Diane Wiredu 🦁’s Post

You can argue about the tactics in my comments all you want. That's OK. Because for me, Exit Five has become something much bigger. It's all becoming so clear to me. It is all about the connections in your career and the network you build. The revenue, the growth, the traffic, those metrics are great and we need them to keep going... But I love hearing the stories about the people in / around the Exit Five community. As humans: 1. We put a lot of stock into what we do for work (what's the first thing someone asks when you meet them? hey what do you do for work). 2. We want to be around other people doing similar things we're doing. For the connection. So we don't feel alone. To vent. To be with someone who will get your jokes. What's cool now about Exit Five that we have some scale is the stories of people connecting beyond marketing. They aren't just meeting up to talk about ABM or SEO. They are meeting up to just ... hangout. Because that is what like-minded people do. Oh you're a Dad and you work in B2B marketing too? You have kids that are 6 and 4? No way, that's the same age of my kids. Let's hang out. This is what is so powerful about community. It starts with the whole B2B marketing thing, but it can go well beyond that and you connect people on a personal level. We can argue on LinkedIn about how to measure awareness, marketing attribution, the right way to SEO, whether AI is going to help or destroy marketing, the right way to do ABM, whether headlines should be clickbait or not. We will never not argue about the marketing tactics. But there's something much bigger with this community beyond the surface. That is the cool part about my job and what we're doing at Exit Five. That's biggest takeaway from getting on a plane and being out and about with the Exit Five team and community in Austin (we had 110 people show up live btw). Here's a fun little two minute recap video the crew at EventShark 🦈 put together for us. PS. I am in my feels with this one today. Having a week. My wife is under the weather, my kids are home because school is closed, and I'm trying to stay sane and calm and finish a good week at E5 before shutting it down for a few days for Thanksgiving. I guess that's hashtag Founder Mode.

I went viral and gained 15,000+ highly targeted new email subscribers over the weekend. (steal and learn my takeaways 😉) It all happened suddenly and surprised me. Not many of you know, but I do have 4 personal brand pages across different niches. But I’m only active on 2 of them. Why can I confidently say it's highly targeted? Because self-development is my niche. So here's what happened: One of my posts went viral (I have had plenty, but this one is the highest on this account) 5 million views, and over 18k+ comments wanting a lead magnet I provided. It was a second brain cheatsheet I used to share here. I have actually created 4-5 reels about sharing this, but this time it reaches millions of people!!! And the best part? I leave a ‘pay what you want’ feature on for my lead magnet. And I earned 4 figures from this post (I won't specify for personal reasons 😅). Also gained nearly 8k+ new followers. What have I learned here? → Going viral doesn't equate to more money BUT if you plan your content strategically, you will reap a lot of rewards. (Although you can't plan when you go viral) → Testing is so important. Testing the hook, length, music, and etc. One flop doesn’t mean it’s bad; it’s a sign to reevaluate and restrategize. → Focus on ONE. Having only 1 goal for every post (in any social media) will avoid you from burning out and allow you to make most of your goal. Goal can means; - more people downloading your lead magnet - more people following you - more people inquiring about your services - or anything else. That's it. It has been a fun week for me to get and learn so much thing. Have a great week ahead, you all! P.S. What was the most epic thing that happened to you over the weekend?

"My leads are now all organic and highly qualified. Started two years ago with a 49% conversion rate and now are always above 70%." Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, buckle up, because that's exactly what we're aiming for with our 30 Day LinkedIn Posting Challenge. Look, we've all been there. You set up your profile, connect with a few colleagues, and then... crickets. 🦗 LinkedIn becomes that gym membership you keep meaning to use but never do. But what if I told you that with just a little know-how and consistency, you could turn LinkedIn into your personal lead-generating machine? Here's the deal: For 30 days, we're going to meet twice a week (virtually, so you can keep your comfy pants on). We'll dive into: - How to write posts people actually want to read (no corporate jargon allowed) - Using AI without sounding like a bot who's had too much coffee - Cracking the LinkedIn algorithm (it's easier than assembling IKEA furniture, I promise) - Borrowing audiences from influencers (don't worry, we'll give them back) This isn't about becoming "LinkedIn famous" or sharing what you had for lunch. It's about attracting the right people, showcasing your expertise, and yes, getting more business. Starting September 10th, we're kicking this challenge into high gear. You'll learn, you'll laugh, you'll probably facepalm a few times, but most importantly, you'll see results. So, are you ready to stop scrolling and start posting? To turn LinkedIn from a time-waster into a game-changer? Drop a "💼" in the comments if you're in. Or if you're on the fence, tell me: what's holding you back from LinkedIn stardom? Our 30-Day Challenge begins September 10th and ends October 3rd, 2024.  Sessions run Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10am MST (12 EST) for 4 weeks. All sessions will be recorded, and you can access recordings the following day in your private course library.

