Ep 124: Transform Your Pipeline by Tapping Into Niche Communities

Watch the masterclass: How to Leverage Niche Communities for Lead Gen

Can niche communities transform your sales strategy and skyrocket your pipeline? Uncover the secrets behind this revolutionary approach as we navigate the world of hidden communities on platforms like Disco, Heartbeat, Circle, Slack, and Discord. Through insights from our recent masterclass, learn how networking and connection calls can reveal these goldmines of opportunity. Discover how to harness tools like ChatGPT to decode sales call transcripts, revealing the communities your ideal clients are part of. By asking the right questions, we'll show you how to align these niche groups with your business objectives and unlock a stream of sales opportunities and revenue.

Join us as we celebrate the success of our masterclass, boasting an impressive 74% live show-up rate and an audience buzzing with curiosity. If you missed the live session, there's still time to catch the replay and uncover the final three steps to fortifying your sales pipeline using niche communities. We also offer a glimpse into the Tiny Marketing Club, tailored for B2B service businesses looking to scale their marketing strategies with ease. Sign up for personalized coaching and training, and become part of our vibrant community of tiny marketing enthusiasts. Don't forget to comment, subscribe, and spread the word—let's grow smarter together with the Tiny Marketing Show!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Leveraging Niche Communities for Sales Growth
• 14:53 Building Sales Pipeline With Niche Communities

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:47

Welcome to Tiny Marketing. This is Sarah Norrblatt, and this is a podcast that helps B2B service businesses do more with less. Learn lean, actionable, organic marketing strategies you can implement today. No fluff, just powerful growth tactics that work. Ready to scale smarter? Hit that subscribe button and start growing your business with tiny marketing. Hello and welcome to episode let me look 124.

Speaker 1: 1:16

This is the tiny marketing show and I am Sarah Noelle Block. It's good to be here Today. I'm sharing something a little bit different. I am sharing a clip from my masterclass that happened last Tuesday if you're listening on release day, where I talked about how you can leverage niche communities to build a thriving sales pipeline. So stay tuned as I share the first two parts of that masterclass, where I get into how to find niche communities and how to start conversations with people in those niche communities that lead to sales conversations. Okay, stay tuned, enjoy. Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining me today. We have about 20 more people joining over the next 30 minutes, but I'm going to get started because this is a quick and dirty masterclass and I want to get into it. So, for anybody who is new to my world, I am Sarah Noelle Block.

Speaker 1: 2:23

I am the founder of Tiny Marketing, the host of the Tiny Marketing Show and the creator of the Tiny Marketing Club, and if you are already a listener of my podcast, then you probably have already heard this. But this masterclass is stemming from episode 121, where I talked about three different ways that you can generate leads without social media. That you can generate leads without social media. First, before we get deep into the approach we're talking about today the approach that gave me an additional $100,000 in revenue last year let's get into all three of them and then we'll deep dive. So one referrals. The number one way to get new clients, new leads, without social media is referrals. So having conversations with your past clients, with referral partners, and making sure that they are aware of the offers that you have going on right now and if you have referral bonuses or rev share. So that's number one. Number two is partnerships. So making sure that you are building relationships with people who have the same audience as you but aren't direct competitors. And these partners can look like bundles, where you bundle your offers together and you co-facilitate whatever you're creating. It can look like newsletter swaps or webinar guesting, but let's get into number three. So number three to get leads and generate new revenue and new clients without social media is niche communities, and that is what we're digging into today.

Speaker 1: 4:22

I am going to share real quick the invite. So everybody who is live here today, which I promised you, will get access to this workbook that I'm going to talk through today. So it's in the chat now. You also get access to a tool that I created where it generates your 30-day biz dev blitz, so it gives you 30 days of tasks to do to bring in new leads and new clients, and you can even add it directly to your Google Calendar. So yay for that. So you can grab that right there. It's free and let's get into the meat of it. Can everybody just check in real quick, since I can't see your faces, I can only see the numbers on my screen. Say hi in the comments and let me know what your biggest question is that you would love to have answered today. I will stick around for a few minutes after this quick and dirty masterclass to answer any questions that come up, so don't be shy. All right, I'm gonna make myself smaller so you can see this better. All right, hi, okay.

Speaker 1: 5:47

So the first thing we're going to talk about when we're talking about leveraging niche communities is what the hell is it? What is a niche community? Niche communities are often created by solo creators, hello, and they can sometimes be paid. Sometimes they are free, but they're usually. Oh, that's the first thing we're talking about, kristen how to find the right communities. The thing is they are usually pretty hidden. They're usually big secrets. So the thing is, you have to ask, and often they're invite only. So let's get into finding the right communities, which is the first thing I want to talk about. So niche communities are those communities that you find that are catered to a specific audience, and they usually live in tools like Disco, to a specific audience, and they usually live in tools like Disco, heartbeat, circle, slack, discord. That's usually where they live. So how do you find the right communities? Hi, carol, katie, alex, good crowd today.

Speaker 1: 7:07

First, this is how I do it right away. This is how I found my very favorite niche communities is asking my network. So if you guys aren't doing connection calls, which are 15-minute conversations with people like networking calls, start doing it, because the first thing that I ask when someone says how can I help you after I've answered a question for them, is what communities are you part of, and I have gotten such amazing ones. In fact, most of my income last year came from niche communities. Year came from niche communities, and they were ones that I found out about through these connection calls and networking conversations. So super important to just ask when you're on sales calls, make sure to ask what communities are you part of so you can be part of it, because if one ideal client is part of that community, there are probably a lot more just like them in that community.

