From Audience to Advocates: Building a Community-Led Growth System

Most founders think "community marketing" means “promote your Facebook group” or running advertising for your membership.

Nope. That’s the output, not the engine.

Real community marketing means building a growth system where your customers aren’t just being talked at — they’re part of the feedback loop. Part of the momentum. Part of the engine.

It’s not new. HubSpot's Flywheel nailed this years ago. FeverBee's strategy models prove it. But here's where most get stuck: they know why it matters, but not how to build it.

So let’s break it down:

1. What is Community Marketing?

Community marketing isn't just about promoting a space — it's a strategic growth model where your community is the core of your entire growth engine.

Think of it as a counterpoint to ad-led or product-led strategies. Here, you engage audiences through shared purpose, shared progress, and co-created momentum.

As Richard Millington puts it:

My take? It's a repeatable loop that attracts, engages, and delights — inside a community context — and drives conversion, retention, and referral far beyond the boundaries of your “community” space.

2. Map the Systems: Marketing vs Community

In a previous newsletter, I shared my take on what min-systems included in your broader “Community Marketing System” and I received more than a few puzzled responses about what this meant.

Basically, there are 10 core systems that I help my clients set up:

1. Strategy, Offer & Positioning

2. Onboarding / First Touch

3. Lead Generation

4. Engagement Strategy & Value Loop

5. Conversion & Nurturing

6. Retention & Upsell (shared)

7. Affiliates & Referrals

8. Analytics, Automation & Ops

9. Partnerships & Advertising

10. Ongoing Marketing Strategy

Each of these systems can be further segmented into “marketing” or “community” systems to help you understand how the broader framework combines elements previously thought as exclusively “marketing” or “community” practices.

• Marketing systems = Visibility, leads, conversions

• Community systems = Retention, feedback, loyalty, referrals, user-generated content

And why is this useful?

Because when you're overwhelmed or unclear about what to prioritise, being able to label a system as "marketing" or "community" gives you clarity on what it’s meant to do, who on your team can do it and whether it’s attracting attention, converting leads, or deepening retention.

Basically It turns a vague business to-do list into a structured roadmap.

3. This Isn’t New (But It Is Often Missed)

HubSpot’s Flywheel showed us how delight fuels growth. Attract → Engage → Delight → repeat.

FeverBee proved that data-driven community strategy is more than “nice vibes” — it’s operational.

As FeverBee’s Richard Millington said,

Your growth engine can (and should) mix both. Marketing systems pull folks in. Community systems keep them there — and turn them into advocates.

4. System Overview — with examples

Here’s a quick walkthrough of each system that comprises this Community Growth Engine, why it matters, and where I’ve seen it work in the wild.

Strategy, Offer & Positioning

What it is: Crafting a laser-focused offer, message, and understanding how audience-fit that guides everything.
What's included: Market research, messaging workshops, ICP mapping, value propositions.
Example: Glossier’s “Into The Gloss” started as a beauty blog, positioning as an insider, frictionless entry to its future customer base. That clear positioning seeded a massive, loyal community and product line.

Strong positioning gives your entire growth engine clarity and direction.

Lead Generation

What it is: The channels and tactics that drive net-new leads into your ecosystem.
What's included: SEO, partnerships, summit funnels, content upgrades.
Example: Tevello integrates its community into Shopify stores, enabling creators to grow audience and leads inside their product experience.

Consistent leads come from systems, not lucky posts.

Conversion & Nurturing

What it is: The warm-up sequences and journeys that guide leads toward a conversion.
What's included: Email sequences, nurture Content, expert Q&As, mini-courses, or even
Example: Sephora’s Beauty Insider Community uses targeted emails and early-access previews tied to loyalty status to convert browsers into purchasers.

Great nurturing turns attention into action.

Onboarding / First Touch

What it is: That welcome experience that sets expectations and builds trust.
What's included: Welcome emails, orientation threads, first-actions checklist.
Example: Wikipedia’s MoodBar feature for new editors, MoodBar prompts users to share how they feel after edits and connects them with mentors. The result? Significantly improved new user retention and deeper community engagement

Effective onboarding isn’t just a welcome, it’s the scaffolding that turns sign-ups into active contributors.

Engagement Strategy & Value Loop

What it is: How you create ongoing, two-way interaction and member-to-member connection.
What's included: Themed threads, prompts, user-led content, group events.
Example: The CMX Hub community uses the "Community Engagement Cycle" model, they run weekly rituals, escalating interactions over time to deepen connection.

Engagement is what transforms a list into a living ecosystem.

Retention & Upsell

What it is: How you keep members coming back and offer next-stage value.
What's included: Renewals nudges, premium tiers, community-only bundles, check-ins.
Example: LikeMinds is a cohort-based community that uses progressive cohorts and exclusive alumni offers to boost long-term retention and tier upgrades.

Retention is cheaper than acquisition, and 10x more powerful with upsells.

Affiliates & Referrals

What it is: Leveraging satisfied members, partners and sponsors to bring in new clients.
What's included: Referral links, ambassador programs, incentives or reward tiers.
Example: The card-game community We’re Not Really Strangers (WNRS) uses its passionate TikTok followers, and micro-influencer “KOL” coverage, to bring in 3 M+ followers through authentic referrals.

When your community talks, others listen, build with that in mind.

Partnerships & Advertising

What it is: External collaborations to reach new audiences.
What's included: Guest webinars, co-branded offers, joint bundles, sponsorship swaps.
Example: Cult of Rain’s NFT Discord servers leveraged co-branded partnerships to attract tens of thousands into dedicated Discord community channels.

Strategic partnerships are shortcuts to borrowed trust and fresh eyes.

Analytics, Automation & Ops

What it is: Tracking, automating, and maintaining the engine humming.
What's included: Engagement metrics, segmentation, auto-welcome flows, CRM tags.
Example: Common Room community teams use their Analytics & Ops guide to set KPIs, track member behaviour, measure business impact, and inform next moves. This data-driven approach helped Moov boost community activity by 350% year-over-year.

Performance without measurement is guesswork. Operations without automation is burnout waiting to happen!

Ongoing Marketing Strategy

What it is: The big-picture approach that keeps your funnel topped up.
What's included: Campaign calendars, newsletters, content loops, reactivation flows.
Example: Participants of the Adobe Creative Cloud community use their blog and newsletter to surface top forum content and member tutorials, turning high-performing user contributions into evergreen marketing assets.

When you repurpose community-generated content, your marketing becomes a story that others choose to tell.

5. The Prioritisation Playbook

Now it’s important to note that you do NOT need all 10 systems to launch!

In fact, I help my clients get an analysis of all the different elements intheir system to help them learn how to improve it and what to focus on depending ont heir goals.

An MVP version of your marketing framework could just be:

• Strategy & Positioning

• Lead Generation

• Onboarding

The rest can wait. Or get layered in later.

Now, I’m curious to know from you:

• Which of your systems are most dialed in?

• Which are half-built or non-existent?

Drop a comment below!

And in my next blog post, I’ll start helping you figure out what your MVP Community Marketing System should look like.