#208: Drive | How To Build A B2B Community with Dan Cmejla, B2B Community Expert

B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt

This episode is from Drive 2024, our first-ever in-person event for B2B marketers in Burlington, Vermont. Dan Cmejla, B2B Community Expert and former VP of Community at Apollo and Chili Piper, shared actionable frameworks and three phases for building impactful B2B communities that drive brand growth and customer engagement.

Dan covers:

• How community marketing transforms brands by turning customers into primary distribution points for your story.
• Why it’s important to map influence spaces and leverage customer relationships.
• Strategies to build a scalable advocacy journey that turns customer love into measurable business outcomes.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - - Intro to Dan
• (06:45) - - Community Marketing Transforms Brands
• (09:53) - - Defining “Community” and “Community Marketing”
• (11:33) - - Community Phase 1: Build Baseline Presence Across Spaces that Hold Relevant Influence
• (22:33) - - Community Phase 2: Differentiate Presence Everywhere by Building more Brand Distribution Points
• (35:07) - - Community Phase 3: Build Amazing Spaces That Hold Influence
• (36:07) - - How to Determine your Community Strategy?
• (36:37) - - How to Evangelize Across Communities?
• (37:37) - - Q&A

Send guest pitches and ideas to [e-mail]
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership

***

Today’s episode is brought to you by Grammarly.

Ever have one of those weeks where you spent more time replying to Slack and email than doing actual marketing work?

You’re not alone. The average marketing team spends 28+ hours a week just keeping up with comms.

That leads to burnout, frustration, and a whole lot of performative productivity that doesn’t actually move the needle.

AI-fluent marketing teams are changing that. Grammarly’s 2025 Productivity Shift Report shows how they’re using AI to:

– Cut down on back-and-forth

– Automate content, research, and reporting

– Eliminate busywork

– Make space for strategy

We’re marketers because we love crafting campaigns, driving revenue, and proving impact – not spending all day buried in messages.

Get the report and see how top teams are making AI actually useful.

Visit go.grammarly.com/exitfive to grab it.

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

• They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
• Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
• Visit hatch.fm to learn more