5 Ways to Convert Your Connections into Clients

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Never miss an episode and subscribe and listen at dawnmcgruer.com. Welcome to episode 46 of Dawn of a New Era. And as we move further into the year and we approach some of the key deadlines that people have in business, things like every quarter, every half year, we're always looking just to check in and see where we are.

And in this episode, we're going to talk about five ways to convert your connections into clients. And this is a biggie because when you're looking at how far you've come as a business, and you're looking at where you're spending time and what are the tasks day to day that are driving revenue for you, then you have to understand how social media is in your world and how important it is into driving the all-important profits to be a sustainable business. In many businesses, social media is not driving money, and this is something that really pains me, really saddens me, because if you show up in the right way and you utilize social media in a human way, as close to as being a networking event as you possibly could be, then it can really work. And it's magical when you start turning actual connections, your social media audience, into paying customers.

So many fail for this, and you may have hit, you know, social fatigue yourself. You may have hit a burnout of creating content, and you may just be simply bored of the whole social media noise, and you want to cancel out some of that white noise and get a deeper relationship with your connections and ultimately build these relationships out. You know, for me, if I look at social media and where it's come, you know, Facebook started in like 2004, LinkedIn in 2002, but still these social media networks are underutilized. And why?

Because there is such a rush around just this. This focus of getting content out. I would honestly urge you that if content is a problem, focus on the deeper matter in hand, and that is how to really, really connect with your audience. Now, the content should come from this.

So try switching out your focus, and I want you to try this, you know, just for a day or a week or even a month in social media, because I promise you, the results you get when you slow down and start focusing on the bigger picture and looking at how social media works and what the critical success factors are, then you start to see amazing results. So what are these amazing five ways, and how can they actually take your social media audience and start driving revenue and profit into your business? Well, the first one is all about personalisation, personalising the message. And I think the focus has always been on social media to, oh, today I've got to get on, I've got to post on social media.

And do you know what happens when I see brands and businesses putting together laborious month-long schedules in social media and trying to schedule this content out? It is just plain boring. It doesn't get engagement. It's not dynamic.

It's not creative. And, you know, if we're honest, what is the point in creating content if no one's going to engage with it? So, in all seriousness, slow it down. Number one, personalise your messages.

Now, when you personalise your message, what does this actually mean? Well, it means think about the person. So if it's a post that you see in your newsfeed, Talk to that person in a human way. Think about how you would converse if you were in a networking event or face to face with this person or in a meeting.

Now, personalizing the message is not sending out these awful, awful messages when someone connects with you. I have this on LinkedIn all the time, and I dread it. You know, you want to have a connection with someone that is valuable, where they actually see you as an important person in their network, a valuable person in their network. Now, if someone connects with you on LinkedIn and you go back and send a message, a sales message, one of these ones that says, Thanks for connecting.

Hi, I'm Rod from ABC whatever it is, you know, whatever company, and start trying to tout your wares and services, it's just shocking. It is the worst ever marketing you could do. Why? Because it's like walking into a meeting.

Handing someone a proposal without even knowing who they are in your network, no fact-finding and not even understanding whether they would even benefit from your products or services. It is bad marketing. So if you have ever fallen into this trap where someone's tried to encourage you to do this, stop and say no. Because as soon as someone does that to me, I press remove connection, disconnect.

I do not want someone showing up in my network, and my network to me is the most valuable thing that I have, a huge asset in my business, and trying to sell to me because it is bad etiquette. And what we want to do is personalize the message. So do you know what? If someone takes the time to connect with you, don't go back to them and ask why they connected, because clearly they saw a value somewhere along the line.

That's just tiresome, laborious conversation. What we actually want to do is drive it forward. So instead of looking at the past, why did they connect? Why does that matter?

This is about vanity conversations. And when I talk about vanity conversations, you know, what is the purpose that it would serve to understand why someone connected? If they didn't tell you in the first place, do you know what? Maybe they didn't really have a huge reason that they want to declare.

They just looked at your network, saw a post, thought it was valuable. Great, you know. Try switching it up and personalizing the message so that it's about the future, how to drive that relationship forward, but in a positive way. So instead of draining your network and asking them to come back to you and tell you why they connected, move forward.

Move forward and talk about something that is pushing their world forward. What's in it for them to connect to you? And this is not about selling. This is about just saying, Thanks so much for connecting.

Checked out your profile. Love to connect. Really fascinated about the fact that you like X, Y, and Z, or you do this. Find a commonality.

Think about it. If you were at a networking event, how weird would it be if someone came up to you and said, Why are you talking to me? Why do you want to talk to me? People don't have to declare that.

People are just interested. So let the world of social media be in terms of stop questioning, but start resonating. Start pushing that relationship forward. Find the commonality, personalize the message, and start talking.

