Why you should never go to a networking meeting again

As you probably guessed from the title, I’m not a big fan of networking meetings. And I don’t think you should be too.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE the idea of a networking meeting. Local business owners coming together to get to know one another, with the view of creating a local support and referral network. Sounds great!  

But in reality, people only go there when they’ve got something to sell. When anyone speaks about networking, I hear an undertone of dread in their voice. And yes, you might pick up the odd referral, but is going to a networking meeting the best use of your time?

I probably need to cover my own back here. I don’t have a problem with networking meetings. I have a problem with consultants thinking that this is the right strategy to grow and market their business.

Because your goal should be to implement systemised marketing campaigns that help you grow the business in an automated and scalable way, so that you can enjoy more of the things you love.  

It’s my life mission to help you do this and it’s why I have written my book: “Firing People Doesn’t Grow Your HR Consultancy.” Which you probably have a copy of already.

Instead of going to networking meetings, and scouting the local industrial estate (someone told me they were going to do this – you can imagine my response), here’s what you need to do:

Data capture has been around for years. It’s old stuff and you’ve been through it many times before – take my book as an example.

I promoted it, you visited my website to download it, I’ve sent you an email with a link to this article and now you’re reading it. Each step in this process has been automated, which is key.

To help you implement this data capture system, you need to get the following four things right:

1. Infrastructure
2. Drive quality traffic
3. Build multiple audiences
4. Build a relationship

Before I dive straight into the specifics of this system, I wanted to clarify the philosophy behind it to set the scene.

Here’s what you might be doing wrong:

Most HR consultants are quite haphazard when it comes to their marketing.

I don’t mean that in a horrible way.

You’ll probably agree with me that you don’t really have a ‘big plan’ and when you do marketing, it’s all a bit hit and miss and not consistent.

I also think that most small business owners go down the sales route too quickly and the marketing becomes about one-time wins.

You forget that for someone to buy from you, the timing has to be right for them and they must feel like they know and trust you. All of this can take several months to get right.

While you are marketing in an inconsistent way, with a one-time approach to new people each time, it is incredibly rare that you’ll contact someone who is ready to work with you at that very moment.

Which is why this short-term approach to your marketing doesn’t work. And it's why so many businesses struggle to win new clients.

Here’s what you should be doing:

To win new clients, you really do have to be in the right place, at the right time and with the right message. It’s a bit of a lottery.

But to give yourself the best possible chance of winning this lottery, you need to develop relationships with as many potential clients as you can by marketing to them on a regular and consistent basis.

That way, when they’re ready to look for a new HR consultant, you’ll be one of the first people they think about. You’ll also have the advantage over other HR consultants, if they do decide to shop around, because they have more of a relationship with you than anyone else.

To build these relationships, you first need to build your list and you do this using an ethical bribe like a valuable free resource, whitepaper or educational guide. Just like I did with my book.

The bigger your list and the more relationships you have with people, the bigger your pipeline of future clients is. Simple. 

So, when it comes to your marketing, I’d like you to think less about making sales. Instead, ask yourself this very powerful question: “How can I build my list today?”

If you do this, I promise you that you’ll reap the rewards in the months and years to come.

This is the long-term approach to your marketing which is managed by this data capture system. Here’s your checklist to getting this right:

• Create an ‘ethical bribe’

In order for you to grow your list, you need to offer something to people first in return for their contact details.

You could create a book like I have, free resource / service or educational guide.

Your ‘ethical bribe’ should look to solve a problem or answer a question that your target audience has. And the more specific you can be, the better.

• Create a lead page

A lead page is a single page on a website that doesn’t have a menu / navigation at the top. The sole purpose of this page is to encourage people to take action by completing the form, giving you their details and permission to market to them in the future and to receive the ‘ethical bribe’ that you have created.

I plan on creating an article on the perfect lead page very soon.

• Set up your main CRM

Your main CRM is your CRM for opted in contacts only. These are people who have completed a form, given you their details and received their ethical bribe. You should not use this CRM for cold data.

