Now is the Time for Community
Community Strategy // The community market has seen unprecedented growth in recent years, and with 15 years of experience under our belt, we want to welcome those joining the community mission!
This was originally posted on the Vanilla by Higher Logic blog.
As some of you have seen by now, Gainsight acquired InSided this week, and we want to welcome them to an industry we have been passionate about for 15 years. The market has seen unprecedented growth in the last few years, and we see momentum accelerating. This recent acquisition affirms what we already know about the business value of communities across B2B and B2C.
We see the value of communities enrich the lives of our thousands of customers. Just to name a few:
- Gardeners sharing their passions with the BBC Gardener’s World community,
- Golfers honing their skills and trading knowledge using their Callaway gear,
- Gamers optimizing their rigs on the Acer community, and sharing their tips and tricks on King Games’ forums,
- Project managers and business professionals getting the most out of Smartsheet by helping their users collaborate effectively,
- Small businesses making heads or tails of their accounting and expenses with Quicken, Reckon, and Expensify,
- Business leaders sharing best practices and thought leadership communities like Gain Grow Retain and The Technology Services Industry Association.
By bringing people together, community drives business outcomes across many areas of an organization. Community drives:
- Demand generation – We see our customers build self-service communities that turn into communities of practice and thought leadership. Rich, user– generated content creates organic growth engines that Google loves to crawl and return to searchers. Marketing teams can run high-ROI back-to-base campaigns based on customers’ community activity.
- Net revenue retention – Companies use community to deliver quicker time to value by connecting customers with peers and vital onboarding knowledge. Their customers are able to take full advantage of the solutions offered and even contribute to improving products and services with feedback and ideas. When customers feel connected to a brand, they become loyal customers and advocates in the market.
- Customer satisfaction – Improve customer satisfaction while keeping support costs in check. Communities help customers find answers fast on their own whenever they need it through the community hub and enable brands to meet their customers at their help desk of choice: Google. Customers help each other, and agents are empowered to escalate the issues that require one-on-one help resulting in reduced ticket volume, higher CSAT, and faster time to resolution.
Now is the time for customers, fans, and brands to meet as partners in communities as diverse as the business they serve. Community has become a foundational part of going to market and growing a customer base.
We are and always will be The Community People. Community is our passion and our sole focus. It’s in our DNA.
We power more than 350,000 communities and connect more than 200 million people in over 42 countries. We are more than just a platform; we are a total community solution with strategic services and years of expertise to drive business outcomes.
We’re driving growth by helping companies and brands engage with their customers.
Corporate Marketing Leader
