GMail Based CRM and GMail Linkedin Plugin

I’m still trying to figure out what I need from a CRM.

I needed to create a homegrown adhoc solution to see how I prefer to work rather than have my process dictated to me by software.

Homegrown Solution

I created a quick CRM in a Google sheet.
I have a front page which summarizes:

• contact
• when last contacted
• what to do next
• state of lead

And then each contact has a sheet with their details and a log of contacts - that seems OK but requires maintenance outside of Google.

Alternatives

Then I stumbled over this blog post from Neil Patel, "10 GMail plugins all marketing professionals should consider"

As A result, I’ve installed the Rapportive chrome extension, which augments any homegrown CMS.

And looking through the features of the other tools mentioned it seemed as though Streak provided a lot of power and seemed to offer much of the functionality of followup.cc and boomerang

I’ve installed Streak to try it out.

I still have to evaluate FullContact which I think could augment Streak as well.

And if Streak doesn’t work out then I’ll have a look at ActiveInboxHQ

Streak seems to have a lot of power and I’m slowly working through the functionality but the delayed send and boxing seem quite useful so far.

What kind of LinkedIn posts to create?

I already blog, and I create quite a lot of content that way.

Where will I find the time to create new content for LinkedIn?

Well, I won't.

I'll re-purpose content.

My current LinkedIn post strategy is 'executive summary'.

• I write a bunch of posts on my normal blogs
• I summarise them and draw 'management conclusions' for LinkedIn

The LinkedIn audience that I'm trying to target is one that will invest in consultancy, that is a different audience than the practitioners I target on my blog.

My first post I forgot to tweet and promote!

Now, when I create a LinkedIn post:

- mention it as a Company update
- 'share' the company update through my linkedin profile
- tweet the linkedin post

The LinkedIn reciprocal Visit Strategy update.

Thousands. I've automatically visited thousands of profiles.

How many you ask?

2747, I reply

Wow, that must have massively increased your profile views, you say.

Eh, not really.

To make this 'scientific' I made sure this was the only strategy I employed for 2 weeks.

And, not really much of a boost,

When I didn't employ these strategies and did nothing I was getting about 30 - 40 views a week. Some weeks up to 70, some weeks as low as 20.

With this strategy I had a 40 week, and a 48 week. Which is well within 'normal tolerance'.

Looking at the people who did view my profile... none, were in the list of visited people.

I'm going to conclude that this strategy is 'LinkedIn Guru' hyperbole and let it lie.

So what to do instead?

Well, the one thing it was good for, was seeing what LinkedIn groups my target market was part of.

And I have joined as many of those groups as would let me in.

I have also created more updates and started using the LinkedIn 'post an article' and this week I'm up to 55 views.

Now, I also have to try 'engaging in the groups'

Summary

I conclude that 'content' is a better strategy for 'profile views' than visiting.

But 'visiting' is the best (and only) strategy to find out what groups your target market visit.

Going forward I will:

• Create posts
• Post more regular updates
• Engage in group discussions where I can

And see how that goes

LinkedIn Ads Update

Two weeks ago I wrote that:

• One of my ads has achieved 49 impressions over 30 days, with no clicks, at a cost of $0.00
• The other ad has achieved 9576 impressions, with 1 click, at a cost of $2, over 32 days.
• I chose “Cost per Click” model.
• LinkedIn suggests that other advertisers are paying $6 - $10 per click. Whereas I decided to target the long tail and see how long the budget would last, so I went for the minimum $2 per click.
• I have just increased the cost Per Click to $4 and will see what happens

So after 14 days, what has happened.

• The ad has been clicked 6 times, so that is 5 more clicks
• Average click through at $3.0
• The ad has 74,409 impressions

If I earned money from impressions that would be great.

It is possible that people are trained not to look at ads. I'm pretty sure I am.

I've decided to end my 'ad' experiment and I probably won't repeat it.

I think 'content' serves my business better than ads.

LinkedIn has limits on everything! - number of pending group requests

As part of my 'try to use linkedin' better strategy. I've been looking at the profiles for people in roles I probably want to connect with to get work.

