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134,817 Views Later: Lessons from 17 Whiteboard Wednesdays Videos

Context: I’m one of the founders of NextWave Hire, we sell software to HR that helps employers market their company as a great place to work.

At the start of 2018, we were looking for marketing tactics that would drive new business for $0 in marketing spend. We found a channel that drove us >$30k in new business and wanted to share what we learned for others out there trying to grow their companies.

The Idea

At the start of the year I started a marketing experiment we dubbed “Whiteboard Wednesdays.” The basic idea was to record a ~3 min video about a given topic related to HR/Talent Acquisition, post it on LinkedIn, and write up a blog post about it to send to our mailing list. The plan was to do this each week as long as it “worked.”

My goals were to share useful information that would advance HR (with the idea that rising tides lift all ships), and to grow NextWave Hire’s brand in order to drive more leads and customers.

Why I was attracted to this strategy:

  • It cost nothing but time. We’re a bootstrapped company, and generally speaking very cost conscious.
  • Even the time it did take was minimal. Each week I spend ~2 hours each week to shoot/edit/post the video, write a blog post, and send it out via Mailchimp to our opt in list.
  • I was able to indulge my desire to teach. I truly love sharing knowledge (hence this post).
  • It let us share more of our personalities as a company, which doesn’t always come out in eBooks, blog posts, etc. Shout out to Chris Savage at Wistia for encouraging us to do this more.

Hypothesis: We could quickly shoot/produce interesting and relevant video content that would perform well enough on LinkedIn for us to drive new business with a $0 budget.

The MVP

My initial test of this strategy was actually to post a video we’d already recorded where I explained the ROI of a new careers site to an intern. A few people who’d seen it said it was “so you.” I thought “ok, I’ll post this it LinkedIn and see what sort of viewership we can get.”

That video got 7k views, 14 comments and 52 likes. Not bad! Plus, a few companies in our sales pipeline saw it and moved down the funnel. Ok, so there was some tangible ROI from this. But, could we do this repeatably? Also, was this just some trick LinkedIn was playing on us where the first video we posted would get a ton of views to try and get us on the drug of creating content for the platform?

For the next 4 months, I made a new video each week (well, I missed 2-3 weeks when I was on vacation, or at a conference) about some lesson I thought was important to impart to HR. While these topics were all related to stuff we do at NextWave Hire, I never mentioned our product, nor made this about the company. I authentically wanted to teach something – and I think that was important to making these successful.

A Bit on Process

Here is the high level on how we put these together:

  • I keep a running list of potential topics in Evernote. Each Wednesday I browse it to find something I want to talk about. Usually these topics are the result of a conversation I’ve had with someone in person/online about a challenge they’re struggling with that relates to employer branding, recruitment marketing, or talent acquisition more broadly.
  • I sketch out what the whiteboard will look like on a sticky note.
  • I (usually) have my intern write it on the board, since my handwriting is terrible.
  • I don’t practice, we just do a take and record it with an iPhone. Whoever is in the room gives me some feedback on anything that wasn’t clear or if I need to do some jumping jacks to get my energy up. I then do a 2nd take which is usually the one we use.
  • I Airdrop the video to my computer, trim the video in Quicktime, and then upload it to LinkedIn with a message around what it’s about. I post to my personal LinkedIn which is by far the best distribution channel we have.
  • We write a short blog post and post it to our blog, we then send this out to our newsletter via MailChimp. There are also a few sites that like to re-post our videos, some of which drive significant views that aren’t incorporated into the below stats.
  • I then hope people start liking/commenting. What makes a video more or less successful is still a bit of a mystery to me – some combination of topic, what I wear, and what time we post it. My advice is to be authentic, not gimmicky, and talk about a pain that you know your audience has because you’ve been asked about it and can give some sort of unique insight that can also be distilled into a 3 min video.
  • I’ll make sure to spend 30 mins each day interacting with people via LinkedIn who comment, or who connect with me after viewing the video

Here’s our most watched video we’ve had thus far:

Stats & ROI

Here are some of the stats:

  • In total, we’ve made 17 videos as of May 3, 2018
  • The average video gets 6,719 views
  • The average video gets 11 comments
  • The average video gets 71 likes
  • In total, that means 134,817 views, 233 comments, 1,512 likes. I’m very happy with the reach we’ve gotten. Of course, there are those 1/100 LinkedIn posts that get 200k views alone…maybe we’ll eventually get one of those.

I’m a bit embarrassed to say that we haven’t done a tremendous job in tracking how many leads we’ve gotten through this, nor how many sales have been influenced by this content.

Realistically, we’re a really small company and we know this is working – just not HOW well. If I had to guess, we’ve probably driven an average of 1 MQL/week through these videos, and I’d say nearly every single MQL in our pipeline has seen these videos, which is one of the many reasons our sales cycle and close rates are moving in the right direction in 1H 2018.

