I get this question a lot. People are surprised by the answer. The best way to sell on LinkedIn is to not sell.
What?! That’s not possible?!?! But it is. And many are doing it and getting clients.
There is a slight difference if you are a business professional operating with a profile and if you manage a company page.
But let’s start from the beginning.
The key to selling on LinkedIn is making yourself a magnet for clients so they come to you. Isn’t this the best way to get clients?
It’s important that you consistently give value to your network. The same applies for company profiles. Be generous and by giving value you position yourself as an authority in your field. The more consistent you are and the more people will come in contact with your content, they will start to trust you. But don’t forget to engage with other people’s content and show them that you care for others as well. If you do this, when they or someone they know will need an expert in your field, you will be their top-of-mind choice.
On average, it takes 4-12 weeks of consistent posting and engagement to get the first results. There are exceptions – a client of mine got her first lead after 10 days of optimizing her profile and starting to post.
There is one thing you must keep in mind. You have to make it easy for your network to know what is it that you do and how you can help them. Make sure you are showing it in the appropriate parts of your profile and also through the content you provide.
From time to time you can also post a sales post. Just don’t overdo it as people don’t like to be bombarded with ads everywhere.
When you run a business page, the situation is a bit different. It is more acceptable in general for businesses to directly promote their products and services. People will like you more if you will give them value but they will also expect some sales posts from a business. So you can post branded content more often and directly promote your products/services/offers.
As a business page, you have paid tools available to do this. You’ve probably noticed some promoted posts and other types of branded content appearing on your feed. Well yes, advertising is enabled for business pages.
You have several advertising options available in your Advertisement toolbox:
Sponsored Content delivers your brand’s content in the LinkedIn feed, which is exactly where LinkedIn members look to engage with relevant, useful content from brands.
Sponsored InMail delivers private messages to your target audience at scale through LinkedIn’s multi-platform messaging environment. It’s a fusion of email and instant messaging that professionals trust and respond to, with open rates averaging 52%.
Dynamic Ads leverage LinkedIn profile data to capture attention and deliver immediate engagement through an ad that’s automatically tailored to each member of your target audience. They appear on LinkedIn’s desktop platform, in the right rail.
Text Ads appear in the right-hand column of the LinkedIn desktop interface, and feature a small visual and short message of up to 100 characters.
So, how do you sell on LinkedIn?
