The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast
The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast is the ideal digital marketing resource for home services and consumer service based companies.
We help business owners, entrepreneurs and executives that operate a residential based, consumer focused business using the most effective marketing strategies and tactics that deliver results.
Do you operate an MEP type business such as HVAC, Electrical and Plumbing? Or, maybe a business that focuses on roofing, handyman services, general contractors, flooring, landscaping, solar -- and more.
Then, The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast will help you execute the best and most effective marketing strategies that have helped our business and our clients succeed for nearly two decades.
Inside each episode, we will share some of the marketing secrets that we keep close to our chest.
And, how Anchor Wave’s team (one of the top internet marketing agencies in the US) uses them to capture more business for their clients… and their business.
Want a FREE digital marketing playbook? ==> www.anchorwave.com/playbook
The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast
Why Your Home Services Business Should Become A Media Company - Christian Harris
It has become easier over the past decade to leverage the various media production tools to help promote your home services company.
So, if you're an HVAC company, plumbing business owner, landscaper or some other residential focused home services business -- producing content is readily availalbe.
More importantly, when you use content such as video, blogs, podcasts, and more... on a variety of channels -- you are positioning your business to look and act like a media company... that happens to be in the home services industry.
What most business owners miss is how to position their company as a media company.
In this interview, Christian Harris (CEO) shares his experience of taking his company, Slip Safety Solutions, and positions it to be a leader in the flooring space for commercial based businesses.
He shares how he has used a 9 minute video he created on a Saturday, distributed the the video to a hyper targeted audience of 300 people, got 50 views from the video and booked 10 sales calls... in a matter of 2 or 3 days.
In addition, Christian reveals his social media secrets and how to properly use LinkedIn to find more business opportunities, and why he spends most of his time on that platform.
Finally, he shares some simple strategies you can quickly (and easily) apply to help get more leads by becoming an authority in your town or industry.
To learn more about The Trust Tipping Point Marketing Podcast, please visit us at;
www.TheTrustTippingPoint.com
Marketing in the home services industry has changed so much over the past few decades. Then even more rapid pace these last few years almost to a point it's impossible to keep up with what's trending. Ever felt like marketing and today's economy is like flushing money down the toilet. That's where we come in and help honest Home Services companies just like yours, learn and understand some of the most effective marketing strategies today, strategies used by some of the top home service companies around the world. My name is Javier Lozano Jr. and welcome to the trust tipping point Marketing Podcast.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Hey, guys, this is Javier with the trust tipping point Marketing Podcast. Welcome to our next episode, I've got a really awesome guest here. His name is Christian Harris. He's the founder of slip safety services out of the UK. And so Christian comes to us from the UK where he's got a lot of experience in the flooring industry. And I'm not gonna take any of his thunder. So I'm going to let him kind of introduce himself and and let us let him know like, let us know more about him. Are you doing Christian?
Christian Harris:I'm good. Yeah, thanks for inviting me on. But looking forward to having this catch up with you and getting into into the weeds and some of these some of these cool topics. So yeah, be good, man. Yeah, so a bit about me. So you know that my name in the business, but we're we work in the safety and risk management field. Basically, we help people to reduce the risk of one of two things either slips and falls, which is the biggest cause of accidents and injuries and claims. In most sectors, or the other thing that we do is around kind of surface hygiene, safety, which is obviously really important right now with the pandemic and stuff. And over the last three years, to give you an idea of the kinds of things we do, we've prevented over 3000 hospital visits and saved over 30 million pounds of claims, which is probably about $50 million. So yeah, if I took a change, but still, you know, 10 million of claims, for slips and falls is only part of a percent of the total claims in the UK every year. So, you know, it's, it is a big number, but actually, in the context of the whole market, it's, there's still a way for us to go. And I mean, what some of the stuff we're going to talk about today is really driven by some of the challenges I've had of kind of selling in a not very sexy industry, I suppose. So kind of go through some of the stuff that I've done, to kind of try and overcome
Javier Lozano, Jr.:it. And that's that's what's interesting, too, is because when we first connected this was right before the pandemic really kind of like took off last year, you reached out to me via email, you found my podcast, and I was was with another company. And when I first responded, responded back, I was like, you know, I'm in the US. And we're, you know, I can't really help your business. But if you want to be a guest, and you're all into is like Yes, I'm all about creating content. I'm like, Alright, you get the game. Yeah. And so we just kind of been chatting since then. And this was the right time that they connected. But I love that you're all about, you know, putting yourself out there, especially as he said, in an industry, that's just, it's not really super attractive. I'm not knocking you. It's just it's a weird conversation, you know?
