Everywhere you go, everybody is talking about having the right lead funnel, building up your database, keeping in front of your potential customers and getting everything set up and automated so you don’t need to waste all day every day on it. Easier said than done!

When I first set up my website years ago, my designer advised I needed a ‘find out more’ or ‘click here’ button but the thought of having to constantly provide content and ‘feed’ your website, was just too overwhelming: ‘Extra’ I called it and dismissed it.

Fast forward 15 years and I guess, on reflection, she was right. These days, it’s important to give something back in order to get something in return – ‘permission selling’. It’s a funny thing running a PR agency, always coming up with great ‘angles’ and story ideas for clients but when it comes to coming up with the same for our own businesses, we are often lacking and time poor.

As part of my ’15 marketing tactics on a shoestring’ experiment, I am going to need to give a great deal of thought as to how I could even begin to get ‘subscribers’ to my website when a. Bay PR currently ranks at 100 or more on Google; b. I don’t have a ‘lead funnel’ in place and c. I don’t have a budget to spend up big on advertising and nor do I want to.

Just thinking it through, I guess I need to consider what the benefits are of having a regular newsletter going out to those who sign up to my database and if it’s even worth doing. The main benefit I can see is to stay relevant and top-of-mind amongst potential clients as well as keeping existing clients up-to-date with our business and the world of PR generally.

But – in the spirit of my marketing experiment, which is just as much about me pushing my own boundaries as anything else, my plan is:

1. Establish a database of contacts I am already connected to via social and the ‘real world’

2. Send them an email/do a social media shout-out to tell them about my experiment and ask them to sign up

3. Formulate an EDM content strategy

4. Get my head around automating it

5. Do it

6. See how it goes

OK so if any of you get an email from me, then I’d really appreciate it if you can sign up to receive Bay PR’s newsletter and (hopefully!) informative downloads, PR tips, tricks and advice! In the meantime, if you’re on this page, please click here: https://baypr.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe

Look forward to seeing how this goes!

In part one of my marketing experiment, ‘15 marketing tactics on a shoestring’, I am exploring all things LinkedIn. If you’ve followed the link here from LinkedIn, then I guess the fact that you are reading this means you are an active member of LinkedIn. While I have been on and off LinkedIn for years, it has always been one of those ‘ho hum’ platforms in my mind. When I joined LinkedIn, I thought it would be a great way to connect with other businesses and to hopefully gain new business but whenever I posted anything, I would only get maybe one or two likes and then if I ever went back to my post, I couldn’t find it!

It seemed less easy to navigate than Facebook at that time. Fast forward to today and I have decided to give it another go. My lovely friend, business coach Edward Zia, swears by LinkedIn. In fact, I think he should get commission from LinkedIn because he recommends it so much to all his business friends!

Edward’s top tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn are:

Content – make it relevant, informative and useful.
Find your voice – you need to speak from the ‘heart’, share what you love and know.
Follow-up – LinkedIn is the platform but it won’t do your sales for you – you need to follow-up all connections and bring them off-line. LinkedIn is essentially software - you’re the one who needs to make it work for you.
Regular posts – Edward suggests 2 – 3 times per day.
Build relationships – nurture your connections by commenting/sharing/liking.
Video – use it, LinkedIn likes it and it’s a great way to share your content.

As I don’t have a large number of connections on LinkedIn, I have decided to reach out and connect to more people, in particular people I would like to work with as potential clients. It feels a bit like stalking, sending a ‘connect’ message but I guess, whoever receives it can see I run a PR consultancy and so would have an idea of why I may be wanting to connect with them.

Objective

My LinkedIn objective, other than to enjoy connecting with the wider business community, is to get a new client. There – I said it – just one new client by the end of this year – a modest objective I think! I would like to do that and I will document and feed back here if it works or if it doesn’t and adjust my approach accordingly.

Tactics

So, I’ll start by writing a list of the businesses I want to connect with and their marketing managers and then I’ll hit connect. I’ll let you know how I go!

I guess I will need to then follow them up with a message or perhaps even a (gulp) phone-call! Question – does anybody actually pick up the ‘phone anymore?! It’s much easier to ‘hide’ behind email isn’t it. But if I’m approaching a journalist for a story, I’ll often pick up the ‘phone to pitch it in. We all know that emails can just scroll in and out of the viewing window on the inbox, so to me a phone call makes sense – I think I’ll give it a go!

After I’ve reached out and hopefully built up some more connections, I’m going to develop my LinkedIn content strategy.

Content Creation

Most of us know that video and original posts are favoured by LinkedIn. Video, I have some concerns with because so many people are doing it, it can feel quite uncomfortable and somewhat ‘salesey’ and ‘shouty’ – totally not me. I need to give it some thought.

In order to get the most out of LinkedIn, I will need to post every day. Note to self - I need to be very organised to plan ahead for this and carve out the time! (Another consideration when picking up the marketing pace for a small business!)

Feedback

I would love to get feedback on the type of content that would be useful, interesting and informative for my LinkedIn connections and wider LinkedIn audience to read. What would be of value and not just ‘more of the same’?

4. Electronic Direct Marketing (EDM)

1. Exploring LinkedIn