My Business Was Dying. Then I Found LinkedIn — Transcript

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1. 0:00For about 3 years, I watched a business
2. 0:02I'd given everything to and bet
3. 0:05everything on almost not make it. My
4. 0:07co-founders and I tried everything we
5. 0:09could to succeed. We experimented with
6. 0:11every single marketing channel from SEO
7. 0:14to blog content to cold email to metro
8. 0:17ads, Google ads, whatever it is, we
9. 0:19tried it and it wasn't giving us the
10. 0:21results we needed to survive as a
11. 0:23marketing agency. We were starting to
12. 0:25wonder if we could ever crack the code
13. 0:26to marketing. That was until we
14. 0:28experimented with the one channel we'd
15. 0:30never tried before and it changed
16. 0:32everything. That channel was LinkedIn. I
17. 0:35know that sounds like an exaggeration,
18. 0:37but it really isn't. LinkedIn saved my
19. 0:39career, our business, and stopped us
20. 0:41from spending more time on channels that
21. 0:43don't work and focusing our time on the
22. 0:45channels that do. So, in this video, I'm
23. 0:47going to be very honest and open about
24. 0:49where we are as an agency right now. I'm
25. 0:51going to talk you through what we tried
26. 0:52and didn't work, why it didn't work, and
27. 0:54then critically, what we're doing on
28. 0:56LinkedIn that's giving us so much
29. 0:58success. That's the bit I want you to
30. 1:00stay for cuz you can copy that LinkedIn
31. 1:01strategy and hopefully not make the same
32. 1:03mistake as we did and start focusing on
33. 1:06LinkedIn earlier to make you and your
34. 1:08clients a lot of money. Because you
35. 1:09might well be watching this video
36. 1:10thinking the same thing I thought a few
37. 1:12years ago, that marketing is so
38. 1:14difficult. The actual fact is you're
39. 1:16probably just marketing on the wrong
40. 1:17channels. I'm going to show you why you
41. 1:19should be marketing on LinkedIn, how to
42. 1:21market it on LinkedIn, and I guarantee
43. 1:23you it will change the trajectory of
44. 1:24your career forever. Let's get into it.
45. 1:27So, let me take you back to where it all
46. 1:29started for me, and that was at the
47. 1:30University of Work. On graduation, I
48. 1:33realized I wanted to go into either
49. 1:34marketing or sales. I wasn't quite sure
50. 1:36what side of the fence I wanted to be
51. 1:37on, but knew it was one of them. I
52. 1:39started my job hunt looking for an
53. 1:41agency based in London that was growing
54. 1:43and was at the front line of marketing
55. 1:46and [music] sales. Where I landed was an
56. 1:47agency called Gript, and I stayed there
57. 1:49for 3 years. I started as a junior
58. 1:51marketing manager [music]
59. 1:52and left after that 3-year period as a
60. 1:54senior marketing manager. As well as
61. 1:56having a lot of fun at that agency and
62. 1:58enjoying London life for the first time,
63. 1:59[music] it taught me so much about
64. 2:02marketing, particularly in the B2B
65. 2:04sphere. At Gripped, we worked with some
66. 2:05of the most exciting clients in the IT,
67. 2:07tech, and SaaS. So, then on leaving
68. 2:10Gripped, I had the choice [music]
69. 2:11whether I continue my path down another
70. 2:13big London marketing agency or I try and
71. 2:15build something for my own. That's when
72. 2:17a very conveniently timed call came from
73. 2:19an old school friend, Neil Maclean,
74. 2:21asking me to jump ship and join him at
75. 2:23his exciting new marketing startup
76. 2:24[music] Leader Marketing. Now, that
77. 2:26marketing agency, Leader, is at the
78. 2:28epicenter of this entire story. It is
79. 2:30where we struggled at the start [music]
80. 2:32to find out what marketing tactics we
81. 2:33should deploy for clients for success,
82. 2:35and where we ultimately landed on
83. 2:37LinkedIn being [music] the very best
84. 2:38channel out there. Because speaking very
85. 2:40openly, when I left Gripped, I was under
86. 2:42the impression that marketing was very
87. 2:43[music] easy. When the actual truth that
88. 2:46I learned in Leader is it is very hard.
