Why LinkedIn Is Your Secret Weapon for Attracting Clients Even if You’re Just Starting Out
If you're reading this, chances are you're interested in building your personal brand on LinkedIn. Well, you're in good company! The platform is a goldmine for professionals looking to network, find clients, and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry.
Trust me on this – I started getting some great results really early on and after staying consistent with my LinkedIn strategy over time, I grew my personal brand from 0 to 5,800+ followers, 1.3M views and 194 inbound opportunities (30% of which I had no idea I was even eligible for!).
In this blog post, I’ll pull back the curtain on why LinkedIn is the secret sauce in your marketing mix (especially if you’re a service provider!) and provide tips on how to use it effectively, even if you're just starting out.
Let’s dive in!
1. A Lead-Generating Machine
Did you know that according to Hubspot you are 277% more likely to attract leads from Linkedin than Facebook and Twitter? That’s precisely why Linkedin should be the secret weapon in your marketing arsenal.
Through strategic connection building, you can spark new relationships with potential clients and collaborators. The best thing? You don’t even have to reach out to strangers!
There are five groups of people you likely aren’t connecting with yet on LinkedIn even though you already know who they are – coworkers, vendors or freelancers you’ve interacted with in the past, speakers you’ve listened to, people who engage with your content, and people who’ve shared your content (get the skinny on how to connect with these people in this blog post).
These people are at least twice as likely to accept your connection request than a stranger on LinkedIn, so if you’re not currently connecting with them, you’re missing out big time!
2. Exposure to New Business Opportunities
As a service provider, you can use LinkedIn to generate loads of business opportunities (yes, loads!).
Make LinkedIn an opportunity-generating magnet by optimizing your profile, creating unique content, and engaging with like-minded business owners and industry leaders.
For instance, a freelance writer could find new projects simply by connecting with content marketers, editors, and other writers on LinkedIn.
But remember, you need to make yourself memorable in order to stand out from the sea of other service providers in your niche. Do you have a unique story to share? An unpopular opinion on an industry topic? Do you use humor? Weave these things into your content and watch as people pay attention to you.
3. The Ultimate Platform For Personal Brand Building
Because LinkedIn has the most comprehensive profile capabilities as of 2023, it is much more effective than most other social media platforms.
With LinkedIn, you have 1,000+ words to strategically tell an engaging story about your personal brand, which is a stark contrast to the 160-character limit allotted to a Twitter bio.
The other pillar of building a solid personal brand is to create valuable content. There are two important things to note here:
- Less than 1% of the people on LinkedIn publish content. That’s significantly lower than that of Instagram or Twitter, which are mainly content creation platforms. This means, if you have a killer personal brand story and connect and publish content regularly, you stand a much higher chance of gaining visibility than you do on Instagram or Twitter.
- If they’ve “rung the bell” on your profile, your followers will get notified each time you post. This increases your chances of getting discovered on Linkedin. A much better odds than Instagram where you never quite know what post will take off and what post will flop… But you need to prompt your followers to “ring the bell” in the first place, so keep this in mind when you share.
It’s also worth noting that LinkedIn is the only platform that allows article-style posts. Pair your in-depth content with the right hashtags and a captivating graphic or a picture and your impressions will skyrocket.
3 Simple Ways to Get Started On LinkedIn Today
Now that you know that LinkedIn is your secret weapon for attracting clients, it’s time to put all of this talk into action.
Here are 3 simple tweaks you can make right now to turn your LinkedIn profile into a lead-generating magnet (this won’t take you more than 30 minutes!)
- Set up a good profile picture – one that looks professional yet relaxed. You can skip the stuffy corporate attire and opt for more laid-back clothing. Just make sure the image is high quality and clearly shows your face.
- Change your headline from your current job role to what you do, who you do it for, and how your approach differs from others in your field. This will help you stand out from the crowd.
- Tell your personal brand story in the “About” section by starting with a strong, curiosity-building hook. Use 3-5 keywords where necessary while maintaining the flow of your story.
Got those tips down pat? Great! You’re on your way to becoming a LinkedIn pro.
If you want to learn more about how to grow your personal brand on LinkedIn as a service provider, you need my LinkedIn Starter Jetpack 🚀.
It’s the exact framework I used to grow my personal brand to 5,800+ followers, 1.3M+ views and 194 opportunities (half of which I didn't even know I was eligible for! 😳)
Get instant access to my simplified playbook for getting started on LinkedIn >>
