LinkedIn Is Killing Your Startup

Are you getting as many paying customers as you want for your startup?

If the answer to this question is NO, then LinkedIn could very well be the reason.

Why?

Because you've been tricked into believing that the most important thing on social media is to get engagement - likes, comments, and shares.

As a result, you optimise your content for engagement and create content that is designed to get as many likes, comments, and shares as possible.

The problem is that it's the content that gets the LEAST engagement is the content that is MOST effective at generating paying customers.

This is because the content that is most effective at getting you paying customers is content that speaks directly to the problems that your business solves, gives your target audience advice on how to overcome those problems, and shows them how your business can help solve them.

Of course then, this content is going to attract the attention of those that have this problem that you solve. They will read it (because they are looking for a solution to that problem they are facing) and will be attracted to your business and your solution as a result.

However, it's NOT going to cause them to like, comment, or share it.

Why?

Because the main reason people share, like, and comment on things on social media is because doing so makes them LOOK GOOD.

And commenting, liking, and especially sharing, content that is most likely to convert them into paying customers of your product/service is not going to make them look good to others in their network.

Instead, it's probably going to make them look bad.

Because, by commenting, liking, and especially sharing this content would mean admitting publicly that they have the problem that you solve - after all, if they didn't, why would they even be reading such an article?

The problem is though is that, as a startup, you NEED your target audience to share you content with others because it's unlikely you have enough money or experience to pull off paid advertising in a profitable way - organic growth is the only option for you.

So, how do we reconcile these two competing goals?

How do we get our target audience to share our content whilst still retaining the ability to effectively convert them into customers using that content?

We create content that gives them the RESULT of our PRODUCT before they even become our customers.

This seems completely counter-intuitive, but it's extremely effective.

Take one-man bootstrapped startup Bullet journal.

You don't need to buy its productivity products (notebook, mobile application etc.) to get the results that its products can provide customers.

Instead, by consuming the free content it puts out, you can implement the methodology that underlies its products without buying its solution and therefore get results without being a customer.

Similarly, one doesn't need to buy internet marketing company HubSpot's product in order to implement the methodology that makes it products work - inbound marketing.

You can read all about the inbound marketing belief/philosophy and methodology for free on its website and implement this marketing strategy without ever being a customer of the company.

What both of these companies have done (and many other businesses, from startups to established companies) is turn what makes their product unique into a belief system/philosophy/methodology that their target audience can implement WITHOUT buying their product. They then give away this belief system/philosophy/methodology away to their target audience for free.

This enables their target audience to implement this belief system/methodology and get results from it without ever being customers - the end result being that they happily share the content that taught them this approach with those around them.

In fact, they tend to be quite evangelical about sharing it with others - Bullet journal fans share it quite obsessively with those around them and, despite HubSpot having a "boring" B2B SaaS product (internet marketing software), its customers are known for being evangelical and passionate about inbound marketing and the company (to the point that the company has been jokingly called a "cult").

So, that covers the sharing part of things, but how does this kind of content incite people to buy the product the company sells? After all, by implementing the things they learn from this content, they can get the results of the product without actually buying the product...

The answer is because it's simply more convenient to buy the product.

Take personal finance software company You Need A Budget (YNAB). Today it is a fully fledged business doing multiple millions in revenue, but when it started it was a bootstrapped startup created by a husband and wife and its product was a barebones spreadsheet.

It turned the way its spreadsheet worked to manage personal finance into a methodology that people could implement without buying the product and shared that for free with its target audience.

Of course, its target audience could utilise the methodology it promoted without the product but using the spreadsheet made it SO MUCH easier.

And it's the same with HubSpot and Bullet journal - buying the product makes implementing the belief system/methodology so much easier.

As a result, many of those who see results with the belief system/methodology end up buying the product the company sells.

How do you implement this yourself?

I call this approach The BLUNT Method because the type of belief systems/methodology that these companies (and others like them) promote to their target audience can be summed up with the mnemonic BLUNT.

To learn more about it, understand how and why it works, read case studies from startups and companies that have used it, and learn how to implement this yourself in your own business visit www.thebluntmethod.com

About Chris

Chris has spent nearly two decades (and counting) creating, marketing and selling conferences, products, services and software, both on and offline, in multiple countries around the world.

He has worked with businesses of all sizes – from startups to companies like Microsoft, Google, SAP, Oracle, Groupon and others, and has also created, marketed and ran multi-million dollar industry conferences in many different industries and countries around the world.

Chris is also, an accomplished writer, having written for numerous publications including The Times, one of the United Kingdom’s most well known newspapers.

Chris helps startups and businesses find and maintain breakthrough growth using?The BLUNT Method.