89. 2:48Marketing [music] is so saturated, you
90. 2:51have to be elite at it to succeed. Now,
91. 2:53the proof at Leader that we tried
92. 2:55everything and it didn't work before
93. 2:57finally striking gold with LinkedIn is
94. 2:59the evidence of how we actually pivoted
95. 3:01as a company so [music] frequently.
96. 3:03Because Leader actually launched as a
97. 3:04cold email agency. We were sending out
98. 3:06thousands of cold emails on behalf of
99. 3:08our clients every day. If you've ever
100. 3:10tried cold email, you know how hard it
101. 3:12is to consistently land [music] in
102. 3:13prospects' inbox. Google, Outlook, and
103. 3:15other ESPs, they change the rules that
104. 3:18you need to follow to land in inboxes
105. 3:20almost daily, and it became a massive
106. 3:22headache to stay on top of it. As well
107. 3:23as that, cold email was so saturated, it
108. 3:26was impossible to guarantee results for
109. 3:28our clients only running cold email. So,
110. 3:30what did we do? We then pivoted to be a
111. 3:31more conventional marketing agency like
112. 3:33I was used to at Gripped. We offered an
113. 3:35entire service catalog of traditional
114. 3:37marketing tactics [music] and offered
115. 3:38them to clients, and we had some success
116. 3:40with this. We acquired some clients,
117. 3:42delivered some good results for them,
118. 3:43but it really wasn't the stardom that we
119. 3:45were looking for. The problem was we
120. 3:46were offering every marketing [music]
121. 3:48service at probably, honestly, like a
122. 3:50six or seven out of 10 standard, and not
123. 3:52really becoming elite at any channel.
124. 3:54Problem with that is when there's so
125. 3:55many marketing agencies doing just one
126. 3:56thing, [music] it's very hard to beat
127. 3:58them at that one thing. So, you really
128. 3:59do need to niche down and specialize to
129. 4:01succeed. After a few months of doing
130. 4:03that, we then stumbled upon Daniel
131. 4:04Priestley. He's an entrepreneur. He's
132. 4:06featured on Diary of CEO regularly, so
133. 4:08you might recognize him from that. But,
134. 4:09he's also the founder of a company
135. 4:10[music] called Score App. Now, I'm not
136. 4:12going to go to too much detail about
137. 4:13what Score App do, but ultimately they
138. 4:15offer quiz or assessment funnels for B2B
139. 4:18and B2C businesses. We then pivoted our
140. 4:20agency around that business to become
141. 4:22partners of Score App and ultimately for
142. 4:24a few months we were building these quiz
143. 4:26funnels for clients of ours and [music]
144. 4:28clients for theirs. Again, we had good
145. 4:30success with this, but most of our
146. 4:31clients were more just project fees were
147. 4:33rather than retainer clients. So, it was
148. 4:35difficult to forecast revenue and retain
149. 4:38clients on a longer basis. So, we'd
150. 4:39already pivoted so much at this point
151. 4:41[music] that our business which started
152. 4:43with cold email, we then pivoted to a
153. 4:45more conventional marketing agency,
154. 4:46[music] and then we went to in lead
155. 4:49magnet specialist this building this
156. 4:50quiz funnels. You can see we're
157. 4:52pivoting, pivoting, pivoting trying to
158. 4:54find some magic stardust that works and
159. 4:57then we [music] could double down on
160. 4:58that thing that works. But, until you
161. 5:00find that thing we went pivot, pivot,
162. 5:01pivot. Now, that was until we finally
163. 5:04found what works in the marketing world
164. 5:06and finally found a channel we can rely
165. 5:08on consistently generate revenue for us
166. 5:11and our clients. And that was LinkedIn.
167. 5:13Of course, we had tried LinkedIn a
168. 5:15little bit as a channel before. We'd put
169. 5:17the odd post out there. We'd got some
170. 5:19traction, but we'd never generated or
171. 5:21created a full client acquisition funnel
172. 5:24on LinkedIn. And [music] that was a
173. 5:25crucial difference to us using it now
174. 5:27versus how we used LinkedIn before. For
175. 5:29the first time ever, [music] we started
176. 5:31getting a consistent flow of inbound
177. 5:34leads into the business. That meant that
178. 5:36on a weekly basis we had lots of sales
179. 5:38calls being booked in, lots of those
180. 5:40calls being closed, and lots of revenue
181. 5:42generated for our agency for the first
182. 5:44[music] time ever. Having seen this
183. 5:46work, we decided as an agency to double
184. 5:48down on content both as our own client
185. 5:51acquisition funnel, but also as a
186. 5:53service that we offer for our clients.
