Increasing Warm Meetings With an Invite-Only Community for Prospects

By launching an exclusive, curated Slack community for their prospects, and launching content motion to engage with them, StartupGTM was able to increase their warm meetings and new trials.

Here’s exactly how they did it.

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The goal: Increase warm meetings with target customers

StartupGTM was working with a SaaS product that needed more warm meetings with their target customers, specifically with CXO (Chief Experience Officer), VP, and Head of Department roles. 

Before implementing this tactic, their leads were mostly poor quality, achieving very few meetings with decision-makers.

The fast marketing tactic: Launch a private community for prospects

StartupGTM created an exclusive, curated Slack community for CXOs, VPs, and Heads of Departments. The space was invite-only, and they marketed it with a sharp message offering exclusivity and experience.

The team then searched for leads that matched their ICP (ideal customer profile) on LinkedIn Premium and Apollo, and sent them the community invites via their founder’s profile. The message also included a thought-leadership report and, in some cases, an invitation to an upcoming event.

They set up an automated onboarding process, with personalized messages and an introduction message for all new members. After this, they also nurtured the community with content motions like:

• Daily tips related to the community subject
• Weekly, long-form, actionable templates and insights
• A monthly event with guest speakers

Once members were engaging with the community, the team reached out to them for one-to-one meetings, where they asked for their experience in the community and offered them the SaaS product.

The result: 94 community members and 2 new trials

The Slack community was launched in May 2023. In just 45 days, the team achieved:

• 8% conversion rate on the invitations they sent.
• 94 new community members in decision-maker and senior roles.
• 8 warm meetings with community members. 
• 2 community members turned into trial clients for their SaaS product.

Why does it work?

Private, invite-only communities foster a sense of belonging and exclusivity. This is a great way to approach and engage prospects, and, combined with content motions like private events and exclusive resources, can drive community-led growth.

Meet the specialist behind this tactic

Ayush Poddar is a SaaS entrepreneur and the founder of StartupGTM. He helps companies with community, product, and people-first go-to-market (GTM) strategies.

Follow Ayush on LinkedIn for more insights.