Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Made in the UK for HR consultants worldwide. You're listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hey, James here and welcome to this week's podcast episode. In this week's main event, I'm going to talk to you about how to use LinkedIn to create an automated funnel for your consultancy. So if you haven't got some sort of funnel, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to get new clients. So I'm going to make this super easy for you to get started with. And in my thought of the week, I'm going to force you to take some time off at the end of this year and why it's going to help you to make 2025 your best year yet. So let's jump straight in this week's.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Main event.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: To get new clients, grow your consultancy and feed your funnel. There's two types of marketing that you should be doing. Some people call this Hunter Farmer marketing, but I find that a bit cringe. So I like to call it push pull marketing. Pull is when you put stuff out there in the hopes to pull people in. So this is your brand awareness stuff like Your monthly newsletter, LinkedIn content and weekly email. And push is when you actively reach out to people and push your brand in front of them, which I like to call direct marketing. Most consultants I know are doing a bit of pull marketing, but they aren't doing any push marketing and this is really important. So in today's main event, we're going to talk about a very simple push campaign you could be doing on LinkedIn to feed your funnel. And most importantly, I want you to use software to do this so that it's completely automated. Before we start, let's talk about your funnel. So you've probably heard loads of people bang on about marketing and sales funnels and how important they are. And to be honest, they're right. You really should have some sort of set funnel that you want people to move through. But I understand that it can seem overtly complicated, which is why most people shy away from creating one. So let me make it simple for you. If you've been following me for a while now, you would have heard me talk about my three step lead generation system. Step one is to grow multiple audiences, like your LinkedIn connections and email marketing list. Step two is to build a relationship with those people. And step three is to convert the relationship. These steps make up the different stages of your funnel. And this is what your consultancy's funnel should look like in its simplest form. And the automated LinkedIn campaign we're going to do will help you feed this funnel. So I've taken the opportunity to review my own funnel recently and getting this right is my number one focus for the rest of the year. Maybe it could be yours too or your focus in 2025. So what I'm going to do is share with you what I'm currently doing so you get the idea and then I'm going to give you an example funnel one campaign you could try out for yourself. So one of my big goals is to get more U.S. hR consultants signed up to the HR marketing box and my VA service. So it's subscription based and this is where I make the most money. In order to do this, I've asked myself what's the best way for consultants to get there and I've decided to lead with my video program how to package up and sell HR to make more money. Now I've decided to lead with this because I think the way you package up and sell your services is a bigger problem in your mind than what marketing is. So in terms of feeding my funnel, I think focusing on the video program will get me better results. And then as people pass through my funnel I can find opportunities to sell the HR marketing box to them and the VA service. You'll maybe need to think about your funnel's journey and destination in the same way, which we'll come on to in just a second. So what does my campaign look like? Well, first of all, I'm using software called Meet Alfred to automatically connect with US based consultants on LinkedIn. I haven't got any fancy filtering options, I'm just looking for people that have fractional HR mentioned somewhere on their profile. And then when connecting with them I'm sending a nice message that says hey Sharon, I'd love to get connected on here and look forward to reading and liking your posts in the future. Future. Best wishes James. Now if I look at the stats, this is getting a 35% connection conversion rate which is what I'd usually expect. It's quite high and a lot of people are replying to this with a good to be connected to type vibe which is quite nice too. Then a day after they've connected with me, I've asked Meet Alfred to engage with their profile. So I follow their personal and business page and like a few of their last posts which backs up what I'm saying I'm going to do in the initial connection message which I think is a nice touch that builds trust. Then a day after that I send them a nice message that answers an immediate problem for you and that they have and gives you something of big value for free. Commonly known as a lead magnet. So remember, I want people to buy my flagship video program first. To help people buy the video program, I've decided to create a free quick guide to it. This touches on the key points of the video program and explains what they need to do without giving all of my secrets away. So this is actually my first stepping stone in the entire funnel and this is how I'm going to position it in a follow up message. So hi name, thanks so much for connecting with me. Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I'm here to help you get new clients. I know how difficult it is for you to package up and sell HR and that's why I've created a free quick guide to help you package and sell HR to make more recurring revenue and free yourself from client delivery. It's taken from my flagship video program and explains the new framework I've created called the HR Service Pyramid. Would you like me to email you a free copy? Just let me know the best email for you and I'll get that sent over straight away. So I think this is a nice follow up message introduces me. It addresses a key problem that you have and I'm offering a free solution to it which also enables me to grow my email marketing list at the same time. So if someone says yes to receiving the guide, I just ping them a quick email and create a contact for them in my CRM. So if we go back to the funnel on my three step system, step one is to grow multiple audiences. I've used Meet Alfred and my lead magnet to connect with people and get their contact details in an automated way. And this is how I'm feeding my funnel. Once someone has requested the quick guide and I've added them to my email marketing list, I want them to do three things. So first of all, I want them to actually buy the paid version of the video program. Secondly, I want them to sign up to the HR marketing box. And then thirdly, I want them to sign up to our VA service. But I understand that this is a process and it might take a bit of time to get there. So I'm going to take baby steps and focus on sending the video program first. To do this I'm going to send them an email that offers them a discount, the paid version of the video program that lasts one week. And then my sister Becky, who does all of the business development for me will give them a quick call to See how they feel about the offer once this week is done and whether they buy or not. I'll then send them an introductory email sequence that plugs the other ways that I can help them, including the HR marketing box and VA service. So the call to action of these emails will be to book in a free demo with me or a member of my team. And if they don't buy now, that's okay because I'll send them a weekly email and will likely reach out to them in other ways to keep the relationship ticking over until they are ready to buy from me. So this is how I'm answering step two and step three of the funnel, and that's to grow a relationship and convert the relationship as quickly as possible. So this is what I'm working on at the moment and I think the key thing to remember is that the journey and the destination of your funnel may look completely different. My end goal is to sell the HR marketing box and VA service, but this is quite a big commitment. So I've decided to start my funnel with a subject that will probably get more attention and requires much less commitment to get started with. And you should be thinking about your funnel in the same way. So hopefully that all makes sense. And now it's time to look at what your funnel and automated lead generation system could look like. So if you've listened to the podcast before or you've signed up to the video program I keep banging on about, you would have heard me talk about the HR Service pyramid. So think of a pyramid for a second and now think of your services through the eyes of a business owner, not how you might deliver the services internally. So at the bottom of the pyramid you have HR Admin. This could include HR software starters and leavers and all of the general admin stuff and payroll. On the next level you have HR Advisory, which is there to answer the first line day to day questions that business owners have. So this is your advisory helpline. You then have HR management, which is a little bit more involved and proactive and would include stuff like performance management, absence management, the operational management stuff. You then have HR Director levels. This is really strategic stuff. And then you have your HR specialist level which will include kind of like recruitment or a redundancy, etc. So before creating your funnel, it's important for you to understand how HR can be broken down, organized and escalated using the different levels of the HR service pyramid. That's really key. I then advise that you can flip the pyramid and this becomes your funnel. So you start off by selling HR Admin, which is basically HR software, you then try and sell them your Peace of Mind subscription based package which combines HR Admin and HR Advisory levels. And then you should sell them a HR audit or discovery piece which is your gateway and theirs to getting customized support at Management Director and specialist level. So this is what I think your funnel should look like. And to summarize, I think we have two priorities. So the first is to sell your subscription based Peace of mind service. This is recurring revenue for you which is really important. And then second is to sell a paid HR audit or discovery piece as this is your gateway to work with them on a time and project basis in lots of different ways depending on what's going on in their business. And as per the HR Service pyramid, your stepping stone to get there is likely HR software. So now we need to build an automated campaign on LinkedIn to help make all of this happen. First of all, I would highly recommend you choosing a target industry and focusing on a target industry at a time to keep things simple and to make our messaging highly relevant. For the sake of this podcast, let's just pick insurance companies as an example. And if you do need some help picking a target industry for yourself, have a listen to last week's podcast episode as I talk all about that. Then what we need to do now is then use software like Meet Alfred to connect with insurance company owners or decision makers and send a nice connection message which says something similar to mine. So hey Name, I'd love to get connected with you on here and look forward to reading and liking your posts in the future. Once they've connected, you can then get Meet Alfred to engage with their profile by following their personal business page and liking a few of their last posts. And then a few days later you can go in with your first initial message which could sound something like this. So hi Name, thanks so much for connecting with me. Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I'm here to help you with any of your HR problems. HR Admin is a huge hidden cost for any business and that's why we highly recommend using HR software to help you save time, money and hassle. So quick question, are you using HR software at the moment? If you aren't, I'd love to send you our introductory guide to HR software that lists all of the different ways that you could use it to make your business more efficient. And if you are, I'd love to send you our more advanced guide that's full of advice on how to get the very best out of your software. Please let me know which guide you'd like and I'd happily send a free copy over. Now, I actually like this message because it gives them an either or option rather than a yes or no option. It gives them choice and it asks them about HR software. So I'm expecting that to have high results. But with any type of marketing, it's always an experiment. One lead magnet will work better than others and other messages will work better than others. But this is what I'd like you to get started with and see how it goes. So let's round this section of the podcast up by summarizing what I'd like you to do on LinkedIn to create an automated funnel. First of all, I want you to focus on one industry at a time. Next, I'd like you to set up a Meet Alfred account or use something similar. And then I'd like you to set up a campaign that automatically connects with business owners in your chosen industry. Once they've connected with you, I'd like you to set up an automation that engages with their profile. And then a few days later, I'd like you to send an initial message offering them a version of your HR software guide. I'd like you to then review how many people are requesting this guide and whether this is helping you to generate leads in the new year. So in 2025, I'm going to be creating a service that helps you to do this and I'm looking for beta testers. So if you'd like to set up an automated funnel in your business and you'd like to work with me on this, then please get in touch and I'll add you to my beta tester list.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: James's thought of the week we're leading.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Up to the holidays. I want you to give yourself a proper holiday. Seven to 10 days, completely work free. No emails, no I'll just do this or I'll just keep this sticking. Over seven days of just being human, spending time with your family, doing things that you want to do and things that bring you joy. You and I know how important it is to take time off. But as consultancy owner, it's just not as easy as putting your out of office on. People are reliant on you for X, Y and Z and that's why you'll need to sit down, look at your diary and think about the work that's reliant on you and make a plan to free up your time and delegate or pause any work that's stopping you from Having a good break. So after a crazy year, I've moved to Bali about three weeks ago now. And I gave myself the first two weeks to just adjust, decompress and take some time off. And as I stepped back into work this week, I've realized two things. First, the way I was working has impacted my health and happiness. The time off has given me space to recognize this. And the second is that I'm actually thinking way clearer and I've been able to make some really big decisions for the business that will drive it forward next year. And all I needed was time and space to do nothing. I must admit, it actually felt really uncomfortable at first. I was way out of my routine, which fired off my adhd. My brain kind of just gave up and I felt like a bit of a vegetable. I felt guilty for not doing anything productive. I also kind of felt an anxiety of not working on my business, like it was all going to collapse and disappear in seven days. All of which is probably really natural. I suppose as a business consultancy owner, you have to be a constant driver, but when you take time off, that goes. And you have to go through this weird unknown patch for a while. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I feel a lot better. I feel calmer. I'm doing yoga and stuff that I would never, ever usually make time for. I've made some great decisions for the business and I've actually made some great decisions for how I manage my personal and business life to give myself some more balance. And I want to empower you to do the same. Think of it as your holiday gift or end of year gift to yourself. Have at least seven days off, no work, chill, relax and come back fresh, ready to make 2025 your best year yet.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: You've been listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast, helping you to get new clients and create a life.