187. 5:55And that's not just LinkedIn content,
188. 5:56that is YouTube content and content
189. 5:58across all social media platforms
190. 6:00[music]
191. 6:00with the main goal being to build
192. 6:02personal brands of founders
193. 6:04>> [music]
194. 6:04>> to make them become key personal
195. 6:06influence in their industry. Now, that
196. 6:08was about a year ago now and in [music]
197. 6:10that last year, we have really, really
198. 6:12honed our craft going from newcomers in
199. 6:14the LinkedIn sphere to best in class.
200. 6:16[music]
201. 6:17Now, before I go into the next part of
202. 6:18this video, which is exactly how we use
203. 6:20LinkedIn to get success for ourselves
204. 6:22and for clients, I just want to quickly
205. 6:24call out that if you are enjoying this
206. 6:25video, please do like and subscribe. I'm
207. 6:27producing three videos a week detailing
208. 6:29everything I've ever learned about
209. 6:31LinkedIn [music] to help you sign
210. 6:32clients on LinkedIn, go viral on
211. 6:34LinkedIn, and ultimately have success
212. 6:36doing whatever you're trying to achieve
213. 6:37on LinkedIn. If you want to grow on
214. 6:39LinkedIn, make sure you subscribe to not
215. 6:41miss out on any of that content and join
216. 6:43the fastest growing LinkedIn community
217. 6:44on YouTube. Now, let's get into [music]
218. 6:46what works on LinkedIn versus what
219. 6:48doesn't. Just like as an agency, we've
220. 6:50pivoted lots of times from marketing
221. 6:52channel to marketing channel to find out
222. 6:53what works. Even on LinkedIn, I've
223. 6:55tested a lot of different methods to
224. 6:57find out what the best approach is when
225. 6:59it comes to winning on LinkedIn. Now,
226. 7:01the strategy I use today really has two
227. 7:04[music] halves. There's content and DMs,
228. 7:07and you need both halves to have success
229. 7:09[music] on LinkedIn. I'm not going to go
230. 7:10into incredible detail on those two
231. 7:12halves in this video. I have done lots
232. 7:14of other videos breaking down those two
233. 7:15things both individually and together,
234. 7:18but I will give you a high-level
235. 7:19breakdown of how they work. So, let's
236. 7:21start with content. What content wins
237. 7:23versus what content fails on LinkedIn.
238. 7:25The best advice I can give you when it
239. 7:27comes to content is to embrace the
240. 7:29cringe because let's be honest, posting
241. 7:31on LinkedIn at times can be cringey. But
242. 7:33if you adopt this mindset shift, that is
243. 7:34actually your competitive edge because
244. 7:37lots of your competitors on LinkedIn are
245. 7:38not posting because they're afraid of
246. 7:40getting embarrassed or that other people
247. 7:42might call [music] it cringey, or
248. 7:43they're not ready to face rejection.
249. 7:45Every bit of content you put out there
250. 7:47needs to address one type of emotion,
251. 7:48either positive or negative, [music] and
252. 7:50both are equally as important. On the
253. 7:52positive side, you can celebrate your
254. 7:54personal wins, your business wins, or
255. 7:56even your client wins. Talk about what's
256. 7:58going well in your business. But, you
257. 8:00can also do very well on the negative
258. 8:02side of your business by actually being
259. 8:04very open and vulnerable about what's
260. 8:06going wrong, what mistakes you made,
261. 8:08what regrets you have, what you do
262. 8:10differently if you could go back and do
263. 8:11that thing again. Cuz so many people are
264. 8:13just screaming about their wins on
265. 8:14LinkedIn, being open and honest about
266. 8:16actually some losses you have always
267. 8:17does [music] very well. And that's only
268. 8:19the content side. To be honest, your
269. 8:20clients aren't going to be messaging you
270. 8:22asking to do business with you [music]
271. 8:23just from seeing a LinkedIn post. The
272. 8:25content side is just about building
273. 8:27awareness and getting [music] attention
274. 8:28from your prospects. So, then when you
275. 8:30go in with the DM, which is the sales
276. 8:33side of it, it's going to be received a
277. 8:34lot a lot [music] better. Why? Because
278. 8:37you're not a cold person anymore.
