Perhaps you’ve been wondering what’s the hype around LinkedIn all about? LinkedIn is a business-oriented service and it’s mainly used for professional networking. As a business professional, you might want to know how to use LinkedIn to get more clients?
This business platform has about 660 million users in more than 200 countries worldwide. In this article, I’m going to share the interview I had with Melonie Dodara on how to use LinkedIn to get more clients.
The interview was great as she shared so much information and insights about the secrets of LinkedIn. Melonie Dodara is a Canadian number one LinkedIn expert and an international best-selling author of the book “The LinkedIn Code”. If you’ve not read it, I highly recommend you read this book.
The Question Most People Have Is How To Use LinkedIn To Get More Clients
As you already know, Facebook still holds the number one record of users as a top social media platform and a social networking channel. However, with all the different social networks that are available, some are better than others for a certain reason and purpose.
LinkedIn is the best platform for professional networking but how to use LinkedIn to get more clients? Click To TweetThe thing with social media is, there are two types: those for making friends and those for making money.
As Melanie said, Facebook is a wonderful social network to stay in touch with family and friends. But it’s not a platform for business professionals. This is where LinkedIn comes in. Now, you might wonder how you can use social networking platforms to bring in more clients?
Get Connected With Business Professionals And Make Money
LinkedIn needs a certain strategy to fully leverage its purpose. But before we get into the details of LinkedIn strategy, let’s first take a look at what makes this platform special. So, if you want to know how to use LinkedIn to get more clients… Stay with me until the end.
As I said earlier, the different social network has certain reasons and purposes. LinkedIn is the number one business social network, there isn’t anything that competes with it. Unlike Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram, which can still be used in similar ways, LinkedIn is the only Business Social Network. As such, it requires a unique strategy if you want it to bring you more clients. It doesn’t mean you have you do direct selling, sales pitching, or even promoting your products directly to clients regularly. But you do need a strategy to approach people.
LinkedIn is a “Business Social Network” and as such it is unlike any other social networking platform out there. Click To TweetUnderstand The Effectiveness Of LinkedIn
Every second, there are two new people joining LinkedIn. In 2015, the number of people on LinkedIn in Canada was 9 million. And in a recent statistic dated September 2019, the number of LinkedIn users in Canada was over 16 million. That makes up to slightly over 44% of its entire population. However, the largest traffic is still the United States with 161 million users and about 27 million for the United Kingdom.
Apart from the large traffic on LinkedIn, the average household income of LinkedIn users is $109,000. If you’re going for a more affluent demographic – LinkedIn is perfect for you. Additionally, people are two times more confident about the content and information found on LinkedIn, which means their levels of trust are higher. That’s because, as a business social network. People assume that all content shared is professional and accurate.
LinkedIn is 277% more effective when it comes to B2B lead generation. Click To Tweet
A study of over 5,000 businesses conducted by HubSpot, showed that LinkedIn traffic is 277% more effective when it comes to B2B lead generation. Its conversion rate has outranked Facebook and Twitter.
Create A Business Profile
As an entrepreneur, you must create a good impression of your brand. You see, people want to know who they are doing business with – whether it’s you as an individual or a big company or even a person in a company. What they do first when learning about someone or something new in their professional realm is that they do research. You do that too, right?
Let’s take the “High Ticket Closer Certification Program” for an example. You may have come across some videos about High Ticket Closing or maybe you’ve seen some of my Facebook and LinkedIn Ads. I believe, the first action you took was to google “Dan Lok” and “High Ticket Closing.”
So if people search for you, what will they find? As an entrepreneur, you must have a professional profile and keep it professional across all your platforms. This is crucial. It portrays your personal brand.
Close Deals With Your Professional Profile
Imagine if you’re trying to close a big-ticket deal with a connection you recently made on LinkedIn. Now they search you on Google, only to find unpleasant photos and information about you. Unpleasant drunken pictures from a last wedding you’ve been to? Strange college memories still up there? What do you think a potential business contact would think about you after seeing some of the stuff you have on your social media profiles right now? Would they be gone right away or intrigued to get on the phone with you?
You see, as Melonie Dodaro said, you must always ask yourself this question: Are you making the kind of impression that you want to make? If not, you might want to give your profile a little more care. Your first impression is crucial when making any deals or even a connection on LinkedIn. It’s through this profile that you’re defining your personal brand and value.
If you manage to give a good impression, that’s when you think about what you can deliver. Thinking in terms of delivering value is the number one step in acquiring new clients.
Define Your Value – What Can You Deliver?
Most people think LinkedIn is mainly for posting jobs and job seekers posting their resume. That’s a big mistake! Don’t treat LinkedIn as a job-seeking website. With the number of growth in LinkedIn users in the past years, the way you can leverage this social network has completely changed.
As Melonie said, only 16% of people using LinkedIn for job search. The rest of them, 84% of people, are using it for business. So, if you post your resume on LinkedIn, it’s not going to resonate with that audience that you want to connect with. If you’re looking to use it as a business tool, you must approach it differently.
3-Step Formula For Success
So, what Melonie has done is that she created a 3-step formula for LinkedIn success.
