Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
So you've launched your community platform, invited your first batch of members, and... crickets. The engagement metrics are depressing, and you're starting to wonder if all those "build it and they will come" articles were just wishful thinking.
I get it. Most community growth advice feels like recycled LinkedIn posts - "be authentic," "provide value," "engage consistently." All true, but painfully vague when you're staring at a community that's flatlining.
Here's what I discovered after working with both B2B SaaS clients and e-commerce stores: the most effective community growth tactics aren't coming from community management playbooks. They're being borrowed from completely different industries - and most businesses are missing this goldmine of proven strategies.
Through my work with clients across different sectors, I learned that sustainable growth comes from looking beyond your industry's echo chamber. In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why traditional community tactics plateau (and what to do instead)
The cross-industry solution that 10x'd engagement for my clients
How to build community loops that compound over time
The framework I use to "borrow" tactics from other industries
Specific strategies that work for both SaaS and e-commerce communities
Industry Standards
What every community builder has been told
Walk into any community building conference and you'll hear the same gospel preached over and over:
Start with your "why" - Define your community's purpose and mission
Create valuable content consistently - Post daily, share insights, spark discussions
Engage authentically - Reply to comments, ask questions, show personality
Leverage gamification - Add points, badges, leaderboards to drive participation
Host regular events - Weekly AMAs, monthly workshops, quarterly meetups
This advice exists because it works... to a point. These are the table stakes - the minimum viable strategies that every decent community needs. The problem is that when everyone follows the same playbook, nobody stands out.
I've watched dozens of communities launch with these exact tactics, only to plateau at a few hundred members who barely engage. Why? Because this conventional wisdom treats community building like a checklist rather than understanding the deeper psychology of what makes people stick around and invite others.
The real issue is that most community builders are stuck in their industry bubble, copying what other community builders do instead of looking at what actually drives human behavior at scale.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
I learned this lesson the hard way while working with a B2B SaaS client who was struggling with user acquisition. Their main growth engine wasn't traditional marketing channels like paid ads or SEO content - it was the founder's personal branding on LinkedIn.
But here's where it gets interesting. When we analyzed the data more carefully, we discovered that these "direct" conversions weren't really direct at all. People had been following the founder's content, building trust over time, then typing the URL directly when they were ready to buy.
This was my first clue that successful growth often doesn't look like what we expect. The founder wasn't running a traditional community, but he was building something much more powerful - a audience that felt personally connected to him and his insights.
Around the same time, I was working on a completely different project - helping an e-commerce store automate their review collection process. Instead of building a custom solution, I looked at what other industries were doing. E-commerce businesses had been solving review automation for years because their survival depended on it.
That's when it clicked. I implemented Trustpilot's automated review system - originally designed for e-commerce - for my B2B SaaS client. The same automation that was battle-tested in retail translated perfectly to collecting testimonials and building social proof.
This cross-industry approach became my secret weapon. While everyone else was copying community tactics from other community builders, I started studying how other industries solved similar problems.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
The breakthrough came when I realized that community growth isn't a community problem - it's a psychology problem. And the industries that have cracked this psychology aren't necessarily the ones building communities.
Step 1: The Cross-Industry Audit
Instead of studying more community platforms, I started analyzing industries that excel at creating habit-forming behaviors and repeat engagement:
E-commerce - Masters of review loops and social proof automation
Gaming - Experts in progression systems and daily engagement
Media/Publishing - Proven at building editorial calendars and audience retention
SaaS - Advanced in onboarding sequences and feature adoption
Step 2: The Review Automation Experiment
I took Trustpilot's aggressive but effective email automation and adapted it for community testimonials. Instead of asking for product reviews, we automated requests for community success stories. The key was timing these requests right after positive community interactions.
Step 3: The Editorial Calendar Approach
Rather than posting randomly, I borrowed the editorial calendar framework from successful media companies. We planned content themes months in advance, created series that people could follow, and built anticipation for upcoming discussions.
Step 4: The Onboarding Sequence
I adapted SaaS onboarding best practices to community joining. New members received a structured 7-day email sequence that gradually introduced them to community norms, highlighted valuable resources, and connected them with relevant existing members.
Step 5: The Gaming Psychology Layer
Instead of basic badges, I implemented progression systems where community contributions unlocked actual value - early access to content, direct access to founders, or exclusive networking opportunities.
Expert Insights
Study adjacent industries for proven engagement tactics that translate to community building
Automation Frameworks
Implement systematic processes from other sectors rather than manual community management
Cross-Pollination
Successful growth comes from borrowing what works outside your industry bubble
Behavioral Science
Focus on psychology and habits rather than community-specific tactics
The results spoke for themselves. The B2B SaaS client saw their community engagement rates jump from typical industry averages (2-5%) to consistent double-digit engagement on posts. More importantly, community members started converting to paid plans at 3x the rate of other channels.
The e-commerce automation approach produced something even more valuable - a systematic way to collect and showcase community success stories. Instead of manually hunting for testimonials, we had a steady stream of authentic stories that we could use across marketing channels.
But the real win was creating a playbook that worked across different types of businesses. The same cross-industry principles that worked for the SaaS community also applied when I helped e-commerce stores build customer communities around their products.
The key insight: when you stop thinking like a "community builder" and start thinking like a "behavior designer," everything changes.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the biggest lessons from applying cross-industry tactics to community growth:
Conventional wisdom is often just "common practice" - What everyone does isn't necessarily what works best
Automation beats intention every time - Manual community management doesn't scale; systematic approaches do
Timing matters more than content - When you ask for engagement is more important than what you ask for
Value stacking compounds - Community participation should unlock increasingly valuable experiences
Cross-industry solutions are less competitive - While everyone copies community tactics, few borrow from other industries
Psychology transfers across contexts - What drives behavior in gaming or e-commerce often applies to communities
Systems beat passion - Enthusiastic manual effort can't compete with well-designed automated processes
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS building product communities:
Implement user onboarding sequences for community joining
Use feature adoption tactics to drive community feature usage
Create progress tracking systems that mirror your product's value
Connect community activity to product success metrics
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce building customer communities:
Automate review collection but adapt it for community stories
Use purchase behavior data to personalize community experiences
Create VIP tiers based on purchase history and community activity
Leverage seasonal content calendars from retail marketing