Do you LOVE your business? 3 Things You Need To Love Your Business More + Lets Review LinkedIn Posts

It's Valentine's day and many of us are thinking about LOVE.?

If you are like me, you have a relationship with your business.???????

It's hard to love your business if you lack a strategy, systems, and good relationships. Let me break down these three for you a bit and maybe you can fall in love again.

When I started my marketing agency, I had no idea how to grow my own business.?

I just had amazing digital marketing skills but having marketing skills alone is not enough.?

You cannot just rely on marketing to grow your business and to be profitable.?

There are three things to consider to have more success in your business and love your business:?

First, you need to have a strategy.?

Just winging it is not enough, you need an actual plan.?

You can get away with launching a business without a strategy but you will end up having to reinvent the wheel many more times without taking a strategic approach.?

The same goes with a relationship, if you lack a strategy, your relationship will fade away. You both need to work on a relationship and you need to be on the same page.?

What are your values, goals, what is your shared purpose? For a business, it's even more important to have a strategy so you can stay the course and not just be an idea monkey.

What goes into a strategy??

I would recommend including 3 main things into your strategy: your plan, who you are targeting, and what your promise is to those people.?

That is why we teach these three things in our LinkedIn course and coaching program first.

Your plan can include how much revenue you want to generate and how much each client will pay you along with what you will be doing for them. It makes sense to understand your profitability and how you will get everything done as well.

Here is a question you should be able to answer “How does my business make a profit?”

There are three types of strategies you need: a business strategy, marketing strategy, and a strategy for each campaign you will be launching to understand success.

David Allen the productivity master and author of Getting Things Done always talks about knowing what done looks like before you begin any project.?

If you do not know your end game, how will you know if you are making progress?

When it comes to targeting, making sure you have a clear niche is very helpful because your messaging will be off base if you are trying to talk to everyone.?

It also helps you focus and where focus goes, energy flows.

When it comes to having a strong promise it's all about matching what you deliver with what your ideal clients actually care about.?

Your unique selling proposition will make you stand out from the competition.

Our strategy changed over the years but we always had a strategy and that is what made us be able to have traction.?

If you have not read the book “Traction” it's a powerful book that I have gotten lots of value from. I highly recommend it for all business owners and entrepreneurs to read.? (Here I include 10 books every entrepreneur must read)

If you can invest, hire an EOS implementer or a business coach to help you implement an operating system into your business that is measurable.?

Once you have a strategy, now you need some systems and processes.?

You cannot scale your business unless you automate the repeatable processes in your business.?

If you have never read the checklist manifesto, it's a great book to read about checklists which are basically Systems and Processes on a basic level.?

What helped it become more profitable than ever is having a system in our agency for everything.?

Here is a quote I started saying in 2013 “Micromanage the process, not the people.” I realized that we cannot manage people, we can only manage the process.

We create systems for marketing, systems for accounting, systems for onboarding new employees and new clients, systems for finding new clients.?

Hiring a coach or an integrator is the key to creating systems. If you need help with this in your business, reach out to me, I am happy to advise you or introduce you to people who do this well.

Once you have a strategy and create systems and processes in your business the third element is great people.?

You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.?

I used to want to be the smartest person in the room, I got smart and realized I needed to change the rooms I was spending time in.?

Hire employees that are smarter than you and surround yourself with peers that are doing better than you.?

If you are not hungry, surround yourself with people that are hungry and you will build an appetite.?

Key Message: You need to have a solid strategy, systems, process, and the right relationships to have a successful business.?

It's ok to ask for help when you need it.?

Growing up I watched my mom be too proud to ask anyone for help.?

She didn't want to have a victim mentality and have people think that she needs help or something.

We all need help sometimes and sharing your challenges with people who you trust is a very important part of growing.?

Your network wants to help you but you need to tell them how they can help you.?

The more specific your actual ask is, the more people will be able to assist you.?

Do not just say, “I need more clients.”

Instead say “I am looking to do business with 3 new clients this quarter, do you know any marketing directors at B2B companies in your local area that you might be able to introduce me to?” or “Do you know anyone that has more than 5 salespeople? I am looking to meet CEOs that have a sales team that might need a more robust marketing funnel to qualify leads for their sales team.”?

That leads to actual referrals instead of “Let me think about it” and you never hear back.

Prepare your ASK and know what you are looking for before you begin networking.

What do you need help with? Feel free to leave a comment below so we can support you.

Create a lead magnet for your ideal clients.

When I heard the idea of a lead magnet, I thought it was a gimmick.?

People are not stupid, they are not going to give you their email because you asked for it!

But what I realized after testing this out with dozens of clients over the past few years is that your ideal clients want to give you their contact information so you can add value to them.?

Do you want your doctor to have your email and send you an email when they can make your life better?

YES, 100% of people want their trusted professional to reach out to them to help them with their goal.?

The problem is you are not offering your ideal clients something of value to them.?

That is where the LEAD MAGNET comes in.?

The purpose is to assist you in giving value to your ideal client even if they do not need your services or products right now.?

For a hardware store, it might mean creating a home decorating guide for stay-at-home moms.?

For a marketing agency like ours, it's a presentation on how the marketing funnel works.?

For our LinkedIn coaching program, we offer a 30 tips booklet to our ideal clients.

