Cracking LinkedIn Personal Branding & Getting Inbound Leads

[BlackMagician]

This thread is to discuss on how I am using LinkedIn to get inbound leads and ultimately clients for my agency.
My progress thread is to show my overall progress and things on agency level. My Progress Thread. This is NOT my progress thread.
This LinkedIn thread is to share my learnings, win/lose on LinkedIn channel.
Examples and insights below is oriented towards agency/consultant business BUT my learnings are from Founders or SAAS, eCom, B2B, Personal Branding founders. Hence can be used in most of the industry and most of the personal branding niche.

After couple of months of not posting on LinkedIn, I posted 1 content yesterday and got: 6.5k impression, 140+ comment, 1 lead, 2 past leads showed interest.





Some of my OLD posts have also went viral. Those posts helped get clients every month and making me one of the go-to experts:




I felt I should share my learnings and insights with people here so that it add values and to give back to this forum.

I will organize this in couple of posts on my past and current learnings, and in future posts, i will keep updating with my new learnings and results.

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Step 1: Laying the Foundation
Step 2: Your Funnel (LinkedIn Profile)
Step 3: Creating the Empire of ICP & HeavyHitters
Step 4: Creating VALUE Contents
Step 5: SECRET Strategy: COMMENTING!
Step 6: Advanced LinkedIn

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IMPORTANT: If you don't know how to do something, do your own research. To maintain the quality, i am skipping the basics which can be googled easily.

STEP 1: Laying The Foundation

1) Decide NICHE
You start with understanding/writing down who you are going to target, who will be your ICP (Ideal Customer Persona), and what niche you will be focusing.

I already been doing Performance Marketing for Ecom brands, hence I knew my ICP.

I drilled down more and found that me and my team is good in scaling Health & Wellness brands, hence I focused on that specific Niche.

"I help eCom Health/Wellness brands scale to 1CR+, being profitable"

Then decide, what VALUE you'll offer

2) Understand Yourself
Building a personal brand is more of giving values to different level of audience and sharing your expertise.
People connect with others who have a story, a purpose.
So you need to define those properly.

• What is your backstory ( Mine was "scaled multiple ecom brands to 6-7 figures using Creatives/Full-funnel strategy")
• What are the 3-5 topics you will cover (i focused on META ads, CRO, scaling brands to 7 figures strategies, ecom operations)

STEP 2: Your Funnel (LinkedIn Profile)

This is your Landing Page. This is where your ICP will come, trust you and buy from you. Making it optimized is crucial.

Here is the checklist on creating HIGH level profile on LinkedIn:

• Turn Off Profile Change Notifications:
  You dont want your connection to get dozens of profile change notification while you engineer your profile.
  
  
• ENGINEER YOUR INTRO SECTION:
  The intro section of your profile includes your URL, banner image, public profile, picture, name, headline, and your location.
  • Choose your keywords: Define 4 to 5 keywords that you want to represent your brand, and use them throughout the different sections of your profile.
    When you're brainstorming appropriate keywords, consider the following:
    • your niche
    • specific job titles you've held: current (or past if relevant)
    • your skills, competencies and expertise
    • your achievements
    • relevant credentials
  • Update your profile URL - Make is simple and easy (mine is : https://www.linkedin.com/in/myname)
    
    
  • Create your killer banner image - Banner visually highlight your brand. Check out Justin Welch, Ali Abdaal, Alex Hormozi.
    
    
  • Your Profile Picture - Get a clear head shot of yours and use it.
    
    
  • Your Headline - Your headline is the phrase that appears below your name.
    A compelling headline will create interest and earn clicks. Here is mine:
    
    
    
    
    
  • Your Location & Industry - Use exact location and your industry

• YOUR ABOUT US -
  Here, you want to provide an overview of your professional experience, written from the first-person point of view.
  - Talk to your niche.
  - Who are you targeting? Who is your ideal profile viewer? How do you help these people?
  - Stay true to your established character and your brand voice.
  
  BEST PRACTISE:
  • Start with Engaging statement as LinkedIn only shows 2 lines before someone clicks on 'see more'
  • Add your story
  • Highlight your best accomplishments
  • Add CTA
  • Add Media Links
  • Example of LinkedIn Summaries: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-braun/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abramsjake/

• YOUR EXPERIENCES -
  Instead of listing your roles, tasks here, I want you to summarize each role and highlight your accomplishments with value statements. Can you feel the difference?
  Here is mine:
  
  
  Some others:
  
  
  
  
• YOUR FEATURED ARTICLES-
  Here you show EITHER your OFFERS (Call, AUDIT, Consultation call, 1-1 Calendly link) OR your best and most engaging article.
  Here is mine and few others:
  
  
  
  
  
• YOUR SKILLS, ACCOMPLISHMENTS & INTERESTS:
  These are the sections which you can add as per the your experiences. Not much details is needed here.

