hello everyone and welcome to another
google plus hangouts I am Evan
Carmichael I believe in entrepreneurs
and I’m super excited to have a good
friend of mine Ron Canadian with me I’ve
known wrong for a number of years how
did we first meet Ron oh oh that’s a
good question i think you were doing uh
your mastermind groups once upon a time
that might have been probably five or
six years ago and I had a someone who
was attending those groups with you
regular leave that I knew and he invited
me to come out um so that’s probably the
first time that we met um at least five
or six years ago okay go and and so ron
i met through his first company which
was helping form partnerships between
brands and he helped get me some big
deals and get me on my path to closing
some brand deals and now he’s doing a
lot of work on linkedin and i know a lot
of you are using social media and are
trying to figure out how do i get
results from social media and and where
should i resend my time and is linkedin
worth it for me and so i thought i got
to bring on the expert and we got mr.
Rankin iski here who is the man who
started this business to help other
entrepreneurs do that so wrong why don’t
just give a quick background quick intro
to what you’re doing with LinkedIn
marketing and how entrepreneurs can
benefit yeah so um thank you for that
I’m going to jump right it up yeah
linkedin marketing is something that we
do at my new agency which is black
marketing which is not just a few months
old the black marketing has actually
been around for over a year and a half
in Singapore we’re a global CEO is and
I’m managing the North American
operation and sort of heading that up
and overseeing that but what we really
do is enable linkedin for appliances you
are alluding to oven um you know we we
do this in a way where we help them
build business on linkedin linkedin is
still a bit of a head-scratcher for a
lot of people i think you know they go
on they open an account they get a
profile maybe they connect with some
friends some
former colleagues and customers that
they might have had in the past whatever
it may be you know write a little blurb
about themselves where they went to
school what you know what business
they’re in or what job they’re doing and
you know connect with others i mean
there’s obviously there’s over 340
million people on LinkedIn across the
world so great b2b sort of platform to
connect with other like-minded business
people but a lot of people you know
don’t don’t spend the time to really
optimize the opportunity for themselves
and kind of do the most that they can do
with LinkedIn so LinkedIn really
essentially is a place where you can
connect with potential business partners
leads clients and build business and
that’s where we saw the opportunity to
help small midsize entrepreneurs with
that task um you know this Evan and I’m
sure a lot of your followers do um you
know business people are very busy so um
they’re running their businesses you
know they’re usually small midsize
business owners our companies of like
sometimes less than five people
sometimes you know the owner is the is
doing every single task and the company
just to keep the company running every
day and they don’t have an hour to a day
to spend on linkedin they don’t have the
time to tweak their profile to write
blogs to be come thought leaders in
their space to connect with others to
use it to generate leads and that takes
time so we basically facilitate and
enable that for them by working with
them working with their chance getting
them up to speed score carding of
profiles looking at their company pages
tweaking them to make them robust and
then essentially going out there and
establishing connections and using tools
like sales navigator on linkedin to work
with second and third level connections
of a target profile that they might have
to generate those leads and get them
engaged with their business so is
LinkedIn for everyone and if not who is
it for who can get some good results as
an entrepreneur um I know I don’t think
it’s for everyone because linkedin is
primarily a b2b platform um so if you’re
selling you know to mask
tumors uh you know you might find that
something like Facebook or doing Google
Adwords or other sort of digital
marketing strategies and using other
tactics might be more effective you know
if it’s email mark mass email marketing
things like that um but LinkedIn is
great if your b2b so if you’re a small
midsize business owner who sells a
product or service to another business
owner or another business essentially
then chances are those people are on
linkedin um you know the first thing you
can do to figure that out is maybe just
go on and LinkedIn and use the search to
put in the names of some of your best
clients and see if they’re there and see
if you’re even connected to them that’s
the advice I would give to anybody and
and what surprises people is when they
do that is they see that many of their
clients and potential clients are there
and that in some cases they’re not even
connected to them but they’re there and
because they’re be to be there on the
site as well so for for companies that
want to sell to other businesses a great
place to do it so if I do the search i
find hey you know all my customers are
on there and i have my account you know
i’ve set up my profile and have my bio
when you know where i worked all that
stuff how do I then use it how do I
reach out to those customers how do I
use LinkedIn as a lead generation tool
for me establishing that that sort of
first point of contact is always the
hardest part right um is how do I engage
with someone and especially how do I
engage with someone in something like a
like a digital media platform ah but you
know the truth is that we know that
they’re there we know that people are
spending more time online than ever
before cold calling is becoming more and
more difficult in terms of establishing
relationships and sort of using that as
a process for generating new sales um so
doing it on linkedin um is important and
and the way that you would do that is
really there are several different
things that you can do um you can
connect directly
and and try to establish contact that
way you can you know upgrade to a
premium account which will allow you to
have access to multiple emails or sales
navigator account which allows you to
have access to multiple emails to second
third level connections that you can
pitch and that you could sort of like
you know send your message to the great
thing about it when you upgrade is you
could actually see on linkedin and do
searches for certain profiles of people
so if your target audience is you know
small midsize retailers in the fashion
space like that’s who you sell to well
you can actually profile those people on
LinkedIn because you can do a search in
a given city and get a market with
someone who owns a retail store works
for a major retail chain and that will
produce results for the names of who
those are and then you could target
those guys within nouns so you know how
you connect is is obviously going to be
dependent on your industry in terms of
the message that you want to put forth
in the product you’re selling but using
direct connections and using sales
navigator and a premium account is if
there is the way to redo it on behalf of
our clients and then sort of like how we
how we work with them and and we find
good success with that when the message
is generic when the message actually
means something to them so you know a
lot of people will send out I like to
add you to my network you know and then
they say things like well you know a lot
of people don’t accept my connections
well that’s a very sort of generic
message um why would I accept your
connection I don’t really know what you
do or you know why you’re why you’re
connecting with me so you might want to
put a little bit more in there that
talks to your proposition uh you know
try to get someone to speak to you for
10 or 15 minutes and see if they want to
learn about what you’re offering but you
know make it relevant try to show some
value show it show what you’re selling
when you when you send out that first
that first sort of piece of
communication whether it’s through
establishing a direct connection or
whether it’s you know through through in
mailing them using sales navigator or
LinkedIn premium so if I’m using in mail
and let’s take your example I’m an
entrepreneur I’m trying to reach these
retailers who small the medium sized
retailers and and i found the list
and I’m signed up for sales navigator