This CRM should power the webform that you embed on your lead page and should fire off emails to the client and notification emails to you.

The first email the client will receive will be an email with their ‘ethical bribe’. They should then receive an email sequence of your very best content for at least a month, sending 1 email a week.

Setting this up before helps you to keep in contact and build a relationship with your new prospect in an automated way.

You should also set up notification emails to go to you every time someone downloads your ‘ethical bribe’. This is a great way to understand the performance of your campaigns and give you a little boost every time someone enters your list.

You can also set up reminders to call them in a few days to introduce yourself more personally over the phone etc.

Organic Google and Google ads

Google is obviously the biggest source of traffic you have at your disposal. SEO and Google ads are such massive topics that I can’t write about them in the detail that I would like to in this article, but in the future, I will create dedicated articles on both to help you.

For the purposes of this article however, you need to be aware of how you can use your G oogle impressions – your impression is your listing on Google – to encourage people to take action.

Take the typical Google Ad for a HR consultant, it will read:

These ads are simply promoting the fact that they are a HR consultant.

You’ll hear ‘Google people’ talk about intent and keyword intent – this basically describes the intent of the searcher on Google. Whether they are looking to buy now, or whether they are researching.

So, these types of ads are typically aimed at the searcher who is looking for a HR consultant right now because they simply promote the fact that they are a HR consultant.

I see two problems with this:

1. Dozens of other HR consultants are doing exactly the same thing
2. The searcher, your potential prospect, will land on your website and if there isn’t anything to grab their attention, or they don’t like the look of your website they’ll simply leave

Thinking about the client journey and the need to build a relationship with prospects over time, wouldn’t it make more sense to promote your ‘ethical bribe’ instead?

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Here are the benefits of an ad like this:

1. In a very crowded market place, this type of ad will stand out
2. You’re offering value from your very first interaction
3. It encourages people to visit your website and take action to receive their guide

I understand that this approach won’t be right for everyone. But what I am wanting to emphasise here is that everything you do from a traffic point of view should be about building your list. And you can even do this with organic and paid traffic from Google.

LinkedIn

Most HR consultants I know are pretty good on LinkedIn – you’re a friendly bunch – you’re approachable and you’ve got great personal skills.

But let me tell you about a strategy I’ve used on LinkedIn. This strategy has been the easiest, quickest and cheapest way for me to grow my list and has provided the best results than anything else I’ve done.

I use an automated tool called Dux-Soup to help me connect with people on LinkedIn and in my very first connection message I offer a free copy of my book: “Firing People Doesn’t Grow Your Business.”

From my very first interaction I am offering something of value that HR consultants like yourself would like and I am getting people to enter my list as soon as possible.

On top of this, you should also be promoting your ‘ethical bribe’ to your connections. Either via posts or connections messages.

And you should also promote your ‘ethical bribe’ in your headline, bio and featured sections.

Facebook

I’ve always been a big fan of using Facebook ads because of its targeting and the fact you’re targeting people while they’re just scrolling – you have their attention.

Again, the most wasteful type of ad you could create is to just simple promote your services. Instead, use your ‘ethical bribe’ as your hook and get people visiting your website or lead page to download your ‘ethical bribe’.

Cold data

I’ve written an entire article on how to use cold data to grow your list. Read it here:

We’ve discussed this already in the philosophy of the data capture system, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

To grow your business, you need a pipeline of prospects that you already have a relationship with. To build this pipeline, you need to build multiple audiences.

Your primary audience should be your email list.

Secondary audiences could include your LinkedIn connections, LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups.

Once you’ve started building your list, you then need to keep in contact and build a relationship with them.

You start this with your initial email sequence that we’ve already discussed – this is an automated way to build a relationship with your new prospect which takes the pressure off you from doing it.

Once they’ve finished this email sequence, they should then go into a broadcast list. You could then:

• Send a regular email
• Send a monthly news bulletin or newsletter
• Post regular social media content
• Record a podcast
• Post letters to them
• Call them

If you need any help implementing this data capture system in your HR consultancy, please book a complimentary call with me today.