Stop "Borrowing": Why Copy-Paste Community Strategies Fail (and What to Do Instead)

Your business isn’t Tableau or Salesforce—so why are you trying to build their community?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A GTM leader spots a successful community program—like Notion Ambassadors, HubSpot’s Inbound Community, or Salesforce’s Trailblazers—and says, “We should do that!” 

I call this the “Why aren’t we doing what they’re doing?” effect. 

“Inspired” by what a GTM leader or high-level decision-maker has seen elsewhere, a company rolls out a forum, launches an ambassador program, or sets up a customer awards initiative—only to realize six months later that it’s not driving the business impact they expected.

But just because a community model or initiative works for one company doesn’t mean it’ll work for yours.

I’ve been on the receiving end of this thinking more times than I can count. At a B2B company I worked with, a higher-up saw another company running coffee cart pop-ups and kept asking why we weren’t doing the same in high-traffic shopping areas. I had to explain—again and again—that our company’s goals and customers (the ones they themselves had defined) weren’t the same. Sure, it might have looked great on social media, but would it have actually driven results for us? Doubtful. Would it have been a massive distraction, pulling time and resources away from the initiatives that actually mattered? Absolutely. And here’s the kicker—if it flopped, the blowback wouldn’t land on the person who pushed for it. It would fall on the team that executed it. In this case, that would have been the community team, stuck justifying why an initiative that was never the right fit didn’t move the needle. 

There’s a lot we can learn from other community programs, but here’s the problem: community strategies fail when they’re copied instead of designed to fit each company’s unique GTM motion, customer journey, and overall business priorities.

If you’re leading a go-to-market team and thinking about investing in community, start with what actually makes sense for your business. Before you launch anything, ask yourself these three key questions:

1. What business goal do we actually need community to drive?

Community can support growth in many ways—but if you don’t define its purpose upfront, it will be difficult to get buy-in, measure success, or make it a valuable part of your strategy.

A few ways GTM teams can leverage community:

• Brand & Marketing Amplification: Create high-quality, user-driven content, case studies, and social proof that extend your reach.

• Customer Acquisition: Build organic pipeline growth by surfacing highly engaged users (CQLs = Community Qualified Leads).

• Adoption & Retention: Improve onboarding, increase product usage, and reduce churn.

• Expansion & Advocacy: Turn customers into power users, brand champions, and internal expansion drivers.

• Product Insights & Feedback: Capture real-world insights on feature adoption, customer pain points, and roadmap priorities—without relying on surveys or focus groups.

Take HubSpot's Inbound Community, for example. HubSpot aligned its community activities with clear business goals: generating leads for its CRM and marketing tools, improving retention, and building a trusted brand. Through certifications, events, and an online network, they created a multi-use channel that drove revenue while offering customers professional growth opportunities. By connecting community initiatives directly to the pipeline, HubSpot ensured that the program wasn’t just a feel-good effort—it became a core part of their GTM strategy.

In contrast, look at the failure of Google Stadia. Google launched forums and discussion platforms for their cloud gaming service, borrowing heavily from successful gaming communities like Xbox Live. The problem? Stadia’s broader product strategy lacked clarity, and its forum didn’t align with how customers needed to engage. Without clear goals, the community initiatives floundered, becoming an underwhelming offering that didn’t move the needle for adoption or retention. When communities fail to tie into core business outcomes, they quickly lose traction (and funding).

If leadership is skeptical about launching a community program, connect it to an existing business priority rather than positioning “engagement” as the primary outcome.

2. How do our customers actually want to engage?

Just because another company’s customers thrive in a forum or ambassador program doesn’t mean yours will. The best community strategies are built around customer behavior, not internal assumptions.

Consider:

• Are customers looking for thought leadership, peer networking, or product education?

• Do they prefer virtual events, in-person meetups, or async discussions?

• Are they motivated by recognition, career growth, or financial incentives?

Figma’s Community of Creators is a great example of tailoring community design to customer behavior. Figma users—designers and creators—want to share templates, gather feedback, and collaborate. By encouraging users to contribute resources like plug-ins and design files, Figma built a community that benefits both users and the brand. The creators gain recognition and expand their networks, while Figma gathers feedback and user-generated content that enhances its platform.

On the other hand, Quibi’s failure underscores why understanding customer behavior is critical. The short-form video platform had no obvious audience or use case for building organic community engagement. Instead of fostering an audience-led cultural movement, Quibi tried to manufacture hype without giving users a reason to connect or advocate for the service. A lack of clear purpose drove low community engagement, reinforcing the product’s broader failure.

Before investing heavily in any single format, run a small experiment—like a focus group, a beta program, or a single high-value event—to see what resonates with your audience.

3. How does community fit into our existing GTM motion?

Many community programs fail because they operate in isolation rather than being integrated into the broader GTM strategy. A successful program strengthens and amplifies other business functions instead of competing for attention.

Community should be designed to align with your go-to-market approach:

• Sales-Led Motion: Accelerate deals by providing peer validation, use case examples, and customer-led testimonials.

• Product-Led Growth (PLG): Support onboarding and activation by reducing friction to value and creating power users.

• Enterprise Expansion: Nurture champions within key accounts and create internal advocates who drive adoption.

• Marketing & Brand Growth: Generate a steady pipeline of user-driven content, social proof, and event momentum that marketing can repurpose across channels.

• Product Feedback & Iteration: Establish a direct line between users and the product team, helping prioritize roadmap decisions based on real-world needs.

Notion’s Ambassador Program aligns perfectly with their PLG model. By identifying and nurturing their most active users, Notion turned them into product advocates who drove word-of-mouth growth. The ambassadors didn’t just amplify the brand—they also educated new users, created templates, and reduced onboarding friction.

In contrast, Zynga’s forums for popular games like FarmVille lacked integration with their broader GTM plan. While the forums initially drove engagement, they were disconnected from Zynga’s customer retention goals and offered little measurable ROI. Eventually under-resourced, they became an afterthought—and were one of the first programs to be cut when priorities shifted.

A disconnected community is a wasted investment. From the start, it should be closely aligned with marketing, customer success, and product teams so that every interaction with the brand feels consistent—whether it’s a sales pitch, a webinar, or a discussion in the community itself.

Build a Community That’s Unique to YOUR Business

Instead of copying another company’s playbook, design a community strategy that fits your customers, your business goals, and your GTM motion. That means:

• Defining measurable business outcomes before launching anything.

• Choosing engagement formats that reflect how your customers actually want to interact.

• Integrating community with marketing, sales, and product to ensure it has measurable impact on pipeline, growth, and retention.

A well-built community isn’t just a feel-good initiative. It can be a powerful amplifier for marketing, sales, product, and beyond—when designed with clear intent. If community is going to be part of your GTM strategy, it shouldn’t be treated as an experiment or an add-on. It should be planned and resourced like any other growth initiative. Otherwise, it’s just another project that fades into the background when business priorities shift.