👥 How Notion built a $10B community (without spending on ads)

Hey there,

Welcome back to another edition of Bootstrapped Growth. 👋

Today, we dive into community-led growth where customers become co-creators.

Table of Contents

• 🚀 Strategy

• ⭐️ Extra Tips

• 🛠️ Resources

Thanks for reading. Let’s jump in!

🚀 3 Killer Ways to Grow User Communities

1) Empower 'superfans' to make content

Notion (productivity software) built templates and encouraged users to share them publicly. They made sharing frictionless with one-click template duplication. Power users like Thomas Frank and Marie Poulin built businesses teaching Notion with hundreds of YouTube courses. New users learn from community members. This has generated millions in free marketing for Notion, demonstrating value and growing user acquisition.

Takeaway ➡️ Create features that make user-generated content creation valuable and simple. The best customers become unpaid advocates.

2) Create a 'builder' ecosystem with financial incentives

Figma (design software) transformed from a design tool into a platform with the launch of ‘Community’ templates, files and plugins from designers. Some creators can earn six figures selling Figma assets without commissions being taken. Figma benefits immensely from this platform stickiness.

Takeaway ➡️ Turn your product into a platform where users can build businesses. Success from your users can become your growth engine.

2) Enable public forums to turn users into problem-solvers

Coda’s (document collaboration tool) community is composed of power users who make and share interactive doc templates known as ‘packs’. Their community of makers host office hours, troubleshoot, create tutorials, and answer questions in the community forum. These effectively become product demos at scale, led by users who can find ways to apply your product in innovative ways.

Takeaway ➡️ Allow your user community to define and demonstrate your product's value. Your users may uncover unplanned use cases, driving user stickiness.

⭐️ 4 actionable tips for building communities that drive growth

1) Begin with a small but high-intent group. Invite 20-50 passionate ‘power’ users and give them exclusive access or perks. Enable them to define the culture before scaling.

2) Create status and recognition systems. People tend to contribute more when there's social capital at stake within an ecosystem. Clever ways to encourage growth include giving top contributors visibility through leaderboards or recognition through badges or titles like ‘expert’.

3) Make sharing the default. One-click sharing should be built into your core product experience to automatically demonstrate value to new viewers. It will also reflect well on sharers.

4) Give real ownership to your community. Allow your most engaged users influence the product roadmap through beta access, feedback sessions, or voting on features. Making community members feel like co-creators increases their likelihood of promoting your product naturally.

🛠 Useful Resources

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