Your LinkedIn profile is NOT your online CV, instead it acts as your online billboard to show people WHO you work with, WHAT you can do for them, WHY you do what you do and WHY you’re a credible authority in your industry.
Your LinkedIn Profile is a space for you to SHOW what you’re capable of and not just tell people.
When you’re in business and responsible for sales then you can easily turn your LinkedIn Profile into a lead generation machine. I used my LinkedIn profile to market and sell products and services for other companies for years before starting my own business just over 3 years ago. For the first 12 months of running my own training and consulting business I didn’t have a website, I just used my LinkedIn profile and it worked beautifully.
In this article you’ll find 5 key tactics you can implement to help you ATTRACT more leads, enquiries and opportunities. You don’t need to pay anyone to do it for you, it won’t take much time to do and you’ll wish you’d done these sooner.
So let’s get to it….
Add your contact details at the end of your About Section
Only your direct connections and people in your 1st Degree Network can see your contact details so take advantage of the people outside of your network that are viewing your profile by adding contact details to the end of your About Section.
A lot of your 1st Degree connections that visit your profile won’t always think to scroll up and click on the blue ‘Contact details’ link on your profile so make their life as easy as possible and save their time by telling them exactly how to contact you.
This is a good marketing tactic to remember – the easier you make it for your prospects to get in touch with you or take the next step the more likely they will be to take it. You can apply this to your website, your landing pages, your social media, your emails and pretty much everything!
Feature a post promoting your next webinar or lead magnet in your Featured Section
The featured section of your profile has to be one of my favourite new features in the last year because not only does it improve the look of your profile so that visitors are more likely to spend more time on it but also because you have a key opportunity to showcase some of your best posts and work.
I run a regular free LinkedIn Training webinar to help people understand how to leverage the platform (if you’ve not joined one of these free training sessions then you can register and join the next one here. I wrote a post about it a while ago which contained a visual graphic showing people what they will get when they participate and added it to the featured section of my profile. I created a special link for my webinar (I used a WordPress tool called PrettyLinks for this) and added it to the post so that even if someone clicked on it once the next webinar was done, they would still be directed to my next webinar – I didn’t need to go back into the post and edit the link out)
Before the featured section came into play I used to have a link in my ABOUT section of my profile directing people to the registration page. I was still generating leads for this webinar every week but this increased significantly once I was able to feature it.
I also use the featured section to highlight some of my best and most useful articles – you can also add a Call To Action in your articles as another method of generating leads – you can see how I do this in this older article about using LinkedIn to generate leads from an event or trade show, which still generates leads even today.
Add a Call to Action in your LinkedIn Profile headline graphic
Have you ever noticed that the more visual something is that you look at online the more you engage with it (either positively or negatively)?
I always recommend adding a headline image to your LinkedIn Profile as it increases the likeliness that someone will spend more time on your profile, plus it’s your opportunity to showcase your brand and personality.
Did you also know that you can take extra advantage of your headline image by showcasing some of your products and offerings OR you can even promote an event or lead magnet. Just make it clear where you want viewers to go next and what you want them to do – it’s very effective!
Here are a couple of examples:
I use a tool called CANVAÂ to create mine and the size you want to aim for is 1400 x 425 pixels to get the correct fit.
SHOW your credibility by having up to date recommendations on your LinkedIn Profile
The more credible you come across to people that view your LinkedIn Profile the more likely they are to spend more time considering their options.
People that land on your LinkedIn Profile have the following 5 options:
- leave and do nothing
- send you a connection request
- follow you
- send you a direct message – either as an InMail message or a specific personalised invite
- click on a company page that’s linked to your profile, or other link but don’t come back
Your goal with your LinkedIn Profile (and any landing page as part of your marketing) is to demonstrate your authority, credibility and empathy with your market so that they are incentivised to either:
- want to follow you and keep an eye on what you’re doing
- get in touch and become new lead or opportunity
Having recent recommendations on your profile is one of THE best ways to show people that you’re the real deal and worth considering. Social Proof is one of the most powerful tools for persuasion and you have a great opportunity here because you cannot write your own recommendations – the people recommending you have to do it themselves.
So if you don’t have any recommendations from people you’ve worked for, with or alongside in the last 6 months then add this to your priority list.
Spark curiosity in your LinkedIn Profile headline
I’ve saved the best tip until last! Your LinkedIn Profile Headline is your biggest asset on LinkedIn.
Every time you post your own content, comment, like or share someone else’s content or pop up on a search result your profile photo, headline and name will be visible – never underestimate the value of a curious headline.
The role of your profile headline is to create enough curiosity so that your ideal customer or target audience want to click on your name, view your profile and feel compelled to connect, follow or send you a direct enquiry.
Recently there has been an increase in people using bots and automation coupled with a headline that starts with ‘I help X do Y via Z” that connect and then send you a direct pitch – this is REALLY off-putting so don’t use bots and automation however if you have a profile headline that starts with ‘I help….’ and you’re not getting many people accept your connection request then that could be why.
The ‘I help X achieve Y via Z’ format is a good one to use because it does make it really clear who you work with, what you help them achieve and what you use to do it. It’s an old marketing and networking tactic to help you pitch effectively when you have limited time and help others understand quickly what you do. This tactic has been very overused in the last couple of years and I prefer to encourage people to follow their own path and spark curiosity in their own way.
The keyword tactic for headlines is a method I encourage because you can say a lot in a few works plus It’s a great way to spark curiosity.
For example – mine is:
Curious Thinking Advocate | Tech Lover | LinkedIn Trainer | Host of The Curiosity Key Podcast | B2B Marketing Coach
I can’t tell you how many people have connected with me to ask me what a Curious Thinking Advocate is or what type of tech I love the most.
You can also just write a sentence but add something about you that would spark curiosity.
Here’s a great example and I know that Nadine get’s lots of leads from her target audience asking her about the otter 🙂
I could go on forever and share lots of examples of the good, the bad and the ugly but don’t be afriad to play with this, experiment and find something that works for you.
Don’t let your LinkedIn Profile put off your ideal clients and turn them away
Even if you do nothing else on LinkedIn, make sure you have an up to date and relevant profile. Your target audience WILL be looking you up on LinkedIn and if they search for you on Google there’s a good chance you’ll spring to the top of the list.
If you are serious about ATTRACTING new clients instead of having to go out and find them yourself then your LinkedIn Profile is the first place I recommend you start.
If you’d like help with this then let’s have a chat – you can book a free discovery call with me by clicking this link —> book a call
If you’d like more information around leveraging LinkedIn to help you win more business and raise your profile in your industry then I offer lots of free resources to help you get started as well as training, coaching and strategic services.
FREE RESOURCES:
- Blog articles here on this website including the LinkedIn for Lead Generation Blueprint which you can download here
- Regular posts and Articles on my LinkedIn Profile
- Podcast Episodes specifically focussed around using LinkedIn as key business development and lead gen tool – I’ve been invited on many podcasts to speak about LinkedIn – you can see the list here and listen at your leisure
- My Podcast: The Curiosity Key – although this is not focussed on LinkedIn many of my guests have seen huge results from using it so it’s a great place to hear case studies and get inspiration
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