They point the microphone at me. "So, Alex, you hit 1M impressions this year, +44% follower growth, how do you feel?!" Uh, fine! But what's WAY more important than the leading indicators (raw visibility) is how that visibility did or didn't translate into business metrics. Unless you're selling sponsorships (power to you if you do, I'm just not talking about that right now), 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 or how many impressions you got. What matters is: → 2300 people started free trials of my SaaS this year → Over 1000 people became customers (yes, we had some churn, so they're not all still active, but hey, customer growth was great this year) → $54k of gross SaaS MRR sales (see disclaimer above), not to mention even more than that in gross agency MRR revenue which isn't even reflected here → Only $31k in marketing spend to do all of that... tools, sponsorships, commissions, contractors, new website coming soon, etc, for Aware, which is an ungodly return on investment → $0 in capital raised That last one, though... :) Almost all of our growth this year has been organic and my own LinkedIn presence — posts, comments, DMs, you know the drill — has sourced a great deal of it. Our wonderful partners have played a huge role too, but again those relationships were started and nurtured on LinkedIn, before they deepened into offline business relationships as well. And yet, some people are still telling me they have proof... PROOF... that this stuff "works": • Spending hours a day on LinkedIn doing who knows what • Automating your voice notes (wtf?) and sending mass DMs • ChatGPT or EasyGen for writing generic posts that have nothing to do with your market* • Being 'first to comment' on Justin Welsh's content, or some other big influencer who, bless them, has already made it and only told you to engage with them because it pumps their own numbers up Sometimes it kills me to see this. But: some big lessons I've had to learn this year? All inter-related, but they are: ↳ I can't control everything ↳ I can suggest and recommend ways to approach LinkedIn, and how to use Aware properly, but at the end of the day people will do what they want ↳ Others learn on their own timeline ↳ My way isn't the only one that works As time goes on, the more I realize that I just need to keep doing my own thing, serving our customers, not getting caught up in the hype, doing my best to educate while not getting my feathers ruffled if people don't take my advice. Just, smile and say, Oh okay great that sounds like it's working well for you. Move on. Stack MRR. Repeat. Happy holidays from your friendly neighborhood bootstrapper ✌🏼 *I DO use AI in my content repurposing process, btw. Aware's AI content repurposer does a great job of taking my current content library, and giving me "Alex's take" on something either new or a rewrite of a past post. I just edit and rewrite it to make sure I stand by it!

I spent 12 weeks experimenting on a LinkedIn company page to figure out how to grow it. Company pages are notorious on LinkedIn for not performing anywhere near as well as personal pages. Luckily for me, Adiona is a dream client that let's me run a whole bunch of experiments 😂 Check out this week's Mehdeeka - B2B Marketing Newsletter issue to find out how we went from an average of 2% engagement to 12% engagement! Read here: https://lnkd.in/gax4Tktd The TL;DR: 1. Evaluated what was performing well and what wasn't, by impressions and engagement 2. Identified that "passive" updates weren't doing well 3. Set some new rules, aligned to what worked well + a few hypotheses, and a new (reduced) posting schedule 4. Check ins at 6 weeks and 12 weeks! The final learnings, for those who just want the destination and not the journey: 1. Our audience LOVES deep, technical info, so we're giving it to them 2. Carousels drive good engagement (up to 40%) but they can't be every post 3. Pick impressions or engagement, you can't have both 4. Always, always, go back to the data your audience is giving you, not some LinkedIn guru telling you what to do Any more tips? Drop them in the comments P.S. I've always manually screen recorded my issues to make videos like this, but HowdyGo just released a free tool that does it for you!! Check it out

