Breaking down the new Community FUNnel: Middle of Funnel - The Series of Gatherings
A cornerstone of any community is the gatherings.
Whether in-person or virtual, your community wants to get together. Although we have placed the Series of Gatherings in the middle of the funnel, we recognize that prospects may be a part of these gatherings, as well, but since they were invited in by another community member (be it a customer or sales/marketing outreach), they are jumping right into the middle of your funnel.
It’s important to distinguish between demand gen programs and these community-first gatherings internally with your leadership team, as well as in the positioning with your guests.
Don’t make the mistake of bringing your community together and just turning it into another death-by-PowerPoint moment, though – if they want to just consume content, they can do that through your primary show or through your demand gen or corporate event programs.
Instead, use your gatherings as a time to help customers, prospects, and team members connect with each other - and with you. This is where your community Series of Gatherings shines.
VITAL ELEMENT: Ensure you have enough staff present to contribute to the conversation and to build stronger relationships with prospects and clients. The more relationship-building that takes place at these gatherings, the more likely the sales follow-up will be welcomed and not ignored.
*Absolutely do not invite internal staff, sales, marketing, or even executives if they are unwilling to mingle with and interact with the customers.* It is a community killer to see staffers huddled together and not engaging with guests. It'd be like going to Disney World and seeing all the princesses just talking to each other and not exchanging pleasantries with the kids!
Beyond conversation, community gatherings may not have any content. Activity-based events where participants engage in fun, shared experiences drive camaraderie, conversation, and connection. And THOSE are communities that convert.
Leverage these gatherings to capture content – onsite video recordings or podcast recording sessions are a great way to take the conversations and amplify them to a broader audience through your show!
A few of my favorite community-first gathering series are:
For our Team CMO community, we're launching a series of gatherings at SXSW called the Chief Marketing People Party, and for our Austin-based Grown-Up Girls Club community, the whole community is based on monthly in person gatherings.
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Starting to see "regulars" at your gatherings and welcoming in new participants is how the community will truly grow.
Your homework
What kinds of gatherings are right for your community? Small, regional meetups? Customer dinners? Would a monthly Zoom meeting to talk about trending topics be best? Maybe just a series of hospitality events alongside existing third party tradeshows?
Map out where you can add in community gatherings into your demand gen and corporate event plan!
Next up: highlighting The Sounding Board.?
Here is the full series of articles:
Liz Lathan, CMP, is co-founder of?The Community Factory, helping brands grow and engage their communities of customers, prospects, and team members. Through a Community Design Strategy session, we help companies develop Community Enablement Programs and offer Community as a Service (CaaS) solutions that fit their needs. Contact Liz at [email protected]