Why Most Brands Underestimate What Communities Can Really Do
Online communities aren’t just about engagement.
They’re about building trust, enabling product feedback loops, and maximizing customer lifetime value.
Yet, many brands still view them only as support hubs or channels for praise, rather than strategic growth levers.
That’s a missed opportunity.
We recently caught up with Yurii Lazaruk, a globally recognized community consultant, to explore the questions that often get overlooked:
- What truly moves the needle in community-led growth?
- What do executives often get wrong when measuring impact?
- And why is it time to rethink how we view “silent” members?
Yurii’s insights are refreshingly practical.
As we read through them, we reflected on our own experience helping global enterprises build and scale thriving online communities.
So, you’ll also find Grazitti’s perspective woven in, highlighting where strategy meets execution and what we’ve learned along the way.
Here’s what he had to say.
- In what business areas are online communities currently unlocking the most overlooked revenue opportunities, beyond their traditional role in customer support?
Of course, it’s the Product and Marketing sides because on the product side, your community helps you to reduce product development costs, boost product adoption, and accelerate your product innovation. And on the marketing side, it drives you a ton of traffic and love via user-generated content, community-led marketing campaigns, and word-of-mouth referrals!
Grazitti’s Take:
We’ve helped brands co-create with their communities, from ideating features to beta testing and refining messaging.
The result?
Shorter go-to-market cycles, higher product stickiness, and more authentic marketing. Communities aren’t just feedback loops; they’re powerful growth engines.
- What are some early signs that your community is aligned with your larger business goals?
Easy! Your inner teams feel supported and that they’re finding it easier to meet their business goals with the help of the community, because at the end of the day, if they reach their goals, most likely the business overall will reach its goals.
But if we’re talking about specific metrics, you can calculate Support Cost Reduction, Lifetime Value (LTV), Community-Qualified Leads (CQLs), Retention Rate, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). It would be enough to start with.
Grazitti’s Take:
We look at internal adoption and team engagement as early signs of alignment. When marketing, support, and product teams starty using the community for their day-to-day goals proactively, it’s a clear signal that the community is delivering value across business functions.
- As your company grows, how do you keep your community aligned with its original purpose?
Build->Test->Refine – it’s an ongoing process, and you don’t really have to stick to one goal; it can change over time. However, as long as the community serves your members and business in a valuable way, you’ll always find a way to keep it aligned. What can help is defining a broader purpose. One so ambitious that it may never be fully achieved within the community’s lifetime. All smaller goals and key results then become meaningful milestones on the path toward that greater vision.
Grazitti’s Take:
We recommend annual community strategy reviews. Business goals evolve, and your community should adapt without losing its core promise. We often help clients rework their value propositions and governance models to stay aligned with their north star.
- What’s one common trap businesses fall into when trying to tie community engagement to revenue?
Engagement for the sake of engagement, which means counting meaningless posts such as “Thank you”, “Congratulations”, and the conversations about pets that don’t serve any purpose (I mean, except for killing some time while having general conversations).
Meaningful engagement occurs when community members assist one another in addressing challenges and growing together, typically involving a question or challenge and a corresponding outcome.
And even if the community didn’t find a solution, it’s also a result that shows you the way you can improve your business and help your customers even more!
Grazitti’s Take:
We emphasize outcome-based engagement: Is the content influencing buying decisions? Is peer support reducing churn? Engagement should drive business value, not just vanity metrics. That’s why we focus on mapping engagement to conversion paths and retention signals.
- How can you turn quiet members into active contributors without relying on typical gamification tactics?
You know, I’m not a fan of “reviving” quiet learners, because they are quiet for a reason, and it’s a big work to understand exactly the reason. Still, if you’re building a safe, trusted space, and focus on the active members who support others, bring and get value from the community, at some point, those quiet members will also become active, or not, it depends. Still, my main focus is always on the active contributors!