And when I do that, I've been looking to see what groups they are members of.

Then I apply to join those groups that seem relevant.

Strategy:

• view prospect profile
• scan groups
• join potentially beneficial groups

And then LinkedIn says:

"You've already requested to join too many groups. Withdraw pending requests before joining this group."

I think I had about 6 requests pending.

As a result of this my strategy is now:

• view prospect profile
• scan groups
• make a list of potentially beneficial groups
• join groups in my list

Otherwise, I'll forget the good groups.

And since LinkedIn allows you to join about 100 groups I'm working through my list now.

PS:

Remember to edit your profile so that you only show groups in your profile that augment your sales message. 

LinkedIn Connection Oddness

I've often wondered how I received so many connection requests prior to posting my email address on my profile, and why no-one gives a reason why they want to connect.

But I've only just realised that on the "People you may know" view, under "My Network". I can click 'connect' on any of those people and I don't have to provide how I know them, nor do I have the opportunity to say why I would like to connect.

If I open their profile and try to connect, then I have to give a reason.

Strangely inconsistent methinks.

Does LinkedIn Advertising and Sponsored Update work?

I have never clicked on an advert on LinkedIn, or knowingly clicked or shared a sponsored update.

But I have taken advantage of the LinkedIn promotions wehre they give you £20 or £30 to try running ads or sponsored updates.

I tried advertising & sponsored updates.

Sponsored Updates burn through cash

I burned through the ‘free’ cash on the sponsored update in a day or so. Suspecting that this might be successful, I paid to increase the ad budget.

A few days later the cap was reached.

Result.

• A few shares. A few clicks.
• But no upsell.

Perhaps I picked the wrong update to sponsor?

Certainly it got in front of people, but I had less interaction with the sponsored update, than I do on a normal update.

So I probably will not try this again.

Text Ads

I created two text ads.

I thought two might give me an A/B test, and feel kind of scientific.

One of my ads has achieved 49 impressions over 30 days, with no clicks, at a cost of $0.00

The other ad has achieved 9576 impressions, with 1 click, at a cost of $2, over 32 days.

I chose “Cost per Click” model.

LinkedIn suggests that other advertisers are paying $6 - $10 per click. Whereas I decided to target the long tail and see how long the budget would last, so I went for the minimum $2 per click.

I have just increased the cost Per Click to $4 and will see what happens.

At the moment Ads seem like a way of putting text on people’s screen that they don’t click on. But it doesn’t cost much.

And you can cap the daily spend - so provided you remember to check the ads section of LinkedIn periodically you might not end up too much out of pocket.

Does this work?

Again, I’m not convinced of the efficacy of this advertising approach.

I suspect that quality updates and posts might have a better impact.

Are Linkedin Groups Still Useful for Marketing?

Are Linkedin Groups Useful?

I still read in posts from Linkedin ‘experts’ and various social media sites that LinkedIn Groups are one of the best ways to get in front of prospects and demonstrate your expertise.

Unfortunately LinkedIn groups seem dead to me.

I dropped out of LinkedIn groups a few years ago because, while they were active with discussion the discussion was:

• of very poor quality
• highly opinionated without justification
• incredibly argumentative without ‘listening’ to the other side

And I just became tired of reading it, and being on the receiving end of “that won’t work” opinions’ despite posting factual success experiences.
But, since I’m trying to figure out how to use LinkedIn for marketing I’ve gone back through the groups I subscribe to.

I evaluated my groups for value

I adopted the following strategy to evaluate linkedin groups:

• for each group I am in:
  • does it give value to me? i.e. looking over the last 50 or so posts, did they add value?
  • are my prospects in this group?

If they answer to either is “No” then leave the group.

Most were full of spam posts and no discussion

Most of the groups were filled with ‘peers’ rather than ‘prospects’ and so many of the groups were actually filled with the same ‘posts’. I went from group to group seeing the same promotional posts from people in each group.
Perhaps that marketing strategy works - publish the same post in each group, regardless of its relevance to the group. But to me it seems like spam.

• I could find no group that had any real discussion.
• I could find no group that had ‘prospects’ in it.
• I left many of the groups I was subscribed to.