Christian Harris:Yeah, no, absolutely. I think, you know, for me, you've got to put yourself out there nowadays, because I think every company should kind of look at itself as a media company in many ways. So I think everybody should be doing digital content, everybody should be doing articles, everybody should be doing some videos, you know, everybody should be on social media, not not, you know, not going overboard. And like spending every second of every day on every single channel, but like, I think he should have, you know, one channel is your social media platform. And then the other ones you can kind of use to maybe signpost to your main platform. Yeah, I think you know, it's about and I know you believe in this, but it's about yet putting yourself out there and, and just being visible and valuable. And, and that's how you're gonna get business.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Ya know, I can't agree with you more about that, especially when what you just said about, you know, becoming a media company. That's, that's a new term and a new thought process that some companies aren't used to, especially if it's an older generation, where it's, you know, the company's been handed off or whatever, and they've had done things, you know, certain way. But I agree with you Like, that's something that we all have to start thinking ourselves a little differently. And most important part is that it's so accessible. It's so easy to create all this media now, like what it was 10 years ago,
Christian Harris:right? Well, I'll give you an example. a live example. So I've been launching a new product targeting the insurance industry, around the world as a digital product, but not by the by, and I spent last Saturday, the whole day, basically creating Singer, pitch video, it's like a nine minute 45 second video. So scripted all out, recorded, recorded it did some screenshots, you know, some graphics, and all that stuff. And put that out there, on Monday and Tuesday and already this week, you know, we're not talking huge numbers, but, you know, I've sent it out to maybe 300 people, it's had like, 50 views on YouTube. Nice, you know, that's hyper targeted going in the right people and 50 people have viewed it. And I've had many, I've had many sales calls, I had 10 sales calls, and I've got more books in the next week. And that's, and that's, you know, spending time on this digital asset, and crafting it and stuff. But actually, the point is that, because it's a video, you know, video is the best form of content, it's like, the alpha version of content, because you can, you can take us all the sensors, and, and that, you know, that's a really powerful way of getting that message out there. But I know, it took me a day to do it, but actually, that's generated a lot of inquiries. And also, now it's done, that asset lives there forever, and it can be leveraged and, you know, so it's a really good investment.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, and that's awesome. That's, and that's what I love about, you know, companies that understand that marketing is, is really, it's, it's changed a lot over the years, and now is one of the best times to to like what you just said, become a media company to deliver and create assets that are valuable to your customer base. And, and this is, the whole point of the trust tipping point is, is that, like, what you're doing is you're building trust for your for your audience, so that they start seeing more about you, they start learning more about and you're taking them through this journey, and you're guiding them and all sudden, they're like, you know what I'm gonna call Christian, I'm gonna call slip safety services. So I can inquire more about this, that and the other. So I love your approach on that man. So what I wanted to do is I want to be honest, now that what we'll be covering, we got three topics that Christian are going to be discussing a bit more. And so these three topics are really unique, because I see stuff all the time on LinkedIn. So like I, you know, I put it I see stuff, I either comment, or I like it. But you do the same thing with me, like, we have that that kind of same respect for each other. But the thing is, is that I love what you're doing in this industry, which is something that can easily be transformed into like the Home Services. So if you're in landscaping, if you're in hva, see if you're a plumber, like you can do all these things like this is not just a slip safety only kind of thing for Christian, it's for everybody else, you know. So, you know, the first topic that you mentioned, that you want to cover is is essentially like leveraging thought leadership, personal branding. And and especially in the industry, like you just mentioned, not so sexy. And so kind of explain more about that, like, tell me more about this, this whole thing? Well, I think, you know, you put you hit the nail on the head with the trust. So it's all about trust, particularly when you're you're dealing with a kind of safety topic. But yet, you know, everybody knows about the issue, the problem that I helped to solve, but it's not really that high priority sometimes. So I think you've got to put yourself out there and try and disrupt and give insights and just get people thinking about things a little bit differently. I mean, today, for example, I was on a webinar for a for the cleaning industry. And I was making the points that actually, you know, and this will be relevant to the audience, you know, if you think it's about cleaning, you've missed the point. It's not about cleaning, it's actually about creating a high performance environment. It's about delivering a great customer experience, which drives revenue and profit to the business. Yes, about engaging with and retaining staff. So you get lower cost of recruitment, and so on and so forth. And it's about safety. So, you know, the cleaning the cleaning, the typical kind of cleaning industry, it's just cleaning, it's driven by price, you know, that, that no longer that's not the prison. That's not the paradigm we should be talking about. We need to be talking about something bigger. So that's kind of what I've tried to do is, is, you know, the kind of expression of like, you don't buy a drill, you buy a hole in the wall. Yes. And yeah, and thinking about outcomes. And actually, I focused a lot on that probably two years ago, certainly much like outcome outcome. But then, more recently, I've kind of decided that it's not about that first outcome, or even maybe the second outcome is actually the third or the fourth outcome. We start to kind of amplify these things up and they become bigger and bigger. And that's when you start to get kind of resonance with With the market. So, you know, it's not about having, you know, saving the time of mowing your own lawn, it's actually about having your in laws round and they like it and that builds your relationship or whatever it might be, you know, it's kind of thinking about what's so what so what so what so what I'm trying to get to that real, either pain or actually ideally, some kind of pleasure that people want to get, or you're hitting all these things that is like it's resonating with what we do with our, with our agency. And this one of the things that I learned through a book that I read called expert secrets from a guy named Russell Brunson. And one of the things he teaches about this new opportunity, and you kind of are essentially talking about that, like about the whole cleaning thing, it's not just about cleaning, it's about the experience, it's about what makes you different from everybody else. It's not about you know, having the lowest prices and, and maybe yours, you know, kills more germs, but like so to somebody else's. And, and so you're you're almost taking it to that next level, where you're almost like you have no competition in the sense and that you're trying to create your own Lake, if you will, to fish out my right.
Christian Harris:Yeah, exactly. I mean, I've been inspired by a guy called Daniel Priestley, who he's authored many books, but is probably most well known. One is called become a key person of influence, okay. And I'd really recommend that it's all about being visible and valued in your in your industry. So the premise is that, within any industry, the top 5% is where all the money is, all the opportunities are all the fun is, and that's where you need to be. So what he says, as you go, you know, if you're not a key person of influence in your niche, you need to your full time job should be to become the key person of influence in your niche. And then that's when things start to get really fun and exciting and cool things happen. And you can start making an impact and stuff. So I've been really inspired by by that. So you know, a lot of his kind of philosophies, I try and put into places as best I can.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:That's awesome. And that's a really good way of putting it is that if we get, you know, we don't want to be like water for everybody. We want to be, you know, a specific type of water, maybe it's a Voss, maybe it's Fuji, but like, you get narrowed down a little bit. And then you really become like that. That's, you know, what you're saying that influencer, what you're what you're talking about and, and so something I want to kind of ask you and maybe clarify for our audience, too, is is that we all hear this term, like thought leadership, we all hear this term, like personal branding and, and pitching like, What is your definition of that kind of stuff? Like? Like, what do you think of it when you hear thought leadership? And then and then how do you put it into action or, and same thing with personal branding.
