A Guide to Community-Led Growth [Including Tools to Get Started!]

If you're a SaaS founder or marketer looking into community-led growth strategies, you're probably drowning in growth marketing advice about building online communities and how they're going to 10X your business this year.

And while communities are in fact great, a lot of SaaS companies are getting them completely wrong, due to incomplete and inaccurate advice out there.

They're wasting resources building empty spaces, chasing vanity metrics, and wondering why their "community" isn't driving the ''growth'' they expected.

We've created this guide to only talk about what actually works, exposing what doesn't, and what tools you need for community-led growth. 

What We Actually Mean by "Community"

Any great guide starts with crystal clear definitions, and we're not going to brush over ''community'' here.

It's important to get this right.

Your social media following isn't a community. The people who signed up to your newsletter don't form a community.

Affiliate program management isn't the same as building a community.

Even a cluster of customers that have actually already bought your product, follow you on social media and are signed up to your newsletter – they aren't your community. 

Real online communities run deeper. It's about creating genuine connections and facilitating valuable exchanges between people, not just between a group of people and ''the brand''.

When someone's truly part of a community, they're not just consuming content - they're actively participating in discussions, sharing insights, and building relationships with other members.

Understanding True Community-Led Growth

Now we've defined ''community'', what is the ''growth'' everyone is preaching about?

When we talk about growth in the context of community, we're not just talking about revenue.

In fact, it hardly ever happens that someone becomes part of your community and that directly translates to a sale. 

But that doesn't mean there's no value in growing and nurturing a community, because community-led growth shows up in multiple ways:

• Product Adoption: Members naturally discover new use cases and features through peer discussions
• Customer Retention: People stick around because they feel connected to something bigger than just your product
• Brand Awareness: Organic conversations about your product pop up in other spaces like Reddit or LinkedIn
• Natural Advocacy: Users start helping each other without your team's involvement
• Product Evolution: You get real, unfiltered feedback that actually improves your product

The ''Community'' Reality Check SaaS Founder Needs

Growing a community is a lot like growing a complete vegetable garden in your backyard. For most brands, it's extremely difficult, time-consuming, and you don't have control over everything.

Yet, that last bit is exactly why communities can be so valuable.

It's a safe space where trust can be built. No billboard or 30 second slot in TV commercials sells exactly that. But here's what else makes community building such a challenge.

1. People Aren't Necessarily Looking to Join Another Community

Everyone overestimates how much their target audience wants to join yet another community.

Think about it from your own experience - why would people join your new Slack group when they're already part of LinkedIn groups, Reddit communities, and professional associations?

People might not wake up and think ''gosh, I wish I could join another community'', but they do feel that they want to get answers to their questions. They want to read real stories of others. They want to vent. That's what you should be trying to accommodate, first and foremost.

2. A Community Isn't A Substitute For A Good Product

A great community can't save a mediocre product. Too many companies try to build communities to compensate for product weaknesses, hoping that community engagement will somehow make up for fundamental product issues, or show them how to improve their products.

It doesn't work that way. For that, you should be collecting customer feedback.

People join communities to solve problems and share insights. If your product isn't effectively solving problems in the first place, what will they actually talk about? Community can amplify your product's strengths, but it can't create them out of thin air.

3. Be Realistic About What Communities Can Do By Joining One (Or Ten)

Before you even think about launching your own community (or hiring someone to do it for you), become a member of several communities yourself.

Pick communities that genuinely interest you.

They don't need to be in your industry.

Join communities around your hobbies, other tools you use, or industries you're curious about. The principles of what makes a community work (or fail) are surprisingly consistent across different niches.

Spend at least a few months really engaging in these communities.

Pay attention to:

• What makes you actually want to participate in discussions
• What annoys you or makes you want to leave
• How the best moderators handle difficult situations
• Which types of content consistently spark genuine discussion
• How successful communities maintain engagement without feeling forced
• What the brand's role is in communities that work well
• How other members react to different types of brand involvement

You need to feel firsthand what it's like to be a community member before you can effectively build a community of your own.

