9 LinkedIn Profile Tips That Help Prospects Choose You
It is a success just to be found by your ideal prospects on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, being found isn’t enough if your leads leave your profile as soon as they land on it.
Your profile needs to draw in your prospects and show them you could be the solution they’ve been looking for – but it needs to do this quickly to be effective.
Most people will only scan your profile before deciding whether to invest a few minutes in learning more about you or moving on.
While I have shared other LinkedIn profile posts in the past, in this article I focus on tips specific to making your profile enticing to your prospects. After all, your ultimate goal is for them to hire you.
I’ll show you how you can convince your clients you are the right person for the job by demonstrating to them that:
- they are in the right place
- you are someone they’d want to work with
- you have credibility to deliver the solution they need.
Nine client-attracting LinkedIn profile tips
When a prospect views your profile, you have only seconds to convince them they could benefit from learning more about you. That’s your first priority.
Once you have piqued their interest, your second task is to clearly define whom you help and how you help them so they feel compelled to connect with you. You do it by presenting the right information to them over a number of key sections in your LinkedIn profile.
1. Headline
Quite often, you must accomplish the task of attracting your prospects’ attention right away with your LinkedIn Headline.
You have only 120 characters to convince them to click to learn more about you.
To help you, I have created a handy LinkedIn headline infographic, which provides four effective headline styles (with examples) that will move your prospects to learn more about you. Use these LinkedIn headline tips to capture your views attention.
2. About section (formerly the Summary section)
The About section is right below your introduction card at the top of your profile.
If your headline has done the job of getting a prospect to click to learn more about you, your About section on LinkedIn becomes the next most crucial section.
In your About section, you must describe in terms your prospects will understand:
- who your ideal clients are
- the problems they most want to solve
- the solution you provide.
If you do a good job of representing your business in the About section, your prospective clients will recognize themselves and their issues in the description and feel they are in the right place.
A great way to do this is to create a bullet list of your ideal client types using this formula:
[IDEAL CLIENT TYPE] – [DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM OR CHALLENGE] – [DESCRIBE THE SOLUTION] AND [BENEFIT(S) YOU PROVIDE IN SOLVING THEIR PROBLEM]
You want to ensure that once your prospects land on your profile, they will self-select.
It is also important that you use your About section to begin establishing your credibility.
You want to tell the viewers of your profile some of your story, explaining why you do what you do and your background.
Within your story, you want to answer as many of these questions as possible:
- Who are you?
- What do you do?
- Whom you do it for?
- Why you do what you do?
- Why should they listen to you (expertise: experience, education)?
- Why should someone hire you?
3. Experience section
Your Experience section is another important place where you can showcase how you can help the ideal clients you identified in the About section.
You can list the products or services you offer and the benefits they provide.
Focus on the benefits rather than the features – it is the benefits your prospects will emotionally connect with. You want them to be able to see themselves using your solution and feel success.
Include rich media (videos, presentations, PDFs, etc.) that allow the visitors of your profile to get a clear sense of who you are and what you do.
You also have the ability to segment the different niches you serve as well as highlight the different services you offer. See how I have done this in the experience section of my LinkedIn profile, speaking to several different target markets and highlighting the services for each one.
To view my LinkedIn profile in its entirety, click here.
4. Cover photo
Your cover photo becomes vital once a prospect lands on your profile. As part of your introduction card at the top of your profile, this is prime real estate where you can visually communicate what you do.
Make your cover image both professional and informative so that your prospects can determine who you are and what you do at a glance.
5. Featured section
An excellent way to establish credibility and showcase your knowledge on a topic is to take advantage of LinkedIn’s Featured section.
In this section, your prospects can see a preview your best work or any lead magnets you are offering. Here, you can demonstrate your knowledge and insights.
Unlike the Activity section of your profile, which highlights all your activity for the past 45 days and is listed by recency, LinkedIn’s Featured section allows you to pick and choose the content you want to showcase to those who view your profile.
If you don’t have any content to feature, this section will be hidden from people who view your profile until such a time that you add it.
6. Accomplishments
Add accomplishments to your LinkedIn profile to create a more professional presence. You’ll stand out from those with fewer achievements.
The Accomplishments section has many categories:
- Publications: List your published works and increase your chances of being found sevenfold
- Certifications: List a certification and get five times more profile views
- Courses: List coursework from your prior or continuing education
- Projects: Add compelling projects to demonstrate your experience
- Honors & Awards: Include any awards, accolades or recognitions you’ve received
- Patents: Showcase your innovation and expertise
- Test Scores: List a test score here if you excelled in an exam (this is especially good for recent graduates)
- Languages: Show how you can be a fit for a job or overseas opportunity
- Organizations: Show your involvement with communities important to you
Be sure to add only those sections that are relevant to you and further establish your credibility.
7. Education
By adding your education, you can achieve two things.
First, you’ll improve your credibility.
Second, prospects who may have studied at the same institution, in a similar field or at the same time as you will feel more connected to you because of the common experience.
Add your Post-Secondary education (bachelor, master, etc.) with your degree, field of study, activities and a brief description here.
Leverage social proof on LinkedIn
Although your prospects may have found you as someone who could help them, they may have found a number of other businesses who could do the same.
Why should they pick you?
They may have been impressed by the knowledge you shared in an article, but if you really want to seal the deal, you need to provide further proof that you can deliver on your promises.
This is where the all-powerful social proof comes into play.
8. Recommendations
Recommendations are the most potent form of social proof of your expertise on LinkedIn.
When people are deciding with whom to do business, they are often swayed by the decision’s others have made, so the more recommendations you have, the better.
Similar to testimonials, recommendations give your potential clients insight into how you helped people just like them. Even more importantly, the viewers can verify the identity of the person who wrote the recommendation by clicking on their name. They will know it is a real testimonial from a real person – unlike the fake ones displayed on many websites.
Quality recommendations are important. Ask credible people who can genuinely vouch for who you are and what you do to provide you with a recommendation.
You can ask for recommendations from colleagues and employers. Even more powerful are the recommendations from your clients, who can speak to your abilities and contributions to their lives or businesses.
Learn how to get more recommendations in my post How to Ask for LinkedIn Recommendations.
9. Skills & Endorsements
While not as powerful as recommendations, a list of skills endorsed by your connections provides a level of social proof.
Members who list their skills on their profiles receive up to 17 times more profile views than those who don’t. It’s worth your time to list all your relevant skills.
Help your prospects choose you with these LinkedIn profile tips
Stand out from your competitors, ensuring your prospects choose you, by including these three key elements into your LinkedIn profile:
- Describe whom you serve and how you can help them
- Explain who you are and why you are credible
- Provide social proof
By infusing your profile with this information, you will make it easier for prospects to choose you over your competitors, creating many more business opportunities for yourself.
Follow these nine LinkedIn profile tips, and transform your LinkedIn profile into a client-attracting landing page that will feed your lead-generating pipeline.
If you struggle writing about yourself feel free to check out our LinkedIn Profile Transformation service where we’ve helped hundreds of busy professionals, just like you, grow their businesses with compelling profiles and a strong personal brand.
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3 Comments
Definitely one of my new fav tip posts from top dog Melonie! I love posts that offer tips people can truly implement today, if they have the wherewithal. Keep ’em coming!
@Mys: Thanks for your comment. It’s all about simple, actionable steps! 🙂
Thanks for these great tips Melonie. I guess if one’s really serious about getting real customers, LinkedIn is the go-to platform. And I totally agree when you said LinkedIn has that professional tone, so it’s a must that one creates a profile that can represent one’s brand.