Christian Harris:So what I, what I think of when I hear thought leadership is really boring articles that people think they really know. But why I think that what I think what I try to do with with, with my approach is, is I guess to it's all about just trying to disrupt or inspire, or you just want, okay, you kind of want people to have an aha moment, or I haven't thought of that before and, and actually, it's just about like, sort of dropping a little, a little nuggets, they're not necessarily going to, you know, you're not, you're probably not going to find somebody reading one of your articles or watching a video and then picking up the phone and saying, Please, I want to give you a million dollars worth of business. But actually, it's all like a little jet, it's all just a little nugget here, a little nugget pair and just just about positioning yourself to be the guy or the girl, you know, the go to person that actually as and when they're ready, they're gonna come to you because I think its own. I mean, I'm not a sales expert, but I'm sure I read or been told that like only 3% or something like that, for the marketer are looking to buy right now. So you've got 97% there, and that's much bigger market, but it's a longer, slightly longer game. But that's where this kind of content and putting some stuff out there really helps. And I think you've got to have some personality, and you've got to have an opinion. And that's how you can stand out because, you know, if you think about what I do, you know, there are other people who have, you know, maybe even a greater technical knowledge about how to make floors less slippery, equal equal or greater than maybe. But actually, you know, if they don't have an opinion, if they don't stand for something, if they're not putting themselves out there, then actually I would expect that I come across more credible, more likeable more trust, as you say, and therefore I'm in pole position.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, and and that's and that's what I love. What you're discussing is, is that, again, you're you're becoming that guide for your future buyer. You're You're just helping them check off certain books. boxes of skepticism that they may have about you. And I really believe that a lot of companies, especially in the in the trade industry, that deal with residential, you got to almost be a spokesperson, you got to be that person that just is in front, you got to be a person I like what you're talking about. Because what that that's gonna start bridging the gap between of like, Who is this person to like, Oh, I see them a lot to where, oh, you know, what actually believe in this person, what they're saying, and then all of a sudden, you carry a level of authority. And, and that's huge. I mean, that's, that's part of the whole personal branding. I mean, and and how you do it on LinkedIn is impressive, because you're not touting about all the great things that you do.
Christian Harris:You're, you're just sharing not everybody cares. Yeah, nobody cares about what I do. Exactly about, they care about themselves, and where they want to get to, you know, they, they, you know, and again, all this stuff, like I'm saying this as if it's Plaza, you know, it's it's water off a duck's back, but it's, you know, I've been doing this for, for years, and it's, you know, this is, this is all a big journey. So, hopefully, this will help people to accelerate that journey for themselves. But yeah, nobody cares about what I do. They care, you know, they need to believe that I know what I'm talking about. So having some social proof, and, and, you know, stuff is good, and having an opinion is good, you know, having credibility, but actually, what they, what they really care about is, can I help them to achieve their objective, whatever their objective is in their, in their life or their business? Or ideally, both?
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah. And, and you know, that that kind of, you know, adds something to like, our next talking point that I want to share, what I want to share that you you brought up with me too, is is that, you know, what you're trying to do is, you know, creating that credibility, you know, that you have an opinion, and, and essentially what you're doing is like, when you're trying to generate more, you know, opportunities for your business. There's companies like ourselves, we do this, we create lead magnets, we'll have some sort of like, you know, free widget, and you're like, Hey, give me your email address, and I'll give you the the widget for free, you know, and so your approach is different, which I find that unique, and I want you to kind of, you know, you know, share more about that is is like, you basically just kind of keep it out for free. And that's another level of creating that trust with what do you explain? Yeah.
Christian Harris:Well, I mean, I've tried, I've tried lead magnets as well, I think, I think, you know, my approach isn't going to work for everybody, just as you know, not ever, you know, you can't, you can't take a sort of consistent approach to every market, every sector, etc, you've got to be thinking about what your market needs. But yeah, my my view is that, you know, the market I'm looking to serve is quite specific, and quite niche in many ways. Even though, you know, every single building could have a slip, and every single building could have a cleanliness and hygiene issue, you know, the people that are actually most likely to bias not a huge, huge market, you know, so I think, trying to get in front of them. And also, because what I'm talking about is safety. And, you know, it's kind of a, it's not a, it's not a topic, it can be too salesy, and so I kind of just feel that, you know, trying to be a bit too pushy with give us give us your email address and stuff is a little, it's a bit too quick for my market and my particular sector. So what I try to do is, is just give out like, tons of value for totally for free with no expectation, like, like you're doing with your podcast, you know, there's no, there's no, give me your email address to listen to the podcasts, just put it out there as a, as a free gift to people. Yeah, and basically just try and get the widest possible distribution for that. And that if you think about, I don't really like talking about funnels, but if you think about the funnel, you know, the classic sales funnel, the more distribution, the more reaching get right at the top, then, you know, the more chance that you know, then you lose a percentage here and a percentage there. But eventually, there's going to be more people at the bottom in very simple terms. So I try to get stuff out freely, and basically, look for people who express an interest and then I'll try following them up and try to move them to the kind of next step. And again, that's something that I've learned is not to, you know, not to try and sell the the full solution, you know, straightaway, but try and just try and move people that next step or that next rung on the ladder. So for example, you know if we can talk about LinkedIn later, but there's a thing on LinkedIn where you can click a premium version called Sales Navigator, and you can have these things called Smart links. Basically, it's like a landing page. But it gives you it'll tell you exactly who's looked at the page. It'll tell you how long they've looked at each area. So if I have a 10 page document, I can see that Dave Jones has looked at it for five minutes. And he spent three minutes on page one and 30 seconds on page two. And so quite a lot of it could have updated or anything like that. Anybody that expresses an interest, and I can see has consumed the content, then then that That, to me is like a pretty good indicator of interest. And then I'll try and follow them up and engage with them, and not in a salesy way that, you know, sort of less conversations even help you Yeah,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:that's interesting, because, you know, what you're doing is, I mean, you know, the podcast is, is our version of what you just talked about as giving free content, like, we want to help our industry expand and improve on their marketing, because, like, let's be honest here, a lot of people in the trades industry, whether it's, you know, flooring or H-VAC, or, you know, plumbing, they probably do really good work, but they have no clue how to market correctly. Not all of them, some of them are really, really strong, and they do a great job, and others are just, they focus on their trade. And that's all they do. And that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that. You know, but what you've done is if you've taken it to like what you just said to that next level, where you're, you know, writing articles, you're creating a video, like you did this past Saturday, and then you're sharing it to, you know, X amount of people. And so what you're trying to do is you're trying to give, give, give, give, like you're depositing money into the bank. Yeah. And then eventually you're like, Okay, I'm going to ask for withdrawal. You know, I mean, it's kind of what you're doing. Right?
