Latest / Community Marketing with Fexingo: Discord, Slack Groups, and Brand Communities / How a $27 Trillion Asset Manager Built a Community That Markets Itself
Transcript
- Lucas: A $27 trillion asset manager — that's bigger than the GDP of every country except the US and China — and they run a community platform for financial advisors that has basically become their best marketing channel. I'm talking about BlackRock. Luna: Twenty-seven trillion. That's not a typo. And they're not selling hot sauce or running shoes. They're selling ETFs and model portfolios. How do you build a community around that? Lucas: That's exactly the question. Because most people think community marketing is for consumer brands — Glossier, Peloton, Duolingo. But BlackRock has quietly built a 200,000-member advisor community called BlackRock Connect. And it's not a forum. It's a full ecosystem: proprietary research, cohort-based learning, and a private social network where advisors share trade ideas. Luna: So it's basically LinkedIn for advisors, but curated by the world's largest asset manager. Lucas: Exactly. And the kicker is: advisors who are active in the community recommend iShares ETFs at three times the rate of non-members. BlackRock doesn't need to run ads. The community does the marketing for them. Luna: Let's back up. How did this start? BlackRock has been around since 1988. They didn't wake up one day and decide to build a social network. Lucas: No, and that's part of the story. Around 2015, BlackRock realized that their institutional sales model — sending wholesalers to meet advisors in person — was getting expensive and inefficient. They had 300 wholesalers covering 15,000 advisor firms. But there are over 300,000 advisors in the US alone. They couldn't scale face to face. Luna: So they needed a digital layer that still felt personal. Lucas: Right. They launched BlackRock Connect in 2016 as a simple content hub — research papers, market commentary, that sort of thing. But they quickly saw that advisors weren't just consuming content; they were emailing it to each other, discussing it in small groups. So BlackRock added a community layer. Luna: And that's when the network effects kicked in. Lucas: Exactly. By 2019, they had 50,000 members. Today it's 200,000. But here's the interesting structural choice: BlackRock didn't build one big community. They built three tiers. Luna: Three tiers. Walk me through them. Lucas: Tier one is the research hub. Free to any advisor who registers. You get BlackRock's weekly market commentary, their ETF research, their portfolio construction tools. That's the top of funnel — it brings people in. Tier two is what they call 'Mastermind Groups' — small cohorts of 15 to 20 advisors who meet monthly on video calls to discuss investment strategies. These are curated by BlackRock but peer-led. Luna: So BlackRock sets the table, but the advisors bring the food. Lucas: Love that framing. And tier three is the certification program. Advisors who complete a series of BlackRock-hosted courses on ETF portfolio construction earn a 'BlackRock Certified' badge. It's displayed on their LinkedIn profiles and on their firm's website. That's the loyalty loop — it ties their professional credibility to BlackRock's brand. Luna: And I assume the certification isn't free. Lucas: It's not. Advisors pay about $500 for the full program. But BlackRock doesn't need the revenue — they need the commitment. The sunk cost makes advisors more likely to actually use what they learn, which means they recommend BlackRock products more. Luna: That's smart behavioral economics. You pay for the badge, so you justify it by using the products. Lucas: Exactly. And the data backs it up. BlackRock published a case study in 2023 showing that advisors in the top tier — the certified group — had a 40% higher retention rate with BlackRock than the average advisor. They also managed 25% more assets in iShares ETFs. Luna: So the community isn't just a marketing channel. It's a retention mechanism. And it's making advisors better at their jobs. Lucas: That's the key insight. A lot of brand communities fail because they're purely promotional. 'Join our community to learn about our products.' Advisors see through that immediately. BlackRock made the community genuinely useful first — the research is independent, the mastermind groups are peer-driven, the certification carries real weight in the industry. Luna: And then the product recommendations happen naturally as a byproduct. Lucas: Right. One advisor told me — off the record — that he joined for the research but stayed for the mastermind group. He said the monthly calls with other advisors were more valuable than any conference he'd attended. And when he needed to recommend an emerging markets ETF, he naturally reached for iShares because that's what the group discussed. Luna: That's the holy grail of community marketing: the product becomes the default choice because of social proof within the community. Lucas: And BlackRock measured it. They did a controlled study: advisors who attended at least four mastermind sessions in a quarter increased their iShares allocation by an average of 18%. The control group — advisors who only used the research hub — showed no change. Luna: So the community layer is what drives