You can fill your consulting business's pipeline with LinkedIn organic marketing

In several recent discovery calls, I've heard consultants say that they aren't getting leads despite posting regularly. Unfortunately, you can't rely on LinkedIn posts alone to generate leads for your business (at least if you want consistent leads!). 

In the early 2020s, that might have been enough. Unfortunately, it isn't anymore, as more LinkedIn users are posting today than in years past. Posts are one part of an effective LinkedIn strategy, but two other parts are essential (more on that below).

Having the right strategy on LinkedIn is the difference between struggling to find clients and having a steady pipeline of leads.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through the three parts of my Profile to Pipeline Framework (pictured below) and explain how my Profile Optimization service and Leads on LinkedIn program fit into this framework, working together to create a streamlined, effective approach to LinkedIn marketing for your consulting business.

Before we jump in, I want to be crystal clear: your goal on LinkedIn is to get leads, not to become a LinkedIn influencer.

That means that we measure your success by booking discovery calls, not reaching an arbitrary number of impressions. It's important that before you take more actions on LinkedIn, we get on the same page so you don't spend time on strategies that weren't meant for your type of business.

Having the Profile to Pipeline Framework keeps you focused on the three needle-moving activities that get you these results. It prevents us from chasing the newest trend and getting lost down rabbit holes like creating time-consuming video content, writing long newsletters, and contributing to collaborative articles on LinkedIn (all things that won't help you if you haven't mastered the basics).

Part 1: LinkedIn Profile Optimization

The first part of the Profile to Pipeline Framework is to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

It’s critical to have a LinkedIn profile that clearly communicates who you are, what you do, and how you help your clients before you begin posting or doing outreach.

Whether you like it or not, your LinkedIn posts and direct outreach lead potential clients back to your profile. It serves a similar function to your website in your online ecosystem.

An optimized profile includes the following:

• A headline that explains what you do and who you help.

• An "about" section that highlights your credibility and speaks to your ideal client.

• Featured link(s) that encourage conversions to discovery calls.

• Recommendations that show the results you've achieved for your clients.

• Design elements that highlight your professionalism and brand.

• and more!

DIY-ing your profile can be a significant time suck because you're left guessing what to write, which sections to prioritize, and how to make all the updates within the platform. The process is often frustrating and distracting from other key activities in your business.

Business owners often share with me that they spent 10+ hours tweaking their profile before finding my profile optimization service! That's time they could have been spending bringing in new clients or serving their existing clients.

Those same business owners are often relieved to know that I offer a LinkedIn Profile Optimization service, where I do the heavy lifting for you. Before I continue on to Parts 2 and 3 of the framework, I wanted to share a few details about it with you:

When I help you with your LinkedIn profile, you share some basics about your business with me through a simple intake form. Then, I prepare a summary of every change I recommend you make to your profile, design included!

I even include step-by-step tutorial videos (each just 1-3 minutes) so each change is easy to update (and it means you don't need to hand over your username and password to me).

Here's what one of my clients, a nonprofit consultant, shared about the profile optimization process after fully updating her profile:

If you want to dive deeper into what exactly is included in an optimized profile, you'll enjoy this blog post which dives deep into the topic.

Part 2: LinkedIn Posting

The second part of the Profile to Pipeline framework is posting. By pre-scheduling content and sharing it consistently (I recommend 2x a week), you engage your audience and stay top of mind without added stress.

Posting regularly enables you to build trust at scale, rather than relying on time-consuming one-on-one conversations. You get to share your ideas and expertise with many people at once. This establishes you as a thought leader and creates familiarity.

While it's important to post consistently, quality posts beat quantity of posts every day of the week. That's why I never recommend posting 5x a week, which you can read more about in this short blog post.

Our goal is not to attract broad visibility. This brings me back to what I said earlier in this blog post: your goal on LinkedIn is not to become a LinkedIn influencer. It's to use LinkedIn to get clients. Your content should familiarize potential clients with the information they need to know to be ready to buy from you.

Before we explore the third part of the Profile to Pipeline Framework, I wanted to answer a question that might be surfacing for you...

You might be wondering, "But how long will this take?"

While the amount of time it takes to write LinkedIn content depends on how fast you write, most of my clients can write a month's worth of content in a few hours per month. 

In my monthly coaching program Leads on LinkedIn, I include a custom ChatGPT bot that dramatically speeds up your content creation process. I also include a resource called "How to Write Posts Faster" with nine strategies to be more efficient with content creation.

And, my plug-and-play post templates and sample content plan provide a clear starting point when crafting content.

Part 3: 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 and referral partners who are likely to be interested in your services. Unlike traditional cold pitching, this approach focuses on starting genuine conversations.

Messaging potential clients:

By identifying prospects with a higher-than-average potential interest in your work, you build relationships with the right people. Because you choose who you send messages to, you get to decide which folks are potential clients. This puts you in control of your lead generation. No more sitting back and wondering "who will reach out to me?".

You can book calls directly from sending direct messages. In my program Leads on LinkedIn, I share the exact structure you can use to do that on repeat in your business (I love this particular approach because it's genuine, easy to implement, and most importantly, gets results!)

Messaging prospects:

I recommend spending 15 minutes on direct messaging a few days a week; however, you can scale this up or down depending on the urgency of your lead generation needs during the current season. In other words, just double the amount of time you're spending on LinkedIn if you want more leads.

Also, if you're thinking "direct messaging is salesy", you've likely received dozens of salesy direct messages that weren't effective. The good news, however, is that direct messages don't have to be this way. Check out this article where I explain why direct messaging doesn't feel salesy to you or the recipient.

I love seeing my clients implement direct messaging for their businesses, as it works quickly. Check out the screenshot of a message I received on LinkedIn:

By the way, you don't need LinkedIn Premium to send direct messages! This is good news because LinkedIn subscriptions can cost upwards of $1,000 a year, and many LinkedIn experts say it's a requirement to succeed on LinkedIn. For the record, I run a LinkedIn consulting business and don't even have a Premium account myself!

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 my recommendations, Niels began receiving private messages from prospects, new subscribers to his course, and even an unexpected discovery call. 

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. 

The next steps you can take to get leads on LinkedIn

I want you to approach LinkedIn strategically so you can spend less time on LinkedIn while getting strong results from the platform. Here's how I can help you with that:

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 so you can get visible to the right audience and attract more interest in your offerings through my coaching program Leads on LinkedIn.

This program takes two months. 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 whenever you want an influx of leads. And, this rinse-and-repeat process gets more effective every time you do it!

Step 3: After, we create a habit of LinkedIn marketing through my coaching program so that you can count on ongoing leads for your business. We integrate LinkedIn with your other marketing strategies (e.g. email and in-person networking) to prevent duplicate work and create a marketing ecosystem that gets you leads and clients.

Learn more and get started here.