What is a LinkedIn strategy?

As you've been scrolling through LinkedIn, you may have heard experts saying, "You need to have a strategy for LinkedIn."

If you don't have a strategy, they say: 

• You'll be wasting your time

• You'll attract the wrong people

• You'll grow followers but not income 

So, it sounds like a good idea to have a LinkedIn strategy.

But what does that actually mean? Is it a list of the times in the day you should post? Influencers you should follow? Hours you should spend on the platform? 

(To me, it's none of those things!) 

In this blog post, I’m going to outline what the term "LinkedIn Strategy" means, so that you can take the first steps toward creating one of your own for your small business. 

Let's start with a simple definition.

A LinkedIn strategy is a thoughtful plan for how to use LinkedIn to achieve your specific business goals. 

My Profile to Pipeline framework outlines the needle-moving actions needed to get clients on LinkedIn. The three elements of the framework are:

1. An optimized profile

2. High-quality content

3. Effective direct outreach

Your LinkedIn strategy begins with an optimized profile, as it serves as a landing page for your business. Your profile tells your prospects that you're credible and explains to them what problems you solve and how to get started working with you.

You can learn more about what an optimized profile is and why it matters in this short blog post.

Your ongoing LinkedIn strategy should include high-quality content and effective direct outreach.

Posting content and sending direct messages to potential clients and referral partners generate demand for your services, demonstrate your credibility, and position you as the obvious right fit for your ideal clients. 

LinkedIn Posting: I recommend posting on LinkedIn twice a week, as this is a sweet spot where you aren't overwhelmed with writing too much content, but you also stay top of mind.

These posts can be short (such as polls or questions) or long (such as stories, insights, and tips). I help my clients write posts faster in my coaching program Leads on LinkedIn through my training resource "how to write posts faster" and my on-demand copy reviews, where I provide personalized feedback on their posts.

LinkedIn Direct Messaging: I recommend sending at least 10 direct messages a week to start or nurture conversations with potential clients and referral partners. When you have conversations in the direct messages on LinkedIn, you build relationships, identify problems that your clients have, and position yourself to solve those problems.

These messages can include compliments, questions, and offers to help. I help my clients craft thoughtful and effective direct messages in my coaching program by sharing dozens of customizable templates tailored to their business and providing on-demand direct messaging feedback, so they always know they're conveying the right message.

Your plan for using LinkedIn should also include the following:

• What you write about

• How you find content ideas

• When you post

• Who you engage with

• How you grow your network

• Who you message

• How you follow up

• What you send to them

When your LinkedIn strategy is in place, your audience naturally grows and becomes primed to buy from you, generating leads for your business and therefore increasing your profitability. 

But what about other features like LinkedIn lives, newsletters, and video?

LinkedIn offers a range of features on the platform and continues to introduce new ones to enhance engagement. It can be tempting to try out each of these features and figure out how they work. However, they're not essential to get clients, and are often distracting.

That's why I recommend that you first get in the habit of posting at least twice a week and sending 10 direct messages each week. The foundation of a strong LinkedIn strategy is consistency with simple actions that build visibility and start conversations.

When you use LinkedIn strategically, you spend less time on the platform.

With this plan in place, you no longer rely on random, disjointed efforts to grow your business and following. Instead, you know what to do in just a few hours of intentional work a week.

Creating and implementing an intentional LinkedIn strategy means that... 

• You don't rely just on posting 

• You build relationships with relevant referral partners and clients

• You have effective tools to generate demand for your services

• You no longer guess which actions to take on LinkedIn

• You know how to generate leads on demand 

The way you use LinkedIn and your mindset on the platform matter.

Small business owners go wrong when they: 

• Rely exclusively on posting to generate leads, and avoid sending direct messages

• Send messages without tracking them in their lead list, allowing leads and follow-up to fall through the cracks

• Focus on selling instead of building relationships in the direct messages, burning trust and tanking response rates

(Many small business owners dread sending direct messages and therefore avoid sending them. Learn the three reasons why you dread sending direct messages today in this short blog post.)

This is why having a thoughtful LinkedIn strategy is so important. It keeps you focused on taking actions that generate interest for your services, without wasting your time. 

The next steps you can take to get leads on LinkedIn.

I want you to develop a thoughtful yet simple LinkedIn strategy that doesn't require posting five times a week or sending spammy cold messages.

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 with 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 two-month program focuses 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: Then, 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.