6 Simple Steps to Attract High-Paying Clients with LinkedIn

LinkedIn is no doubt one of the biggest social networks online, with nearly 500 million members and the most affluent demographic. If you want to network with people in your industry, or even look for new job opportunities, the site has obvious benefits. It is also possible, though, to attract clients to your business, potentially securing lucrative contracts and ongoing business. While the site is not set up for overtly promotional messages, you can use various techniques to build relationships and direct users to your offers. You cannot, however, set up an account and hope people find you. LinkedIn marketing requires you take a proactive approach, from how you complete your personal and company profiles to your communication techniques. The following steps will put you in the best position to prosper from LinkedIn.

Craft an Enticing Profile

Your profile should ideally work for readers and algorithms. Use keywords to make clear the industries you operate in, while indicating what your areas of expertise are. Make sure you include a photo and background banner, making the page as visibly pleasing as possible. Copywriting is most effective when it integrates storytelling, so look for ways to tell your own personal story or the story of your business, helping to bring personality to your profile.

Work On Gaining Recommendations

Just as testimonials can increase your sales conversion rate, positive recommendations improve your reputation on LinkedIn. Users can write, request, and accept recommendations, helping profile viewers to understand your skills and track record. If you have worked with clients in the past, it is a good idea to write a positive recommendation first, before requesting they write one for you. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. The Law of Reciprocity or the art of giving and receiving favors is a common exchange and will net better results long term.

Potential clients are likely to look through recommendations as they browse your profile, so a healthy number of positive responses will highlight the good work you have done. Additionally, LinkedIn encourages you to have at least 10 recommendations as part of their profile algorithm.

Publish and Promote an Article

Showing expertise is one way to inspire confidence in potential clients. In many niches, writing a detailed article will indicate you are knowledgeable in the subject manner. This expertise might be less relevant if you are selling products, but in the business to business sphere, for example, detailed knowledge can help separate you from lower quality competition. Publishing articles on LinkedIn is a start, but you also need to promote them across your other social sites, blogs, groups, first connections, and possibly with paid advertising.

Interact with Groups

Groups offer a simple way to find relevant connections, with the potential to turn these connections into clients. Look for available groups in your prospects industry, contribute your opinions, and respond to other people. As long as you can offer insight, you should quickly improve your reputation. Before you begin, though, make sure to get a feel for how each group conducts itself, but don't be afraid to express your own opinions if they run contrary to other posters.

 Stay Front of Mind

While you want to avoid excessive messaging and spam, it is important to keep people updated. You can send messages to your connections when you have any business news, updates, or an interesting article helping to remain fresh in the mind.

 Researching your audience and sourcing other people’s content that is helpful can also showcase your expertise and authority. Find and share articles in your homepage newsfeed that are informative, helpful, or trending. Use a scheduler like Bufferapp or Hootsuite to share articles several times per week.

Sending rare messages or constant self-serving updates will not be helpful for branding or client acquisition, so be prepared to communicate fairly regularly, ensuring your messages have content, relevancy, and an occasional offer.

Use Sponsored Content

Depending on your budget, it can be worth experimenting with sponsored content. LinkedIn sponsored content uses native ads (we’ve all seen them in our newsfeed), with the option of paying for clicks or impressions. If you can generate leads at a reasonable cost, you may be able to secure clients for a relatively small outlay. The level of demographic data also makes it possible to reach a highly targeted crowd, increasing the likelihood of turning leads into sales.

LinkedIn, when used effectively, can become an additional platform for generating leads. It is unlikely to be your primary method for building clients, but can be used to build relationships, generate interest, and lead prospects into a sales funnel. While there are plenty of other social media sites for networking, LinkedIn attracts serious professionals, offering enough detail to make a good assessment of eligibility before trying to pursue an opportunity. More often than not, people are disheartened by social networking, usually expecting immediate results. By following these strategies, though, you can gradually build your connections and start the process of securing new clients.

If you enjoyed this article, like, share and comment. I respond to all comments. Download my new Free report "LinkedIn Publish to Profits in 2 Hours Per Week" https://tracyenos.com/linkedin-publishing-ebook/

Tracy Enos is Kansas City's top LinkedIn Expert Advisor, Score.org volunteer and mentor, and single Mom of 4. She has consulted 1000's of business owners, SaaS companies, coaches, authors', service professionals, sales teams and entrepreneurs how to use LinkedIn to generate leads, become the authority in their industry and stay front of mind with their clients. She is known globally for her LinkedIn knowledge and training with clients in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Israel, and the U.K. Need a speaker or want to learn how to generate consistent leads with LinkedIn? Call Tracy at (816) 607-1570 or email her [email protected]

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