Why B2B Marketers Prefer Specialist Communities for Deeper Engagement

For several years now, social media marketing has been an important tool in the B2B sales and marketing toolkit to reach and connect with prospects and customers. And with good reason. Connecting and engaging on professional platforms such as LinkedIn is valuable for identifying and connecting with prospects and starting one-to-one conversations.

But these platforms can become quite generic and noisy. Aside from your brand, there are thousands of other brands in diverse, unconnected verticals – pitching everything from career advancements to workplace wellbeing. Well-intentioned, self-regulated “groups” on these platforms often end-up becoming “market places” with vendors offering unsolicited pitches and not enough value to members.

And that is why many B2B marketers are exploring the power of community in new and relevant ways. If your brand has considered building a community, we know what you are thinking. “We’ve tried building a community, but it takes a ton of work, a ton of investment, and the community ends up losing steam without solid ongoing efforts”. And you’d be right. Building communities does take a lot of time, effort, investment, and staying power.

So, what is the alternative for B2B brands seeking to build or connect with communities?

The Power of Specialist Communities

Specialist communities are emerging as a great option for brands seeking high-quality engagement with specific groups of professionals. They offer all the benefits and convenience of professional networking sites – without the noise; as well as the focus of owned communities, without the effort or investments they entail. For example, a community such as Spiceworks, designed specially for IT professionals, offers tech marketers a vertical-specialist platform with direct access to a huge community of IT decision makers (ITDMs).

For big and small brands alike, communities offer an opportunity to create passionate word-of-mouth advocates by laser-focusing on audience needs. Especially for enterprise brands, such communities offer an unbeatable way to humanize “corporate” brands, and connect one-to-one with those “lone crusaders” inside companies who can give much needed insights on account preferences. 

But not every brand will succeed with community marketing. Here are a few tips to help make the most of being part of a specialist community:

1. Start and stick with creating value for the community with insights, expertise, and participation. 
2. Stay consistent. You can’t jump in and out of communities – you need to treat it like a marathon, not a sprint. Many brand reps on Spiceworks, for example, have become community celebrities, trusted by members for their valued and always-available inputs.
3. Mind your tone and manner. Corporate speak has no place in a community. Authentic voices, brand quirks, and human-ness are more welcome than generic brand profiles. Community is foremost about finding and serving your ideal audience, not creating a pipeline of customers.
4. Be transparent. Members don’t have a problem with brands joining their community. They have a problem with brands that pose as community members but actually only want to sell products. So while you may have a “brand page” to showcase your solutions, the content should aim to best solve audience problems, not promote service. 
5. Enrich the network. While specialist communities have less “noise,” there is also a wide variety of companies offering complementary services and products. Collaborate with them to create even more value for members. 

Picking the Right Community

Naturally B2B marketers should partner with specialist communities that offer a perfect audience match. But there are also a few additional considerations to keep in mind:

1. Access to an ecosystem of complementary engagement opportunities: what does the community offer the brand beyond “brand pages” and access to community conversations? For example, the chance to build brand awareness and nurture audiences with additional channels such as email marketing, content syndication, display and native advertising opportunities,  sponsorship and speaking opportunities at events (digital and in-person), branded contests, and quizzes.
2. Value-added services: does the community offer your brand additional differentiated services to better understand and serve audiences? These could include:
   1. Community brand representatives who are both – industry and community-management experts, to keep the brand top-of-mind and act as the brand eyes, ears, and voice. This offering is perfect for brands that don’t have the bandwidth to engage daily with the community.
   2. Structured and regulated advocacy programs to gather insights and support from practitioners who are passionate about your brand.
   3. Regular reporting on activity, engagement, performance, and ROI.
   4. Regular research reports and surveys that offer a true pulse on audience needs and preferences
3. A proven track record of owning all the logistical, admin, technology, and security considerations and investments that come with setting up and running a credible community with longevity.

When it comes to success with a specialist community, the tangible and intangible play a crucial part. As Brent Patrick from Scale Computing (an active brand in the Spiceworks Community) says, the improved marketing ROI and the value of community are critical. “It’s invaluable. You can’t put a price on the level of engagement and brand recognition that we’ve built within the Spiceworks Community.”

For B2B brands that want to engage with a high-quality audience in a well-managed community, specialist communities offer the perfect all-in solution and great marketing ROI. But finding the right community partner and building a perfect rapport with your audience is still at the core of making it work.