Without a doubt, the onset of Covid 19 pandemic signaled the greatest turmoil period for lots of businesses around the globe. In today's episode, we have the honor of hosting two expert guests to get insight into the magic of the roundtable marketing system during Covid.   

David's and Kevin's journeys to being roundtable marketing experts - Kevin and David have worked together for about ten years in B2B telemarketing companies. For some time, they were successfully onboarding at least one new client every weekday. They realigned their business to a fractional CMO with a small base of lucrative clients. The onset of Covid cost them significant revenue loss, forcing them back to the market source to generate new clients. They further pivoted from promoting themselves to promoting roundtable Marketing.

Use of LinkedIn for promoting roundtable marketing awareness – Kevin says that they started by creating some events on LinkedIn and sent out invitations to their connections. They also undertook outreach programs on the platform, inviting signups to roundtables. He says that it has been their experience that it is helpful to consistently build a connections list on LinkedIn to send invites to the ideal customer profile.

Why is the roundtables marketing system more attractive to B2B - David explains that they mainly provide B2B business because they are the sort of business most predominant on LinkedIn.

The ideal size of a roundtable marketing system – Kevin argues that the number of people at a roundtable highly depends on the skills and capacity of the facilitator. The goal of the roundtable is to make it participatory for everyone. Thus it is best to keep the size manageable. As such, he drops a number between 4 and 10 people.

Tips for running an effective roundtable – David draws our attention to the need to engage the audience, right from welcoming them and through the discussion. It would help if you conversed with them about their business and its challenges while referencing them to the topic of discussion at the table.

Strategies for getting attendees to show: David lauds LinkedIn as the main contributor to successful signups following an invite (about 15%). He terms it the nature of LinkedIn for people to attend collaborative roundtables and workshops.

Incentives for inviting through other people's connections – David and Kevin explain that they seek willing partners and invite connections of partners that fit the ideal customer profile. They achieve this with the help of their own master connection database that gives the right target based on job titles, location, or industry.

Leveraging automation in building connections: David says they utilize various automation tools to determine their ICP, create outreach messaging, send out invites, and follow-up details on the event. These tools include WeConnect, Sales Flow, Apollo, and Sales Navigator.

Virtual roundtables in the post-Covid era: David explains that the roundtables product built during the Covid period has persisted even in the post-Covid period. He says that it is now commonplace for people to meet on virtual roundtables, unlike in the past when it was more of face-to-face meetings.

Key Time Codes

(1:18) Kevin and David's journey to today's roundtable marketing experts -

(4:25) Use of LinkedIn for promoting roundtable marketing awareness

(7:00) Why is the roundtables marketing system more attractive to B2B businesses

(8:00) The perfect size of a roundtable marketing system

(10:18) Tips for running an effective roundtable

(11:14) Strategies of getting attendees to show  

(14:17) Leveraging automation tools in building connections

(17:52) Virtual roundtables in the post-Covid era

(19:38) David and Kevin's contact information

(21:07) Their choice of brand representative for their company Professional Prospecting Systems and Contact