ZenMaid CEO Amar Ghose used LinkedIn groups to build the software company from the ground up by following the step-by-step system shared here.

1. How to quickly establish yourself
as an industry expert
...
in ANY field by using
LinkedIn Groups

2. Hello!
I’m Amar Ghose
CEO at ZenMaid Software
We’ve used LinkedIn Groups to grow our business over the last 3 years
You can find me on Twitter at @Amarica11

3. The Story
How ZenMaid used LinkedIn groups to
profit and grow
0

4. April 2013 at ZenMaid HQ (Palo Alto, CA)
◈ Initially needed to validate software idea
◈ Cold calls and emails just didn’t work
◈ Tried LinkedIn in an attempt
The results were pretty good ...

5. “
The steps outlined below in this slideshow helped us find our first
customers and also to our first partnership with an industry consultant
That consultant referred us 25 clients in our first year in business.
We accomplished this by using LinkedIn groups to learn about our
industry in depth and quickly become recognized as industry experts.
We used a simple step-by-step process to make it happen.

6. I even got the chance to meet our industry consultant and speak at
her event :-)
Amar Ghose and Sharon Tinberg in Chicago, IL - October 2013

7. ZenMaid on Linkedn Today
◈ Active weekly in over 15 LinkedIn Groups
◈ Regularly receive messages asking about software
◈ Spend a total of 20 minutes PER WEEK
3 years later, LinkedIn continues to be our best way to
close more business.

8. What are LinkedIn
Groups?
Never a silly question ...
LI

9. LinkedIn Groups
◈ Similar to Facebook groups but more professional
◈ Considerably less engaged (which is a good thing!)
◈ Great for partnership opportunities
The best thing about LinkedIn groups is that you can
easily target your EXACT market in multiple different
ways...

10. Step 1 -
Find LinkedIn groups with
your target audience
How to establish yourself as an industry
expert using LinkedIn groups
1

11. Find LinkedIn groups with your target audience
◈ Easiest to search by industry or job title
◈ For ZenMaid we searched: “maid” “cleaning” &
“housekeeping” (and found 15 groups)
◈ Try to think what groups would be most helpful for your
target customers!
TIP: Look at the profiles of your current customers who you’re
already connected with … LinkedIn will show you which groups
they are a part of (which you should immediately join!)

12. Step 2 -
Review your new
groups for tone/feel
2

13. Review your new groups for tone/feel
◈ Goal is to help as much as possible but also to “fit in”
with groups
◈ Check average length and depth of posts and
responses
◈ Ex. If people respond to two line, concise answers,
writing essay responses won’t be the way to go!
If it helps, think about this as figuring out the best way to
present your help so it's responded to positively.

14. Step 3 -
Start helping people 1
on 1 and building a
great reputation
3

15. Start helping people 1 on 1 and building a great reputation
◈ Find easy questions you can already answer on any topic
(does not need to be related to your product)
◈ People are simply looking for discussion and answers, not
necessarily experts
◈ Most of my LinkedIn clients know technology better than
their customers so we start by offering website and
development answers
The goal here is to find ways to help your audience w/o being
confident experts about their businesses yet ... that comes next.

16. Step 4 -
Next find the questions
that Google can help
you to answer!
4

17. “
“This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done”

18. Next find the questions that Google can help you to answer!
◈ “Anybody can Google it” - Yet so many don’t
◈ Great example: “What’s the best product for X?”
◈ This, combined with Step 3, will create a positive
feedback loop
You’ll now be catching all the low hanging fruit in Google
groups and be helping multiple members of your target
audience!

19. Step 5 -
Connect with the
people you help 1 on 1
5

20. Connect with the people you help 1 on 1
◈ Send connection invitations to those you help (3 & 4)
◈ Best time is when someone likes or responds to your
comments
◈ Should quickly be able to get acceptance rate above
50%
Do NOT spam. Only connect with people that you’re
developing an actual relationship with by helping them
FIRST

21. Step 6 -
Connect with people in your
groups with whom you
share mutual connections
6

22. Connect with people in your groups with whom you share mutual
connections
◈ Wait until you have connected with 20-50 people in
your industry
◈ Start connecting with LinkedIn members with whom
you share at least 5 mutual connections
◈ Your connection acceptance rate should be VERY
high
Warning: do not skip to this step, the mutual connections and
high invitation response are key beforehand to keep you from
getting flagged for spamming or inappropriate behavior.

23. Step 7 -
Setup customer
discovery or sales calls
7

24. Setup customer discovery or sales calls
◈ Now you can start “cashing in” on your new network
◈ You can message people right after connecting or en
masse (we prefer en masse)
◈ Request sales calls, give surveys, share content, ask
questions
You have so many options with how you use LinkedIn
messages! We discuss them in more detail elsewhere

25. END RESULTS
Implementing the steps presented here were vital to our
customer development and marketing.
We've developed some amazing relationships with both
customers and consultants in our industry
We’re even recognized by people we've never met at annual
industry events.

26. Let’s re-cap what we’ve just learned
Find customers
Search LinkedIn to identify groups
with your audience
Help if possible
Find questions on things you’re
already knowledgeable about,
even if it’s not directly related to
your product
Google!
Answer more questions with the
help of the big G.
Connect
Invite those you help to connect
with you on LinkedIn
Connect some more
Once you have a lot of
connections in your industry you
can start connecting with people
you haven’t helped but have
mutual connections. Effective!
Message to help more
You can start messaging your new
connections at your will to
provide additional value, pitch on
services, and much more

27. You can do this too
Everything we did to achieve these results is a repeatable process you
can use in your business today.
Learn more by joining our email list at (you’ll get a free gift when you
do):
www.marketingonlinked.in
We write about what works for our primary business at ZenMaid and
how we help other businesses like yours to implement the identical
systems