and I’m about to email them you know to
your point you don’t want to just have a
generic message what what do you work
with with your clients to like what I
put in that message I’m here I want to
sell them something but I’m trying to
establish this relationship what do you
recommend putting in that first message
to them to get their interest I think
that I think the message that we try to
put in you know usually breaks up in
about three parts um so anyone you know
who’s got any kind of business can can
use that three-part system if you will
um the first thing is try to be personal
you know and establish a connection so
again not with the high you know so if
the guy’s name is Mark Smith you know hi
mark or hi Mark Smith opening line you
know make it make it look personal so
you know something you might have read
in the news about their company or
something that might be happening with
them say hey I checked out your site you
know picked up this article online that
you’ve got some new products that look
really cool or something like that you
know just kind of personalize it to make
it look like you actually looked at what
they were doing so that’s like the first
part of that email to make it personal
and kind of align to to something that
might be relevant to their business and
then in the second part of the middle
body of the email is where you’re going
to want to have some messaging around
what you do and kind of you know bridge
that back in and bring that together so
I’m reaching out today because you know
we do this you know we have these
products and we see a good fit with what
you’re doing and kind of explain what
that is very briefly but show the value
of how it ties it and then the third
part it has to be some kind of call to
action um you know usually trying to
book some kind of call or face-to-face
meeting if you’re in the same city I
always prefer face-to-face if you’re in
the same city because that’s more that’s
generally more effective um but you know
put that in there you know hey can I
have 20 minutes of your time for a call
next week you know we’d love to talk to
you about what we’re doing and and you
know go from there as I see a good fit
or
again love to meet up for coffee at your
office one can be um so some messages
that actually you know someone might
look at and say hey you know this
person’s given some thought to what I do
they’ve identified a fit it’s it could
be worth my time for 15 or 20 minutes to
talk to them as opposed to hey I’d like
to add you to my network and you know
check out my site or something like that
right you know that doesn’t really you
know engage someone in a way where
they’re actually gonna want to learn
about what you’re doing and LinkedIn is
it set up with a lot of those defaults
messages which I’m sure you’ve seen Evan
yeah within it and I think that that and
that’s I’m not criticizing them for
doing that that’s fine because it gives
people you know at least a base point
from which to work from when they’re
looking to connect with someone or
communicate within LinkedIn but they are
generic and they are default for a
reason so you know you can you can you
know remove those default messages and
certainly craft your own message in that
way so we find that that three-part
system works pretty well I like it ain’t
and you know for a lot of people who are
sending out those messages the standard
called the action is just how that
person add you as a contact when you’re
trying to take it in next step and get a
call or get a meeting with them it’s
almost the the double call to action yes
add me to your network but I love to
also have a chance to talk to you but
what you’re doing in your business it’s
interesting it’s different well because
that’s where the real value is in
establishing a connection at the end of
the day because you know you can go on
to LinkedIn this week and connect with I
don’t know 40 50 60 people you know
large numbers of people even even more
than that but if you’re not going to
engage with them have a follow-up call
get to know them and have them get to
know you even though they might not in
the end want your service maybe they
could refer you to someone else then
what is the point of establishing that
connection at the end of the day you’ll
see your connection numbers go up in
your LinkedIn profile right you know so
you’ll go from one to two to three to
400 to 500 plus whatever it may be
but there’s no sense in having all of
these connections and being linked to
all these people if you’re not going to
actually act on it and do something with
it that is the whole point of you know
business professional networking it’s
really to get out there and talk about
your business and to learn about other
people’s businesses and see how you can
help each other great so so we talked
about you know how to know if Lincoln is
for you and then how to find your
customers on linkedin and even now how
to reach out to them with a three-step
process in the call to action so that’s
awesome what else can i do on linkedin
to to drive more leads that you
mentioned writing articles how important
is my pie or there should i join groups
or make my own group what are some of
the things that i really should be
paying attention to on linkedin to drive
my business forward yeah for sure and
and you just touched on some of that
stuff and all those strategies are great
um you know you’re obviously in business
for a reason like you’re you’re you
become good at something you you have a
craft do you know you’ve mastered
something um so the goal at the end of
the day is if you have a product or
service would be to position yourself as
a leader in your space as someone who is
a thought leader who knows what they’re
talking about so if you’re selling some
kind of software to other companies or
if you’re selling you know hard goods or
products you know whether it be
specialty grocery store grocery stores
will just ignore that we’ve got the
google hangouts going but the does bunny
it’s one of your linkedin customers saw
your profile wants to call yeah they
want to chat actually they want to book
one of those calls but but no matter
what you’re selling its it’s getting
back to a point it’s it’s you know
showing that that you know what you’re
talking about so a way to do that is to
blog obviously and you can blog within
LinkedIn linked it’s got it’s going
blogging platform which you then go into
and you can blog I have to have blogs
that are thousands of words long you
know maybe a blog twice a month once
every two weeks three to five hundred
words on a general business topic that
you might know about and then you know
flip it up with a blog about your
business and about your
products and services and and give
people a little bit of insight on how
how they work and show your expertise
and that’s something that will sit
within your profile that people can see
joining groups is great you can join up
to 50 groups on LinkedIn join groups
that are relevant to your industry that
might have people in there that can
either become customers or refer
customers because they’re they’re
relevant and they’ll understand your
industry and they’re well aligned to
what you’re doing so join those groups
and be active within those groups post
articles share your blogs comment on
other people’s blogs you know if they’re
sharing them in the group like certain
stories that you may see the more active
you get you know the more people are
going to see you the more chance you
have to generate lead it’s a
gamification platform at the end of the
day um so you’re all about you know if
you think about you know having a
website and being you know ranked high
in google you know if we look back to
the outside internet world you know
within the linkedin platform it’s it’s
own microcosm for that you want your
website which is essentially your
company page or your personal profile on
linkedin to get views and the way to do
that is to be active so I’ve got this
blog now I ran your teyn right twice a
month 300 to 500 words and is that just
something that when somebody comes and
visits my profile they’ll see that it’s
on there and it’s also gonna I guess get
pushed out to the news feeds if
everybody who’s in my current network is
that is that what I’m hoping for yeah so
you have different options it’ll
automatically be pushed out to your feed
so that anyone who is connected or
following you will see that in their
feed and then you can also intentionally
push it out to the group’s your part so
that they can see it as well and all the
