The truth is your content won’t win clients BUT it will put you in front of them and present the opportunity to start the conversation that will. So while you won’t win business on LinkedIn with just content, it is a vital part of your social selling strategy.

Your LinkedIn Content Strategy and Visibility

You can’t silently prowl LinkedIn and then pop up in your prospects’ DMs. Either you’ll have to spend a lot of time explaining who you are and what you do (boring!) or you won’t get any responses. If people don’t know who you are, they’re going to be much less likely to engage with you.

Posting regularly on LinkedIn helps you build a familiar presence. It inspires confidence in your prospects and makes it clear what you believe in. Two things people need to make buying decisions. For a deeper dive into how your content can get more visibility, you can learn more about how to beat the LinkedIn algorithm.

Developing a LinkedIn Content Strategy that Establishes Value.

The presence you’re building on LinkedIn can’t just come from any old posts. The act of posting keeps you visible. However, it’s the content itself that makes you relevant and worth paying attention to.

Your prospects are looking for solutions, not sales pitches. Your LinkedIn content provides this value by answering common questions, sharing transformative stories and challenging people to consider a different perspective.

People buy from people

Connecting and pitching doesn’t work on LinkedIn. That’s because people need a personal connection before they commit to a sale. They want authenticity and a belief in what they are investing in – beyond the pain you’re promising to solve.

All of that is difficult to summarise in a single message. So, instead, you need to spread it across the content you’re sharing on LinkedIn. Start conversations with your prospects in the comments of your posts, invite them to join you on your journey. It’s all about breaking down the digital wall between you and your prospects.

Content is important but it isn’t enough…

Content is the most visible part of your LinkedIn presence and it’s important to get right. However, this needs to be done alongside profile optimisation and effective outreach. For a complete, well-rounded LinkedIn strategy, get in touch with the PINAKL team.

The post Your LinkedIn Content Strategy: Get in Front of Prospects appeared first on PINAKL.

Personal stories stop your profile from being “faceless.” Yes, you might have a clear profile picture but what does that really tell people about you? On its own, it’s not going to build the relationships you need to successfully sell on LinkedIn.

That is what personal stories are for. It breaks down the barrier between you and your prospects with…

The power of personal stories on LinkedIn for building transparency

So many people put on some kind of front when they’re online. Since it’s a place where you can (mostly) control the perception people have of you, you don’t want to risk anything that could reflect badly on you or your business.

The problem with this way of thinking is that everything you post will always be 2D. Nothing will make it stand out from the millions of other users out there selling their services on LinkedIn.

Personal stories allow you to share your vulnerability without damaging people’s perception of you. You’re not admitting to any weaknesses but sharing what you learned from real stories in your life. 

Stories like this offer a look at you and inside your business people can’t get anywhere else. By sharing these relatable, transparent stories, you are inviting people to join your journey and this causes them to have a much more personal stake in it – which leads to a greater chance they will want to support it too.

How LinkedIn personal stories boost credibility

Personal stories give you the opportunity to increase your credibility through authenticity. It takes multiple touchpoints on LinkedIn for prospects to be open to a sale. The reason for this is because trust is an integral part of that.

The more people get to know you, the more they trust you. It’s just a fact! Especially if you can back up what you’re saying with tangible results and examples. However, just stating these results or examples won’t come across as very authentic.

That’s why personal stories are a great tool to build this credibility without just telling people you’re trustworthy. Instead, you’re showing them.

Emotional investment 

There are probably plenty of businesses out there offering the same or similar services than you. Price isn’t the only way to beat them. In fact, lowering your prices could have the opposite effect if that’s all you’re doing.

How much something costs is not as big of a decision maker as you might think. It’s actually more likely about the emotional investment someone has with a business, whether its values and message resonate with their own.

Personal stories quite literally share your story with your audience. They can learn exactly what you stand for and the personal relationship you have with it. 

Start sharing your story

No one is saying you should use LinkedIn like a digital diary. But your prospects do want to know the person behind the profile, they want to build a relationship before they sign on for any service.

If you’re still not sure how to make your personal stories as shareable as possible, you can find some great tips in this guide. Of course, if you still feel a little too intimidated or can’t find the words to express them, get in touch with the PINAKL team.

The post LinkedIn Personal Stories for Sales and Trust appeared first on PINAKL.

It’s enough to make you question if you need a content strategy at all…

If you want to build an audience and grow your business sustainably, then you absolutely do need a content strategy. ‘Viral’ posts will increase your visibility online but they don’t generate leads. Those vanity metrics might make you feel like you’ve accomplished something, but once the feeling has passed, you’ll have nothing to show for it.

So, yes, viral content could help to grow your business from an exposure point of view, but it’s not the outcome your content strategy should be based on. Instead, you need to base it on reaching a specific audience and getting leads.

Growing your audience

Content is how you’re going to build familiarity and start conversations with your audience but actively growing your audience can’t be done on content alone. Ideally, you want to be growing your network consistently by sending out 100 connection requests a week – and not just any connections, targeted connections.

The best way to increase your connection acceptance rates is to warm up these potential connections by viewing, liking or following their profiles before sending the request. That way, when you show up in their notifications, you won’t be a complete stranger and they’ll have more of a reason to connect with you.

Keeping your audience engaged

As you are growing your network (and therefore the audience for your content) you need to keep them engaged. Viral content won’t achieve this because it’s not targeted and therefore not relatable to the audience you’re building. Instead of virality, focus on being consistent and proving to your audience that you’re reliable.

Whether it’s three times a week or five times a week, make sure you are posting consistently. Use scheduling tools ahead of time but don’t post and forget. Include CTAs that encourage people to engage with the post and make sure you’re in the comments to engage right back.

Providing value to your audience

Even when you’ve built the audience and remained consistent, any momentum you’ve managed to build with your content will slow down the moment you stop being valuable to your audience. This is why viral content will never achieve sustainable growth. Virality is not something you can recreate and it will leave your content floating around in the wrong feeds.

When crafting your content, don’t make likes and shares the focus. Keep your audience and what they will gain from your content at the centre of your content creation. Crafting content in this way might not make you go viral on a global scale, but you’ll become indispensable to your audience and potentially become ‘viral’ in your niche.

The post Will viral content help grow my business? appeared first on PINAKL.

The first step is to stop viewing your content strategy and running your business as two separate tasks. Running your business is the overall goal, your content strategy is just one of the cogs that will keep that machine running.

The next step is to realise that you don’t need hundreds of posts to build your content strategy. You just need these three.

Attract posts

Attract posts are all about attracting an audience to your profile, encouraging engagement and showing the LinkedIn algorithm that you’re a profile people want to see. These kinds of posts won’t be about your business but will appeal directly to the industries you are targeting. 

Examples: Personal stories, polls, news commentary, trending topics, inspirational quotes.

Nurture posts

Nurture posts are about giving something to your audience, either a tool or insight they can test out for themselves. Again, you don’t want to include any direct promotion for your business in these posts but you should use your industry knowledge and experience in them.

Examples: Tips, myths, how-tos, comparisons, tools, ‘why’ explanations.

Convert posts

Convert posts are more direct in what you have to offer your prospects however your business still won’t be the focus. Beyond attracting an audience and demonstrating your expertise, you need to prove to your prospects that you have a full and clear understanding of their pains. Convert posts will communicate this.

Examples: Objections, social proof, loaded polls, lead magnets, special offers.

Use these 3 post types to build your content strategy

When you break down your content strategy like this, you can see how simple it is to build one that your prospects will engage with. If you need help building up your content strategy, get in touch with the PINAKL team. We’ll work with you to craft a client winning content strategy.

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