How to Use ClubHouse to Scale Your Digital Marketing Agency

With over 10 million weekly active users (in just a little over a year), ClubHouse is no longer the new guy on the block - it’s a formidable adversary for other social platforms. 

Table of contents

• So, what is ClubHouse?
• Can you use ClubHouse to grow your business?
• 8 ways agencies can get the most out of ClubHouse
• 1. Have clear goals
• 2. Create Clubs and Host Rooms
• Start your own clubs
• 3. Provide insane value
• Conduct Q and A sessions
• Be subtle when pitching your services
• 4. Use it for conversations
• Set out to genuinely help your audience with valuable conversation and your expertise
• Clubhouse will only provide value to you if you provide value to its users
• Take conversations to other social networks
• 5. But, don’t overpower conversation
• Get involved in discussions as a listener primarily
• Encourage inclusivity and diversity when hosting Rooms
• 6. Optimize your bio
• Your profile picture should instantly grab attention
• Make your bio succinct and intriguing, but also comprehensive
• 7. Measure the performance
• 8. Share the stage
• Collaborate with other like-minded individuals
• How do you find the right people to collaborate with?
• Wrapping up

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In January 2021 alone, it was downloaded over 2.3 million times. So with every passing day, its popularity amongst notable (and common) users is only increasing.

So, what is ClubHouse?

“The clubhouse is kind of like a hybrid of Twitter, podcasts, and the hallway track at in-person events, where you can enter audio rooms on specific topics and join the discussion,” explains Harriet Chan, Cofounder of Coco Finder.

ClubHouse is an invite-only social audio app, which allows users to launch or participate in chat rooms, also known as Rooms. While initially, it was only exclusively for iPhone users, it is now available on Android devices too (and has crossed over 2 million users on Android!). 

In Clubhouse, as Jon Torres aptly says, “you just need to talk, unlike other apps.”

That opens up creative opportunities for individuals and teams alike, whether they work remotely or at the office. Once you’re in the Room, you can raise your hand to join the conversation and give your insights to an audience you’d never have an opportunity to speak to in real life.

How cool is that?!

Torres further adds, “Since there’s no video, users won’t have to put up appearances, for instance. They can focus on sharing their ideas from wherever they are without the limitations of self-conscious behavior we keep seeing on camera. That freedom could help birth some of the best ideas to grow your business. 

From virtual interviews to brainstorming sessions and pitches, Clubhouse is creating a space for healthy dialogues.”

Can you use ClubHouse to grow your business?

Absolutely.

A lot of businesses have seen massive growth in their business by being active on Clubhouse. 

One of them is Litchfield Media. 

Melissa of Litchfield Media shares, “After only 30 days on the Clubhouse app, I saw a 400 percent increase in content interactions on Instagram, 400+ new followers, and $3,500 in passive income from Clubhouse. 

Plus six new, high-ticket client inquiries in that first whole month just from sharing what I knew in Clubhouse rooms.” 

So with time, effort, and armed with the right strategies you can definitely grow your social media agency via Clubhouse.

8 ways agencies can get the most out of ClubHouse 

Since it’s a newish platform, it can get difficult for agencies to navigate and find their footing on Clubhouse. 

So, to make it easier for you, we asked social media experts their best tips on using Clubhouse as a lead generator for your social media agency, and here’s what they said.

1. Have clear goals

• Launching a new product or service?
• Want to sign up a new client on retainer? 
• Looking to increase your social media following? 
• Have a book or a course coming out you’d like to market to your audience?

What are your goals?

Be very clear about them before jumping on the Clubhouse bandwagon. The more specific your goals, the easier it will be to achieve those goals.

“Have short-term and long-term goals. 

For example, your short-term goal could be to raise awareness about a new product you’re about to launch, and a long-term goal could be to build a solid follower base for your brand,” explains Caroline Lee, co-founder of CocoSign .

If your goal is to sign on more clients, join Rooms and Clubs where your potential clients hang out. If you’re targeting SaaS businesses, join SaaS-based groups. You can use Find Clubhouse to find the right clubs to join.

