B2B community operation skills!

Most B2Bs are either still struggling with whether or not to build a community, or those who have already done so are still at the stage of creating a group. There are very few that can truly run a successful B2B community .

But with the arrival of the epidemic, I believe it will greatly accelerate To B companies' attention to and development of the community. After all, offline activities may be stagnant in the first half of this year...

1. What is a community?

Nowadays, when many of us mention communities, we will involuntarily think of WeChat groups, but in fact WeChat is just one of the tools to carry communities.

The fission groups we have, the temporary groups set up for online and offline activities, etc., are actually not considered to be communities in the true sense. All I can say is that a bunch of people were pulled into the WeChat group.

After being added to the group, it may be very lively at the beginning, but if there is no good planning in the early stage, you will eventually escape the curse of the community's "3-month silence". Some may become "dead groups" in less than three months.

So what can we call it a community?

The community is actually a form that has existed for a long time and is a product based on relationship connections. The clubs, communities, etc. that we often heard in the past are actually communities, just with different names in different eras.

How do “ISOOC principles” determine whether we are forming a group or building a community?

Teacher Qiu Ye mentioned in the book "Community Marketing Practical Manual" that there are five elements required to be called a community: like-minded people, structure, output, operation, and replication, which is collectively referred to as the "ISOOC principle."

1. Like-minded people

Refers to the common recognition or behavior of something. If a community wants to exist for a long time, this group of people must either provide great emotional comfort to community members, or bring great interactive joy, or bring great practical benefits.

At least one of the three must be met.

2. Structure

The structure of a community determines its survival. The structure includes four aspects: constituent members, communication platform, joining principles and management norms.

The better the structure is planned in advance, the longer the community will survive.

3. Operation

A community needs to be continuously operated by someone. In the process of building a community, we must continuously provide community members with a sense of ceremony, belonging, participation, honor, organization, etc.

The operating cost of a good community is extremely high, no less than operating a good product.

4. Output

Whether or not valuable things can be continuously output directly determines the value of the community. It is very important to have a deep accumulation in the early stage, otherwise your stuff will not reach the level of community members and no one will play with you.

Moreover, a community is one that allows all members to continuously produce high-quality content. The organizer keeps outputting, perhaps just for his own amusement.

5. Copy

Whether a community can be replicated determines its size. We also need to plan how to copy in advance. Generally speaking, there are timeline replication (such as due payment), space line replication (such as branches and sub-helms) and product line replication.

Product line duplication may be difficult to understand. Let’s take the Qiuye PPT community as an example. Its community not only has courses and books, but also training programs and so on. In addition, it has also incubated a variety of communities created by its core team members using their personal IP, such as infographic groups and PPT group groups.

Copy of the Autumn Leaves PPT community

The bigger the community is, the better it is. A small and beautiful community may help your community survive longer.

Only when the five elements of like-minded people, structure, output, operation and replication are met can it be called a community.

2. Should B2B build a community?

It’s not a bad idea to form a group, and the community is the icing on the cake.

The establishment and operation of a community requires a lot of manpower and material resources, takes a lot of time, and does not produce quick or direct results compared to other methods.

For start-ups that pursue short-term and fast results in the early stages, creating groups may be more appropriate than social networks. But from a long-term perspective, the community can bring many benefits to To B companies.

Recently, I spent some time and paid for some courses to barely collect some successful cases of B2B community operations.

It is obvious that the successful B2B communities are basically in large and mature companies, and they have dedicated teams that spend several years to continuously operate the entire community.

For example, the former Philips Lighting has been operating the community since 2013 and has built China's "Lighting Designer" community from 0 to 1.

Because the profession of "lighting designer" did not exist in China before, they introduced top lighting designers to attract domestic industry-related talents, and then supported KOCs, continuously held related activities, industry competitions, etc., and gradually established a domestic community with great influence in this field.

Community members can not only learn and share knowledge here, but also build their personal brands through Philips' support program and gain a certain sense of accomplishment.

At the same time, when these "lighting designers" actively or passively take on projects outside and need "lighting solutions", they will naturally think of Philips products.

3. What can B2B do through groups?

In the development process of To B enterprises, groups and communities can play different roles and function differently. The following will combine some recently collected cases to explain what the “group” can do for us.

1. Use the group to provide better service product consultation and improve conversion

For To B companies with low average order value, the official website usually receives a lot of inquiries. If the consultation window of the official website is not designed reasonably, it will lead to the loss of a large number of potential customers.

There is a one-stop mobile work platform for OA, CRM, and HR. They gather all consulting customers into a group and provide 7×12 hours of consulting services.

The users gathered in the group are equivalent to a pool of potential customers, and a series of consulting, training, knowledge and other services are provided in the group. For customers who have already converted, they will be added to another VIP group to provide further and more thoughtful services.

2. Use the group to provide better services to purchase customers and increase repeat purchases

When we purchase fission tools (such as Mission Bao, Group Building Bao, etc.) with a customer unit price of several thousand, when we go to the official website of the product for consultation, a personal account will pop up instead of a dialog box. After a one-to-one transaction through the personal account, we will be pulled into a special service group.

Like the social marketing tool we purchased before - Organic Cloud, it recently launched related solutions for WeChat for Enterprises. After the purchase, there will be sales, customer service, product managers, etc. in the group. During the process of using the product, we can directly consult and raise bugs in the group. The service is basically around the clock.

If we answer every question, develop every demand, and fix every bug, then we don't have to worry about the repurchase rate at all.

This kind of group is usually not very active, but when we launch new features, have product value-added services or hold large-scale events, reaching users through the group will be much higher than through product push.

3. Use social media to enhance brand influence and gain search traffic

A vertical industry B2B e-commerce platform established a community of global buyers. They first found the purchasing directors of Fortune 500 companies, and then used the strength of the leaders to gradually build a large-scale community.

At the same time, they also interviewed the top purchasing directors. After the interviews, with basically no investment and relying solely on the promotion of these KOLs themselves, the website traffic increased by tens of thousands of new visitors.

4. Use social media to identify decision-makers and gain customers in a subtle way

An established pharmaceutical company whose main customers are hospitals. Different from the traditional kickback sales method, Xi'an Janssen (Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical subsidiary) has established a core academic circle in this field, introduced top medical talents, and then attracted second- and third-tier doctors to join.

In addition, it provides a series of professional lectures, academic seminars, authoritative certifications, etc. In the process, it not only promotes its own products, but also helps doctors better improve their career development and enhance their professional skills, while also creating value for the hospital.

Due to limited space, I will not elaborate here. I will write an article summarizing the B2B "group" gameplay later if I have the chance.

To sum up, there may be many ways and methods to create B2B groups, but the community remains the key.

B2B communities are basically centered around a certain field/profession/industry, identifying core top KOLs, and cultivating their own mid-level KOLs through online courses, offline activities, rewards and certifications, to create a certain influence and bring value, and then gradually expand the scale to establish our leadership position in the field/profession/industry.

Although it seems that it does not bring direct results, it actually acts as a catalyst to a great extent on brand, customer acquisition, transaction conversion, repeat purchases, etc.

For example, "lighting designers" trained in the Philips Lighting community may not need to be sold at all when taking on external projects and can adopt Philips' lighting solutions. At the same time, due to the influence of the "lighting designer" in the professional field, it will also drive more customers to purchase.

When we make up our minds to invest a certain amount of manpower and material resources to start building a community, we should start from the customer's perspective. It is not about what purpose we want to achieve through the community, but what value the community can bring to users! Once it is valuable, everything will fall into place.

Author: Luo Gongzi

Source: SaaS Operation Notes