Getting Clients on LinkedIn – Without Spam

The Humane Marketing Show. A podcast for a generation of marketers who care.

In this episode, Sarah sits down with Sophie Lechner to explore how heart-centered entrepreneurs can attract clients on LinkedIn without resorting to spam.

Together, they unpack the customer journey and how to craft impactful content that resonates on LinkedIn. Sophie shares her innovative concept of the content wheel, offering practical advice on using LinkedIn to inspire change.

This episode is packed with insights and strategies to help you grow your business in a humane and authentic way.

In this conversation they talked about:

• The customer journey and how to address that with your content on LinkedIn
• How entrepreneurs can use their content on LinkedIn to inspire change
• Whether content creation alone really works to get clients - or what else to do
• Sophie’s concept of the content wheel
• and much more...

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video Ep 190: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] [00:02:00] [00:03:00] [00:04:00] [00:05:00] [00:06:00] [00:07:00] [00:08:00] Hi Sophie, it's good to have you back on the Humane Marketing Podcast. Hi, Sarah. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Yeah, I was just looking at the last episode. It was if people have missed it, it's episode 172. That time we talked about kind of the, this community. Project that you started and that's how we connected.

So it was more under the P of passion of the seven P's of humane marketing. And this time I wanted to have you back for the promotion [00:09:00] P. And I just kind of said in the intro, okay, promotion to me, that feels almost like an old paradigm word. It's kind of like, you know, advertising almost like we're not really, that's not what we're doing on LinkedIn.

We're not. Promoting as per se. So yeah, let's just dive right in. What are we doing on LinkedIn that somehow leads to clients, but without the spam? Yeah, absolutely. That's true. There's so many connotations with that word promotion. So, in my mind, So I, you know, the people I like to work with are mission driven.

And I know you, you, those are the same people that you like working with as well. And when you're mission driven, you really have a message to share and you, you want to help your, your potential clients, but you also have, you know, things that you want to share with the. Population at large things that are important to you.

Even outside [00:10:00] of your work, but specifically about your work, you have messages. You want to raise awareness, for example, and the other thing is in order to help your clients. You need to really. to bring them to you to understand that they even have a problem. Right? So, so many people are walking around with problems that they have not necessarily identified, or maybe they haven't identified.

Realize that they can actually have a solution to them, you know? And so I think we need to speak to that as well. So it's something that I've been talking about a lot is the customer journey, because I feel that we tend to talk to people who, you know, like we don't necessarily define them that way, but we end up talking to people who are ready to buy, and we talk as if they were choosing between vendors, right.

Sort of. [00:11:00] What I think we want to do with our content is really to help transform people, to help people get to that point where they understand their problem, where they understand they can get help. And that's something that I think is very much forgotten or neglected. And those are the things. I love that.

Yeah. Yeah. And I was just like, I had to. Jump in because it's so the opposite of the spammy messages that we get where they just assume that we want to buy whatever they're selling us. Right? So there's no client journey at all. It's like, no, you need this new product that, you know, whatever it does. And I'm like, have you looked at my profile?

No, I don't need that. Right? And so. Yeah, that, that idea of taking people on a journey that, that really resonates. So, so yeah, I interrupted you. So tell us, tell us more. No, it's exactly, it's, [00:12:00] it's the whole shift between self centered, all these spammers are like me, me, me, my product and me and what I can do.

And it's really shifting to the other, looking at others and how you can help them. That's really at the center of everything. Once you start doing that, you know, the rest follows you, you, you want to help people. And once you look at the people around you and understand how they operate in terms of what you offer and how you can help them.

Yeah. Then you think about them and you, and you sit down at your computer to write a post or something. And you're like, what can I say that is going to help a person get closer to their solution? If their solution includes you all the better, but if it doesn't, you still have reached your mission. You still have accomplished your mission with regard to that one person.

Yeah. [00:13:00] So many things. Like the. One thing that comes to mind is this idea that I talk about, which is the worldview. So that's what you're saying. It's like you bring that in because then there's no more provider kind of comparison. It's more like, okay, you've achieved your mission because the people are like resonating with what you're sharing and you just happen to also have a solution to their problem.