Now, number two, my big favorite: leveraging your network. So number one, if we've personalized our message, we've started building the relationship, what do we want to do? Well, number two, we want to leverage our network. And this is about thinking who is in your network, who are they connected with, and how could we get introduced?

So if you do want to generate leads and you want to find people in other people's networks that might be useful to you, be it from an alliance or a partnership or a customer point of view, then leverage your network. Ask someone to get introduced. And this is something that people don't use enough on social media, especially on things like LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a very solid network.

It's my favorite network. It's still the only network in the world that you can get free engagement, huge amount of free reach for free, right? I get about 150 direct connection requests a day, and I build a really solid network. I've got maybe 30,000 direct connections and about the same of followers.

Every single day, LinkedIn is Proving to be one of the most important marketing assets for me because I'm getting leads from it. So when I think about leveraging my network, I utilize it for podcast guests, alliances, partnerships, guest speakers, guest experts. I mean, there's so many different things, and I utilize people in my, you know, network to get that introduction. So think about how you're leveraging your network.

Don't just keep thinking about building it. Think about all the amazing people that you have in it right now.

Oh, and who they think you should connect with. And if you want to get, you know, in touch with someone and you, say, do a search on LinkedIn and you find someone, you think, Oh, I need to talk to this person, then see who could introduce you and use that person. This is the power of warm calling. You know, gone are the days of cold calling.

Why not use someone who's already connected with that person to give you a glowing intro, right? Recommendations and referrals are still one of the strongest things ever, because what is word of mouth? Word of mouth is referral. And, you know, I will, even in the world of online marketing, I will never, ever take that away from any business because, you know, as much as digital marketing is powerful, there is nothing stronger than that in-person or person-to-person word-of-mouth referral, when someone just takes that time to say, Yep, this person's great.

You need to be in their world. You need to be connected. So this brings us on to number three: building relationships and adding value. So if you're stuck on content, take a step back.

Go onto your social network. Have a look at what people are posting. If you see a post, it's got tons and tons and tons of engagement, stop. What is the critical success factor?

Generally, it's about adding value. It's about serving your audience content they actually want, rather than just churning out content from a business point of view that you want to push out. Gone are the days that you can do this because it doesn't do your business or your brand any good. You want to stop, take note: what is working?

What do your audience want to hear? If you're looking to add value, understanding your ideal client and just taking that time out to think about what is their pain and challenge, what is their day-to-day life like, what are the conversations they want to have? How could you show up in a valuable way to ease any of the challenges, to aid any of the wins? How can you be part of their world whereby you stand out from the crowd?

You show up in a way that really resonates with them, the way that they can relate to, a way that, you know, they feel inclusive. So instead of talking at your network, think about your tone when you are posting too. So think about your tone when you're creating that post. How are you speaking with your audience, not at them?

You want to be in a conversation, you know, ask questions, etc. And this brings me on to number four: ask your connections for their opinion and feedback. So if I'm launching something, I will always go out to my network and ask for their advice and opinion, be it a leaflet, be it a podcast artwork, whatever. I want to put it out to the vote because guess what?

I'm creating it for them. So I need their feedback. I need to know whether people like it. And the more you bring people into your world, the more inclusive it becomes.

And guess what happens? You form a community, a community that is powerful, a community that is engaged, a community that knows that you value them as your audience and that you are part of this community. You are not a hierarchy looking just for people to serve you. You need to serve them too.

So last but not least, if you are looking for opinion and feedback, right, and you've put, you know, maybe questions out there, you've asked for engagement in posts, what about polls? Polls are an amazing way of getting people to vote, but a brilliant way of researching your audience too. Market research is still a fundamental, critical part in business today and always will be. So how can you get your audience really standing up and talking to you about what they feel, what they think?

This is the emotions of social selling. They cannot help but be aligned to you if they are feeling that they are in this immersed, a relationship with you. And this, you know, sounds a bit crazy, but what happens is, is the more people see you and feel like they're talking to you, guess what happens? The brain says, This person is in my world.

They are a friend. They are a connection, and I have a positive relationship with this person. So each and every time you keep showing up, the more conversations you have, you drive that relationship forward. You can't ever go backwards.

It can only go forward. And this is the power of social selling and the amazing thing with online marketing that, you know, if you get this right and you really show up in a positive way with your community, and this is about stepping up and thinking, right, in my newsfeed, it's not just about me posting and pushing content out. This is about you engaging with their content. Wow.

And that change means that you are interactive. It's two-way now. It is actually true social networking. You're posting and you're being valuable, and they're engaging in your content, and you are engaging with theirs, and you're having conversations on each other's posts, and the magic happens.

And honestly, I can't tell you how different this is. Go onto my LinkedIn, right? Go to Dawn McGruer and see what I'm posting. See the amount of engagement I get.

See the amount of engagement I am doing on other people's posts. I join the conversation. I get myself involved, and people are seeing me each and every day, and they're seeing me show up in a way that is powerful. I'm not just on output.

