How to Grow Your Community to 10,000+ Active Members with Email Automation

 72% of businesses report that they plan to increase community investments in 2025

Creatorlabz

Building your community on Facebook, Discord is like building your business on rented land. Algorithms shift, reach declines, and control slips through your fingers. 

That’s why smart brands are investing in owned platforms, spaces they control to shape experiences and spark real connections.

While emails get you clicks, communities get you loyalty. They’ve moved beyond broadcasting to build spaces where people feel seen, heard, and part of something greater.

But building that kind of community doesn’t happen by accident. It takes consistency, intention, and the right strategy behind the scenes. That’s where email automation comes in.

Let’s explore how top brands use email automation to power thriving communities and how you can do the same.

What Makes a Community Succeed (And Why Most Don’t)

Successful communities don’t happen by chance. They need a clear purpose, a smart structure, and consistent care to thrive.

These are the common points that make a community great, and how sometimes most brands forget this:

1. Platform with a Purpose: Choose the right space. Your community should feel natural on the platform you use. A tech forum won’t work well on Facebook, and a casual chat group might flop on a corporate intranet.
2. Loyal Advocates: Communities are central to long-term loyalty and brand advocacy, not just “clicks” but deep, ongoing relationships.
3. Onboarding & Early Wins: The first week matters most. Members who engage early are much more likely to stick around. Use emails to guide newcomers and celebrate small wins fast.
4. Automation with Human Touch: Automation keeps things smooth, but real people make it meaningful. Combine timely automated emails with personal check-ins and shoutouts.
5. Ongoing Engagement & Recognition: Most successful brands keep the conversation flowing with challenges, polls, and member spotlights. According to Moldstud, recognizing active members boosts participation by over 30%.
6. Community Roles & Champions: Give power to your advocates. Assign roles or perks to those who help grow and guide the community.

Most visionary brands know it. So they are investing more in the community now. Brands that invest in community experience greater organic marketing, with members acting as brand ambassadors and driving word-of-mouth growth.

What Kind of Communities Can You Build?

Communities come in many shapes. Some gather around shared passions, others around transformation, purpose, or progress. From classrooms and clubs to creative collectives and customer networks, what unites them all is a sense of belonging.

You don’t need thousands of followers to start one. You need intention. You need a connection. And you need a system that supports growth without losing the human touch.

That’s where tools like FluentCRM and spaces like FluentCommunity quietly come in, empowering creators, educators, and founders to stay personal while scaling impact.

Online Courses to Shared Experience

Some communities don’t begin with conversation; they begin with a curriculum.

Online courses are no longer just for transferring knowledge. For educators, creators, and coaches, they’ve become powerful entry points for building thriving, interactive communities. These spaces evolve when students move from passive learning to active sharing.

It’s when the students grow from asking questions and giving feedback to celebrating progress together. This model works beautifully for photographers, designers, writers, fitness coaches, and anyone turning their skills into a learning experience.

What helps them grow? A mix of personal storytelling, peer connection, and just enough automation to keep momentum alive without overwhelming the creator.

And when done right, what begins as a single course can quietly grow into a movement.

Quick Suggestions: If you need inspiration for welcome emails for your community, you can check out this blog.

How does this automation work?

An automation that can work like a charm for this category of community is:

• Trigger: Automation starts as soon as the Tag is applied.
• Action: Send a welcome email with course, community, and welcome pack links.
• Action: Wait for 7 days
• Condition: Then check if the condition “Completed Basic Course” is matched.
  • If Yes: Apply a tag “Basic Course Graduate” and send a congratulatory email
  • If No: Send a reminder email, wait 3 days, and send a follow-up email with additional guidance

This is a basic automation for welcome emails in an online course community. You can customize it in any place you want.

How One Photographer Turned a Course into a Movement through Community and Automation

Christian Anderl didn’t set out to build a massive following. He set out to build a connection. What started as a photography course quickly evolved into something much deeper: a vibrant, purpose-driven community where thousands of photographers now learn, grow, and lift each other up.

