Clients are out there, ready and willing to connect with you and do business. LinkedIn has given you the tools to connect, now it’s your job to use them to draw people in. Before you begin to look at strategies to grow your business, it’s a good idea to decide to what extent you will focus on soliciting new business and gaining clients. One thing to keep in mind during this process is to maximize the attractions and eliminate the distractions.
You can consider attractions as everything you do, and every minute you spend, actively building your clientele. Distractions are the added fluff that doesn’t result in any tangible results, but may be fun or entertaining in one way or another. Attractions grow your bottom line and create revenue. Distractions might draw clients in but in the long run waste time and effort. It is therefore important to learn the Ways to Generate Business Through LinkedIn.
Below are ten concrete ways to generate business directly through using your LinkedIn account.
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Let your summary speak to them.
A client is not going to be very interested in reading about you personally; they want to get down to business and hear about what you can do for them. Talk a little bit about your experience and build your credibility, and then jump right into telling them about the service that you provide. That’s why they’re there.
Must Read: 12 Creative Ways to Promote your Business
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Have a professional head-shot taken to enhance your headline.
Clients want to see the face of the person they are going to connect with, and having a professional photo will highlight you as someone who is a cut above the rest.
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Stand out in the crowd.
When you show up in a client’s search result, there has to be a particular reason that they click on your profile and not one of the others. You have two or three seconds to make a connection and get their attention long enough for them to click on you. Your headline should be clear, concise, and moderately brief. Say it all in as few words as possible, and be clear. Along with a brief sentence of what you offer, use one of two keywords.
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Maximize your profile with every detail that allows people to find you quickly and easily.
Upload a picture. Use all the keywords that the profile will allow, such as “LinkedIn expert”, “LinkedIn professional”, LinkedIn writer”, LinkedIn trainer, etc. LinkedIn profile keywords are a little bit different than other keywords because your clients are not searching for a product, they are searching for an individual with certain skills. Using keywords to your best possible advantage will bring clients to you.
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It’s all about networking.
No matter how professional your profile, if your network is relatively small, you are placing limits on how many people can see your profile. You must network to increase your audience. It is very important that you realize, the only search results you will show up in are first, second, or third-level connections, or members of any groups you belong to. Make a habit of accepting requests to connect, unless they are obvious fake accounts. Take time out of your schedule every week to send out personal connect requests, addressed to the recipient by name, and signed by you. Send follow up messages to new connects to keep them in your network.
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Reaching out cold.
If you’re going to send out personal connect requests to people who don’t know you, make them want to know you. Ask their opinion about content you are thinking about adding to your profile. Target a problem of theirs and offer your content in areas where you believe it would benefit them. Follow their twitter account and retweet their content. This is a perfect lead-in to requesting a connect.
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Join relevant groups.
A great way to take advantage of the incredible tools that LinkedIn offers is to join groups, however care must be taken to join relevant groups or you will just waste time and resources. There are over 2 million groups on LinkedIn, and there is most likely one that is relevant in your industry or profession. When searching for a group to join, take your time and target those groups that your prospective clients would be members of. Be more concerned with the ultimate number of discussions taking place within the group over how many members it has. Once you are a member of a particular group, actively seek out questions that you can answer, which will generate communication between you and other members. Once in a group, be cautious of sharing too much content too quickly. You want to be warmly welcomed and have your company enjoyed by the community.
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Use the LinkedIn InMail feature.
InMail is 30 times more effective than “cold call” communication. That’s serious business. The LinkedIn guarantee insures that if you don’t receive a reply within one week you will receive an Inmail credit. Although this is a paid perk, it is an effective one.
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Use LinkedIn’s advanced search tool.
Why not take advantage of all of the tools at your disposal? The advanced search tool will allow you to search for prospective clients based on name, location, company, and school. A paid LinkedIn account will give you a further search filter. It’s this filter that gains you indentifiers toward future clients. Once you find clients, you may not be able to contact them directly, but you can join their group or InMail them.
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Use LinkedIn sponsored updates.
Linkedin’s sponsored posts gives you the benefit of publishing content to other users’ feeds, even if they are not currently following your page.
Check back often with the LinkedIn toolbox as there are new tools that are being added constantly. LinkedIn Today is one of those new items that can offer daily news and information about your interests and business. LinkedIn for business is the new “Marketing” today.
