In this digital era, where functionalities are prioritized over any aspect, community building is often overlooked. Features and functionalities might be clicked in the mind while the community creates a connection by heart. Community building is an essential input for SaaS product adoption, as it builds loyalty by fostering engagement. 

Community building can be highly effective in overcoming the barrier of customer acquisition. This is because the community provides a sense of belongingness and support among users. The community has a platform to share space for cooperation and collaboration. It facilitates feedback and review sharing. Customers can grasp value through a meaningful community. 

In this comprehensive article, we will explore the significance of community building in boosting SaaS product adoption.

The Power of Community in Driving SaaS Adoption

We know that a lasting connection is nurtured with engaging community. If you think making a community is about a social media group and allowing conversation, absolutely NO. The community doesn’t build only connections, it can build relationships. 

Most importantly, how can building community contribute to product adoption? It’s simple to understand, community is nothing but a platform where a user can connect with other users belonging to different parts of the country or world and share their mixed type of experiences. With this feedback, trust in your product is built. 

Sometimes, you may not be available to provide real-time and well-tailored assistance to your customers. Here, the community can be your product savior. Some old users can provide guidance, advice, tips, or tricks to the new users required to adopt the product. Sharing experiences develops a thought that if someone like them can use the product reliably, how can’t they? It gives the feeling of independence among new users. 

Community building can be one of the tools to gain valuable insights. When product-related discussion is held in an open community, you can examine it to understand your customer’s pain points or daily struggles with your product. 

Community building contributes to product development. But if you want professional assistance overcoming the acquisition barriers, tools like UserGuiding can be your real mate. It helps to improve the in-app experiences, with its functionalities of highlighting features, guiding, and engaging.

Providing Peer Support to Strengthen Engagement

Peer support implies providing valuable and unique support to users, who had similar experiences with the SaaS product. The community is made to provide such support. Although you may have different channels for customer support, some problems are well-managed and resolved with user discussion. 

The community serves as a support network, which fosters psychological resilience among users. Some users may have their raw and unique solution, other users may find it authentic to rely on. 

Community is the medium through which quick solutions can be accessed. Because within it, users will see peers who might have dealt with similar challenges in the past. It can save their time as well. Community building impacts with a sense of reciprocity because users consider it a platform where they can send and receive help. In this way, the likeliness of abandoning the service is drastically reduced. All this contributes to a healthy customer experience. 

Apart from this, the community directly benefits customer support teams. They get enough time to evaluate complex issues rather than simpler ones that can be resolved within themselves.

Creating a Sense of Belonging for Users

If you wish to achieve customer loyalty, emphasize healthy community building. Your purpose should not be limited to providing functional support, as community support is equally important. 

Why is it so important? We are humans, we are social creatures, we are inherently made to move to the place where we feel valued and understood. Where customers find value, they stick to it and willingly explore possible benefits. Therefore, community building has a direct link to drive engagement and retention. 

A community is built with like-minded individuals who have similar experiences with the product, customers tend to put their energy and time into such initiatives. 

This can benefit you by reducing the churn rate, as customers become loyal to the product. 

However, a SaaS company needs to provide such open space for the users to have conversations reliably without intense scrutiny. This can also be done with community events, forums, or engagement from company representatives. 

Turning Users into Advocates

Who doesn’t want free promotion? It is in demand; it saves you money and time. Now, who will do this for you? Surprisingly, your customers will do this for your product. This can only be achieved when customers are satisfied with your services and become enthusiastic about the product. 

Customers feel connected through community, they will share their satisfactory reviews with their family and friends. This approach is more effective than any traditional marketing approach. This approach can lead to the onboarding of new customers due to references made by seasoned users. Your old users can assist new users with guidance, solutions to daily challenges, and pro tips for speedy operations. It changes the whole onboarding process experience. 

However, seasoned customers as an advocate can help you with testimonials and case studies. Such content is authentic and considered more reliable for newly onboarded customers.

A powerful community builds a powerful network of such advocates. This powerful network has all the useful content that attracts organic growth. 

Conclusion: The Long-Term Impact of Building a SaaS Community

Building a strategic plan to achieve sustainable and organic growth must involve effective community building. The community has a great impact on the long-term success of your SaaS product as it promotes user engagement. 

It serves as a platform to have an open discussion about the product and its reviews. Community creates a sense of connectivity and belongingness. Peer support reduces the churn rate as well. Compiling all the benefits will contribute to successful product adoption. 

However, if you wish to enhance the overall in-app experience, tools like UserGuiding can be your professional assistant. It will drive the success of your SaaS product.

Published by: Martin De Juan