Initially presented at Social Media Strategies Summit 2020, this talk features best practices on how to get your first signups, increase engagement, and grow your community. Included here are dozens of tips from nearly 20 community leaders and experts, with lots of resources and links to great communities and tools. Presented by Serial Marketers community founder David Berkowitz; request access at www.serialmarketers.net.

1. 1
How to Build and Run
a Successful B2B
Community
David Berkowitz
Founder, Serial Marketers
(join us: serialmarketers.net)
@dberkowitz | david@serialmarketer.net

2. What we’ll cover today
• Why launch a
community
• Steps to launching one
• Highs and lows of
building a community
• Brilliance from 15
community masters
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3. 3
What’s your desired outcome?

4. Steps to launching
your community
1. Start with why
2. Determine the ideal member
3. Decide on the business model
4. Figure out the main
channel(s)/platform(s)
5. Build the guts of it
6. Send the first invites
7. Optimize around feedback
8. Announce/spread the word
9. Optimize around desired
scale 4

5. The typical order
1. Come up with idea
2. Decide on channel
(maybe at same time as step 1)
3. Create it
4. Launch it
5. Pray, celebrate, cry –
likely all at once
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6. Choose your approach
(but at least try a few steps from the right)
1. Come up with idea
2. Decide on channel
(maybe at same time as step 1)
3. Create it
4. Launch it
5. Pray, celebrate, cry –
likely all at once
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1. Start with why
2. Determine the ideal member
3. Decide on the business model
4. Figure out the main
channel(s)/platform(s)
5. Build the guts of it
6. Send the first invites
7. Optimize around feedback
8. Announce/spread the word
9. Optimize around desired scale
10. Pray, celebrate, cry (this all
happens no matter what)

7. Community shortens cycles
“For decades, B2B software sales has
been positioned as a just-the-facts,
logic-led endeavor. As adoption cycles
have sped up to meet emerging
business needs, and global events like
COVID have cut red tape in record
time… some of these processes no
longer apply. B2B software business
development teams are
creating ways to steward
relationships between purchase
cycles, and one of these is online
community.”
Perry Hewitt
Colechurch Consulting

8. Moments of
Victory
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9. Gauging interest
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10. First signups

11. $5 design (thanks, Fiverr)
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12. Early catalysts
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13. 1,000 members
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14. Moving beyond Slack
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15. Moments of
Frustration
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16. Keeping up with the Joneses
16

17. Constant feeling of winging it
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18. The tightrope: a founder and
member
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19. Tips from
Community
Leaders
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20. Starting the
community

21. Pay intention
“When starting your community,
invite customers and prospects
intentionally. Start with people
you know to be thoughtful
problem solvers, and provide
incentives (free product training
sessions, exclusive offline
events) for them to join.”
Perry Hewitt
Colechurch Consulting

22. Earn your degrees
“Start with friends, and then if
they like it, ask them to
recommend one person and
on and on, and quickly you'll
have a few degrees
removed.” Alex Taub
Upstream

23. Build with your members
“Be very specific in what you're
offering in the community, but at the
same time transparent about the fact
that the community is in its early
stages. The members will be more
forgiving and flexible, and the best
community is in fact one that is
built with members, not for them.
They'll be excited to take on the
challenge and be part of the early
stages of your community!”
Danielle Letayf
Badassery

24. Orient members around the
mission
“As it relates to getting the actual members, be
vocal about the mission of the community that
you're starting, the types of people you're looking
for and how it will benefit them specifically (and
how your community is different from the millions
of others out there).
I always opt for starting with my own network or
asking people I know for their recommendations
of people who would be a good fit to maintain
quality in the early stages. If that's not an option,
feel free to promote across your social channels,
but make sure to create a process to vet for
quality for the initial cohort.”
Danielle Letayf
Badassery

25. Why are you here?
“Use profiles and
introductions to create
context. Encourage new
members to add something
about why they are here in
the community when
introducing themselves.”
Charlene Li
Quantum Networks

