Practical Business Advice At The VIP Mastermind Conference

On Saturday 16 January I attended the inaugural VIP Mastermind Conference, a gathering of top business minds at Creative Exchange Leith in the north of Edinburgh.

The event was organised by Fin Wycherley of Supersize Media, a social media and digital marketing consultancy. I’d heard Fin speak about social media strategy a couple of months before, so trusted her to deliver an event offering great value.

The day was divided into 3 tracks:

• Social and Digital
• Business Growth
• Productivity and Focus

I attended talks of all three types, but mainly the social and digital ones.

This is what I thought as the event started…

It's going to be a great day #vipmastermind @FinWycherley @Stresspositive @lizmelv pic.twitter.com/a4qJ7jr5Ea

— ♡ Alisoun Mackenzie – Your Meaningful Life Guide (@AlisounMac) January 16, 2016

Hilde Frydnes – Smart Paid Search Strategies To Drive Results For Your Business

Hilde is an experienced marketer who has worked for Google and Skyscanner and now runs Tell Tall in Edinburgh. She specialises in Google AdWords, running the Edinburgh Meetup group for AdWords users.

Starting out with AdWords

A lot of people claim they never click on ads in search results, but heat map studies prove the opposite. 60% of the content “above the fold” in search is ads and it’s the area most clicked on.

Google AdWords ads can take many forms – text, image or video – and can also appear on mobile websites or apps.

Targeting can be done by:

• Keywords – the more specific and relevant the better. You can use ads for terms you already rank for in organic search, and boost your ranking.
• Location – if you are an undertaker in Glasgow you won’t want ads in Preston.
• Day and time – you might want to run a seasonal campaign, or at a time of day that your target audience is online
• Device type – if your product is a mobile app you’ll want to target smartphone and tablet users.

You should always measure ad performance through Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager.

Make sure your audience know what to do when they click through to your website, too!

Google AdWords tips and tricks

1. Test your searches in Google and see what comes up.
2. Test out keywords in Google Keyword Planner.
3. Use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool to see what your ad will look like to users, or Chrome’s Incognito mode.
4. See what Google thinks of you and control the ads Google shows you.

There are a lot of acronyms in this field! Here is an AdWords glossary.

This was a quality talk with a lot of information which helped demystify the whole AdWords landscape for me.

Alisoun Mackenzie – The Compassionate Sales Formula

I decided to go upstairs for the next talk as the room had got quite cold (more on this later). I went to Alisoun’s talk as I’ve known her for a while and she always has interesting information to share.

Alisoun is a heart-centred business owner who runs training, writes and speaks about sales and marketing with heart. She offers online support and local meetups through her membership group The Heartabiz Hub.

Selling with heart

Alisoun was there to help us see the whole sales process as less icky, as a lot of us feel it is. She used to hate selling with a passion until she realised that selling and being compassionate were the same thing. Both are about easing others’ suffering and solving their problems.

Most of us are making mistakes in our sales process, namely:

1. Harbouring negative thoughts about selling and making money.
2. Not following up on sales leads. She cited one lady she called who said, “Thanks so much – most people don’t follow up.”
3. Avoiding sales conversations. They’re not for making the sale (most people only buy further down the ladder of interaction) but for determining if that person is a good fit for your business.

I love the idea of helping people rather than making sales –  it’s much more palatable!

Simply ask your prospects, "How can I help?" 👍#compassionatesales @AlisounMac #vipmastermind

— Claire Brotherton (@abrightclearweb) January 16, 2016

Karlie Simmonds – A Guide To Successful Blogging

I was excited about this talk as I’m a massive blogging fan since I took the 30 day blogging challenge.

Karlie started blogging seven years ago with her personal I am Karlie blog. She now is an established blogger and now runs The SWAG Guide, a Scottish lifestyle, fashion, beauty and dating blog.

Why blog?

There are many reasons to blog, but the most important one is to offer value.

You can literally blog about anything – whatever you can think of, there’s likely to be a blog on it (even rats in hats, as Karlie suggested).

Blogging tips

• Use great photography – think of teaming up with a local photographer.
• Join blogging communities and engage.
• Contact companies or PRs and ask to review their products.
• Ask for blog promotion from your nearest and dearest…

Get your friends & family to promote your blog – @iamstillKarlie #vipmastermind #blogging pic.twitter.com/mYZ9I2iiSM

— Claire Brotherton (@abrightclearweb) January 16, 2016

David Petherick – Build Your Brand on LinkedIn

I stole out to get lunch at the very lovely Rocksalt so I was at the back of the room when David’s talk started.

David runs his own site, Amazes.me, where he specialises in LinkedIn profile makeovers. He was a late replacement for Ann Robb, who was unwell, and did a great job at short notice.

Why Should We Use LinkedIn?