Think about what type of lead magnet you can get created for your ideal clients. We love helping companies with this and if you want to chat with me, please reach out so I can give you at least 10 lead magnet ideas for your ideal client to download from your website or landing page.?

If you have a lead magnet, leave a comment with your lead magnet below so people can download it and get value from you.

If at first, you don’t succeed, redefine success.

The human brain is a wonderful thing. It starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public. ??

If an accountant’s partner cannot sleep, what do they say?

“Dear, could you tell me about your workday?”

Why is money called dough?

Because we all knead it.

Why did the financial system collapse in ancient Egypt?

Pyramid schemes.

A man can do more than he thinks he can, but he usually does less than he thinks he does.

How do construction workers party?

They raise the roof.

Feel free to use these jokes in your meetings this week and see which one works the best ??

Check out who your followers are on LinkedIn and send them a message thanking them for following you.?

This simple action has started conversations with ideal clients that would have never happened if not for my simple outreach with a thank you.

I take it a step further and email a thank you note to people that connect with me on LinkedIn or even those that subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter.?

If you need help creating a dashboard with your connections, reach out to us. We use great tools that help us segment our connections and identify who the most ideal connections are for us to network with.?

You can check out our course and coaching program at https://learn.evyrgreen.com/networking and apply if you think it's something you might find useful for yourself or your sales team.

Feel free to save the image above and reference it before sending direct messages on LinkedIn. If you want more tips like this make sure you check out our 30 tips booklet above.

Each week I review my most recent posts. Here are my thoughts about each post:?

On Sunday, I posted a joke that made me laugh reminding my network to have fun and enjoy life.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_the-population-of-this-country-is-237-million-activity-6898676504037793793-viuG

Saturday night, I posted a photo of one of my relationships sharing a copy of High Energy Networking at the EANYC event that we went to on Thursday and I presented about LinkedIn strategies for executives.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_dyllan-udell-got-his-copy-did-you-get-yours-activity-6898408148030296064-ZlQM ?

The LinkedIn CEO was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and I shared the article as a post on my profile for those that want to read about the interview and watch the video. My favorite part was the part about what happens on LinkedIn each minute.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_lets-face-it-linkedin-might-be-the-best-activity-6898008980853993472-vFD8 ?

My goal is to take 150 of these types of selfies with relationships this year.

I had a good series of one on one meetings last week and here I share some of the photos I took with my relationships. It's important to have photos with the people you care about.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_networking-activity-6897937755536449536-2Idc ?

A prospect asked me for a deck with some designs because they wanted to hire Ajax Union to do their website. I shared a deck my team prepared and as a comment, I added a YouTube video walking the prospect through the deck. Over 1000 people saw this presentation on LinkedIn :)? - If you are not using the LinkedIn presentation feature, you are missing out.

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_ajax-union-web-design-samples-2022-activity-6897882420901675008-k25K ?

This was my VIP post of the week where I shared how I used to be afraid of posting photos and I shared my photo standing by the water. People shared that it resonated with them on a very deep level. I keep hearing how hard it is for people to share their photos. I know that feeling big time. I used to be very afraid.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_confidence-fear-personaldevelopment-activity-6897546380726861824-uELA ?

I wrote a rap and added it to this presentation asking people to help me review the slides for the presentation I was presenting on Thursday to 50 executives about the power of LinkedIn. I like how the rap came out. “A friend with a lead is a friend indeed”

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_irap-linkedin-speaking-activity-6897524685098033152-t_zC ?

Every month I publish a post allowing people to promote themselves under that post. In Feb I was traveling at the beginning of the month and I realized I didn't schedule it, so I posted it this past week. Check out all the comments from amazing people in my network promoting their business. Feel free to add your business too?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_advertise-networking-febnetworking-activity-6897222771726700544-_FRH ?

A few of my connections wanted to see some of my Zoom backgrounds so here they are, I made a video with another cute song that I wrote and rapped to. I used Zoom to record this video.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_mojorap-creativity-zoom-activity-6897147165433491456-0X5w ?

Here is a great poll that I shared this past week. I used this poll to identify who in my network wants to have more conversations with prospects and referral partners. People that voted self-selected and helped me understand who needs help getting conversations going.? ? https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_mojopolls-activity-6896795636373471232-NNlc ?

People often ask me the value of posting on LinkedIn and I share that if you wanted to advertise to get the exposure you can get on LinkedIn it would cost thousands of dollars but you can get it organically on LinkedIn.?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/joeapfelbaum_linkedin-activity-6896550818670006272-te-N ?

Another great newsletter! Hope you enjoyed it and got value from it. Let me know if you read the whole thing or you are saving it for later.?

Let’s continue the conversation in the comments. Tell me your favorite part of this LinkedIn newsletter and what you got out of it. Would love to hear from you.?

Last week's LinkedIn Newsletter can be found here. It's about building your brand and what it takes to discover a brand that will resonate with you and your personality.?

About the Author:

Joe Apfelbaum is the CEO of Ajax Union a B2B Digital Marketing Agency in Brooklyn NY. Ajax Union develops marketing funnels for companies that want to be more strategic. Our strategies include lead generation, account-based marketing, awareness campaigns, and prospecting. We leverage search engines, social media, and email marketing to support your goals and get the right traffic into your marketing funnel so you can have a positive ROI. To learn more go to?www.ajaxunion.com ?and watch the marketing funnel presentation!

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