But that requires that you also talk about the solution, right? So there's this thing in our brain that's called the reticular activating system. And so people kind of sometimes shy away, at least our heart centered people, they shy away from kind of, you know, talking about the problem or in, you know, typical marketing lingo would be the pain points.

So we don't want to talk about the pain points. But we still somehow need to address the problem that they're facing. Otherwise, we're, we're losing them. They're, they're not even paying attention [00:14:00] to us. Now, you also mentioned that sometimes people don't even know they have a problem or what kind of problem they have.

So it sounds like we need to start even earlier in that journey. So tell us how we would, you know, figure out what their problem or, or help them figure out what their problem is. Yeah. So it's, it's, yeah, you're right. That whole thing about the pain point, you do need to talk about the pain, but not like what is traditionally done is, you know, agitate the pain, like put salt in the wound, all these terribly belligerent terms.

So it's not about that. It's, it's. If somebody has pain, yes, they need, you need to have them recognize it, but you need to help them understand where that pain is coming from, what is causing it, the fact that it is fixable. So those are all positive things that come out of talking about pain, right? So [00:15:00] the way to, to, to help with that is really to get to understand your customers really, really, really well.

And. Of course, when we work with our clients, we get to understand a lot about who they are. But in a sense, that's their, their self when they're ready to buy that we know. Right. So even if we talk, so start with getting to know your customers really, really well. However, that's not enough. You need to go to before they were ready.

And some of the ways to do that is to talk, you know, with in, in networking events, do networking, talk to people, talk to people who are not buying from you, talk to people who you know could benefit from working with you. But don't seem to be interested in signing up with you and have conversations, not like, why aren't you buying, but, you know, [00:16:00] just chatting generally and having them understand, for example, when I do networking, I often meet people who will say, Oh, I really hate LinkedIn.

I do everything on Instagram, for example, so that this is my chance to ask them, what is it you like about Instagram? What is it you don't like about LinkedIn? And. By doing that, I get to understand the misconceptions they have about LinkedIn, the things they don't like, the things that I know I could simply tell them by a sentence.

Well, actually, you don't need to do that or whatever, you know, I can fix it. But the point is really doing the market research and asking questions and getting to know them. And then the next thing you can do is write a post about it. And then you're talking to all those other people who hate LinkedIn for that particular reason, right?

And et cetera. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's funny because I was just preparing, we have our, our next Humane Marketing Circle community call and [00:17:00] that you're also a member of, and, and I was preparing the call and I was thinking that we could talk about limiting beliefs that our clients have. And so it's kind of that same idea.

It's like, What are they telling themselves, like, you know, nobody gets clients on LinkedIn or LinkedIn is just a bunch of spamming. Right? So that's kind of these limiting beliefs or, or past experiences. And that's exactly what we need to find out about our clients. Yeah, so that we can then take them on this journey, right?

Yeah, that's actually the second step. So in the workshop, I'm going to explain, you know, the, the customer journey. A lot of us have heard of it, but I've actually adapted it and simplified it and made it sort of actionable for people like us to do in our marketing. So what we've talked about before was the, is the first step.

And what you're talking about now is the second step. I'll explain that more in the workshop. But those are, you know, the different stages. First, you got [00:18:00] to know you have a problem. And then what is it you believe about that problem? And our job is at every stage to change the belief for them to get to the next point.

That's one of the other keys is not all your messages are about people buying from you. That's like jumping the queue. So content for each and every step of the way. Right, yeah, I love that. So, if we think about this, this applies to any kind of platform, I would assume, right? And that's, that's so often the part that people, like the, the deeper, the foundation that people skip and they just go to content creation.

It's like, oh, people, the marketing people keep telling us we have to create content and so they can, they create all kinds of content. content that takes them hours and hours, but there's no foundation or strategy behind it. So what you're saying is that's why [00:19:00] a lot of people don't find success because there's no strategy, right?

Yeah. Strategy is one of the big pieces. And then the Even bigger, I would say is engagement. I mean, they're like both fillers, but a lot of people also have the problem that they post and they post and they post and they get no results. I'm like, yeah, are you engaging? Are you, you know, going back and answering comments and eliciting comments and leaving comments on other people's stuff and all this, all this activity that you need to do to get engagement.

