How to Strengthen Customer Relationships with Brand-Led Communities

We've probably all complained about how the online world has affected our communities. However, technology has fostered more wide-reaching and sometimes more meaningful kinds of community than ever before.

As a community builder, your job is to create strong communities that feel like home. This guide explores how to supercharge your business and brand with strong communities—drawing from principles that have helped hundreds of brands build engaged customer bases.

How Technology Changed Community Development

What makes a great community isn't the product or service—it's the outcome. Whether it's a knowledge repository, a user group, or a customer community, it's the value members receive that matters.

Connectivity has given rise to new types of collaboration:- Global knowledge sharing through forums and documentation- User groups based on interests that grow to numbers not previously possible- Open collaboration fostering innovation- Platforms connecting customers to brands and products in new ways

Take customer communities as an example. People join not just to talk about the product but to discuss the goals the product helps them achieve—efficiency, growth, solving problems, achieving outcomes.

It's not about what communities offer, but the value they deliver.

The Value of Communities for Brands

Establishing a community around your brand delivers multiple benefits:

Customer support and engagement. Users help each other solve problems, reducing support costs and improving satisfaction.

Brand recognition. As members share experiences and engage, they become ambassadors driving visibility in their networks.

Content creation. User-generated content provides authentic material that can be leveraged for marketing.

Product feedback. Insights from customers enable data-driven decisions, leading to better products that meet needs.

Lead generation. When users find value, they're more likely to convert—and to refer others.

Building relationships. Community interactions create strong bonds, loyalty, and trust between brand and customers.

Getting Started: Service First

The most impactful communities are about service. When you help others become successful, good things happen to you.

Think of a community as a network of brains—bringing together expertise, insight, and skills in a shared setting. Unlike a company limited to 50 employees, a community can expand to 500, 5,000, or 50,000 individuals. Each mind contributes to overall strength and growth.

Choose Your Community Model

Consumer model. Focuses on shared interest—people who are part of the same tribe. Create a space for them to gather, and they'll exchange ideas naturally.

Champion model. The consumer model with a jetpack. Bring customers together where they can generate content, organize events, and provide support. Most customer success organizations choose this model.

Collaborator model. Used in tech and engineering. Members work on the same projects or build technology that operates on your platform. Focus on creating alignment and a level playing field.

Strategy Before Tactics

It's tempting to jump into tactics—what platform to use, what features you need, what KPIs to track. But the biggest mistake is getting lost in the weeds before defining strategy and value.

Ask yourself: What is the value proposition for the community we want to build?

The Importance of the Customer Journey

The best experiences aren't moments—they're journeys. Just as successful theme parks plan every part of the customer experience, you need to design a carefully crafted journey that makes members feel comfortable and engaged.

Here's the reality: only about 1 in 5 community members will be actively participating. The other four are observing or lurking. To encourage participation from lurkers, provide compelling reasons to interact. When you do this well, you enhance engagement and growth.

The Psychology Behind the Journey

Access. Incentivize users to join and contribute. Offer something valuable they can't find elsewhere.

Contribute. Encourage user-generated content through polls, surveys, and responding to posts. Help users feel their opinions matter.

Self-respect. Enable members to see themselves as valuable contributors. This strengthens engagement and loyalty.

Dignity. Build an environment where members feel confident to have real impact.

Impact. Ensure users see the positive effects they have on the community.

Belonging. Foster camaraderie. Strive for an atmosphere where members feel at home and know each other.

Define Your Community's Value

Value often gets confused with tactics like webinars or content generation. But in community context, value refers to tangible benefits you consistently deliver to members and the gains your company derives.

These two sets of values must intersect thoughtfully.

To find the right value proposition, identify challenges or pain points your customers encounter. A simple question like "What ruins their morning?" provides insights.

Pain triggers decision-making. If the pain point is inefficient onboarding, the value could be streamlining that process. If it's not knowing how to use features, the value is education and peer support.

The Community Member Journey

Onboarding

Take someone from joining to active member:

1. Give a reason to participate. What pain points can you help them solve?
2. Set them up for success. Clear steps and tools to get started.
3. Build skills. Show them how to post, fill out profiles, respond.
4. Enable tangible engagement. Give them something to do—introduce themselves.
5. Solve problems. Provide a place to solve problems for themselves and others.
6. Validate. Recognize them when they unlock that first piece of value.

Get onboarding right the first time—it's far less expensive than awareness campaigns.

Phases of Membership

Casual members. They've experienced value but are easily distracted. You have about two months to get them more involved—that's how long it takes to form a habit. Keep things fun and engaging.

Regular members. Showing up week after week for two to three months. They're getting accustomed to the community. Have conversations about contributing more—writing posts, speaking at events. Timing matters: too early and they're not ready, too late and momentum fizzles.

Core members. The heart of the community. They show up every week without fail. They genuinely care about others having a good time. They're the foundation of a flourishing community. Ask how you can use their wisdom to guide your business.

The Power of Incentives

Building and maintaining community revolves around encouraging members to progress and become more involved. The trick lies in leveraging incentives.

Think about how incentives shape behavior: airline loyalty tiers, coffee shop stamp cards. Small rewards activate something that makes us want to reach the next step.

Our brains are wired to collect things. In a community, we collect badges, likes, spots on leaderboards. This is why incentives powerfully encourage both initial engagement and sustained participation.

Implementing Incentives

Stated incentives. Straightforward rewards made clear for all. You do this, you get that. Engaging in various ways leads to escalating rewards.

Submarine incentives. Rewards based on criteria not publicly stated. This creates surprise and social recognition, encouraging genuine engagement. They come across as random acts of kindness, reflecting positively on your brand.

Building Your Community

Whether building online or in-person community, these principles apply across contexts:

• Start with service in mind
• Define clear value for members and your business
• Design the member journey thoughtfully
• Move members through phases with appropriate engagement
• Use incentives to encourage participation

Community platforms designed for B2B SaaS—like Bettermode—provide the tools to implement these strategies: customizable spaces, gamification features, analytics to understand member behavior, and integrations to connect community to your business systems.

Ready to strengthen customer relationships through community? Book a demo with Bettermode.

FAQs

Does the type of community change your approach to moving members through phases?

The same fundamental principles apply regardless of community type. When someone is in the casual phase, they're curious. Make this phase engaging and fun. When they continue receiving value, they become regular members. This works whether your community is for product users or industry professionals.

What should you focus on first when building from scratch?

Everyone starts from the same point: the sign-up. Focus on lead generation first. Run webinars, content marketing, or other lead magnets to build trust. Once members sign up, keep pulling them in with events, discussions, and solutions to their problems.

How do you get lurkers to participate?

Give them simple reasons to participate. Start with low-barrier actions like responding to a poll or introducing themselves. Once they've taken that first action and received positive feedback, they're more likely to engage again. Design your journey to make the first step as easy as possible.

How long before a community becomes self-sustaining?

Communities are never fully self-sustaining—they always require facilitation and management. However, as you develop core members who help others and create content, the burden on your team decreases. Most communities reach this point after 12-18 months of consistent effort.