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Emma Clarke, founder of community-building consultancy CUSP, explores the challenges of building effective B2B communities. Drawing on her experience working with brands like Soho House, Soho Works and 180 Studios, Emma explains why community building is essential for fostering authentic customer connections, but also outlines why many B2B brands struggle to implement it. She discusses the shift from top-down marketing to customer-led engagement, and offers strategies for overcoming internal resistance, maintaining engagement, and measuring success.
Key talking points:
The Shift to Authenticity: People crave genuine connections, especially post-COVID, and B2B communities can meet this need.
Top-Down vs. Community-Led: The outdated model of brand-controlled messaging versus the benefits of empowering customers to connect with each other.
Why community strategy often isn’t prioritised in B2B marketing and how to make the business case for it.
The difficulty of sustaining customer participation, and how to build communities that offer real value without feeling like an obligation.
The importance of internal champions and a dedicated community lead to drive engagement and sustain momentum.
How to assess the success of a community, and why “fuzzy” metrics like testimonials matter.
Links and references:
Soho Works: Community-driven workspaces
Crafty Counsel: An example of a successful UK-based B2B community
Oliver Wyman Forum: Another firm that excels in community-building for business leaders
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