Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a pattern. Every time I mention community marketing to someone new, especially in early-stage startups, the first response is usually polite confusion. The second? Assumptions.
Most people think community marketing is just vibes. A Discord server. A few meme posts. A Telegram channel that’s active. Or worse, they think it’s a backup plan when ads stop working. It’s not their fault; the community has become a catch-all word that everyone throws around without really defining.
But here’s the thing. If you’ve actually built a high-performing community, you know how far that is from the truth.
What people think community marketing is
Just running a Discord or Slack group
Throwing in a few moderators and calling it engagement
Posting “gm” tweets or replying to every message with a heart emoji
Having a bunch of people in a group with no clear purpose
A cost center instead of a growth engine
Something “you do when you have time”
This surface-level view leads to surface-level results. The community gets quiet. The brand stops investing. People say, “Community doesn’t work for us.”
What they mean is, “We didn’t build it right.”
What community marketing actually is
Community marketing is a structured system that supports user growth, retention, and brand equity. It’s not about being everywhere. It’s about being intentional.
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
Onboarding that works like a funnel
New members don’t just join. They’re guided. They know what to expect, where to go, and what value they’ll get.Content designed for the community, not broadcast to it
That means tutorials, case studies, product previews, and discussion prompts that feel native to the space.Events that educate or involve
AMAs, roundtables, private demos, and early access programs are things that make members feel closer to the product.Feedback loops that tie directly into product and marketing
The best communities influence roadmap decisions, resolve issues more quickly, and craft more effective messaging.Clear goals and systems
There’s a difference between an audience and a community. One listens, the other participates. And participation doesn’t happen without a system behind it.
What makes it work
Community marketing works when it is built for depth, not just distribution. It turns your users into contributors, your customers into partners, and your brand into something more than just another tool on their list.
It takes effort. It takes alignment with product, support, and marketing. But once it works, it becomes the only channel where your growth doesn’t have to be rented. You’re building equity, not just attention.
According to HubSpot, brands with strong communities see retention rates up to 70 percent higher than those without. And according to Vanilla Forums, 88 percent of companies say their community has helped improve customer experience.
The takeaway
If you’ve ever dismissed community as “just a nice-to-have,” you’re missing the point.
Community marketing isn’t a side project. It’s a system. It’s a strategy. And if you build it right, it becomes one of the few things in marketing that continually improves over time.
So the next time someone says, “Let’s just spin up a Discord and see what happens,” you’ll know: that’s not community. That’s noise.
