I can feel tempting to try and figure out LinkedIn on your own to promote your small business. Anyways, how hard can it be to write content and send messages?
I understand that you want to figure it out. I want you to figure it out, too!
In this blog post, I’ll share how you can figure it out while getting critical support to prevent you from making common - and costly - mistakes.
To start, you are a business owner, not a job seeker. Unfortunately, most of the LinkedIn advice out there is geared toward job seekers and those who are formally employed, as that’s LinkedIn’s bread and butter. When advice isn't for job seekers, it's often for those who are employed and working at companies with significant budgets.
As such, when you Google questions about LinkedIn, you’ll likely find the typical audience is one of the following:
Job seekers
Employed individuals
Large companies
Startups
As a side note, I think of LinkedIn as having two sides - one side is for job seekers / finders, and the other is for product and service seekers / finders. In my business (and on this blog), I don’t touch the job-related side of LinkedIn!
Trying to apply the advice you find online is like fitting a square peg in a round hole. That's because the strategies needed to make sales in your service-based small business are different than the strategies you need to find your next job or promote a multinational company.
For example, as a small business owner, your LinkedIn profile’s about section should focus heavily on the clients you serve and the problems they face. In contrast, when you’re looking for a job, your LinkedIn profile’s about section should center on your professional story and experience.
When you implement advice that was built for a different audience, you will likely get results; however, these results likely won't get you closer to the results you want. For instance, you might find that you get results such as more followers and impressions, but in all likelihood, those results won’t help you accomplish your actual goal of getting more clients—let alone the right clients.
(In this related blog post, I explain what creating a LinkedIn strategy for a small business means and why you need one to get leads on LinkedIn.)
As a small business owner, your primary goal on LinkedIn is to find clients, not to go viral.
In my coaching program Leads on LinkedIn, we don’t focus on metrics like impressions, likes, comments, and followers nearly at all, because those metrics don’t move the needle and grow your business. Instead, we focus on metrics like leads, posts scheduled, and direct messages sent.
Here are 3 common mistakes business owners make when trying to figure out LinkedIn on their own:
Unclear positioning
As a small business owner, it is critical that your LinkedIn profile and posts demonstrate who you serve, how you can help, and what the next steps are. If you don’t have clear positioning, you will attract interest, but prospects won’t understand how you can help them with their unique problems. In other words, you'll grow your engagement and impressions on the platform, but it won’t get you closer to getting leads for your business.
Focusing on the wrong features
LinkedIn has a ton of fancy features like LinkedIn lives, collaborative articles, service pages, video content, and more. It can be tempting to try out and invest in these features. However, you have limited time as a business owner. In my program Leads on LinkedIn, we hone in on LinkedIn posts and direct messages, the two best and most sustainable strategies to find clients for your small business.
Burning your credibility
I’m surprised how often I see posts and direct messages that burn a business owner's credibility.
Via posts: When small business owners share content on LinkedIn, they often write personal content about past mistakes and failures and upcoming goals. However, many of these posts unintentionally discredit the expert, leaving their audience interested but simultaneously destroying trust. You can get all the engagement in the world on posts like these, but if your audience doesn’t trust you, they won’t buy from you.
Via direct messages: When small business owners direct message prospects on LinkedIn, they often try to hit a quota and ask themselves “how am I converting these prospects into clients?”. Accordingly, they are quick to send pitches via direct message, asking relevant prospects whether their services are a fit. This strategy is exhausting and unsustainable. Instead of relying on direct pitching, I encourage you to take a relationship-focused approach to direct messaging. You can learn more about why DMs don’t have to be salesy in this blog post.
You know there’s potential in LinkedIn, but figuring out which steps are worth your time and will actually bring leads is a huge challenge—especially when most LinkedIn advice is designed for job seekers and corporations, not for you as a small business owner.
The next steps you can take to get leads on LinkedIn (and how I can help you)
When we work together, I'll help you avoid the costly mistakes dicsussed above -- and several others. Here's how my offers work:
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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