Should Your Company Have a B2B Community?

Today, we’re launching our new segment called Ask the Expert, where a subject matter expert from ZoomInfo will respond to questions that you and your peers ask.?

Additionally, today’s newsletter covers:?

• Step two of how to give your CRM a thorough spring cleaning ??
• Our calendar of upcoming in-person and virtual events ???
• News from around the web that caught our attention? ??

Ask the Expert

Today’s question is about the importance of communities for B2B companies. If you have a question you’d like us to answer, fill out this form . (Don’t worry, your question will be anonymous!)

Dear ZoomInfo, I saw you launched your Modern GTM community. My question is does it make more sense to start my own community or join an already existing community? Any advice??

Dear Reader,?

I think the decision on whether to build your own community (and manage it) vs. just have a presence in one comes down to a few things:?

• Managing your own community takes an incredible amount of resources. When you start a community it may only consume 5–10% of your day, but that can very quickly turn into your whole day.?
• As you grow a community, you have to think about the right hooks that will keep folks happy. You have to ensure that you’re delivering value to the community, like engaging programming, daily conversations, and networking opportunities.?
• As you grow a community, you have to nurture it. You should never violate the trust of your members, and never promote sales of your products (unless of course they ask you to).?
• There’s no shortage of communities for individuals to join no matter their role within a company. You need to come up with a differentiator for your community and consistently provide its value to your members.?

• You have to understand how to be properly involved in existing communities. You see it done wrong all the time — a community member asks for an opinion on a product and a sales rep jumps in with a pitch. You need to monitor for any mentions of your brand, competitors, solutions callouts, or someone asking for help. That’s when you can activate people across your company, as well as customer advocates, to come into the community and have a presence.?
• Being a part of an existing community, especially for smaller companies, is a great way to spread awareness. We’ve seen the shift to dark social networks with the YoY decrease in trust of public social network usage. According to a Global Web Index and Reddit study , internet users in the U.S. trust community sites more than social media sites or influencers. It adds a lot of value if you can keep authentic engagement at the forefront of your community strategy.?

When you’re considering both sides of the community coin, remember that there is value in doing both. It doesn’t need to be one or the other. However, I would say it’s a great idea to join an existing community before starting your own to understand how they function, even though each community will have its own ways of operating and communicating. It’s definitely useful to get some knowledge under your belt before launching your own community, on your own dime no less.?

All-in-all, launching your own community can be very beneficial. You just need a clear grasp of your mission, goals, and target audience (which can be as narrow or wide as you’d like, as long as you have the programming to match).

I wrote an article about all the intricacies of launching a community, so if you’re curious, give it a read here . And if you want to, join our Modern GTM community .?

- Justin Levy ??

Analyze: Assessing Your CRM Data for Actionable Insights

Step two in your CRM cleanse is all about analyzing your data. If you want a refresh on the Define step, you can find it here .?

The Analyze phase is all about determining which data to purge and which data to keep and expand upon. Robust data management helps go-to-market teams do this at scale, relying on sophisticated algorithms that can evaluate a record’s validity, rate of duplication, and completeness for a more comprehensive picture of your data’s current state.?

For example, imagine your CRM has three entries for “Tech Innovations Inc.” under slightly different names, with each record containing unique contact and sales details. With Duplicate Survivorship Rules, you can decide that the record with the latest “Last Modified Date” will dictate which details persist post-merge. Details like the “Sales Representative” from the entry with the highest sales will be retained.?

Next, you merge these entries into a single, updated record for “Tech Innovations,” ensuring that the most accurate and relevant information is preserved, cleaning your CRM data.

Consider the following:?

• Rate of duplication: Check how often the same information shows up more than once.
• Completeness ratio against TAM: Measure how much of your total addressable market is covered by your current data.
• Completeness level of existing records: Evaluate how full and detailed is each piece of information in your system — are there crucial missing fields?
• Validity rate of existing records: Overall, how much of your data is accurate and up-to-date?

Maintaining precision and uniformity in large data sets is crucial during the Analyze phase. Keeping data accurate and consistent as it grows can be a big challenge. It demands thorough checks of data quality and adherence to established standards.?