members of those groups you know can can
also see your blog even if you’re not
connected to all them that’s a great
thing about groups some of these groups
can have thirty forty fifty a hundred
thousand members and you’re not
connected directly to those people but
they might read your post and I think
it’s interesting and if they think that
you’ve got some kind of service or
product that they could use they may
reach out and talk to you about it so
it’s a great way to to expose your
offering and it’s free it doesn’t cost
any
22 those things so it just you know get
getting down and blogging if you’re
comfortable with writing if you’re not
comfortable with writing then you can
have someone else in your office do it
or a friend or a family member or get
some kind of you know freelance writer
to help you out you know we have people
that that work on that for our clients
and get them their voice online it’s
very important to have a voice online
and it’s very important for people to
see that you’re a thought leader in your
space and I guess for some of the people
you’ve connected with that you know they
may not be ready to buy now you know you
may have had a great initial call or
maybe not even willing to talk to you
after they accepted your your invitation
and you don’t have any immediate
business having that blog post that’s
consistently going up and that will show
up in their feet and it’s a way even to
kind of stay in touch with people
without having to harass them and bother
them and say hey you’re ready to buy
from me yet yeah it’s a great way like
you’re saying of it to stay top of mine
you know and I think that what happens
is you know people may have had a great
conversation with you and say you know
what I could use a service like this
book where it’s not the right timing
maybe maybe in six months from now would
be better but they may forget you know
they’re people they got a lot of things
going on their business owners
themselves so if they’re following you
and and they’re connected to you and you
put out those blogs and you might even
be part of the same groups um then they
can see what you’re doing and you will
remain top of mind when they see it and
then when the time is right you know
they say hey I’ll call follow them up
and you know maybe we can use something
like this now um and it’s also not a bad
thing once every four to six weeks to
check in with someone that you might
have had a great chat with for 20
minutes um and you know cuz you’re
connected and say you know hey you know
hope you’re doing well you know and that
your business is going well we had a
great talk six weeks ago just just
checking in and seeing how things are
going and if I can be of help in any way
on that is again the whole point of
connecting um there is no use in having
all of these connections you know if
you’re not going to engage with any of
them it’s just a vanity metric at that
point and you know for people who are
trying to build their business and and
drive new customers and generate
revenues you know which is the principal
reason why anyone is running a business
um you know that’s that’s that takes
work so you got to go you got to get
your connections but then you’ve got to
actually go and engage with these
connections right and I know now that
you you do this on behalf of
entrepreneurs and clients who are trying
to build this out i’m wondering if you
could maybe share an example of one of
your clients you don’t mention the name
just we know kind of the kind of
industry and and the results that
they’ve gotten in the actions that
you’ve taken just to kind of bring it
home a little more than just talking
theory like here’s a client they
actually help then the results that they
got from it absolutely yeah and we have
clients across all you know industries
in all professions just just to let your
your your followers know i mean it’s
it’s ranges from like management
consultants to people who sell our good
products to retailers to people who are
selling software you know it’s it’s b2b
but it’s although you know travel
services it can be anything so we have
one client in particular with that we’ve
been working with this is an interesting
one because we’ve only been working with
her for about a month any brand new yeah
pretty new and had some really good
success off the bat this is someone who
has an interesting company she sells you
know packaging products to you know
various small businesses that would you
know present packaged goods for resale
to end customers so like a bakery or a
gift shop or a nut shop or something
like that and she’s she’s got a great
business and a great website and the
whole thing but you know in doing work
that she’s been doing in other channels
it’s been a bit costly for her you know
spending on google ads other forms of
advertising to acquire customers lo and
behold you know when we started working
with her we saw that a lot of her
clients in a lot of her potential
clients you know and just looking at
those industries long lived in so in
working with her we’ve been able to do
some wonderful things i think in in a
month we’ve generated something like 450
+ new connections for her and these are
not connections just with anybody or
frame
certain things like that these are
connections with people who are four of
her target audience we’ve also aligned
her to some celebrity chefs and some
people in the industry you know which
add value to her profile who have
accepted her connection and this is
obviously after we worked her profile
and made her look robust and the whole
thing and within that we’ve generated
leads not only have they connected with
her but we’ve had several numbers about
40 of them have come back and asked for
catalogs and gone to her website and
shared more information and she has
generated several clients from it
already as well and close some deals and
made some sales so and that’s just in
one month you know taking someone who
was not very active on Linkedin would go
in for 15 or 20 minutes a week and spend
time on linkedin maybe just accepting a
few random connections and you know
connecting maybe to one or two friends
she met at a party and kind of leaving
it at that to actually being active on a
daily basis for her profile views have
jumped up because we’ve added her to
groups we’ve gotten all these
connections so many people view her
profile that now she’s better optimized
for her category when people do a search
that I rank lots of people you know have
shown interest in her products you know
people that she never would have known
of before and because she sells on
e-commerce she can sell anywhere in
North America which is her current sort
of target market right now in terms of
geographic nauseous and he’s attracting
listeners not only from her own region
but from other parts of North America as
well what’s interesting there is a lot
of people say social media takes a lot
of time before you get results right if
you’re starting on Twitter or Facebook
or YouTube it takes time to build an
audience I think about my YouTube
audience and how long it’s taken to
build this YouTube audience up and here
you know you have a client who was in a
month is already getting new deals and
is growing her business it’s awesome um
well there’s a number of people watching
is a question that came in that I want
to ask you from somebody watch and he
said I have a question I’m starting a
new business related to fast food and is
wondering what he can do
you on LinkedIn in regards to marketing
now our first question was hey you know
you said it has to be b2b so is that is
somebody trying to do a fast food
business it does linkedin make sense for
them and if so what would they do well
there’s prospects of that fast food
business that might make sense on
linkedin so if they’ve got a fast-food
business that for example they’re trying
to franchise and they want to find new
business owners to open up on other
chains of this business then then those
potential business owners you know would
be on linkedin and they can market this
as a new concept to them there if
they’re looking for suppliers in
business partners and people to support
their business and opening this
fast-food restaurant and those people
can be there so for certain aspects of
their business it can certainly help um
driving end customer traffic you know
into the fast food chain or whatever you
know would probably be something that
you know is more of a consumer place so
that that might take another another
avenue um but LinkedIn can certainly
help with those other a / mentioned
