Episode 189: How to Build a Loyal Community Around Your Product
Think community-building is only for influencers or digital brands? Think again. In this episode of Small Business PR, host Gloria Chou sits down with Madison Page—business growth strategist and host of The Small Business Growth Podcast—to break down exactly how physical product businesses can turn customers into loyal superfans through emotional connection and relationship-first marketing.
Whether you're selling candles, skincare, or wellness products, Madison shares three high-impact strategies to help you create a brand community that drives sales, referrals, and long-term retention—without needing a complicated platform or massive team.
Build a Loyal Brand Community That Drives Repeat Sales, Customer Referrals, and Emotional Engagement—Without Relying on Ads
Why community drives recurring revenue, customer retention, and organic referrals
The difference between transactional vs. relationship marketing—and why younger buyers care
3 actionable ways to build a loyal brand community around your physical product
How to use Instagram Stories to foster emotional connection and boost engagement
Why marketing means repeating your brand message a thousand different ways
Creative examples like step challenges, polls, and value-based missions that convert
In a crowded marketplace where ads are expensive and attention spans are short, building a loyal customer community isn’t optional—it’s essential. As Madison Page shared, product-based businesses that focus on relationship marketing win in the long run with higher repeat purchase rates, stronger brand advocacy, and sustainable organic growth.
Whether you’re just starting out or scaling your ecommerce brand, remember: it's not about how many followers you have—it's about how deeply you connect. So start showing up, share your brand values consistently, and create a two-way dialogue that turns buyers into lifelong fans.
Product Businesses! Download my free HOW TO GET INTO A GIFT GUIDE/PRODUCT ROUND UP roadmap for free HERE to get more sales and traffic to your site this season.
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachoupr.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
Follow Madison Page : Instagram: @thisismadisonpage
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TRANsCRIPT
00:00:00 Gloria: What's up, small business heroes. Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make PR and marketing super accessible for the everyday small business hero. Now you've heard me say this over and over again, community, the importance of it. But how do you leverage that when you have a physical product? I think for a lot of people listening, you might think I make a product, I make a candle, a lip balm. I don't need to make a community.
00:00:19 Gloria: Well, today's episode. We'll have you rethink that because it's so important in this day and age to not just have virality, but to really build a loyal following. And what does that mean? I mean, it's building a community where people are sharing, connecting, and you are creating a safe space for them. So today, my friend, Madison Page, who is an expert on building community around how to create a loyal brand for product makers. She is a business growth strategist. She's going to give you three ways that you can, even as a product owner, leverage community to build a loyal following. So welcome to the show.
00:00:47 Madison: Hello. Thanks so much for having me.
00:00:49 Gloria: I'm so happy that you're here because we haven't had anyone talk about community. You know, we talk about going viral on social media. We talk about having an engaged audience, but what you're talking about is a little bit different. So can you explain to me by what you mean by a loyal community?
00:01:02 Madison: Yeah, a loyal community is having a group of ride or die customers that are so obsessed with what you stand for, what your brand is. And really at the core, they just are. We've all had that experience with the brand where we see it. We're like, wow. How did I not know that this existed before and you purchase from them? It's not even a question if you're going to purchase again, you're going to tell your friends about it. It really is having this ride or die loyal community base around your brand. And that can be on social media. It can be on an email list. It can be on a texting list. It's just really having a group of like minded people that are all around what you stand for. And they're absolutely obsessed with it.
00:01:38 Gloria: Yeah, I really think about there's a one way communication, right? I like your product, but I think the beauty of community is that it compounds and it's multi. So it's you talking to them. It's them talking to each other. I see Sephora doing this really well, right? Cause they have a community of people that are willing to give five star reviews without even keep getting paid. So that's really one of the benefits. What are some of the other benefits other than testimonials that people should think about when thinking about having a community?
00:02:00 Madison: Yeah. Some of my markers, if you have a really great community is that your average order value is higher within your industry than the average. Your referral rate is higher than the average. Your return customer rate is a little higher. We do want to have pretty balanced return customer rate because that means new people are being integrated. have kind of that good top of funnel marketing, but what we're really looking for is a little elevated than the average just because that means people are coming back and they are absolutely there as well as really high engagement on your social. That's really like the first marker and that's making sure that you're doing good things. It's like, okay, my engagement is higher than the rest. Now let's look at your actual sales data. Look at your average order value, your referral rates, your return customer rates. Those are some of the biggest ones.
00:02:41 Gloria: Yeah, I mean, those are without a doubt, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. Those are the markers of the most successful business. Is what you're talking about customer retention, recurring customer value. And then honestly, are people referring a word of mouth because you can only give so much to ads, right? But the word of mouth is so powerful because it's the best type. So let's get into it. What are the three ways that a product maker who has never thought about this can start to build a community.