We go more in-depth on the?analyze step in this blog . Our next newsletter will cover the purge step, but if you’d prefer not to wait, you can download this checklist. ?

Upcoming Events

The ZoomInfo calendar is loaded with exciting events, both virtual and in-person! Find the descriptions and registration links below.?

Improving Data Quality, Accuracy, and Consistency

Monday, April 22 | 12 PM ET (Virtual Webinar)

Data quality management is essential for accurate, consistent, and compliant data. Enterprises face challenges in maintaining high-quality data thanks to complex infrastructure. Join our panel discussion on April 22 featuring experts from TDWI, Reltio, and ZoomInfo as they delve into the current state of data quality management and best practices.

Register Here

Are You Tracking These Crucial Marketing KPIs?

Wednesday, April 24 | 1 PM ET (Virtual Event)?

Picking the right marketing KPIs to monitor over time gives you an in-depth view of how your program is performing and where to make improvements. Join our upcoming session on April 24 with Demand Gen Report featuring ZoomInfo experts, Michelle Blondin , Director of Demand Gen, and Kyle Cook , Director of Business Intelligence. They'll share which crucial KPIs your sales and marketing teams should prioritize and track.

Register Here

Future-Proofing GTM Strategies through Sales Intelligence

Monday, May 6 | 3:05 PM CT (In person at Forrester B2B Summit in Austin, TX)

In today’s market, having a competitive edge is as fleeting as the latest tech wave. Only the sharpest players foresee change and adapt. For visionaries poised to ride the crest of the AI revolution, this conversation is for you. We’ll discuss how ZoomInfo Copilot can amplify your marketing savvy and best practices to make every seller your best seller while injecting your GTM strategy with AI-led innovation.

Register Here

DDM Series with Snowflake and G2

Tuesday, May 7 | 7:30 – 9:30 AM CT (In person at Central District Brewery in Austin, TX)

Join us to discover how the synergy between Snowflake, G2, and ZoomInfo streamlines operations, breaks down data silos, and powers teams with valuable insights for more agile go-to-market strategies, resulting in faster wins.

Register Here

From Dumpster Fire to Dream Team: AI's Role in B2B Synergy?

Wednesday, May 8 | 9:40 AM CT (In-person at Forrester B2B Summit in Austin, TX)

We are bringing sales and marketing together to show you how to avoid an AI dumpster fire. ZoomInfo’s Kayla Prunier , AVP of Sales, and Calen Holbrooks , VP of Marketing will talk you through how to get AI-ready and alignment bound.? We’ll discuss practical and actionable use cases for applying AI to all the buying signals and data available to you.?

Register Here

Not attending Forrester but local to ATX? Pop in for a coffee at our VIP Lounge, located at Central District Brewing (417 Red River St, Austin, TX 78701), anytime from 9 AM–6 PM on May 6-7. We’re also hosting a Happy Hour on Tuesday, May 7 from 4–6pm. Schedule a time to learn more about our new ZoomInfo Copilot, or just come by and say hi. We'd love to meet you!

The Watercooler

Here’s a collection of news that caught our attention from around the web.

• Artificial influencers (AI)

Instagram is pitching “Creator A.I.” to influencers across the platform. This AI-powered program will allow creators to chat with fans via direct messages and comments without actually having to do the heavy lifting of crafting the personalized messages.?

• Tesla tumult

Sales of electric vehicles are slowing down and Tesla is feeling the weight . Tesla stock is down 30% this year, and on Monday 4/15, Elon Musk announced that he’ll be cutting more than 10% of the company’s global workforce.

• Too big for her boots

Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter is impacting more than just the country music charts. Cowboy boot sales surged more than 20% the week after the album’s release. Boot Barn saw a 4% increase in their stock price since the start of April. We’ll keep an eye on Levi's and Stetson to see just how influential the genre-bending artist really is (spoiler: the answer is VERY.)

• Semiconductor-charmed life

The Biden administration is giving Samsung Electronics up to $6.4 billion in grants to boost US chipmaking. This funding will allow Samsung to expand its Texas facilities and restore the US as the world leader in semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, and R&D, according to Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo.

Have something you’d like us to cover in an upcoming issue? Comment and let us know. (We promise, we read all of them.)

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