💥Why Top Companies Are Betting on Community-Led Growth
The Step-by-Step Guide to Building a High-Impact User Community
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Community-Led Growth: Hype, Metrics, and How to Do It Right
Community-led growth (CLG) is rapidly evolving from a buzzword to a mainstream strategy. Nearly half of B2B companies are already using community as a core go-to-market motion (GTM Partners, 2024), and 58% of the top SaaS businesses now host dedicated user communities (PeerSignal, 2025). Proponents claim that nurturing a passionate user community can drive everything from product adoption to brand loyalty.
But what does CLG actually mean beyond the hype, and does it deliver real ROI? This episode will define community-led growth in practical terms, compare how it plays out in B2B vs. B2C contexts, and present data-backed insights on the impact of community strategies.
We’ll also highlight tactics used by companies like Notion and Figma, and distill actionable takeaways for founders and investors looking to leverage community-led growth today.
Let’s dive in! 👇
✅ TL;DR (5 Key Takeaways)
CLG is gaining traction: Nearly half of B2B companies now use community as a GTM lever, and 58% of leading SaaS firms run dedicated user communities.
CLG vs. PLG: Unlike product-led growth, which centers on the product itself, community-led growth focuses on turning users into advocates who drive acquisition, retention, and expansion.
Quantifiable ROI is emerging: Deals influenced by community close 1.7x faster, community-engaged users show 2–3x higher expansion rates, and support costs can drop significantly through peer assistance.
B2B vs. B2C dynamics: B2B communities focus on knowledge-sharing and enablement (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot), while B2C communities build emotional loyalty and identity (e.g., Sephora, Airbnb).
How to do it right: Start small with early champions, define clear goals, empower leaders, meet users where they already engage, and consistently invest in the community function.
What Is Community-Led Growth, Really?
“Community” in a business context is often used loosely – it’s more than just a forum or a Slack group. A useful definition comes from Claire Butler, who led marketing at Figma, via Firstround Capital (2024): “Community… isn’t a set of specific programs or a Slack group. It’s an approach to building your go-to-market strategy around fostering a passionate user base who’s going to power up your product adoption.”
In other words, community-led growth means integrating your users’ peer-to-peer interactions and advocacy into your growth model – treating community as a core engine of acquisition, expansion, and retention, rather than an afterthought.
It helps to distinguish community-led growth from the last big trend, product-led growth (PLG). PLG relies on the product’s self-service appeal and virality, whereas CLG “builds from the customer,” turning users into evangelists who propel the product (Brandlens, 2023; Common Room, 2022).
Camille Ricketts, Notion’s first marketing hire, describes community-led growth as when “your community helps you achieve such ubiquity and name recognition that it allows you to start moving upmarket” into bigger customers (RevGenious, 2023). Unlike traditional marketing channels that broadcast one-to-many, a community creates many-to-many dialogue among users who share a common interest or problem (PeerSignal, 2025). This bottom-up enthusiasm and trust can open doors that sales reps alone cannot.
It’s worth addressing the hype: “Community” can indeed be a fuzzy buzzword, and not every business will instantly benefit from spinning up a user forum. Many organizations enthusiastically launch communities only to struggle with low engagement or unclear ROI.
A 2022 survey found that 79% of community professionals believe community has a positive impact on business objectives, yet only 10% can quantify that impact in financial terms (PeerSignal, 2025). This underscores a maturity gap – community-led growth is not a magic bullet or a vanity project. It requires clear goals, investment, and patience to bear fruit. When done right, however, community-led growth can become a durable, compounding growth lever that competitors struggle to replicate.
✈️ KEY INSIGHTS
Community-led growth (CLG) is a go-to-market strategy that integrates user advocacy and peer interactions into the growth engine, driving acquisition, expansion, and retention. While 79% of community professionals report a positive business impact, only 10% can quantify it financially—highlighting both its strategic promise and current maturity gap.
B2B vs. B2C: Two Paths to Community-Led Growth
Community-building plays out differently in business-to-business (B2B) vs. consumer (B2C) companies, though there are common principles. In B2B/SaaS, communities often center on knowledge-sharing, support, and professional development around a product. Think of developer communities for software tools, or user groups for SaaS platforms.
For example, Salesforce’s famed Trailblazer Community provides forums, regional user groups, and even a learning academy where members earn credentials. This community has grown so robust that it runs its own global events and a dedicated online hub – a testament to what a “big-budget” B2B community effort can achieve (Salesforce, 2025).
HubSpot’s community similarly includes an extensive online forum and HubSpot Academy courses, turning users into inbound marketing experts (and loyal customers) (Decibel VC, 2025). The focus in B2B is often on practical value: Users helping each other troubleshoot, sharing best practices, and extending their skills with the product.
A well-run B2B community effectively creates an army of customer-advocates and in-house “champions.” For instance, many SaaS companies have champion programs to empower enthusiasts inside client organizations to promote adoption internally (Decibel VC, 2025). This bottom-up influence can be incredibly powerful in B2B, where peer recommendations and user familiarity can make or break a software purchase.
B2C communities, on the other hand,