Webinar Insights: How Community Fuels Go-To-Market Strategies

Community and go-to-market (GTM) strategies have often been viewed as separate functions—but what if they worked together? In our latest Talkbase webinar, we explored how community teams can drive growth, customer acquisition, and strategic collaboration across marketing, sales, and product teams.

Our expert panel featured:

• Lindsey Rohde – Community strategist and former Head of Community at Sweater
• Blue Arauz – Community lead at Pexels (part of Canva)
• Gareth Wilson – Community & GTM consultant, founder of Community Inc

Together, they shared insights on how community can enhance GTM initiatives, where the two functions intersect, and how to align community goals with business priorities.

Key takeaways from the discussion

1. Community is a growth driver, bot just an engagement tool

Too often, community is seen as a standalone function rather than a core part of a company’s growth engine. The conversation highlighted how community efforts can directly impact go-to-market strategies by:

• Helping validate product-market fit before launch
• Creating brand advocates who naturally amplify awareness
• Providing valuable customer insights that shape messaging and positioning
• Supporting faster adoption and reducing churn through peer-to-peer learning

Lindsey Rohde reinforced this point, noting:

“Community isn’t just about engagement—it’s about accelerating growth in a way that traditional marketing channels can’t replicate.”

Gareth Wilson added:

“If you integrate community into GTM early on, it becomes an engine for customer acquisition, not just retention.”

Gareth also emphasized that community acts as the glue that connects different GTM efforts, ensuring that marketing, sales, and customer success teams work together more effectively.

2. How GTM verticals collaborate with Community

In this conversation, we explored how three GTM verticals—Marketing, Sales, and Product—can collaborate with Community to drive stronger business outcomes. Here’s what the panelists shared:

• Marketing & Community
  • Community-generated content (e.g., testimonials, case studies) boosts credibility and enhances organic reach.
  • Ambassador programs, like those used by Notion and Lego, help scale brand awareness through grassroots advocacy.
  • Community-driven word-of-mouth marketing increases authentic engagement with the brand.

Gareth Wilson summed it up:

“The best GTM teams don’t just market to an audience—they activate their community to drive results.”

• Sales & Community
  • Figma and HashiCorp successfully leveraged private communities for engaged prospects, improving deal velocity.
  • Community data helps identify high-intent leads (Community-Qualified Leads) and provides social proof for sales conversations.
  • Building relationships with active community members creates a warm pipeline of potential customers.

Blue Arauz explained the impact of this approach:

“Community-powered growth is about leveraging the voices of engaged users to create organic momentum.”

• Product & Community
  • Atlassian found that customers who joined the community early were 2-3x less likely to churn.
  • Feedback loops from engaged members help product teams prioritize features based on real user needs.
  • Beta testing groups within the community allow faster iteration on new releases.

Lindsey Rohde emphasized:

“If you want your product to succeed, you have to bring your most engaged users into the process early. Community can make that happen.”

3. Taking the first steps: How Community Managers can start collaborating with GTM teams

For community professionals who want to strengthen collaboration with their GTM counterparts, here’s where to start:

• Build Internal Relationships: Schedule regular check-ins with marketing, sales, and product teams to understand their goals and share insights.
• Align Metrics with Business Goals: Instead of just reporting engagement, frame your metrics in ways that resonate with leadership:
  • Marketing → Community-attributed website traffic & lead generation
  • Sales → Community-Qualified Leads (CQLs) & revenue impact
  • Product → Customer feedback trends & churn reduction
• Pilot a Small Project: Identify a low-risk collaboration opportunity, such as co-hosting a webinar with the marketing team or launching a small product feedback group.
• Advocate for Community in Leadership Conversations: Position community as a strategic function that supports the entire GTM strategy rather than an isolated engagement channel.

Lindsey Rohde highlighted the importance of this shift:

“The key to successful collaboration is making sure community data is speaking the language of the business.”

Gareth Wilson added:

“If you don’t align community impact with GTM goals, you’ll always struggle to get buy-in.”

Blue Arauz reinforced the importance of prioritization:

“We always have a thousand ideas, but choosing the most strategic initiatives first ensures we don’t spread our efforts too thin.”

4. Maintaining community trust while working with GTM teams

A major concern among community professionals is keeping community spaces authentic while aligning with business goals.

Lindsey Rohde shared an important lesson from customer success teams:

“Don’t automate relationships. You can automate processes, but real connections and trust require a human touch.”

Best practices for keeping community trust intact:

• Empower advocates instead of relying on traditional marketing – Use real customers to spread the message authentically.
• Avoid intrusive sales tactics – Community should feel like a place of value, not a funnel.
• Keep micro-communities thriving – As communities grow, segmenting into smaller groups helps maintain engagement.

Blue Arauz emphasized:

“The most successful communities prioritize trust over transactional relationships.”

Gareth Wilson added:

“If members feel like they’re being sold to, you’ve already lost them.”

Gareth also shared an example from DBT Labs, where they scaled their Slack community from hundreds to over 100,000 members by creating subgroups based on interests, seniority, and location.

Final thoughts

Integrating community into GTM strategies is no longer optional—it’s essential for companies looking to build long-term relationships with their customers.

By positioning community as a growth function, aligning efforts with business goals, and keeping trust at the center of engagement, community teams can become a core driver of business success.

Watch the whole event recording/conversation here.