13 steps to turn LinkedIn into a lead generator from Lesley Morrissey
1. Optimise your profile to attract your ideal client – that means you need to know who they are. Download the Perfect Client Worksheet here.
2. Create a professional headline that makes it easy for your ideal client to recognise themselves. Include a couple of your keywords and eye hooks. Copy these ★ ♦ to save spending hours searching for them!
3. Invest in a good headshot – ideally get a professional to do it. A profile picture should be head and shoulders only and you are aiming for a friendly and approachable look. You must be looking straight into the camera; nobody trusts someone who won’t make eye-contact – even in a picture.
4. Add interesting contact information – your professional email (not gmail, aol, yahoo or btinternet – it should feature your domain name), the phone number you want to receive business calls on, more interesting web links than Company website. Remember you can have three different pages on the same website.
5. As a business owner you should approach your summary from a marketing perspective. Add headlines and sub-headlines to break up the text. Ensure there is a line space between every paragraph. Use those eye hooks to make your headlines stand out.
6. Include your keywords in your summary and, where possible, in your current and previous experience.
7. Ask your clients (and former clients) to write recommendations on your profile. Don’t be shy – people expect this on LinkedIn. If they don’t know what to write ask them to say what you did for them, what it was like working with you and what the results were.
8. Arrange your profile so that the summary comes immediately after the top box (with your name/contact info in), then your experience, then any books you’ve published or awards you’ve won. The endorsements can safely be pushed to the bottom – recommendations are much better to have.
9. Share your expertise by writing articles (like blogs), LinkedIn calls them ‘posts’. Always include a relevant image (don’t use Google images you can run into copyright fines – try www.freeimages.com).
10. Create a series of short tips and share them as updates daily. If you write 14 you have enough for 2 weeks – then you can recycle them (nobody will notice).
11. Use the advanced search filters to find the people you want to reach and start a conversation with them.
12. Find the groups where your target audience hangs out and be helpful, share your expertise and you’ll have a whole group of people who fit your ideal client profile paying attention!
13. Tag your contacts and follow up regularly.
For more information contact: Lesley Morrissey / lesley@insidenews.co.uk
Meet Essex Business Woman Raphaelle Cox & Her Business Passions
Meet our new member Raphaelle Cox who will be attending our Marks Tey Hotel events in Colchester Essex. Check out Raphaelle’s love for her business and how Raphaelle feels the BWN could be good for her business, thanks for sharing Raphaelle
What made you set up your business?
I set up my business because I am really passionate about empowering women to feel confident in who they are and what they do. I love design and authentic soulful branding, balanced alongside a healthy approach to the work/life balance. It is too easy in the modern western world to feel overwhelmed, over commit and lack self esteem. With an authentic brand style that truly reflects you and your business, increased energy and vibrant health, you can feel so empowered and confident. There are so many amazing women out they with great stories to share and I feel blessed to be able to support them to be seen and heard whilst living a healthy life along the way.
How many years have you been in business?
I have been in business 16 years.
What do you love most about running your own business?
I love watching the transformation when a woman reaches that point where she starts to trust & believe in herself again.
What do you hate most about running your own business?
The part of being in my business that I like the least is when you realise that you have not see or heard from anyone all day. In an office there are always people wondering around, but working from home can be lonely at times, there is no one to bounce an idea off, share a success, or talk about a challenge.
What would you say your greatest skill is? (Be honest you have lots!)
My greatest skill is I am a great listener, I am empathetic to the modern business womens’ challenges because I live through them too. I am unwavering in my honesty and I have an ability to seek out the root cause of the imbalance as it presents itself. I work on a very intuitive soulful level.
What was the reason that you decided to be a member at The BWN?
When I arrived at the BWN I felt really welcome, there was a strong energy of support before anything else, they really want to help you be the best you can be. Mandie is a great leader in sharing her genuine interest in your journey as a business women. It was more of a family rather than a group.
What do you see the future holding for your business?
I see my business being a platform for awakening, helping women remember how amazing they are. By stepping out from behind the shadows of out dated beliefs. To stand confidently remembering their true essence, no longer a projection of what they believe the world wants them to be.
Project Baby – Putting together your dream team
Many of the women who are currently pregnant or have recently given birth are highly educated, high flying managers. We are after all being blamed/credited with the recent baby boom, a whole generation of women who put off having children until their late thirties or early forties in order to have a career. We know how to manage people, lead teams and meet deadlines. We know that having the right team in place is crucial to getting a job done.
Why then, when told – this is how you’re going to give birth and these are the resources you get – do we simply say “oh, ok then”?
As a woman in a position of responsibility at work we would have already answered some pretty big emotional questions before even getting pregnant, do I really want children being the biggest. Having made that decision and conceived there’s then the whole battery of testing and deciding if you’re going to test for Down’s and all the stress and further questions that brings with it. Having made it halfway it is quite easy just to throw your hands up and say “yeah, whatever just tell me when to turn up” but this is the time when we need our business heads screwed on.
Whether you have worked in a large corporate environment or for yourself, you can appreciate the skills and professionalism other people bring to the team. You are a whizz at what you do and have probably felt out of your comfort zone when trying to deal with areas outside your expertise. Be it finance or marketing or computer design, we’ve all felt that sense of relief when someone comes on board who has that as their expertise and we can happily hand that over knowing it’s no longer going to be our headache. We can focus on what we do best.
So who is going to be on your baby dream team? Well conventional wisdom says you’ll be in a hospital, with a midwife and your partner, but who wants to be conventional!
Find out more here… http://consciousbirth.co.uk/blog/entry/project-baby-putting-together-your-dream-team