M & A Rainmaker

The clue is in the title right ?

A Linkedin Expert is one who gets leads and sales.

The more leads and sales that you get ( of the right type ) the more of an expert you are.

That’s it then ?

An expert is ” a person who is very knowledgeable about or skillful in a particular area “.

To be a Linkedin Expert ( or any social media expert ) it is fundamental to understand the objective above.

It also fundamental to understand how to achieve this objective. The route to this objective.

Leads and sales don’t just happen.

There is a plan.

There is a process.

There is a strategy.

There is a system.

Here is a sketch.

To describe this a bit ….. it is mainly a digital model of what I call the Digital Marketing Ecosystem.

Out of all the people on the Internet some will become visitors of yours via social media or search.

Having found you on social media or by search they may visit your website/blog/landing page as they were led there from either one.

Some of them may subscribe for further information ( eg name and email ) and be added to a database ( right )

Some of them may go on to purchase something from you via one of your sales platforms eg an online shop.

Here is a sales funnel

You can superimpose the funnel onto the sketch.

The top of funnel says SEO ( Search Engine Optimisation ) , SMM ( Social Media Marketing ) and PPC ( Pay per click ).

Social Media and Search are your main sources of initial contact with a prospect. ( This could be organic – free – or paid ie promotion or advertising eg Google pay per click or facebook adverts ).

Please note that Linkedin ( L/I ) is just one source in Social Media.

The traffic ( flow ) goes from social media and search to a website/blogsite/landing page etc and then usually to an email sign up ( to the right ).

( In some cases email registration may kick off an automated email sequence. Check this article here for an example of how this works ).

The funnel indicates ” conversion rates “. They are particular to the example described by this funnel. What is certain is that there will always be conversion rates. So many coming in at the top, so many leaving/staying and so many becoming leads, prospects and sales.

Loads of things affect attraction rates and conversion rates.

Like … do you have a clear and ” attractive ” Brand and Story; are your adverts appealing; are your landing pages right; is your email sign up simple; is there an incentive to sign up …. etc etc etc which makes things complicated and challenging.

However, here we are just trying to understand the high level systems and processes.

A useful summary of the process ( coined by Inbound Marketing specialist Hubspot Inc. ) is:

GET FOUND, NURTURE, CONVERT and ANALYSE.

This equates to TOFU, MOFU and BOFU. ( Top, Middle and Bottom of the funnels )

What we are talking about here is called Inbound Marketing ( Attraction, Magnetic,

Pull Marketing ).

An option is to ” intervene ” in the process. Something that we often do. For example often people that like, comment, share e.g. our Linkedin posts we can chat to using Linkedin messaging. We MAY then call them by phone, skype, facebook etc. Ian Tomlinson is fabulous at doing this,

When everything is set up for Inbound Marketing you can also Outbound Market ( approach people in your target market that you want to ). Because your Attraction Marketing system is set up ( Brand, Story, System ) Outbound Marketing works really well.

In addition, when you are attracting people, intervening in the process and approaching people you can also network ( physically ) and meet people eg for coffee.

These multiple approaches have a cumulative result. The sum of opportunities is greater than the individual actions and processes.

A Linkedin Expert is only one if they also understand the systems and processes that lead to leads and sales ( conversions ) generally and on all platforms and search and paid and organic.

This article also published on Linkedin here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-linkedin-sales-expert-chris-windley/