2. Create Clubs and Host Rooms

One of the best ways of being active on Clubhouse is not just by participating in other Rooms, but also hosting regular chat rooms that are packed with value for your audience. 

Clubhouse says there are more than 500,000 rooms per day now on its app. This is just one week after announcing more than 400,000 rooms per day (It was >300,000 rooms per day in April).

— tae kim (@firstadopter) June 27, 2021

Host Rooms regularly on social media marketing topics to improve your brand visibility online.

You can also cross-promote your Rooms on other social media platforms to invite more people to join in and participate. 

As Sai Blackbyrn, CEO of CoachFoundation.com notes, “The more I host, the more engagement I receive even outside of the platform.”

Natalie Luneva, SaaS growth and team performance coach shares, “I joined Clubhouse in January and it’s one of the primary channels for me to connect with my Facebook group members, host interviews, organize live Q&As, and invite industry experts.”

Start your own clubs

Another great way to increase your activity on Clubhouse is by starting your own clubs. Once you’ve hosted 3 Rooms, you can start your very own Club. You’ll need to fill a form and request Clubhouse to let you start one, but it gives you the opportunity to establish and grow your own audience. 

Luneva adds, “I requested to host my own club there and now it has 5000+ members. Every week I interview SaaS founders or experts in my SaaS Boss Facebook group and we have active discussions in my Clubhouse room afterward, which gives my audience the chance to ask questions to the speaker, share resources, etc. 

It’s a win-win for all participants.”

3. Provide insane value

Whether you’re participating in Rooms or hosting them, your biggest focus should be on providing value.

Make a list of topics you can expertly talk on beforehand and then use those to host Rooms. Allow your audience to ask questions and engage as much as possible.

As a social media agency, you can host Rooms on,

• Organic ways to get the most out of social media
• How to run successful paid Facebook and Instagram advertisements
• How can small business grow followers on social media 
• Conduct quick social media audits
• Help businesses perfect their social media bios
• Share a 100 different video content ideas for a specific industry

Conduct Q and A sessions

Conducting Q and A sessions is another great way of helping out your target audience. And a great tool to use to store all the questions on board so you can answer them one by one is Ask Clubhouse

If you’ve ever hosted a live event where endless questions pour across the screen and you just can’t keep up, then you’ll understand the sheer value of this tool.

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Be subtle when pitching your services

While hard pitching is a big no-no, you can always subtly promote your business by adding your CTA at the end of your Room.

You can also further connect with your audience by utilizing the direct message strategy. Send them to your Instagram profile and continue the conversation there. 

This is a 100% warm audience so you can also ask them if they’d like to join your free Facebook group for more valuable insights and a thriving community. You can send them a free resource to further warm them up, or simply ask them if they’d like to know more about your agency and book a call with you. 

Be creative in how you approach your warm audience and build a relationship with them!

4. Use it for conversations

One great thing about @Clubhouse was that I learned how to be a better public speaker. I still get nervous when I'm talking in front of a large group of audiences but when I talk about what I love, I think I can just talk endlessly (may get little tmi here lmao).

— Cloudy Night ☁️🤺 (@CloudyNight_k) June 25, 2021

“Clubhouse is about offering value and quality conversation – don’t go in with sales pitches in mind,” says Amber-Louise Reed-Johnson of Giraffe Social Media.

She further recommends using Clubhouse to, “build brand awareness and industry thought leadership, establishing your brand as a key player in your industry with your knowledge and valuable contributions.”

Set out to genuinely help your audience with valuable conversation and your expertise

While it’s very tempting to host a Room and start hard-selling your services to the audience, it’s not the best tactic. 

“Clubhouse is full of marketers promoting themselves so you really need to be careful not to blend into the crowd,” explains Petra Odak, CMO at Better Proposals.

Her best advice? 

“Set up rooms where you genuinely try to help people. Set a specific purpose for a room, such as helping newbie writers learn SEO and do just that. 

