💡Community as a strategy for growth
Why having a community could be your key to user acquisition and retention
The concept of community is as old as time itself. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the need for love and belongingness comes third after physiological and safety needs have been attained. Belongingness refers to a human’s emotional need for interpersonal relationships, affiliation, connectedness, and being part of a group. We feel more secure when we identify with a group of people, whether through religion, sports, education, demography, or race.
A brand focused on building a community around its product tends to stir this innate desire in its users. Hence turning them from users to fans. With hundreds of new products being launched into the Nigerian market, the promise of a connection and a thriving community will make you stand out from the crowd.
In traditional marketing, building a community is often overlooked as a strategy for growth. This is because there were no KPIs, strategies, or communication methods for effectively building a community around a brand. Well, this has changed with the advent of technology and social media.
Users now have several platforms to voice their concerns about your products. Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are some. Why not use these same platforms to your advantage?
What is Community-Led Growth?
Community-Led Growth is a go-to-market strategy where companies go beyond offering products and services to build platforms that foster engagement around the product. These communities deepen the relationship between the company and the users, enables brand loyalty, and serves as an efficient feedback mechanism.
A community that already thrives and exists within a certain sector or around a specific product, will more likely gravitate towards a brand that has proven loyalty. This creates a growth flywheel that is self-sustaining.
Some companies have built their products around communities. Slack, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are a few examples.
Why should you build a community?
Boosts brand awareness - users promoting the product through word of mouth fosters brand awareness. The company can ride on the already established brand name to launch other products.
Drives Engagement - engagements on social media pages and community groups provide trust in your target audience's mind.
Feedback Mechanism - you can get real-time feedback from your customers. This helps you modify the product for better adoption in the market.
Customer Support - customer support being done within the community reduces the risk of further escalation to the public. It enables you to assess the pain points of the users and solve them as quickly as possible.
Brand loyalty - trust is built among the users when they feel heard and a prompt response is given to their requests.
Product Knowledge - having a brand community deepens the product knowledge of the users. This enables them to become effective brand ambassadors.
(which is cheaper than hiring ex-BBN housemates)
Step-by-Step Guide to Community-Led Growth
Find your platform - To optimize Community-Led Growth, you first need to meet your users where they are. Communities can be created on Twitter, Slack, Facebook, Discord, and other platforms. You can also hire influencers that have followers in your target audience.
Connect with your audience - Now that you’ve found your platform, the next thing is to connect with the audience. It is important to have a face for the community. This could be the community manager, CEO, or social media manager. Humanizing the brand would make users connect better.
Gather data - gather insights about the product from your users. Listen to their suggestions and comments about the product. This can further save you from spending a lot on market research. Provide support for the users, developers, and other members of the community.
Expand your reach - now it’s time to scale. You can build the community on more than one platform. YouTube videos, podcasts, audiobooks, etc. You can also launch more products or features based on feedback from the community members.
Go Offline - After building an online community, it’s best to go offline. This fosters more personal relationships with your audience. You can do this by hosting in-person events, hangouts, and sponsoring community events.
Community-Led Growth Best Practices
Use referrals to gain more members.
Provide exclusive benefits for community members. This could be early access to app updates.
Ask for members’ opinions on how to improve the community.
Discuss guides on implementing the products.
Issue blog posts about the product or industry.
Organize Q&As or webinars with industry experts.
Rewards active community members with higher community roles.
Use community suggestions in your content.
Building a community is one of the best ways to connect with your audience. If properly executed, it can be a good user acquisition and retention strategy. However, it is important to ensure that your community-led growth strategy works in tandem with your marketing and sales strategy. There is a need for synergy between the community and other parts of the company to avoid the community drifting off on its own and becoming disconnected from your business goals and success.
What opportunities are available to me as a tech marketer?
With the development of community-led growth, more opportunities are opening for tech marketers. At the time of writing, there are 117 Community Manager-related jobs listed on LinkedIn (in Nigeria). Your role as a Community Manager is not to push sales but to listen, learn, connect and possibly serve the members where necessary. The Community Manager helps to conduct product or market research and serves as a liaison between the company and its users.
Wishing you all the best!🙂
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