From silo to synergy: 3 ways to extend your brand into your digital community
Communities are unique to their brand or organisation, but can too much separation be a bad thing?
Imagine a loyal customer receiving an email from their favourite trainer brand to say the limited edition trainers are now available in their size.
Excitedly, they click on the link in the email and are directed to the website, where they can see the trainers are ready to purchase.
So far, the customer experience is seamless.
However, before adding the trainers to their basket, they want to check if they live up to the hype from those who have already bought them.
Heading to the community space to ask other community members, they’re prompted for their account details.
Entering their website logins, they’re met with the dreaded red text that says:
The username and password are not recognised. Please create a new account.
After creating a new account, they enter a community that feels and looks entirely different to the brand’s website.
They’re asked to re-enter all the details they had previously submitted to the website account, leaving them frustrated and unwilling to continue with the community set-up.
This is known as siloing your online community and is a lose-lose situation for the customer and the community manager.
The effects of siloing your community
Treating the community space as a separate entity adds an extra barrier to entry for the consumer and creates a disjointed experience.
Meanwhile, the community manager can’t access all of the user data, which makes personalising the member experience difficult.
With only 26% of organisations providing a completely connected user experience across all channels, here are three ways you can work to extend your brand into your community.
1. Introduce single sign-on (SSO)
Online communities are all about connection, and SSO can play a major part in that.
SSO ensures your brand’s values, identity, and processes are seamlessly carried over to your community.
Not only can SSO improve the connection between the brand and community, SSO simplifies the user experience with one login for multiple platforms.
Google does this extremely well, allowing users to sign in with a single login to access their emails, calendar, documents, photos, and more.
SSO improves user satisfaction, can reduce IT support costs, and also means all of your user data is in one place.
Which leads me to the next point…
2. Centralise user data
Did you know 63% of consumers expect you to know their unique needs and expectations?
By integrating your community platform with your main CRM system, you can ensure all your user data is in one place.
Think about the trainer brand above.
If the customer’s preferences stored on the main CRM were available to the community team, they would have access to details like:
Favourite style of trainer
Size
What they recently bought
This information could prove invaluable for community managers, helping them to tailor the member’s experience within the community.
For example, if the customer bought five pairs of running trainers in the last year, they might encourage them to join a forum with other runners interested in their footwear.
This would likely make their time in the community more enjoyable and make them more eager to engage.
3. Make feedback matter
Community members want to feel like their contributions are heard and appreciated.
Brands that integrate their community with their core activities can use member feedback to correct any issues and inspire future customer-led products or services.
A prime example of this is LEGO Ideas, where community members create and submit new ideas for LEGO sets.
LEGO will then put forward some of these ideas to production based on community member votes and feedback.
This is a fantastic way to make your community an extension of your brand.
Extend your processes for a seamless experience
I strongly believe in the concept of extending your processes and marketing to encompass your community, rather than siloing it.
If you create a seamless experience from your brand to your online community, you can:
Enhance user satisfaction
Encourage member engagement
Improve your product or service
Don’t let siloing disrupt the potential of your digital community!