Christian Harris:Yeah, exactly. But I think, I think also just trying to be quite soft with it, because, you know, I think it's, it's one of these things, my, I'm in this for the long haul, you know, I'm playing the long game. You know, if I, if I was, you know, if I was 58, and I wanted to retire in two years, I'd be doing things differently, I think, because I'm not, you know, I wouldn't have that long term horizon. Actually, all this, all these deposits in the bank today, you know, the podcasts, the videos, the articles, the whatever, you know, I see those as I think I used the word earlier, as assets that actually will sit there forever, and, and people can consume, and we'll build there, the the valuation of the business, and then the, the value of leads and interest, and, you know, just grow the kind of pipeline over time. So I look at it as a, as a bit of an investment, I suppose, in, in the long term. And, you know, but again, it's it does depend on your industry, and some things you can be perhaps a little bit more as, but I think, you know, if we look at it from a, I noticed about marketing, but if we think about sales, you know, I know that I've got a weakness when it comes to sales about following up, for example, yeah, so, you know, the more and that's because I don't really want to be too salesy. So the more I can do to kind of get people on as pre sold, because they've, they've gone through the content, and they've kind of learned about what we stand for, and what we're up to, and all this good stuff. Yep. And actually, hopefully, I don't need to follow them up as much, because I'm not very good at that. So I'm just trying to hide my weaknesses.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:But so but here's the thing, though, like, that's, I love that, because there's this thing about self awareness. I mean, you and I are big Gary Vee fans, right? And he talks about this whole self awareness thing, like you gotta be aware of like, what you know, what you're good at doing, where you know, what you probably need help in, where should you focus on, and then you almost have to, like, you know, exploit your strong, you know, make your strong points, sit out there and leverage it. And so that's kind of what you're doing is, is that you're selling but you're doing it in a way that makes you not look like you're a salesperson, you're, you're just Hey, I'm just going to give you some more information. What else can I do to help you with? You know, and so my question is, how long did it take you to figure that out? Like, where, instead of doing lead magnets, where you're like, give me your email address, and I'll give you this, you know, this piece of content to where you're like, screw it, I'm just gonna give it out. And then, and then just see kind of how this happens.
Christian Harris:I think it's a gradual process. And I think, you know, for me, it's been a journey over over a few years, to be honest. So it's not like, all of a sudden you wake up one day and think, oh, that's the way I'm going to do it. Because you've got to experiment and you know, what works for me might not work for you, and vice versa. So I think you've got to throw, throw enough stuff at the wall and see what sticks. But this to me, I think this to me, this approach kind of it sets innately within me that I feel comfortable doing it this way. So that's good, because then I'm authentic and then that comes across I think it sits nicely with my industry. And, as I say, it sits within playing the kind of longer game. And also, you know, my, my, with what we do at service base, like your audience, but it's kind of probably higher ticket. So, you know, we don't you know what one sale, you know, for us is what it is, is worth quite a lot. So therefore we can invest, you know, we can invest time and trying to nurture and build a relationship to get a sale. Whereas if we were, if we were selling, you know, a fountain pen for $1, then, you know, we wouldn't, we'd be going broke, you know? Yeah,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:no, that makes complete sense. You know, and that's, and that's, that's, that's huge to understand that, you know, like, what's your time worth, you know, on what you're trying to do, as far as nurturing them and staying with them. I mean, like, in my opinion, you know, you could almost say, like, HVAC, or I keep referring back to HVAC. But that's something like, if it's cold, you know, like, you want someone that knows how to fix your heater correctly, you know, and, and so you got to kind of build that trust and nurture them and take them to that process. And it's gonna take a little time. And yeah, you're doing that with what you're doing?
Christian Harris:Yeah. And I think the best way to do to achieve that trust is, well, the very best way, of course, is if your best friend refers you to somebody that they've used, that's really good. Of course, you know, that's the best way. But I think the second best way, is by putting yourself out there and doing some content. And, you know, it doesn't have to be, you know, you don't have to sit at home on a Saturday, like I did, and spend all day creating a video, you know, you can do something on your iPhone that's authentic, and just actually, you know, think do things like, you know, the top three tips, or like, actually, a good tip would be, you know, I've just, I've just gone and done a job in someone's home. This is what I found. These are the problems I had, here's the solution we came up with, you know, that's just a real life, almost a case study, you're documenting what you're doing. Yes, bring it to life. And I think things like that are really powerful as a sort of marketing tool.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:And I love that you said that because I have these conversations with people that say, Well, you know, I'm not I don't know what to say I'm like, just just say what you just told me, like, you just
Unknown:told me that there's these three things that they could have done to fix this, make a quick video, and they're like, well, doesn't look professional, like but people want that they want the authentic feel they want the john smith, just pulling out their iPhone and be like, Alright,
Christian Harris:and I just went over here did this, particularly if you're in Home Services, and you're you know, you're not a multinational. Yeah, for sale dancing company. Because actually, if it's your business, and it's your brand, and you know, they're effectively buying you and your trust, and actually just giving that authenticity is really, really valuable because people, as I say, with a video comes across, you know, you get you kind of, there's something in the human brain. So think about think about Princess Diana was a good example. So, you know, how many of us met Princess Diana in our life? Very few of us. Yeah. How many of us were really sad when she died? Like the whole world? Why? Because we'd spent time with her. We felt like we knew her because we'd seen her on TV so many times in interviews and stuff. Yeah. There's something in the human brain that doesn't, doesn't distinguish between, you know, like you and I, we've never met in person, we've chatted quite a lot. And I kind of feel like we know each other a bit. Yeah, exactly. There's something in the human brain that doesn't distinguish between a video and a real life face to face thing. So that's why videos particularly powerful. The other thing that's good is
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Christian Harris:If you're a bit nervous about video, you can get these tools like I use one called otter otter.ai, which is like a transcription thing. So okay, you don't necessarily have to go and pull out your iPhone and record a video but you could go go back to Your van and just talk about explain what happened into otter. And it's transcribes the whole thing for you really like a Word document,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:and then you can literally just spend 10 minutes editing it a little bit, and then you can post it on your blog or whatever. That's genius. And that's, and that's great and happy, you're saying this kind of stuff, because those are things I first I didn't know about that tool. But seconds, those are tools that people can take advantage of, because they they're not excited to be in front of a camera.
