Building a community is more important than ever today, no matter which SaaS industry you fall in.
We came across Discord last year during the pandemic. Initially, we found Discord all annoying to build a community because of its complex features. But after several weeks of use for some of our projects, we now think it’s a go-to platform to build communities; especially the ones that are niched down to SaaS.
Having a strong community on Discord is indispensable for anyone who is into SaaS marketing.
But while starting a Discord server is a piece of cake, growing a community on the server and making sure people find value in it is what makes it challenging.
After being a part of SaaS marketing and eCommerce growth, and moderating them for more than a year now, we have some tips for you to grow your Discord server.
How to grow a community on Discord
1. Be active as a server owner
Welcome people who join your server, strike a conversation and moderate it proactively alongside feedback if something goes against the rules.
Now getting new people to your server can get tricky because not all your members are from the same time zone. So, to help the moderator or the admin, it’s crucial to keep the notifications on. You can hop on the server anytime a new member joins in and welcome them to the community.
You’d be surprised at the number of users you can retain just because they were welcomed the right way and given the right kind of attention. Because at the end of the day, the way you treat people is what makes them stay.
2. Be willing to join different servers in the same niche
Communities work the best when there is pure helping involved. If you’re pitching your product the moment you join any server, you’re going to be categorized as salesy and no conversations will come out of it.
The only hack that helped us grow our communities was to join different communities in the same niche and build thought leadership there.
We believe if you actively help members in other communities and strengthen your presence by letting them know who you are and what you do, they tend to try and find out more about what you do and become a part of your groups without even having to ask for it.
Here’s the best way to explore different Discord servers of your niche – https://disboard.org/servers 🙂
3. Keep your topics and discussions organized
Not all your fans have prior experience using the Discord server. So whenever a new member joins, an existing Discord user, or an absolute newbie, give them a solid reason to stay and not be confused with a setup that’s all over the place.
Create Subchannels to keep the Discord server in order. You can set permissions to certain channels to make sure that only those who are allowed to be in that channel.
Try and experiment with different types of channels. It’s good practice to have channels that educate users and brands, using the following:
- Case study
- Freebies
- Guides
- Podcast
- Webinars
- Off-topic ideas (An option to freely discuss topics apart from your business)
- Mentorship
- SaaS News
And the list goes on. But make sure you have these topics along with an emoji in the beginning or at the end of the word. Because channel topics with emoji make a lot of difference on the Discord server, and also make it easier on the eyes for a member if you have too many of them.
4. Promote Discord community on your website
If you want people to join your server, you need to make it known. This includes making it visible on all the audience touchpoints you have established, including your website.
You can do this in a number of ways. From implementing an exit-intent popup to setting up an announcement bar across all pages or adding a link to the main navigation as well as the footer of your website.
This also has the potential to make all the visitors into loyal community members, as it will remind them to check the server every time they visit your website.
Remember to keep your messaging clear and the CTA prominent.
5. Promote your community on existing channels
Drag users from your existing communities like Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and so on to the Discord server. Make sure you pin a post about the Discord community on all your social channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
This hack of pinning the post at the top has proven to work for us. The chances of people coming across your social media pages are more than your Discord server link. So why not utilize the social channels to build your community list?
Instagram works like magic for SaaS brands too. We would recommend utilizing the Instagrams story feature for activities such as polls, AMA (Ask Me Anything) interviews, live, latest trends, and so on. That’s not all Instagram’s latest feature allows you to add a direct link to the story. So plan out a story strategy and make sure the Discord link is put up on the story once or twice every week.
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6. Use advertising servers to push your community
This tip will not make sense if your growth plan just includes sticking to the organic means. But if you’ve got a strategic plan where you’re not burning your bank balance and still managing to bring your community right under the eyeballs of thousands of members, this is for you. You can also explore communities that give a shoutout on a barter system.
Servers like “Sound’s World” have thousands of users and advertise new communities to their servers. But to get there the community needs to match certain criteria.
But of course, if you do have the budgets with you, explore paid ad campaigns on social media and search as well to get your Discord community noticed.
Bonus Tip: Don’t ever slow down the activity on your server
This is a simple tip but a lot of communities miss out on this. We’ve been a part of many communities in the past, most of them start actively at the beginning but as time passes by, the community becomes inactive and people start to leave the community.
The moment you get inconsistent, you give the chance to another community to pull away your members. So, remain proactive or set a schedule that’s doable.
Community management is tough – no matter what the channel. It just becomes a little more challenging when you’re using advanced platforms like Discord.
So make sure you’re always up-to-date with all the industry standards required for maintaining and growing a community, and continually experiment your way through them.
If you need help in moderating or growing your community, feel free to reach out to us!
