If you’re a business owner, you might already know that content is key to building a brand community.

In fact, you might even know why content is key to building a brand community.

But do you know what content is key to building a brand community?

There’s a whole host of different content types at your disposal, and knowing which ones your customers really care about can be vital to keeping them coming back for more.

Luckily for you, we know a thing or two about brand community building here at Six Circles.

That’s why, in today’s post, we’re exploring the 6 main types of content your customers want to see, so you can shout louder about the content most likely to engage your audience and fulfil your goals.

Blog posts

Customers care about your blog posts.

That’s as long as you have a solid blogging strategy, of course.

Whether you’re creating keyword-optimised posts for SEO or just offering up some off-the-cuff top tips, your topic should always be dictated by the wants and needs of your audience.

Contribute to a popular topic, offer fresh insight and perspective, solve a common issue – whatever your audience’s trends and behaviours dictate.

This ensures, even when writing for search engines, the audience is still at the forefront of any strategic blog post creation.

So, providing you’ve created informationally-rich and high-value content, your customers don’t just want to know about it – they need to know about it.

Newsletters

Newsletters are super effective in building a customer community.

Your brand should be the heart and soul of your customer community. It defines who your community is and what it stands for.

So, keeping your members informed on the latest internal news is key to strengthening the relationship between customers and brand.

For them to embrace your identity and values, they need to know how you embrace them yourself. With this in mind, look to update your customer community on what you’ve been up to and where you’re heading, as well as any internal updates important to your brand.

Think of your customers as an extension of your team. This will form a closer connection between brand and customer, creating the impression that you’re all on a journey together.

Newsletters don’t have to be too regular, either – see how we do it once a month!

Case studies

Customers love case studies.

Case studies and testimonials act as your trust indicators. You’ve told your customers all about your brand, product or service – now it’s time to show them it in action.

To successfully build a brand community, it’s vital that you earn your customers’ trust. Case studies do this in two ways.

First, consumers respond positively to real-world examples – they begin to relate their pain points to the ones you overcome in your case study. Secondly, consumers are more likely to trust third-party opinion and testimony – it’s the reason review sites like Trustpilot are so popular.

Customers want to see case studies to establish, affirm or build their trust in your brand. So, look to share any you have at your disposal, and get into the habit of writing regular case studies upon the completion of projects, big and small.

News articles

Members of your community are more than likely to be interested in your industry and the topics close to your brand’s heart.

So, sharing relevant news stories can be an effective way to keep customers engaged.

We’re not just talking clicks here, either. News stories are more likely to spur community members to comment and contribute, sparking discussion and/or debate.

As long as it’s kept civil, this sort of active engagement can be great at strengthening community relationships and boosting its popularity.

Interactive content

Interactive content is like having a cheat code for engagement.

From polls to quizzes, surveys to interactive infographics, consumers can’t help but engage with interactive content.

So much so, a mammoth 81% of marketers agree that interactive content is much more effective at grabbing people’s attention than static content.

Engagement is key to the evolution of your brand community. No matter how big your community is, if members aren’t engaged, they’ll stop coming back for more.

A static brand community serves no purpose to customer or business, so ensure your community building remains effective by producing and sharing quick-win interactive content.

Video

Video content has been on a sharp rise in recent years for good reason.

1/3 of all online activity is spent watching video – just think about that statistic for a second. It’s little surprise, then, that demand for video content is so high.

With viewers retaining 95% of a message when they watch a video (compared to 10% when they read a message), it’s also little wonder why 85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool.

Video content is a win-win for all parties. Customers get user-friendly, easily digestible and attention-grabbing content, and businesses get an effortlessly engaging and goal-driving content marketing avenue.

So, look to incorporate video into your content marketing strategy to keep your community growing.

Knowing what content your community wants is only half the battle. For an engaged and purposeful brand community, you need to know what content types your community wants, too. Use the above tips to help you on your way, keeping a constant eye on engagement metrics to learn what does and doesn’t work for your specific community.

Here at Six Circles, community building is what we’re all about. That’s why we’ve made it easy to shine a spotlight on specific content using the featured content tool on our community engagement platform.

Get in touch today to request a demo and see for yourself how we can help your content go further within your brand community.