The lights are dimmed. The candles are lit. The music starts pumping. And that’s when the magic starts. I look around me and see a roomful of kindred spirits — some familiar faces, some new, but all focused on the same thing: dedicating the next hour to sweating their hearts out.
This is my happy place. I’m on my bike in a room full of other SoulCycle devotees, about to be led through a mind-clearing, heart-pumping workout that will leave me with a sense of euphoria that guarantees I’ll be back tomorrow for more.
What is it that’s so addictive about this place? Sure, it’s an amazing workout, but so is the spin class at my local rec center. So why am I willing to part with $30 for an hour of exercise? Why, as I’m writing this, am I wearing a $72 SoulCycle shirt that tells the world how much I love this place?
I’ve pondered that question a lot, and here’s what I’ve figured out: While it was the killer workout that
initially brought me to SoulCycle, what keeps me coming back is the community.
It’s that coming together of people with a common goal, all falling into the same rhythm, drawing
inspiration from each other, and cheering each other on. We’re a group of people of different ages and
genders, from different backgrounds, with different interests. But once we’re together in that studio,
sharing a common passion, we’re a community.
That’s what has earned SoulCycle its cult following (and a whole lot of my money).
It’s important to note that community isn’t a byproduct or an afterthought for SoulCycle. It’s an integral part of the brand, as evidenced by how the company’s leaders describe the SoulCycle experience: “In that dark room, our riders share a Soul experience. We laugh, we cry, we grow — and we do it
together, as a community.”
What community means in B2B
There’s a lesson in there for B2B marketers: Community is key if you want to build a brand that
engenders enthusiasm, loyalty, evangelism, and, yes, spending. And an engaged community has less
obvious benefits as well, according to a report by The Community Roundtable:
- Increased revenue
- Lower support costs
- Product improvements
- Awareness and branding
- Product usage
- Productivity and efficiency
- Innovation
- Communications efficiency
SoulCycle is certainly a case study in all those benefits of community. The other lesson to draw
from SoulCycle? Community doesn’t happen by accident. It needs to be central to your brand, and it
takes effort to build.
Where a lot of companies fail is that they grasp the potential value of community, but they don’t dedicate
the resources, energy, or strategy necessary to help their communities flourish and grow.
Rules of community-building
Having built more than a few successful B2B communities myself (and maybe a few flops, too), I often hear from other CMOs asking for tips on community-building. Some of them have tried to build
communities and have watched them turn into online wastelands. Others haven’t known where to start, so they haven’t tried.
Here’s the advice I give them — the fundamental rules a company needs to follow if it wants to build a
community that yield long-term gains for your brand, your company, and your customers.
Rule #1: Cast a smaller net
When B2B communities wither and die, it’s usually because their focus is too broad. The community’s
founders cast the net so wide that the group lacks any common glue holding it together.
The fact is, it’s better to have a community of five people who all have something very relevant in
common than 10,000 people who have nothing in common. That’s why the first thing you need to do
when building a community is to clearly define who it’s meant to serve.
Next, you need to stick to that definition — even if it means excluding people.
For instance: I’m one of the leaders of a group for B2B CMOs. It’s called CMO Coffee Talk, and we gather
once a week to share our challenges, our wins, our best practices, and so forth. We also have a very
active Slack channel of over 1,300 members.
In our weekly meeting and in the Slack channel, we share hyper-relevant advice, feedback, and
encouragement. And, yes, once in a while we vent about our jobs.
Every so often, someone who’s not a CMO will ask to join. And even though there would probably be some benefit to having a CRO in the group, we hold the line and say no.
Why? Because if our sales counterparts are there, how open will we be to sharing challenges that
involve sales? Plus, while the CRO is very likely to have some valuable input to share, our focus
is on marketing. Diluting that focus weakens the community — and decreases its chance of success.
Rule #2: The audience is the content
In communities, unlike in thought leadership programs, the community dictates — and largely creates — the content.
This rule can be both intimidating and liberating. It takes giving up some control, but it also means that
the pressure is off — instead of being captain, cruise director, and entertainment, you can just set the ship sailing in the right direction, make adjustments when needed, and let the journey unfold.
In CMO Coffee Talk, we survey the members to decide on which topics to cover each week, and
members choose what’s most relevant to them. The speakers are sometimes group members and
sometimes outside experts we invite in for the day.
And in the Slack channel — which is incredibly active and engaging — the content is entirely driven by
the community. That’s important. The more your community members are the ones contributing, the
more robust your community will be.
Rule #3: Never go it alone
There’s no me in community, right? The word itself connotes coming together — and that doesn’t just
apply to the community members.
Building a community is also the perfect opportunity to partner with other brands or leaders who will
be additive to what you offer your members. Maybe they serve the same audience or care about the same audience, but in a different way.
