A lot people I talk to think they need to be spending a ton of time to attract clients on LinkedIn. But, in my experience when you know where to spend your time and what to focus on, you can accomplish a lot in little 15 minute spurts.
LinkedIn is a great resource for marketing your business to help you attract clients on LinkedIn with ease. And it’s free. I used to spend $50,000/year in advertising. I love that all the marketing I do on LinkedIn is free!
Here are 12 tips to help you attract clients on LinkedIn in just 15 minutes a day.
1. Send 10 LinkedIn invites to continue to grow your network of your ideal clients and potential strategic referral partners. The more people you have in your network the easier it becomes to attract clients on LinkedIn. I noticed more prospects responded to my LinkedIn activity once I hit the 500 connection level.
2. Research 1 or 2 potential clients. This will help you target your services and they’ll be impressed by what you know about them.
3. Post 1 tip. Choose 1 tip to share that solves a common struggle among your target market. Like bees to honey your tips shared consistently attracts clients and draws them to you while building your thought leadership.
4. Scan and search for relevant LinkedIn groups to join. If you want to attract more clients on LinkedIn be found where your best prospects are. As of this writing (May 2018) I have found that the overall effectiveness of posting a new discussion inside LinkedIn groups have has shrunk quite a bit. Although there has been less engagement in LinkedIn groups, joining targeted groups is still a useful tactic to help you get connected with members inside the group who share targeted interest.
5. Keep a friendly eye on your competition. Watch what your competitors are up to from their LinkedIn activities and what they post. This will give you a good idea about how you can differentiate yourself from them and add value in your own unique way. *You probably want to change your settings to anonymous prior to viewing their profiles.
6. Improve your profile. Your LinkedIn profile will either make a great impression or a terrible one. You don’t want people to be confused as to who you help, what you do and why you’re different than your competitors. Remember, a confused mind says ‘no’. Go through your profile and make sure everything is complete, up-to-date and you’re communicating the right messaging. Read it as if you were a potential client or partner and notice what they would see.
7. Recommend 1 person in your network. One great way to get recommendations is to give them. Be thoughtful about who you give them to though. You should recommend those people who you have experienced their services.
8. Request 1 recommendation. Don’t just do great work for others. Ask them to recommend you as well. The best people to approach are those who already know, like and trust your work. There is a limit to how many people you can request recommendations from at one time. And you can’t ask someone more than once to recommend you if your request is pending. I know many of my own clients have told me what attracted them to me on LinkedIn was reading my client recommendations.
9. Leverage LinkedIn messaging. When you have a few minutes to kill, use the LinkedIn app on your smartphone to send and respond to messages. LinkedIn Messaging allows you to communicate with other LinkedIn members that you’re connected to. On LinkedIn, you can only message your 1st-degree connections (and, within group pages, fellow group members) for free. If you aren‘t connected, you always have the option to send an InMail. Next to each person’s photo you’ll see a green dot that lets you know they are online and on LinkedIn, which means people tend to message you back right away.
10. Create a quick video. Yes, you can create a video in just 15 minutes if you get out of the perfection trap. Smartphones have great video cameras which already has easy options to upload straight to YouTube from your phone. Just talk for 1-2 minutes where you can share a couple of quick tips. Then you can upload your video right from your phone straight to your page on LinkedIn. What attracts clients on LinkedIn faster is giving them the ability to feel like they can “meet” you even when you’re not available in person.
11. Share your comment on 1 or 2 LinkedIn posts in your feed. Ideally, you should look for posts on topics in your area of expertise. This is a great way to network with people and add value to conversations. Look for discussions that solve the problems of your ideal clients. When you add to the conversation, you’re showing the depth of your thought leadership on your topic and that not only attracts clients on LinkedIn the day you posted your comments, but even long after since your connections (and everyone else’s connections who commented) will have that post show up in all of their feeds as well.
12. Ask for an introduction. You can search LinkedIn for specific job titles as well as specific companies and geography and LinkedIn will show you a list of results and whether they are a 1st, 2nd or 3rd degree connection. It will also tell you who you are connected to who is connected to the potential prospect you wish to be introduced to. So, who makes a great strategic referral partner for you? Who is the ideal client / decision maker? You can find them all on LinkedIn, find how you’re connected to them and just ask for an introduction. It’s really that simple and easy.
If you’re currently not getting a steady flow of new leads and new clients from LinkedIn you’re stepping over $30,000, $100,000, even $250,000+ in new business. It makes sense then, to invest in getting expert help.