aspects for sure right so I guess it’s
referred when you think my LinkedIn and
sinking what kind of business can help
my business grow absolutely and that
business is probably on linkedin so for
name would be finding out the different
categories if its suppliers or partners
or you know corporate sponsors or
whatever making a really targeted list
and then going out and trying to find
them on LinkedIn to connect with yeah
it’s a business business platform I mean
that’s that’s what LinkedIn is it’s a
professional network or for business
professionals and business people you
know who want to engage with each other
and talk business of course right yeah I
think a lot of people see the value in
the job world and see linkedin just from
the public perspective as this is a
opportunity to get a job but maybe not
it is a chance that I can grow my
business linkedin has done an amazing
thing with with job search you know it’s
it’s you’re absolutely right it’s
fantastic it’s a great place for
headhunters
recruitment agents to get out there and
see you know where the talent is and
where they’re working and you know give
the ability for people to apply directly
to jobs on linkedin and all of that so
they’ve created a whole ecosystem or a
mini ecosystem around that which has
been nicely monetized syringe attention
at the same time it’s a full point of
service there’s some crazy feedback
going on I don’t know that is about I
got another question coming in and maybe
it’s the same answer but inclusive your
thoughts and cat charming right in to
say hey Evan I appreciate what you’re
doing I find your videos helpful I’m
currently designing a product and I plan
to create a crowd funding event this
summer and Ken I guess can linkedin help
with creating this crowdfunding event so
what should what should his steps be
unlinked in to help with this event
event marketing is is something that
that definitely gone on like that it
depends on on what he’s trying to do so
the first thing he should do is
definitely create some kind of company
page or sun page for this crowdfunding
event that he’s hosting obviously put
all the details about the event when it
is and what he’s doing I start sharing
that event page with his immediate
connections start thinking about the
people that you know he or she wants to
come to the event so the target audience
for that crowdfunding event and the
types of people that would be interested
in and connecting with them maybe
getting on linkedin premium or sales
navigator and getting out the second and
third level in males to connections and
really just messaging people about the
event and again using that three-part
sort of communication strategy which is
a you look like you have an interesting
profile up chapter now we’ve got this
cool event you know check out our page
if you have any questions happy to talk
pretending it’s about our event and tell
you about it and also if they’re looking
for sponsors for the event or anything
like that LinkedIn is a great place to
do that events is probably an area
that’s underutilized on you know on in
terms of how station is underutilized
the marketing event you know especially
events that go to business professionals
or business people on LinkedIn is a
great place to do that and we’ve done
that with fine sue we’ve helped the
market their events on linkedin as well
yeah and I guess I mean I don’t know if
he’s been around for the whole child
I’ve just joined in now but thinking
that you know knowing that LinkedIn is a
place for business and not necessarily
for the consumer market and so this this
kind of thing might go hand-in-hand with
another social media campaign but what
are the businesses that can help me get
this event launched if it’s sponsors or
if it’s media partners or if it’s
corporations that might have an interest
in it linkedin is the vehicle be able to
reach those people much more effectively
than a google adwords campaign but if
you are trying to for the consumer deal
mass market then you might have more
success with the other network citizens
it sounds like it’s a much more targeted
specific approach then I’m just going to
blast it out there I’m love trying to go
after specific people I specific
companies to help me promote this well
the great thing about London is you can
target because again when you’re using
premiums and use nails navigate if you
can do searches target the kinds of
companies then target the kinds of
people in the kinds of cities
professions you want it can be having a
marketing event you know you can have a
seminar on whatever kind of marketing
and who wants to go to marketing event
marketing directors marketing people you
know marketing agencies well you can
find them all on linkedin and you can
promote your event like that or an
accounting event you know all all
accountants and professional accountants
and finance people are on linkedin and
those are the kinds of people that would
want to attend that event so why
wouldn’t you promote that event unlike
that that’s where you’re going to get
those kinds of people because there’s
hundreds of thousands if not millions of
financial professionals in on sitting on
linkedin today so it is it is more
targeted because Evan the ability to
target is there as opposed to doing you
know mass campaigns that may not reach
the right people and again a lot of
these tactics that I’m talking about our
free like it doesn’t cost anything to
put up an event page it doesn’t cost
anything to write a blog it doesn’t cost
you know we do these things on behalf of
our clients because they don’t
the time or the expertise to do it but
but working within the linkedin platform
aside from you know small monthly
subscription to your premium account
doesn’t really cost anything so so it
should be tried it should be something
that people look at doing just just by
the fact that it doesn’t cost anything
to do yes I’m looking at the clock and
it’s amazing how quickly a half an hour
runs by we’re already a little bit over
um there we are yeah broad for people
who are watching and the people watching
live and the people are going to be
watching you know after this is record
and put up on the channel where can
people go to learn more about you if
they have more questions or they’re
interested in your service yeah
absolutely so join me on LinkedIn no
surprise there that’s a great place to
find a little bit about myself and about
black marketing again we’re global
company with offices in Singapore our
global CEO Chris weed is based and we
have offices in the UK with Paul
Greenwood who manages that and Martin
Dowling out in Australia and I’m
responsible for north america so you can
you can you know check me out search
ronca Netsky or black marketing on
linkedin in the search now you can go to
our black marketing com website as well
for more information on us and what we
do and how we do it and feel free to
connect with me send me connection
requests let me know that you that you
saw our our live chat here or the
recorded version and i’ll be happy to
connect with you and learn about what
you’re doing so those are those are the
best ways you know you know use linkedin
and you’ll find us there awesome thank
you Ron and really appreciate the time
and the advice yeah thank you I really
appreciate you doing this and taking the
time today to to talk with me so so
that’s that’s much appreciated thank you
evan cool and thank you everybody for
watching that wraps up another hangout
and we’ll talk you soon keep your
printer take care everyone
google plus hangouts I am Evan
Carmichael I believe in entrepreneurs
and I’m super excited to have a good
friend of mine Ron Canadian with me I’ve
known wrong for a number of years how
did we first meet Ron oh oh that’s a
good question i think you were doing uh
your mastermind groups once upon a time
that might have been probably five or
six years ago and I had a someone who
was attending those groups with you
regular leave that I knew and he invited
me to come out um so that’s probably the
first time that we met um at least five
or six years ago okay go and and so ron
i met through his first company which
was helping form partnerships between
brands and he helped get me some big
deals and get me on my path to closing
some brand deals and now he’s doing a
lot of work on linkedin and i know a lot
of you are using social media and are
trying to figure out how do i get
results from social media and and where
should i resend my time and is linkedin
worth it for me and so i thought i got
to bring on the expert and we got mr.
