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Online communities have become a key tool for businesses looking to connect with customers, partners, and other stakeholders. For B2B companies, building a strong online community can pay off in a few ways: more brand visibility, a reputation as a thought leader, more leads, better customer engagement, and real connections with industry peers.

However, building and maintaining a successful B2B community is not always easy. It requires careful planning, a clear understanding of your target audience, and a commitment to providing engaging content and opportunities for interaction and collaboration.

On top of that, B2B communities tend to have some additional challenges (compared to many B2C communities) like a limited number of members (your pool is often only as big as the number of B2B customers you have) and many of them can come in with high expectations.

In the sections below, I’ll answer the following questions in detail:

  1. What is a B2B community (incl. examples)?
  2. Additional challenges of building a B2B community
  3. What are the risks of not tending to your B2B community?
  4. How do you build a B2B community?

By the end you’ll know what a B2B community is, what it can do for your business, and the steps to build and maintain one. Whether you’re a seasoned B2B marketer or just starting out, this should give you the knowledge and mindset to build a community that meets your business’s needs and goals.

So let’s get into it.

1) What is a B2B community?

A B2B community refers to a virtual platform where businesses and individuals from different organizations can connect, collaborate, and exchange information and ideas. The main purpose of B2B communities is to provide a space for customers and industry professionals to network and share best practices, insights, and expertise with one another.

B2B communities can take many different forms (see below) that give businesses a place to engage with peers, build relationships, and stay up-to-date on industry trends.

When industry professionals connect and collaborate like this, both the individual members and their organizations benefit.

1.1) Why do customers join a B2B community?

There are plenty of benefits to becoming a member of a (your!) B2B community, including:

  1. Faster, potentially better answers: Any support team can only do so much, and can have only so much experience. An active (worldwide) community has the potential to provide answers faster, and also from different perspectives and experience levels, greatly improving the chances of members to resolve their issues as fast as possible.
  2. Networking Opportunities: B2B communities provide a platform for businesses and individuals to connect and network with one another. By participating in these communities, your customers can build relationships with peers, industry professionals and expand their network. This greatly correlates with their retention in using your product or services.
  3. Knowledge Sharing: B2B communities are a great place to exchange ideas, share best practices, and learn from the experiences of others. By participating in these communities, members can gain valuable insights and stay up-to-date on industry developments.
  4. Collaboration: B2B communities can facilitate collaboration among businesses and individuals, helping to drive innovation and new ideas. Whether members are looking to partner with others on a project or simply exchange insights and experiences, a B2B community can be a valuable resource.
  5. Access to Resources: B2B communities often provide access to a wealth of information, including documentation, tools, and experts in the field.
  6. Increased Visibility: By participating in a B2B community, members can increase their own visibility and establish themselves as a thought leader in your industry or even an ambassador for your product/service.

By joining a B2B community, your customers get access to resources, knowledge, and expertise that help them and their business succeed. Often much more, and much faster, than your employees can.

1.2) Why put all the effort in running a B2B community?

As we’ll get into later: building a B2B community takes up a lot of resources and you’ll need patience for it to pay off. But it has enough benefits to make it worth the investment.

Some of the key benefits include:

  1. It’s our natural way of doing things: Humans all search for a place to belong, a place where we can be part of something bigger than ourselves. Building communities on shared values and/or goals gives people another avenue or layer of meaning.
  2. Establishing thought leadership: A thriving B2B community can help establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
  3. Generating leads: By connecting with potential customers in a B2B community, you have the opportunity to generate leads for your business.
  4. Building customer loyalty: A B2B community provides a platform for customers to connect with your brand and receive support and feedback, helping to build customer loyalty over time.
  5. Sharing information and ideas: B2B communities provide a space for individuals to share information, exchange ideas, and collaborate on projects.
  6. Improve your customer support load and experience: as mentioned in 1.1.1, an active community can be seen as a 1st line support channel for your business, that might even be faster and better than your own support can ever be, freeing up time for your internal support team to focus on the more challenging issues.
  7. Great channel to get feedback on your product/service: by building a closer, trusted relationship, more feedback will reach you, and probably also sooner.

1.3) What are great examples of B2B communities?

Some general forms of communities include:

  1. Generic online Forums such as Quora and Reddit and to some degree LinkedIn Groups, provide a space for businesses to engage with others in their industry and discuss common challenges and best practices. Not owned by the company that produces the service or product the community talks about, but it can provide instant access to a huge user base.
  2. Niche-Specific Platforms: There are many communities that are specifically designed for (B2B) communities catering towards users of a specific product or service, industry professionals or interest groups. These communities are often fully owned by a product/service company, and you’ll often need to start from scratch.
  3. Industry-Specific Conferences and Trade Shows: Attending (or organizing) industry-specific conferences and trade shows can provide opportunities for businesses to connect with others in their industry, share ideas, and network.
  4. B2B Marketplaces: B2B marketplaces, such as Sourceability, provide a platform for businesses to connect with other businesses and find potential customers, suppliers, and partners.