That's all the ground work you need before starting. Now go back and re-activate the notification setting which you switched off.


(Continues below)

 

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[BlackMagician]

Step 3: Creating the Empire of ICP & Heavy Hitters

This section is a juicy part. You are now going to build your tribe. People who will become your client/customer, people who are giants in your niche, people of your same level & people who will learn from you (these people are very important).

This activity needs to be done regularly.

• ADDING RELEVANT CONNECTIONS:
  - Go to LinkedIn search, and enter your keywords that your clients might use in their profile. "co-founder" "ecommerce" "founder of x brand" etc. I found 30 such founders in my niche.
  - Now LinkedIn starts showing me suggestions of similar founders and potential customers, who can become my client and people who I can help
  
  BONUS: You SHOULD also add down-level of these founders. So if "Jake" is a founder of X brand, You will get suggestions of adding "Lucy" who is a marketing manager in that brand. Add these people.
  When your content start going viral, these people will become your advocate in 'convincing' the founders to get your services. You are creating your influence everywhere inside that brand.
  
  Many of my clients came to me because "someone" in their team showed my content to the founder.
  
  
• ADDING INDUSTRY GIANTS:
  If my ICP (Ideal Customer) are ecom founders are are upcoming and has potential to become big brands, where will they hang out? Inside the comment section of 7,8,9-figure brands founders content.
  
  • We will list down at-least 20 such giants WHO are active on LinkedIn. DON'T send them connection request at this stage.
  • Stay out of giants who's last activity is 6 months ago..
  • Stay out of their inbox. DONT DM them. Respect their time & inbox.
  • Routinely try to interact with them on their POSTS. Don't comment "Great Post!" "I respect you and want to connect". NO.
  • Try adding value in their posts by sharing your views, your experience OR anything that will add value to these giants OR the their connections. REMEMBER, their connections are your customers/clients.
  • After 3-5 days of comment interactions, create a 'solo recognition' post. If one of their recent post is insightful, Create your own POST and appreciating that ONE titan and how much it helped you. ONLY tag that titan.
  • Now is the time to hit the hammer when iron is hot. You have interacted with them, you created recognition post and they commented, now send them a personalized message and connection request.

This activity will be your regular thing. You should keep adding your relevant ICP and heavy-hitters along with giants to keep building your empire.


Step 4: Creating VALUE Contents

LinkedIn and all the social media is filled with generic content.
You MUST be specific. You MUST be relatable.
On LinkedIn, You SHOULD be seen as EXPERT.

VALUEABLE content get you seen as expert.

When i started, I started with giving away the best ADS template that is working for my clients, CRO checklists, Performance Marketing Strategy.

These content were WAY better than what my ICP finds in Courses/Mentorship.
And strategies that is working for my client RIGHT NOW helped build credibility.

I also shared case studies THAT brought me multiple leads each times.

In these content, you are going to give lots of values upfront to the mass, attracting your ICP, been shown as experts and when that LEAD comes to you, you don't need to do heavy sales call.

They are most of the time already sold.

You need to be seen. So POST frequently initially for 1-2 months. Daily would be preferred.

"What better way to generate fresh content ideas than talking about what you're going through on a regular basis. What's happening at work and in your life, and what have you learned from it?"

When you are starting, you can use proven templates and use to create content that will bring initial traction. As you keep going, you can innovate.

Here are some Ideas to start:

• Personal Results: Personal results attract people, make them trust you, and its about you, hence people get interested.
  E.g.
  "How I scaled my personal brand to ₹50 Lacs / month in 6 months"
  "Here are my top 12 weight-loss tip:"
  "I used THIS 1 finance tip to save $$$$ in tax"
  
  
• Client/Customers Real Results: You are talking about clients results your achieved.
  "How I scaled this eCom Hair brand to ₹50 lacs / month"
  "I made my client 300% more revenue this month."
  "Here is how my client crushed his Black Friday Sale"
  
  
• Relevant Questions: People love answering questions. Ask questions relevant to your ICP.
  "Want to decrease your RTO % but dont know how? Here..."
  "Does using Supplements really help in loosing weight?"
  "Do you know many Indian eCom brand fails in first 2 years? Here is WHY so that you can avoid"
  
  
• List Titles: This is short form list based content where you share some kind of list.
  "8 AI tools to help in Retention"
  "3 Books you must read if your are X (your ICP)"
  
  
• How-to guides: Guides, how-to's make you an expert in your domain. It shows your client that you know your game. It also help these founders team using YOUR content to bring results themselves.
  
  I was having a call with a potential client. He was with his marketing guy. Marketing guy said, Black Magician, I read and implemented that tutorial of yours and it instantly improved our CAC by 20%. We believe you can help us achieve more!.
  
