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/

I already had a top 5 position in a Google search for the highest ranking Digital Marketing Expert but that was with Pinterest which was sort of cheating

A few days ago I decided that it was time for a Plan B and maybe even a Plan C and time to put the Digital Marketing Ecosystem to work again

Some people might have thought that my Pinterest listing at the top of Google was a lucky demonstration of my Internet Marketing skills. I obviously didn’t make a Pinterest page with that title for no reason. However, when I was working on other Pinterest pages recently I noticed a few strange things happening and it got me to thinking that I needed a back-up plan for my ranking for this term so I determined to write a blog on the Centripetal Network Consulting website that would also rank   .

I am also writing this blog as a sort of Plan C !! 🙂

If you read this blog please take at least one thing away with you – to rank today you need a strategy that combines Social Media with a great website. Trust me – you do.

Getting a website or a blog to rank high for a specific term is an art form. Seeing that website or blog there is literally the tip of the iceberg. The part that you see of an iceberg is about 1 Tenth of the overall mass of that berg. Most of it is below the surface.

Most of the reason why my blogs rank so high is ” below the surface ” – you can’t see it even if you know how to analyse websites and blogs. Let me explain something to you. My blogs and websites are not even specifically targeted at Digital Marketing !!!! Obviously Centripetal Network Consulting is a global digital strategy, sales and marketing company. However, in a similar way to us ranking for ” Wealth Management London ” searches if I really wanted to  rank for Wealth Management terms I would build a blog or website focused on Wealth Management. Everything on it would be about Wealth Management. It would be THE authority on Wealth Management.

This site is about M & A ( Mergers and Acquisitions ) but the likelihood is that this blog is going to rank high.

Why ???? QUALITY !!!

From it’s foundations up the Centripetal Network Consulting website is a QUALITY website. It’s content is produced by humans ( mostly me ) and it is relevant to the topic in question if not focussed on it.

There’s something else that very few people talk about because they don’t understand it. If you think about it a web or blogsite is software running on a server ( like a PC or Laptop but built to ” serve ” software ).

Where is this server ?? Well it is usually in some sort of data centre somewhere in the world – could be the U.K. – might be  the U.S. , Europe or India.

Is it a shared server or a dedicated ( to you ) server. ( It is likely to be shared unless you have specifically sought a dedicated server ).

You might be wondering what the relevance of this is ?? You know how your PC and Laptop runs slowly when it has lots of software applications open on it ?? Well if you are sharing with other people with resource hungry web/blog sites your web/blog site is going to run slowly too.

That’s not all – your website can run slowly if it is not configured properly and has too many ” plug-ins ” .

The geographical location of your server and it’s connectivity also affects your website performance.

All of this affects the  ” performance ” of your web and blogsite and is one of Google’s ranking factors.

The positive effect of good website performance is the reason that companies like WP Engine  have started up. On their first page they have this testimonial for example :

“My site loads ridiculously fast, my page views are up, and my business
is seeing the results. I rest easy at night with the level of support.
My only regret: that I didn’t move to WP Engine sooner.”

– PHIL SIMON, AUTHOR OF THE AGE OF THE PLATFORM

We don’t host with WP Engine – we have our own hosting facilities, located in a place where there are high speed internet pipes in and out of the facility and our Chris Butler is always monitoring the performance of our site.

Hopefully you get my point – the foundations of our web/blogsite are rock solid and this is a primary factor in why I can rank so well for something like Digital Marketing Expert.

I started at ” this end ” of the factors because typically most people start at the other end. They have got a requirement for a website and whilst they think about the design of the website and what it needs to say they don’t think much about the ” infrastructure ” of that website.

You can sort of understand that but I didn’t get to the top of searches by worrying about design. WordPress is pretty much our default ” software ” for websites because we know that using WordPress we get great ranking results. We also know that there are a host of great plug-ins built for this environment and that there are thousands of people out there with WordPress knowledge if we need help. There are tens or hundreds of great ” themes ” to use.

Certainly we subscribe to the ” Keep It Short and Simple ” ( KISS ) approach. Over complex websites are going to load and serve slower. You don’t want loads of fancy graphics or plug-ins.

