Community ≠ Marketing: Why We Need Go-to-Community, Not Just Go-to-Market

Having a community helps protect against competitor companies or products entering your territory. Whether that community is a group of power users, open source contributors, creators, or even just a brand (or franchise)’s super fans, it lends greater brand awareness, higher switching costs, and scale economies.

Outcomes for go-to-community need to be measured by the growth and retention of the community itself, as well as by less tangible but equally important qualities such as the number of new relationships, the amount of trust developed, or even degree of self-actualization. Incentives are where it all comes together; “show me the incentive and I will ... See more

Healthy and active communities have gravity; a “high gravity” community is one that excels at attracting and retaining community members. The go-to-community strategy is what helps build and maintain this gravity while connecting the benefits to company objectives.

A strong “go-to-community” competency not only helps companies proactively compete in this new environment, but it also provides the framework and tools to shift from top-down to bottom-up. Go-to-community helps build positive-sum relationships beyond just sales. And perhaps most importantly, it uplevels the very notion of community from something ... See more

A community manager’s role is to listen, learn, and connect the members, and sometimes, the appropriate experience is an introduction to a salesperson. When the time comes, and trust has been established, that prospect will then enter into the funnel much more qualified and at a later stage compared to another lead source.

Here are some questions to add more nuance and rigor around the potential for GTC in your company:

• Who is in our community and why are they here? Who is not in the community?


• What value will we create for the community, whether or not they are paying customers?


• What value will the members provide each other?


• How will we listen, talk to, and be direc

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