Picture this – you’re searching for a project management (PM) tool to manage your small team of developers. But, there is a tiny problem. Far more PM tools are available in the market than you have time to assess. 

In an attempt to shorten your search, you turn to reviews of the top PM tools and you find a dedicated community for one of the tools you shortlisted.

You notice the community is buzzing with messages, with the company quickly answering customer queries and community members actively replying to messages posted by other members. Jackpot! You have struck gold; every piece of information you need to make a decision is available under one roof.

That’s the power of community-led growth. It connects you to the experience of using a product, from the perspective of the user, and backs it up with the endorsement of engaged customers who serve as trusted advocates and guides.

Before moving forward, let’s understand what this buzzword means.

What is community led-growth?

Community-led growth is a marketing strategy that leverages customers as the brand’s best advocates to share their product experiences with a community. 

Typically, these customers are loyal to your brand and help you acquire and retain new and existing customers. 

This strategy optimizes lead generation, enhances brand awareness, drives customer engagement, and provides feedback to a brand about its products and services.

While almost every company in the digital space is trying to focus on community led-growth, some companies do it better than others.

Ready to explore such companies?

Examples of community led-growth from leading brands

Here are some noteworthy examples of community led-growth from leading brands:

Notion

Notion’s one-of-a-kind productivity and note-taking software was loved so much by their customers that they started talking about the advantages of using the software on different Facebook groups and YouTube. 

It was Notion’s customers that activated the community-led strategy. 

When Notion noticed customers were actively involved in different online communities, they capitalized on these trends and developed a community-led strategy.

Today, Notion allows customers to dictate the community while they monitor and work closely with some community members to ensure other members feel welcomed. The Notion team provides community members with tools to ensure a thriving community and increase engagement. 

Today, Notion has a Reddit user base of more than 244 million active users. 

Gymshark

Gymshark is another startup leveraging the advantage of a strong community. Unlike Notion, which uses a social news aggregation channel to fuel growth, Gymshark uses its central blog to build a strong community of all its customers.

Their central hub makes it easy for customers to dive into the community without lifting an ounce of weight.

On its central hub, the company shares essential tips, tricks, tutorials, and recipes, which provide customers with information about their health and fitness. 

Their blog is stacked with valuable and relevant information, making it easier for customers to make a decision about their products. 

The company uses its articles to strengthen its connection with the online community. What’s more interesting is that Gymshark handpicks quality athletes to represent their brand and activate community-led growth through influencers.

These athletes engage with the community and reflect Gymshark’s brand.

The company effortlessly combines these interactions with purchase intent, encouraging customers to continue engaging with their brand.

Starbucks

Rather than selling coffee, Starbucks has always focused on providing customer experiences. Time and again, the company uses communities to increase customer engagement and make customers feel valued.

They focused on resharing user-generated content (UGC) through their RedCupArt campaign in 2016.

During the campaign, Starbucks asked customers to paint their creativity on plain red cups. 

Thousands of customers participated in the campaign, sharing their drawings on Twitter and Instagram. 

Starbucks willingly shared the best on its official social media channels to encourage other customers to participate in its campaign.

Itzy Ritzy

Itzy Ritzy is another brand that mastered the community-led growth strategy and created a huge community of Instagram followers to provide a seamless customer experience.

The company used the power of influencer marketing to provide content that resonated with its Instagram followers. 

Influencers helped Itzy Ritzy create user-generated content (UGC). Besides leveraging Instagram’s power, Itzy Ritzy focused on building a loyal community using their blog.

From sharing informational posts to interview-style posts, the company leaves no stone unturned in engaging customers and encouraging them to purchase. 

Another noteworthy feature of Itzy Ritzy is their parent’s profile feature, which provides the experiences of new parents. Such UGC stories inspire other customers to purchase baby products. 

By providing customers with information, Itzy Ritzy provides a foundation for a strong and quickly growing community. 

Figma

Figma is another example of community-led growth that uses the power of its Figma community to build stronger relationships with customers. 

This collaborative interface design tool has a loyal Figma community, where customers can access wireframes, plugins, design systems, icons, and illustrations.

Interestingly, the Figma community provides a place where customers can self-promote while sharing their immense love for Figma. Designers, UX professionals, and illustrators use Figma to share templates of their designs with the community.

SurferSEO

SurferSEO understood the importance of community way back in 2017 when the company created its own private Facebook page. Today, their Facebook page has thousands of members, and they’re still counting. 

Apart from leveraging the power of Facebook, SurferSEO provides live training sessions happening regularly on their Surfer Academy.

The academy provides content with numerous trips and tricks and even provides live sessions and training videos on mastering the English language. 

Your community is the answer you’re looking for

A successful company requires more than superior products or services and qualified employees. Your brand’s community gives you a chance to stand out. Companies rely heavily on their online community to stand out among competitors.

The longer your customers stay and interact in a community, the higher their chances of becoming loyal.  Eventually, these loyal customers become brand advocates and encourage others to purchase, making an online community a must-have for every brand. 

It’s the right time to move from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric approach to accelerate your company’s growth.