How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Community Marketing?
Today’s brands have to compete hard for the attention of their audiences. One increasingly popular way to get that attention is community marketing. But how can B2B companies use community marketing to their advantage? They can use it to foster connections with their customers, for one thing, and to build trust with them, too. When businesses market to other businesses, they might hope to achieve a couple of results. One would be greater customer loyalty, with customers sticking around for a longer period of time. Another would be greater engagement. And a third would be more revenue.
Understanding Community Marketing
Community marketing refers to the practice of engaging people and potential customers within a community. It emphasizes relationship-building over mere product-selling. Statista research shows that 90% of consumers trust the recommendations of people they know, making community marketing a prime vehicle for cultivating the sort of authentic, relationship-driven marketing that leads to increased trust and loyalty.
Moreover, this tactic enables brands to collect worthwhile critiques straight from their consumers. By engaging in community dialogues, brands can pinpoint grievances and adjust their products accordingly. For instance, firms such as HubSpot have fostered thriving communities centered on their software, in which users are implored to render opinions and recommend enhancements.
In addition, the customer retention role of community marketing is one of the most critical of this practice and performs the most significant role in the return on investment.
I had to smile when I came across the article in Forbes that claimed, “It costs five times as much to acquire new customers as it does to keep your current ones.”
The article went on to talk about how retaining your existing customers is far less expensive than acquiring new ones. That is a mainstay in the marketing business, yet I was surprised to find it in Forbes.
How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Community Marketing?
Here is the source sentence rephrased:
B2B brands can derive a number of direct benefits from community marketing.
- Building Trust: Interacting with customers engenders trust. When brands pay attention to their communities, they demonstrate the worth of their feedback.
- More Engagement: Online communities support conversations and interactions. Communities work to a company’s advantage in that respect. According to a HubSpot study, the average engagement rate is 19% higher for companies that have strong online communities.
- Advocacy by customers: Customers who are members of the community and are satisfied often become advocates. They tend to share their positive experiences, and this influences the potential customers.
Community marketing can increase sales and revenue. Establishing community spaces for customers to express their desires creates branding opportunities. A report from Gartner states that businesses with active engagement strategies see 20% more revenue. That’s what community does.
Furthermore, lead generation can benefit from community marketing. By providing a community with meaningful resources and insights, companies can engage potential buyers. For example, at Salesforce, in leading their community platform (where truly unique content is shared, and users help each other), the company’s sales teams find plenty of leads.
Best Practices for Implementing Community Marketing
B2B brands need to think about the following best practices when they implement community marketing:
- Pinpoint Your Target Population: Understanding the identity of your audience enables the customization of the community’s concentration and substance.
- Pick the Right Place: Pick the spaces where the people you’re trying to reach spend their time. This can mean forums or social media, for some audiences, or platforms like Discord or Slack, for others.
- Participate in the community: Have conversations and engage with people. When members of the community ask you a question, answer it promptly. This signals that you are invested in their success.
- Constitute Worth: Dispense worthwhile content that meets the demands of your society. This cultivates confidence and retains participants in the interactive process.
As a case in point, take Microsoft, which has been very successful at building communities around its products. These communities offer resources, support, and networking opportunities. One of the best examples of community marketing I know of is the Microsoft Tech Community. The Tech Community serves as a platform for community members to discuss Microsoft technologies.
Measuring the Success of Community Marketing
Brands need to track key performance indicators (KPIs) to grasp the influence of community marketing. KPIs might encompass several metrics, such as:
- How Posts and Discussions Are Engaging People
- Count of members currently engaged in the community
- The rates of lead generation and conversion.
- Satisfaction scores from customers
Surveys can also shed light on community concerns and show where improvements are needed. A survey might show that the community feels it isn’t kept up to date on new services or products. Community members’ feedback is essential in tailoring services to the community’s satisfaction.
In addition, measuring sales growth associated with community efforts can assist in monetizing community marketing undervalued for its potential to drive sales. Companies that cultivate communities around their products and services generally perform better financially than those that do not. A study by Nielsen found that revenue growth for community-driven companies often outpaces that of their competitors.
Conclusion
In wrapping up this topic, I want to stress how much B2B brands can benefit from community marketing. The tools we have to engage with our prosumer customers have exploded, and there is no better way than using these tools to develop a sense of community with our B2B customers—using Facebook, Twitter, or even LinkedIn for our vocational communities. Once those communities are in place, driving sales becomes a much more effortless process.
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