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5 W A Y S T OA T T R A C TY O U R I D E A LC O N S U L T I N GC L I E N T SW I T HL I N K E D I N
A B E G I N N E R ' S G U I D E
by incheck.co
Whether you’re talking to someone on LinkedIn, getting a referral or
somebody just found you through Google, your LinkedIn profile pops up
first. If your profile is boring or doesn’t speak to your potential client,
you’re not going to get their business. The trap here is that you will
never know about it. After all, a potential client isn't going to message
you with open feedback on your social media attractiveness. Although
you should always shoot for a 100% completed profile, a few things are
absolutely key when it comes to attracting new business.
These include your profile picture, headline and profile summary. Make
sure all text on your profile is compelling and works as a lead
generation tool, not as a CV or resume.
A very powerful way to attract new consulting clients through LinkedIn
is by connecting with the right people. Who should you connect with?
Here are some examples:
You found a potential client on a forum or discussion site
A group member indicated they are interested in your services
A second or third degree connection who's in your target audience
After you connect, send your new connections a friendly thank you
message. If you have a strong headline, some will even contact you
first, showing their interest in your services.
Your thank you message should be brief and can include a short
introduction, as well as links to relevant content they might like.
If you offer certain services, such as accounting, writing, marketing or
legal services, you're in luck. LinkedIn’s new ProFinder platform allows
you to apply for projects and be found by potential clients. Should you
try it? A small survey we did says you defintely should.
Many consultants are happy with the program and able to get clients
they wouldn't otherwise have gotten. The platforms allows consultants
to either apply to projects or simply leave their profile up for potential
clients to find through a search.
Whatever you decide to use ProFinder for, it is defintely worth it and is
100% free to use.
Do people you connected with a while back still remember it? Of course
not, they’re busy. By sharing updates on your timeline, you establish
yourself as an expert in your field. One of my connections, who is an
accountant, posts a daily “tax tip” as a status update on LinkedIn. Not
only is this useful information for his connections, it also helps him
establish himself as an expert. Whenever someone needs tax advice,
they will remember him from his daily tax tips and get in touch.
Besides just status updates, consider participating in groups as well.
Take a peek at the groups your prospects have joined. If you aren’t
already a member of groups that your prospects are part of, start
joining the most relevant ones that fit the target audience you are
looking for. You can join up to 50 groups.
As you should know by now: don't send spam. That being said, it's
easy to continue messaging people (not just new connections) to stay
on their radar.
Don't be afraid to message prospects, past clients, people you've met
at a conference, old coworkers or anyone else in your network. Share
relevant content that is helpful to them, and people will be thankful for
what you've done. Some stuff you can share are checklists, reports,
articles and blog posts, videos, case studies, ebooks etc.
LinkedIn also gives you the option to message people when it's their
birthday, they've switched jobs or are having a work anniversary. Make
use of it to stay in touch with your current network.
LinkedIn is a very powerful tool for small business marketing and
should be your number 1 platform for finding new consulting clients. It's
free to use, all your leads are warm and even just 20 minutes per day
can be enough to engage hundreds of people per week.
Aside from prospecting, LinkedIn should also be your weapon of choice
when it comes to reconnecting with old clients. It many cases,
retaining an old client is much better than finding a new one and will
usually save you money, time and effort.
Remember: social selling is fun! You genuinely help people by sharing
interesting content with no ulterior motive. That's how most business is
done these days, and if you ask me, it's for the better.