Summary
Navigating Business, a podcast specifically for marketing agency owners returns, with our first guest, Mindi Rosser joining us to talk about everything on LinkedIn and what agency owners need to know to succeed. Don’t miss the “Mango Effect”, her proven way to cultivate non-spammy, meaningful relationships on LinkedIn, her what-to do’s (and not do!) and her current LinkedIn Soapbox. Follow Mindi (and see her LinkedIn ninja skills) at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindirosser/
Watch this full episode on YouTube here.
Q: How do you differentiate your business in social media with others as a LinkedIn coach?
A: As an agency owner, using LinkedIn is an incredibly interesting experience. I work with many other marketing agency owners, which is a great experience because we all speak the same language. Additionally, I work with subject matter experts, SAAS technology companies, and professional services firms, so I specialize in programs on LinkedIn. My specialty is at the intersection of personal branding, brand awareness, marketing, and social selling. I understand how marketing and sales go together on LinkedIn, and as marketing agency owners, we understand the importance of both. It’s essential to have both in order to be successful.
By leveraging the power of LinkedIn, I’m able to build strong relationships with clients, create brand awareness, and increase sales. It’s an incredibly powerful platform, and I’m proud to be able to make the most of it. People don’t feel they are talking with sales pitching people but they feel comfortable interacting.
How did Mindi start with LinkedIn to become a LinkedIn expert?
Mindi started about a decade ago to use linkedin. She would go early morning around 5am and would start pitching herself to different companies and look for hiring managers, she would send them messages and tailor her profile based on the job description. She sent them her resume and she would get connected with a lot of people.
She was really searching for her dream job before becoming an entrepreneur, and that actually landed her dream job within 3 weeks and she was packing and moving based on LinkedIn.
So after interviewing with the person who hired her, she started to help people to create their profiles on LinkedIn. She would also get into conversations with her ideal prospects and she left her dream job.
And now, she’s spending 90% of her day on LinkedIn and it’s her favorite place to be.
Business and life are kind of a mango tree (spoiler alert: MANGO EFFECT)!
Sometimes we hear these success stories where people are like “I made my first six figures in a year and I was extremely profitable on top of that” and you’re thinking wow how did that happen I want that and it just feels so unrealistic. When it comes to LinkedIn, people approach LinkedIn with this mindset of “oh ifI can either pay to play” or “I can just get results really fast”. I can grow my network. I’ll just spam people’s connections and I’ll have like thousands of connections of people who want to do business with me and it’s gonna happen like that and it’s just not how it works!
My husband and I were sitting and watching two mango trees behind us, and I started to talk about it. Business and life is kind of life. It’s very like watching a mango tree, which takes so much time for the tree to develop but it’s also like watching the amount of mangoes that come off the tree. You need to be patient and sometimes it’s a surprise you are not exactly sure how many mangoes you are going to get! As an entrepreneur we all know how unpredictable things are unpredictable. You plant a seed, and you nurture the tree and yes, it could take 10-20 years . Business doesn’t get quite that long, but it still feels like ages when you get started. You are patient, you put in the time and you actually nurture the tree, it grows and it produces fruit that you actually enjoy having and sometimes more than you could possibly want and you are sharing it with your neighbors.
How does this mango effect play in a generic way? How can LinkedIn be a game changer?
LinkedIn is very different from all other platforms, other platforms are not really where people with their professional hat on. So as a marketing agency owner, you want people to have the mindset of doing business. You are like a B2C relation on Instagram, or TikTok, but on LinkedIn, it’s a B2B.
Another great benefit of LinkedIn is that you can see the people who work at your target accounts and create a map of contacts that you can reach out to in a more personal way. For example, if you’re trying to use LinkedIn for marketing or sales purposes, you can take a more strategic and targeted approach to reach out to potential customers or partners. On the other hand, on Instagram you’re simply posting content in the hopes that something will happen.
“You have MORE permission to talk business on LinkedIn”
Marketing yourself on LinkedIn can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be! Not only is it a great platform to build professional relationships, it’s also an incredibly special environment where you can focus on the relationship-building aspect of marketing. It takes time to start seeing results on LinkedIn – usually 90 days. However, consistency is key and if you’re consistent in reaching out, getting connected, and doing so in a human way, you’ll start to see long-term results, even years down the line!