00:03:04 Madison: So, I mean, we all have our brand, you know, your brand, you know, your product, you know, kind of the message that you're trying to share, but there is kind of a disproportionate at some point, we looked at social media as that one way communication. I say that a lot. And instead we want our social media to feel like a two-way communication street. first real thing of what we want to talk about is your overall message behind your brands. This isn't just saying it once or putting it in your bio, putting it on your social. You know, this is what we stand for. I see this a lot, even with some of the biggest brand names out there is they started with a really strong message, a really strong passion around their brand.
00:03:36 Madison: And at some point it almost gets diluted and like, well, people know that that's what we stand for. Oh, that's what people know it. We have to repeat it over and over again. And I say it a lot that marketing is saying the exact same thing a thousand times until it keeps sticking and keeps seeing it. Cause if we look at your social media, you have new people coming in all the time. They might not actually know what your brand stands for. And so people think that you need to, you know, talk about your features, talk about how it's all natural or it's organic or it's, you know, small batch, whatever, those things are necessary.
00:04:05 Madison: But at the end of the day, the reason that people are buying from you most of the time, or at least that they feel that initial draw to you is going to be the message behind your brand. It's going to be the value that they are going to get and experience when they come in contact with you. And so if we're talking about community, people build community. If you think about like a town hall or like a chamber of commerce, when people are coming together and they're trying to make connections and get things done, what are the reasons that people create connection? It is a shared value among a group of people.
00:04:34 Madison: And so we want to be very clear on what your brand values are. We want to be very clear on the overall mission behind your brand and not just the mission, but we look at this. Like I saw a podcast the other day about Cosas, the makeup brand, and she was talking about how her brand is skin safe, eczema, like approved, all of that. And I looked on her social media and I couldn't actually find anything that was reiterating that value to people, even though they have all of these accolades and all of these authority badges, all of these certifications that their products are all eczema safe.
00:05:05 Madison: And so that is a perfect example of somebody, a really big brand that might not actually be leaning in enough to talking about their message, their value that people might not actually be able to see it at a first glance. So first one is definitely leaning more into the value in the message. So on your profile, we want to have a pillar of content that you are posting on your feed at least weekly, guess at least bi-weekly, hopefully weekly that is going to be reiterating that and saying it in a bunch of different ways. It's one of the major pillars of all of my clients. I tell them write down what your message is, kind of that major value, unique value proposition, and say it in a thousand different ways and put that out there. That's number one.
00:05:42 Madison: Number two is going to be utilizing your Instagram stories. Your Instagram stories are the home of your real quote unquote social media community. Your Instagram stories are where you are going to build the most connection because there are naturally the most kind of engagement metrics on there. You have polls, have stickers, you have open question boxes. There's so many things that you can get people involved in in little different areas. And so your Instagram stories, I want you to change it from an extension of your feed, an extension of what you're talking about to really owning the emotion behind your brand because what somebody does, they come to your profile, they look at your feed, they already love the value, the message that you're sharing, the education, your products, what your company stands for that they can see on your feed.
00:06:24 Madison: Your feed is a lot of times for that growth and for people to really solidly understand what's going on. Your stories are the home of the community and the housing of the emotion that you want people to feel when they come in contact. So when you're thinking about, all right, we're bringing new people in, we want this community. What is that emotion that you wanna have? If you're planning a party, you have this kind of like, what is the vibes? That's what we're thinking of on your Instagram story and we wanna keep those consistent, but we wanna kind of capitalize on the three Cs of community and that is collaboration, connection and communication. So yes, we have to communicate value.
00:06:58 Madison: Yes, we have to communicate like product details. That's going to be the case. But the other two of collaboration is how can you get them more involved on every couple of days on something? And that just doesn't have to be, what should our next product be? That's great. That's definitely a piece of it. But it can just be asking them a question or hey, like how are you utilizing this? Do you utilize this in your morning routine or your evening routine or, you know, do you pray can literally be as simple depending on your product as, do you are you drinking coffee or tea this morning?
00:07:25 Madison: The more that we can get people to engage with you, it's almost like little tallies in their head of like, oh, I engage with them. That's great. And so when we're looking at that, we're looking at communication. Yes, we have to communicate information about the products. That is at the end of the day, what marketing a lot of times is. We also have to look at that collaboration and say, how can we create more of a two way street here? Asking them questions. Hey, how are you utilizing this? What have you always wanted us to make? Asking questions and then connection. Connection is going to be sharing a little bit more about those values, but having some sort of consistent point of connection.