- Get Found
- Attract Your Ideal Client
- Stand Out
LinkedIn is where people will get to know you on a surface level at first. They’ll look at your experience and what kind of value you have provided to the marketplace. And if you have a resume based profile on LinkedIn – that attracts employers but not your ideal clients. Clients will not know what you can deliver that will significantly help them increase or generate their revenue.
So, when you think about how to use LinkedIn to get more clients, you must think carefully about the details in your profile. I would say this is the most crucial foundation when you start using a LinkedIn account. Why? Because, if you want to be found on LinkedIn, you must be visible on the first page. If you’re not found on the first page – you’re invisible. You must pay attention to details, deliver value and content, and be consistent.
Connecting With Powerful And Influential People On LinkedIn
Now, you might still wonder, how to connect with powerful and influential people? As I mentioned just before, first off you must create a professional-looking profile. That way, you’ll be able to stand out among everyone else and it might be easier to get connected with your ideal clients or prospects.
If you don’t have an ideal first impression, how will you get connected with your ideal clients? Click To TweetYou must find a way to stand out, so pay attention to the details. If you are “in sales” – what’s your niche? What makes you special? Is there something that makes you different? What value do you bring? Keep all these questions in mind as you tweak all your profiles. If you don’t create a unique profile, you’re most likely to lose leveraging this business tool.
There are many people using this platform but, in reality, 99% of people are using it very poorly. Therefore, to stand out is exceptionally easy.
Be Professional And Get Found
As Melonie mentioned, the first step is to get found. Each day, people conduct searches on specific keywords. They might be looking for a certain type of client or prospect. For example: financial advisor, accountant, lawyer, etc… And usually, people look for someone based on referrals – people they can trust, like a financial advisor. So you can use this fact to position yourself well to be found. And as Melonie said – “Isn’t it beautiful just to get leads to find you?” With the correct use of LinkedIn, you can do just that.
So, you want to be showing up at the top of the search result. Think about what are the specific keywords that people are using and how to leverage them on your profile. The higher your rank on the search results – the better your profile will be. There are several ways to do that.
To show up on the top of the search results, you want to choose two or three specific keywords. If you’re doing business in a specific geography, you should throw in a keyword that’s based on your business.
Picking The Right Keywords
The key to picking the right keywords is thinking about the keywords that people would use. Most of the time you must think about how they are looking for what you offer. As Melonie mentioned in our interview – instead of just using “accountant” you might think about “Kelowna Account” as that might be something that people are searching for.
Think carefully – what can be your keyword? This is the most important step if you want to know about how to use LinkedIn to get more clients.
Creative Keywords Could Mislead Clients
Some people can be too creative with keywords, and it can mislead your clients. So, stick to the general basics of the right words when it comes to keywords. You have to know, not everyone on LinkedIn understands your creativity.
It’s also really important to choose your three primary keywords which best describe who you are and what you do. When you do that – you can optimize properly.
There Are 4 Places For Keywords
According to Melonie, there are 4 places for keywords. The first one is the headline. The headline holds a tremendous amount of weight in the LinkedIn algorithm – it may sound techy but it’s important if you want to find your ideal clients.
This part of your profile is meant to tell people who you are and who you’ve helped. For instance, a few keywords on your main profile, “Kelowna accountant” and or “business adviser”. If you watch the video above, you’ll be able to see some examples that Melanie elaborates on more.
Consistency Is Key
The second place to optimize your profile with your specific keywords is in the title of your current work experience. If you want to boost your profile on the search result you can also include those keywords in your description.
Consistency is key to success - with the right and consistent use of keywords on your LinkedIn profile you can attract more clients. Click To TweetIf you’re a business owner, chief executive or founder of a company, it’s advised not to use that as your keywords. Because of the broadness and generalization of those words – your clients won’t be able to find you. Think about it, nobody will search for; “founder”, “business owner” or “chief executive” unless you’re a salesperson. Therefore, choosing the right keywords is crucial to get more clients from LinkedIn.
The next place for your keyword is past work experience. This can be easy for those who have previously done what you’re doing now. I get that for some of you this might be something brand new. But there’s a little ninja trick Melonie has taught me to make all this easier.
You Can Create A Project-Based Past Experience
For example, you can craft your profile saying that you’ve worked for someone (maybe a certain company) for a short period and explain a little on your job description. It’s good to have at least one past experience that’s relative and related to what you do now as that’ll help with the search results.
Another place where you can reflect on past experiences and include keywords is your summary section. As you write it, make sure to include the same two or three keywords again. As you make these changes, you’ll be able to know how many times your profile’s been viewed and shown up in search results.
Observe Before And After
Keep an eye on how many times you show up in search results. You can use this feedback to keep looking for better words and adjusting. The best thing is that this is all on your LinkedIn profile’s home page, so you don’t even have to work hard to find this data.
When you make the changes that Melonie has suggested, the change and results in the search ranking are instant. This is how, with LinkedIn, you can be on page 50 and moved up to the first page at an instant with the right keywords.
