Riley Timmins, Director of Marketing at Cacheflow, joins our host, Camela Thompson, Go-To-Market Thought Leader, and B2B Insights Expert, in this episode of the Revenue Marketing Report. Riley shares what to look for in a community partner, how to market to community members, and what’s working in the world of demand gen.
Hello and welcome to the Revenue Marketing Report, powered by CaliberMind. I'm your host, Camela Thompson, and today I'm joined by Riley Timmins. Yes, I'm super excited to talk about community marketing. It varies by the persona you're marketing to and the community you're dealing with, but I really admire your team's thought leadership approach. Can we talk about why you take that angle?
“Definitely. In the first year or so at Cacheflow, we primarily used performance ads, especially LinkedIn ads. They were great for hitting the 5% of the in-market audience. However, as a new company, we couldn’t just focus on that small segment. We needed to reach more Rev Ops folks, our primary persona, and community marketing came to mind. I’ve been in several Slack communities where the focus was more on the number of users rather than the quality of conversations. But with Rev Ops Co-op, I found authentic, engaging conversations. I wondered if we could leverage this group to reach our Rev Ops persona.”
Great. As part of the marketing team at Rev Ops Co-op, we always look for partners who bring valuable content. Your team has embraced that.
When planning an event with a community partner like the Rev Ops Co-op, what considerations do you have, and how do you plan?
“We’ve done about four community events online so far. The starting point is a reality check on our topics. We ask, does anyone care about this? Do I care about this? It’s easy to choose topics that align with our end goals, but we need to focus on what the audience finds valuable from day one. We also consider our team’s expertise. While we have one person with a Rev Ops background, most of us come from different backgrounds. We partner with experts like the Rev Ops consulting firm Do Mystique and their founder Reese, who brings deep technical expertise and is great at live events. This approach ensures we provide real value.”
That’s a great approach. It’s similar to content marketing – offering recommendations, advice, and useful information without pushing your product. Establishing yourself as a subject matter expert makes people come to you.
Let's talk about the webinar structure. I like how you partner with experts and offer high-value tools. What's the thought process behind this, and how do you gate these tools?
“For our last few events, we realized it’s hard to remember everything from a one-hour session. Instead of just sending slides, we create templates like a Rev Ops audit checklist or a tech renewal tracker. These templates are practical tools attendees can use immediately. We avoid lecturing and aim to provide easy first steps for attendees to implement on their own.
“Regarding gating, we typically like to ungate almost everything to maximize reach. However, we started testing gated content for these templates. We ask for an email and do a couple of follow-up emails without being overly spammy. This converts at about 15% from our website, allowing us to stay in touch with leads beyond just one webinar. Instead of just the hundred people who attended the webinar, we offer the value to everyone visiting our website. We display it as a website banner drop down because if visitors aren’t converting on a demo, this is another way to stay in contact. It’s a great way to provide ongoing value and maintain engagement with leads who might not be ready to buy immediately.”
So for webinar attendees, you don’t gate the tools since you already have their information. But you make the assets available for everyone afterward, which is smart. It maximizes the use of created content.
“Exactly. It simplifies our job too.”
When working with communities, you mentioned looking for authentic engagement. Are there other aspects you recommend people look for in a community partner?
“Yes. I find Rev Ops Co-op operates like a startup, which I value. We’ve worked with other communities that felt more like corporate branches of larger companies, and they lacked the startup spirit. Rev Ops Co-op, having started as a pivot from a different startup, maintains a high level of responsiveness, attention to detail, and willingness to go above and beyond. This is hard to find but crucial.
“Another aspect is the variety of activities offered. Communities that only offer a few types of events can become monotonous. Rev Ops Co-op offers diverse opportunities, from content collaborations to webinars and in-person trade shows. This variety keeps the community engaged and excited.”
And the expertise of the community founders is important too. Matt, the founder of Rev Ops Co-op, has a deep Rev Ops background, as do most of his team. It’s essential to find a community with expertise in your target persona to ensure long-term engagement.
“Absolutely. At Cacheflow, we sell to Rev Ops and VPs of sales. Coming from a growth marketing background, I had to learn a lot about Rev Ops. Rev Ops Co-op has been supportive, helping us launch content and providing expertise to ensure we’re delivering accurate and valuable information.”