  
• Stories: Duh! Yeah the old and gold story writing. People love stories. Give them. Mine was:
  "I went from ₹0 savings to growing my agency to 6-figures in 6 months" - This post received 60+ comments, 10+ from my ICP.
  
  
• If, Then -
  "If your business if failing, then read The Millionaire Fastlane "
  "If you are depressed, then DO this..."
  
  
• Steal This - I love STEALING. Stealing from legends, adding my own learning and twist and sharing. You too do this. DON'T copy, STEAL!
  "You don't have to start business from scratch & fail, STEAL this list of business you can buy TODAY and profit"
  
  
• STATISTICS - Statistics work. Numbers shift the perspective of the reader to trust instantly.
  "Follow this 7-steps to Scale your eCom brand to 7-figure"
  "95% will never leave 9-5 rat race"
  "How to be a part of 1%"
  
  
• Case Studies - Simple, you are creating a casestudy on how you achieved that success with detailed steps so that others can learn from it and use it. Worry not. Real founders will come to you for help instead of doing themselves.
  
  
• I did the hard work for you - A trendy type of content, where you share some templates, guides, notes, checklist telling your ICP and their peers that you did the hard work for them so that they can benefit.
  "I invested 10+ hours to create this WINNING ADS library, so that you can achieve profitable ROAS"

Some examples above can be used in many ways. Just be creative. I will keep sharing my latest learnings on CONTENT in upcoming posts.

Remember the rule: 1 post. 1 topic. 1 big takeaway.

BONUS: Here is a short masterclass on writing content:

Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn: 27 (Proven) LinkedIn Writing Tips by Jasmin Alic | 1,160 comments

Free LinkedIn writing masterclass on a Tuesday?! Yepsolutely! Today's a great day to write online! Here's something I could've easily put up as a lead… | 1,160 comments on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com

How to format your content: Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn: Formatting your LinkedIn posts matters A LOT. (so here's my… | 1,291 comments


POSTING & ALGORITHM:
LinkedIn Algorithm is combination of AI + human editors. It's difficult to be in front of right people.

Here are some tips to always keep in mind:

• Don't be boring and still be professional
• Be diverse - Combine text, carousel, video, image based content, instead of just 1 format.
• Don't link out of LinkedIn
• Think Mobile
• Be Human while interacting
• Be consistent
• End posts with questions or ask

 

[BlackMagician]

Step 5: Secret Strategy - COMMENTING!

This is a secret weapon very few people are using and this is how you go viral, you dominate your niche and become known as value giver and expert.

This is not spamming highly professional "I appreciate this post and I would like to blah blah" type of comments.

Posting on LinkedIn isn't enough.
↳ You have to comment too.
↳ It brings more followers.
↳ It brings opportunities.

In no particular order, here are 17 things I do with my comments that got me 30-100+ followers daily + 2-5 potential leads every week. If i go full IN, i might double these leads.

1. Never comment "Great post" → too generic
2. Always write a genuine & engaging comment
3. Never comment only for the author of the post
4. Always comment for everyone reading the post
5. Find 20-30 creators in the same niche → writing
6. Find 10 creators in an adjacent niche → branding
7. Try to comment early on their posts → not a must
8. Swipe through their comment sections every time
9. Find your ICPs (ideal customers) in the comments
10. Leave 3-4 extra "replies" to your ICPs' comments
11. On your own posts, stay there for 60-90 minutes
12. Make sure to bring a feeling of "real" community
13. Leave a few "pinned" comments with questions
14. Share "bonuses" in your pinned comments too
15. Use endearing names → friend, fam, bud, pal
16. Never write anything negative → ANYTHING
17. Let every comment reflect your brand / self

Oh, and make sure to do this every single day.

Here are some more masterclass or mini content for you to learn about commenting:
Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn: This is my no. 1 strategy to find clients on LinkedIn. If you know your… | 1,652 comments

Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn: LinkedIn Comments Explained In 60 Seconds | 1,833 comments
Jasmin Alić on LinkedIn: Here's how you can comment "more" on LinkedIn (without getting… | 1,541 comments

I will keep sharing more resources on commenting.
Some people preach about commenting everyday but I won't. I just jump for 10-15 mins daily before and after my POST and comment it.

That's more then enough for me to keep getting clients, keep building my personal brand, have great network and not get stuck in the loop of Social Media.



STEP 6: ADVANCE LINKEDIN

(I will keep sharing Advance Strategy & content in this thread in future, hence nothing right now under this section)

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End of the guide. The guide didn't flow well because I tried to condense all my learnings in short form and bullet points. If you have any questions or want a detailed explanation of some of the strategy, I am happy to expound.

From here I will keep sharing what I am doing, what's working for me and how I am getting clients for my agency through this.

(watch) this thread for more insights!