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How to build a community with a startup
Building a community around a startup can be an effective way to engage the target audience and drive long-term business growth. As a community grows, these connections may expand beyond the immediate community and develop into a wider network.
This article provides ways to build a community and share insights from Ed Flood, founder of Trail Pursuit, who spoke about growing a unique experience based business.
Start by clearly defining the purpose and scope of the community. Identify who the target audience is, their interests, and the value the startup can provide them.
Consistent messaging ensures clear communication and engagement with the community. The messaging should also reflect the startup's mission, values, and unique selling propositions. Aligning the messaging with the startup’s brand identity can help differentiate from the competition.
Regularly creating and sharing valuable content and insights that aligns with the community's interests will help establish the founder as a thought leader.
Producing varied content can be an effective way to engage with a wider community and capture their attention in a format that resonates with them.
The different types of content could include:
Each type of content provides its own unique benefit to the startup and community. For example producing meaningful writing can help to educate and inspire readers whereas developing video content can share experiences in a natural, engaging and authentic way.
Ed spoke referred to his content strategy:
“I think having fun [when producing content], as well definitely shooting content and videos…for example, short form video now is huge, and as people's attention spans is reducing, if you can get a message across in 15 seconds rather than a 10 minute blog read, or however long, it can be quite empowering”
Distributing content across various channels such as social media platforms, newsletters, and industry publications can help increase the visibility of the startup. Varied content also boosts SEO by targeting different keywords and intents, and driving organic traffic to help win clients.
Actively listening and seeking to satisfy the community’s needs and concerns encourages open and meaningful discussions.
As Ed discusses:
“Genuinely listen to your audience and your community, to think about what would benefit them and what they're going to be interested in.”
Furthermore, being open to receiving feedback and adapting to changing needs of the community helps to refine the startup’s strategies and improve product offering.
Ed mentions:
“Doing testimonials and getting feedback where possible [helps] and regrouping to make changes to keep things fresh and innovative [whilst] keeping the the customer and experience in mind.”
Networking and collaborating among startups and businesses can help engage with like-minded individuals, potential mentors, investors, or clients. By staying connected with the community and attending industry events and conferences can promote cross collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Ed highlighted:
“[I find collaborating, and involving people as much as possible because everyone has different skill sets [helps build a community]”
“We built a good community and really put the emphasis on it; building email lists and collaborating with different brands as well.”
Building a community, network, startup (or all 3!) takes time, patience and persistence.
Growing a community is all about building relationships, establishing connections and understanding how a startup’s unique selling points aligns with the unique needs of businesses. Being patient, and trusting the process, allows founders to invest time and effort in nurturing their community.
Ed provided some valuable insight on this topic:
“For anyone starting any business. You need to have that, you know, things just take time to naturally evolve.”
“Just be patient with it because as your brand or startup begins to grow, you have more fuel and your team expands, your community expands, your social presence expands. There's kind of, there's like an added growth drive behind all of it.”
Growing a community inevitably involves facing challenges and curveballs along the way. Embracing setbacks as learning opportunities, showing resilience, and adapting strategies can help navigate curveballs and continue building the community.
Ed mentioned:
“Taking care to [carve out] the company’s foundations and [support] your team is key because that will put you in good stead when naturally there are little curveballs that you have to adapt with.”