I'm sharing my opinions, my thought leadership. I'm sharing trends, insights. I'm adding value. I'm joining people's communities.

We're conversing, and the world is a happy place. For me, LinkedIn cannot fail because you only have to go onto my LinkedIn for a day to see what is happening. Now, the great thing is, and the best news, I'm spending 10 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day, in our LinkedIn Accelerator Masterclass. I cannot tell you the changes, the shifts that people have because— Since I've been running the academy, say what, Business Consort started back in like 2005, right?

We got accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and we started building courses all around social media and digital marketing because businesses weren't showing up in a human way. That, you know, there's a process with everything. There's proven strategies with everything. And one of the things that I am proudest about is that when we teach, we teach practical tips, you know, things that are actually working.

But the thing for me, and always has been, is I practice what I teach. So when people say, well, you know, how do I do this? Well, I just say, go and have a look at, you know, how we show up in Google. Type in Business Consort.

Type in CIM Diploma. Search for my name. You know, see how visible I am as a brand, my businesses are as a brand, and how big my social media audiences are. You know, the crazy thing it would be to be trying to kind of tell people, you know, how to use LinkedIn if it wasn't working for me, and it absolutely is.

So you've got to think, if you want to really convert connections into clients, you've got to know what to do. And these five ways that I'm sharing with you, these are a perfect start, okay? There's loads of free resources on the academy website. Just type in Business Consort into Google and just go onto the free resources page, and literally there are videos, there are tons of guides.

There are amazing resources that you can utilize to take your digital marketing forward. Now, my last point, my number five of ways to convert your connections into these all-important customers is— Move them from LinkedIn and take them deeper and immerse them deeper into your world. And what do I mean by this? I mean nurture them in a way that is not just on LinkedIn.

Now, this means that if I go onto LinkedIn, I might say to people, Oh yeah, you know, come and make sure you check out my podcast and subscribe here, and part of the conversation, or I'll put links in for, you know, if you want more information on this, if I do a live, I might put additional links into my post to kind of drive that relationship forward, to give people more information. I might even do a video that says, you know, if you want more information on this or you want my checklist, just comment below in the comments and say, Yeah, I want your checklist, I want your planner, or whatever it is, okay? And this means that people are getting to know me more, and they're engaging in my specific content, not just on LinkedIn, but they could be downloading a guide, joining a masterclass, doing all of those things. And what happens is, is then that person is immersed into my world.

They're getting to know me more. I'm getting to know them more. And, you know, as soon as they sign up for a guide, they're immersing themselves into my content, content specific around what I do, right? And this is the difference to really honestly generating leads and having this constant flow of people coming into your world that ultimately could become clients.

Because if what I'm talking about is resonating and they want to get to know me more, or the brand more, what I do more, products or services, then there is nothing better than giving them valuable content. And then as soon as they sign up for whatever it is, that free...

Magnet, then they're part of my email nurture series, and people can then start to talk to us back and forward. And the great thing is, is that as soon as you start asking questions in your email nurture series and people answer back, then you are in conversation. This is a lead. So make sure, number one, that you are taking people into your world out of LinkedIn, so you're not just relying on that one network, and that you are driving people to find out more about what you do and to build this relationship outside of LinkedIn.

And if people are signing up for something, how are you nurturing them forward? Because the nurture bit is key, and not just sending out kind of like, you know, oh well, if you're interested in this, do this. You know, this is about a series of showing them that you truly understand their pain points and their challenges, that you've been there, or that you are showcasing not just like the features of what you do, but the benefits, and creating desire and handling any frequently asked questions for your audience through these series. And I talk about this a lot in all of my content, but the power of marketing is all about them, not you, and making sure that everything you do is created for your audience.

So I honestly hope that these five tips have showcased a way that is going to really get results for you in terms of changing the way that you show up in social media, changing the way that you talk with your audience, not to your audience, and really engaging at a level that is going to make massive, massive shifts. Because if you get a powerful community, a community that's engaged with you, you cannot fail. And the great thing is, as I said, I'm just spending 10 minutes a day. So if you want to find out more, come and check out the podcast.

There are loads and loads of different episodes that you can just cherry pick and get. Some free tips and tools. So if you enjoyed this, remember, subscribe to the podcast. Go and check out DawnMcGruer.

com. Lots of goodies on there for you. And again, if you're interested in really mastering the world of online marketing and social media, go and check out the free resources at my academy, and just type in Business Consort into Google. We're top of the list, and you will see Digital and Social Media Academy.

com. As soon as you land on that, check out the free resources, and there's loads of free videos and guides that really, really revolutionize the way that you show up and help you shine online. So take care, and I will see you in next week's episode. Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast, and for your free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit, and success, and join our community, go to DawnMcGruer.

com.