So, LinkedIn is just one of multiple marketing tactics you should have in your marketing plan. If you’re not yet sure what your marketing strategy should be, be sure to download my free printable MARKETING CHECKLISThere
QUESTION: What do you think is stopping you from unleashing the power of LinkedIn marketing for your business?
High-quality content is a sure way to attract new customers, as well as retain your existing audience. However, if you go online, seeking expertise on some pressing topic, as your customers often do, you will soon discover that finding a detailed, up-to-date reply that is easy to understand and follow is quite a task. You will likely need to shuffle through a couple of articles before you will get the answer you are looking for.
This is how your customers feel when they attempt to get some insight online – as you can imagine, it is very frustrating. This is exactly the reason why you shouldn’t settle for average content quality and post mediocre writing copies, but instead learn how you can make your articles “pop” and fulfill their purpose of supporting your company’s image, educating your audience, boosting traffic to your website, and, of course, generating more leads for your business.
By now you are probably asking yourself: how can I upgrade my content? To help you out, we will reveal some blog content writing tips that will teach you how to elevate your content and produce truly helpful and exceptional articles for your readers to enjoy and learn from.
8 Blog Content Writing Tips to Creating Lead Generating Content
#1: Learn your audience and what content they need
Studying potential customers is a great way to understand your target audience. Answer these basic questions when researching your product’s consumer:
What does your target audience look like?
What are their main sources of information?
What are their goals?
What main challenges do they face?
If you want to create lead-generating copies, always consider your target audience before you put any work into writing.
#2: Choose the right types of content
Once you get to know your audience, it will become clearer what type of articles they prefer consuming. Develop a list of content types and categories, based on customer’s likes, dislikes, wants, and needs. For each category, determine which stage of the buyer’s journey this content will be most efficient at. Creating content for specific stages of the sales funnel will increase content’s relevance.
Since we’re sharing our ultimate blog content writing tips today, here is a list of several types of content categories you should explore:
Educational information – can be used during the evaluation stage, where your target audience examines how a product meets their requirements.
Guides, infographics.
Landing pages.
Blog posts.
Check out this infographic that showcases different content types and how effectively they produce leads:
Information provided by Venngage
#3: Plan your content
A comprehensive content marketing strategy should include different forms of content for different target audiences with varying interests. At an industry level, it is imperative for your company to establish itself in its chosen area of business as an expert of the highest caliber with a high degree of trust. This is why you can’t simply post whatever and whenever it’s convenient – instead, you should do proper research, plan content according to customers’ needs, shining a light on some pressing topics that may arise in your industry. One of nifty copywriting secrets to top-notch content is not just its high quality, but also timely release – it should “hit the spot” exactly when customers need it.
Content planning also gives you time and opportunity not to rush articles, but spend the necessary time assuring their quality in the eyes of both readers and search engines. This step includes proper keyword research – determining which words and phrases resonate with the audience and should be included in your content. Conduct a thorough analysis of keywords in your niche, identify high traffic keywords, pinpoint which ones are a better fit for your articles.
#4: Create lead magnets
These content writing tips may not be news to you – make sure content is helpful for your readers, as well as easy to use. However, we would like to elaborate on this tip and give you a practical piece of advice that you can utilize for your benefit – create lead magnets. A lead magnet is a free, useful, easily downloadable information, usually exchanged for customer’s emails. There are hundreds of lead magnet options: guides, checklists, cheat sheets, infographics, reports, video tutorials, template kits, and so on.
No other content is as useful and handy as a powerful lead magnet. It provides value for customers but also allows you to expand your audience, collecting insight that will allow you to share more of your content with people who are actually interested in receiving it.
Here are some tips on writing a great lead magnet. Make sure that it is:
Specific.
Unique.
Easy to read.
Valuable.
Instantly downloadable.
As well as:
Shows off your expertise or unique proposition.
Solves a real problem.
Has a simple name, which makes it immediately clear what it is and how it can be used.
Powerful lead magnets build audiences’ trust, showing visitors of your website that you are eager to put expertise to good use and educate them. Such trust is valuable – it helps build a better relationship with the audience, driving them to closer explore what your business has to offer.
#5: Address your audience properly
Here is another copywriting secret that helps write more engaging and personalized content. When creating effective writing copies geared towards lead generation, remember the rule of three pronouns – “I/You /We”:
Write in the first person (use “I”);
Appeal to the reader directly (with the pronoun “you”);
Unite yourself with readers (using “we”);
Refer to the company by its name (instead of the pronoun “we”).
