I Did It! I Cracked the Code!
(= Why My Small business Has +10k Employees)
Do you ever feel like you’re being attacked by mass marketing from every direction? Me too! All the junk mail in my mailbox gets thrown into recycling, straight away, I don’t even bother to open it up or glance it through. While throwing the unopened mail and papers into recycling, I shed a small tear for all the trees that were wasted for producing that enormous amount of paper.
Email marketing is another devil out there. Rule of thumb, you order something and you’re automatically on all kinds of email marketing lists for that company EVEN THOUGH you had clicked OPT OUT from all marketing communication from that company. Not to mention the devils who decided to buy your email info from some company, and start bombarding you with trash you don’t need in your mailbox. Or the companies that punish you with emails for apparently just using their services. Like UPS! Who TF gave UPS the right to send me emails about game-changing-supply-chain- competitive-advantage emails when the only connection between us is I’m occasionally getting a package delivered by them, huh?!
LinkedIn Contact Requests – Not So Useful Any More
Spamming on LinkedIn is the latest form of harassment. I love LinkedIn’s networking aspect, and frequently use it, and read what others have to say. But this harassment has to stop! Apparently having “small business owner” in your profile and having a company LinkedIn page gets you on a target list of many aggressive salespeople. They send you a contact request saying “I saw your profile and looks like we have some common interests / people we know / blah blah. Let’s get connected and see if we have any synergies” or something like that nature. I was actually so naïve that I believed it, shame on me! I clicked Connect and next thing you know, you’re bombarded by a long sales pitch why this and that service / application / product we offer is the best. And a follow up email right after a certain number of days / weeks / months. I’m sure you know what I mean.
I was also naïve enough to think that these people would actually go look at my profile before sending their spam to see that I qualify as a lead. Yeah right! This has continued and accelerated over the past few years to a point where there were sooo many sales pitch connection requests per day that I thought I would go crazy (at this point I sure didn’t click them any more). This is where I say: Enough of this, I will figure out a way out of this. And I did! Let me share you how, so you can do it too…
As a first step, I changed my profile headline and added “ONLY NETWORKING NO SALES PLEASE” after my title “Marie Kondo of Messy Processes”, thinking that it would be a subtle and discreet way of saying that I don’t want to hear see your pitch emails, not sticking out for every LinkedIn user. Did not work. The connection requests kept coming at a faster pace. Next, I added the same text after my name. Not subtle, but right in the face. Did that help? No change whatsoever.
After that, it didn’t take me long to figure out that mass marketers were after me again. Casting their wide nets in hopes of catching something. I shed a small tear for my lost pride, I thought I was special L. Then I got into action. I researched the companies and technologies that enable and encourage these kinds of nasty spam contact requests. I cast a spell on LinkedIn for doing this for people who only want to network. I created a business plan for a company like LinkedIn but without the mass marketing spam aspect (VCs and other people with money, contact me for details…). And I cracked the code 🙂
The Code - Cracked!
The secret is this: With LinkedIn, you can control what information they share to 3rd parties. But from what I can tell, you cannot control to that extent what LinkedIn does with your data. So you’re somewhat free pray to LinkedIn’s tools such as Marketing Solutions, and Sales Navigator (damned be it to the deepest black hole in the universe), which offer companies the means to get access millions of LinkedIn users for targeted lead generation, contact request, advertising & sales. On top of that, there are companies who have developed an entire industry on top of these tools to harvest your data and get at your face. You show up on search results, and BOOOOM! you’ll be bombarded by contact requests that are actually computer generated and automated. No personal touch, nobody cares about you really. All these salespeople and companies behind them care about are leads and conversions. A tear shed here too 🙁
Good news is, you can circumvent the system, and live spam and harassment free! What you need to do is to figure out the search criteria that you fall within. And then adjust your profile in such a way that you won’t get caught into those search results. For me, one simple change did it. I figured out that as a small business owner, I’m the target for anyone trying to pursue me to buy “growth hacks”, “loans” or “this and that services”, key search criteria being Small Business Owner, and Company with less than X employees. To un-show on the search results, I changed the number of my employees to +10k. It worked like magic! Not a single automated harassment contact request anymore! Thank you, Universe :).
Marketing 101 – It’s Not about You, It’s about Me, the Customer
Make no mistake, I love sales and marketing just as much as the next small business owner. I do it for me, I help my customers do it, and I love it. But not THAT kind of marketing and sales. I could care less about your sales targets and lead conversion rates. I love the type of marketing & sales where I matter. Where YOU do your research on me, my needs, and my problems, and YOU present solutions. Where YOU create content that is relevant for me, which I can read on my own time and learn, and decide if you’re good to me. This means that our values are aligned. That YOU treat your people right. That YOU are socially responsible. Believe me, I do all this research before I start working with a company, or buying their products or services.
I promise you the same thing as I expect from others: I will not push and sell anything you don’t need, and will not have mindless automated campaigns spamming your mailbox in LinkedIn or anywhere else. It’s my job to figure out how to get my message to you in the ways you like to receive it. In my opinion, I produce pretty awesome content across different platforms, insight on technology, and tips, tricks and processes that small business might find useful. Such as this article! My best source for leads is personal contact, the people I meet in different contexts, and references from prior customers. If you got interested in what I have to offer, follow me on social media: