With over 500 million professionals, business owners and C-level executives as members, LinkedIn is a powerful social media platform that allows you to build a professional network with un-gated access to your target market.
Here are seven steps you can use to start attracting more clients on LinkedIn and dramatically increase the effectiveness of your sales efforts.
Build a professional profile
Your LinkedIn profile is typically the first impression that a contact may have of you. Before you begin any activities that put you in front of key decision makers, you must first ensure that you have a profile that is professional, search-optimised and most important of all, client-focused.
When you form a connection, you can be sure that they will take a closer look at your profile to see who you are and what you can offer.
Turn your professional headline into a benefit-related statement
When you create your profile, LinkedIn uses your current designation and company name in the title by default. You can change the headline to a client-focused headline.
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For example, you can choose a headline like – “Let me show you the easiest way to save for your retirement” or something like “Expert financial planner at your service”.
Here is what I use for my profile.
Your goal is to create a compelling statement that will entice the viewer to click on your profile to learn more.
Remember, you only have 120 characters in your professional headline, so use them wisely.
Build connections
Once you have set up your professional profile, list down some common titles of the market you wish to target. For example, Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, HR Manager, Chief Marketing Officer or Accountant.
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Once you have the titles, you can search for them using LinkedIn. You can also filter your results with locations, connections and current companies.
As the results are displayed, you can send a connection request to your potential clients. LinkedIn members are most likely to accept an invitation that includes a personal note.
Your note should not pitch your products or services. Tell them why you are connecting, for example, is it through a recommendation from a mutual connection? Have you been admiring his work? Is there a common interest?
Engagement & relationship building
Once your potential client has accepted your request to connect, you should reach out to them with a personalised “Thank You” message.
After a few days, you can follow up with a motive of providing something of value to them and relevant to their business goals. This can be in the form of reports, articles, case studies, videos etc.
Convert your connection to a client
Once you’ve built enough rapport and established your credibility you have to make the transition to an offline conversation.
Remember, don’t try to sell or pitch anything without having a conversation and getting to know what problems your prospect is dealing with. You also need to be ready with a good solution.
Keep your connections updated with new products
From the steps above, there will be some prospects who will turn into clients. For those who are not ready but you have already built a relationship, you can keep them updated with the latest information.
If you don't build your authority, you will be a commodity in the industry - Digital Agent of the Year Tay Kah Lok
One of the most exciting features of LinkedIn is that you can get the email addresses and details of your clients and prospects by exporting the contact details to your system to send them mailers to keep them updated.
Here’s how:
- Click the “My Network icon” at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
- Click your connections on the left rail.
- Click Manage synced and imported contacts near the top right of the page.
- Under Advanced actions on the right rail, click Export contacts.
- You may be prompted to sign into your account.
- Click Request Archive.
- You will receive an email to your Primary Email address which will include a link where you can download your list of connections.
But be sure that you are not turning people off by spamming them with marketing materials. Make sure that you are sending them content of value for them to look forward to receiving your emails or agreeing to continue receiving your content.
Happy prospecting and connecting!
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