Cultivating a thriving community around your content will increase subscriber retention, loyalty, and engagement. It can be a self-sustaining environment for your subscribers to interact, share ideas, and learn from each other. Here's how to effectively foster a community of people interested in your work.
Higher loyalty, stronger retention, lower churn
Creating a community and making your subscribers part of it isn't only to increase their loyalty to you. It can become a curated place where people interact with others who share their views or interests. The community members are "filtered" - they are very interested in what you do and have to pay to get in, which is usually a good indicator that they are serious. Ultimately, your subscription doesn't have to be only about you. You can facilitate great conversations and a place where people with the same interests come to talk, learn, and help. Without you, they may not have another place to find and talk to each other. And of course, you should join the discussion, too.
The value of community
If you manage to create a thriving community where people come to discuss things, it will greatly increase your retention rate and decrease churn. You will basically diversify the reasons that keep people subscribed. If they don't find your content valuable or interesting anymore, they can stay only to have access to the community. Otherwise, these people would have been gone.
Having a niche
How to create a community? Talk about interesting things you're into, be good at it, bring value, and the right people will find you. What you talk about has to be something specific, which isn't a problem in most cases. This ensures that your audience is almost entirely comprised of people with the same views and interests.
💡 Keep in mind
The broader your scope, the more difficult it would be to attract an audience that would pay because there are many other free places online where you can talk about anything.
Being active in the comments section
A community can form almost independently, but a proper community will be difficult to foster without your involvement. You can support its formation by being active in the comments section of your content - especially on YouTube that highlights your posts and makes it easy for others to find them and see whether you commented at all. Comment sections on Instagram and TikTok aren't meant for serious conversations, so focus primarily on YouTube, but even responding to individual comments on other social networks will make the audience members feel seen and if you're popular, your response will definitely make their day.
You can start building your community this way even before you start the paid membership. People will see that you engage in the discussion and will be motivated to watch your videos and then interact with you and others in the comments or at least check out what you discussed. The more authentic you are, the easier it will go. The willingness of your audience to engage in a discussion is a good indicator of the potential of your paid subscription, too.
To foster community building, create public content that engages the audience, like live Q&As or rating or reviewing the work your audience submitted if it's applicable in your field.
It's great to start doing these before you start offering paid membership.
💡 Keep in mind
You need superfans. There’s no easier way to make them than directly interacting with individual members of your audience.
Having a mission
The community will be much easier to build and maintain, and it will be easier to attract new subscribers if you stand for or against something - in other words, if you give your subscribers a sense of mission. Supporting you will then mean supporting the mission itself. Your subscribers - and your whole audience - will be connected by something very important to them. This is a very good place to be - your relationship won't be purely transactional.
They won't watch the value they're getting for their money so closely because they will also perceive their subscription as a support of what you do, not just a purchase of access to your paid content. This doesn't mean you can afford to slack off and neglect content creation for paid subscribers. It means they will be more loyal and perhaps have a bit lower standards for the content than they would if they were solely paying to get something back.
Honesty
As Warren Buffet said, it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Being directly financially dependent on your audience means you have to be very careful to stay on good terms with them and be honest. Most creators don't have that many opportunities to mess up, but if you're in a highly emotionally charged industry and covering sensitive topics, an unsubscribe avalanche can hit you anytime you say or do something your audience doesn't approve of. Financially supporting you will make them feel they partially funded whatever unacceptable action you took. If they didn't pay you anything, it wouldn't hit them so hard. Many creators in this space who gain some following become very aware of what their audience wants to hear and tend to stay within those limits.
Moderating the discussion
Choose a platform that allows subscribers to add posts and reply to each other. It's unlikely there will be any problematic subscribers in the discussion who would post spam, self-promotional posts, or create any other sort of trouble early on, but as your subscriber base grows, it can become an attractive place for exactly this kind of people. You can police the discussion yourself or identify and ask someone from the community to become a moderator and take care of this. Offering a free subscription in exchange could be a good incentive - especially if it's more expensive, but it will be worth it if there are individuals negatively impacting the overall experience.
Remember
👉 A thriving community increases retention and decreases churn by diversifying reasons to stay subscribed.
👉 Communities are easier to build around a niche topic and shared interests.
👉 By being active in the comments section of your content, you can start building a community even before starting a paid membership.
👉 Your responses aren’t only about how many people see them. The individuals you respond to will remember it for a long time.
👉 A mission or cause tied to your community creates deeper, more loyal relationships with your audience.
👉 Honesty is crucial to maintaining trust, as subscribers feel personally invested in your work.
Homework
1️⃣ Respond to comments on platforms like YouTube to encourage interaction and give your audience a sense of being seen.
2️⃣ Before you even offer a paid membership, engage your followers with Q&As or content that encourages discussion.
3️⃣ Clarify your community’s purpose and create content that supports this mission to strengthen loyalty among your subscribers.
4️⃣ Be transparent with your audience to preserve your reputation and avoid causing harm to your community’s trust.
👏 Path to mastery!
Next lesson
Membership marketing →
There's so much work that goes into our Academy. To ensure that everyone has an opportunity to learn, we'll always keep it free. Can you help us to spread the word?
Launch Digital Products
Sell e-books, guides, templates, and videos with ease. Build your audience, collect emails, and turn your knowledge into profit - all in just a few clicks.
Offer 1:1 Sessions
Turn your expertise into personalized coaching. Manage scheduling, payments, and client interactions with a simple, integrated system that works for you.
Offer Coaching Bundles
Package your 1:1 sessions into bundles and offer them at a great value. Make it easy for clients to book multiple sessions, while you earn more.
Build Memberships
Create exclusive content for your community and offer recurring subscriptions. Engage your members & grow your revenue—no tech skills needed.
Create Lead Magnets
Attract new customers with irresistible lead magnets like free guides, checklists, and templates. Grow your email list and convert visitors into loyal customers fast.
Build Custom Products
Design and sell custom digital products tailored to your audience. Whether it’s unique services or personalized offerings, Flowlance makes it easy to bring your ideas to life.