I had one month to get a client or I’d be screwed… Back in 2022 - 5 months after dropping out of high school. I was in a bit of a tight spot. My Mom was working a minimum-wage job at a cafe. Which was just enough to provide us with basic living needs. And because of the cough, cough… She was gonna work even less the month after. Which meant EVEN LESS money. My Mom was stressed out. And that made me stressed out... I just got onto Twitter at the time. And saw so many people making ridiculous amounts of money online on this platform. So I decided to give it a shot. I pulled the trigger on my first investment into online education. A community called Modern Mastery run by Dan Koe It taught me everything I needed to know to grow my online business. I devoured the entire library of lessons and workshops within a week. The next week was the implementation phase. One of the biggest takeaways I got from it was that I needed a funnel. I already had a decent understanding of what this was because I had read Dotcom Secrets before this. And the lessons about funnels and content in MM complimented this quite nicely. So I set up my funnel for the first time. A lead magnet A landing page An email sequence And started posting content to drive traffic towards the funnel. I was very stubborn about sending cold DMs. I didn’t like the idea of it at all, so I did everything in my power to get inbound leads despite everyone telling me to do the opposite. And me being in a situation where I was essentially desperate for money. I’ve always been the type to do things on my own terms or not at all. “Top of the world or bottom of the ocean” as Tej Dosa would say. And after 3 weeks of doing this. I landed my first client for $400. With less than 300 followers No case studies or testimonials No cold outreach I was ECSTATIC. It was the first time I’d ever made REAL MONEY on the internet. Something I’d been pursuing for 4+ years prior to it. 1000’s of hours watching YouTube videos on it and seeing other people do it. Now, finally — I was the one making the money. And the biggest thing I attribute to it was having a funnel and the right content strategy to drive traffic towards it. It was what saved me from slaving away at cold DMs and not having enough food in my house lol. This is why I’m so passionate about it. Because it can be so effective when done right. It literally becomes a 24/7 salesman for your biz. And if I could get clients and multiple calls/week using it in that stage of my journey. You can too. Want to know how? Check the link below for a breakdown of how I helped a coach do the same to land 11 clients in a week.

Wanna blend in and take it as if it was 2010? Start with "We help companies with X" Nobody cares about your product. Sorry, but here on LinkedIn the most grey posts you can make are about your product. Your buyers are as selfish as you are. They care about their problems. Your advertisement and organic posts should be focused on the problems and explanation of the better way solving those (that are not necessarily your product). B2B journeys are so long that "one shot = sale" advertisement are not working. Loved the conversation with Mandy McEwen about the topic last week. She has so much passion and energy for Organic Linkedin 🩵 Thanks for joining!

LinkedIn B2Believe event was different than what we have tried before. Here are small learning snippets: - personalisation, uniqueness and humour goes long way for B2B ads. - Moving away from content that took months to create to organic, personal content. - Buying groups are larger than you think. This one was a wake up call for me personally. Even though we’re selling to marketers, the technical teams are often the secret may or yay sayers! - 95% of your audience is not ready to buy. Delight, engage them and next time it’s their turn - your brand is the first one on the list. - 3rd party cookie disappear - conversion APIs are going to pave the way for more efficient advertising than ever before - Thought leadership ads have more than 1,6X higher engagement and now you can run those not only from your company employees. - connected TV for LinkedIn ads. What (!?!) keep an eye for more of their announcement

The Alliance portfolio of products is now HUGE. But it’s all thanks to betting on one thing. The power of community. When COVID happened, like so many others, we had to pivot. We transformed from an exclusively in-person business to an online community. Since then we never looked back. Last month we were in the newspaper (Yes I know, people still read the newspaper apparently) They shared our success → 16 L&D communities → $18.3 million ARR As marketers we know the most powerful marketing is authentic WOM from loyal customers. So it’s a no brainer to invest in providing a platform for those conversations to happen. We chose Slack as that platform for Product Marketing Alliance. Then we got to work on making the space valuable for our audience of PMMs. → We shared a weekly newsletter so members could keep up to date on all of our latest events, courses, and content. → We created specific channels for countries, states, cities to help members meet their product marketing neighbours. → We created topic specific channels so members knew where to go to find specific answers. → We moderated like crazy to keep the spam out. From there… It exploded. 🚀 Because guess what. The most powerful marketing is authentic WOM. Members invited other members. The loop was created. Now we have a Slack community 50,000 strong. On top of that Everything we do, we do with our community at the heart.

These stats from HubSpot aren't surprising, but how do brands actually build their communities? A few popular rewards my team recommends for Brand Advocates are: 1. Free shipping all year 2. Early access to sales & new products 3. Chance to be featured on the brand's social media pages While some brands have only tried offering discount codes to creators, it can be way more exciting to feel a part of something bigger! Let's chat about leveraging your community in 2025: https://lnkd.in/e3rG9uHm