I always say that there are a few different types of people who get involved in website design ( it’s an over simplification ) – Graphic Design and Marketing people. Programmers and S.E.O. people. None of those people have a deep understanding of the true objective of a website which is to sell things.

I am not just a Digital Marketing Expert – I am also a Digital Sales Expert and a Digital Businessman – as are my partners at Centripetal.

Unleash the Digital Entrepreneur in YOU and choose one of these training and mentorship options

Success in Digital Marketing is about a system, great products and constantly improving the performance – conversion rates of your system

I always say to people that it took me about 8 years to find a really effective digital marketing system. I sort of hate saying that because I am not unintelligent but it is what it is – having started learning how to get found on Google in around 2004 it was not until 2012 – when I found the Six Figure Mentors – that I really had a system that delivered leads and orders in a systematic way.

As soon as I saw it I started saying to people that I saw 3 main opportunities with this system:

1. To use the system to sell the system

2. To use the system to sell other products and services ( probably while still doing Action 1. )

3. To use the system to help business owners put in place a system that was customised to their business.

For Action 3. we set up a company called Centripetal Networks adding some specific products and services  and processes to make the system suitable for small, medium and large businesses.

We also decided that we were going to take a very team orientated approach to helping our SFM/DEA newbies. They could join and use all the fantastic support offered within that community or they could ask us for help and we would ” FastTrack ” them through the different levels.

Some people surprised us at the speed with which they acquired the skills ( of course the SFM/DEA system is built to make it easy so in some ways we should not have been surprised ) others needed a bit of help whilst others just asked us to help them build their systems or do it for them. We really don’t mind. At the end of the day what is important is to acquire the skills necessary to become a Digital Marketer – not just any Digital Marketer but one that knows how to get Traffic, Leads and Orders.

People who join SFM/DEA have 4 levels that they can come in at once they have been accepted into the community:

Digital Experts Academy offers four levels of membership designed to take you from an opportunity seeker all the way to digital expert. We looked at everything that someone starting from scratch would require to successfully transition to full time digital marketer and beyond.

Each level was specifically designed to move the member through the next phase of self-reliance by teaching a new set of marketing, leadership and entrepreneurial skill-sets.

SILVER Membership

Transform yourself into a cutting edge Digital Entrepreneur with this 12 Month Digital Entrepreneurship and mindset training program.

Success always starts on the inside. It’s unrealistic to expect a different result applying the same logic. SILVER gives you the foundational success-mindset and skill-sets required for your digital life. Training is delivered via a proprietary, e-learning portal featuring the latest space-repetition learning technology helping you quickly absorb and apply the expert information.

GOLD Membership

Master the skill of Digital Marketing with a 12 month membership to this cutting edge marketing mastermind and live workshop.

GOLD members participate in an intensive digital marketing training program designed to teach you how to become a full time, professional, digital marketer. GOLD also includes a three day digital marketing boot-camp.

PLATINUM Membership

Present yourself as an expert caliber professional with this “done for you” Digital Brand building solution.

PLATINUM establishes you as an authority by giving you your own, unique, expert brand. Featuring an intensive online brand building workshop, we help members identify their unique gifts and talents and create an expert online brand image for them. Unlike SILVER and GOLD which are primarily educational in nature, this is primarily a done-for-you solution.

BLACK Membership

Connect, partner with, and leverage our network of Digital Experts at our annual DEA Mastermind & Retreat

Black features an ultra-exclusive mastermind retreat in an exotic location. This is the ultimate inner-circle access to the who’s who in digital marketing and the digital economy. The opportunity to joint venture with the DEA is also a potential possibility upon certain qualifications.

Unleash the Digital Entrepreneur in YOU by going >>>>> HERE <<<<< and simply putting in your email address.

OK – so you prefer to watch videos than read stuff – below are couple that might be of interest …

Digital Marketing Expert Adelaide Kingsnorth of Queensland ask – No Pain, No Gain…Are you sure?

Queensland based Digital Experts Academy owner Adelaide Kingsnorth questions the saying that there is no gain without pain and points out that you can become a Digital Marketing Expert without all the pain normally experienced

Guest Posted on January 3, 2013

I am often educating people that they can happily throw out the old mantra “No pain, no gain.”