Speaker 1: 8:05

Another way to find niche communities is to leverage sales calls. So one thing that I always do is record my sales calls and I take that transcript, throw it into ChatGPT transcript, throw it into ChatGPT and I can extract all of the information that I need. I just ask ChatGPT questions based off of the transcript, use this transcript and answer these questions what communities are they part of? Who are their trusted advisors? Where do they go first when they're coming across a problem at work? All of those types of questions will help guide what would make sense for your lead generation going forward.

Speaker 1: 8:50

Another way to find niche communities is exploring the Discord server, because they have a directory which Slack doesn't. I wish it did, but Discord has a directory so you can find niche communities in there, and you can also find LinkedIn groups, facebook groups. You can search those directories and I'm in the works of creating a directory of all of these hidden gem niche communities that I've come across, because, oh, it should exist already. So, since it doesn't exist, I'll create that. Check industry forums and Reddit is another way. So if you are part of any paid communities that you regularly go in, you go to their events they always have forums as part of it and in those forums, start asking what other communities people are part of and Reddit is. I just slept on it for a really long time, but Reddit has some great little niche conversations happening that will help you find those invite-only communities that are really just underground and hard to find.

Speaker 1: 10:06

And last, look at membership-based communities, so paid communities. You can look for community managers or community creators on LinkedIn and find out what communities they are part of. There are also people who specialize in communities and they are going to have a list of them. Now I've got the biggest treasure trove of niche communities when I just posted on LinkedIn and asked what secret communities are you guys part of? That I should be part of, and a whole list came out that were really exciting. So these are some ways that you can find niche communities, and their secret is the problem. So you have to actually seek them out and start asking people about them. I'm in four communities right now and every single one of them I needed an invitation to join. So ask around and ask for that invite. So we're not going. This is a quick and dirty. This is not a workshop, so we're not going to do the activities today, but I wanted them here for you for afterwards. So, when this is over, I want you to start listing some communities that you can start exploring.

Speaker 1: 11:27

Today, I work with a lot of consultants and fractionals, so I'm constantly seeking out communities that cater to fractionals and solo consultants, so that's something that you can research too. What communities exist for your specific niche? Hey, and if anybody in the chat over here knows of any amazing communities for fractionals or solo consultants, lay it out there, tell me. And if you guys are in any, why not while we're here? If you guys are in any communities that you guys really love that are secretive, put them in the chat so we know. Okay, so how do you, once you have entered these niche communities, how do you turn that experience into a lead generating experience? Let's get into that. Step one is review the directory and start connecting one-on-one, without sales pitches, with people that would fall within your dream client category. So every single paid community I am part of also has a membership directory. Even some of the free ones has membership directories. Go through the membership directory, use the search bar, search for key triggers and traits that your dream client has and start connecting with those people and start a conversation. Oh thanks, alex, join Alignable.

Speaker 1: 13:03

So what I want you to do is send a thoughtful message, introducing yourself, complimenting them and talking about maybe a shared interest or a question that they answered. Focus on starting the conversation, not pitching, because that's not going to get you anywhere. It's relationship first, and your goal is to eventually get to a place where you're booking a 15-minute connection or networking call to explore how you can help each other. 15-minute connection or networking call to explore how you can help each other. So my favorite go-to DM is after someone has asked a question in the community, which is a mini hand raise saying that they need support. I will answer their question and then I'll follow up in a DM and ask do you want any? Do you want to dig into this deeper? Do you want to brainstorm on this? And that will usually entice some sort of one-on-one conversation with them. So that's a great way is add value. First answer the question that they had in the community and then reach out to them privately to go in a little bit deeper on your answer.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Two is set up keyword alerts for immediate engagement. This will save you in those Slack forums that you're in. I am in 10 Slack groups and if I had my alerts set up for all of them, they would be useless. I'm going to cut it off right there because I'm a tease and it's juicy. So if you want the end of this masterclass, head to the show notes page. I have the invite right there and you can find out how I set up keyword alerts and how I'm the first person to answer questions and how I turn those conversations, those answers, into sales conversations later. So it's juicy.

Speaker 1: 14:53

People really loved it. We had a 74% live show up rate on a free masterclass, so that's killer If you're listening to this right now and you were at that masterclass. Thank you so much for being such an amazing audience member. The chat was blowing up. You guys had amazing questions and I had so much fun with you.

Speaker 1: 15:19

And if you're listening to this and you did not see it, it's not too late to catch the replay. Find it down below and grab it there to get the last three steps to build your sales pipeline with niche communities and a little introduction to the Tiny Marketing Club and how that program can help you build a thriving sales pipeline. That's really easy to close. If you enjoyed this episode, please comment, subscribe and tell your friends about it. The more people who know about the Tiny Marketing Show, the more people will listen. All right, goodbye, thank you. You love all things tiny marketing. Head down to the show notes page and sign up for the wait list to join the tiny marketing club, where you get to work one-on-one with me with trainings, feedback and pop-up coaching that will help you scale your marketing as a B2B service business. So I'll see you over in the club.