00:07:57 Madison: So you can have an FAQ page, like before you launch something saying, hey, what's your questions? How can you actually get back and saying these are the things that this is how we make this this two-way street. You ask us a question, we respond. We have this more collaborative kind of process on there. And then finally is utilizing campaigns for more than just marketing and more than just launches saying, all right, this is the Valentine's Day campaign. We have Cupid, we have all of these other things. That's great. But you can also do community building campaigns. You see this a lot, and I think a lot of brands miss the mark with kind of like brand trips. What they're trying to do is build community when they're doing these brand trips.
00:08:35 Madison: And they're trying to utilize Instagram, like influencer audiences to basically play off of it and make their community. But what we should be doing instead is actually utilizing some sort of challenge, getting your audience involved. So if you have a hair care line, we can do a hair growth challenge. If you have a product that is supposed to help you like a de-bloat, let's do a 30 day de-bloating challenge. We can have some sort of challenge or way to get people involved within your brand. It also most of the time sells more product because you're getting a lot of people involved, but you are helping them do something. You're almost like starting a movement behind your brand more than just, hey, utilize the product and get this out of it.
00:09:12 Gloria: Well, I love a challenge. I feel like so many times we just need that accountability. And so we know that we're not doing this alone. I actually do see those challenges do really well. And there was one that was like a dog food brand. And I got targeted because they were doing some kind of like steps challenge where like you take your dog to X number of places and then you also get your 10k steps in. It doesn't have anything to do with their food. But they are talking about how they are the brand for really healthy dog food. And it makes sense because if I want healthy dog food, I probably am a person who likes healthy food, too. So that was really brilliant. And it kind of stuck with me as a very creative campaign.
00:09:49 Gloria: I love that you gave us so much to think about when it comes to community, because I think a lot of times people think, well, I don't want to have a Facebook group. And what you're saying, it's not really about the platform or software that you use. It's really about how you're treating your customers and seeing as a, not just a one way street communication. Is there anything else that you want to leave us with? Obviously we know the benefits of community. We understand that it's what's driving all those other markers of success, such as recurring revenue and referrals. You've given us three ways to build communities or anything else.
00:10:17 Madison: Yeah, when we're really looking at community, it's change of your overall marketing approach. There's relationship marketing and there's transactional marketing. And a lot of companies are stuck in this transactional state. But Gen Z, Gen Alpha, young millennials who are kind of the home of the customer base right now are more so caring about the brand and they're, they are supporting brands more than ever of people that they feel very connected to. So if that is your audience, you have to focus more on this and community allows you to withstand a lot of things.
00:10:46 Madison: If your Instagram gets shut down, you have your community, they're going to find you. They're going to come back and they're going to want to be like, where the heck did this brand go? I have to find it. If we have an economic downturn, this community, these people are still, you are their no brainer, if they are trying to refer somebody to someone asks for a product, to say, hey, check out this business. And so your community is your biggest security blanket that you can have. Because at the end of the day, even if Instagram algorithm all of a sudden flips on its head or TikTok goes away, if any of that happens, your community will find you.
00:11:18 Gloria: They will find a way to still support you. And they are going to find it's just a security blanket that you can really build. And so when we're looking at this community is it doesn't have to be something external. It doesn't have to be adding more to your plate of like, shoot, now I have to do this. Now I have to have somebody manage a Facebook group. It's more along the lines of adjusting the way that you're doing your organic marketing and thinking of it as more of this like person first relationship first approach to marketing.
00:11:44 Gloria: That's absolutely non-negotiable, especially now with so much market saturation. And we're just overwhelmed and being oversold to that is really the one way to get through. I don't care about your benefits and features. I don't care who's your celebrity spokesperson. I want to feel seen. I think a lot of times we can just add even a little bit layer of that in a physical product. It just brings back that connection. So definitely what you're saying 100%. Thank you so much for giving us so much value and something to think about. How can people find you?
00:12:10 Madison: Yeah, you can find me on Instagram. This is Madison Page. I am there. Otherwise, I have a podcast called the Small Business Growth Podcast. We have lots of information on building a community there as well. We talk a lot about building kind of a freedom approach based to business as well, just because so many people are burnt out and they sink themselves so far into business, but we actually started it for freedom. So a lot of what we talk about is from a freedom lens. Community absolutely helps with having a little bit more of a sustainable business approach in your marketing as well. But this is Madison Page. You can find me anywhere. And the Small Business Growth podcast is a perfect place to start.
00:12:44 Gloria: Thank you, Madison. Yes. Thank you so much for having me.
00:12:49 Gloria: Hey, small business hero, did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, the New York Times, Marie Claire, PopSugar, and so many more, even if you're not yet launched or if you don't have any connections? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert.
00:13:17 Gloria: Now, if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig, or just reach out to that very intimidating editor, this class will show you exactly how to do it. Register now at GloriaChouPR.com/Masterclass. That's GloriaChou, C-H-O-U-P-R.com/Masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.