Let me explain. The Callanetics and other restorative exercises that I teach people let them in on the secret that pain is not good and can be avoided, even when it comes to working out. It’s funny to think that relaxing could be such hard concept to actually practice.

So why am I writing about this here?

Since joining the Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy to learn better ways of making my business work and to begin creating another business altogether, I cannot help but to draw some interesting parallels between SFM and the goings on in my Callanetics Studio. Specifically this notion of no pain, no gain.

Now obviously when referring to exercise I’m talking about physical pain. In relation to the Six Figure Mentors, the pain I’m talking about avoiding is the exhaustion and frustration that can come from trying to figure everything out yourself and start from scratch when entering into your own online business. The good bit is you CAN avoid this pain.

By following people you have already worked out what works and what doesn’t you save yourself the pain of having to do it yourself. It just makes sense. It also instils confidence if you are ever feeling a little unsure if it will all be worth it in the end.

So here is the opportunity for you to realise that no pain IS absolutely your gain!

Working and learning with the Six Figure Mentors puts this idea in to practice very effectively. They really make it easy to get the information you want to start making your online efforts really work for you.

So why not check out what all the fuss is about and sign up to the FREE bootcamp  take the pain out of your online business ventures.

No Pain, No Gain…Are you sure?

If you are looking for looking for a New York Experienced Specialist Startup Recruiter who can operate  anywhere in the world but based from the East Coast of America near New York then a social media recruiting phenomenon, Vincent Wright, is looking for a selected number of partners to work with – but if you want Vincent to help you then you are going to have to move FAST !!

I have known Vincent for years – since my first days on my first social network – Ecademy. We have kept in touch over the years and I am amazed that he has found time to make this offer to work with people.

He is the founder and developer of so many social media initiatives like Brandergy.com, MyLinkedinPowerForum, and BrandingVentures.com. He has huge networks on Linkedin. He is also the most experienced New York based Specialist Startup Recruiter that I know.

I have copied Vincents messages to his community on this subject here:

Keep STRONG!!

If you are looking for looking for Sales, Marketing, Administrative, Recruitment or Technology support anywhere in the world but based from the East Coast of America near New York then a social media phenomenon, Vincent Wright, is looking for a selected number of partners to work with – but if you want Vincent to help you then you are going to have to move FAST !!

I have known Vincent for years – since my first days on my first social network – Ecademy. We have kept in touch over the years and I am amazed that he has found time to make this offer to work with people.

He is the founder and developer of so many social media initiatives like Brandergy.com, MyLinkedinPowerForum, and BrandingVentures.com. He has huge networks on Linkedin.

I have copied Vincents messages to his community on this subject here:

Keep STRONG!!

If you are looking for looking for Sales, Marketing, Administrative, Recruitment or Technology support anywhere in the world but based from the East Coast of America near New York then a social media phenomenon, Vincent Wright, is looking for a selected number of partners to work with – but if you want Vincent to help you then you are going to have to move FAST !!

I have know Vincent for years – since my first days on my first social network – Ecademy. We have kept in touch over the years and I am amazed that he has found time to make this offer to work with people.

He is the founder and developer of so many social media initiatives like Brandergy.com, MyLinkedinPowerForum, and BrandingVentures.com. He has huge networks on Linkedin.

I have copied Vincents messages to his community on this subject here:

Keep STRONG!!

When Kelly Kim of  Twylah was asked recently ( for Inbound Marketing Summit 2012 ) what defined Internet Influence she referred to someone else’s definition which was that REAL influence generated ACTION amongst the influencer’s ” followers “.

An action could be anything from liking, favouriting, sharing or RT’ing something through signing up for a newsletter or something to attending an online or offline seminar to actually buying something and everything in between.

Amongst the characteristics of a great influencer ( Kelly commented ) was the tendency to share not only their own ( original ) content but also other people’s content.

She often recommended doing ” Things you would do normally ” like ” saying Good Morning and Good Night “. Kelly is one of the best
” Community Manager’s ” I have come across.

