How can SaaS providers build a community?

I have been building a community of builders at Micro SaaS HQ for the last 2 years. The ecosystem is more around Micro SaaS, Info Products, Newsletters etc.

Some learnings

• Community takes huge amount of time (really huge time)
• You need to be passionate about the community.
• Understand the core goal of the community. (I think in your case, its more about your SaaS product)
• Keep the interactions warm. (Answer every question)
• Not everyone has time. Send a weekly email with updates, what's happening in the community.

Additional points if you are building one for your SaaS:

• Mostly in the initial stages of the product, people use it to reach out for any issues/suggestions. So start with a Slack/Discord. Preferably go with Slack as most people use Slack these days by default.
• Share product tips, success stories from existing customers.
• Get on a call once in a while with your subscribers like a Open Q&A (or just for a casual conversation/product roadmap discussion)

I joined a Community called Growth Marketing Pros and asked the founder for some tips + how long it took to get going (he uses Slack) - meaning when people turned up there was some activity there and it looked like a place worth joining. He said:

I would say after 1 year it started to look busy and active.

For methods, constant communication and incentivizing communication to members.

providing value like reports, live events, tips etc

In a way we figured out that we have to create a reason for people to come back and stick with our community.

Relationships in data. Relationships in contact. Relationships is contract. Relationships in daily business requirements. And inference.