Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/200952
MARKETING IN PRACTICE local Chamber of Commerce will ofen have a group that you can join. If the CPA specializes in certain niche markets, they should join those groups; for example, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, or medical. Tese groups cater to c-level professionals and business owners who are in those industries. KRISTY: What is your advice on reaching out to individuals (in addition to groups) on LinkedIn to help build a 'contact database' (the people you will be marketing to via LinkedIn)? JOSH: Te frst step is clearly defning your prospect profle (who you want to do business with). Without that, you're just wasting time. From there, directly target prospects that ft this profile. It's important when connecting with new prospects that you approach each one personally— shortcuting the process will hurt your results. You also need to be well versed on LinkedIn from a technical standpoint to understand the different avenues for connecting with prospects. And finally, you need to understand that you can't just do this sort of thing once and be set. It takes ongoing outreach and maintenance. For our clients, we will connect them directly with 150-700 targeted prospects within the frst month of service. Each month thereafer, we typically add 30-50 new connections (targeted prospects). Tis gives our customers a constantly growing database of new potential clients to market to. KRISTY: Once you are in the right groups and have connected with the right people, how do you start to communicate with contacts? JOSH: First, it's important to identify the two common mistakes people make as they begin marketing on LinkedIn. 1) Tey come out of the gate with marketing pitches and trying to sell too soon. 2) Tey try to connect with the person right away. Tese tactics don't usually work because people don't like being pitched to when they've never heard of you and they generally aren't open to connecting with people that they don't know. The best way to reach decision makers is to use a referral or connect through a shared group. Find a second-degree connection that the two of you share and leverage that connection to meet the CEO. Mention the mutual connection's name when you reach out. Tis will increase the chances of making the connection. Connecting through a shared group is another good tactic. From within the shared group, send a message to the decision maker instead of a connection request. A message is more personal. You can simply say, " Hi Mark. I came across your profle here in the St. Louis business owner group. I saw that we're both friends with John Simon and I think it would be benefcial to connect and perhaps meet in person." Whatever your angle—to simply connect or to secure an initial meeting—a litle name dropping and a personal message will increase your hit rate. KRISTY: What are the next steps to build the relationship? Ofer educational material, an article, etc.? JOSH: Many over-eager people will reach out directly to new connections, and try to "go for the kill." Tis is the worst approach. Yes, it can lead to some short-term results, but it sacrifices an even greater potential of long-term results. The key is to implement a process for systematically building relationships with new connections over a longer time period. For our clients, we build and execute a drip marketing system within LinkedIn that keeps them top-of-mind with their prospects— this may include an educational article, links to relevant, helpful topics, and so forth. Tis positions a client as an expert. Further, we seg- ment the connections and more closely market to the most 'high value' prospects in the database. Te end result is that within 2-3 months, nearly 30 percent of prospects identifed will agree to a meeting with our client. Bringing it All Together Social media can be a powerful marketing tool if used properly…and consistently. Following the basics of marketing, that is, building awareness of who you are and what you offer and nurturing relationships from cold leads to clients can be applied to marketing in the social media space, but you must have a good strategy in place. Te information provided in this article ofers a sound roadmap to getting started with your marketing eforts using LinkedIn. Now, go forth and prosper in the social media space. Josh Turner is a globally recognized leading expert on leveraging LinkedIn to grow business and has helped clients generate sales as high as $5 million. He is the founder of Linked Selling, a B2B marketing frm specializing in fully outsourced LinkedIn marketing and lead generation campaigns, and the founder of LinkedUniversity.com, an online training program for LinkedIn marketing and sales. Reach him at joshturner@linkedselling.com. November 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 17