I like the definition of an influencer as someone who generates an action in their audience but the reason that I have the best network in the world is because MY network does business. We SELL STUFF !! Of course we don’t ram stuff down people’s throat. We are not in your face, pushy, salespeople but we DO have a goal and an objective ( on behalf of our clients ) which is ultimately, for example, to generate orders, revenue and profits for our clients.  I say for example because some of our clients might not want orders, per se , they might just want, for example, more users, more subscribers or more likes.

You probably didn’t even know that we SOLD STUFF ?? ( That’s because a) We don’t push stuff to people that are not interested in it and b) we research before we approach so you are highly unlikely to get an approach or a suggestion from us that you are not interested in or is not of value to you.

Most of us came from ” old school ” sales and marketing roles in companies that were regarded as leaders in Sales and Marketing. I am talking about companies ( that you would know ) like IBM and Rank Xerox. If you are too young for these companies then try Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard. Yes, these companies are old school now but they were amongst the pioneers of modern sales and marketing techniques.

As those with some years experience in Sales and Marketing will know there was a lot of ” Push ” Marketing and Sales in the ” old days “.  What do I mean by that ??? Well to get people’s attention we advertised, we mailshotted, we ” cold called “, we made appointments and we had clever interview and sales techniques – we closed deals that way.

You must remember that we didn’t have lots of things that are taken for granted these days. Our ” communications channels ” were (snail) mail, the phone, maybe the fax and computers ( or computer terminals ) that accessed customer and prospect databases from our ” datacentres “. There were only just Personal Computers, only just mobile phones, no extensively available Internet, no easy to use CRM software. We did not work from home.

Now we still have the option of advertising ( in various places – tv, radio, print, social networks etc ) , we can still mailshot, we can emailshot, we could faxshot if we wanted to, we can pick up the phone and cold call BUT we can also put up a website and make sure it can be found; we can blog; we can build networks on various Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and we can research online, using many different tools. We can also use tools like Skype to connect and present at very low cost.

So, in broad terms, instead of ” Pushing ” ourselves on the prospects we can ” Pull ” them towards us using ” Inbound Marketing “. We have many more potential communications channels to add to the phone, mail and email.

Now we use Google, Social Networks and other tools to research. We listen for relevant conversations across multiple social media channels

and bring that information into sCRM ( Social CRM ) software.

We track visitors to the websites that we build. We communicate with the subscriber lists that we have built up for our clients on websites and social media pages. We encourage people towards our clients e.g. Facebook and Twitter pages and then we engage with them. We build landing pages and call to action pieces. We build Internet ” Real Estate ” ( Websites, blogsites, social network pages ). When our clients are Found by prospective customers and converted into higher level prospects we use analysis software to see what worked and how it worked.

All the time we are moving toward our goal of getting more prospects and customers for our clients. We call THIS – ACTION !!!!

A year or two ago I started using HubSpot’s Website Grader to evaluate the performance of client’s and suppliers ( potential and actual ) websites. HubSpot’s Website Grader has since evolved into Marketing Grader which looks at the wider picture of a companies Internet Marketing efforts including it’s website, blogsite and social networks, automation software, analytics and internet influence ( Klout ).

Having put quite a few websites and internet marketing efforts through the HubSpot Grader I now know that there are a lot of companies in the 30/40 out of a 100 range, quite a few in the 50/60 range and only a few in the 70/80 range.

Nikki Pilkington ( who designed this blogsite ) has a grade of 85/100. see  http://www.nikkipilkington.com/ and http://marketing.grader.com/site/www.nikkipilkington.com. This is a very rare score. Nikki’s website is based on WordPress and she has large networks on e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google + and Pinterest. She blog’s regularly.

Nikki’s Marketing efforts are a great implementation of what I call an “Internet Marketing Ecosystem “.

One of the companies that has most impressed me is Staffordshire IT.  http://www.staffordshireit.co.uk/ . The reason that I am impressed is because often, when I show people the HubSpot Marketing Grade, they go into denial. Many of them have not heard of HubSpot ( which I am not totally surprised at but you would think that Internet Marketing professionals would be aware of a company that has created a whole new way of looking at Internet Marketing – known as Inbound Marketing ) and whether they have or have not they often have a ” who are they to grade my internet marketing efforts ” ? sort of attitude. John Bryan, M.D. of Staffordshire I.T. was not like that – he took the report in his stride and actually grasped the points that were highlighted in the report and worked on them. http://marketing.grader.com/site/www.staffordshireit.co.uk .

