A Marketing Formula for LinkedIn and Other Social Media
An unusual post
This post is a bit unusual as it is the first post that on the surface may seem to not really be about LinkedIn. I would submit to you that in fact this has everything to do with LinkedIn and all of your marketing efforts via networking.
The skills of networking are intertwined with other skills such as communication, sales, negotiation, marketing, and many others. To be a real master of networking you must also study these other diciplines.
Background
In the post I’m going to share a marketing formula that is probably as old as marketing. The principles of this formula were derived early in the history of marketing. Much of the basis for this formula was probably given to us by one of the founders of modern marketing Claude C. Hopkins author of the wonderful book “My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising.”
I would also like to give credit for this material to another book called Monopolize Your Marketplace by Richard Harshaw. It is his reconstruction of these principles that originally brought this information to me. Both books are must reading for anyone in marketing and sales – and since networking is about selling in a refined way, I would say networkers should read them as well. Not to mention that most networkers are business people and this data is crucial to business success.
Marketing for Networking Success
So let’s get to it. Here in simple terms is the marketing formula.
Step One: Interrupt
In order to sell one’s product or service on first must be seen or observed. The first step in the formula is the step of getting attention. On LinkedIn and other social media resources this occurs when you demonstrate your expertise and potential as an invaluable resource.
In a normal ad you would try to use one of the following areas to get attention: something familiar, something unusual abnormal or strange, or something threatening.
By being invaluable and supplying people with great data on LinkedIn you start to make yourself “unusual.”
Step Two: Engage
In the engage step you tell people what you are going to tell or give them that will be helpful or useful in making the decision at hand. In other words you hook them on the fact you have the information they want.
Step Three: Educate
In step three you give them the information that you promised in the “Engagement” step. You give them the great information they were looking for.
Step Four: Offer
This is the one step almost everyone leaves out. Look at 100 small business web pages and you will be lucky to find anyone who takes this step.
In order to bring in a new prospect you must start by making an offer that will be valuable to the common person that would have interest in your product or service. That offer must be of great value and be of low risk. In other words, you want lots of value and very little risk on the part of the prospect so that he or she is willing to accept.
Offing someone a free consultation though valuable is much higher risk as the prospect has to make a commitment to meet with you and feels that creates an obligation. Offering a free report in exchange for and email address and a name is a much lower risk offer that gets the prospect engaged.
Summary
I have not gone into great detail as this subject deserves much more investigation and study than the space here will provide. I suggest that you read the above books and learn these principles.
Then use them in all of your communication on LinkedIn and in the materials that you are using to attract others to your product or service such as your profile, your resume, your website, and you company collateral.
This is a very powerful formula that works and it can be applied to networking with great success.
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