Building Community Through B2B User Experience

Subject: Community First, Agencies Later Dear CEO, It's not time to invest in marketing if there hasn't been an organic investment of time in the community surrounding your solution. The mistake most early-stage B2B startups make is seeking quick fixes for rapid growth. Here's what I hear almost always: "𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘵?" I start by understanding their commitment. Is there signals of traction or product market fit? 1. How many hours a week are you dedicating to community engagement? 2. What is holding you back from being a voice in the community? 3. What is the biggest blocker for you right now? These questions open the door to transparent discussions. The response generally is - not enough time. I remind them the core of their GTM strategy should be active Community Engagement. Don't rush into expensive partnerships targeting an uninformed audience. Instead, commit yourself/team at min. 6-9 months for substantial time investment in community building. To guide them through this phase, here's a simple framework: 𝟭. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 Network Mindfully: Connect with industry folks, allies, and even competitors. It becomes your strategic playground. Smart Starts: → Add 5-10 new connections weekly. → Engage with 3-5 thought leaders; don't lurk, add commentary. → Share insights—think quality over quantity. → Repeat weekly, show them your invested. Build your name. 𝟮. 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗢𝗩 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 Address Pain Points: Find the sore spots your customers are dealing with, then post your wisdom and POV, offering tools or frameworks that help. Example: → Your customers are drowning in spreadsheets? Post about how your tool is the lifesaver they've been waiting for. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Slack and Facebook Diplomacy: Join 2-3 Slack channels or Facebook groups where your tribe hangs out. Dive in with purpose. Strategic Hangouts: → Dive into # TechTalkSlack or # StartupInsights on Slack. → Check out “Tech Innovators” on Facebook. → Reddit for Common FAQs 𝟰. 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗼𝘀 Personalized Convos: Send personalized messages to new, tenured, churned customers. It’s less Tinder, more coffee chat. Conversation Starters: → Learn what they love, hate, and forgot about the product. → Use their insights for future talks and features 𝟱. 𝗙𝗹𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝟭-𝟰. Improve the product, enhancing features and strengthening the offering from real-time interactions. -------- Focus on building your brand. Your name starts to become a trusted partner. Tying back to the solution, the product, and the business. Because word of mouth is the driver for b2b growth if product market fit. What other ways are you building a community? Sincerely, 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘔𝘖 #gtmstrategy #b2b #cmos

"You're late to market." That's what everyone told us in 2020. 5 competitors had already raised $50M+ each. But being late forced us build a winning brand. Let me explain 👇 The market was crowded: → Every digital events platform looked the same → Everyone chasing the same customers → Everyone making the same promises There were no clear fault lines. So, we made a singular bet. Instead of fighting for the whole market, we'd focus 100% on one persona. B2B marketers. Like this: 📣 Become Part of the Zeitgeist Being known isn't enough. You need to be in the conversations that happen when you're not there. Because over 90% of B2B companies are not ready to buy. But when they are? They have someone in mind. You need to be part of that shortlist. How we did it: → Created Event Marketers Club (our community) → Ran weekly expert sessions (no pitching) → Built deep relationships with CMOs → Showed up where marketers actually were- slack communities ftw! → Focused on their problems (not our features) ♻️ Build a Content Ecosystem Instead of random content, we built a system: → CMO Diaries (our flagship series) → Event Marketer Live (practitioner content) → Deep dive customer stories → Weekly expert roundtables Each piece reinforced our position in the zeitgeist. When CMOs asked their team: "What should we use for events?" The answer was often: "Everyone's talking about Goldcast" Not because of our ads. Not because of our features. But because we owned the conversation. The biggest lesson? Your brand isn't built in campaigns. It's built in conversations you're not part of. Focus on owning those conversations. The rest follows. ✌️

