Satisfy your craving for better marketing results.
#1 10x your LinkedIn network and nurture powerful connections
"Networking is a marketing channel" is a hill I'm willing to die on. Especially as banner blindness, ad blocking, ignoring cold emails, and waning interest in promotional content continues to grow... connecting and nurturing your brand's network is critical. You fill your pipeline with people, right?
LinkedIn is specifically ideal for this sort of work. But as much as I love that platform, keeping connections organized is a pain in the ass.
It's an easy to use Google Sheet + explainer video that will help you and your team manage connections and DM opportunities. Give Kris a follow for more systems optimizing!
My question to you: is your team commenting on other people's content? If not, get rid of one post a week and spend that time commenting instead.
#2 More emojis than you can shake a stick at
Time for one of my "so simple but useful" resources: Emojipedia. I refer to this site all the time as I craft my LinkedIn and Instagram posts. I use it because I find the emoji choices on LinkedIn's native platform too limited. And I'd rather eat sand than craft my Instagram posts on Android (my hands cramp up just thinking about it.).
On the note of emojis: each social platform has their preferred do's and don'ts. And be sure to not go overboard so you remain accessible to all folk taking in your content. Also, some brands find better open rates when they add one to their email marketing subject line... while others see no value... so this is all about understanding your audience!
My question to you: besides emojis, how else does your brand add personality to your marketing? B2B is still "people to people" and I betcha your marketing could crank up the personality factor by at least 10%.
#3 Queer entrepreneurs outperform, yet equitable support still sorely lacking in Canada
0.5% of venture capital funding was allocated to 2SLGBTQIA+ owned businesses despite representing an estimated 7.6% of the Canadian population.
75% of queer founders have reported concealing their identity and 2SLGBTQIA+ ownership status.
Why am I putting this in Marketing Snacks?
June is Pride Month, and I appreciate challenging content during this time that goes deeper than rainbow'd profiles.
I'm a queer business owner but only last summer felt safe comfortable enough to make it public (I knew since age 7 that I was "different").
I hope such articles become internal talking points for companies and orgs considering who they hiring for outsourcing, consulting, and marketing support.
My question to you: what content will your brand continue to put out after Pride Month in support of your 2SLGBTQIA+ community?
PS: Notice that 2S is now in front? That's to recognize Two-Spirit people as the first 2SLGBTQI+ communities .
#4 AI content and why originality will be more important than ever
Grow & Convert are a content marketing agency for SaaS companies. Interestingly, they aren't being bullish about AI, compared to some of their contemporaries. "AI Content And Why Originality Will Be More Important Than Ever" explores how they see AI content writing as being similar to "mirage content". Basically, average content that is delivered quickly... but hard to differentiate.
Sure, AI allows for 10x the volume to be published in the time it takes a human to draft 1 piece, but there's something important missing:
"This is writing where you don’t care about selling your personal or company’s expertise to someone else, and where you don’t care about having your company or CEO’s opinion on the topic woven into the pieces." [emphasis mine]
AI doesn't have lived experience, and will require us marketers and clients to inject that into the work.
My question to you: regardless of how you create content, are you adding a point of view to help connect with your audience at a deeper level?
One of the most underrated B2B marketing tools:
DMs.
If you're on a platform with the ability to Direct Message, and yet all you do is post post post post content...
... you're sleeping on valuable engagement opportunity from prospects.
Especially if what you offer is:
→ Sensitive in nature and people are -not- going to publicly acknowledge.
→ Transformational and people need to trust you first.
→ Revolutionary and people need to "chat it out" with you a bit.
You have followers looking for an opportunity to engage with you that's deeper than comments or reactions. But they're not ready to book a call or buy.
DMs create a safe space for the curious!
Below is the end of a post I did to promote my LinkedIn masterclass. I talked about the things holding awesome knowledge experts back from using LinkedIn to build their expertise. And invited them to DM me the word "Bold" to learn more about the masterclass:
I didn't post a link. I didn't post the details of the masterclass.
I simply created space for people to reach out to me privately about a topic I knew was sensitive to them.
And it worked! I booked 3 attendees this way. In fact, I continued to get people DMing me "Bold" 3 weeks after this post published. So I sold some replays as well.
Note this doesn't only work for a time-sensitive thing you have to sell. You can use DMs to deepen relationships with your audience in all sorts of ways:
Get their experience/opinion on a topic (audience research!).
Offer a lead magnet (provide value without subscribing!)
Refer them to your network (be helpful!).
Create collaborations (be 2x more helpful!)
Just shoot the shit and bond (cus your audience is cool as hell).
Intriguing to you, but not sure how to leverage DMs in your particular situation?
Hit reply and tell me what's holding you back. I promise to give you insight without asking to book a call. Just like we're chatting in DMs ;)
Take your B2B marketing challenge from "dammit!" to "done!"
Four ways to stop doing it all yourself, so you can get your time back: Coaching Calls, Project Sprints, Strategy Road Mapping, and Weekly Advisory.