the behavior change, not the content itself. Lucas: Exactly. Content is table stakes. Community is the engine. And BlackRock invested accordingly — they have a team of 40 people dedicated to running BlackRock Connect. That's not cheap, but when you consider that they spend virtually nothing on traditional B2B advertising, it's a bargain. Luna: Let's talk about what other brands can learn from this. Most companies don't have $27 trillion in assets. But the three-tier structure seems replicable. Lucas: Absolutely. You need a top of funnel asset that's genuinely useful — that's tier one. For BlackRock, it's research. For a software company, it could be templates or tutorials. Tier two is the peer connection — small groups that meet regularly. That's where the trust builds. And tier three is the credential or status that makes membership valuable externally. Luna: The certification piece is interesting because it turns the community into a career asset. That's a level of commitment that goes beyond loyalty. Lucas: And it's a moat. If an advisor has 'BlackRock Certified' on their LinkedIn, they're less likely to switch to a Vanguard or State Street product, because it would feel like losing part of their professional identity. That's the ultimate community lock-in. Luna: It's almost like a guild model. You pay dues, you earn credentials, you get access to a network of peers. BlackRock is the guild master. Lucas: That's a great comparison. And just like medieval guilds, the value comes from exclusivity — not everyone gets in. BlackRock doesn't accept every advisor who applies to the mastermind groups. They vet for experience and commitment. That scarcity makes the community more valuable. Luna: So the lesson is: if you want to build a community that markets itself, make it exclusive, make it useful, and make it part of your members' professional identity. Lucas: And don't try to sell in the community. Let the community sell for you. BlackRock's advisors are their best salespeople because they're not paid to sell — they're sharing what they genuinely believe works. That's the power of peer to peer marketing. Luna: Speaking of things that work — if this episode was worth a coffee to you, that's the link: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's the smallest ask, and it keeps the show independent. Lucas: Yeah, we don't run ads. Listener support is what makes that possible. And honestly, if you've taken even one idea from these conversations and applied it, that's exactly what the community is about. Luna: Alright. Let's zoom back to BlackRock. One thing I want to explore is how they handle moderation and content quality at scale. Two hundred thousand members is a lot of voices. Lucas: They use a combination of algorithms and human moderators. Every post in the research hub's comment section is reviewed by a team of former advisors before it goes live. They also have a reputation system — advisors earn 'insight points' for helpful comments, and top contributors get featured in a weekly digest. Luna: So gamification, but tied to quality, not just volume. Lucas: Exactly. You can't just spam 'great post' and earn points. The system rewards detailed analysis, original data, and helpful responses. BlackRock found that the top 5% of contributors generate 40% of the community's total engagement. So they nurture those power users with exclusive access — early research releases, direct Q&A with BlackRock's CIO, that kind of thing. Luna: That's a classic community management play: identify your superusers and give them VIP treatment. Lucas: And it works. Those power users are also the ones most likely to recommend iShares. They're essentially unpaid brand ambassadors. BlackRock estimates that every dollar spent on the community generates about $8 in incremental ETF inflows. That's an 800% return. Luna: Which is why they're expanding. I heard they're launching a version for institutional investors later this year. Lucas: That's right. BlackRock Connect Institutional. Same three-tier model, but for pension funds, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds. They're betting the community model works just as well for billion-dollar allocators as it does for independent advisors. Luna: And if it does, it changes how the entire asset management industry thinks about marketing. No more golf outings and steak dinners. Just a well-run community. Lucas: I think we're already seeing that shift. Vanguard has a community platform too, though it's smaller. State Street is building one. But BlackRock has the head start and the data to prove it works. That's a competitive advantage that's hard to replicate. Luna: So what's the one thing a marketer should take away from this episode? Lucas: That community isn't just for B2C brands or startups. If a $27 trillion asset manager can make it work, your company probably can too. The formula is simple: give away something valuable, connect your users with each other, and let them become your sales force. Luna: And make sure they get a credential they can show off. Lucas: That helps. But the core is trust. BlackRock's community works because advisors trust each other more than they trust a sales pitch. If you can build that trust, you don't need to sell. Luna: Alright. That's a good place to land.