At the very end, inserting a pitch for your course or book is okay, but only if your main aim is to help. 

You can do the same as an agency, showing businesses how to grow their digital presence and pitch something at the end, such as a free home page copy audit. Once you get their details there, the rest is easy.”

Clubhouse will only provide value to you if you provide value to its users

“Within the first 30 days of being on the app, I was able to close an international client simply by solving his expressed issues,” shares Isaac Mashman, Founder of Mashman Ventures.

When you first join a room your focus should be on problem-solving. See what pain points and questions the other members have. If it's within your area of expertise, don't be afraid to chime in!

That same attitude will be reciprocated in new clients, more brand awareness and lifelong partnerships.

Take conversations to other social networks

While you can’t record your conversations on Clubhouse, you can take a screenshot of someone speaking and post it on other social networks. Tag them and comment on how amazing you found their insights. 

This is a great way of using ClubHouse to build relationships on other networks.

Tip - While it’s tempting to join larger Rooms, it’s harder to get seen and heard in a Room with 500+ participants. Look for more niche Rooms to participate in and get invited on stage so you can share your expertise!

And when you’re on stage, don’t waste time explaining who you are, instead focus on giving valuable insights.

5. But, don’t overpower conversation

“The biggest unspoken rule on Clubhouse is not to overpower the conversation,” explains Courtney Spritzer, CEO and Co-Founder of social media marketing agency, Socialfly. “Clubhouse is designed to promote dialogue, and it’s hard to do that when one person is primarily speaking.” 

By letting others talk you can, 

• gain insight about your target audience, 
• crowdsource ideas for your next social media campaign, 
• understand what your clients’ pain points are, 
• and find ways to boost your social media agency. 

Get involved in discussions as a listener primarily

As Kristaps Brencans, CMO of On The Map, aptly says, “Get involved in the discussions, not only as a voice but as a listener. After all, just observing users’ thoughts, opinions and ideas on subjects in your industry is a valuable form of market research, and will help you formulate ad campaigns and marketing strategies later on.”

Sometimes listening and gaining insights is the best thing you can do for your agency.

“Shut up and listen. While it's tempting to throw your financial weight around, to get the most out of the experience, simply shut up and listen to others. You gain far more from learning and developing sound opinions before speaking than you do by repeating the same advice over and over again,” advises Seth Lytton, COO of The Detroit Bureau.

Encourage inclusivity and diversity when hosting Rooms

Inclusivity and diversity is another reason why you should try not to overpower conversations, especially when you’re hosting Rooms. 

“One of the things I've noticed on the platform is there are a lot of big personalities who tend to dominate conversations. I stay clear of those rooms. 

The reason for that is often it's those with the smallest voices who have the loudest message to deliver so I tend to find smaller rooms where everyone is invited up to share their story. Those connections have been much greater,” shares Robin Waite, Business Coach, Bestselling Author and Speaker.

6. Optimize your bio

Unlike other social media platforms, viewers landing on your ClubHouse profiles can’t view previous rooms or conversations you participated in. 

They can, however, view your bio which is the prime real estate for your profile.

Your Clubhouse profile consists of the following sections,

• Profile picture
• Name and handle
• Bio
• Followers and following count
• Connected social media accounts
• Nominated by
• And lastly, the clubs you are a member of.

While all the other sections are important too, your profile picture and bio needs to be spot on if you’re looking to build your business via ClubHouse.

Your profile picture should instantly grab attention 

Your profile picture is important because it’s the first (and at times the only) thing people see when you’re participating in other rooms or hosting your own. It should be in sync with all your other social media profiles for branding purposes. 

And if you’d like to jazz up your profile picture, Crofile is an excellent tool. 

Crofile has a plethora of different options to make your profile picture stand out. From floral borders to colour overlays, you can edit your profile picture to your heart's desire. 

This works especially well if you’re not well versed in complex design tools. 

Make your bio succinct and intriguing, but also comprehensive

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“The clubhouse algorithm puts great emphasis on the first three lines of your bio. Optimize this space so that potential followers can find and interact with you. Ensure your bio communicates the topics you focus on and engage with,” explains Caroline Lee.

