As most of you may well have noticed for the past three months or so I have been diligently and assiduously posting every day on LinkedIn with posts that, I sincerely hope, both entice and excite. However, this decision did not just come out of a vacuum, it is part of a deliberate and clear strategy born out of a desire to:
- Grow my business
- Rely less on face-to-face networking and, instead, create a more portable business.
But, I’m getting ahead of myself, first, let’s start at the beginning. I grew my business, more or less, solely out of networking events. You name a group in London and have tried it or, quite possibly, joined it. However, whilst undoubtedly networking taught me a huge range of skills that allowed me to develop the business into a viable, and profitable entity, it has clear limitations.
Not only is it incredibly slow, but it also relies on me making referrals to my fellow networkers. A rather difficult task for a 26 year old freelance copywriter who is generally brought in at the later stages of any given project. It’s also an incredibly time intensive process with many of the groups I attend starting extremely early in the morning. Which meant I am just constantly exhausted and fed up with driving far and wide in search of the next networking group that would take my business to the next level. Honestly, some of them are just dire. Of course, this was all compounded by the fact that back in May I visited Israel and realised it was where I wanted to be. Meaning I would have to leave my current networking groups and find alternative sources of business and new ways to develop my sales funnel.
Enter LinkedIn.
Now, it would be unfair to say that LinkedIn was an entirely new concept to me. I had previously posted weekly blogs. However, over time my reach had reduced dramatically (from around 1,000- 100). Mainly due to LinkedIn’s rather annoying algorithms which mainly ensure that the only way to share blogs on LinkedIn is via a link in the comments section (which is what I will do with this blog). Sadly, this is still not a sure-fire way to success, but certainly the best option available. However, I digress. Thanks to some careful research and the following of key figures like Michal Eisikowitz as well as trying out the 30 day challenge (which I would highly recommend) I started to think that I could really do this.
Of course, in the beginning, it felt immensely challenging to think of new posts daily. Literally, I would sit in the car and desperately scratch my head, trying to think of interesting nuggets I could offer to my network. What on earth did I have to offer? However, with time, it became far easier and now when I’m less busy, I spend time checking out Facebook groups and forums to provide me with inspiration for posts. At the time of writing, I have around ten posts ready to rock and to roll. And let me be clear, these posts do take time – they’re not just random thoughts I type out, but are carefully considered and calculated. Reluctantly, I also add in emojis, because honestly, you do just get more traction with them, meaning my new iPhone XR was a fantastic purchase as it offers me a wonderfully large screen to edit and adjust. Alongside this planning, I also monitor my previous posts to see what is working and isn’t. Generally, anything that is vulnerable will always always do better, as do- oddly – my posts that advise potential copywriters. However, in general, I write a healthy mix of posts and genuinely just try to be authentic, the real me as it were.
Which, honestly is my best possible advice to any individual looking to improve their marketing – be genuine and monitor your results.
Now, of course what you want to hear is that all this time and energy has completely revolutionised my business and I am now earning six figures. Well…obviously this is absolutely not the case. I have definitely had leads through LinkedIn and even one piece of very good business. However, it is still early days. My long term strategy, over the next five-six months, is to see over half of my business come through LinkedIn. So, in short, I am just at the start of my LinkedIn journey and will undoubtedly be updating you as time goes on. However, I am fairly confident that with consistency and determination I can achieve my goal and, of course, I will keep you all updated.
If you are interested in expanding your reach on LinkedIn this is now a retainer service I offer, with daily/bi-weekly/weekly posts that are sure to get you some interest. If you’re interested in learning more about this please do feel free to give me a call on 0208 629 6465 or drop me an email on helena@helenabaker.com