Carisi Parisi
By: Carissa Parisi – Bayshore Solutions Digital Marketing Team
Most professionals have a LinkedIn account and typically use it for job searching, however you may be missing another way to use LinkedIn. This can apply to any business – B2B or B2C.
Learn how to use LinkedIn to grow your leads and prospects in 4 simple steps – Optimize Your Profile, Join LinkedIn Groups, Save Successful Advanced Searches and Create a Sequence of Messages.
1. Optimize Your Profile
If you want to have success on LinkedIn, you’ll need to have a profile that’s professional, search-optimized and client-focused. Your LinkedIn profile needs to speak to your ideal clients and tell them how you can help them.
First, make sure you use the same keywords in your profile that your ideal clients would input when doing a search for someone with your specialty.
For example, someone who’s looking to find a marketing professional to run their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising might type “ppc advertising” or “pay per click advertising” into the search. If that’s a service you offer, then put those words in your LinkedIn profile.
Choose up to three keywords and include them throughout your profile.
Some of the most important places to include these keywords are in your:
- Headline
- Summary
- Current work experience (in the title and description)
- At least one past work experience (title and description)
- Skills
Being found in search results is important, but it’s not everything. You also need to have a headline that makes people want to click on your profile.
Once they get to your profile, you need an enticing summary.
Include the following in your summary:
- One to two paragraphs telling your story: who you are, why do you do what you do, what makes you credible
- Who your ideal clients are
- What problem your ideal clients face
- What solutions you offer to solve those problems
- Call to action: what you want them to do next (call, email, connect with you, etc.)
2. Join LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn groups are a great way to start growing your network.
LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups, so join as many as possible. Don’t feel like you need to join only industry groups. The majority of the groups you join should be the ones your ideal clients are in.
The mix of groups to aim for should be as follows:
- Ideal client groups: 80%
- Special interest groups: 10%
- Industry groups: 10%
To locate potentials prospects within each groups, scroll through the list of members in the group to see if there is anyone you want to connect with.
You can also search for relevant keywords, job titles or locations within each group by using the search bar within the group.
3. Save Successful Advanced Searches
LinkedIn’s advanced search tool is great for finding potential prospects. You can search for people by keywords, relationship, groups, location and industry, which are available with a free account.
Make sure to remove first-degree connections from your search parameters, since they are already part of your network. If you find a specific search that produces good results, save that search using the Saved Searches function.
LinkedIn will email you once a week when someone fits the search criteria you set up. You can have up to three Saved Searches with a free account.
4. Create a Sequence of Messages
It is not enough to just grow your network. Build a network with your new connections. Send a sequence of value-based messages to your prospects.
Always take the time to personalize each message appropriately before sending it. Use their first name and add any details that will improve the message and make it more personal.
The messages should include information that would be considered valuable to your prospect. This includes links to relevant articles, checklists, white papers, case studies, reports, eBooks, videos or downloads.
These resource materials can be ones you either created or curated, but they must be of professional quality and solve a pain point or help prospects make educated future decisions.Make sure NOT to mention your products or services within the messages, so they don’t come off as a sales-pitch or spam.
If you complete these steps successfully, you should see your network on LinkedIn grow and these connections will start to view you as an authority in your industry and may seek guidance or professional advice from you. This would be your opportunity to mention your products or services and how they could help that connection, who is now a Lead.
To learn more about how Bayshore Solutions can help drive results with your LinkedIn strategy, contact us today.
Carissa Parisi is a Digital Marketer at Bayshore Solutions- A Digital Marketing, Web Development and Online Content Strategy company.