David explained that:

1. There are 400m people are on LinkedIn.
2. 2 people join every second.
3. 64% of all visits to corporate websites from social media come from LinkedIn.

So it’s a platform anyone in business can’t ignore.

How to use LinkedIn to best effect

• Make your headline what you want to be known for.
• Have a great photo – “Dress for the job you want to get next.”
• Make use of the Publisher feature – he’s published 80 articles in 2 years.
• Be specific about the benefits of working with you – “I can increase your widget sales by 15% in the next month.”
• Use audio and video in your profile.
• Give recommendations first to receive them.
• Remember to add a call to action on your profile (contact me at…)
• Create a company page.
• Comment on and share others’ posts.
• Useful tip: you can try LinkedIn Premium for 1 month every year.

Surprise people with unexpected or interesting facts on your #LinkedIn profile @petherick #vipmastermind

— Claire Brotherton (@abrightclearweb) January 16, 2016

For more LinkedIn advice, read my earlier post:

• 5 simple tips for quick wins on Linkedin

Chris Marr – 5 Ways Content Marketing Creates Better Customers

Chris runs The Content Marketing Academy, which puts on an annual conference (read about TCMA 2015). He advocates content marketing for all business, a philosophy I totally agree with.

Why is content so important?

If you're not creating content you don't exist. – @chrismarr101 #VIPmastermind #contentmarketing pic.twitter.com/8VP4kBDBPn

— Claire Brotherton (@abrightclearweb) January 16, 2016

Content is the only form of advertising whose value appreciates over time. It’s an asset rather than an expense.

Some famous marketers have this to say on the subject of content marketing:

Content marketing is the only marketing that’s left. – Seth Godin

https://twitter.com/robert_rose/status/416252821529710592

Our way of buying has changed

Most people don’t go to shops to buy things and get the sales person to recommend products to them any more. We research online, compare offerings and ask our friends what they use.

70% of us are more likely to buy based on friends’ social updates.

When someone contacts you for the first time, they’ve largely made up their mind about working with you based on what you do and say online. So we need to understand our audience and anticipate their questions and problems to come across as trustworthy and competent.

Giving out free content in the form of blogs or ebooks gives potential customers the information they need, and screens out people who aren’t ready to buy.

Don’t do too much selling, though – we’re not ready to buy most of the time.

How can you start with content marketing?

Consume first, then curate, then create.

Don’t assume that you can publish a blog post and then someone will call you and become a customer. It’s a process that takes time, repetition and consistency.

And never think that your website is finished!

There’s always some more value that you can add, something new you can teach your audience.

Laura Lucas – Discover Your True Colours To Grow Your Business

Laura is a business coach from Dundee. She runs regular webinars and live streams on Periscope.

I liked the format of her session – it was more interactive as she got us to do some tasks to determine our personality type. It certainly saved us from an overload of PowerPoint!

The Insights Discovery Model

This model uses 4 colours for the personality types:

• Cool Blue – Introvert + Thinking
• Fiery Red – Extravert + Thinking
• Sunshine Yellow – Extravert + Feeling
• Earth Green – Introvert + Feeling

I’d done a similar exercise at university – I’m a Blue.

Read this article for a description of the four colour personality types.

Laura’s point was to make us realise that whatever colour we were, we could be proficient sales people.

Whether you are introvert or extravert, thinking or feeling, you can be good at sales. @1LauraLucas #vipmastermind pic.twitter.com/2AnPufwlrQ

— Claire Brotherton (@abrightclearweb) January 16, 2016

Each personality type has its own strengths – for me it’s precision, being super prepared and writing detailed proposals.

If we can pick up on who we’re selling to, we can tailor our interaction style to theirs, which builds rapport. And increases our chances of making the sale.

What I enjoyed about the VIP Mastermind Conference

• The event was amazing value at £20 for the day – £10 for early birds like me!
• The venue was lovely and spacious.
• Seeing a lot of people I knew and catching up.
• Learning new things and being reminded of others.
• The 15 minute breaks between talks – plenty of time to chat or have a drink.
• Free Prosecco! (I had Appletiser, actually.)
• The cafes nearby were excellent and only a short walk away.
• Watching my tweets on the tweet wall and getting up to 2nd place.
• Free bonus snow when the conference finished!

What could have been better

• Tea and coffee at the venue would have been nice.
• A proper lunch break. I ate my baguette in between talks.
• Warm rooms! Sitting in the cold car park without a coat was not fun. To be fair though, it wasn’t Fin’s fault. The room that was supposed to be used became unavailable at short notice, and the basement became a makeshift room, but it was hard to heat.

Did you attend the VIP Mastermind Conference? Who did you hear speak? Let me know in the comments.

Category: Business Tags: AdWords, blogging, business coaching, content marketing, Linkedin, sales