The CMO Guide: B2B Marketing – Tapping the Power of Online Communities

Summary

Over the past decade, social and communication technologies have brought companies and individuals together like never before. It’s now an accepted paradigm of customer engagement that companies don’t sell products; they sell relationships. What that means for companies is that the old days of simple marketing and support communication are gone forever.

A majority of consumers still engage with companies to purchase or to learn about products or services and to request service or support. However, significant numbers of them are looking for other ways to engage, from up-to-date brand and industry content to crowdsourced reviews and experiencesharing to providing feedback on products and services. The surefire way for B2B companies to integrate all of these customer engagement needs in one place is by building online communities. Online communities present to the consumer the best face of an organization, not only as a seller of products or services, but as an engaged catalyst focused on supporting customers on their success journeys.