When I first met John his score was around 75/100, Since he has worked on it he has reached 84/100 and has a stated ambition of reaching 90/100 which would be an amazing achievement.

Staffordshire I.T.’s website is also based on WordPress and they have a blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts and use Google Analytics.

Some sceptics say that the only way that you can get a high score with HubSpot’s grader is when you use HubSpot software for your website. This is clearly not the case as we have two website’s in this example that are WordPress based and which have high scores.

When SEO companies used to call me up saying that they could get my website to rank on the front page ( usually some poor salesperson who didn’t have a clue who I was ) and knew all about Internet Marketing I would casually say oh ok, so you know all about SEO ( Search Engine Optimisation ) then do you ??? of course the answer was yes. So, if I google ” SEO and Internet Marketing ” you will be on the front page will you ?? ( Usually I was doing it in the background ). Then I would give them the bad news and help them by saying well maybe if I Google ” SEO and Internet Marketing in wherever it is you are based ” you will be on the front page ??? Ummmm! Maybe .. was usually the response. ok then, last chance, what would I have to Google to find you on the front page ???

I am not TRYING to be cruel I am just saying that if you want to ring me up and tell me that you are the best at SEO and Internet Marketing then you had better be able to prove that you are !!

Nowadays there are many companies around the world who proclaim that they are Internet Marketing Experts. Previously, as explained above , I used to test this with Google,  but these days I have another tool that I use called ” HubSpot Marketing Grader “.

HubSpot is a Boston, U.S. based software company that mainly provides HubSpot based websites and promotes an Internet Marketing philosophy called ” Inbound Marketing “.

To promote the company ( and get leads ) HubSpot provides a number of free Tools like Marketing Grader ( a development of Website Grader ) and Twitter Grader.

I used Marketing Grader to look at a number of websites in the Lichfield and Tamworth area recently and that was how I came to ” rate ” Staffordshire IT as, probably one of the most knowledgeable companies in the area. I first came across them on Twitter ( where they have more followers than most other people from Lichfield and Tamworth ) and then looked at their website using Marketing Grader:

http://marketing.grader.com/site/www.staffordshireit.co.uk

When I first looked at their grade it was 76/100. They have improved it since then to 80/100. This is an amazing score and I have only ever graded one higher score ( not in the Lichfield and Tamworth area ) which is Nikki Pilkington’s website:

http://marketing.grader.com/site/www.nikkipilkington.com

which has a grade of 87/100 which is incredible. Nikki was the designer of this M&A Rainmaker blogsite.

Some info on Staffordshire IT

We are a professional website design firm based in Tamworth and Lichfield, however we are able to service clients nationally. We have very competitive prices, easy to use, clean and professional web design, and programming services.

Having a website is just the start of a good internet marketing strategy: now you need people to look at it! You need to get more visitors to your site, so you need good website ranking, and it shouldn’t need to take 6 months and thousands of pounds to get to the top of Google, Yahoo & Bing.

You need a company with many years in online marketing (check), very reasonable costs (check), who are diligent and hard grafters (check), and show a willingness to constantly monitor your site alongside you, to keep you at the top of the charts! (Big check!)

From the very start we can demonstrate proven white hat (legal) SEO techniques to you and we GUARANTEE we will increase your traffic. In fact, we are so confident in what we do, that you do not need to pay a penny until you have been shown an increase in visibility of your website online!

Good, savvy Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not an option in today’s fast-moving markets– it’s essential and the key to success in any marketing campaign is pretty simple. The Return on Investment (also known as ROI) must outweigh the initial and ongoing outlay of funds. In a web environment, there are multiple ways in which this may be measured including online sales, enquiries through the website (be they emails, surveys or phone calls), website traffic and overall increase in brand awareness.

A well-optimised site can provide numerous benefits, as long as the site is designed well in the first place. It is important to optimise a site for the most relevant terms whilst at the same time including more popular, generic key phrases.

Please feel free to give us a call on 01827 313111 and we can provide a free SEO report for you.