It's. It, you know, we put these terms on things, but basically you go to a networking event and you can't just go there, drink wine or whatever it is and eat and leave and say, networking doesn't work. You have to engage, right? It's the same thing. And sometimes we, we put these terms, this marketing terms on things and we forget the basic realities of its people.

We need to have [00:20:00] conversations with people. Right. Right. Yeah. So. Okay, we know that we need to think about our strategy, our customer journey, and then we need to post. Besides posting and the engagement, is there a next step? Like, what would be our next step? After all of that, so, so the engagement starts, Inside of your post, right?

Or the, you know, the comment thread then it goes to the profile and potentially creating a natural connection invitation to connect or it can. Yeah. And then it can go into the DMS, right? So I know DM is a word that makes us all shiver because that's where all the crap happens. But you can like spam, but you can use the just direct messages to just take a conversation that started in the comments and just go a little bit deeper.

We're not talking super depth, but a little bit deeper and privately [00:21:00] in the direct messages. And usually after 1 or 2 of those, you can suggest getting on a call and that's where all the magic happens. That's where you build that relationship. And then you follow up and, and that's how you get clients . So yeah, it's, it's funny 'cause as you know, I, I've been a LinkedIn consultant myself and, and even back then I was telling people, the clients, they don't happen.

That thing doesn't happen magically on LinkedIn. It happens outside of LinkedIn. And, and I'm glad to hear that that's what you are also saying that the, yeah, it, it, it's. It's a way to meet people and to, yes, kind of show them what you're all about and then bringing them on that journey, but the actual conversation happens outside of, of LinkedIn.

Yeah. I guess a lot of the LinkedIn people out [00:22:00] there It's, you still see a lot of shoulds, you know, we should be doing this. We should be doing that. This is how a post should look like in order to get more reach. So how important is all of this reach and all of these likes? You, you did say engagement was important.

So what if I don't get engagement? Like how much do I need to pay attention to this and how, because I think that's also where people get Ashamed if they are, their posts are not getting, you know, this level of likes or engagement. Are they doing something wrong? How did they do it differently? Well, for sure.

You do need to get some views and. Like everything else you need to, you need to put some of yourself in there before you get anything back. So if you start engaging on other people's content, they [00:23:00] will notice you and they will start looking at your content. It is as simple as that. So. I would make it a habit of going in every day, spend, you know, 10, 15 minutes and just comment on people's content.

You can start by doing it randomly on whatever you think is, you know, is interesting, catches your interest, and. just, just to get started. And then you can start to notice some people that, whose content you really enjoy and whose content is maybe relevant to your topic and relevant to your audience. And then you can comment and you can also share their content.

You can just repost without putting a comment, a comment, but for the most part, I would recommend you put a comment. When I say comment, it's not a comment. You repost with sharing your thoughts. So you're actually creating a post that is someone else's post and you say why it's relevant, right? So [00:24:00] you're, if you're early in the stages of learning LinkedIn and you don't have a lot to post and to say, it's great to do that because you can tag the person who's post your, your Reposting, you can tag someone else who you think might be interested, right?

So you're going out there and creating these connections and then the, the engagement will come to you. Yeah. So it's a two way street and you have to engage in that. I would say it starts even earlier because what we were just discussing in the marketing, like ReHuman program, they were telling me, yeah, but I have people on there, they're, Content is not interesting to me.

So what's the point of me going to comment on these people's content? And so I would say, and you probably will share that in the workshop as well. Well, it starts before you [00:25:00] actually have to have the right people on there. And so, well, maybe it's kind of. The same process, you start commenting and then you see who else is commenting on their comments.

And so you kind of create your ecosystem, especially because the kind of mission driven entrepreneurs that we want to work with. We're currently kind of going through this purging in business where, you know, I for, for myself, for sure. I had to get away from all the six figure seven figure business kind of world and people kind of in that world.

And, and so slowly I had to add new people and, you know, find these heart centered more sustainability oriented people and that that's the work as well. It's like, well, yeah, if you're still, let's say you just came out of corporate. You're still gonna have all your corporate colleagues in there.

There's no point in creating this [00:26:00] huge content machine because you're just gonna be talking to yourself basically. So all of it is part of the strategy as well. And I'm going to share a very simple tip to overcome that challenge is you can just go to the search bar, put in a word that is relevant to you, to your content, your topic, your audiences, problems, etc.