Christian Harris:That one is free you can do I think you can do something like 10 hours a mum for which is a lot. If you think about transcription, it's a lot, you know, I think it might be more than that. And it's and it's really, it's really good. You know, it's a really good quality of transcription as well needs a bit of editing, and they're gonna be wrong, but it's, you know, 99% there. So like, it's a really, pretty much all my articles I have arrived, I, I use that for two reasons, one speed. And two, I think you should always try and write as you talk. Because otherwise you end up kind of, it's very easy to like end up writing kind of flouncy long sentences with lots of prepositions and all this stuff, and then it doesn't, it's not readable. So it's better if you just, you know, jot down your ideas, what I do is go for a walk, because that kind of gets my brain going. And I just kind of talk it through. And then it's by the time I get back to my desk is already in a Word document, and then I just edited and then it's done. That's awesome.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I love that. I mean, that's, I might actually have to try to do that myself. Because I don't mind writing content, I enjoy it personally. However, there are times, like, what you're saying is that, like, I don't want to sit down and dump what's in my brain, I just want to say it. And because it's in there, I just don't want to sit there and type it. And the other part, you're completely right is we get into this whole like, you know, jargon, where we're using these industry jargon terms, that no one knows what the hell it is, if we just talk like normal people, all of a sudden, everyone's gonna understand what you're talking about. They're gonna relate with you. And that's huge. When it comes to communication, you know, so, yeah. So do you want to go over anything else on that part? Are you good,
Christian Harris:I was gonna say the only other thing I was gonna say is, and again, this comes from from Daniel Priestley, inspired by this is a, this is a big, this is a big jump, it's just something worth putting out there. write a book doesn't have to be a proper book, like, that's three inches thick. But if you can do, you know, even 1512 15,000 words in like a mini book, and you can have that book published. That is like, the ultimate credibility, you know, if you think about the word or authority, its author received, says, you know, historically, being an authority about something is because you've written a book about it. And so if you, you know, and if you think about using auto, you know, if you could be talking for 20 minutes a day, you can get through like, 1000 words a day, within the course of a month, you've got a book, in the first draft, you edited down and stuff, but I think I'm, I'm putting a book out this year, and my plan with the book even is to be giving it almost giving it away, I'm not finished, I'm not writing a book, to sell copies of a book, I'm writing a book to give myself more credibility, to send something through the post, you know, imagine if you're, you know, the head of safety for whatever company for Walmart or something, and you get this book through, well, there's something about books that you're going to read it or you're going to release, flick through it, and you're not going to just throw it away, because it's a book and actually, if somebody send you a book that they've written, you know, that demonstrates a huge amount of time and effort and clarity and professionalism and all this good stuff that we want people thinking about you. Even that, you know, think about could you write a book about you know, whatever your area is, think of a think of an angle think of some some some points of view, like we said earlier, some opinions and just just do something because actually, you know, that will pay for itself the time you spent doing that. Yeah, it sounds over I'm sure with with leads.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Oh, man, that's huge. I mean, that right there is that's worth the entire podcast interview man just given that that little piece of information that's huge. I love that and and it's something I've always actually wanted to do is write a book. But now using this app, I might have to download it myself and take start taking advantage of it because I agree with you Like when you do that that's that's a new level of authority, a new level of being on top, you know, so yeah. Which which now kind of leads us to this next thing we've got this this thing where we met you know, I know you sent me an email but you did some searches and whatever on on on podcasts. But we're connected also on on LinkedIn. So you are extremely active on LinkedIn. I mean, it makes sense in your industry because it is a business network. Some people kind of still have the misconception that LinkedIn is what it was five years ago, I was one of those guilty people up until about almost two years ago. And now I put most of my time and effort into LinkedIn. And so you use that as part of your marketing strategies. You explain more?
