How to Drive Business Growth By Fostering Your Community

SaaS success is predicated on long-term user retention, and a vibrant community can help ensure users receive long-term value. Users who’ve gotten to the point of retention are some of your company’s best spokespeople. These folks likely have a deeper sense of connection to the product and may even have some novel ideas on how to better apply its f... See more

Not unlike the first stages of product development, the early phases of building community are highly collaborative, require iteration, and involve some upfront, hands-on work. With community, you have to prepare to be in the trenches with folks – learning about people and their interests, answering questions, and seeing where there’s a fit between... See more

Community, though, considers the entire audience around a product – even those who may not qualify as a qualified lead in the short term. And rather than capturing value from these people, GTC seeks to create value with and for them. Rather than discarding them to email drip campaign limbo, as you would in a funnel-driven GTM process, GTC embraces ... See more

In a GTC context, a company’s community should drive positive word of mouth (online or in-person) or create popular content that drives awareness.

That starts with a go-to-community plan that sets community up as a strategic priority, just like go-to-market. By committing to a team, budget, and tooling that will help make community a first-class competency, you’ll create value for your users. 

Everyone’s familiar with the concept of a go-to-market (GTM) plan, but in the world of bottom-up adoption and product-led growth, a go-to-community (GTC) plan is equally as important.

Ideally, this value creation drives community growth and, as we’ll see below, value capture for the business will occur as a second-order effect of that growth. 

Referral is one of the primary currencies of communities. It’s a deeper level of advocacy in which members are so bought into your community and product that they’re willing to put their own reputation on the line and refer it to others. 

A community provides a place for users to share their insights and fascination with others, often leading to more sign-ups and active users. 

When aligned, there’s a clear relationship between GTC and GTM, with community members transitioning to leads when the time is right. Until then, they’re gaining value from, and hopefully contributing value to, the community.