In the B2B world, we think about growing our customer base. But one thing B2B marketers often overlook is how to transform your customer base into a community.

You may be wondering, isn’t a customer base and a community the same thing? Not exactly. A community is your customer base taken to the next level, with a lot more engagement. It’s a network of relationships based on passion, instead of transactions. And it’s this passion that brings like-minded people together to form a dedicated community that outlasts and outperforms any regular customer base.

In 2017, the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986. It was this devastating low point that birthed a community that was so determined to see the underdog make a big comeback. Enter the Scuffed podcast.

Scuffed was started by Adam Belz and Greg Velasquez out of pure love for American soccer. And in the last five years, they’ve created, grown, and nutured a robust community of listeners who are engaged across a variety of platforms.

In this episode of REMARKABLE, we explore the nuances of community-building, and how you can use it in your B2B marketing.

Why the Scuffed Podcast?

You’re probably wondering why we picked the Scuffed podcast for this episode. Welp, for one, our CEO, Ian Faison, is a member of the community himself. He doesn’t just listen to their podcast; he also subscribes to their Patreon and hangs out on their Discord!. Ian was drawn to The Scuffed podcast team’s genuine love for American soccer. These guys are INTO IT. And that authentic passion is like a community-building magnet.

Scuffed brings together a community of American soccer lovers and lets them choose their own adventure when it comes to accessing content.. They have their weekly podcast episodes, with over 300 episodes that are currently publicly available. Then, they have an additional layer of content for those who want to support the show by paying a little every month. Patrons gain access to exclusive episodes along with Scuffed’s exclusive Discord channels where subscribers chat about recent games, favorite players, stats, share memes, etc.

The members of the Scuffed podcast team (Adam, Greg, Vince, Jordan, and Watke) are all actively engaged on Scuffed’s Patreon and Twitter accounts. They frequently interact with followers, chat with them about the show, and even arrange in-person meetups.

That right there is a hat trick when it comes to building a powerful community.

About Scuffed

The Scuffed Podcast is a weekly show about American soccer with a focus on the U.S. Men’s National Team. On the podcast, hosts Adam Belz and Greg Velasquez recap games, talk strategy, chat about their favorite soccer personalities, and do occasional interviews with players and coaches. Adam and Greg founded Scuffed in 2017 after the USMNT failed to qualify for the World Cup. Since then, they added a Monday Review with Chris Russell and Vince Irvin, a Discord, and a newsletter.

What B2B Companies Can Learn From the Scuffed Podcast:

Be authentic. We know it sounds cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason. If you center your business around a product or service you truly believe in, chances are, other people will believe in it too. And a community will be born naturally! The Scuffed guys just love soccer, and they want to see the U.S. Men’s National Team qualify for (and win!) the World Cup. They’ve followed the team for years, analyzing their every move, and can give expert insights about their progress because of it. B2B companies can learn from this by building a brand/product/service that emanates passion and has a common goal audiences can rally behind.
Release consistent, timely content. How has Scuffed stayed so relevant for so long? It’s not just that they’re passionate about soccer – it’s also that they’re consistent. By creating a regular and consistent content schedule, they’ve built trust amongst their community. People know when the next episode will drop, when in-person events will happen, and when Adam and team will be responding to replies on Twitter. The Scuffed team also goes the extra mile for their audience and creates reaction episodes for special events, like the release of the World Cup roster. The Scuffed team knows their fans (do you want to bet they’re called Scuffers?) will want to hear about it. So, bottom line: be sure to release relevant, relatable content on a regular cadence, and your audience will steadily grow (and the real fans will be stoked for any bonus content).
Interact with your audience. Guess what? Community is a two-way street! So as long as your audience is responding to your social posts, posting in your Slack or Discord channels, or even sending you emails — leaders should be engaging with their clients just as much. It’s this two-way interaction that sets the tone for a community. More times than not, community members (think mega fans of your business) end up creating their own content. User-generated content validates both the work of the contributor, and adds more material to your usual content roster. Scuffed community members often make their own videos and highlight reels that the Scuffed team re-posts on the Scuffed channels, giving credit to their community members. This helps build trust and a stronger relationship with community members. Engaging with your audience across multiple platforms will only help you as you grow your B2B community.
Meet your community where they are. A lot of Scuffed’s success can be attributed to the numerous platforms and channels they offer content to for their community. Whether it’s the weekly podcast, email, newsletter, social media, Discord, videos, and more, Scuffed fans enjoy having options for how to tune in to content. So, give your audience the power to choose how plugged into your B2B community they can be. For example, some people may love interacting with your business every day, via Twitter and Slack channels. Others may prefer to check into the community once or twice every few weeks by reading your newsletter or watching video content. Giving your community the choice on how they plug in allows them to consume your content the way they want.

Key Quotes

*”When I think of community outside of the context of making a podcast, I think of old kinds of communities. Like rural farming communities or urban communities where people are living together and suffering together, and sacrificing for each other. And so I don't know how to relate that to a Discord server. Like, I don't know what the connection is between those two things, because they're both technically a community. But when you're living online with people, how do you suffer with them or sacrifice for them? Do we even know how to do that yet as humans?” - Adam Belz

*“Repeatability is so crucial because you can have a good idea and maybe even execute it once. But if it's not something you can just go back to and be able to do over and over again, it's not something you can offer as a promise to the listener.” - Adam Belz

*”We're not very calculated when it comes to building a community or maximizing our reach. We're just kind of doing our thing. We're just some guys making a podcast because they love soccer and they love the national team. And I think the chillness of it was appealing to people.” - Adam Belz

Time Stamps

[0:55] How to build a community

[2:00] Introducing Adam Belz of Scuffed

[3:47] What are our takeaways?

[8:00] How did Adam start the Scuffed podcast?

[13:40] What’s the difference between building a virtual vs. in-person community?

[16:48] What assets does the Scuffed podcast have?

[19:48] How did Adam grow the Scuffed community?

[24:58] How is Scuffed offering different levels of engagement for listeners?

[30:20] How do you differentiate yourself from competitors?

[33:49] How do you manage negative interactions within the community?

[43:37] Why does being authentic attract community engagement?

[48:54] What does Scuffed do with user-generated content?

Links

Listen to the Scuffed Podcast

Check out the Scuffed website

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn

Follow Adam on Twitter

Follow the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team

About the Show

Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both non-fiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.

In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios), and Adam Belz (Co-Founder and Host of Scuffed). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith O’Neil, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.

Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Lori Gold, ROMANTIC FRICTION