Spring Clean Your LinkedIn Profile to Entice More Business Connections
Spring Clean Your LinkedIn Profile to Entice More Business Connections
Spring is in the air, and most of us are feeling energized to clean up, organize, and make forward progress after a winter of being cooped up and cowed by cold weather. That makes April a perfect time to assess and improve your LinkedIn profile to capture more leads. Use these actionable insights to make your profile sing for summer!
Optimize for search and discovery
Whether your target audience is searching on Google or within LinkedIn, make it easy for them to find you by including relevant keywords and phrases throughout your profile. Consider the terms that people use when they’re searching for an insurance agent or insurance product information. Once you’ve established a list of words that are pertinent, include them in your LinkedIn headline, your summary, and the experience section of your profile.
Build credibility
It’s not enough to be found. You’ve got to also be trusted. LinkedIn is a valuable tool for building confidence in your services. Start by using a professional headshot that shows you mean business and take your reputation seriously. Include all of the information that your prospects need to make contact with you as well as all of your degrees, awards, and community outreach efforts.
Spotlight your unique value
You won’t be the only insurance agent on LinkedIn, so you’ll need to send a message that showcases your unique value. What is it that you do for your clients that other agents don’t do? What added value comes with your services and products? Personal interactions? Faster responses to claims? Whatever your unique value is, spotlight it in your professional headline. Rather than a generic title such as “Commercial Insurance Advisor,” try something more dynamic like “Advise savvy business owners on the best risk management strategies.” As impossible as it may seem, 120 characters is plenty of space to include SEO andpersuasive marketing copy. In fact, the second headline above is only halfway to the limit!
Build a professional network
While many agents use LinkedIn almost exclusively as an online resume, it is a social platform. Neglecting this aspect of the tool diminishes its effectiveness. To get the most out of LinkedIn, use it to increase your reach and extend your professional network.
Begin by importing your contacts into LinkedIn, and then take time browse through your network to find secondary and tertiary contacts. Ask your primary connections for introductions to gain access to this extended network. Don’t forget to join groups to reach even more prospects and referral partners, and once you’re in, be an active participant in group discussions to build trust and camaraderie.
Demonstrate your expertise
If you’re staying active in groups, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to showcase your authority. Search for comments and questions that you can respond to provide helpful insights, and share posts from your agency blog that are relevant and useful to the group’s members. Most groups have rules about what members can share, and in general, purely promotional posts are frowned upon. In some cases, pushy promotional activity can even get you banned from a group. More importantly, promotional content is frowned upon by consumers. They want to be informed, educated, and entertained. They do not want to be bored with another sales pitch.
Send prospects back to your website
While you can share directly to LinkedIn from within the site, it’s a good idea to focus more of your sharing on content that links LinkedIn users back to your agency site. This is the property you own, and once a visitor is there, they’re more likely to explore all that you have to offer.