For instance, in another group I help lead — Empowered CMO, which is a group that’s all about
elevating female CMOs — I partnered up with an executive search professional. She and I are
interested in serving the same group — CMOs — but we offer very different perspectives and opportunities.
And in the CMO Coffee Talk group, I joined forces with Matt Heinz, president of Heinz Marketing, who
helps people execute marketing campaigns. He brings a perspective to the table that I don’t, and vice versa.
Rule #4: Give the people what they want
When you’re thinking through the logistics of how your community will connect, beware the “and the kitchen sink” approach.
You don’t have to have local meetups, plus a user group, plus a Slack channel, plus a retreat, plus a
newsletter, and on and on, to be a good community. You might only need to choose one of those channels and do it really well.
The key is to build a routine around whatever you do offer. Having consistent and predictable engagement — whether that’s a weekly Zoom meeting, a daily Slack check-in, or an annual retreat — engenders the familiarity and comfort that’s essential to community.
The bar on Cheers may not have had the best beer in town, but Norm knew his stool would be waiting
— and everyone would know his name — every time he walked in. And that predictability is what kept him
coming back.
Once you have that one predictable, familiar offering solidly established, you can add other elements that are right for your community.
With CMO Coffee Talk, we started with the weekly Zoom meetings. Then we added the Slack channel.
Our community loves the Slack channel, because it offers an opportunity to connect in real time, get
advice, share referrals, and learn from one another.
But when we offered a Slack channel to our Empowered CMO group, it fizzled. That community
gets super amped about the annual retreat and the content that comes out of that, and that’s enough for
them. They don’t need or want the additional channel — and that’s okay.
It’s all about giving the people what they want.
Rule #5: Curate the community, don’t control it
Just like in Rule #2, this rule is an opportunity (and a challenge) to give up some control.
When you start a community, you’ll be the one designing it and curating it. But be prepared for the
fact that it will grow legs and move in new directions. It’ll expand and change in ways that you probably
never envisioned.
That’s a good thing. If your community starts new initiatives, or if conversations happen that you
wouldn’t have predicted, embrace it. It’s a sign that your community is thriving.
It’s okay to be a little hands off and let the community take flight.
Rule #6: Your community needs its own brand
I already listed a bunch of ways that community can strengthen your brand. And it’s true, a thriving
community is absolutely a brand asset. But don’t confuse that to mean that your community is simply
another element of your brand.
When done right, communities become their own entities, and they need to be branded as such.
That might mean they get their own logos and their own style, but it also means that they should have
their own goals and measures of success.
Yes, you are sponsoring and enabling this community, but the community will have a life — and an identity — of its own.
Rule #7: Never underestimate the power of surprise and delight
It’s important to think of ways that you can keep the community at the forefront of the members’ minds.
Small gestures — receiving a branded coffee mug in the mail after attending three sessions of CMO Coffee Talk, for instance — go a long way to delight and surprise community members. And that, in turn, keeps them excited and engaged.
Could every CMO in our group buy any mug they want? Of course. But there’s something about getting
a little package of fun in the mail that can put a smile on the face of even the busiest professional.
There are non-material ways to do this too — community-branded Zoom backgrounds, useful
weekly recaps of community activity, an ebook that puts all the insights from your annual conference in
easy reach after everyone has returned home.
As long as it sparks joy and drives engagement, it’s good for community. These are the little details
that independently wouldn’t amount to much, but layered together help get your community members
inspired and engaged.
Rule #8: Be prepared to put in the work
A well-oiled community feels effortless, but don’t mistake that for the behind-the-scenes truth.
Communities take a lot of work, organization, and dedicated resources.
Depending on whether your format is entirely digital, there may or may not be major hard costs involved.
But regardless, it’ll require resources.
You’ll need someone to “own” the community, vet members, curate content and discussions, and help
get members engaged.
Think of it like a garden: You can’t just toss some seeds in the dirt and forget about it. You need to plan,
water, prune, and weed consistently to have that effortless-looking, thriving garden you’re envisioning.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.
Go forth and connect
Building community is very hard, it takes a lot of work to do it right, and it doesn’t necessarily produce
immediate rewards. But is it worth it?
Absolutely.
It’s a long-game asset, but it is an asset — and an important one. As someone who has built a number
of very successful communities, as well as a few missteps, I can attest to the fact that an engaged
community builds not only feel-good metrics like customer satisfaction, but also hard numbers like
pipeline, retention, and revenue.
SoulCycle knows it, and it’s why the company puts so much effort into building a community within and
across each of its studios.
The people on those bikes might share just one common interest, but when we’re together in that
studio, we’re community. And that’s what keeps us coming back (and dropping stupid amounts of money
on their workout gear).
B2B marketers would be wise to learn that same lesson: If you want that kind of customer and that
type of brand loyalty, it’s time to start investing in community.