Rankin iski here who is the man who
started this business to help other
entrepreneurs do that so wrong why don’t
just give a quick background quick intro
to what you’re doing with LinkedIn
marketing and how entrepreneurs can
benefit yeah so um thank you for that
I’m going to jump right it up yeah
linkedin marketing is something that we
do at my new agency which is black
marketing which is not just a few months
old the black marketing has actually
been around for over a year and a half
in Singapore we’re a global CEO is and
I’m managing the North American
operation and sort of heading that up
and overseeing that but what we really
do is enable linkedin for appliances you
are alluding to oven um you know we we
do this in a way where we help them
build business on linkedin linkedin is
still a bit of a head-scratcher for a
lot of people i think you know they go
on they open an account they get a
profile maybe they connect with some
friends some
former colleagues and customers that
they might have had in the past whatever
it may be you know write a little blurb
about themselves where they went to
school what you know what business
they’re in or what job they’re doing and
you know connect with others i mean
there’s obviously there’s over 340
million people on LinkedIn across the
world so great b2b sort of platform to
connect with other like-minded business
people but a lot of people you know
don’t don’t spend the time to really
optimize the opportunity for themselves
and kind of do the most that they can do
with LinkedIn so LinkedIn really
essentially is a place where you can
connect with potential business partners
leads clients and build business and
that’s where we saw the opportunity to
help small midsize entrepreneurs with
that task um you know this Evan and I’m
sure a lot of your followers do um you
know business people are very busy so um
they’re running their businesses you
know they’re usually small midsize
business owners our companies of like
sometimes less than five people
sometimes you know the owner is the is
doing every single task and the company
just to keep the company running every
day and they don’t have an hour to a day
to spend on linkedin they don’t have the
time to tweak their profile to write
blogs to be come thought leaders in
their space to connect with others to
use it to generate leads and that takes
time so we basically facilitate and
enable that for them by working with
them working with their chance getting
them up to speed score carding of
profiles looking at their company pages
tweaking them to make them robust and
then essentially going out there and
establishing connections and using tools
like sales navigator on linkedin to work
with second and third level connections
of a target profile that they might have
to generate those leads and get them
engaged with their business so is
LinkedIn for everyone and if not who is
it for who can get some good results as
an entrepreneur um I know I don’t think
it’s for everyone because linkedin is
primarily a b2b platform um so if you’re
selling you know to mask
tumors uh you know you might find that
something like Facebook or doing Google
Adwords or other sort of digital
marketing strategies and using other
tactics might be more effective you know
if it’s email mark mass email marketing
things like that um but LinkedIn is
great if your b2b so if you’re a small
midsize business owner who sells a
product or service to another business
owner or another business essentially
then chances are those people are on
linkedin um you know the first thing you
can do to figure that out is maybe just
go on and LinkedIn and use the search to
put in the names of some of your best
clients and see if they’re there and see
if you’re even connected to them that’s
the advice I would give to anybody and
and what surprises people is when they
do that is they see that many of their
clients and potential clients are there
and that in some cases they’re not even
connected to them but they’re there and
because they’re be to be there on the
site as well so for for companies that
want to sell to other businesses a great
place to do it so if I do the search i
find hey you know all my customers are
on there and i have my account you know
i’ve set up my profile and have my bio
when you know where i worked all that
stuff how do I then use it how do I
reach out to those customers how do I
use LinkedIn as a lead generation tool
for me establishing that that sort of
first point of contact is always the
hardest part right um is how do I engage
with someone and especially how do I
engage with someone in something like a
like a digital media platform ah but you
know the truth is that we know that
they’re there we know that people are
spending more time online than ever
before cold calling is becoming more and
more difficult in terms of establishing
relationships and sort of using that as
a process for generating new sales um so
doing it on linkedin um is important and
and the way that you would do that is
really there are several different
things that you can do um you can
connect directly
and and try to establish contact that
way you can you know upgrade to a
premium account which will allow you to
have access to multiple emails or sales
navigator account which allows you to
have access to multiple emails to second
third level connections that you can
pitch and that you could sort of like
you know send your message to the great
thing about it when you upgrade is you
could actually see on linkedin and do
searches for certain profiles of people
so if your target audience is you know
small midsize retailers in the fashion
space like that’s who you sell to well
you can actually profile those people on
LinkedIn because you can do a search in
a given city and get a market with
someone who owns a retail store works
for a major retail chain and that will
produce results for the names of who
those are and then you could target
those guys within nouns so you know how
you connect is is obviously going to be
dependent on your industry in terms of
the message that you want to put forth
in the product you’re selling but using
direct connections and using sales
navigator and a premium account is if
there is the way to redo it on behalf of
our clients and then sort of like how we
how we work with them and and we find
good success with that when the message
is generic when the message actually
means something to them so you know a
lot of people will send out I like to
add you to my network you know and then
they say things like well you know a lot
of people don’t accept my connections
well that’s a very sort of generic
message um why would I accept your
connection I don’t really know what you
do or you know why you’re why you’re
connecting with me so you might want to
put a little bit more in there that
talks to your proposition uh you know
try to get someone to speak to you for
10 or 15 minutes and see if they want to
learn about what you’re offering but you
know make it relevant try to show some
value show it show what you’re selling
when you when you send out that first
that first sort of piece of
communication whether it’s through
establishing a direct connection or
whether it’s you know through through in
mailing them using sales navigator or
LinkedIn premium so if I’m using in mail
and let’s take your example I’m an
entrepreneur I’m trying to reach these
retailers who small the medium sized
retailers and and i found the list
and I’m signed up for sales navigator
and I’m about to email them you know to
your point you don’t want to just have a
generic message what what do you work
with with your clients to like what I
put in that message I’m here I want to
sell them something but I’m trying to
establish this relationship what do you
recommend putting in that first message
to them to get their interest I think
that I think the message that we try to
put in you know usually breaks up in
about three parts um so anyone you know
who’s got any kind of business can can
use that three-part system if you will
