground up — literally and figuratively.
When you decide to be more community-conscious, you open up the doors of communication beyond anonymous surveying, cold foot-traffic numbers, or generalized advertising. Instead, community-conscious marketing closes the gap between your brand and your business. It's bold transparency with your customers on where you stand in — and how you support — the socially and environmentally-conscious world that affects them daily.
Subscription box organizations have a unique audience that has already been captured and who feel resonated with. Subscription boxes are typically highly focused products and services that were built with the customer in mind.
Being more community conscious wouldn't be as big of a jump as you may think, and may even bring your business closer to your subscribers. But is this the right move for your brand?
Is it something you should be focused on for your subscription box?
Embedding social responsibility into your business plan already has a few perks, like tax breaks and competitive advantages. According to a 2019 Cambridge University Press article about the role of businesses in sustainable development, "95% of Fortune 500 firms have a stated commitment to the [The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)] in their annual reports, and twenty thousand companies are signatories to peace initiatives." In fact, there have already been over $2 trillion in investments made toward the cause.
This is all to say that the ball in community-conscious business is already rolling, and anyone who isn't pushing it forward will likely miss out or get completely knocked out. Millennials and Generation Zs are stakeholders now — a highly social and environmentally conscious group that has continuously demanded more from the businesses they make purchases from, according to Deloitte Global's 2021 Millennial and Gen Z Survey.
Because there are no signs of this consciousness slowing down anytime in the future, let's explore how to build a community around your subscription box.
How to build a community around your subscription box
There are many ways you can build and communicate with your community in a way that is authentic to your subscription box brand. Here are 6 ways to do so.
1. Developing trusting relationships
Customers want to know that the brands they purchase from are trustworthy with their personal information, purchase methods, product quality, and delivery promise. Ensure that your website and your delivery are as transparent as possible.
2. Listening to the needs of your audience
Take a survey, take note of all comments and complaints that come in, notice which products are succeeding and which are not — and then act on it. It's one thing to offer space for customers to voice their concerns; it's another entirely to show them that you're listening.
3. Offering forums for discussion
Social media like Instagram comment sections, Facebook forums, Discord chats, and other communication mediums can bring your community together. They can share experiences, advice, preferences, and stories that could solidify your brand. Resharing customer videos, comments, or direct messages could help customers see that there are more people out there just like themselves.
4. Humanizing your brand
Present your values and be clear about your actions, especially when you see a large social issue floating around. If it seems like something your customers are experiencing, resonating with, and excited about, it may help to level with them through a blog, an email, or a social media post.
5. Making a great first impression
Personalizing your messaging can help connect further with your audience. Instead of the canned mass email, segmentation and personalization can help your message resonate more with subscribers.
6. Being a leader
In a community, what brings people together is usually common causes and concerns. Knowing your customers personally means understanding what causes are most important to them. You can lead by example within your industry by standing up with and by your customers.
SFG can support a community-conscious business model
The best way to truly understand and connect with your customers is by partnering with other brands that are customer-conscious themselves. At SFG, we've built an all-in-one platform that can help support your brand, and help your subscription service thrive. Customer care, ecommerce business solutions, and business intelligence are at the root of who we are and what we do.
Truly understanding your customers means diving into individualized customer data and building a conscious brand around that. We have the tools and technology you need to reach your goals and stand above the rest. To learn more and get started, reach out to an SFG professional today.