A strong B2B community brings real benefits, and these different forms are a starting point for figuring out which one fits your needs and goals.

There are plenty of successful B2B communities out there, each with its own focus. Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

  1. Salesforce Trailblazers: Learning community for certified SalesForce users.
  2. B2B Marketing Exchange: An international network of LinkedIn groups for B2B marketers to network and discuss industry trends.
  3. GrowthHackers: A community of growth professionals dedicated to driving sustainable growth through data-driven decision making.
  4. Uncommon: Niche community analytics tool CommonRoom that has an active and helpful Slack community for Community Managers/Analysts.
  5. Docker: Over 200+ meetups around the world, a monthly virtual user group and a great ambassador program (Docker Captains) for this container tool that is used by many developers worldwide.
  6. Magento: Great example of a fast growing international B2B community in the ecommerce industry (that I was part of) with its heydays around 2010-2018. During these years, many agencies and companies providing 3rd party services were founded and have been extremely successful. (And then Adobe bought it in 2018 and pretty much let it die out…)

These communities have all done a good job of bringing like-minded people together and giving them a place to connect, collaborate, and exchange ideas.

2) Additional challenges of building a B2B community

Building a successful B2B community requires overcoming a number of unique challenges that you see less in other (B2C) communities. Some of the most common challenges include:

B2B Community Challenges

Image by Adrian Krebs

  1. Lower number of community members: B2B communities often have a smaller pool of potential members compared to B2C communities. For B2C, your target audience is often “all consumers”, while a B2B community can be very limited to “All developers on the payroll of our B2B clients that are working on our product”. This can make it more difficult to build a critical mass of active members and can require more effort to keep the community engaged. Also see The 90-9-1 Rule for Participation in Online Communities.
  2. Limited engagement: B2B communities can be more focused on exchanging information and ideas, rather than socializing and building personal connections. This can lead to limited engagement and lower levels of participation, compared to more social B2C communities.
  3. High expectations: B2B community members are often highly knowledgeable and experienced, and may have higher expectations for the quality and value of the content and interactions in the community.
  4. Competition for attention: B2B communities may compete with other professional networks, such as LinkedIn, for the attention of potential members. It’s also more likely that your user are only logging in to your community during business hours.
  5. Concerns for anonymity: Often B2B communities are not anonymous, and asking questions or participating in discussions might give away what a company is working on, or it might even be seen as a personal failure that you need to ask a support question.
  6. Complex approval processes: To get started, B2B communities may require approval from multiple stakeholders, such as legal, marketing, and IT departments.

Not saying these apply to each and every B2B community, or that they never happen in other communities. But B2B communities tend to see more of them, and it’s good to be aware of them.

None of this is a dealbreaker though. If you understand these challenges and work around them, you can still build a community that drives growth, gets people collaborating, and makes the customer experience better.

3) What are the risks of not tending to your B2B community?

Neglecting your B2B community can have serious consequences, including a lack of engagement, declining customer base, and a negative impact on your brand.

  1. Lack of engagement: If your community is not well-tended, members may become disengaged and lose interest. This can lead to a decline in participation and a decrease in the value that your community provides.
  2. Churn: Neglecting your community can also lead to a decline in customers, as members leave in search of more active and engaging communities.
  3. Negative impact on brand: A poorly managed or neglected community can also have a negative impact on your brand, as members may associate your brand with a lack of commitment or a lack of attention to their needs.
  4. Loss of control/visibility: The community might start somewhere else where you have less control and visibility.

To avoid these risks, you need to invest in your B2B community and give it the resources and support it needs. That means regularly creating engaging content, getting people to interact and collaborate, and giving members chances to connect and grow.

4) How do you build a B2B community?

Granted, this very much depends on your audience, the product/service that you sell and your starting point. But below are some points that most of us need to consider:

4.1) Define your community’s purpose and goals 🎯

Before you start building your B2B community, it’s important to define its purpose and goals. This will help you to focus your efforts, attract the right members, and create a community that truly meets the needs of your business and its members.

When defining your community’s purpose and goals, consider the following questions:

  1. What do you want to achieve through your B2B community?
  2. Who are your target members and what do they need from the community?
  3. What kind of content and activities do you want to offer to your members?

Once you’ve answered these, you can use them to write a clear vision and mission statement for your community. Keep it short, make it spell out the purpose and goals, and it’ll guide all your community-building efforts from there on.

