5 Profile Set-up Tips Proven to Boost your Start-up on LinkedIn.

SO, IN THIS ARTICLE I’LL ANALYZE:

How to set-up your (personal) profile, to maximize conversions.

Using LinkedIn for client acquisition is the oldest trick in the books; should you check the books from 2017 onwards. Now it’s 2021 and you either lead the game or… watch the competition pass you by like a passer-by. We can remedy this by incorporating the following core-tips in your marketing strategy. For starters, your LinkedIn profile is not a digital CV. On LinkedIn you should have a clear goal, and your every action needs to bring you one step closer.

The underlying philosophy:

Build your profile as a landing page. Or as a mini and humane sales pitch. Remember the goal is to attract and convert potential customers. We want the visitors to instantly think: “Oh, this person/business can actually help me!”.
In a nutshell, your profile needs to answer the “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me) instantly!
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First things first: Your profile photo.

KISS (keep it stupid simple). Good lighting, a smile, a business/casual attire and a non-cluttered background. Most successful people are using a simple photo like the one I just described and it gets the job done. Sometimes following the path that’s been laid before us is not such a miserable idea.

Up next, your cover photo:

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Again, do your research.

See what your successful competitors and peers are using. It can be everything from a landscape to a “PowerPoint-like slide”.

It should be clean, professional-looking & include a tad of branding – just don’t make it look like a restaurant menu. If unsure, use a panoramic photo of you, your city or your start-up.

Another option is a clean background with either a solid colour or a gradient using your brand’s corporate ID template, and your logo.

Now, let's get serious. | CTA | Headline

The CTA, aka Call To Action. That little blue button, next to your name. You can edit that and have it redirect people to your actual landing page. Where they get more information and an invitation to… call, subscribe, buy etc.

Now your “Headline”. Don’t confuse it with your “About me”; we’ll get to that in a minute.

Your “Headline” must include your “elevator pitch”.

If you need more help sorting that out, leave a comment, and either I or someone on the 42PLUS1 team, we’ll come back with a blog post answering that.;)

TL/DR, your headline should be answering the following:

Who you help.

Define your target audience. Your early adopters.

How you help them.

Briefly present the tools and techniques you are using to create value for your customer.

What Results you create.

While user testimonials are welcome, here you only need to mention in a few words the results you get for your clients.

E.g. Brand Awareness.

About Me

About "me"

Now, let's focus on your "About Me" section. SPOILER ALERT: It's not about YOU. It needs to be about your audience's favourite topic: Themselves.

Tip No 1:

Don't talk about yourself in Third Person. WHO DOES THAT? Who does that in real life? It's creepy. If you need to give a good account of yourself, you can do it without having that sound as if your typist is writing a sonata about you. Rather, talk about how you can help them. In other words: Your Value Proposition (VP).

Quick Examples:

"We help start-ups and growth companies acquire seed and/or series A funding, fast and securely." "I help busy entrepreneurs stay fit and healthy without having them compromise their tight schedule."

The next paragraph, or bullet list, in your "About Me"...

…can present 2-4 pain points your customers are facing and a brief mention on how you solve them.

e.g.: “Working Long Hours? Our service is available 24/7.” or “Tight on budget? We offer 5 tiers of memberships tailor-made to suit everyone’s needs.”

Now… you are allowed to talk about your background.

Use this next paragraph to mention 1-3 reasons on why and how you are qualified to help. Show to your reader why/how you have come to be an expert in your niche. -Sidenote: you do not need to be famous, to support that. For all we know you can be one of the myriad Kafkas out there that had never been given the chance to share their amazing work with the right people yet.

As a final "bullet" or "paragraph" you can add a sort of a disclaimer.
Or to put it differently, set your limits.

Let’s say you are an amazing fitness coach. You don’t want to work with customers who are not willing to invest at least X dollars and Y minutes per week. You can state that, not only to filter out and discourage value-leeches from meddling with your time, but in addition to position yourself as a “proper professional”.

THAT was the 1st step: How to optimise your profile for your ideal, albeit potential, customer.

Up next, is: how to find, connect and engage with fruitful leads. (title to be finalized)

This topic deserves its own article. So, in an effort to keep these blogs as short & as informative as possible I think that this is all for today.