Is there anything else you would recommend to marketers trying to maximize community engagement?
“Focus on the number of engaged users, not just the total number of users. Measure the percentage of qualified, engaged users who fit your target profile. During events, monitor CSAT scores, Zoom comments, and engagement in the chat. Look at how many people stay until the end. Engagement metrics help gauge the effectiveness of your efforts.”
When engaging with a community, expect demographic and firmographic data, access to community influencers, and moderators who can drive engagement. These elements add significant value.
“Definitely agree.”
This is a great segue to our next topic: post-webinar actions. What have you found works best?
“Post-webinar follow-up is crucial. You can either ruin the goodwill you’ve built or guide attendees to the next step seamlessly. We send two or three follow-up emails. The first email is a thank you with slides, a text recap, and a promise of the recording. This email is especially important for those who registered but didn’t attend. The second email typically shares the template discussed in the webinar, with instructions and a reminder of its value. The third email connects the webinar content to our platform’s offerings, making a soft sales pitch. We avoid over-spamming and focus on providing value.
“For example, after a webinar, we drop a link to the template we discussed so attendees can start using it right away. When deciding whether to gate content, we usually prefer to ungate almost everything to maximize reach. However, testing gated content, like asking for an email, has proven effective. This approach converts at about 15% from our website, allowing us to extend the value of the webinar beyond just the attendees.
“We also add attendees to retargeting audiences and monitor the sources of their engagement. Post-webinar content can be repurposed into SEO-optimized guides, blog recaps, and video clips. These clips highlight key insights and drive further engagement. We avoid bombarding attendees with too many ads, focusing on providing consistent, valuable content without overwhelming them.”
Treating attendees carefully and keeping them in your data pool is smart. You don’t want to alienate them with aggressive sales tactics.
“Exactly. Community marketing targets the other 95% of potential customers, not just the in-market ones. It’s about building long-term relationships and staying top of mind.”
Encouraging customers to speak on your behalf in the community is valuable. Authentic feedback from users is more trusted than vendor promotions.
“Definitely. Setting up keyword triggers in communities can backfire. People go to communities for authentic feedback from other users, not vendors. It’s better to market around the edges, such as through events, and respect the community’s purpose.”
Providing valuable documentation or insights in response to community questions can establish your expertise and build trust.
“Yes, layering intent data on top of webinar engagement is useful. Watching but not reaching out immediately can provide valuable insights.”
Let's talk about unconventional B2B marketing tactics. How do you tap channels where people aren't bombarded with B2B ads without annoying them?
“We rely heavily on LinkedIn ads, but also use Facebook and Instagram ads, which our competitors often ignore. People assume their buyers aren’t on these platforms, but they are. These ads help us appear bigger than we are, drive legitimacy, and provide social proof.
“To avoid over-spamming, we use a high number of creatives—image ads, video ads, and varied messages. We want our audience to know about our personas, pain points, benefits, and features. This broad approach ensures our ads are informative even if people don’t click on them.
“One lead saw our ad for two months and finally searched for us on Facebook when ready to engage. This reinforces the importance of staying top of mind.”
The key takeaway is understanding how to curate a targeted audience and exclude irrelevant segments. Setting the right expectations with the executive team about awareness plays is also crucial. How do you handle these conversations?
“When starting ads or increasing budgets, it’s important to set expectations. It takes time to see results, but once we do, we can scale. We optimize for sales-qualified pipeline, not just lead quantity. Aligning on quality leads from the start makes the process smoother.
“Designing ads that deliver value without requiring clicks is effective. Most people won’t click, but they’ll read or watch enough to understand what we do. This approach has proven successful in keeping us top of mind and driving qualified leads.”
If you’re generating pipeline and hitting targets, lead volume becomes less critical. Aligning with what the team cares about is essential.
“Sales prefers quality leads over quantity. Smaller, highly qualified leads improve collaboration and increase budgets. At larger companies, transitioning to this mindset can be challenging, but it’s necessary. Sales wants quality leads they can close, not a large number of unqualified ones.”
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, Riley.
For more content on B2B marketing trends, listen to the full Revenue Marketing Report episode at the top of the article or anywhere you podcast.