4.2) Identify your target audience 💁♂️

Identifying your target audience is a critical step in building a successful B2B community. Knowing who your target members are will help you to create content and activities that are relevant and engaging, and to attract the right people to your community.

To identify your target audience, consider the following:

  1. Industry: What industry does your business operate in and what industries are your target members a part of?
  2. Demographics: What are the age, gender, and location of your target members?
  3. Job Roles: What job roles do your target members hold within their organizations?
  4. Interests and Needs: What are the interests and needs of your target members and how does your community meet those needs?

Once you have a clear picture of your target audience, you can use it to create content and activities that fit their needs and interests, and to attract the right people to your community.

It’s also not uncommon to have multiple audiences combined in a single community. Like at Spryker our community exists not only of our direct customers (enterprise merchants), but also solution partners (agencies), technology partners (like AWS and payment providers) and freelancers. And in all of these cases, these members could lean more to the business side, or more on the technology/development side.

4.3) Choose the right platform 🚉

The platform you choose to host your B2B community can have a significant impact on its success. With a wide range of options available, it’s important to choose a platform that is both accessible and suitable for your target audience, and that provides the features and functionality you need to meet your community’s goals.

When choosing a platform, consider the following:

  1. Accessibility: Is the platform easily accessible for your target audience, and does it work well on a range of devices and browsers that your audience might use?
  2. Features and Functionality: Does the platform offer the features and functionality you need to support your community’s goals, such as group discussions, content sharing, and member profiles? Do you want the platform to be open or closed?
  3. User Experience: Is the platform user-friendly and does it provide a positive experience for your members? Does it integrate well with the other tools in your ecosystem?
  4. Cost: 💰 Does the platform offer the level of support and resources you need at a cost that is within your budget?

I’m currently right in the middle of a procurement process for a community platform, so this pain is very tangible for me at this moment 😄

4.4) Create engaging content 👍

Creating engaging content is key to building a successful B2B community. Give people useful information, resources, and things to discuss, and you’ll attract and keep members, and build a real sense of community.

When creating content for your B2B community, consider the following:

  1. Relevance: Make sure that your content is relevant and valuable to your target audience, and addresses their needs and interests.
  2. Variety: Offer a range of content, including articles, videos, podcasts, and webinars, to keep your members engaged and interested.
  3. Interactivity: Encourage interaction and discussion among your members, and provide opportunities for members to contribute their own content and ideas.
  4. Timeliness: Keep your content up-to-date and timely, and stay responsive to the changing needs and interests of your members.

❗️Do note that although you need engaging content, you need to have (or get) access to a great marketing/content team that can create this content. A community team should bring important topics to light and connect to and facilitate community creators, but creating the actual content should IMHO not be on a community teams todo list.

4.5) Get people interacting and collaborating 🤝

Interaction and collaboration are the cornerstone of any successful B2B community. Give members chances to connect, share ideas, and work together, and you’ll build a real sense of community and some genuinely useful connections.

When you’re getting people to interact and collaborate in your B2B community, consider the following:

  1. Encourage discussion: Provide opportunities for members to share their thoughts and ideas, and to discuss topics of interest.
  2. Facilitate networking: Encourage members to connect with one another and build relationships through features like member profiles, private messaging, and virtual events.
  3. Promote collaboration: Encourage members to work together on projects, and to share resources and information to support common goals.
  4. Provide support: Make sure that members have access to the resources and support they need to succeed, and that they feel valued and appreciated.

Get people interacting and collaborating, and you end up with a lively, supportive B2B community that’s worth the effort for both members and your organization.

Wrapping up

Building an online B2B community is a big step for businesses that want to connect with other professionals in their industry. A community gives businesses a space to exchange information, collaborate, and connect, which tends to lead to more business opportunities, better relationships, and better overall performance.

Follow the steps in this article and you can build an engaged community that supports your long-term success. Whether that’s through LinkedIn groups, niche social networks, online forums, industry events, or B2B marketplaces, there are plenty of ways to connect with others and grow your business. So why not start building yours today?

Additional resources

If you made it this far down then A) I’m impressed and B) you might be eager to learn even more about this topic. Here are some good resources:

  1. Blogposts:

  2. Books:

  3. Podcasts:

TIP: If your community is catering towards a technical audience with a lot of developers, I can highly recommend the content of Mary Thengvall (website) and Developer Relations by Caroline Lewko , and for you to check out content everywhere marked #DevRel.

Dig into these and you’ll get a better sense of how to build a successful B2B community, and how to use it to drive growth and get people collaborating around your business.

Good luck and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

PS: If you’re building or scaling a B2B community and want a senior thinking partner alongside the person already doing the work, I take on a few advisory engagements at a time. Details at /retainer.