Having a strategic LinkedIn presence can be the difference between struggling to find clients and having a steady pipeline of leads.
That’s where my Profile to Pipeline Framework comes in. It’s designed to help small business owners transform their LinkedIn profile into a lead-generating tool and use it strategically to engage with their ideal clients.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through my Profile to Pipeline Framework, and explain how my Profile Optimization service and Leads on LinkedIn program fit into this framework and work together to create a streamlined, effective approach to LinkedIn marketing for small business owners.
When I optimize your LinkedIn profile, I ensure your LinkedIn profile demonstrates your credibility as a small business owner, and that it is strategically crafted to convert viewers into leads. And when we work together through in my Leads on LinkedIn offer, we focus on LinkedIn posting and direct messaging so that you’ll feel comfortable sharing thought leadership content and engaging in meaningful conversations with ideal clients to grow your pipeline.
Having the Profile to Pipeline Framework helps us stay focused on needle-moving activities that will get you the results you set out for—getting clients to reach out, visit your website, or book a call. It also prevents us from chasing the newest trend and getting lost down rabbit holes of creating video content, writing newsletters, and contributing to collaborative articles on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Profile Optimization
The first part of the Profile to Pipeline Framework is Profile Optimization, which is essential to establish your credibility and make sure your LinkedIn presence serves your goals and converts appropriately.
Before you begin posting or doing outreach, it’s critical to have a LinkedIn profile that clearly communicates who you are, what you do, and how you help your clients. Without an optimized profile, people likely won't fully grasp your expertise, which can cause them to overlook or misunderstand you. A strong profile sends a clear message about your skills and credibility, guiding viewers toward taking the next steps—whether it's reaching out, visiting your website, or booking a call.
An optimized profile includes the following:
A headline that explain what you do and who you help
An about section that focuses both on why you're qualified and who you help
Featured link(s) that encourage conversions
Recommendations that show the results you've achieved for others
Design elements that highlight your professionalism and brand
and more!
Optimizing your profile on your own can be quite time-consuming., because you not only have to figure out what words to use, but which sections to prioritize and how to technically go about updating your profile. Figuring it out on your own is possible, but the process is often frustrating and distracting from other key activities in your business.
When you invest in the Profile Optimization service, I take care of the heavy lifting for you. All you only need to fill out a questionnaire, and from there, I create a Google Document with all the changes I recommend you make, design included! I even include step-by-step tutorial videos so it's easy to implement the changes on your profile (and it means you don't need to hand over your username and password to me).
One of my clients, a nonprofit consultant, shared her feedback on the profile optimization process after fully updating her profile.
When optimized, your profile is positioned to convert visitors into leads. The next step of the puzzle is to refine how you attract traffic to your profile.
(Dive deeper into what having an "optimized LinkedIn profile" means by reading this blog post.)
LinkedIn Posting
The second part of the Profile to Pipeline framework is posting. By pre-scheduling content and sharing it consistently (I typically recommend 2x a week), you engage your audience and stay top of mind without added stress.
Posting regularly allows you to build trust at scale—instead of relying on 1:1 conversations, you get to share your ideas and expertise with many people at once. They then see your valuable insights, and that consistent visibility helps establish your authority.
While frequent posting is important, it's not just about pushing out content. When it comes to LinkedIn, quality beats quantity every day of the week.
Read why I don't recommend that my clients post 5x a week in this short blog post.
We follow my 3P framework for posting, which includes these three elements:
Plan:
Determine topics that will resonate with your audience
Create systems to stay accountable
Select your posting frequency
Prepare:
Write the posts!
Incorporate visuals, as needed
Repurpose to other platforms, as needed
Perfect:
Refine your posts to ensure they fit LinkedIn
Schedule your content so you can sit back and relax
Our goal is not to attract broad-stroked visibility. It's to get potential clients to become familiar with the things they need to know to be ready to buy from you.
One concern I often hear is "but how long will this take?"
While the amount of time it takes to write LinkedIn content take depends on how fast you write, most of my clients can write a month's worth of content in 1-2 hours per month.Â
In my program Leads on LinkedIn, I even include a resource called "How to Write Posts Faster" to help you drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to write posts. My plug-and-play post templates and sample content plan also provide a great point when crafting content. No more staring at a blank screen.
LinkedIn Direct Messaging
The third part of the Profile to Pipeline Framework is direct messaging, which allows you to take control of your outreach by engaging with prospects who are likely to be interested in your services. Unlike traditional cold pitching, this approach focuses on starting genuine conversations, not pushing for a sale.
By identifying prospects who have a higher-than-average potential interest in your work, you build relationships with the right people and build trust over time. Messaging on LinkedIn allows you to personally connect with potential clients, putting you in control of lead generation without feeling salesy. I recommend spending 15 minutes on direct messaging a few days a week, though can scale this up or down depending on how urgent your lead generation needs are in the current season.Â
(You might be thinking "direct messaging is salesy". While many direct messages are salesy, they don't have to be. Check out this article where I breakdown why direct messaging (at least the way I teach it!) doesn't feel salesy.)
Niels Kwakernaak’s Story
Niels, like many small business owners, was frustrated with his experience on LinkedIn. He spent countless hours posting content and watching people visit his profile, but nothing came of it. He thought his profile was decent, but it wasn’t converting. That’s when he hired me to help him optimize his profile. I suggested dozens of improvements he hadn't considered, and provided step-by-step guidance on how to make the changes. After implementing her recommendations, Niels began receiving private messages from prospects, new subscribers to his course, and even an unexpected discovery call.Â
Dani Sarusi's Story
Dani Sarusi came to me just as she was about to start marketing her small business on LinkedIn. Previously, most of her marketing had occurred on Instagram.
First, she bought a Profile Optimization. With a stronger profile in place, Dani quickly moved into the second stage, Leads on LinkedIn, where I taught her how to use posting and messaging to grow her client pipeline. Dani even received a lead during one of our sessions together! Beyond the immediate results of having more qualified leads in her pipeline, Dani felt she finally had the freedom to relax during weekends and holidays, knowing her marketing was running peacefully in the background.Â
The Order
The Profile to Pipeline Framework requires that you start with your profile. You can’t build a posting and direct messaging strategy without first nailing your profile. However, the rest of the strategy is flexible and can be adjusted to fit your schedule. Meaning, if you have more time to dedicate to LinkedIn, you can scale up your efforts for even greater impact. And if you’re short on time and have a full client roster, the system can be scaled down but still working in the background, ensuring you’re ready for your next lull in work (without overwhelming you!).
By streamlining and simplifying your efforts, the Profile to Pipeline Framework help you
use LinkedIn strategically and grow your small business.
How I can help you
When I start working with a small business owner, we always start with organic marketing efforts. We begin by optimizing your profile so that you clearly explain your credibility, who you serve, how you serve them, and what action the profile viewer should take.
Then, we create a custom LinkedIn strategy for you so that you can feel comfortable navigating LinkedIn and find right-fit clients for your business. We learn how to use DM outreach and content to bring the right clients into your orbit so you can consistently grow your business. And lastly, you implement the strategy with my support.
Learn more and get started here.
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