You have 2438 characters in your bio to truly make it a spectacular one. However, as Lee says, the first 3 lines are the most important. When someone taps on your profile, the first 3 lines of your bio are all they can view before tapping to view the full profile.

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To optimize your bio, 

• Incorporate keywords (to increase visibility - it makes it easier for relevant people to find you with the said keyword), 
• Add geographic location if you’re targeting a local audience, 

• Add any badges of glory (recommendations, popular brands you’ve worked with, awards you’ve won), 
• Add any offers you’re running, 
• Add your social media handles,

• And your contact information and who your target audience is.

It’s also a great idea to add a fun personal titbit (along with an emoji or two) about you to further humanize your profile on Clubhouse.

If you’re intimidated by creating the perfect bio for your profile, use the Clubhouse Bio Creator. The tool makes it easier for you to personalize your bio and introduce yourself creatively to visitors.

7. Measure the performance 

Courtney Spritzer also recommends social media agencies to get creative to measure the performance and effectiveness of Clubhouse.

“One idea is to add “Clubhouse” as a response to “how did you hear about us?” in an inquiry form. 

Brands can also create a discount code for a product or a specific Contact Us email address only promoted on Clubhouse to see how many listeners convert or inquire to learn more.”

You can also host Rooms and use the conversation to collect data for your business, such as feedback. These reviews and surveys can also be used as a marketing tool to attract new clients.

And if you're contemplating the launch of a new product or service, why not pitch it to your roommates? 

As Timothy Robinson, CEO of InVPN, says, “It's an opportunity to get feedback from other entrepreneurs on your idea and determine whether it's the next best thing.

If you're having a business challenge, initiate a conversation to determine the best course of action. Engaging with others who have presumably faced a similar problem enables you to draw on their experience, allowing you to succeed where they may have failed.”

You can also use event management tools like Comet Events to measure the effectiveness of your Rooms and track data. 

8. Share the stage

“To cut through the noise, find a buddy (or two, or more), and hold rooms together. Your combined followers help you grow your room, and your followers, in addition to giving a sense of working as a team to bring double the knowledge,” says Abby Herman of Snap Agency.

Collaborate with other like-minded individuals

Collaborating with other agencies, social media businesses, and industry experts is a great way of broadening your audience base, reaching out to more people (as soon as your partners come on stage, ClubHouse notifies their followers), and making your Rooms value-packed.

“I co-hosted a room about publishing and spoke about branding. The first time I did it, I gained 90 followers. 

I also co-launched a writing group with a best-selling author, and it attracted over 1,000 members within the first five days,” shares Raoul Davis, Partner at Ascendant Group.

Aaron Agius, Co-founder and managing director Louder. Online, advises, “Launch a powerful collaboration campaign and connect your brand with other Clubhouse creators.”

You can then launch products together, host Q&A panels, launch fireside chats, sponsor room events, or start building a community. 

As Agius adds, “Energy is always in the air on fresh platforms like Clubhouse, so use it to your advantage to connect and collaborate with other creators.”

Along with collaborating, build relationships with experts in your niche. Join their clubs and Rooms and provide valuable insights when invited on stage. Then invite them to join your Rooms and reciprocate the favor. 

How do you find the right people to collaborate with?

Through the power of social media.

Ask around in Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups you’re a part of if anyone would like to share the stage with you on Clubhouse. Twitter is another great platform to find like-minded individuals to collaborate with. 

You’re not just limited to collaborating with influencers and experts. If you’re in a room and someone makes an insightful comment, you can click on their bio and connect with them. If you feel they can share valuable insights with your audience, ask if they’d like to moderate a Room with you! 

Wrapping up

We don’t know how Clubhouse will fare over the next few years - whether it will gain momentum and become a social audio giant or fizzle out. So the best strategy right now is to make the most out of it and use it to grow your audience base! 

If you still haven’t jumped on this happening bandwagon, it’s time to do so now.