The LinkedIn profile: a real sales tool
The LinkedIn profile: a sales funnel
As surprising as it is, a parallel between the sales funnel and the LinkedIn profile funnel is possible, since both are aimed at converting.
Spoiler alert: the LinkedIn profile contains information about your educational and professional background.
Each category made available to complete your profile page has a specific objective:
1- Profile photo, banner, and title
These three elements at the top of your profile draw attention to you.
Their goal is to create your elevator pitch.
Through these elements, you must show who you are and in which field you exercise your expertise.
This part of the profile is very important because it should make potential prospects want to know about you and your job.
For your profile photo, make sure to upload a professional headshot of you. You may also include your current job title if you have one.
2- The “info” section:
It allows you to create engagement with users and thus have their consideration.
The purpose of the “info” section is to share your know-how with LinkedIn users who read you. It should allow them to learn about your ability to resolve certain issues.
In this section, you have to input your relevant skills and show the users your personal brand.
3- The CTA
The CTA or call to action encourages people to take action .
At this point in the tunnel, people know you and know what you are doing.
The objective of CTA is to direct them to the right lever to contact you.
Examples:
- An incentive to make contact by leaving your e-mail address
- A link pointing to your site or an article on your blog
- Accept your connection request
- ….
Why optimize your LinkedIn profile?
The LinkedIn profile is the first point of contact with a person. You can also think of your personal profile as a landing page for your prospects that you will eventually build a professional connection.
Optimization is important to your LinkedIn profile tunnel and has three benefits:
1- It makes it more attractive. A well-optimized LinkedIn account makes potential future employers want to know more about you and your business every step of the way and get in touch with you.
2- Optimizing your profile makes it easier to find you. It is the same principle as a website. When you optimize your website, you do so to make it appear in search results. The principle is the same for LinkedIn, an optimized profile allows your prospects to quickly find you in the LinkedIn feed and search bar. This is very useful if you are looking for a new job opportunity.
3- LinkedIn gives the possibility of integrating keywords and of personalizing the URL of your LinkedIn profile. This allows you to get your profile noticed outside of the social network via Google searches. All the articles you post from your LinkedIn profile can be found on the web through the hashtags you added in your profile and in the article.
#tips To increase the visibility of your business, ensure that all employees optimize their LinkedIn profiles. This will allow active research for users who want to know more about you or your business.
Create and optimize your LinkedIn profile
Create your LinkedIn profile
This part of the guide is dedicated to people who's not a LinkedIn member yet. For others, go directly to the following section: 6 steps to optimize your LinkedIn profile.
Step 1: Go to LinkedIn
Once on the page, click on “Register” at the top right.
Step 2: Start Joining LinkedIn
Enter your e-mail address and create your password.
Step 3: Fill in your identity
Add your first and last name in the dedicated categories.
Step 4: Enter the confirmation code
LinkedIn sends you a confirmation code to verify your email address and that you are the correct profile creator. Enter the code you received.
Step 5: Indicate your location
Don't panic, LinkedIn only asks you to enter your city and region.
Step 6: Fill in your current post and past posts
The title of the stage speaks for itself 😊
Step 7: Job search
LinkedIn has a “job offer” category to make it easier for professionals to connect.
If you are not looking for a job, skip this step.
Step 8: Add your email contacts
You can choose whether or not to send a match invitation to contacts from your email address. If you don't want to do this, you can add it manually in the next step. 🙂
Step 9: Add contacts manually
You can manually add your professional network and / or send invitations to suggested people.
If you don't want to do it now, that's fine. Once your profile is created, you can take the time to add your contacts.
Step 10: Add a photo
If you don't have a professional photo handy, don't put anything that could discredit you. If so, click ignore.
Step 11: Create your LinkedIn profile
Once you get to the news page, click on your profile on the left to complete your profile.
Step 12: Fill in your professional experiences
Before filling in the profile header (which we will see in the optimization part), scroll down to the bottom of the page and fill in the experience section. Only put relevant articles and key skills that will help you build your personal brand.
6 steps to optimize your LinkedIn profile
Step 1: Customize URL
This manipulation will allow your profile to be better referenced and will stand out more easily on search engines. 🙂
Step 2: Upload a profile photo
Whatever the social network is, the profile picture is essential. The people you contact must be able to identify you visually . We remember the face more easily than a name. If you don't have a profile picture, your visitors will be more reluctant to start a conversation.
Here are the key points to having a successful profile picture:
- Keep your face clear. Make sure there are no disruptive elements in the background.
- Smile! We always prefer someone smiling rather than a sad and / or closed person.
- Stay pro!
- The ideal size for your profile picture should be 400 × 400 px
- Show your best, creativity is welcome!
To modify your profile picture, all you have to do is click on the pencil to the right of your profile.
Step 3: Add a banner
LinkedIn users only see it if they look at your profile.
The banner, also known as the cover photo, is an essential part of your LinkedIn page, yet it is often overlooked.
The cover photo is your identity, it must be personalized and must allow users to relate on your personal brand.
Once they are on your profile, they should easily identify the direct connection between who you are (photo), what you do (title) and your expertise (the banner). This part is a “LinkedIn summary” of your profile.
If you put a neutral background, you're not going to allow users to make the connection between who you are and who you work for.
Step 4: The title of their LinkedIn profile
The title is very important. In step 2, we saw that the profile picture and the banner allow users to quickly know who you are and who you work for. The title should identify your function in the company. You shouldn't just put in your job title.
You need to find a title:
- Easy to recognize
- Who suits you
- That highlights the keywords that define you
Don't make a classic definition of your job. Do something that represents you . Most people think that in this place they should indicate their position and that's it! Mistake ...
If you want to make an impression, personalize your title.
Between us, how many “Marketing Managers” have you seen on LinkedIn? Do you remember them?
Complicated.
There are millions of “Marketing Managers” and there is no way to tell them apart or better understand what makes them unique.
You must succeed in standing out by finding the keywords that will make the difference.
Two magic formulas:
1- The first: {Title} at {Company} - We help / accompany {target} with {differentiating elements}
2- The second formula is as follows: {Title} I {What you do n ° 1 } I {What you are
doing n ° 2}
You can enter up to 120 characters in this part 🙂
Step 5: Complete the “Info” section
Once visitors understand what you do and who you work for, they need to know more about your expertise.
The “Info” section gives you the possibility to give a detailed description (up to 2000 characters).
Users will only see the first 2-3 lines of the section appear and then need to click “see more” to read the entire section.
In these first lines, you must succeed in “teasing” the reader about your skills and how you can solve their problems so that they will want to know more.
Skip lines to make reading more comfortable.
⚠️ Add a CTA at the end of the section so that the person can get in touch with you.
For people who have just created their LinkedIn profile, you must add the “info” section to your account and provide detailed past and current job descriptions.
Step 6: Confirm with recommendations
Don't hesitate to ask for written recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. This humanizes your profile and gives credibility to your skills.
You can ask your former managers to recommend you to “add more value” to your skills and instill confidence in your prospects. 🙂
Here is !
You are ready to become a social selling star.
To go further