Grazitti’s Take:
We agree. Instead of forcing activity, we work on improving content relevance, accessibility, and value. Sometimes, we create listener-only spaces like digest emails or learning hubs that allow lurkers to consume quietly but still move forward in their journey.
- What are the top three community metrics that matter most to executive sponsors, and how do you measure them effectively?
Oh, wow, it’s a very hard question because it depends on what team you’re working with the most, but let’s go with these:
Support Cost Reduction = Total support cost × % of Deflected cases – when your community answers support tickets, you save real money.
Retention Rate = (The number of customers at the end of the period – Number of new customers acquired during the period) / The number of customers at the beginning of the period) × 100 – community motivates customers to stay.
Lifetime Value (LTV) = Avg. purchase × Frequency × Lifespan – Engaged members = longer relationships = more revenue!
Grazitti’s Take:
In addition to these, we track CQLs (Community Qualified Leads), Content Engagement Value, and Search Success Rate. These help tie community actions to pipeline, customer satisfaction, and product discovery.
- What’s one community-led growth trend that will set leaders apart from the rest in the next 12 months?
Aah! Let me look into my crystal ball!
Once again, the answer – it depends. If you start with “why” and make a community from the very beginning, connected to your business goals, it will set you apart. Instead of those who build a community first and afterward try to get some ROI out of it.
Grazitti’s Take:
This matches what we often tell our clients: community isn’t a standalone initiative. It’s a business strategy. Whether it’s for retention, advocacy, or innovation, starting with “why” ensures every effort pays off.
Grazitti’s Take on Community-Led Growth
At Grazitti Interactive, we’ve seen firsthand how communities can go from being simple support hubs to full-blown growth engines. Yurii’s insights deeply resonate with our own experiences of building, customizing, and scaling online communities for global enterprises.
Here’s how we approach some of the key points Yurii mentioned:
- Revenue Beyond Support: We’ve helped brands unlock hidden revenue through smarter product co-creation, peer-led advocacy, and customer education, all through community initiatives.
- Metrics that Matter: We use frameworks like Community-Qualified Leads (CQLs), support deflection, and engagement-to-conversion mapping to connect community activity directly to pipeline and ROI.
- Sustainable Engagement: While gamification has its place, we believe in enabling meaningful contributions, fostering content creation, peer collaboration, and success story sharing that drives long-term value.
- Strategy First, Tools Second: Like Yurii, we believe the “why” should come before the “how.” Every community strategy we deliver is tightly aligned with our client’s business goals, be it retention, advocacy, or innovation.
Coming Soon: A Real Conversation About Community Impact
Yurii brings a fresh, honest lens to online communities.
He doesn’t just talk engagement, he talks outcomes.
And that’s why we’re hosting an exclusive webinar with him soon, where we’ll dive more in-depth into these topics and answer your biggest community-building questions.
If you’re building, managing, or scaling an online community, this is your chance to hear what works from someone who’s helped some of the best in the industry do it right.
Meet Yurii Lazaruk
Yurii is a community consultant, speaker, and builder who helps brands tie online communities directly to business value. He’s worked with companies across B2B and B2C to help them go beyond vanity metrics and build communities that serve both members and business outcomes. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
About Grazitti Interactive
At Grazitti Interactive, we help businesses grow through smart digital transformation. We work with over 1,100 global brands, including Fortune 500 companies, and have delivered more than 800 successful projects across marketing automation, online communities, CRM, web development, and enterprise search.
Our team of 1,200+ experts operates across the US, India, Canada, Australia, and Singapore. As a Salesforce ISV and AppExchange Partner, we’ve built and implemented over 300 powerful Salesforce solutions tailored to real business goals.
Our in-house products like SearchUnify, Sinergify, and IdeasPro are designed to improve customer support, drive engagement, and increase ROI. We’re proud to be a Great Place to Work-certified company and a trusted partner to leading platforms like Adobe, Microsoft, Khoros, HubSpot, and Shopify.