26. Out with the old
“Go to relevant communities
that are on dead platforms. It's a
great time to convert people
from forums to Slack
communities now.”
David Markovich
Online Geniuses

27. Keep on farming
“Build incrementally: If you
have a big vision, starting
with a Slack channel or an
email list is a great way to
begin to cultivate traction.”
Geoff Bruskin
White Tiger
Connections

28. Say what you mean
“Clever doesn't always work. I
love a play on words and watched
as my confused community
members not understand a feature
I was providing them. It's
sometimes better to call a job
board a job board and not
something clever.”
Rob Beeler
AdOpsOnline

29. Use surveys to source advocates
“The first step is I send an email with a short five-
question survey. Questions should be relevant to the
company but somethings I have asked in the past are,
‘What events do you attend?’ and, ‘What blogs or trade
publications do you read?" I always include one or two silly
questions like, ‘What is your favorite comfort food?’
Say you send this to 100 people. Maybe 30 open the email
and 11 respond. Those 11 people are the ones I start with
to build the community and give them a white glove
approach to make them feel loved.
Give them the tools to lay the foundation of your
community and have them bring their like-minded friends,
so when you start opening this up, you have a real base
of passionate people who will welcome the new people
as they come in.”
Saul Colt
The Idea Integration
Company

30. Plan with purpose
“Make sure that the goals of the
community focus on the needs of
the community and/or higher social
needs. To this end, it helps if a
brand is purpose-driven. Getting
the early members requires a lot of
time and outreach. Don’t expect
this to be an easy-to-accomplish
and quick-hit project.”
Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing
Guide

31. Heal the pain
“The most successful communities are
those who are most intimately
familiar with their community members'
pain points, who most directly address
these pain points while fostering a sense
of unity and connection around the
shared pain.”
Gesche Haas
Dreamers//Doers

32. Quick breather –
you good?

33. Building
engagement

34. Up close and personal
“Many people hear B2B and
think corporate. But people
are seeing your ads, people
are reading your content, and
people are making the
decision to work with you. It's
never not personal.”
Lindsay Kaplan
Chief

35. Use your ears
“Invest in listening – it's time-
consuming to engage with the
community, but hearing
conversations among your
customers can introduce a host
of new ideas for everything from
marketing copy to sales
differentiators to product feature
development.”
Perry Hewitt
Colechurch Consulting

36. Make it your problem
“Once they arrive, ensure
there's quality content
available to them. Sure, this can
include product updates and
how-tos, but you should focus
on business problems.” Perry Hewitt
Colechurch Consulting

37. Foster relationships
“The most successful B2B communities on
Fishbowl allow for social interactions between
members beyond transactional business
opportunities. Do not treat a B2B
community as only a place where
members come for economic benefit.
Instead, you should allow discussion around
topics that, while still professionally relevant,
allow members to build relationships with
each other. For this reason, the early
members need to seed the community with
the right kind of content, which might even
include icebreakers.”
Loren Appin
Fishbowl

38. Engineer serendipity
“Encourage people to
connect with each other, and
if needed, engineer the
serendipity. Have workshop
sessions around specific
interest areas and set up
discussion areas so that the
conversation can continue.”
Charlene Li
Quantum Networks

39. Foster needs & leads
“Foster needs and leads
conversations. It's hard to ‘ask’
the community for help because
it feels like you are imposing on
the entire community. Having
dedicated ‘needs and leads’
protocols makes it easier for
people to ask and to share.”
Charlene Li
Quantum Networks

40. Operation: Community
”When running a community, don't
underestimate the operational effort that
goes into the back-end. The sooner you
address this and the smoother you can
make the experience for your community
members, the better you'll be able to
scale and provide seamless value to
your community.” Gesche Haas
Dreamers//Doers

