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Martha was desperate she started her business and she wanted to know how to get clients on LinkedIn.
The challenge is that Martha was unexpectedly made redundant at her 6-figure job due to her company outsourcing to low-cost locations.
Rather than adopting a wait-and-see attitude, Martha wanted to develop an alternative income source as soon as possible.
Her 15 years working in business operations leave her with no choice but to promote her business and close sales, even if this is 100% new to her.
Do any of these sound relatable to you?
- You’ve always used LinkedIn as an online resume
- Your current connections are not your ideal clients
- The thought of promoting your business to your connections makes you feel icky
- You have no idea how to use LinkedIn to find clients
If only there was a simple guide to give you step-by-step instructions.
In this resource, you’ll discover 5 secrets to getting your first client on LinkedIn in the next 30 days.
Why LinkedIn is the Best Platform to Find Buyers
Have you ever wondered why LinkedIn is one of the best places to find clients or for lead generation of any kind?
Well, let me help you with this aha moment.
When it comes to social media platforms, LinkedIn is the only one that your potential clients volunteer to divulge their buying power.
As a professional network, people are forced to complete details about their profession and qualifications.
The only other platforms that come close are X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
Titles like VP, Manager, Director, President, CEO, Founder and COO scream to others that I influence buying decisions at this company.
A person’s LinkedIn profile also reveals information about education, interests, past experience and stability.
The only difficulty you’ll encounter is actually sending a ‘cold outreach’ connection request or sending an InMail.
If you feel so inclined you can upgrade to the Sales Navigator subscription on this social media platform.
Your Target Audience
One of the first things that you’ll need to do before reaching out to prospective clients is to figure out or get clear on your target audience.
Do you know who that person is and where they hang out online?
What about their problems or the pain points you are trying to solve?
Ever wondered about where they are in their journey right now and what questions keep popping up in their heads each day, week and month?
What keeps them awake at night?
Having a really good understanding of your target audience is one of the keys to successfully finding and/or attracting your potential clients on LinkedIn.
In case you are wondering why, I’ll explain in greater detail in the next section.
Let’s look at the best practices for your LinkedIn profile. You do need a LinkedIn account for this to work.
Your LinkedIn Profile
Did you know that your LinkedIn profile acts as a sales page for your potential clients?
I know you’re skeptical about that statement but hear me out.
When you reach out to someone on LinkedIn, especially if they don’t know you the first thing they do is head over to your profile to ‘check you out’.
If your profile has a professional headshot, is optimised and speaks to your target audience then there’s a high chance that they’ll convert to a paying customer.
The top section of your profile serves as a headline, sub-headline and summary of what you do and who you help.
Below that you have a featured section which is a great place to add links to items such as lead magnets, testimonials and your lowest price offer.
The next section is your latest activities, posts, articles and stuff you commented on across LinkedIn.
Right below that is an about section, use this space to speak directly to your potential clients including the results you can give them.
This is followed by your experiences showing your potential clients why you’re qualified to help them.
On the topic of optimisation be sure to add relevant keywords on your own profile that your clients are searching for on LinkedIn.
Also, check out this resource I made a few years ago.
Do you see why your LinkedIn profile is like a sales page?
LinkedIn Company Page
Depending on where you are in your business growth or journey, you’ll be interested in setting up a LinkedIn page for your business.
A key benefit of doing this is that it gives you the ability to see more granular analytics on who is engaging with your content.
It helps you to grow a business brand too.
If you plan to run ad campaigns on LinkedIn at some point then you’ll only be able to do this from your LinkedIn page.
Paid campaigns are not available for personal profiles.
You also have the ability to boost employee posts as thought leaders from a business page campaign.
Having a LinkedIn page is not a requirement for you to effectively generate leads on LinkedIn.
Advanced Search Feature
This is super important if you want to find potential clients on LinkedIn.
Using LinkedIn’s advanced search functionality will really help you identify and pinpoint your potential clients in a crowd.
For example, if I want to find anyone who is a founder and also a business coach.
To get the best search results possible click on the filters on the far right.
You’ll notice that you have the ability to search by connections, followers of, location, current company, past company, industry, profile language and title.
Plus, if that wasn’t giving you the results you need you can also add boolean search to your query.
For example, “(founder + business coach) OR (owner + business coach)”. Including the parentheses will help strengthen the results of your search.
5 Ways to Get Clients on LinkedIn Fast
Now that you have a better understanding as to what’s available on the LinkedIn platform let’s see how you can use it to get clients.
Remember that you don’t have to use all these 5 ways to get clients.
I’m not asking you to suffer from overwhelm.
Just take note of each one to see which one resonates with you and the way you work.
It’s important that your profile is ready for traffic before attempting any of these options.
1. Commenting on Viral Content – Where Your Potential Client Hangs Out
One of the best ways to get in front of your potential clients is by commenting on the feeds where they can see you.
Before you head off to comment on everything that’s going viral, first curate your feed so that you can see content that’s relevant.
When you go to LinkedIn type in the hashtag(s) that your ideal client would follow.
For example, here is a search I did looking for the hashtag business coach.
As you can see straight away the very first post is a viral post. I can simply read the post, watch the video and leave an intelligent relatable comment.
It’s important that you’re not obnoxious but you can be kind and entertaining.
When you make people laugh you become more memorable and they head over to your profile to ‘check you out’.
2. Creating Delicious or Valuable Content
Okay, I have to admit that this one takes more creativity and genius to stand out from the crowd.
Publishing original content means that you are in the spotlight. I also need to remind you that it’s difficult to get engagement on average LinkedIn posts.
However, one cool hack I have learned from publishing content on Facebook is to create a series on an interesting topic and make sure that it’s entertaining.