Notice what makes you come back to certain communities while others just sit unused in your bookmarks. Pay attention to what it does for the brand. 

What People Actually Want from B2B Communities

People don't join B2B communities to be marketed to - they join to solve problems, or sometimes even to show off their own successes.

There's a reason why people search for things like "best way to build domain authority reddit" instead of reading vendor blogs.

They want unbiased, non-promotional perspectives from peers who've faced similar challenges.

This is why traditional community-building strategies often fail:

• Offering prizes and perks might get initial signups, but those people disappear when the incentives stop
• Generic promises like "Join to grow your business!" lead to disappointed members when reality doesn't match the hype
• Forced engagement (like those dreaded "What are your weekend plans?" posts) feels artificial and drives away serious members

Building Something That Actually Works

If you're serious about community-led growth, here's what you need to focus on:

Start Small but Valuable

Instead of chasing big numbers, build a core group of people who are genuinely passionate about your industry - not just your product.

Within your community, get comfortable with members talking about competitor products – yes, positively!

You can seed the community by adding some of your own people to get discussions going, but be careful - this is a nuanced process.

Too much internal participation can stifle genuine discussion. Your own moderators or participants should be upfront about being employees of your brand, and always focus on helping, rather than pushing your product or links. 

Focus on the Right Metrics

Forget vanity metrics like total member count. Pay attention to:

• The number and quality of peer-to-peer conversations
• How often members return (retention)
• The depth of discussions (qualitative analysis)

Another interesting metric to focus on, although harder to measure, is the emergence of organic user-to-user support.

If you notice that your customer support team is less busy once your community starts growing, it might be connected – and that's another form of ''growth'' worth celebrating. 

Choose Platforms Wisely

When it comes to choosing where to build your community, here's a crucial principle: meet your audience where they already are. Don't expect them to come to you unless you're offering something they can't get anywhere else.

• Discord tends to work well for technical and crypto communities
• Reddit can be great for organic community building
• Facebook Groups might work better for certain B2C niches

Creating your own community platform or forum might sound appealing from a brand perspective, but it's often a huge ask for users.

Think about it: you're asking them to create another account, learn another interface, and add another destination to their daily routine.

That's a lot of friction.

The only time you should consider building on your own domain is when you can offer clear, unique value that's impossible to get elsewhere.

Maybe you have proprietary tools, exclusive data, or specialized features that genuinely enhance the community experience.

But be honest with yourself - is it really unique value, or just your preference for having everything under your brand?

A strong community on an external platform is infinitely better than a ghost town on your own domain.

The Tools That Make Community-Building Easier

While tools alone won't build your community, the right ones can make it easier to manage:

Core Communication

• Slack or Discord for real-time chat (tech folks tend to prefer Discord)
• beehiiv for consistent updates without the spam feel
• Reddit for organic discussion (yes, you can build community on platforms you don't own)

Monitoring and Management

• Syften for tracking conversations about your brand across platforms
• Favikon for identifying and nurturing potential community champions
• Rewardful affiliate tracking software for managing advocacy programs effectively

Managing Expectations

Remember that community-led growth is a long game. You won't see immediate ROI, and that's okay. Some other things to keep in mind:

• Don't panic about lurkers. Silent members often represent the majority of your community and can still get significant value from just reading
• Welcome criticism. Deleting or ignoring it only damages trust and makes your community feel fake
• Be specific about what your community offers. If it's for professional networking, say that. If it's for technical discussion, make that clear
• Focus on creating value first. The growth will follow naturally if you're solving real problems for your members

The key to successful community-led growth isn't fancy tools or growth hacks - it's about creating genuine value and fostering real connections between members.

Start small, stay focused on quality over quantity, and remember that the best communities grow naturally around products that already solve real problems well.

Check out Rewardful and our flexible pricing plans to help grow your community from the inside out.