LinkedIn Learning – 7 Key Steps

LinkedIn Learning – 7 Key Steps

1. Getting Started on LinkedIn

So, to advance your business you need to set up a LinkedIn account and create a strong profile. It’s important to deliver a clear message as to what you do and what your services or products are. In addition, you should include an attention-grabbing headline.

Then position yourself as an expert and be the “go-to” person on LinkedIn for your specific skill, experiences, and expertise.  Always aim to deliver valuable content as well as a great level of service and people will come to you.

Of course paying attention to your profile page is crucial and you should spend time creating an engaging page.  Having a profile photo is imperative and can have a big impact on the number of connections, and business you receive.  Remember your LinkedIn profile has a direct correlation to the impression you give to others.

2. Consistency is Key

It’s important to be consistent in your LinkedIn strategy.  Spend 20 minutes a day growing your connections list, creating your own posts and commenting on other people’s posts.  Also, check out articles and content to see what others are interested in.

Following the articles, posts, and updates of “Influencers” is another great way of advancing your LinkedIn strategy.  “Influencers” are determined by LinkedIn and are people who post excellent, engaging articles and updates that people consistently engage with.

Therefore use this research to create your own interesting articles and engaging posts.

3. Building Your Connections

Without connections it’s impossible to progress on LinkedIn.  Your primary intention is to cultivate relationships and build trust with your connections. Connect with people you know first and then LinkedIn will make suggestions for you.  Make sure you include a personalised note when sending connection invites.

From a B2B perspective you shouldn’t be viewing peoples’ profiles in private mode. You want them to see that you’re looking at them. Then they will probably head over to have a look at your profile too.

You can access free online tools such as Dux-Soup. It auto views profiles and is a great way to build your connections based on job titles or roles.

Look to add value when connecting with people.  Research individual’s websites and social media profiles to see what they’re doing.  You can then use this research to offer them help, a quick fix or something of value for free related to their business.

This is a far better way to connect with people rather than diving straight in with a pushy sales email.

4. Lead Generation

Lead generation is the start of consumer interest or enquiry into the products or services of a business.

The best way to grow your business on LinkedIn is to aim for a long-term strategy whereby you build relationships with people and add value.

Effective ways to do this include free giveaways:

• eBooks (put your contact details at the end of the book and insert a call-to-action)
• checklists
• tip sheets
• shortcuts to success
• webinars
• tools to help them achieve tasks more quickly

Providing people with free, useful, and helpful information will strengthen their trust in you and will make them more likely to buy from you in the future.

You can either direct people away from LinkedIn where you can capture their details on your website/blog. Or LinkedIn creates Lead Generation Forms where you offer something for free in return for their data.

5. LinkedIn Groups

You can join up to 100 Groups.  Groups offer a great opportunity to establish relationships with those in your sector/niche. LinkedIn allows you to message people in groups who are not directly connected to you which is a real bonus.

Make sure you’re active in the groups you join as this will help boost your profile and increase the number of people who want to connect with you. Start a conversation. Always aim to add value and DON’T sell.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, why not start your own group. The great thing about that is that you control the group. You’ll have access to all members’ email addresses and can contact them whenever you want.

6. LinkedIn Services

LinkedIn Premium is a paid for service that gives you additional features.

In addition, LinkedIn offers different advertising options:

• Sponsored Content – allows you to boost content across all devices and promote your company updates to targeted audiences.

• InMail – allows you to send messages directly to another LinkedIn member who you’re not connected to.

• Sponsored InMail – allows you to target certain people by sending them a specific personalised message to their LinkedIn inbox.  Remember to include a contextual message body hyperlink to boost click performance.

• Text Ads – the fastest way to generate leads. Text ads are simple to set up and this means you can start reaching your target audience in minutes.

You must set up a Company page to implement these advertising services.

Make sure you are constantly testing your ads and have 2-3 ad variations running at the same time.  Once you see evidence of a winning ad, deactivate the lower performing ads.

7. Target Audience

When selecting your target audience, think carefully about their interests and activity on LinkedIn.  This will help to increase your conversion rate once your ads are active. 

Consider: age, gender, location, company, field of study and what groups they might be a member of.

You can really drill down to obtain your target audience especially when you’re creating ad campaigns.

It’s important to be aware of the audience expansion feature which helps scale your ad campaign’s reach and discover new audiences.  It’ll automatically expand your audience to include members with similar characteristics, such as groups, companies, or skills.

To Your Success!