41. Gratitude is the right attitude
“One of the rules of the Orchestrated
Connecting Community, comprised of
the most super-connected people on
the planet, focuses on always following
up with gratitude after you receive help.
Gratitude without an additional ask
subtext reinforces your role in this
person’s life and creates a long-
lasting imprint.”
David Homan
Orchestrated
Connecting

42. Elementary, my dear Watson
“When it comes to the first
members, my tip is to start
with solving their problem.
Become their problem solver
and they’ll begin to come.”
A. Walton Smith
We Are Rosie

43. Breadth first, depth later
”Light lots of fires and see what
catches. Explore the expanse of
your creativity, start with breadth.
Once you see what's resonating
within your industry, or culture at
large, you'll have an idea of where
to focus. Then, you'll want to turn
the breadth into depth.”
Rosie Yakob
School of Stolen
Genius

44. Growing the
audience

45. Sport authorities
”Make people an authority
in the group. They’ll be the
ones selling your brand.”
Jason Berkowitz
Break the Web

46. Reap what you farm
“Find 2-3 channels for farming new
community members. Shapr is
great for this. Lead with the value-
add: your value proposition should
be clear, concise, and center-field in
your outreach message. Be
consistent: spend at least 10
minutes every day reaching out to a
certain number of people. Over
time, your community will grow.”
Geoff Bruskin
White Tiger
Connections

47. Cultivate authentic evangelism
“Genuinely great customer
success leads to evangelical
customers that authentically
want to promote your brand.
That type of evangelism is the
perfect tent poles for building a
lasting community of engaged
users that interact with each
other.”
Michael Cole
Everflow

48. Relationships first, revenue
second
”Focus on the places (groups,
conversations, people, etc.) where you can
bring the most value, rather than figuring
out which ones are most likely to lead to
money directly for you. Building
relationships and a reputation will do
you more good than focusing on direct
transactional return, because that is how
you earn referrals from people who are
trusted by others, which will do far more for
your business's longevity than going for the
quick, easy wins.”
Christine Gritmon
Christine Gritmon, Inc

49. Guest contributors’ communities &
firms• Actionable Marketing Guide (Heidi Cohen)
• AdOpsOnline (Rob Beeler)
• Badassery (Danielle Letayf)
• Break the Web (Jason Berkowitz) (no relation)
• Chief (Lindsay Kaplan)
• Christine Gritmon, Inc (Christine Gritmon)
• Colechurch Consulting (Perry Hewitt)
• The Community Roundtable (research via Rachel Happe)
• Dreamers//Doers (Gesche Haas)
• The Idea Integration Company (Saul Colt)
• Everflow (Michael Cole)
• Fishbowl (Loren Appin)
• Online Geniuses (David Markovich)
• Orchestrated Connecting (David Homan)
• Quantum Networks (Charlene Li)
• School of Stolen Genius (Rosie Yakob)
• Upstream (Alex Taub)
• We Are Rosie (A. Walton Smith)
• White Tiger Connections (Geoff Bruskin)
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50. List of resources
• 100+ tool recommendations: via Serial Marketer
• Canva: design tools
• Depositphotos: high-quality images
• Fiverr: find affordable talent for quick projects
• LaunchPass: quickly launch subscription businesses
• Lunch Club: meet a high-value new contact virtually once a week
• Membee: member management
• Riddle.com: quiz maker
• Shapr: make professional connections (better for some fields than others)
• Tools for remote teams: via Collaboration Superpowers
• Trends.vc Paid Communities report
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51. Further reading from Serial
Marketer
• A Grand Milestone for Serial Marketers:
reflections on reaching the 1,000-member mark
• How to Build Online Communities:
a recap of my spring 2020 panel
• Berky’s Marketing English:
100+ marketing concepts explained
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52. Thank you !
Questions? Comments?
Want to discuss this further?
Reach out!
david@serialmarketer.net
LinkedIn // Twitter
Are you a Serial Marketer?
Join the community!
www.serialmarketers.net
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