You can also just create something edgy as Shay Rowbottom does on her feed. See the screenshot below.
The video itself is less than 2 minutes long and it got over 2,000 comments, close to 18,000 likes and over 1,300 reposts.
With high-quality content like this, you’ll be sure to have new leads in your Inbox daily.
Be sure to create relevant content if you want to attract your dream clients.
3. Join LinkedIn Groups
A less effective method of getting clients on LinkedIn is joining groups on the platform.
While this strategy is not as effective as commenting on viral content or even creating cool content it still works and here’s why.
When you join relevant groups on LinkedIn you increase your exposure and network.
The way it expands your network is a bit strange but hear me out.
Before joining a group you have the ability to message people in your 1st and 2nd level without paying for LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
However, after joining a group you’ll instantly get the ability to directly message other people in your group because you are now connected to them.
4. Sending Messages (warmish outreach)
You might have heard this statement before but it is often said that the fastest path to cash is having conversations.
In other words, sending a message to a potential client to see if they may be interested in your offers is another way to pick up clients.
Of course, remember that nobody enjoys being sold to but they do enjoy buying the stuff that they need.
Here’s what you need to pull this off really effectively. You need a strategic outreach plan to help them.
After all, there’s a good chance you’ll generate warm leads from this activity alone.
So, you may visit their profile and notice that you can give them a few quick tips and tricks on how they can improve areas of their business.
For example, Hello (prospect), we’re part of the ___________(name of group) and I have a quick question for you.
I noticed that you’re a __________ helping ________. Would it help you if I were to share a free resource on how to get__________(the result that you offer)?
If they say yes then share it and ask them if there is anything else that they need help with in their life or business.
5. Sending InMail Messages (cold outreach)
Nobody likes sending cold outreach emails and nobody enjoys receiving them except in rare cases when it solves an urgent problem for them.
LinkedIn has a feature or powerful tool called Sales Navigator that gives you the ability to send direct messages to people outside your network.
With Sales Navigator you get 50 InMail credits each month and as far as I remember when someone doesn’t respond you get the credit back.
I know what you are thinking, 50 credits isn’t a lot and it isn’t but remember that you can still reach out to people in your network without paying.
Also, one BIG benefit of the Sales Navigator is the ability to search very granularly for your potential clients.
In terms of what you say when you reach out to them, it really depends on why you’re contacting them.
Always, remember that helping them works like a charm, you can congratulate them on a recent win or a new job.
For more clever ideas on how to break the ice, check out this tool here.
6. Growing Your Network (Bonus Client Getting Strategy)
You’ve probably heard it said many times in the past, your network represents your net worth.
Building relationships with small business owners can generate qualified leads.
So, remember that you can pop into LinkedIn every day and make new connections by sending 5-10 connection requests.
Of course, you’ll have to give the person a reason why it’s a good idea for them to connect with you.
I know it feels cheesy at first but remember that if your profile is optimised to the max and you give them a valid, magnetic reason then why will they say no?
Yes, I get some really lame ones all the time. “I noticed that we both shared an interest in marketing so I thought it would make sense for us to connect.”
Please promise me that you’ll find something more exciting.
If you’re still shy, you could choose the creepy alternative of viewing other people’s profiles.🤣
While there are several other ways to find clients online, LinkedIn is the best for 6 or 7-figure contracts.
How to Get Clients on LinkedIn FAQ
1. Why you are not getting clients on LinkedIn?
There could be many reasons why you are not getting clients on LinkedIn. These include:
a. Your profile is not optimised sufficiently to get clients to reach out to you
b. You’re not getting in front of your ideal clients by engaging with content that they see
c. You haven’t given enough time after optimising your profile and engaging with content
d. Your potential clients aren’t sure how you can help them
2. How do you gain popularity on LinkedIn?
There are basically 2-3 ways to become popular on LinkedIn. These include publishing viral content on LinkedIn and engaging with other people’s viral content on LinkedIn by leaving a comment that stands out from the rest.
Finally, grow your network with LinkedIn influencers.
3. How do people get 500 followers on LinkedIn?
This is achieved by connecting with potential clients on LinkedIn. Every day, for two months, send out 10-20 meaningful connection requests. They would have to be irresistible enough so that these people would say yes.
4. What are 4 ways to attract customers on LinkedIn?
Here are 4 ways to attract potential customers on LinkedIn.
a. Optimise your LinkedIn profile to include benefits and results statements.
b. Leave clever and juicy comments on viral content where your customers are hanging out
c. Create relevant, juicy, viral content that will attract your potential customers (think edutainment)
d. Grow your network and send introduction messages to those potential clients
5. What happens when you get to 10k followers on LinkedIn?
Well, as far as I am aware nothing really happens. I have over 10k followers and I don’t have any extra privileges compared to anyone else. It just shows that you have a certain level of authority but not really because my followers don’t see most of the content that I publish.
Summary
Most people are of the opinion that LinkedIn is this stuffy place where you create a boring social media profile.
Here’s the thing, if you want to reach new prospects and close 5, 6 and 7-figure deals for your business then LinkedIn is a great way to find new clients.
It’s up to you to find creative ways to reach these future clients.
I’ve given you a few ideas that mostly go against the grain and make you stand out.
Let me tell you a little secret, many decision-makers scroll through LinkedIn looking for content that will give them comic relief.
Of course, no one will admit to this but you’ve got to trust me on this one.
I’ve spent 18 working in Fortune 500 companies generating leads using LinkedIn and the stuff that works falls into the category of edutainment.
Now, over to you, what kind of content will you publish to generate leads on LinkedIn?
