Contrary to popular belief, launching a private community (like a Slack or Circle group) is often a mistake. Without dedicated management and clear value, they quickly devolve into spam and noise, ultimately failing. It's a high-effort initiative that is not suitable for most businesses.
Shift from viewing a community as a side project to treating it as a core product. This means implementing a product owner, roadmap, features, feedback loops, and key metrics like NPS to ensure it's continuously improving and not just a creator's side project.
The key to justifying brand marketing isn't a perfect dashboard, but internal education. A marketing leader's primary job is to explain to the CFO and sales team that buying decisions are not linear and are influenced by multiple, often unmeasurable touchpoints over time.
Instead of using AI as a compliant assistant, program it to be a challenging 'sparring partner.' Ask it to find holes in your logic or anticipate all the critical questions your CEO might ask. This transforms it from a content generator into a powerful strategic tool for preparation.
The most pressing AI conversation among marketing leaders isn't about specific tools or prompts; it's an existential question about the future of the entire marketing function. They are being pushed by boards to redefine team structures and the purpose of marketing in an AI-driven world.
Instead of chasing perfect attribution, recognize that customers will explicitly tell you how they found you. At Drift, prospects on sales calls would frequently mention being fans of their podcast. This qualitative data from the front lines is often the most direct and powerful measure of brand impact.
The most powerful form of community isn't a walled-off Slack group. It's about becoming the 'host of the party' for a specific audience's shared interests. Companies like HubSpot built a community around 'inbound marketing' by owning the conversation, long before they had private user groups.