His platform, Shootcamp, isn’t just about mastering technical skills. It’s about rediscovering creativity, sharing personal journeys, and helping others feel seen through the lens.

As the community grew, Christian ensured it remained personal by building a thoughtful support system with FluentCommunity. And, supporting a community shaped with this much purpose is what the FluentCRM team is grateful for.

Today, Shootcamp connects over 12,000 photographers worldwide. But what makes it remarkable isn’t the size, it’s the intention. The community was designed with empathy, sustained by meaningful systems, and powered by the belief that creativity is best shared.

Christian’s story is a blueprint for modern creators and humanity: lead and live with purpose and build with care.

Empower Education Through Community

Educational communities thrive when learning moves beyond lectures, when students, teachers, and mentors come together to ask, share, and grow. Whether it’s a cohort of online learners, a language exchange group, or a peer-to-peer study circle, education becomes powerful when it feels personal.

Whether you’re a course creator, a coach, a university educator, a fitness instructor, or a subject-matter expert, building an educational community lets you move beyond lectures into a shared journey.

Take a course platform where students join for the content but stay for the camaraderie. Over time, what starts as lesson modules turns into late-night discussions, shared struggles, and collective wins.

But as these learning networks grow, so does the complexity. Managing announcements, nudging inactive learners, and recognizing achievements, without burning out, is no small task.

That’s where automation becomes a quiet partner.

Quick Suggestion: Through which member likes which education content, you can segment your members well, for better engagement. For more ideas on psychographic segmentation, check out this blog!

How does the automation work?

• Trigger: The automation starts as soon as the trigger ‘Joined in a space’ is activated.
• Action: Immediately send a custom email, “Welcome to Your Growth Journey!”, introducing the features the member will get.
• Action: After waiting for 1 day, send another email, suggesting that they enroll in a more helpful course.

From Vision to Movement: Building a Community That Thrives

When Alex Bruton set out to build Moonshot OS, he wasn’t chasing flashy features or rapid growth. He wanted to create a seamless experience, a space where educators, coaches, and leaders could finally focus on growth and impact.

Early on, Alex faced the frustration of juggling disconnected tools, scattered plugins, and systems that just didn’t talk to each other. The vision was clear, but the technology made the mission feel impossible. The strategy got buried under chaos. Community became an afterthought. Scaling felt like a dream out of reach.

Determined, Alex built a system where everything flows quietly in the background, supporting leaders without getting in their way. It’s a space designed to bring order to digital chaos and to nurture growth with care.

Through Moonshot OS, Alex has empowered visionary leaders, those with powerful content, deep expertise, and real impact, to turn fragmented efforts into thriving, scalable communities.

What sets Moonshot OS apart is its carefully crafted system, designed to deliver seamless experiences and real results. With FluentCRM and FluentCommunity working quietly behind the scenes, the platform provides the solid foundation that enables leaders to focus on growth and meaningful connection.

Alex continues to shape a place where education and community grow hand in hand, on his terms, and at his own pace, and inspires many leaders across all industries.

Clubs and Associations that Turn Members into a Community

Whether it’s an alumni group, a local hiking club, or a growing community of artists, associations thrive when members feel consistently connected and seen. These aren’t just social gatherings, they’re shared journeys around a common purpose.

Take a creative club that meets weekly to paint and unwind. Over time, what started as a casual workshop becomes something deeper: a space for expression, encouragement, and lifelong learning. 

Members probably showed up for the activity, and they stayed for the community.

But as these groups grow, so do the challenges. Keeping everyone informed, engaged, and appreciated can become a full-time job. And it is very overwhelming.

But with automation handling the routine touchpoints, organizers can focus on what matters most: nurturing relationships, facilitating meaningful moments, and letting the community grow organically and with purpose.

How does the Automation Work?