Negative sides on LinkedIn (flip side)
(1) Gaming LinkedIn
When using LinkedIn, it’s important to be thoughtful about the content you post. Don’t try to game the algorithm by posting things that are not suitable for the platform, such as overly personal or dramatic posts. These posts can draw attention, but more often than not, it’s negative attention. Instead, focus on creating content that is meaningful and adds value to the platform. Don’t post just for the sake of getting ‘likes’ or ‘views’ – puppy pictures won’t cut it! Think carefully about how to use LinkedIn in a way that best suits your goals and adds value to the community.
As an individual and a representative of your marketing agency, it’s important to be thoughtful about how you’re representing your brand, even if you’re a small agency. Your personal profile is the first impression people will get of your company, so it’s essential to maintain a professional image.When posting on social media, ask yourself if it’s aligned with your mission. Think about how these posts will reflect on your brand and company and if it will actually attract the right people. Don’t just aim for more followers or engagement for the sake of it. Instead, focus on getting followers that are in your target market and the people you want to do business with.
(2) People don’t know how to reach out so it doesn’t feel like “sales”
It’s important to find the perfect balance when reaching out to potential new clients – you don’t want to come across as too bland and generic but at the same time, you don’t want to seem like a complete stalker by spending hours researching them. Is the information you’ve gathered actually relevant? Is there a chance they’ll want to do business together after this initial meeting? Or are you just wasting your time?
Some people spend a lot of time networking for the sake of networking, and then you have all these calls with people that maybe their sales calls, maybe they’re not. You’re just kind of getting connected. So it is really important to be laser-focused and strategic about how you use LinkedIn and what you say. That will resonate with your market. These are a few things that people struggle with when they get started on LinkedIn.
First couple things you can try to setup your linkedin profile:
Do not worry about connections at the beginning. You want to focus on your profile and consider your profile. Try to think about the elements used on LinkedIn and how to apply and write those for your clients.
The key with your profile is to be in the right space and to find your target market on LinkedIn.
What if you have multiple markets?
You might be working with a lot of different verticals, and it just depends on your agency and how it is set up. Think of the primary one, who are you going to focus on next and really put your head in that headspace and write to them. You want to focus on your headline. You want to get across who you are, whom you help, how you help them and the results that you generate.
Just keep in mind that even if you’re speaking to one audience you’re not necessarily going to turn off all of the other ones that you work with. You can still work with a lot of them. It’s better to be a little too specific than broad where they’re like okay you’re another marketing agency and fantastic!
You need to share a little bit of your secret sauce to set yourself apart because there are so many agency owners on linkedin If you do that little extra work you’re going to set yourself apart especially if you mentioned like the industries or the types of clients that you work with or the types of problems that you solve because that’s really where you can differentiate on linkedin and that’s where people your target market is going to find you. Headline area is where you find a lot of opportunities.
About Section: don’t tell your company’s story, but your own!
Your about section is very very important both from a search optimization perspective on linkedin having the right keywords and phrases in there, and from telling your story. This is where you want to tell your story, not your company’s story. That’s something I see a lot of agency owners do wrong, because they put their company’s “about” page and their own personal profiles “about” section. This feels weird for people, because this should be more about you.
Bring a bit about your company, you cannot let people miss where you work and what your company is about. It could be about your journey and story, then the book ends. For instance, in the beginning you can ask a very thought provoking question. Since you are in marketing you understand what a thought provoking question is for your audience. Think about the biggest pain point that keeps them up at night!
Be sure to leave some white space at the end of your content so that readers can take in your call to action. Be specific in the way you want them to contact you, and make it easy for them to do so. The next part is to complete the experience by ensuring that your top content areas are visually appealing and compelling. Your headline, header image, and personal profile picture are all critical elements in this regard.
Time to build your connection network
Once you have a strong profile section, focus on your target market. If you have fewer than 500 connections, look for more friends, colleagues, and other potential contacts until you reach 500 or more. Then you can start reaching out to prospects more aggressively.
Learn a bit about new and old features on linkedin
LInkedin used to have type posts like Twitter, where you have news feed, and you could ask really thought provoking questions with engagements with pols. But now, people are probably tired of this. LinkedIn is trying hard to bring more digital creators, to compete with Medium and other long form content places. They are also pushing a podcast network, where you can start streaming your podcast live. Make sure you check it out! Use linkedin as your amplifier, not a source of posting.
Music from Uppbeat: https://uppbeat.io/t/prigida/play-the-beat (XGJNTVD9IX3RYCBV)