um the first thing is try to be personal
you know and establish a connection so
again not with the high you know so if
the guy’s name is Mark Smith you know hi
mark or hi Mark Smith opening line you
know make it make it look personal so
you know something you might have read
in the news about their company or
something that might be happening with
them say hey I checked out your site you
know picked up this article online that
you’ve got some new products that look
really cool or something like that you
know just kind of personalize it to make
it look like you actually looked at what
they were doing so that’s like the first
part of that email to make it personal
and kind of align to to something that
might be relevant to their business and
then in the second part of the middle
body of the email is where you’re going
to want to have some messaging around
what you do and kind of you know bridge
that back in and bring that together so
I’m reaching out today because you know
we do this you know we have these
products and we see a good fit with what
you’re doing and kind of explain what
that is very briefly but show the value
of how it ties it and then the third
part it has to be some kind of call to
action um you know usually trying to
book some kind of call or face-to-face
meeting if you’re in the same city I
always prefer face-to-face if you’re in
the same city because that’s more that’s
generally more effective um but you know
put that in there you know hey can I
have 20 minutes of your time for a call
next week you know we’d love to talk to
you about what we’re doing and and you
know go from there as I see a good fit
or
again love to meet up for coffee at your
office one can be um so some messages
that actually you know someone might
look at and say hey you know this
person’s given some thought to what I do
they’ve identified a fit it’s it could
be worth my time for 15 or 20 minutes to
talk to them as opposed to hey I’d like
to add you to my network and you know
check out my site or something like that
right you know that doesn’t really you
know engage someone in a way where
they’re actually gonna want to learn
about what you’re doing and LinkedIn is
it set up with a lot of those defaults
messages which I’m sure you’ve seen Evan
yeah within it and I think that that and
that’s I’m not criticizing them for
doing that that’s fine because it gives
people you know at least a base point
from which to work from when they’re
looking to connect with someone or
communicate within LinkedIn but they are
generic and they are default for a
reason so you know you can you can you
know remove those default messages and
certainly craft your own message in that
way so we find that that three-part
system works pretty well I like it ain’t
and you know for a lot of people who are
sending out those messages the standard
called the action is just how that
person add you as a contact when you’re
trying to take it in next step and get a
call or get a meeting with them it’s
almost the the double call to action yes
add me to your network but I love to
also have a chance to talk to you but
what you’re doing in your business it’s
interesting it’s different well because
that’s where the real value is in
establishing a connection at the end of
the day because you know you can go on
to LinkedIn this week and connect with I
don’t know 40 50 60 people you know
large numbers of people even even more
than that but if you’re not going to
engage with them have a follow-up call
get to know them and have them get to
know you even though they might not in
the end want your service maybe they
could refer you to someone else then
what is the point of establishing that
connection at the end of the day you’ll
see your connection numbers go up in
your LinkedIn profile right you know so
you’ll go from one to two to three to
400 to 500 plus whatever it may be
but there’s no sense in having all of
these connections and being linked to
all these people if you’re not going to
actually act on it and do something with
it that is the whole point of you know
business professional networking it’s
really to get out there and talk about
your business and to learn about other
people’s businesses and see how you can
help each other great so so we talked
about you know how to know if Lincoln is
for you and then how to find your
customers on linkedin and even now how
to reach out to them with a three-step
process in the call to action so that’s
awesome what else can i do on linkedin
to to drive more leads that you
mentioned writing articles how important
is my pie or there should i join groups
or make my own group what are some of
the things that i really should be
paying attention to on linkedin to drive
my business forward yeah for sure and
and you just touched on some of that
stuff and all those strategies are great
um you know you’re obviously in business
for a reason like you’re you’re you
become good at something you you have a
craft do you know you’ve mastered
something um so the goal at the end of
the day is if you have a product or
service would be to position yourself as
a leader in your space as someone who is
a thought leader who knows what they’re
talking about so if you’re selling some
kind of software to other companies or
if you’re selling you know hard goods or
products you know whether it be
specialty grocery store grocery stores
will just ignore that we’ve got the
google hangouts going but the does bunny
it’s one of your linkedin customers saw
your profile wants to call yeah they
want to chat actually they want to book
one of those calls but but no matter
what you’re selling its it’s getting
back to a point it’s it’s you know
showing that that you know what you’re
talking about so a way to do that is to
blog obviously and you can blog within
LinkedIn linked it’s got it’s going
blogging platform which you then go into
and you can blog I have to have blogs
that are thousands of words long you
know maybe a blog twice a month once
every two weeks three to five hundred
words on a general business topic that
you might know about and then you know
flip it up with a blog about your
business and about your
products and services and and give
people a little bit of insight on how
how they work and show your expertise
and that’s something that will sit
within your profile that people can see
joining groups is great you can join up
to 50 groups on LinkedIn join groups
that are relevant to your industry that
might have people in there that can
either become customers or refer
customers because they’re they’re
relevant and they’ll understand your
industry and they’re well aligned to
what you’re doing so join those groups
and be active within those groups post
articles share your blogs comment on
other people’s blogs you know if they’re
sharing them in the group like certain
stories that you may see the more active
you get you know the more people are
going to see you the more chance you
have to generate lead it’s a
gamification platform at the end of the
day um so you’re all about you know if
you think about you know having a
website and being you know ranked high
in google you know if we look back to
the outside internet world you know
within the linkedin platform it’s it’s
own microcosm for that you want your
website which is essentially your
company page or your personal profile on
linkedin to get views and the way to do
that is to be active so I’ve got this
blog now I ran your teyn right twice a
month 300 to 500 words and is that just
something that when somebody comes and
visits my profile they’ll see that it’s
on there and it’s also gonna I guess get
pushed out to the news feeds if
everybody who’s in my current network is
that is that what I’m hoping for yeah so
you have different options it’ll
automatically be pushed out to your feed
so that anyone who is connected or
following you will see that in their
feed and then you can also intentionally
push it out to the group’s your part so
that they can see it as well and all the
members of those groups you know can can