How to find new groups?

I’m going to start searching for ‘prospects’ and seeing what groups they have joined.
And then, once I gain access to the groups, I can evaluate them using the ‘value’ strategy I listed above.
I remain to be convinced if LinkedIn groups will add value to my marketing strategy.

Linkedin Marketing Strategy - The Reciprocal Visit - Who’s Viewed Your Profile

One LinkedIn marketing strategy that I’ve seen mentioned on a variety of blogs is “The Reciprocal Visit” (or at least that is what I call it). How do we use that for marketing?

What is the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” feature?

LinkedIn has the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile" feature. You can see it on the ‘Profile’ drop down. And it shows you who has recently viewed your profile.

• if you have a free plan you will see the last few people who have visited
• if you have a paid plan you will see the last few weeks (or months)

If the person has made their profile public, or not viewed in private mode then you’ll be able to see information about them.

Why?

• you could send them a connection request, after all they visited your profile, they might be interested in what you sell
• they might be a potential client waiting to happen, you could research them and build a tailored ‘hi there’ approach
• it might give you an idea of the current target market your profile is written towards
• it might help you build a set of ‘personnas’ that your profile is drawn to, to create custom marketing approaches for each profile
• you might want to join some of the groups for that person, posting there might get you in front of that person organically without a connect
• there might be a shared connection who can introduce you

What is the “Reciprocal Visit” strategy?

If you visit someone’s profile then YOU will appear in their list of “Who’s viewed your profile”.
They might visit you back.
That might mean they are interested in what you have to sell if:

• your ‘professional headline’ description accurately reflects what you want to sell

Now your ‘Professional Headline’ is actually acting as a headline. And you want to use it as a ‘click through’ and read the article.
And the article now, is your “Summary”, and your “Summary” now becomes a sales page.
If you include your connection details on your sales page (sorry, “Summary”) , then they might actually find it easier to connect with you, and initiate a sales conversation.

Automating This

There are tools to help with the “Reciprocal Visit” strategy.
But be careful.
You can have your account locked for this.

• if you are on a free plan then this will be viewed as commercial use, and you’ll have to very quickly upgrade your plan (after about 50 or so views)
• if you misuse this, then your account might be locked (if you’re lucky then it will reset the next day)
• if you are on a paid linkedin plan then it advertises itself as “Unlimited Profile Views”, but it doesn’t mean that. I think you get about 800 or so before you see the “Linked in is momentarily unavailable” message

I’m still experimenting with this strategy. And to be honest, I’m technical enough that I can automate it myself, so I’ll never know what the tools are like.
I can’t say for sure that the strategy does work yet, as I’ve only just started using it.

Initial results:

I’ve only been using this strategy for 2 days, so it is really too early to say. But…
Started experimenting with it on 27th - 28th August, which was a Weekend, then 29th August (which was a bank holiday) - so not the best of days to try it. But in 2 days I have 18 profile views and my Wednesday email was busier with connection requests and emails from recruiters.
I managed to lock my account on Tuesday by clicking on too many profiles!
But my access came back on Wednesday. Phew.
I take this to mean that it is:

• worth experimenting with.
• And I need to amend my profile to reduce the number of recruiters that contact me.

Note:

• Update: And for the 2nd time. I've had my linkedin search functionality downgraded on linkedin. This time. After performing one search, and clicking 'next page' about 30 - 40 times.
• I'm not sure this is a viable strategy in any automated way.
• I'm not quite sure how recruiters are able to rely on LinkedIn because if I was a recruiter I'd be doing a lot of searching and paging, and my account would get locked.
• Currently I'm on an evaluation of the Business Plus plan which would set me back £29.99 a month. IT seems to have the same limits on searches (i.e. none - unlimited) as the executive plan at £49.99 a month. 
• And given that it is possible to avoid some linkedin search limits by using tools such as http://recruitmentgeek.com/tools/linkedin/ 
• I need to find a compelling reason to pay the cash in the next 3 weeks.
• I'll see if the 'post cool stuff to groups your prospects' are on strategy works out next

Related Links:

• Who’s Viewed Your Profile FAQ
• Difference Between Basic and Premium
• How to use the WVMP Feature
• Utilizing WVMP Feature

LinkedIn Tip: Images for company posts

In order to improve my marketing on LinkedIn, I conducted a bit of a 'competitor review'.

