Linkedin is the biggest B2B network in the world. It has become increasingly popular in recent years, as it has continued to develop its advertising platform, recently integrating it with Bing Ads to form the Microsoft Advertising platform.

While the paid advertising options offer a range of ways to generate leads, there are lots of business-development opportunities to be taken advantage of without spending any money.

Compared to the likes of Facebook, the ‘organic reach’ i.e. the number of people that you can reach with your posts and updates – is vast. By creating a professional profile and generating lots of informative, educational and interesting posts that utilize several media formats – images, slideshows and videos – you can experience success relatively quickly on Linkedin. Whether you are looking for a new job, or looking for new clients, it pays to have a presence on Linkedin in 2020.

We look at how you can make the most of Linkedin, without spending any money…

Profile Picture

When you don’t have a profile picture, you won’t get as many requests and people won’t respond or engage with you as much.

Use a clean head-shot.

The image should be:

• High quality
• Recent
• Close up
• You should be looking at the camera
• You should be smiling
• Dressed professionally
• Neutral background

Don’t wear sunglasses and don’t use a picture of you drinking alcohol.

You can even use the website Photo Feeler to get feedback on your image.

Cover Photo

Make sure your cover photo is something that you are happy people to associate with you. People are going to judge your profile within a few seconds, using your images mainly. The cover photo can represent your attitude or personality and it can just be a photo that you really like! Either way, make sure it is high quality.

If you don’t have a cover photo that you especially like, you can always create one using a template on a website such as Canva.com

If you have a cover photo, you are 9 times more likely to get a connection request according to Afzal Hussein.

Headline

Keep your headline to the point. The headline is the sentence next to your profile photo.

Make people want to read more about you, with a great headline.

Use your job title, then company name, then some keywords.

For example, if your job title is “digital marketing executive” then your headline might look like this:

“Digital Marketing Executive | FunkyHouse Marketing | SEO, PPC, CRO, Analytics | Helping Build Brands & Customer-Bases since 2009”

The last sentence might be a little over the top, but don’t be too dull with your headline.

“Experienced Videographer Looking for Opportunities” sounds a lot more inspiring than for example, “currently Unemployed”.

You can start with a broader term, then get specific.

For example, your headline could start with “Digital Marketing Manager” and then follow up with specific roles such as “Google Ads | Facebook Ads | Social Media”

Summary

The summary is further down on your profile. If you are a student, it should state what careers you are interested in and what you are looking to do in the next 6-12 months.

If you are already employed, you should state your skills, experience and how you can help businesses.

You can also upload an example of your work, and even a video of yourself.

The summary should outline “what I can do for you and your business”.

For example, it might read something like this:

“I help businesses deliver highly efficient Google Ads campaigns. Through rigorous testing, appropriate use of analytics, remarketing strategies and constant refinement, I ensure optimum performance and ROI”.

Tips for Lead Generation OnLinkedin

Spending 30 minutes a day can be highly effective in terms of generating a consistent flow of leads for your business.

At the weekends, it is a good idea to write and schedule all of your content for Linkedin. Then each morning go onto the website and post your update.

Respond to any new messages and clear out your Linkedin Inbox next.

Prospecting – search for people or companies in the main search bar. Use the filters on the results page to refine the results by industry and geo-location. If you click “all filters” near the top right of the results page, after searching for someone or a specific job title, then you will get dozens of filters that will allow you to break down your results by industry, location, school etc.

Have a basic template for connection requests. Before you connect with somebody, read through their profile and look for some relevant pieces of information that you could comment on in your connection-request.

Tips for prospecting on Linkedin:

• Be original
• Don’t be salesy
• Interact with their content before delivering a sales pitch
• Be polite
• Make it personal

To make the request personal, take a look at who the individual looks for, what their business specifically does and what their latest posts on Linkedin have been. You can even pop over to their social media channels, such as Instagram to see what his/her recent posts have been.

Make a meaningful, personal comment and perhaps offer to ‘share some ideas’, rather than proposing a direct sales pitch.

You can also stand out by offering a phone number to call back on. This is quite an unusual way of offering to discuss things further via a Linkedin message. if you are unable are contacting people in different timezones, you can always consider hiring a virtual receptionist, with a 24/7 service. Moneypenny comes with good reviews and provide a dedicated receptionist to handle your calls whilst you are busy or asleep!

Linkedin Sales Navigator and Linkedin Ads can also be tremendously successful when it comes to lead generation. For more information on Sales Navigator see this video on Youtube.