The Community Loop
Create a sense of loyalty among users by nurturing communities.
Creating a growth loop using community involves building a group of people who share a common interest and getting them to help grow your brand or product. A good way to do this is by creating a platform or space where members of the community can engage with each other, share ideas, and provide feedback.
For example, if you have a new product or service, you can create a community of users who can help you test and refine it. You can provide incentives for users who refer their friends to join the community, which can help to grow the community even more. As the community grows, you can continue to engage with users and incorporate their feedback into your product or service, which can help to improve its quality and attract even more users.
By building a strong community, you can create a cycle of growth, where users help to promote your product or service to others, leading to even more users joining the community. This can help to build a loyal following of users who are invested in your brand or product, and who can help to sustain its growth over time.
Here are some steps you can take to create a growth loop using community:
Define your target community: Identify the community you want to build and engage with. This could be existing customers, users, or prospects who share common interests or needs. Segmentation is key. Segmenting a few users with familiar goals and interests will create a tighter-knit community than
For example: Nomadlist, a website that helps digital nomads find places to live and work remotely, defined their target community as people who are location-independent and work remotely. Specifically, their target audience is made up of digital nomads, freelancers, remote workers, and entrepreneurs who prioritize the ability to work from anywhere in the world and have the flexibility to travel and explore different destinations. Note that ‘prioritize the ability to work from anywhere in the world’ is much more ‘niche’ and targeted than a generic segment such as ‘people who work remotely’.
Develop a platform for community engagement: Choose a platform that enables you to interact with your community members, such as a forum, social media group, or a dedicated community website. Wikis and blogs can also be a great platform for engagement. Fandom.com, a website that provides fans with information and resources related to various topics, including entertainment, gaming, and pop culture, grew their community through a Wiki platform with niche Wiki’s on a range of very focused and specific entertainment topics.
Foster engagement: Encourage community members to participate in discussions, provide feedback, share their experiences, and ask questions. Respond to their inquiries and offer support where needed.
Leverage user-generated content (UGC): Encourage community members to share their experiences, opinions, and feedback about your product or service. This can be in the form of reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content that you can feature on your website or social media pages. User generated content is a huge topic on its own (Pinterest’s growth loop being a classic example of how to grow website traffic with UGC).
Offer incentives: Offer incentives to community members who engage with your brand, such as discounts, rewards, or exclusive access to new products or services. Incentives can be seen as a double-edged sword because sometimes they might attract users that only came for the reward. One famous example is Groupon. Groupon has been criticised as having an unsustainable business model. Critics argue that Groupon's business model, which relies on offering steep discounts to customers, is unsustainable and can lead to financial losses for businesses that participate in the platform. Businesses complain that the financial losses cannot be recovered by one-time visits from customers.
Monitor and measure your progress: Keep track of your community engagement metrics, such as the number of active members, engagement rates, and conversion rates. Use this data to optimize your strategy and refine your approach over time.