As someone who makes her living doing paid traffic, I have to be honest, I kind of lean that way. However, I know organic traffic is also incredibly important to your business.
The thing about traffic is, no matter where the traffic comes from, converting always comes down to relationships. As the self-proclaimed marketing matchmaker, I GET relationships!
I like to look at marketing in terms of relationships, in a way that everybody can understand. Dating is easily imagined, remembered or visualized! It’s a concept that is easily related to and when I break marketing down into terms easily understood, it’s no longer scary, right?
I LOVE LinkedIn. I know a lot of people don’t use LinkedIn as effectively as they could or should. Today, I want to talk about LinkedIn and the concept of dating your ideal client, which is all about building relationships on LinkedIn.
Is LinkedIn Right for You?
Generally, I’d say if you are in business, you will benefit from having a professional presence on LinkedIn.
What does a professional presence on LinkedIn look like? It looks like having a profile and utilizing the platform to attract new clients and new referral partners, or using your profile to be found by recruiters.
But really, before you run out there and get set up on LinkedIn, ask yourself is this, Are your clients on LinkedIn? Are your prospects on LinkedIn? Is LinkedIn where your ideal clients hang out? If you’re not sure where your ideal client hangs out, simply ask them. Or Google them.
If you find out that they are on LinkedIn, then for sure, you need to be on LinkedIn, too.
The Top Three Things You Need to Do to Get Started on LinkedIn
How Do You Look?
On LinkedIn, you need to make yourself look the best you can look. This means looking both professional and knowledgeable. Your profile should be truly you and authentic so that you attract your ideal clients.
The simplest way to fine-tune your LinkedIn look is to spend time completing and crafting a profile.
How Do You Communicate?
Once you have a completed, professional, and authentic profile, you need to establish a communication plan. Are you going to answer and attempt to build a relationship with every single person who messages you? What steps will you take to qualify them as an ideal client and, once qualified, what steps will you take to build a relationship with that person? So you’ll want to establish a strategy around messaging.
How Do You Show Up?
Next, think about content. I see messaging strategies and content as two separate areas of opportunity. Some people are natural writers. Other people are natural talkers. Whichever you are, it’s important to be visible and have a consistent content plan.
LinkedIn offers an opportunity for you to shine in either arena. If you’re a natural writer you can write posts and articles to share with your network. If you’re a talker, you can share video content and
A Final Thought About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is where you’ll find decision-makers. Its members are about 50% male and 50% female. As compared to Facebook, you’ll find a higher socio-economic level amongst members. On LinkedIn, you’re likely to spend less time weeding through potential clients and prospects who are looking for free material and you’ll get to the sale more quickly.
Remember, my advice always and for any platform is that a successful marketing strategy incorporates both organic and paid traffic.