Have you been posting numerous times a week on LinkedIn but these efforts aren't resulting in new clients?
Many business owners know that their ideal clients are on LinkedIn, so decide to post on LinkedIn numerous times a week to reach them.
And I know that many experts talk about the importance of consistent posting to build trust and authority. They say that LinkedIn marketing takes time. It's a marathon, not a sprint. In general, I agree with them.
However, you want to find more clients now, not just at some point in the distant future. So, what do you do?
You don't need to post every day of the week to find clients.
In fact, you can get clients without ever posting (even though I'm not recommending that to you).
As a small business owner, time is of the essence. When you spend inordinate amounts of time (e.g. more than an hour a day) preparing and scheduling content, you aren't able to focus on other critical aspects of your business like client delivery, sales, and systems. Even though your likes, impressions, and followers may be creeping up, this leaves you feeling frustrated since your client roster still isn't full.
I want you to think of maximizing and minimizing your time on LinkedIn.
What I want you do focus on is limiting (minimizing) your time on LInkedIn each day to just 15 or 30 minutes, and doing (maximizing) strategic actions that will help you get clients during that time.
This means ditching mindless scrolling and a focus on vanity metrics at the door.
I think of your LinkedIn strategy in three areas:
Positioning (profile)
Content (posting)
Outreach (direct messages)
Not every business owner needs to post frequently. While it's a strategy that many use successfully (including myself!) to generate inbound interest, posting 5x a week is not a prerequisite to finding leads on LinkedIn. In fact, I don't recommend it.
Sending direct messages on LinkedIn, paired with strategic LinkedIn posts, is often the best and fastest path to getting leads. Because when you send strategic messages based on specific triggers, you create conversations with those you want to work with most. You get to pick your clients!
(If you dread sending direct messages, this short blog post is for you!)
I also wanted to share that while posting is a powerful tool on LinkedIn that has the potential to build your authority and create trust with potential clients. At the same time, posting can backfire.
Here are a few examples of "bad" posting:
A financial coach posts about how they didn't hit their financial goals for last year.
A book editor posts about their morning routine but does so with a handful of spelling and grammar mistakes.
A marketing expert talks about how they are struggle since they don't have enough clients in their pipeline.
In all of the examples above, the expert's LinkedIn post demonstrates that they are struggling in the domain that others pay them to help them with.
Here are a few more subtle examples:
A web designer sells in every post that goes live.
A business coach shares long podcast episodes and articles they enjoyed without highlighting the key takeaways.
A lawyer shares technical posts that go over the heads of even their most sophisticated clientele.
In these examples, the expert's LinkedIn posts don't add much value to the reader, often causing frustration and even a feeling that they are salesy or disconnected.
Your posts should build, not break, your credibility.
Your posts should teach your audience about the problems they have, why they matter, and the beliefs that impact how they go about solving them. Your posts should demonstrate that you're a credible expert with the experience and track record to solve those problems.
Small business owners go wrong when they:
Focus on the quantity of posts over the quality
Overuse call-to-actions and constantly share sales-focused posts
Spend all their time on posts instead of starting conversations in the DMs
This is why having a thoughtful LinkedIn strategy is so important. It keeps you focused on taking strategic actions that generate interest for your services - without wasting your precious time and taking away from other critical actions that keep your business's lights on.
(Discover why investing in LinkedIn ads too early is often a waste of time in this short blog post.)
Does LinkedIn feel overwhelming to you?
You might be asking:
How do I fix my profile?
How frequently should I post?
What does a successful post look like?
How do I engage connections in the DMs?
How do I get someone to accept a connection request?
You will have answers to all these questions, and know how to navigate LinkedIn with ease to generate leads.
Here's how my process works:
Step 1: When I start working with a small business owner, we always start with a Profile Optimization so that you clearly explain your credibility, who you serve, how you serve them, and what action the profile viewer should take.
This process takes about 3 weeks from start to finish, and provides you a profile that captures the attention of your ideal clients and gets them to take action.
Step 2: Once your profile is optimized, we then create your LinkedIn strategy. Through my program Leads on LinkedIn, you will become comfortable navigating LinkedIn to find right-fit clients for your business.
Inside Leads on LinkedIn, we focus on two main skills - LinkedIn posting and direct messaging. These skills bring the right clients into your orbit so you can consistently grow your business without relying on time-consuming strategies like video and expensive strategies like ads.
Within just a month, you'll have identified and contacted 30 prospects for your business. You'll have the skills and systems to do it again any time you want an influx of leads. And, this rinse and repeat process gets more effective every time you do it!
The Leads on LinkedIn program includes 2 months of support, during which you will have access to actionable video trainings, 1:1 calls, daily email support, critiques of your posts and DMs, and weekly accountability check-ins from me.
Learn more and get started here.
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