Are these three marketing strategies recession-proof?
I’ve had a lot of conversations with clients as well as the people we work with at LinkedIn, about what we are seeing and what, if any, changes are we making in our LinkedIn efforts because of the Coronavirus and its impact. There are 3 big things that we are seeing working:
First Trend: LinkedIn Engagement is UP big time.
The numbers are really kinda incredible, and LinkedIn has more conversations happening than ever. They shared with us that 44% of users are checking the site more often. Which makes sense because tons of people are working from home now and spending more time online. A survey they did found that 45% say this is somewhat, or very likely, to be a more permanent shift. And they found 55% more conversational activity between existing connections in recent weeks. LinkedIn also shared that engagement and published articles have increased by a whopping 2,196%.
These are all incredible stats that show that there’s no better time to be prospecting online.
But how? Well, I believe that the most effective outbound strategy is driven around building real relationships before jumping into any type of sales talk.
My team has access to a lot of data, and what is clear is that this crisis has not affected the ability to connect with new prospects at all. People are still very open to connecting. However, their willingness to schedule an appointment to talk business varies entirely on their specific situation. What we’re seeing is that each prospect and each industry is very different right now.
Of course, some industries have been almost or entirely halted, as far as bringing in new business, while others are still growing. And within industries, many companies are approaching it differently. So you really have to take a case by case approach with lead gen and sales right now and get creative with messaging.
And so, as a rule of thumb, what we are finding is that right now is still a great time to be building relationships with people that you want to do business with, even for those who are in a holding pattern right now. And of course, this is huge for your pipeline.
Second Trend: How to Take Advantage of Changes on Facebook
Now, if you look at Facebook not only is engagement way up there, just like LinkedIn…but the thing that many are taking advantage of is that Facebook advertising costs are very low right now. Again that’s because big advertisers are pulling budgets, so ad costs are plummeting. So you have record engagement and super cheap ads… a great combination and opportunity. And this is working for both B2B and B2C. So how does that actually play out for businesses? Here are three ways our clients have transitioned…
Do More Webinars. A lot of our clients are looking at Special promotions to take advantage of this environment. For example, a dental consultant who is doing a special webinar, and getting registrations right now for $2 apiece. Normally he’s used to $6 or more, so he’s getting the same amount of leads at 30% of normal costs. He has over 700 signed up for his next webinar this Thursday.
Moral of the story: It’s a great time to be doing more webinars or any sort of special content timely to what’s going on right now because it adds value for your market and you’ll get the leads way cheaper than normal.
Increase ad budget. Now, if you already have funnels in place that are working with paid advertising, you won’t find a better time than now to increase budget. It may feel risky, but for some companies it’s the right thing to do. One of our clients is a life insurance company, they have seen a drop from $24 a lead to $10 in the current environment…and so far for April, as of Monday, they’ve had 1,559 call requests from Facebook alone. For comparison, normally we’re seeing more like 400-500.
Pivot. The other thing we are seeing some do well is pivoting on the delivery mechanism for how they sell in the first place and in some cases their entire business model.
For example, my company works with martial arts studios all around the country, and on average they used to pay between $30-$60 for in-person appointments. Now, they’ve pivoted to virtual lessons and the cost has dropped to $5-10 per intro appointment and they are seeing significant ROI. This is a win-win; their new clients are loving it and they’re adding a ton of value and helping a lot of people. This is just one of many ways to look at alternative ways of selling, where possible.
Third Trend: Using Multi-Channel Strategies
The final trend we are seeing is very important because as much as I love Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s important that your marketing and lead gen approach is part of a bigger picture. And that is why the biggest trend that we are so bullish on right now, is Multi-Channel. Now more than ever, you gotta get the most out of your prospect pool. You can’t rely on one tactic.
For example, for most B2B companies, what we see work best is an approach that combines organic LinkedIn with a paid ads strategy, as well as integrating email, and phone to really maximize the number of leads that you can generate. If you just do one of those things, you’re missing out on 2-3X the leads and now more than ever, that’s just unacceptable.
It’s simple. Whether or not your prospects are buying right now, this is the time to be planting the seeds, building top-of-funnel and getting to as many of them as possible.
Written by Josh Turner, WSJ Bestselling Author, Founder/CEO of LinkedSelling.
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