CommunityHood RoundTables keeps getting insightful. The 11th Roundtable Episode discusses the role of Community Marketing in a Business to Business and a Business Consumer Environment.

We discussed the role of a community manager in both domains, strategies to grow, audience acquisition models, and a lot more with industry experts.

Watch the highlights of the session here:

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B2B vs B2C: Community Marketing

5 Key Takeaways from the session: 

1. Events are a great opportunity to build deeper relationships

The event formats for B2B organizations are focused on startups/freelancers. These include networking events, product showcases, and brand collaborations. These events also help generate inbound leads, thereby increasing the customer base. 

In a B2C scenario, events are geared toward networking. There can be multiple types of networking events like speed networking, traditional networking, and subject-specific networking; where we gather and discuss a subject or even industry-based networking 

B2B business models offer a superior opportunity for building depth due to the higher ticket space, which allows for a longer relationship scope, and therefore more room for experimentation. The B2C business model, on the other hand, is extremely volatile since its purpose is to convert members into customers. 

2. Managing a community for a B2B vs B2C audience can be different! 

 
• B2C is more about engagement and metric-driven, whereas B2B is more about building relationships and doing events
       
• B2C has a large cohort compared to a B2B audience
       
• In a B2B environment, customers are familiar with your product or service; all you have to do is pitch it better to them. A B2C setup, however, is a messy setup, so the company would want to build their confidence, as well as understand their options.
 

3. The churn rate for a B2B vs a B2C cohort: 

The level of churn in B2C is very high. For B2B it is very unlikely for users to churn out the next day. That's an important aspect to consider while working on these two segments. The task of finding and retaining users is crucial task for community members in a B2C environment.

4. Importance of one-on-one engagement with members  

In both B2B and B2C domains, the importance of one on one engagement is huge. It can help identify high-potential members and understand the problem statements that your community can solve for the members. 

Interesting ways to increase such engagements are offline events and creating a sub-community in your community that is led by the ambassadors of the community. 

5. You nurture Affiliates and they can Nurture your community

Campus ambassadors are an interesting example of Affiliates. Affiliates are a subgroup of your community that contributes towards getting you business and growing your community.