Christian Harris:Yeah. So going back to what I said earlier about social, I think you want to have one key platform that you focus on. So for me, LinkedIn is that platform, so I have an Instagram, I have a Twitter. I'm on clubhouse, I'm doing some stuff on clubhouse, which is interesting. And new. I have a YouTube. So to be fair, I do host videos on YouTube, but but really, I've got a Facebook, really, LinkedIn is where I create most of the content and all these other platforms. They exist and we do small amounts of stuff on them. But they're really just signposting to to LinkedIn. Okay. And for me, that's because, you know, my ideal customer is, is easily identifiable on LinkedIn, much more so than on other on other platforms now, are my customers on Facebook? Absolutely, they are. But it's going to be harder for me to find them on Facebook, than on LinkedIn. So Facebook, I think, I'm not doing this yet. But I think I know what I should be doing. It's like some retargeting and some, some various things like that on Facebook, and I'm not really there yet, but I put my eggs in the LinkedIn basket. Again, it's all about giving value and content. So I do a post, basically, every day or six days a week, it's all Well, I'd say it's 20 thought leadership slash insight, posts, and then one sort of mini sales pitch. But what I am trying to do is, like I said earlier, trying to get some signals and trying to get people to kind of click on something or comment or like, and then that shows me that there, they might, there might be something in it, and then I can follow them up with a with a, you know, a message or something like that and try and just get a conversation going. So it's a bit of a it's a system, I suppose. And again, it's like the the posting is at the top of the of the funnel. And then the next phase is is moving them further forward in the relationship.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah. And so LinkedIn is is in, I want to dive a little bit more and feel free to not go through everything that you're doing. You cuz you'd have to go into the detail, but like, yeah, as far as like, you know, how people post like, there's their strategies behind it. And I have a strategy that I use, and I pay attention to my metrics and see what's working sometimes, like I expect the post to do amazing. And it just it does a bomb. Yeah. There's one post I put out on like, How the hell did this get 1000 views? And, and so that's, that's, that's something that I think you and I are still probably trying to figure out, you do quite a bit of video from what I'm seeing. Yeah. Is that seem to be working for you because I get the opposite. I, what I find LinkedIn,
Christian Harris:I don't again, I don't really know about these other platforms to compare. But what I find with LinkedIn is that you're right, sometimes you do a post that you think is going to be really successful. It just doesn't. And then other days, you know, a post that you think is kind of average does really well. I have found, I think maybe like a year ago, video is definitely the way to go. And what I've been finding most recently, well, what I've always tried to do is mix it up. So you know, I'll try to mix it up from the perspective of doing you know, a once a week, I'll do a post advertising my podcast, for example, where I do interviews with people in safety and risk management. Once a week, I'll do a post about something that's nothing to do with work but like more are designed to get likes and comments and engagement and just get eyeballs onto my profile. But also mix it up with different types of posts. So I'll do a video and then I'll do a document and the documents actually seem to work quite well at the moment. So doing a PDF, and then I'll just do like a plain text post, which again, sometimes do really well. I might do a poll or I might do a an image you know, so just trying to keep keep sort of mixing it up and experimenting. I would say that video is is getting less reach than it was about a year ago. What one thing I find that really works well at the moment is gifts or gifts? Like I never know how to pronounce them.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I don't know, either, but whatever we
Christian Harris:know what you're talking about. So I did one I did one, you know, for example, that was, I found a funny thing of like a map showing the say Funny, isn't it funny actually think about it. But it was a map showing the kind of growth of COVID in the UK, like a heat map to show you.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I think I saw that.
Christian Harris:So that was really that that did really well, in terms of getting getting eyeballs, then I've done stuff like a penguin slipping over, which is quite funny, you know, and everything in between. So those seem to work because you get the benefits of you get the benefits of being almost like a video, and it's quite eye catching. But you don't get the the sort of suppression, which I'm seeing a little bit recently of videos. Yeah. But I still think, you know, video, I still think is the most powerful form of content. But the other thing is I'll do articles as well, every so often.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, that's awesome. So do you write the articles in LinkedIn? So because I know you could do that? Or do you write? Yeah,
Christian Harris:I find with LinkedIn. And I think it's the same on most of these social platforms that I know is the case with LinkedIn. They, you know, LinkedIn makes its money by people being on LinkedIn. So if you're doing any external links away to whether it's news articles, or blogs, or your website or whatever, within the post itself, it seems to be penalised. Yeah, so so the secret of error is if you want to link to somewhere else, do your post, and then just at the end of the post, say, and the link to this in the first comment, and then put the link in the comment, and then that doesn't seem to affect the metrics. Yeah,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I've seen that I've seen people space things out, it'd be like, you know, Google space, and they write out dot space, they're calm or something like that. So people have done that as well, too. But no, I agree. The whole posting the link in the comments, I do the same thing. In the past, what I've done too, is like, if I have something I want to write, and it's really long, I'll write just to kind of get the thing going and the initial posts, and then in the comments, I expand on each one, because you're limited in characters as well, too. Yeah. So there's, there's different strategies on that. But
Christian Harris:yeah, I think, I think, you know, it's, like with most things, I think Mrs. COVID is coming through to the audience. It's about trying to be consistent and prolific and not necessarily be perfect. Yep. So you're better off, you know, I'm on an email marketing list for this guy who does sort of email marketing and various other things. I saw some of his articles before. So I signed up to his email list. And he sent an email the other day, saying, like, I send an email out to my list every Wednesday and every Sunday. And I'm sitting here at 4pm on Wednesday, and I just don't really know what to write. So I'm just going to write about that. And, and then on the Sunday, he basically said, like, you won't believe this, but I've had more responses to my email on Wednesday, which, again, was authentic. And actually, the message was, you know, just do it, and it's better to put something out there, that's the three out of 10, then put the knot, then put a zero out of 10 because you're not doing anything. And he said, Actually, I had more responses and emails to, to that, which was a rubbish message. And I've had for stuff that I've crafted and spent hours doing so I think, you know, again, it's putting yourself out there consistency consistently. Yeah. And, and kind of authentically is, you know, is the way to go.
Unknown:Ya know,
Christian Harris:the good news is LinkedIn, you know, is good for that. And I think, and the other thing with the algorithm on LinkedIn, is, as I understand it, you know, if you, if you do a post on Monday, and Tuesday, then the people that viewed and interacted with the post on Monday and Tuesday are going to be most likely to see your post on the Wednesday. And that's a really so. So then keeping up that consistency of posting, you kind of ride the wave and build the momentum with the people that are viewing stuff.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Interesting. I mean, I've gotten into the habit. This year, I made a commitment to post every day. And I've been living up to that last year. I know that I just posted randomly, but there will be, you know, pockets where I was like, I didn't do anything for a few days or something like that. But I agree with you that the whole consistency thing does work. And it
Christian Harris:doesn't have to be every day. Like if it's consistently twice a week, then that's fine. But what you want to be even to the point I think is, you know time of day so for me, I always post at like seven 7:30am where I am and because I think you know it's just good to have that. That Rhythm and, you know, you're then going to be visible at the same time of day and again, just helps to cement you in someone's mind. And Yep. So when they've got that problem, they they know who to call, you know, that's what it's all about.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Now, this is something that some people are against it, some people are not, but do you use a posting platform like Hootsuite or buffer? Or do you just post natively?