This creates an illusion of personal interaction between reader and writer, such that can only exist between two people, and not between a company and individual. Thus, content takes on an emotional connotation. Lead-generating content should be reader-oriented – it should talk about the reader and what they want to receive. Of course, this is only possible if you are writing for an audience, the interests, and needs of which you are well aware.
Writing is not easy. As long as we are on the topic of connecting with the audience, it is something that you can learn if you visit this site – it contains prime samples of content that you can learn from, studying real examples of high-quality academic writing.
#6: Use content framework: Problem–Agitate–Solve
Another way to level yourself with your customers is by showing that you feel what they feel, understand their problems. You can do so by applying this simple but well-established formula for writing persuasive content: PAS, which stands for “Problem/Pain”, “Agitate”, and “Solve”. Firstly, you should highlight the problem – paint it in vivid detail that will let your customers know that you understand them and relate. Secondly, elaborate on the problem, discuss its effects, building up tension to make your readers desperate for a solution. Finally, offer a straightforward solution that you can provide, thus creating the feeling of gratitude and relief in your readers.
#7: Create a sense of urgency
You can ramp up the “volume” of content and drive readers to take immediate action by setting a deadline or another time limit, describing consequences if readers miss out on your offer, keeping an assertive tone, utilizing a warm color palette for design, etc.
#8: Hint on taking action
CTA is commonly used to motivate readers. It doesn’t matter what is a topic of your content – you should always “keep eyes on the prize” and aim content at reaching your goals. If it’s lead generation, gear all content to make readers want to, for example, try your product. However, a trick is making an agenda discreet – don’t place direct demands, but weave subtle hints into text.
Sharing is Caring – Uncovering Blog Content Writing Tips
Even if your content failed to entice readers before, leave all worries behind – the above-mentioned tips on producing lead-generating content will help you create high-quality engaging, easily digestible writing copies that readers will not get enough of. We only have one question for you – are you ready for leads to swarm your website?
BIO: Kristin Savage
Kristin is a writer and editor with years of publicist and marketing experience under her belt. She uses her articles to speak with each reader individually and educate them on topics that keep them restless. Her skills and poise transfer through her writing, evoking readers to gain new knowledge by the pound. As a well-rounded specialist, she uses her voice to cut through the noise and deliver pure facts. In her free time, she loves playing video games and running.
If there is one thing businesses want and need today is getting found in search engines, specifically the giant and most popular of all – the great Google.
And I mean to say, not just get found on Google, but to appear on the first page of search results. This is why when building a website everything is planned out strategically from choosing a domain name to how you send traffic to your website domain.
Getting picked up on page one in search engines is a great way to attract targeted ideal prospects to your business. These people are your low hanging fruit because they are typing in search terms indicating they are researching the problem your business solves and/or they are ready to make a buying / hiring decision right now.
So, HOW can you help improve your chances of having your business website get found on Google? Let us hear from these 8 experts who shared their tips to help you get found online.
Choose Exactly Which Keyword You Want To Be Found For
Fiona Flintham shares on The First Thing You Must Do To Get Found On Google
First mistake many people make – is choosing the wrong keywords.
Words and phrases that either have billions of results and so are hugely competitive (think ‘iphone’, ‘coke’, ‘how to be happy’ (!)):
That’s never going to end well.
Or, the other end of the scales is choosing keywords and phrases that no-one searches for. Or using jargon or language that your ideal customers don’t use.
Choose a keyword phrase that’s specific enough to your business (read ‘not massively competitive’) but which has enough people searching for it that you will benefit from being there on the search results.
Best way to choose?
Research it.
Take the time to sit down and use a keyword research tool to find which words and phrases your audience are searching for, AND which is not too competitive.
In Marilie Doman’s article on 10 ways to get found on Google in 2016
Have a great-looking website that does not only cater for desktop users, but also for mobile. Also, make sure that all the technical elements have been taken care of with the Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines (this includes making sure that you have good page load speed time), and do regular checks for errors on the site, from 404s to 500 server errors. Having a proper hierarchy will not just improve user experience, but will also assist in rankings.
Kristi Hines’ article on 5 Ways to Make Your Blog Appear in Search Engines
People love pictures and video, so why not include a few photos or YouTube videos in your blog? Not only will your readers appreciate the compelling content, but the search engines will rank your blog more favorably as well.
