Community-Driven SaaS Growth: Utilizing Discord, Reddit & More

Hey there,

It's 9PM on a Saturday night - I’m writing to you because I have something important you need to know.

Before I get into that… Some of you know that Meta Ads have gotten very expensive in the USA. Over the past two weekss, I’ve heard many stories about CPRs rising - the main reason is because of peak interest in election based content (Your bidding against this content). Also, Trump and Harris campaign teams are pumping in millions of dollars a month on paid ads.

For my clients, I’m doubling down on Look-A-Like Audiences, Retargeting and placing cost caps as well to continue driving revenue. If you’re currently struggling with high CPRs and reduced ROAS, book a consultation with me and I’ll help you build out a stronger Meta Ads Campaign Strategy.

Growth Through Communities

Let’s chat about growth through communities using platforms like Discord, Reddit, and other community hubs, where SaaS companies have seen phenomenal engagement and product adoption. These platforms can serve as a powerhouse for building loyal user bases and increasing retention rates.

8 Steps to make the most of community-driven growth for your SaaS company

1. Define Clear Community Goals

You can’t just jump into a platform without clear goals. Are you trying to increase product adoption, gather user feedback, or build brand loyalty? Defining these goals upfront helps shape your content, user activities, and engagement strategies.

With channels, you can achieve all these at once too! But stage out your launch based on where you are with your product.

How to Define Clear Community Goals:

• Set measurable objectives: Decide whether you’re aiming for higher engagement, product usage, or user feedback.

• Target milestones: Identify benchmarks like a specific number of active members or engagement rate.

• Create sub-goals: For example, one goal could be increasing product adoption by 20% in three months, which could be broken down into content or event strategies.

Pro Tip: SaaS companies that align their communities with product adoption goals often see a 22% increase in user engagement and retention.

2. Pick the Right Platform for Your Audience

Choosing the right platform depends on where your users already spend their time. Discord and Reddit are popular for SaaS companies, but Facebook Groups and Slack also offer valuable opportunities.

1. Discord: If your product is very tech advanced, use Discord. Operational costs on Discord are also low. Just keep in mind, Discord is for the “young kids. Over 53% of Discord users are 25 - 34 years old.

2. Reddit: With over 70 million monthly active users, Reddit is ideal for niche discussions around your product or industry.

   1. Here are a few communities:

      1. Oura Ring Sub-Reddit

      2. Eight Sleep Sub-Reddit

      3. BrightOS Sub-Reddit

3. Facebook is best for an older demographic. It’s good to leverage these channels to build authority within existing groups to get users, but not my recommendation for a community these days.

4. Slack is the most professional community - although operational costs are pretty high with their pricing model.

TLDR: Use Reddit or Discord for your community

3. Community Managers & Hiring

Whatever you end up choosing, keep in mind engagement will be very important. You’ll need a community manager to make sure you can continue to drive engagement.

I’d recommend hiring someone overseas to manage your community. Ideally if your community is world wide, you can have two community managers in two time zones. This would be needed for a community on Discord. With Reddit, the community will be less maintenance.

Check out hiring platforms like Upwork, or tweet about hiring a community manager (X is how I hire folks now on my team)

4. Start with Your Early Adopters

Your early users are the backbone of any community. Engage them first, and they will be the voice that attracts new members. Host exclusive sessions, AMA (Ask Me Anything) events, or product deep dives to keep them excited about your product

Product School’s Slack community is a thriving space where product managers connect, share insights, and collaborate on best practices. By nurturing this community, Product School enhances learning experiences and strengthens its role as a go-to resource for product management professionals.

Actionable Tip: Use beta programs to let early users test new features and give feedback. This creates advocates for your product early on and helps create momentum for new members.

5. Offer Exclusive, Community-Only Content

Webinars, case studies, tutorials—create content that is exclusive to community members. This can be a great retention tool and encourages users to stay engaged.

How to Offer Exclusive Content:

• Host Members-Only Webinars:

  • Use platforms like Zoom or GoToWebinar to host events and share the link only with community members.

• Create a Resource Hub:

  • Build a password-protected page on your website that offers downloadable case studies, white papers, and more.

• Use Platform-Specific Features:

  • On Reddit, create "flair" for community members who complete certain tasks.

  • On Discord, use role-based permissions to grant access to private channels for your best contributors.

Pro Tip: Members-only webinars can fuel curiosity and encourage non-community members to join. SaaS companies often use these for product education, which leads to higher feature adoption rates.

6. Community-First Product Development

Your community is invaluable for gathering feedback and ideation. It can be your testing ground for feature rollouts or identifying pain points. This direct line of communication is essential for understanding user needs.

How to Use Community Feedback for Development:

• Create Polls or Surveys:

  • Use Slack or Discord channels to gather feedback directly from users on new features.

• Offer Beta Access to Community Members:

  • Let them try new features first and provide feedback before the official launch.

Example: Companies that use their community for product ideation report a 17% faster product development cycle.

7. Gamify Engagement

Introduce elements like leaderboards, badges, or rewards for participation. This keeps the competition healthy and encourages more activity.

How to Gamify Engagement:

• Create a Points System:

  • Assign points to users based on activities like attending webinars, answering questions, or providing feedback.

• Offer Rewards:

  • Give out badges for top contributors or offer discounts on SaaS subscriptions for reaching milestones.

Pro Tip: Incorporating gamification strategies can drive a 40% increase in participation, encouraging both new and long-term users to stay active.

8. Measure, Iterate, and Grow

Your community is a living entity - one that requires regular nurturing. Measure user activity, participation rates, and feedback trends, then use this data to iterate your engagement strategies. Use tools that integrate community data with your CRM to understand the impact on retention, LTV, and churn rates.

How to Measure Community Engagement:

• Track Metrics via Platform Analytics:

  • Discord offers server insights, Reddit tracks post engagement, and Facebook shows group activity stats.

• Use CRM Integration:

  • Tools like Pipedrive or Salesforce can be connected to your community data to track how participation impacts key metrics like churn or customer lifetime value.

Metric Spotlight: SaaS companies that integrated community management with CRMs like Gainsight and Salesforce saw a 19% decrease in churn and 13% increase in LTV over a year.

Vendor of the Week: Webflow

This week, I’m shouting out Webflow - if you’re looking to build a new website or planning to re-brand your website, Webflow is the go-to tool for building websites in the tech space.

Whether you’re an early-stage startup or an established enterprise, Webflow offers the flexibility and scalability you need for your website.

We’re actually doing a complete brand revamp and website design and development project for our client right now and the website will be on Webflow. If you’re also looking to re-brand and build an amazing website with us, chat with my team. 

Conclusion

That’s it folks - the 8 steps you need to get started with community growth. The reason I made this newsletter is because I notice many companies are NOT using communities for their growth. Seriously, you can innovate on your products faster, build a stronger relationship with your user base and spark up new ideas.

Roveir Growth Community

Some of you may know, I’m building a community for founders and investors focused on Tech Growth - a space where you can learn from others, ask questions and network. We have over 200 in the waitlist - if you’re interested send me an email and I’ll get you in!

If you’re looking for any help with advertising, branding, marketing automation, GTM strategies - my team can definitely help you. Talk to me and my team here.

I also just opened 1:1 consultations now! I can help you with growth marketing for your company in this slot.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and GO CRUSH IT ON MONDAY.

Thanks,

Harsh Kang
Founder at Roveir & RIS3 Studio