How Forter Turned Community Engagement into Revenue and Career Growth

Forter's customer marketing team is built around a simple belief: business is personal. Led by David Coates, the team runs Friends of Forter, an online community designed to bring customer stories to life and deepen relationships that go beyond the product itself.

The Challenge

As Forter's customer marketing practice matured, Coates and his team needed a community platform that could grow with them. The market was moving fast, and they needed a partner who could both anticipate what was coming and adapt quickly to Forter's specific needs. That meant more than feature checklists during the vendor evaluation. It meant finding a team that would be a genuine partner.

"We evaluated three or four different vendors. What we liked about the Base team is that they were open to ideas, open to conversations around what was on the roadmap now, but also what could be built in the future."

Why Base

During due diligence, Forter assessed several platforms. Base stood out not just for its current capabilities, but for its collaborative approach. The Base team demonstrated a willingness to work through Forter's evolving needs, adjust scope where necessary, and commit to supporting the practice of customer marketing long term.

The Results

The impact of the Friends of Forter community shows up in ways that are both measurable and deeply human.

One member, Jenny, climbed to the top 10 of the community leaderboard. Two months before Forter's annual Impact conference, the team noticed her activity and reached out personally to invite her, not just as an attendee, but as a speaker. That relationship led directly to a commercial outcome: while at the conference, Jenny connected with Forter's product and solutions teams and identified new areas where her company could expand its usage.

The story did not end there. Jenny joined the Forter Impact mentorship program, was matched with a mentor, and built a business case to solve a significant pain point at her organization. Three months later, she had executive sign-off, a promotion, and Forter had a new cross-sell.

"That's one example of a member of our community who used the platform to build their knowledge, build their career, get more plugged in, and get exposure to other ideas and other members."

What It Means

For Forter, the value of a community platform is not just in the data. It is in what happens when the right member gets the right visibility at the right moment. Base gave Forter the foundation to make that possible at scale, while keeping the experience personal.