Despite not tracking meticulously, I know off the top of my head we’ve booked >$30k of new ARR through this method in the 1H 2018, with $0 in spend!

Also:

  • We’ve been asked to do more speaking engagements
  • We’ve been contacted by potential partners
  • We’ve stayed top of mind with advisors and others in our network
  • I get ~5 new relevant LinkedIn connection requests per day (mostly from HR people)
  • We’ve learned what topics are most interesting to our market

Summing Up 

Ok, so this whole post has really been geared towards driving new leads. But, what I’d also like to point out is that I hope we’ve helped make a dent in the recruitment marketing knowledge gap as well.

One of the reasons this has been a success is that at the core we are trying to educate the HR market with these videos, as opposed to promote the hell out of our product. The topics are typically inspired by a conversation we had in the previous week about a specific point within recruitment marketing and employer branding. Of course, the more people who believe recruitment is like marketing, the more customers we get :).

We’ll no doubt continue this effort well into the summer, and I hope much longer than that. To check out all of our past videos/blog posts related to this effort, you can go here.

Have you done a similar experiment? Let me know about it in the comments, or shoot me a DM, it’d be great to exchange learnings. I’m also happy to answer any questions about what we did that I may have glossed over in this post.

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How to do well at your first industry conference as an entrepreneur

Last week I went to my first conference as an entrepreneur – HRTech, in Las Vegas.  I went in with little understanding of what to expect at a 10,000 person expo full of vendors, customers, investors, and others.  Nor did I really know how to best use my time.

We had a booth in the “startup pavillon” which was regrettably on the outskirts of the conference, but had decent traffic since it was close to the bathroom.  It was only large enough for 1-2 people to stand at, but was cheap :).

Here are a few of the things I learned for people who will one day attend their first conference as an entrepreneur/salesperson.

1) Make notes on cards, you aren’t going to remember.

When you talk to someone, especially a potential customer, you’re thinking “there’s no way I’ll ever forget this conversation!”  Luckily I still wrote down notes on ever single business card I got, and sent myself a quick email for those contacts I couldn’t get business cards from.  You will NOT remember 80% of conversations after you recover from your red eye back home.  This makes for most customized email follow ups post conference.

2) Get sleep before/during/after.

Lack of sleep and cognitive functioning are highly related, same with energy levels.  Why would someone trust/remeber you if you can’t articulate what you’re selling?  Don’t think going out until 2 am is a good idea just because it’s Vegas.  Get some rest and make the most of your time, as well as the money you spent getting there.

3) Do pushups/burpees/situps/squats (in your hotel room).

The endorphins released during exercise will make you feel happier during the conference which makes you a better sales person.  They’ll also increase your cognitive functioning.  See #2 above.

4) No one will visit your booth.

Unfortunately, the only people who want to come to your booth are the intellectually curious (and generally not relevant), or people trying to sell you.  That means you have to be aggressive in getting people to your booth.  The following tips help you do that.

5) Smile, hold something social proofy, and don’t be desperate.

If you smile and say “hi” some people will smile back, or at least nod.  If you hold something like a cup of coffee or a nice shiny pen, this communicates you’re legit in some small way.  And, if you can control your voice to sound full of confidence (which you will be anyways because you’re crushing demos left and right), they may even turn and look at you.

5A) Wear casual clothing.

Don’t feel like you need to rock a suit or a blazer simply because it’s a professional conference.  It’s preferred to wear something more casual to make yourself approachable.  Trust me, I A/B tested it.

6) Ask qualifying questions.

Just like in sales, you don’t want to spend lots of time with people who aren’t relevant to your goals.  Ask something like “Are you in employee benefits?”  If no, then “have a great conference” and you both feel good.  If yes, then “Great, I’d love to show you my product.”  It’d be weird if they just walked away after agreeing it’s relevant, right?

7) Discover.

You wouldn’t have the same conversation with a prospect vs a competitor vs a collaborator vs an investor right?  Ask them what their role is.  Try to figure out if you can use jargon, or if you’ll have to explain the various pieces of your product in more simple terms.  Craft your conversation accordingly.

8) Get sick swag.

Get something cool.  We almost bought pens, thank god my co-founder thought of these credit card sized bottle openers instead.  Much less likely to be thrown away.

9) Stay cheap.

This is especially true for startups.  Have your friends take you to free parties.  Make sure the cabs don’t charge extra for using credit cards (they charge $3 extra in Vegas, what’s up with that???).  Stay off the strip in a reasonable hotel…you’re just sleeping there.

10) Enjoy yourself.

There is a lot to feel overwhelmed by.  But, make sure to take time out to enjoy the experience of your first conference.  Make new friends.  See cool technology.  And have a beer.