When you use search engine-optimized videos and images in your articles, your blog will come up more frequently in video and image related searches, and it will get more traffic. Whatever images or video you use, be sure to match your media to the audience you want to attract.
Mike Brown shares his thoughts on The Secrets to Getting Your Blog Indexed on Google
To help Google get a head start on indexing your site, consider creating a site map.
A site map is a unique XML document that essentially provides a detailed list of each of your website’s pages and their content. It helps search engines realize when your blog adds new pages and alerts Google that it should check back for any new changes, both of which are things that can help you get indexed faster and gain a more positive spot in the SERPs once you’ve been indexed.
To create a site map on a WordPress blog, all you need to do is install Google’s XML Site maps Plugin.
This plugin will automatically generate a site map for your blog and submit it to the search engines of your choice.
Jin Wang offer’s his advise on Get found in Google, Facebook & Twitter with Meta Tags
When people share your content on social media how does it look? What can we do to make it as engaging as possible in the blink of an eye, and in a sea of other posts?
Going back to sharing my article on Facebook:
To start, you can see why it’s so important to have a featured image for each post. In the before picture, I’ve removed my featured image. See how Facebook grabs any image it can find (my Author Website Buyer’s Guide cover). One that isn’t even related to my article.
Dave Lawrence from Follow Up Boss shares the importance of a mobile-friendly websites in his article 4 Simple Tips To Get Your Small Real Estate Business Found Online
Google outright told us last year that they were expanding their use of mobile-friendliness as a search ranking factor. It’s easy to see why: Google’s job is to deliver quality results to search engine users, and a huge number of those users are searching by mobile.
Besides helping your search engine ranking, being mobile-friendly is helpful to give your customers a better experience. Mobile-friendly websites are optimized to fit the mobile device, meaning they are easier to navigate and require less “pinching” of the screen.
Huyen Truong gives importance to testimonials on his article 6 Simple Tips to Rank High in Google’s Search Engine
Always give online testimonials to your suppliers, business partners or anyone else you can give a testimonial to, as it is a great way to get free back links from legitimate websites. Don’t forget to include your strategic keywords into your testimonials and hyperlink it back to the appropriate webpage from your website. Following the tips above and doing your research are all starter steps in helping your business get found on Google. Of course, there is more to it than just these 8 tips alone. Otherwise, SEO agencies would not exist. But, use this as your starter checklist to set a good foundation for getting your website found by Google.
There’s nothing wrong with aiming high – but striving for perfection could be hindering your success, If you can relate to any of these 5 signs, you need to get out of your own way, and stop being a perfectionist:
Sign #1 – Success is black and white
A lot of perfectionists can be characterized by their black or white approach to success and failure. Instead of appreciating a spectrum of success, with some business ideas achieving moderate, or even mixed results, perfectionists will view everything they do as either a complete success, or a total failure. This can be severely hindering to a business, as it encourages an attitude of ‘all-or-nothing’ – with entrepreneurs unable to see the good in their ideas, and unable to achieve satisfaction in anything they do.
Tip to get out of your own way:
Remind yourself that even bad ideas can offer value; and a failure is one step closer to success.
Sign #2 – You won’t take risks
This tendency to view all failures as completely catastrophic encourages an attitude of risk-adverseness – a desire to avoid any and all risk. An element of risk is part-and-parcel of being an entrepreneur (‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’), and being a perfectionist can reduce the growth of your business, and your willingness to adopt new ideas.
I knew a small business owner, a friend of mine, that was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – to pitch their products to one of the market-leading giants of their industry. My friend was relatively successful, with a small but established customer base; and the perceived risk of scaling up their business was too much for them. They declined the offer, and missed out on the chance to sell their products internationally. Why? Because they didn’t want to risk failing – no matter how small the risk, or how big the reward.
Tip to get out of your own way:
Try and identify a spectrum of risk; ranging from small, harmless risks, to huge, life-altering ones. Make a conscious effort to take a small risk on a regular basis.
Sign #3 – You take criticism personally
Criticism is crucial to the development of a business, and the advice of our peers can provide some of the best insights into successful business development. Perfectionists have a tendency to take this criticism very personally – and they’re unable to separate business criticism from personal criticism. This happens because perfectionists invest themselves into their ideas, and take professional criticism as an attack upon their abilities. This can prevent businesses from making vital changes, and can severely limit growth.