also see your blog even if you’re not
connected to all them that’s a great
thing about groups some of these groups
can have thirty forty fifty a hundred
thousand members and you’re not
connected directly to those people but
they might read your post and I think
it’s interesting and if they think that
you’ve got some kind of service or
product that they could use they may
reach out and talk to you about it so
it’s a great way to to expose your
offering and it’s free it doesn’t cost
any
22 those things so it just you know get
getting down and blogging if you’re
comfortable with writing if you’re not
comfortable with writing then you can
have someone else in your office do it
or a friend or a family member or get
some kind of you know freelance writer
to help you out you know we have people
that that work on that for our clients
and get them their voice online it’s
very important to have a voice online
and it’s very important for people to
see that you’re a thought leader in your
space and I guess for some of the people
you’ve connected with that you know they
may not be ready to buy now you know you
may have had a great initial call or
maybe not even willing to talk to you
after they accepted your your invitation
and you don’t have any immediate
business having that blog post that’s
consistently going up and that will show
up in their feet and it’s a way even to
kind of stay in touch with people
without having to harass them and bother
them and say hey you’re ready to buy
from me yet yeah it’s a great way like
you’re saying of it to stay top of mine
you know and I think that what happens
is you know people may have had a great
conversation with you and say you know
what I could use a service like this
book where it’s not the right timing
maybe maybe in six months from now would
be better but they may forget you know
they’re people they got a lot of things
going on their business owners
themselves so if they’re following you
and and they’re connected to you and you
put out those blogs and you might even
be part of the same groups um then they
can see what you’re doing and you will
remain top of mind when they see it and
then when the time is right you know
they say hey I’ll call follow them up
and you know maybe we can use something
like this now um and it’s also not a bad
thing once every four to six weeks to
check in with someone that you might
have had a great chat with for 20
minutes um and you know cuz you’re
connected and say you know hey you know
hope you’re doing well you know and that
your business is going well we had a
great talk six weeks ago just just
checking in and seeing how things are
going and if I can be of help in any way
on that is again the whole point of
connecting um there is no use in having
all of these connections you know if
you’re not going to engage with any of
them it’s just a vanity metric at that
point and you know for people who are
trying to build their business and and
drive new customers and generate
revenues you know which is the principal
reason why anyone is running a business
um you know that’s that’s that takes
work so you got to go you got to get
your connections but then you’ve got to
actually go and engage with these
connections right and I know now that
you you do this on behalf of
entrepreneurs and clients who are trying
to build this out i’m wondering if you
could maybe share an example of one of
your clients you don’t mention the name
just we know kind of the kind of
industry and and the results that
they’ve gotten in the actions that
you’ve taken just to kind of bring it
home a little more than just talking
theory like here’s a client they
actually help then the results that they
got from it absolutely yeah and we have
clients across all you know industries
in all professions just just to let your
your your followers know i mean it’s
it’s ranges from like management
consultants to people who sell our good
products to retailers to people who are
selling software you know it’s it’s b2b
but it’s although you know travel
services it can be anything so we have
one client in particular with that we’ve
been working with this is an interesting
one because we’ve only been working with
her for about a month any brand new yeah
pretty new and had some really good
success off the bat this is someone who
has an interesting company she sells you
know packaging products to you know
various small businesses that would you
know present packaged goods for resale
to end customers so like a bakery or a
gift shop or a nut shop or something
like that and she’s she’s got a great
business and a great website and the
whole thing but you know in doing work
that she’s been doing in other channels
it’s been a bit costly for her you know
spending on google ads other forms of
advertising to acquire customers lo and
behold you know when we started working
with her we saw that a lot of her
clients in a lot of her potential
clients you know and just looking at
those industries long lived in so in
working with her we’ve been able to do
some wonderful things i think in in a
month we’ve generated something like 450
+ new connections for her and these are
not connections just with anybody or
frame
certain things like that these are
connections with people who are four of
her target audience we’ve also aligned
her to some celebrity chefs and some
people in the industry you know which
add value to her profile who have
accepted her connection and this is
obviously after we worked her profile
and made her look robust and the whole
thing and within that we’ve generated
leads not only have they connected with
her but we’ve had several numbers about
40 of them have come back and asked for
catalogs and gone to her website and
shared more information and she has
generated several clients from it
already as well and close some deals and
made some sales so and that’s just in
one month you know taking someone who
was not very active on Linkedin would go
in for 15 or 20 minutes a week and spend
time on linkedin maybe just accepting a
few random connections and you know
connecting maybe to one or two friends
she met at a party and kind of leaving
it at that to actually being active on a
daily basis for her profile views have
jumped up because we’ve added her to
groups we’ve gotten all these
connections so many people view her
profile that now she’s better optimized
for her category when people do a search
that I rank lots of people you know have
shown interest in her products you know
people that she never would have known
of before and because she sells on
e-commerce she can sell anywhere in
North America which is her current sort
of target market right now in terms of
geographic nauseous and he’s attracting
listeners not only from her own region
but from other parts of North America as
well what’s interesting there is a lot
of people say social media takes a lot
of time before you get results right if
you’re starting on Twitter or Facebook
or YouTube it takes time to build an
audience I think about my YouTube
audience and how long it’s taken to
build this YouTube audience up and here
you know you have a client who was in a
month is already getting new deals and
is growing her business it’s awesome um
well there’s a number of people watching
is a question that came in that I want
to ask you from somebody watch and he
said I have a question I’m starting a
new business related to fast food and is
wondering what he can do
you on LinkedIn in regards to marketing
now our first question was hey you know
you said it has to be b2b so is that is
somebody trying to do a fast food
business it does linkedin make sense for
them and if so what would they do well
there’s prospects of that fast food
business that might make sense on
linkedin so if they’ve got a fast-food
business that for example they’re trying
to franchise and they want to find new
business owners to open up on other
chains of this business then then those
potential business owners you know would
be on linkedin and they can market this
as a new concept to them there if
