Tips and Tricks Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Intentional Marketer

Is it possible to find customers on LINKEDIN WITHOUT SPENDING ANY MONEY ON ADVERTISING?

follow these tips to start making connections with prospective customers on LinkedIn!

Many businesses are using LinkedIn to cultivate relationships that turn in to leads, for $0! It takes a little bit of time every day, and a concerted focused effort. But it is possible to find customers using LinkedIn – without spending any money on advertising!

Answer these questions for me, honestly.

How much time do you spend on Facebook every day?

How much time are spending on building advertising campaigns?

How much money are you spending on advertising on Facebook or other social networks?

How can you find customers without spending a dime on LinkedIn?

TIp 1: Commit to spending time every day on LinkedIn

How? Make it part of your daily routine. Every business day, for 30 minutes. That’s all it should take.

Ok – 30 minutes is doable. So, what should you do?

Spend time liking and commenting on content that is relevant to your target industry.
Commented on posts from companies or people you’re hoping to connect with or who are influencers in your target industry space.
Join groups that are focused on the industry or position that you are targeting,
Don’t waste this committed time on your ‘peer’ groups. Most of the time you aren’t going to find clients in your peer groups.
Participate.

Did you know – when you ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on a post, that action will now show up on other users feeds?

How does this help you?

It shows you are an active participator, while also helping build your credibility.

But most importantly, it expands your reach. Your name is now showing up in feeds of people who are not directly connected to you (your 2nd-degree connections – connections of connections). Exposure! After a while, LinkedIn may then recommend you as someone to follow!

TIP 2: Post consistent Quality content

Liking and commenting is great for expanding your reach. However, posting consistently on your own account with quality content will build your own credibility as a subject matter expert.

What should you post?

Text only. Yes – a bunch of studies has shown that engagement levels are much higher on text-only posts. Test it out for yourself! (Why text only? LinkedIn gives preference to content that stays within LinkedIn, versus links out to external sites.)
Keep it short and simple. No one wants to read a novel. However, if you feel compelled to write something longer than a few sentences, then consider using the LinkedIn blogging platform, called “Publisher”.
Opinions. Do you have an opinion on a news story from your field or industry? Share your opinion and invite responses.
Ask questions of your followers – their opinion on something, or recommendations etc.

If you want to include links to articles include those in the comments.

Don’t forget – this is a public forum, so your posts and comments are a reflection of you and your personal brand.

Extra Tip: Make sure your posts can be seen by everyone! Turn your posts to ‘public’ in the settings section of your profile.

Tip 3: Don’t be that annoying sales person!

Noone likes “that guy”. You know… the guy/girl who tries to connect with you and goes right in with the sales pitch. Or the person who likes to comment on your posts with “what I can do for you!”

I know you’re asking “But how am I supposed to get business from LinkedIn???”

Selling constantly, and badgering people with your sales pitch is annoying. It will alienate you from your prospects, and people find it really disruptive. It especially doesn’t work for people who are selling their expertise (like consultants).

You are more than likely not speaking to a “qualified” lead – meaning you haven’t established a need for your product or service, nor determine if it is the right time for them to purchase.

It really comes across as desperate.

Connect with 5 people a day – this will grow your 2nd-degree connections and increase your reach.

So how are you going to make sales from LinkedIn?

Be omnipresent and engaged.

Be the person who provides value in the content they’re posting, and in the comments they’re making.

Grow your network and reach so you can be discovered by your 2nd-degree connections by liking and commenting on posts relevant to your target industry.

And then people will start approaching you! You are the expert in the field they’re interested in and seem to be knowledgeable and helpful. So perhaps you are the person for the job!

Would you like a BONUS tip?

I have a pretty simple, but relatively secret tip on how to find people who are already looking for your service or product. They’re hot leads! They are looking for you. But you wouldn’t even know it. I have put together this LinkedIn tip post in a downloadable PDF and have included an amazing bonus tip! All I ask in return is that you sign up to receive occasional emails from us. We promise to send you great content (like this post) and to respect your email box.

If you’d like to receive my final (and pretty darn awesome) tip for finding people who are already looking for your service or product, fill out the form below to receive my How To Guide to finding clients on LinkedIn!

How are YOU using LinkedIn to connect with prospective customers?

Do you know how your customers prefer to communicate with you?

I love that quote by Mark Cuban. Making your product easier to buy includes making it easy to communicate with you. It is part of the overall CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.

Let’s get really honest. I can count on one hand all the businesses that I have spoken with over the past 20 years that actually knew their customers preferred method of communication. And I’ve spoken to hundreds of businesses. Just a small fraction of them had made the effort to understand who their customers were, how to reach them and then how to communicate with them.

Why does this matter?

The more you know about who you’re trying to sell to, and how they prefer to be communicated with, the better chance you have of selling to them!

SIMPLE!

I was recently trying to find out some information about a product I was trying to buy. I didn’t want to make a phone call, because my questions were simple and I wasn’t ready to commit to buying anything. They didn’t seem to have an email address or button that I could find. But they had a ‘live chat’ button on their website: “We’re online. Chat now!”

Great! They were inviting me to chat with them. Phew!

I had to fill in WAY too much information to start the chat (email, phone and FULL name!) Fortunately I have a Google Voice phone number that I can avoid if I want to, so I filled out the form. Relatively accurately.

Finally someone pops up – nice photo of a young lady and her full name. I started asking my questions and she said “I will have someone reach out to you”.

Ummm…. but we’re already chatting.

Why can’t you help me? I don’t want to talk to someone on the phone…

Well (and here is the clincher…)

“To ensure we provide accurate information, we need to speak with you over the phone.”

So wait. You DON’T provide accurate information via live chat?

Well that conversation (and sale) ended quickly.

I probably don’t need to repeat myself, but I will. If you don’t communicate with your customers with their preferred communication method, then you will likely lose the sale!

Here are a couple of tips to takeaway:

Tip #1: Don’t assume you know! Send out a quick survey to your customers asking their preferred method of communication during the sales process. (You should also know how to communicate with them once they’re a customer, but that is a survey for another day).

Tip #2: Make sure you have a live chat form on your website manned by knowledgable representatives. If you can’t afford to have someone knowledgable man the ‘live chat’ desk, then don’t offer it as an option. A poor experience is worse than no experience.

Tip #3: You should try to offer MORE than 2 methods of communication to provide a solution for a variety of customers to choose from. Consider adding texting as one of those options!

Tip #4: Assign someone to be responsible for monitoring and responding (quickly) to email communications. So many businesses miss out on the sale because they didn’t see the email for a few days.

So, let us know – do you know how to communicate with your customers on their method of choice? How did you determine what your customers preferences were? Share in the comments below…

The Intentional Marketer can provide you with a quick audit of your current solutions and some ideas and recommendations to improve your customer experience.

Just give us a call, email or text! Whichever method you’d prefer.

Top 3 Tips to Finding New Clients on LinkedIn!