• Trigger: The automation starts when there is an event, and contacts fulfill the criteria to join that event.
• Action: A custom invitation email to the event is sent after the member fulfills the criteria.
• Condition: After waiting for 1 day, the automation checks a condition to check if the invitation is accepted or not.
  • If Yes: “Active Member” tag is applied to the contact, and a custom email is sent with the subject “Your Reservation is Confirmed!”
  • If No: Automation waits for “2 days” and then sends a custom email with the subject “Only a few reservations are left!”
• End This Funnel Here: Both the “No” and “Yes” paths eventually lead to “End This Funnel Here”, sending them just 2 emails.

This is automation is a fantastic way to segment your audience and provide a personalized experience based on their engagement. And you can customize it any way you want.

Quick Suggestion: This automation also helps you to identify between active and inactive members. You can initiate a list cleaning with automation.

How an Artist Turned Her Passion into a Creative Movement

Gee Adriaansz didn’t start with a grand strategy. She started with a sketchbook, a brush, and a deep love for nature. What began as a personal journey to reconnect with creativity became something far more powerful: a thriving art community that helps others do the same.

Her platform, built around watercolor, birds, and everyday beauty, is now home to thousands of learners who don’t just want to paint but want to feel part of something meaningful.

Through her Art club,  Gee offers courses, challenges, and monthly inspiration. But more than that, it’s the way she connects with warmth, clarity, and purpose that makes her community special. 

It’s not just about teaching technique; it’s about helping people slow down, express themselves, and build confidence through creativity.

And as the community grew, Gee made a crucial decision: to scale the right way. She built thoughtful systems with FluentCommunity and FluentCRM to guide and support her members, without losing the personal touch.

Each message feels timely and intentional, because it is. Today, her community is not only growing, it’s glowing. Her community keeps on inspiring artists and creators, and is an inspiration for other people in different niches as well.

How to Grow Your Community with Email Automation (Without Burning Out)

So far, you’ve seen how creators, educators, and founders built thriving communities, not just through passion, but through intentional systems that scale connection.

Now let’s bring it to your world.

Whether you’re starting a membership site, running a coaching program, or hosting workshops, email automation can help you grow, engage, and support your community, without overwhelming yourself.

Here’s how:

1. Welcome New Members with Intention

The first impression matters. Use an automated welcome sequence to introduce your mission, share community guidelines, and point new members toward their first small win.

Remember, the more personalized the better. Not just their first name, but their preference for service, behaviour, and activity.

2. Re-Engage Inactive Members

People get busy. A gentle nudge at the right time can bring them back into the conversation. Give them incentives to re-engage with you.

Did you know? 76% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that fosters a strong online community. If you can plan your automation well, you can even promote your product and service in your community with a re-engagement automation.

3. Celebrate Milestones & Contributions

Make members feel seen. Automate recognition emails for course completions, event attendance, or community participation.

The more the member feels seen, the more the member will engage. And, not just that, personalize your emails as much as possible.

4. Segment for Relevance

Not every email needs to go to everyone. Segment based on interest, activity level, or learning stage to send content that feels personal, even at scale.

For example, beginner artists should get different emails from advanced members in a painting community.

You can track user activity and behaviour from contacts and set automation according to that.

5. Ask for Feedback

You can’t grow a meaningful community without listening. Feedback isn’t just a nice to have; it’s your clearest signal on what’s working, what’s not, and where to go next.

Whether it’s a quick poll, a follow-up email, or a feedback form after an event, asking your members how they feel shows you care and gives you insights no analytics tool can.

Build Together, Grow With Purpose, Lead at Your Pace

As a creator or community leader, you’re not just sharing knowledge, you’re building something bigger: connection, belonging, growth.

But let’s be real: the bigger your community gets, the harder it is to keep things personal. Messages slip through the cracks, updates feel rushed, and what once felt meaningful can start feeling… messy.

That’s why having the right systems matters. Not flashy tools, just simple support that helps you stay focused on your people, your vision, and your pace.

You don’t need to do it all. You just need a setup that has your back while you keep showing up for the community that trusts you.

Because the heart of every strong community isn’t the platform, it’s the people.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you want to nurture your community, here are a few questions you might wonder about: