--- title: Grow an Audience, Build a Community, and Delight Customers description: Marketers have lost their way a bit. All of the fancy tech and growth hacks of the last 20 years have distracted us from what truly matters.  image: https://www.tackgtm.com/hubfs/Screenshot%202024-10-16%20at%202.53.21%20PM.png --- [![TACK logo](https://www.tackgtm.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logotype_navy_original_RGB-1.png?width=110&height=29&name=logotype_navy_original_RGB-1.png)](https://www.tackgtm.com) - [COMMUNITY](https://www.tackgtm.com/product) - [THE GTM LIBRARY](https://thegtmlibrary.com/) - [MARKETING LEADERSHIP MASTERMIND](https://www.tackgtm.com/marketing-leadership-mastermind) - [MEMBER TESTIMONIALS](https://www.tackgtm.com/insider-testimonials) - RESOURCES - [WHAT IS PEOPLE-FIRST GTM?](https://www.tackgtm.com/people-first-gtm-model) - [BLOG](https://www.tackgtm.com/blog) - [WEBINARS](https://www.tackgtm.com/webinars) - [PODCAST](https://www.tackgtm.com/gtm-news-desk) - [BOOKS & GUIDES](https://www.tackgtm.com/go-to-market-resources) - SERVICES - [ON DEMAND GTM SERVICES](https://www.tackgtm.com/on-demand-gtm-services) - [PODCAST PRODUCTION](https://www.tackgtm.com/b2b-video-podcast-production) - [DEMO CENTERS](https://www.tackgtm.com/demo-centers) - [CUSTOMER STORIES](https://www.tackgtm.com/tack-gtm-testimonials) - ABOUT - [MEET MARK](https://www.tackgtm.com/about-tack) - [MEET THE TEAM](https://www.tackgtm.com/meet-the-team) [BOOK A MEETING](https://meetings.hubspot.com/kilens) # Grow an Audience, Build a Community, and Delight Customers Marketers have lost their way a bit. All of the fancy tech and growth hacks of the last 20 years have distracted us from what truly matters. [Mark Kilens](https://www.tackgtm.com/blog/author/mark-kilens) Dec 23, 2024 --- Marketers have lost their way a bit. All of the fancy tech and growth hacks of the last 20 years have distracted us from what truly matters.  People.  Moving forward, there are three things that marketers should be prioritizing.  Why these three? Because people have gotten smarter and don't trust and like the automated and impersonal tactics we've been using. Not to mention, AI is going to do a lot of that crap anyway so it's truly just a race to the bottom. Time to stop converting people and to instead engage with people.  1) Resonating with the right people to grow an audience.  Executives and others in the company have a responsible to engage and create.  Building an audience on social networks and in relevant communities is one piece. The other piece is growing an owned audience by getting people to pay attention to (subscribe) to what you have to say. The classic, give me your email address, and I promise to send you relevant and helpful content on a regular basis.  Partnering with right people who already have the trust of the audience you're trying to engage is another smart strategy. Influencer marketing is a tactic you could use, but not the only one. 2) Engaging and building a community with people.  The second thing marketing teams should be optimizing for is an owned community. Some sort of membership experience that takes people who are more committed to learning from you and want to get more involved with the brand and company.  Partnering with people to co-lead the community. To make them the star of it. A solid membership experience has a combo of education, helpful content, regular programming like online or in-person event, and possibly a few other benefits. A great one one helps pull people through the buying journey and create more loyal customers. 3) Delivering what you promised and delighting customers.  The final thing that marketers need to be optimizing for is customer delight. It still shocks me to learn how few marketing teams are truly investing the right amount of money and resources to enable more customer value creation and delight.  Programming and content just for customers is a must. Along with events and other special access things that make them see and feel that they are the valued and supported.  A great thing to take is my eight class course that will teach everything you need to know to do all three.  You can find it as part of our [TACK Insider Pro](https://tackinsiderpro.com/) membership plan.  ## Similar posts ### [Warm Outbound](https://www.tackgtm.com/blog/warm-outbound) Warm outbound is a process of identifying people who have shown some interest or intent, but have yet to raise their hand for a meeting. Mark Kilens Feb 17, 2025 ### [Offers by Buying Journey Stage](https://www.tackgtm.com/blog/offers-by-buying-journey-stage) Make sure you have enough offers by stage of the buying journey.  Mark Kilens Jun 27, 2025 ### [GTM Calendar](https://www.tackgtm.com/blog/gtm-calendar) Every company should have one calendar that contains all of its important go-to-market activities.  Mark Kilens Feb 27, 2025 ![TACK LOGO](https://www.tackgtm.com/hubfs/logotype_white_original_RGB%201.svg) TACK GTM LLC PO Box 913 Newburyport, MA 01950 ### COMPANY - [About Us](https://www.tackgtm.com/about-tack) - [TACK Insider](https://www.tackinsider.com/) - [On Demand GTM Services](https://www.tackgtm.com/b2b-marketing-services-tack-gtm) ### RESOURCES - [People-first GTM Model](https://www.tackgtm.com/people-first-gtm-model) Copyright © 2025 TACK GTM LLC All rights reserved. [Powered by Atlas - a B2B SaaS HubSpot theme](https://www.kalungi.com/atlas-hubspot-theme-for-b2b-saas-software) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Mark Kilens", "url" : "https://www.tackgtm.com/blog/author/mark-kilens" }, "dateModified" : "2024-12-23T20:27:33.766Z", "datePublished" : "2024-12-23T20:27:33.000Z", "headline" : "Grow an Audience, Build a Community, and Delight Customers", "image" : [ "https://www.tackgtm.com/hubfs/Screenshot%202024-10-16%20at%202.53.21%20PM.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.tackgtm.com/blog/grow-an-audience-build-a-community-and-delight-customers", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://www.tackgtm.com/hubfs/logotype_navy_original_RGB.jpg" }, "name" : "TACK" } } ```