And then when the bar comes, and you have all these different options you know, people, companies, groups, click on posts. And you will simply get a whole slew of posts that have that word and you do that a bunch of times. And then you will find content that's more interesting, and then you can start that whole process of commenting and sharing, and those people will connect with you, and that's how you can regenerate, so to speak, a, a, a newer circle of connections.

Yeah, so good. It's those small tips that make all the difference, right? Because it [00:27:00] really is, you know, You know, useless to create all this content if then the wrong kind of people see it. So I think that's where a lot of people go wrong as well. So I think it's, yeah, it's super helpful. Tell us a bit more about the workshop.

So you're coming into this community and sharing all of this in in the circle on June 5th. So tell us a bit more about what you're going to share there. Yeah, I'm going to talk about a system that I found just simpler than it than it seems, but it really has a lot of foundational work under it.

And most of it has to do with this customer journey that we talked about. And the way this, this system helps with two main problems that I have found over time by working with a lot of people and talking to a lot of people, two main problems that people have with content, like a lot of people say, [00:28:00] well, I don't, I, I, I don't know what to post.

I don't know what to write. I, you know and I found that there are two main problems. One is I, I've called them access and distribution and the access problem is when you, all of us, we have expertise, but with all this expertise and then the sheet of paper in front of us or the computer, we, we can't, we, we don't seem to be able to find what to say.

Well, that's an access problem. How are we going to access in our mind all these nuggets that we can share with people? Okay. So my system really helps to access the information with prompts, with questions, with ways of thinking about the content that, or your expertise and your clients that allows you to get this all out of yourself.

And then the 2nd is distribution, which. Once you've gotten all these ideas out of your head, [00:29:00] we have a lot of people I have come across. They have all this content, but then they don't know how to. Put it out on how to structure it. You're talking about, you know, how should like you need to learn a little bit about the ways to share your content and mostly when and how and in what order to, to put it all out.

And so those are the things that I'm going to talk about in the workshop. Wonderful. Yeah. Can't wait. And then also that client journey, how that fits in, like you said. Yeah. And the whole thing is delivered through a. Very fun tool called the content wheel, which just came to me one day. And all of a sudden I was like, this is the way that you can actually fix both of these problems, the access problem and the distribution problem.

Of course, you have to feed the wheel with the content. And that's where we'll talk about the customer journey and some other concepts to really come up with the content that [00:30:00] will make a difference to your audience and attract them to you. That's wonderful. I have this visual of spinning the wheel and then, you know, it picks one of the slots.

We actually do spin a wheel. So it's really fun. That's wonderful. Can't wait. Yeah. And what we always do also in the community is really kind of host space for the conversation. And so we always have at least 1, if not 2 breakout rooms, because I find like. Workshops, or, or, you know, they call them master classes are great, but it's the integration and just talking it through what we just learn is so helpful for that integration.

So we always built that into the, into the 90 minute workshop. So, and that's it. That's perfect because I have exercises. So the, the, you know, you build the, the, the content for the content wheel, we build it layer by layer. And the most foundational layer is the themes. And I talk about, I [00:31:00] have an exercise, so I have questions, you answer the questions that helps you to determine your themes.

And then that's perfect for the breakout rooms. Usually I ask people, you know, just tell us your themes and I just, you know, Brainstorm with them and give them feedback. We can do that in the in the breakout rooms and then come back. And yeah, so that would be great. Sounds amazing. Wonderful. Well, We want everybody who's listening or watching to join us in the workshop, but we also know, you know, there's all kinds of other offerings and life and whatnot.

So just mention your website as well, because you have wonderful resources there and maybe people can go there if they can't make it. Yes. I'm adding resources all the time. So it's the magnet model.com simply and the magnet model is because my whole entire philosophy of LinkedIn and of marketing is be a magnet to attract your clients and all the [00:32:00] things you can do to become a magnet.

Wonderful. Yeah. Can't wait. I really look forward to it. Again, the link is humane. marketing forward slash workshop, and this is taking place on June 5th. So do join us. We're a gentle and humane bunch of people and would really love to hang out with you. So thanks, Sophie. Thanks so much for taking the time and doing this together.

My pleasure. I look forward to it. Yeah. See you [00:33:00] [00:34:00] [00:35:00] soon.