Connect And Engage With Your Ideal Client
High Quality and original content will also boost your reputation and authority on LinkedIn. When you fix your search results, your content will be the key factor in attracting more clients.
Your profile must speak to your ideal client Click To TweetIf you’re writing an article, make your post visible by adding them to Pulse, LinkedIn’s built-in publishing platform. If you’re already producing other types of content, you can add them to your portfolio by simply typing the links into your profile.
Here are 4 strategies you can use to create compelling content:
- Write in first-person
- Identify who your ideal clients are
- Share how you can help them
- Call To Action
Speak to your clients individually and directly. It’s always helpful to learn some copywriting skills to implement these strategies too. Any copywriter will tell you that writing in the first person is the key because it will allow you to identify your ideal clients.
Let’s say, your ideal client comes about to do a search on LinkedIn. When they land on your profile, it speaks to them directly, it resonates with them. If they read relatable stuff in the first person, they will see themselves in your profile. It will encourage them to take action. The way to get them to take action is to share how you can help them.
This is where you engage with your clients. By talking to them and asking them where and what they’re struggling with, you can help them with problems they’re facing. You can also tell them (or show) exactly how you can do that.
Speak to your target audience about your audience – not about yourself! Click To TweetRemember that clients and prospects will always have this question in mind – What’s in it for me? In reality, nobody cares about you, everyone cares about themselves. Everyone cares about how you can help them. So, if you make your profile all about yourself – it’s not going to resonate with anybody.
Never Forget To Have A Strong Call-To-Action
Now, if you capture the attention of your client, you have to guide them to action. This is where call-to-action comes into play.
And the final part is to have a strong call-to-action. You see, Melonie said the first place for your keyword is your headline.
Now, as soon as someone lands on your profile, what’s next? You don’t want to leave your ideal clients hanging by not having a call to action. The whole point and purpose of implementing these strategies are to get clients from LinkedIn. And if you don’t have a call-to-action, you won’t succeed.
I believe that if you don’t make the sale today, you won’t make the sale tomorrow Click To TweetA call to action can be:
- Book a call with you
- Link to your landing page
- Link to a specific webpage
- Get a FREE consultation
- Register for your webinar
- Watch this video
These are some examples of a specific call to action. It doesn’t mean they have to purchase something. It can be an excellent method for lead generation. The call-to-action will depend on your business model and your sales model. With that said, it depends all on what your goals are and what you want to achieve with each post. That’s why you need to know your target market.
How To Know Your Target Market?
Your profile needs to be client-focused and the only way for you to be able to do that is to know your target market. If you don’t understand what their problems are and the language they use, it’s going to be challenging.
You then need to do a lot of research about ideal clients. One of the easiest ways to do that is to look at your last ten clients that have been your best clients. Who are some people you enjoyed working with? What clients did you go an extra length to help them transform their business?
You can look into common interests, industries, profits, and perhaps look at their location and dig deeper geographically. Where are most of your clients from, what are their positions in the company – in that way, you’ll get to know your ideal clients better? I’ve mentored thousands of entrepreneurs, business owners and sales professionals specifically on getting to know your ideal clients.
Communication Skill Is Important In Your Personal And Professional Life
Honestly, from the way I look at it if you have a certain communication skill, not only it’ll help you get more clients but also become a great salesperson. The best part about High Ticket Closer Certification Program is that you don’t need to be so knowledgeable about your product. Just like what Melonie said earlier – They only care about how you can help them.
So, knowing the right communication technique and skills will give you the opportunity to engage with your client with finesse. May it be to help them transform their business or generate more revenue because when you’ve mastered this skill. It will also transform your life – personal and professional.
Stand Out Significantly From Others
The more you use LinkedIn, the more you will see the value of it. You will also notice another people’s profile that’s being poorly done – they’re completely blank.
This is easy to fix – have a professional headshot. People want to see who they are dealing with – upload a professional picture of yourself. When people see a smiling face – that’s an inviting aura. To strengthen your LinkedIn profile is that you can upload a video to your profile.
It can be an introduction video or a professional video. In that way, you’re marketing yourself and showing your communication skills to your ideal clients. Talking about skills, on LinkedIn, you can add your skills and endorsement to your profile.
For example, if you have a copywriting skill that you’ve learned a few years ago, you can add that into your profile. It could be just a short certification program – add it. Any additional skills you’ve acquired in the past years will be an added advantage to your profile.
Many people fail to see the power of social proof. Click To TweetHere’s another video I want to share with you. It’s about the 5 things you’re not utilizing in content marketing on LinkedIn.
Final Thoughts On How To Use LinkedIn To Get More Clients
It’s basic psychology – we trust our social network. People trust what they see online, and if people like you then more people will like you because of that. Does that make sense?
So, you’ve followed the 3-steps here and you’ve rank #1 on LinkedIn. What’s next?
If you want to know how to use LinkedIn to get more clients, I recommend you read “The LinkedIn Code” book by Melonie as she shares more in-depth tips and principles for LinkedIn in her book.
(Featured Image Credit: 13_Phunkod / Shutterstock.com)