they’re looking for suppliers in
business partners and people to support
their business and opening this
fast-food restaurant and those people
can be there so for certain aspects of
their business it can certainly help um
driving end customer traffic you know
into the fast food chain or whatever you
know would probably be something that
you know is more of a consumer place so
that that might take another another
avenue um but LinkedIn can certainly
help with those other a / mentioned
aspects for sure right so I guess it’s
referred when you think my LinkedIn and
sinking what kind of business can help
my business grow absolutely and that
business is probably on linkedin so for
name would be finding out the different
categories if its suppliers or partners
or you know corporate sponsors or
whatever making a really targeted list
and then going out and trying to find
them on LinkedIn to connect with yeah
it’s a business business platform I mean
that’s that’s what LinkedIn is it’s a
professional network or for business
professionals and business people you
know who want to engage with each other
and talk business of course right yeah I
think a lot of people see the value in
the job world and see linkedin just from
the public perspective as this is a
opportunity to get a job but maybe not
it is a chance that I can grow my
business linkedin has done an amazing
thing with with job search you know it’s
it’s you’re absolutely right it’s
fantastic it’s a great place for
headhunters
recruitment agents to get out there and
see you know where the talent is and
where they’re working and you know give
the ability for people to apply directly
to jobs on linkedin and all of that so
they’ve created a whole ecosystem or a
mini ecosystem around that which has
been nicely monetized syringe attention
at the same time it’s a full point of
service there’s some crazy feedback
going on I don’t know that is about I
got another question coming in and maybe
it’s the same answer but inclusive your
thoughts and cat charming right in to
say hey Evan I appreciate what you’re
doing I find your videos helpful I’m
currently designing a product and I plan
to create a crowd funding event this
summer and Ken I guess can linkedin help
with creating this crowdfunding event so
what should what should his steps be
unlinked in to help with this event
event marketing is is something that
that definitely gone on like that it
depends on on what he’s trying to do so
the first thing he should do is
definitely create some kind of company
page or sun page for this crowdfunding
event that he’s hosting obviously put
all the details about the event when it
is and what he’s doing I start sharing
that event page with his immediate
connections start thinking about the
people that you know he or she wants to
come to the event so the target audience
for that crowdfunding event and the
types of people that would be interested
in and connecting with them maybe
getting on linkedin premium or sales
navigator and getting out the second and
third level in males to connections and
really just messaging people about the
event and again using that three-part
sort of communication strategy which is
a you look like you have an interesting
profile up chapter now we’ve got this
cool event you know check out our page
if you have any questions happy to talk
pretending it’s about our event and tell
you about it and also if they’re looking
for sponsors for the event or anything
like that LinkedIn is a great place to
do that events is probably an area
that’s underutilized on you know on in
terms of how station is underutilized
the marketing event you know especially
events that go to business professionals
or business people on LinkedIn is a
great place to do that and we’ve done
that with fine sue we’ve helped the
market their events on linkedin as well
yeah and I guess I mean I don’t know if
he’s been around for the whole child
I’ve just joined in now but thinking
that you know knowing that LinkedIn is a
place for business and not necessarily
for the consumer market and so this this
kind of thing might go hand-in-hand with
another social media campaign but what
are the businesses that can help me get
this event launched if it’s sponsors or
if it’s media partners or if it’s
corporations that might have an interest
in it linkedin is the vehicle be able to
reach those people much more effectively
than a google adwords campaign but if
you are trying to for the consumer deal
mass market then you might have more
success with the other network citizens
it sounds like it’s a much more targeted
specific approach then I’m just going to
blast it out there I’m love trying to go
after specific people I specific
companies to help me promote this well
the great thing about London is you can
target because again when you’re using
premiums and use nails navigate if you
can do searches target the kinds of
companies then target the kinds of
people in the kinds of cities
professions you want it can be having a
marketing event you know you can have a
seminar on whatever kind of marketing
and who wants to go to marketing event
marketing directors marketing people you
know marketing agencies well you can
find them all on linkedin and you can
promote your event like that or an
accounting event you know all all
accountants and professional accountants
and finance people are on linkedin and
those are the kinds of people that would
want to attend that event so why
wouldn’t you promote that event unlike
that that’s where you’re going to get
those kinds of people because there’s
hundreds of thousands if not millions of
financial professionals in on sitting on
linkedin today so it is it is more
targeted because Evan the ability to
target is there as opposed to doing you
know mass campaigns that may not reach
the right people and again a lot of
these tactics that I’m talking about our
free like it doesn’t cost anything to
put up an event page it doesn’t cost
anything to write a blog it doesn’t cost
you know we do these things on behalf of
our clients because they don’t
the time or the expertise to do it but
but working within the linkedin platform
aside from you know small monthly
subscription to your premium account
doesn’t really cost anything so so it
should be tried it should be something
that people look at doing just just by
the fact that it doesn’t cost anything
to do yes I’m looking at the clock and
it’s amazing how quickly a half an hour
runs by we’re already a little bit over
um there we are yeah broad for people
who are watching and the people watching
live and the people are going to be
watching you know after this is record
and put up on the channel where can
people go to learn more about you if
they have more questions or they’re
interested in your service yeah
absolutely so join me on LinkedIn no
surprise there that’s a great place to
find a little bit about myself and about
black marketing again we’re global
company with offices in Singapore our
global CEO Chris weed is based and we
have offices in the UK with Paul
Greenwood who manages that and Martin
Dowling out in Australia and I’m
responsible for north america so you can
you can you know check me out search
ronca Netsky or black marketing on
linkedin in the search now you can go to
our black marketing com website as well
for more information on us and what we
do and how we do it and feel free to
connect with me send me connection
requests let me know that you that you
saw our our live chat here or the
recorded version and i’ll be happy to
connect with you and learn about what
you’re doing so those are those are the
best ways you know you know use linkedin
and you’ll find us there awesome thank
you Ron and really appreciate the time
and the advice yeah thank you I really
appreciate you doing this and taking the
time today to to talk with me so so
that’s that’s much appreciated thank you
evan cool and thank you everybody for
watching that wraps up another hangout
and we’ll talk you soon keep your
printer take care everyone
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