I looked at the company pages for other consultants and consultancies.

I learned more from the 'bigger' consultancies than the consultants - as you'd hope since they have marketing departments.

One observation I acted on immediately was based on one particular consultancy. For each of their posts they had an image - which is a normal social media strategy 'add an image to each post' (which I don't do here at the moment since this is a 'notes' blog rather than a traffic generation or marketing blog.

And all their images had a common theme: a photo of someone in the org, a logo, a title, etc.

And then I realised, or thought, that those images actually look like powerpoint slides.

So that's what I do now, for each company update. I have a LibreOffice presentation, and I add a new slide - because it is easy to collate multiple images, and add text etc. Plus when I export the slide it is at the correct proportions for LinkedIn thumbnails - perhaps due to their integration with slideshare?

But this makes it easy to create an image for the post, and starts to add a 'corporate' feel to my 'non-corporate' and slightly adhoc approach to marketing.

LinkedIn Tip: How to share updates from your company page and product pages

I've been trying to use my Company Page more on linked in.

I've created the main company page and pages for some of my products.

But I couldn't figure out how to share those updates through my profile.

And the answer is:

• Follow your own company
• Follow your product pages
• Use the "Interests" menu on linkedin
• Look at "Companies"
• then you can 'like' or even better 'share' the posts on your personal feed - after all 'you' probably have more followers than your company, but you do want to have people follow your company as well since that is your business.

Trim your LinkedIn groups on a monthly basis

Linkedin groups are a massive source of frustration.

I was starting to lose all hope of finding any value in them.

But since I was investigating online training, I wanted to find some linkedin groups for that. As I wrote about previously.

Linkedin has a limit on the number of groups you can join - probably to save your sanity. So I had to unsubscribe a few groups.

Linkedin hide the 'leave this group' option. You need to be in the group, then use the 'more...\ Your Settings' link and there you will see the [Leave Group]' button.

My strategy for choosing groups to leave was:

If the number of members is small then, check the recent posts:

• If there were none of interest in the last month - leave the group
• If the questions, or answers annoyed me, leave the group
• If there were no posts in the last month - leave the group

I stayed in a few groups just because of this size of the membership base, and purely for future marketing reasons.

I will repeat the above 'trimming' process on a monthly basis. This will probably help keep me sane.

Using LinkedIn for marketing by connecting to everyone

When I first signed up to LinkedIn I only every connected with people that I knew. And had worked with. And was prepared to acknowledge as a professional contact.

LinkedIn also recommend that you only connect with people that you know.

I'm changing tact.

Now, if someone asks to connect with me. And if I view their profile and can see they are a 'real' person, with some relation to my area of expertise. Then I connect to them.

Why the change of heart?

You never know where the next work is going to come from.

As a consultant, we rely on, word of mouth and connections to get work. So the person you connect to, that you don't know now, might get in touch for some work later.

Also, when I accept their request I can send them a pro-forma 'hello' letter, with some upsell links and promote my work. With no guilt. Because they wanted to connect with me. And who knows, my free work might help them.

I have a pro-forma response in Evernote, so when I reply I just copy paste.

Warning - when you copy and paste into linkedin, make sure that you select the white space in the response box, otherwise the copy and paste process will convert all the new lines in your email into double new lines, requiring you to edit the response.

My basic response looks something like this. I refine this all the time, so this is my current iteration:


Hi, 

Thanks for connecting with me on LinkedIn.

As my new connection, you might be interested to learn that:

1. I am running some free webinars that you might be interested in signing up for, I have a mailing list which you can sign up to for details <insert link here>

2. I am running a 25% discount on my <details> course so it now only requires <details> to join <insert link here>

:)
Thanks again, and if you need any consultancy or training, and you think I can help, then feel free to get in touch,

Alan
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P.S. visit my websites if you haven't been there before:
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