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Marine Court Community Forum
From apathy to Action: A Real Community Story
Summary
The Challenge
Marine Court is an iconic seafront building on the East Sussex coast, home to over 168 leaseholders, but with no central place for them to connect, ask questions, or raise concerns.
Tensions around building management, finances, and transparency had been simmering for years. But without a clear communication channel, engagement remained low and mistrust continued to grow.
What the community needed wasn’t just another noticeboard — it needed a safe, structured space where residents could share ideas, challenge decisions, and collectively start influencing how the building is run.
The Solution
In just three weeks, I built a private forum from scratch for Marine Court shareholders and reached 45% verified sign-ups.
No paid ads, no existing audience, no corporate muscle.
It worked because I focused on what people actually care about, spoke in a voice they could trust, and removed every barrier to participation.
Project strategy, systems thinking, and communication design came together to create a space that felt both functional and human — turning a disengaged community into an active one.
The Approach
Building the Forum
The forum was built using Discourse and carefully structured with clear positioning, defined tone of voice, GDPR-compliant onboarding, and category segmentation across key topics such as finances, major works, and governance.
Content choices were intentionally constructive, balanced, and inclusive, aiming to engage a broad cross-section of residents and avoid the polarisation that had limited the success of previous community efforts.
An anonymous username format was implemented from the outset to ensure psychological safety, particularly given ongoing tensions with building management that made open participation less safe.
Creating Content
Each post was carefully structured to be informative, emotionally intelligent, and deliberately neutral. Topics were selected based on relevance and timing, with an emphasis on clarity over opinion. The goal was to present facts, context, and questions that enabled residents to form their own views — particularly on complex subjects like finances and governance.
To lower the barrier to entry, early posts incorporated polls and clear, single-focus calls to action. This approach made it easier for even tentative participants to engage and contribute.
CRM Activation
A custom CRM system was built using MailerLite to manage sign-ups, track engagement, and capture key details such as names, contact preferences, and subscriber segmentation for targeted messaging.
Weekly email campaigns were developed to increase interest and participation, each written in a tone that mirrored the forum itself — respectful, human, and low-pressure.
The focus remained on relevance and consistency, helping to grow the community through clear, trustworthy communication.
The Results
86%
Forum Interest
Strong uptake from the most active shareholders that expressed interest in joining
2
Unsubscribers
Very few opted out, showing strong resonance and trust
66 %
Avg. Email Open Rate
Well above industry norms, a strong signal that members valued what was being shared