Tip to get out of your own way:
Critique your own ideas, and try to identify an aspect of your business that could do with improving.
Sign #4 – You never reach your goals
Perfectionists are renowned for setting unreachable goals; and even rationalizing away their success when they do reach them. Perfection is rarely attainable, especially for real-world businesses and people. There are always limits and problems that arise from government legislation, employees and sheer logistics – and striving for the perfect business will prevent an entrepreneur from ever reaching their goal. Even successful entrepreneurs might never be satisfied – because they believe that their business could always be improved.
Tip to get out of your own way:
Analyze your ambitions – are they realistic? Could they ever be achieved? Set goals that are aspirational, but still founded in reality.
Sign #5 – You think unhappiness is the price of success
The end-result? Unhappiness. Most perfectionists believe unhappiness to be part-and-parcel of achieving success, and live unfulfilling lives because they think it’s vital to achieving their goals. In reality though, happiness should be a goal in its own right – and success at the expense of your own happiness isn’t really success at all.
Tip to get out of your own way:
Make happiness an ambition, and don’t strive for success at the expense of your own happiness.
QUESTION: What tips do you use to get out of your own way? How do you prevent yourself from being overly-perfectionist? Let me know in the comments!
In the digital age, setting up trade show tips, and talking to actual people might seem like a trip back to the stone age, but 99 percent of marketers find unique value in this format, according to the Trade Show News Network. With face-to-face meetings, you can reel in more clients and, because so many of your clients will be in the same place at once, you can build brand awareness with all of them in one fell swoop. Before you set up your next trade show be sure to include these trade show tips to help you generate more leads.
Exhibiting doesn’t need to be expensive and, if you integrate these six trade show tips into your show strategy, you could easily increase your profits without spending an extra dime:
Trade Show Tips #1: Make It Interactive
The more a potential client has to do in your booth, the longer they will stay. The longer you have them in front of you, the more likely they are to become a client. To keep them, your booth needs to engage and captivate. How can you make it interactive?
Inc.com reports that Monster, the career building company, has kept people in its booths by letting them play with interactive touch screens. If that’s out of your budget, bring demos of your products or iPads with interactive tours of your ideas. Even handing someone a clipboard with a form to fill out could be considered interactive.
Trade Show Tip #2: Process Sales on Site
One way to double your success is to collect money at the event itself. If someone’s excited about your product, let them have it then and there. Thanks to mobile credit card processing, you can easily charge someone’s credit card, using just your phone. Most companies offer a free card reader and charge a small percentage per transaction. You can set up this convenience without having to spend a lot of cash upfront.
Trade Show Tip #3: Secure Prime Real Estate
The show producer probably charges the same amount of money for every spot in the show. You can spend extra cash and buy a larger booth, but there are ways to be seen without digging too deeply into your pockets.
Buy your booth early and ask the producer to let you pick out your own spot. Choose a booth near the front doors, on a corner, or at the top of an aisle. The more foot traffic you have coming past, the more opportunities for earning you have. If spots aren’t assigned before the show, arrive as early as possible so you can stake out a prime piece of real estate.
Trade Show Tip #4: Promote! Promote! Promote!
Obviously, the show producer will run a big marketing campaign leading up to the show, but don’t forget to do your own work, as well. Forbes reminds exhibitors to promote the event as if it’s their own, because it is. Invite your network to the event, send email blasts to your contact lists, and even buy extra tickets so you can let your best clients into the show for free.
Trade Show Tip #5: Speak Up!
You are an expert in your field, and the show needs to fill time slots on its stage. Offer to speak. It will bring you, your brand, and your products more attention. Tailor the speech to the show attendees. If it’s a consumer show, stick with how to’s, consumer tips, or product demos. If it’s a show full of industry peers, talk about things that will grab their attention, like shifts in the industry or new product trends.
Trade Show Tip #6: Offer an Irresistible Incentive!
Among all the trade show tips the first objective you should focus on is how you will get more traffic to the table. Your aim here is not necessarily to attract the immediate sales opportunities (although that may sound more intuitive). What is even more valuable to you is to leave with contact information of potential prospects who could be in the market in the future. Featuring an irresistible incentive to motivate attendees to give you their business card or fill out your lead sheet should be on the top of your trade show tips strategy.
QUESTION: What is a creative strategy you’ve used? Share your best trade show tips in the comment box below.
Need help generating more leads from your trade shows? Book a complimentary discovery coaching call with me here.