LinkedIn: The Holy Grail For Generating New Leads In 2023!

You're on LinkedIn. Because you've heard its the bees knees for generating leads. Its a new year and you could do with more opportunities in the pipeline.

Fab.

So you jump onto LinkedIn and do a bit of liking; send some random connection requests; publish a few posts and wait for the magic to happen and the leads to pile in.

Except they don't. So you do a bit more and a bit more.

You start to get disillusioned. Perhaps LinkedIn isn't what it's cracked up to be after all ??

But wait . . .

?? Is that how you do all your marketing with no planning? LinkedIn is a marketing tool in the same way as networking, blogging, PR, advertising etc is and all these need planning to!

??Are you really just faffing? Wasting time on ad hoc activity that you 'hope' will work.

??Do you have an idea on how to use Linked to open the door to conversations and opportunities?

It's not how long you spend on LinkedIn BUT what you do in the time that you have.

To maximise the limited time you do have on marketing your business on LinkedIn,

AND to get your dream clients dropping into your inbox

. . . you need a plan of action!

A plan of what to do, when to do and who to do it to.

As I explained to Michael Edwards as part of The Northern Affinity Teach Me How series.

Here's a summary of what Michael and I chatted about, but its certainly worth listening into the conversation we had to if you want to get more out of LinkedIn this year!

Q: Why do you need a #LinkedIn plan?

It's sooo easy to waste time on LinkedIn, faffing, scrolling through your newsfeed until suddenly half an hour's gone and apart from doing the odd 'like' you've probably not achieved much.

As business owners, we have a lot of balls to juggle, so we don't have the time to be on LinkedIn all day everyday, so it important to spend the time you do have for marketing and business development wisely.

And having a LinkedIn plan of action allows you to do this by knowing exactly what you're doing on LinkedIn on a day to day basis to achieve your goals.

It allows you to be proactive instead of reactive. It ensures you maximise the time you do have instead of wasting time putting stuff out there willy nilly and getting frustrated.

Q: Where should you start?

When it comes to planning your LinkedIn activity, a good place to start is to understand these 3 things:

? What is LinkedIn - it's so much more than a social media platform. Understanding what LinkedIn is, helps you to think about LinkedIn differently and therefore how best to approach LinkedIn.

LinkedIn firstly is one big database, which in turn means its the closest thing to face to face networking you can get online. So if you go networking, one way to approach LinkedIn is to see is as another networking group.

Importantly LinkedIn is also a website, another online presence that gets you found on Google. This is often a lightbulb??moment for business owners because we all know how websites work don't we?

? What's your WHY? Why you want to use LinkedIn? What's your goal, your objective, what is it you want it LinkedIn to do? This gives you a focus because we need to commit to using LinkedIn.

To make LinkedIn an effective part of your marketing you to be consistent and committed to using it, which starts with being clear on why you're on LinkedIn.

Is your goal or objective to open the door to conversations, to generate opportunities with people who know what you do and want to talk to you. Is it raise your visibility and get speaking invites or find referral partners?

? Who is your audience? Finally like any marketing activity you have to know who you're talking to, who you want to meet. And it's not everyone or anyone!

Q. How long should you spend on LinkedIn?

If you see LinkedIn as your primary lead generation platform then it has to be part of your overall sales and marketing activity - you have to commit to using it on a consistent basis.

Its much like networking. If networking is part of your lead generation activity then to generate leads you have to go to the networking events. Just being a member and then never participating won't work.

How long should you spend on LinkedIn is always a difficult question to answer. Companies employ sales people to do business development as a full time job, but of course as business owners we have lots of 'hats' to wear.

So its less about how long but what you DO in the time you do have. I would say first decide how much time you have. I would recommend a minimum of 15 mins a day if you can.

Then sent a timer. This is where having a plan is important - and do as many of your actions in your plan as you can in that time.

This then is focused and proactive activity rather than reactive and ad hoc. You know exactly what you need to do to find and get in front of the people you want to meet to help you move forward towards your goals.

The Three Steps To LinkedIn Planning

1?? Your LinkedIn Profile - a key first step

Your profile has to be done first as it's your shop front on the platform, plus it follows you around as you get active on LinkedIn which drives traffic back to your profile.

For me not doing this step is like sending people to a 404 error page on your website! You don't want any element of doubt in your prospect's mind that you're not the right person for them.

So think about what your dream clients will want to know when they land on your profile. Make sure your profile positions you as the expert and how you help solve the challenges your clients face.

Note: If you need any tips on how to write your LinkedIn profile download my ebook '1 Hour to a LinkedIn Profile That Gets You Found & Noticed.'

However, the good news is if you've already spent time and money getting the messaging and branding right for your website, then the good news is that you have all the copy you need for your profile!

2?? Growing your network strategically

Your network should be made up of people you want to meet, which is why its so important to know who you want to meet. This is a very proactive step and LinkedIn gives you loads of ways to find the people you want to meet.

This step involves knowing . . .

• who do you want to get in front of?
• where are they on LinkedIn?
• what's the most effective way to get in front of them?

There's no doubt we need to be connected on LinkedIn, but its a fine line between quantity and quality. What you need is an engaged network, aka people who will be interested in what you have to post.

Which leads me onto step 3 of your LinkedIn plan!

3?? Getting notice by posting and engaging

Posting and engaging is an active step where you're looking to attract those self selecting clients to you. This is about having a content plan to help your ideal clients solves their challenges and answer their questions.

You do not need to create special content just for LinkedIn! If you have a content plan for your blogs or other social media then you can include sharing this content to LinkedIn.

It's just HOW you post to LinkedIn that is different - you have to be aware of the algorithm and how to play the game to maximise your reach and impact.

Plus, it doesn't have to be all your own content. It's equally important to have your finger on the pulse of what's happening in your industry. So look at what articles and information is coming out of your industry forums, associations etc and curate aka translate it into why its important for your audience. The benefit from 3rd party content is breaking it down to your audience can easily digest it, and from adding your spin/thought leadership to it.

Some people with knowing what to post on LinkedIn or just posting generally. Often its a fear of saying the wrong thing. My advice is to just play with LinkedIn. Start with engaging on other people's posts. It's like mini posting so you're still raising your visibility, you get to see what type of posts other people are posting and it can spark some inspiration.

What Next?

Hopefully these tips and ideas get you thinking about how best to use LinkedIn, but if you want to know more, it will be my turn to interview Michael Edwards Live, as he is a huge LinkedIn fan and has used the platform very successfully to promote The Northern Affinity.

I want to quiz Michael on how he's done it and what he does daily on LinkedIn to build his business.

Join Michael and I here for the next LinkedIn LoveIn Live on LinkedIn on Wednesday 25th January at 12.30pm. Click here to join Live on LinkedIn, (or get the recording if you can't make it live :o)

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?? If LinkedIn isn’t working hard for you or you’re not sure where to start with using LinkedIn, email [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn to chat about how I can help.

Or book a virtual brew here and let’s make LinkedIn work for you . . . ?

JUDY Parsons , #TheLinkedinLady

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