Christian Harris:I have tried those things. And what I found was that the posts didn't seem to perform as well as they would if I did it natively. So, so I don't do that. But I do I, you know, there's a there's a lot of discussion around kind of automations and things in LinkedIn, I think, I think, you know, strictly speaking, you're not supposed to use any automations on LinkedIn, but there are a few things that you can use, that will just help to, you know, to do certain things. So you can, there are tools that you can find that will sort of, like people's posts for you and things like that, if you want to go down that route. Yeah, no, I got you. But I but I, you know, I did I did for a while actually outsource some of my LinkedIn. So I had a company that was kind of trying to grow my network for me. So they would identify people, relevant people and send them a connection request and then send them a message to follow up. But I stopped doing that I kind of felt like it wasn't very authentic, and therefore, guy just didn't really sit comfortably.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:No, I respect that, you know, everyone has to has to do something a little differently, that that works for them. I mean, I guess the best way I can look at this is, you know, go back to Gary Vaynerchuk. I mean, the guy does all of his posts, and he replies to every single thing that he posts on whenever he has time, obviously. So I get that, like, we should be the ones you know, engaging with that part part. You know, something that you'd mentioned? Go ahead.
Christian Harris:No, I was gonna say, for your audience, because they might be here thinking, Oh, well, LinkedIn isn't the place for me to go. But actually, I would say it is because you can target people by location, you can target them by seniority and stuff like that. So if you want to be thinking, right, I want to be targeting, you know, managers or, or C suite people in a certain area, you know, you can use LinkedIn to target those people. And actually, you've probably got more chance of getting through to them on LinkedIn, and you have on on Facebook,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I 100%. Agree. And and you'd mentioned earlier that you're using Sales Navigator to kind of help with this kind of stuff. Am I correct?
Christian Harris:Yes, yeah.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:So explain a little more about Sales Navigator so that people can understand it.
Christian Harris:So basically, Sales Navigator is like a premium version of LinkedIn. And you can you pay? I think it's it's maybe about $100 a month, so it's not cheap.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I think it's 80 bucks a month for us. Okay, fine. Yeah.
Christian Harris:So yes, it's not cheap. But if you think well, I'm gonna do that for a year, that's a fair bit of money. But if you're running your own business, but but you get a lot more functionality, particularly, it's particularly powerful around searching, and so you can be massively more targeted, in terms of who you're searching for. And you really drill down into people you want to contact. Yeah. And then you've also got kind of what they call in males, which are, you can send messages to people you're not connected with. So normally on LinkedIn, you have to be able to be connected with somebody send them a message, like a DM, whereas with these emails, you can send, you can send the dmws to anybody. And if you want a good crash course on dmws, do a Google for john raso Sandler Training, LinkedIn in mail. And he's done a good, he's written a good book as well called How to prospect the Sandler way. But he's got a good a really good template of how to do a good email message in 100 words, nice,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I like that. Now, and I mean, I've been using Sales Navigator for quite some time myself, I love it. It's a great way to narrow down and like what you said is like, you can start connecting with people that makes sense for your business. So if you are like what you're saying, like your, your, you want to get more targeted towards a certain type of employee or, or a certain type of executive, you can start connecting with those types of people. Even if they're like in a company like you want to do, you know, a specific company you want to go after and you want to start connecting with those folks, like you can start you know, narrowing it down and getting very specific and what I love about it too, is that once you start what we call like, you create like safe searches, you can start seeing their activity. So if they're posting something, you can then go on there and you know, post something like a comment or a like, or whatever that is. And
Christian Harris:yeah, and that's the key. That's a key point, actually, which I hadn't mentioned is, you know, it's called social media because you should be social. So actually, one of the best ways of getting noticed by your potential prospects is by going and engaging with that post, but not in a salesy way. So don't don't like, hijack their post and put a sales message on there. But actually, you know, just put something thoughtful and, and have empathy. Yep. And then actually, that will, you know, because everybody that posts on LinkedIn, you know, reads every comment that anyone does on their posts, and they notice every like, so nice, even even me, who's probably among the top like, 1% of night in terms of reach or anything, or quality or anything, but in terms of outfits, I'm probably in the top 1% on LinkedIn. Yeah. And I still know everybody, you know, I see every comment I see every like, you know, so that resonates with me. So that will definitely, most people don't post anywhere near as much as me don't get as many comments and likes as me, and therefore, it will resonate even more with them. So that's a really good way of getting on their radar.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Ya know, and
Christian Harris:that makes sense. And, and and then if you back that, sorry, to no one that needs to be backed up by a good profile. And going back to what you said earlier, some leadership and some opinions and some, some positioning and stuff. And then, you know, that's when you're in a good position, because who's this guy or girl? They just commented there? So that's interesting. Yeah, click the profile, check them out. Oh, wow, this is what they do. They're really clear. They've got a point of view, they look, you know, they, they come across? Well, yeah, I'll not either. Actually, I'm gonna call them now because I need that. Or I'll log that in my mind. And as and when we need that service. That's the whole country.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, and I'm glad you're saying all this, because that's the and that's the thing about that people miss is it's, it's like what you said, you have to be social on social media. And the other part is, it's that it should be you the brand, not your company. So like you're not commenting guys, slip safety services, you're commenting as Christian, you know, like,
Christian Harris:yeah, you know, yeah. So there, there are three brands. Again, I'm, I've got, I've got to give him credit, because if he ever listens to this, this is another thing I learned from Daniel Priestley, there are three brands, you know, there's, there's a company brands, so Apple, there's a product brands, iPhone, and there's a personal brand. So Tim Cook, or Steve Jobs. And if you look at every single business leader, versus their brand, and you look at their social media following for example, you know, the social personal brand is like 10 2050 times as big as the company brand. Because we don't do business with companies. I mean, do but, you know, you want to be, you know, like, and trust people and other companies and resonate with people and you want to do business with people. Exactly. Not not a consulting company. So that's why you want to be putting yourself out there and getting your face out there. And, you know, even if you're not doing videos, if you're not comfortable, you know, do a bit of stupid otter. Just put your put a picture of you smiling or doing an action short something and then talk over it. And that's, that's better than just doing an article or something. But just get yourself out there.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, that's awesome. And this is great advice. I mean, and I'm glad that we're diving into the LinkedIn piece, because I don't think it gets its fair shake. A lot of people still kind of look at it as like, it's only a business professional network. And I think it's a it's, there's more to it. And there's a lot of tools that you cannot find on Facebook or on Twitter. And vice versa. There's things on Facebook that are better for like a home services company that are like landscaping or plumbing. I think they can leverage a lot on LinkedIn. Like, will their audience more likely be on Facebook? Yeah, more than likely. But I think there's a another way of you connecting with these people in a different
Christian Harris:area. Yeah. And I think the other thing to bear in mind is, is it's all about context, as well. So if I'm Facebook, you know, unless I'm visiting, like a group, which is obviously a big thing on Facebook right now, but I'm pretty much going to like, check out what my friends are doing. I don't really, you know, really want to be hassled with a sales message. You know, of course, I'll click, I'm sure I must have clicked on some ads and stuff. But, you know, whereas LinkedIn is because it is a professional platform. You kind of you know, that people are there to do business. Yeah, that makes sense. So yeah, so the context is always important as well.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, no, that's that makes sense. It's a it's no different from like different TV channels. You know, you've got you know, a channel that talks about this, that talks about sports and then another channel talks about politics or news. Whatever, you know, and a lot of the times those two channels don't really, you know, mesh with each other. So you got to know what channel you're on and speak that language, if you will, you know, so now it makes complete sense. Yeah, great stuff.