Consistency in community-led Go-to-Market (GTM) doesn't mean bombarding. After observing countless product communities, here's a revelation: To 10x your community-led GTM efforts, it's sometimes more effective to... focus less on frequency and more on quality. 1. Pre-launch co-creation ↳ Involve your potential community early. Co-create the product, from features to marketing. This builds ownership and excitement. ↳ Example: Figma engaged designers early through access programs, allowing feedback that shaped development, ensuring it met user needs. 2. Gamified onboarding ↳ Replace boring tutorials with engaging, game-like experiences. Points, badges, and rewards make learning about your product fun and rewarding. ↳ Example: Grammarly boosts engagement with "daily goals" and streaks, fostering a habit of good writing practices through a fun, rewarding system. 3. Micro-influencer partnerships ↳ Leverage micro-influencers within your community. Their genuine connection with followers can authentically showcase your product's value. ↳ Example: Ahrefs partners with industry bloggers and micro-influencers for tutorials and reviews, effectively expanding brand awareness and trust within the SEO community. 4. Community-driven knowledge base ↳ Encourage users to build the knowledge base. User-generated content and peer-to-peer support enhance engagement and collective wisdom. ↳ Example: Zapier leverages its community forum for users to exchange automation workflows and solutions, enhancing the platform's value through collective wisdom. This approach doesn't require daily actions but involves strategic, meaningful engagement that fosters a strong, vibrant community around your product. Remember, quality over quantity always wins. ❤️♻️ P.S. How often do you engage with your community? I think we should aim for meaningful interactions 4-5 times a week. __ 📌 If you found this helpful, reshare this to your network and follow me Joseph Abraham for daily Go-to-market insights, frameworks, tools, and tips

Most B2B companies suck at building communities. Why? Because they think it means firing up a Slack channel, inviting customers and then watching as $$$ rolls in. Here's the difference between a Bad and Good B2B community: Bad B2B Community: - Vendor says “Let’s start a community on Slack” - Vendor has no social presence, so no idea what to talk about to draw people in - Goal is to drive sales - Vendor only invites customers - Convo is about features/product  - Turns into forum for complaining about product - Moderated by an intern with zero expertise - Seen as a cost center by execs at the vendor - When inevitably it doesn’t “work”, it gets dialed back Good B2B Community: - Goal ISN’T to drive sales, does not roll up into a revenue team - Goal is to GIVE - educate, connect people, make people better at their jobs - Current customers AND non-customers are welcome - Built around deep subject matter expertise in a given topic/topics - Topics are known because vendor has already built community on social - Conversation is about these topics, not about vendors product/features - Moderated by someone WITH the actual subject-matter expertise - Effortlessly flows from digital to physical events and spaces - Gets more investment with zero attributable revs b/c vendor gets it - Gives access to individuals that the community cares about - Creates one of the only two moats in SaaS (brand is the other) TAKEAWAY: It’s easy for founders to think that starting a community is as easy as: 1. Firing up a slack channel  2. Inviting your customers 3. Waiting for the $$$ to roll in That’s NOT what makes a great community. Community is about giving and expecting nothing in return. What’s Retention.com's plan for 2024? 1. We’re going to record and publicize our weekly strategy calls & my meetings, so people can see what it actually takes to build a business. 2. We’ll have a bi-weekly ask-me-anything with me and Santosh Sharan, to talk about your startup. 3. We'll provide updated playbooks on signals-based selling, outbound and PLG motions we're using to grow Retention's new B2B product. 4. We’ll have monthly “LinkedIn Influencer” planning sessions and content teardowns w/ me and Alec Paul (my coach) for our top-tier members, so you can master LinkedIn. Plus, Santosh and I are going to moderate the community ourselves! Not some underpaid Community Manager. That’s our starting point, but I know it won’t be where we’ll end. What would you like to see from us in our community space? Answer in the comments below… 👇 P.S. Want early access to our community? Go to RB2B(dot)com, click GET STARTED and sign up for the waitlist. We'll send you an invite once it's live.