7 Steps to Grow Your Revenue Using LinkedIn

In this age of information overload and overcrowded inboxes, how many touches does it take for your prospect to agree to a meeting? Wouldn’t you love to stand out from the crowd, stay top of mind, and get that phone call when they are ready to hire your firm? LinkedIn can help you do that. LinkedIn can expand your audience and grow your firm’s revenue. But first… 

Why LinkedIn?

With access to 738 million users in 200 countries and over 176 million users in the United States alone, LinkedIn is an excellent platform for B2B business growth. To understand the magnitude of its potential, consider that:

• 40% of LinkedIn users check in daily,
• 80% of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn,
• LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than other social media, and
• LinkedIn drives over 64% of social traffic to B2B sites.

I’ll leave you with one last LinkedIn statistic: 50 million companies have a presence on LinkedIn. Are you one of them or are you missing out on the visibility?

When you are ready to grow your revenue on LinkedIn, below are the seven steps to position yourself as an authority in your industry, connect with key prospects, and consistently turn leads into clients. Apply these steps to your LinkedIn profile, your managing partner’s, and encourage all partners and staff to take these seven steps.

1. Create a Client-Centric Profile

Your goal is to make it clear to visitors that you help people just like them overcome problems and achieve specific goals. The best profile speaks directly to those in your prospect persona and leaves them with a call to action such as “connect with me,” “send me a message,” “check out my blog,” “download this checklist,” or “subscribe to my newsletter.” Position yourself as an authority in your space to convert profile views into connections.

Tip: Download the 7 Keys to a Client-Centric Profile and optimize your profile.

Apply this to your company page: Position your firm’s brand with a client-facing page to show your prospects that your firm is a trusted advisor and can solve problems just like theirs. It is not about selling or talking about the benefits of your firm. Identify their pain points, and lead them to the solution—your solution.

2. Develop your Content Strategy

The purpose of a content strategy is to educate, add value to your brand, and build relationships. Without value, the content you share will be useless to your target audience. Your content strategy must be informative, relevant, and high-quality. Crafting your strategy starts with defining your objective and then sharing valuable free content that fits that objective. By offering a mix of original and curated content like posts, tip sheets, videos, eBooks, checklists,  and guides, you can remain top of mind, positioning yourself as an authority in your field.

Tip: Best days and times to post are:

• Wednesdays, 8-11 am and noon
• Thursdays, 9- 0 am and 1-3 pm
• Fridays, 9-10 am

Apply this to your company page: Craft a content strategy to stay top of mind with clients and prospects. Share value-added content that your clients and prospects can use. You could include news about your firm helping in your community. You might celebrate your clients’ wins. And be consistent! If you decide your strategy will be a weekly post, then post weekly for the next 52 weeks. See Step 6 for systematizing your content strategy.

3. Find High-Value Prospects

LinkedIn’s search functionality is an effective tool to find prospective clients outside your network. You can use specific search criteria geared toward your prospect persona to filter individuals by industry, geography, title, function, company size, and more to find those most likely to use your services.

Tip: Search through your existing connections and re-engage with the warm leads you already have. Be sure to nurture referral partnerships as well.

Apply this to your company page: Leverage your connections and invite clients, leads, and prospects to follow your company page.

4. Build a Quality Database

Once you have identified your ideal clients, it is time to send them personalized invitations asking to connect. Giving prospects reasons to connect is key. Having a client-facing profile that addresses your title, company name, and industry, and gives proof of your credibility is the best way to start. Do not give them a cheesy sales pitch. By filling your database with high-quality prospects that fit your persona, you will be able to leverage connections for years to come.

Tip: Draft message templates as a starting point, then make each message personal.

Apply this to your company page: Add your partners as admins and leverage their connections. Invite their leads and prospects to follow the firm’s company page.

5. Set up ‘No-Pitch’ Messaging

With LinkedIn messaging, do not come out of the gate selling. Seek to add value because as soon as they sniff out your sell you will lose them. Set up your messaging machine by establishing a reliable system for staying in front of your prospects, building rapport, and demonstrating expertise. Be respectful and allow for two or three weeks to pass between messages.

Tip: Keep messages brief, as if you’re typing them on your mobile phone.

Apply this to your company page: For your firm’s company page, your content is your message. Your content should lead your audience to the solution and not pitch.

6. Systemize and Simplify Activities

Developing a system capable of managing your activities is essential to your success. CRMs, schedules, tasks, tracking sheets, and automated processes can significantly improve your playbook. Calendars, spreadsheets, and software tools can be powerful assets that add value to your brand and help you remain top-of-mind with your clients. However, it is necessary you integrate all parts to manage your progress effectively.

Tip: Use a scheduling app to make finding the perfect time for a call easier. If you don’t already have one, we recommend Calendly.com. Their free version may be enough for you.

Apply this to your company page: The sooner you find monotony, rhythm, and routine the better. It often helps to create content in batches and use a social media manager app to schedule posts. If you do not already have one, we recommend Buffer.com. Keep in mind, though, you may still have to manually tag people in your posts.

7. Nurture Leads so YOU get the Call

Not everyone you meet will have an immediate need or desire to hire you. Therefore, what happens AFTER the initial meeting and throughout the buyer’s journey can make all the difference. Nurturing your leads is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Build personalized long-term relationships with your key prospects, continuing to add value and remain top-of-mind so YOU get the call when they are ready to buy.

Tip: Identify the triggering events and plan to nurture your leads.

Apply this to your company page: Build relationships by sharing assets, offering advice, asking for opinions, commenting on clients’ posts (welcoming new employees, celebrating awards and wins, etc.). 

Time to Take Action

I understand how challenging it is for CPA firms to stand out from the crowd and differentiate their people and services. As a CPA and MBA, my 20-year career has taken me from being a CFO to one of the top Sales Leaders at a National Top 10 CPA Firm. I discovered a disturbing trend: most organizations and business developers struggled with attracting their ideal clients to grow their firm consistently year after year. In addition, they did not have the processes in place to remain top-of-mind and continue to build relationships and add value throughout the buyer’s journey.

They say that products and services make you money, but systems make you a fortune. This 7-step process is the system we use to grow our clients’ revenue. You can now make it yours. But only if you implement it. Do not let LinkedIn and this system sit on the shelf while someone else builds their fortune.

Take time to download and fill in the Grow Your Revenue Checklist. Map out your content strategy, and build your messaging machine. Commit to taking action on each of the seven steps to fill your sales pipeline. Be ready to reach for the phone when they call YOU.

Need help with your LinkedIn process, then we should talk. ✆ 972-998-5132 | ? [email protected] | or schedule a call at www.ScheduleACallWithMark.com.

LinkedIn statistics from https://kinsta.com/blog/linkedin-statistics/ and https://news.linkedin.com/about-us#Statistics