Christian Harris:Yeah, definitely. And that's why don't put too many posts about like, fluffy kittens on LinkedIn.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:I totally agree. That's awesome. Was there anything else you want to share with us man? Like, like you covered? literally a lot of great stuff? No, I
Christian Harris:feel I feel a bit selfish have not shared much. But I think I think we've covered a lot, a lot of ground, actually. I mean, look, what I'd say to people is, you know, come and connect on LinkedIn, if you're there and engage with some of the posts that I'm doing. And actually, can, you know, quite a few people who are in the kind of health and safety world have said to me, Oh, can I can I sort of copy this idea or whatever, which is fine by me. I don't care. So you can come and be inspired and see what works? And, you know, it's a bit of a crash course. Yeah. Obviously, after following you for the course. But yeah, feel free to come and come and have a look at it.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:And they can connect with you on LinkedIn. And so what's your handle there?
Christian Harris:I think you have, what is it? If you? I mean, to be honest, if you search for Christian Harris, I'd be surprised if I don't come up first. Okay. But if you search for Christian Harris, slip, definitely come up. That's awesome.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:So I mean, that you've clearly done something, you know, right to get yourself up there.
Christian Harris:Yeah, well, I think you know, it's, I was quite pleased the other day, actually, because I am. I bounced, probably about six months ago, I did you know, when you kind of do the private search on Google, I just googled my name. I didn't come anywhere. Whereas if I googled for Christian Harris, slip or Christian era safety, or Krishna has risks than I was, I was at the top. The other day, I googled myself, just my name. And I had two of the top 10. sounds quite cool. Nice. There's a couple of there's like a linebacker that plays college football or something. So he's quite hard to displace other people with the same name. Starting to starting to become web famous. Nice,
Javier Lozano, Jr.:that's awesome. Well, this was great man, this was I'm glad that you're able to jump on, you know, and if there's other things that you feel like you didn't get a chance to share, then I say we schedule a follow up interview on diving into maybe even more of what you've been doing with the LinkedIn piece, because there's so much to it. I mean, what I want people to get is that there's that marketing is, there's not one thing that works for everybody, but it's finding what works best for you. And then leveraging your skill sets for that. And you did exactly that. You figured out what works best for
Christian Harris:you. And I think it's what works best for you. And I think these two, these two points are joined, it's what works best for you and what you enjoy doing, which is marketing. You know, it's it's arguably the most I mean, if you're a business owner, and you're on the tools and you're doing the work, you might say, well, the most important thing is the quality of the work. But actually, you know, there's a very strong argument, the marketing is the most important function of any business. Yep. And so if it's not important, you need to try and find a way to enjoy it, because I think marketing isn't personally something that you should be, you can't fully outsource your marketing, I think you can outsource elements of your marketing, absolutely. But like we said, your needs to be your brand and your vision and your authenticity need to be, needs to be there. So you've got to be diving in. And being a part of it. Not necessarily like, you know, doing every single last thing depends where you are in your business journey. But you've got to be involved. So you've got to find a way that works for you in terms of results, but it also works for you in terms of, you know, you enjoy doing it, and you can you want to do it and you want to invest the time in it, because you know, you enjoy doing it as well.
Javier Lozano, Jr.:Yeah, that's awesome. Love it, man. So this is great stuff. I appreciate your time. Again, this is Christian Harris. He's with slip safety services. And based out of the UK, he went over some pretty amazing stuff. So if you have any questions again, you should reach out and connect with him on LinkedIn. You can also connect with me. And this podcast will be distributed and other social media platform so you can definitely get it on you know, apple, but you'll also be getting in other platforms as well too. Thanks for your time. Good again, Christian.
Outro:Thanks for joining me on this episode of the trust tipping point marketing podcast. I'm your host Javier Lozano Jr. A lot of home services companies come to us at anchor way meaning help with their overall marketing strategy and their digital presence. So what we ended up doing is creating a custom marketing playbook to help businesses just like yours. The Home Services space have a improved digital marketing roadmap for 2021. One of the highlights during this Home Services customer playbook is the importance of having a marketing hub, which we call the website killer. And I'll be honest here, today's websites are dead, outdated and ineffective. After 17 years in 1300 plus websites, we've discovered the best approach to increase customer activity and to win more businesses by having a marketing marketing hub will help set your home services business apart from your competition in place you as the leader in your space. To learn more about what a marketing hub is scheduling free Custom Home Services playbooks by going to anchorwave.com/playbook. You're going to answer seven simple questions and we'll give you free access to this playbook. Again, go to anchorwave.com/playbook to get free access to our Home Services digital marketing playbook