279. 8:38They've seen your face before, they know
280. 8:40who your company are, what you do, how
281. 8:42you can help [music] them. So, rather
282. 8:43than it being cold outreach, it's sort
283. 8:45of warm outreach at that point if the
284. 8:47content side has done its job as it
285. 8:49should. So, on the DM side, you're going
286. 8:50to adopt a similar philosophy of
287. 8:52embracing the cringe, being loud,
288. 8:54pushing yourself out there, and not
289. 8:56being afraid of rejection. How can you
290. 8:57do this? Well, the best way I like to do
291. 8:59it is actually with voice notes. So,
292. 9:01rather than sending a boring text DM
293. 9:02that they've received a hundred of in
294. 9:04their inbox already, I like to send a
295. 9:05voice notes cuz it disrupts the pattern
296. 9:08of their inbox. It's going to spike some
297. 9:09curiosity
298. 9:10thinking, "Hmm, this person just sent me
299. 9:12a voice notes. I wonder what they're
300. 9:13saying. Is it important?" I guarantee
301. 9:15you that at least give it a listen. And
302. 9:17then when they do go and listen to the
303. 9:18voice notes, you've got a lot more
304. 9:19bandwidth there to actually get your
305. 9:21point across than on a text message.
306. 9:22[music] They can now hear your tone,
307. 9:24your intonation. They see you more as a
308. 9:25person than just a faceless person that
309. 9:27sent them a text. So, voice notes is
310. 9:29always going to land [music] better. And
311. 9:31maybe you even cherry-pick your very
312. 9:32best prospects, and you create a video
313. 9:34for them rather than just a voice note.
314. 9:36Go the extra mile, do the extra bit of
315. 9:38homework in creating a video. Don't be
316. 9:40embarrassed or afraid of rejection, and
317. 9:42[music] I guarantee you it will land a
318. 9:43lot, lot better. So, that is a strategy
319. 9:45at high level. It's content on one side,
320. 9:47warming them up, getting [music]
321. 9:48attention, spreading awareness, so that
322. 9:50when you do send that all-powerful
323. 9:52LinkedIn DM, it's not going in cold.
324. 9:55Now, I have broken this down in a lot
325. 9:56more detail on the videos, so please
326. 9:58check out my channel if you are looking
327. 9:59for a more in-depth [music] breakdown of
328. 10:00this. So, that is the video, that is my
329. 10:02story. As I've explained, we have tried
330. 10:04[music] everything as an agency. We
331. 10:06started at cold email, we then went to
332. 10:08full marketing catalog, then tried quiz
333. 10:10funnels, finally struck gold with
334. 10:12LinkedIn and social media content. And
335. 10:14it's not just LinkedIn that you should
336. 10:16be doing here. It is social media
337. 10:17content across the board. But, I know
338. 10:19that is a bit of a headache and can be a
339. 10:21bit of a slog to get off the ground. To
340. 10:22help you out, I want to hand invite you,
341. 10:25yes you watching this video right now,
342. 10:27to my online community on how to scale
343. 10:30with social media and how to grow on
344. 10:32LinkedIn. For the last 6 months, I've
345. 10:34been working on this online community,
346. 10:35creating videos, documents, [music]
347. 10:37SOPs, and creating lots of cool things
348. 10:39in there that you can use to scale on
349. 10:42LinkedIn and beyond. Basically, all my
350. 10:44best tips, all my best advice, [music]
351. 10:46everything I've ever learned on LinkedIn
352. 10:48is in that community ready for you to
353. 10:50adopt and steal. As well as that, if you
354. 10:52join the community, you have a
355. 10:53one-on-one [music] access with to me and
356. 10:55my co-founders where we can help you
357. 10:56achieve whatever it is you're trying to
358. 10:58achieve in the content. Even better,
359. 11:00I've arranged a 7-day free trial if you
360. 11:02join using the link below, so you can
361. 11:03check it out, get started free of
362. 11:06charge. I want to see you in there, so
363. 11:07make sure you join right now using that
364. 11:09link. As always, thanks for watching. If
365. 11:10you enjoyed the vid, please do
366. 11:11subscribe, and I'll see you on the next
367. 11:13one.