A lot of people ask me how I keep generating business, especially considering that I am a digital nomad and travelling very often. As a marketeer with 10+ years of experience, I have an extensive personal network. And one of my main source of work projects is through this personal network. So here I give you a few tips on how to implement this b2b marketing hack of leveraging your personal network.

Remember, “leveraging your personal network” doesn’t mean spamming them.

Premise: I provide good services and value to businesses. And now a days, almost everyone is looking for digital marketing help. So, keeping these things in mind, I am very clear that when I do connect with someone, there is a potential value proposition. So there is no need for over the top spamming or hustling or “selling”. It is OK to simply have a genuine and focused chat and see how that pans out.

This blog post is part of my efficient marketing series where I write about marketing hacks which are low effort.

Personal networking for B2B lead generation: the good and bad

Today, with the higher degree of connectivity between people, even far-off contacts on social media, can help generate work through references and word of mouth. So this is definitely a good channel to tap by founders in their initial stages, especially B2B founders.

The advantage: the clear advantage of this channel is that it requires less of trust building since there is an initial referral involved. And acquisition costs would usually be cheaper as it becomes part of online ‘socializing’. With little bit of organized work, it can become a strong acquisition channel.

The difficulties: There would be a limit to this channel because at some point we will exhaust our network (however, in this digital age where everyone is so much more connected with their network – it may not necessarily be so limited). We could, of course, keep ‘building the network’, but depending on our interpersonal and socializing skills this is not always easy. If you are people savvy then networking groups like BNI can be used to expand your contacts.

Another disadvantage is that it really depends on the founders past as to what kind of network they have. If the business is super niche then it is possible that no one in their network is a relevant target group. Even so, asking for introductions to the relevant people can happen via your personal network.

Most business founders would have to tap their personal network to some extent at least in their beginning phases. But few do this in an organized and planned way.

Optimizing this B2B marketing hack

Here are a few ways to streamline this activity. In fact, I also worked with another startup founder on a similar matter. And these were the suggestions I gave him.

Segmentation:

Segment your contact circle. Inevitably your contact circle will be made of people from various backgrounds. Some in the C-suite circles while others who are junior employees of relevant companies. Segment them as per industry domain and seniority. Other segments can also be tried out depending on your requirements.

For my services, I can pitch directly to the senior folk. While the junior employees, I can ask to be introduced to their marketing lead or CEO. You need to figure these different segments of people in your contacts.

Again this segmentation may take time because most of our personal contacts are scattered in totally random and haphazard manner. But organizing them would take only a couple of days of dedicated work. And it would pay dividends later.

Content Approach:

Obviously we are not adding these contacts to our weekly or monthly newsletter because they haven’t signed up for it. Earlier on when you start engaging with them, it is best to use some lead magnet content to get them to opt in. If they subscribe then you can safely engage with them with your usual newsletter efforts. But considering many relevant people won’t have subscribed to our newsletter – we can still engage with them but in a much more relevant way.

My approach has been to send ‘catch up’ messages. These are genuine because I am actually curious about what they are up to. And while I may be messaging them with hopes of a new project, it is possible that other synergies might happen. Usually there is some interesting development in my work stuff every 3 to 6 months. There is also some festival during this time (especially in India) which I can leverage for this.

I have always had about 5-6% response rate to my sent emails. I feel this is good but can be better with optimization. The reasons that make this activity work are,

approachable and conversational email: The email I send is like a personal Gmail message. When I am writing the mail, I picture that I met this work contact all of a sudden in a mall, and we are exchanging catch up notes. What’s up with you? I have recently been busy with *something that would be interesting for them*

short (max 10 lines) and brief conversation: imagine meeting in the mall when you have a long shopping list to finish off. So you can only indulge in a quick chat. It CAN’T be longer. But one can end it with a link to a relevant web page or longer blog or some such if really relevant.

Again, it is very important that this activity doesn’t become spammy. So be thoughtful about the messages you send.

Engagement Channels:

I typically use a BCC’ed Gmail blast. But you can consider different channels depending on your networks of choice. A CRM add on is useful as it provides you email open rates and other such metrics. Especially, for the conversations that move into the lead zone, it is recommended that you use a CRM. I have used Hubspot for this.

There are also always a few people that I would choose to connect with on a one-one basis. For them I use whichever platform that makes sense. Usually this includes Twitter, Linkedin or Whatsapp.

Message Frequency: Festival Greetings

For these ‘catch-up’ messages, I find 3 –  6 months is a good frequency to send out an emailer to a wide contact list (a few 100 people). Typically, festivals are a good time to do this. But it is important to either send the message well before or after the barrage of festive mails. I have always had a good response rate with this approach.

Miscellaneous Optimization

Try a few different types of messages and see what works. What gets you better responses. Here are some tips to optimize these messages further.

Customize and personalise

Of course, you could take the time out to organize your contacts with their name and other contact details one time and then customize & personalise your emails to them! To send out targeted emails to certain industry types or job roles would be very useful over long term.

Some simple apps are available that let you personalize your Gmail emails – Email Studio from Labnol used to be really good, but it stopped working a while back.

Keep the list updated

Keep updating your contact list with new contacts and also culling contacts that simply don’t engage over a period of time.

Be genuine when someone responds

When someone replies to your email, take the conversation further even if it is just a greeting in return. It doesn’t have to become a long rambling chat. But your first email to them is generic, so for the people that do respond, definitely you can revert back with something personalized which makes them feel friendly. After all, for me networking is about letting people know “hi there, I am your friend and I am here 🙂 “, kind of.

Inner Circle

I strongly suggest creating an ‘inner circle’ of the people who actually refer you projects. Because these synergies are immensely helpful even for repeat business. Moreover, remain in touch after they refer you. Update them about its status. And especially if you get the project then thank them. Moreover, after the project has been worked on for a few months – if there are testimonials or great results from it – share it with the referrer. So they feel that they have genuinely helped someone by referring you.

I have also blogged about a similar networking hack : set up your organic PR process.

Freebies

Maybe only to the people who refer you, or to everyone, you can offer some freebies or extra perks. Even these email, write them gently. I feel the conversational and personal connect is the most important thing. It shouldn’t turn salesy or hustley at any point. There is too much sales hustle going on everywhere, people in general are tired of it.

That’s all I have on this for now. But probably I will think about more details which I will update over time.

Have you used your personal network for lead generation? Any tips or hacks? Tell me. 🙂

Connect with me to explore other marketing hacks and synergies for your business.