How to write a LinkedIn Post quick and generate leads

LinkedIn posts are the perfect way to generate leads. The big difference between sharing a LinkedIn post and sharing general content is the fact that your LinkedIn post is personal. It shows you are a product expert, a market advocate and you are willing to share your knowledge. A lot of people think that writing a LinkedIn post takes a lot of time. Yes in the beginning it will take a bit more time but after a few posts you will see that it goes faster and your posts will get better. These tips will help you to write a LinkedIn post quick and successful. 

Step 1. Find a subject to write about.  You speak with your customers and prospects everyday. They ask you a lot of (similar) questions. These questions are perfect subjects for your LinkedIn post. By answering these questions in your post you are relevant for your customers and prospects.

Step 2. Context. Find content with a context your really like. A good example of successful content is; how to ... in 5 steps. Use this way of writing for your LinkedIn blog post. It will give you structure and this saves time!

Step 3. Visuals. Add visuals to your LinkedIn post. This makes your post more attractive and it helps people understanding your content. People prefer to watch visuals than read content. Visuals save you time explaining your content. 

Step 4. LinkedIn tags. Use tags to make you LinkedIn blog post easy to find for other people. By using tags people understand what to expect from your post. This will help you to reach the right people.

A good LinkedIn post leads to: 1. a high number of profile views, 2. interactions (shares and comments) and 3. engagement. And this exactly where leads generation starts. So what should you do after publishing your post?

1. Profile views after publishing a LinkedIn post. When a prospect outside your network visits your profile they have an interest in you and your knowledge. Use this opportunity to connect with your prospect. Your prospect will see the value of connecting with you.

2. Interactions. A LinkedIn post with shares and likes will reach people outside your network. Prospects outside your network who comment on your post or like your post have an interest in your content. This is the perfect moment to sent an InMail. Mention the fact that they liked or commented on your post in your InMail. Your prospect will see the value of having a phone call with you.

3. Engagement. Engagement is the most important part of building relationships. And strong relationships leads to opportunities. A LinkedIn blog post on your profile shows your expertise and knowledge. And sharing your experience with others makes you a trusted person.

LinkedIn posts are valuable, inspiring and fun. I would love to hear from you what you think of LinkedIn posts and why you write them or not. 

Looking for the perfect content? Create a buyer persona!

Content is king in the online marketing world. Content helps you attract new customers, convert website visits in to leads, leads in to opportunities, closing deals and delight customers. This means content needs your attention! Specially because customers are active on different social channels and expect to find your content on those channels. 75% of key decision makers uses social media to find information about vendors. But only sharing content is not enough. Content needs to add value to your prospects and customers. When your content isn't relevant for your prospects and customers it adds no value at all. So, how do you know what to share, when to share and where to share your content? 

The answers is simple; create buyer personas

A buyer persona is a complete (visual) overview of your customer. The overview gives answers to questions like, what is your buyers job title, organization size, behavior, years of experience and interest. The more specific you make your buyer persona, the more value they have for you and your organization. A buyer persona is never finished. Your customers are changing and you get to know your customer better after working together for months or years. This means you have to update your buyer persona on a regular base. When you use a buyer persona you know what is in the interest of your customer and where your customer is in the buying process or the sales funnel. This information helps you to create content that is relevant for your customers. A person who visits your website for the first time needs different content than a customer at the end of the sales funnel. Ask yourself the question, what do you know about your customers and prospects? And where do you find this information?

Use your organization and customers to find information for your buyer personas

Creating buyer personas isn't simple or done in a hour. You need input from different parts of the organization. Your sales team knows your prospects and customers very well. They speak with them on a daily bases. Your delight team or customer success managers have a good understanding of your customers as well. And don't forget the support team and the technical team. All the different departments in your organization can help you create a 360 degree overview of your prospects and customers. But also your customers can help! A short survey or interview can give you very valuable information. And asking your customers for help will engaged them with your organization, that's a win-win! Use forms and landing pages to get a good understanding of your prospects on your website. And don't forget your CRM solution and other data collecting solutions your organization uses. These are great sources of information as well! So you have a the information you need, what's next?

Find trends in your information

Every customer is different, but you will find trends in the information. By looking for trends you will see that you can split your customers in different groups. A great example of splitting up by groups are the different stages in the sales funnel. But take a look at other trends like; content performing and engagement, most active social media channels, which content converts leads in to opportunities and click through rate. Find the most relevant trends for your organization and again, this is a changing process! Ready to create your buyer personas?

Create a new worksheet for every buyer persona

Buyer personas can be used in every part of the organization. Be aware of this and make your buyer personas as clear and simple as possible. Use a new worksheet for every persona and find a clear structure to set up your worksheet. Use real customer quotes in your buyer personas and give examples of a day in the life of your buyers. This will help you and the other people in your organization to understand your buyer personas. And maybe even more important, add visuals. Visuals say more than words and make your buyer persona's almost real people. I prefer to give buyer personas a name as well. Let your buyer personas become part of your organization. This is the moment to start using your buyer personas, ready?

Let's get started!

Time to start using your buyer personas. Start with creating content. Write a blog that perfectly fits to one of your buyer personas. Post your blog on the company website and share the blog on the right social media channels. Use the right forms and landing pages to take your customers trough the sales funnel. The most important part of the process is measure success. Measure for example; website visits, engagement and shares on social media channels, number of new leads and quality of the leads. When you measure results you know your buyer personas are good and complete or not. Let everybody in your organization be part of this. Ask them to share your content, engage with prospects and customers on social media and maybe even write content as well. Do you think writing and creating buyer personas is a lot of work? I promise you, ones your start it, you will love it! And when you see the results you can't image what life would be without buyer personas!

Is Twitter a better platform for social selling than LinkedIn?

According to Forbes Twitter is more often used for social selling than LinkedIn!

Surprising? No really. Twitter has some social selling benefits that LinkedIn doesn't have. In my eyes Twitter is a combination of a personal and business content platform. This means people use their Twitter profiles to share business related content but they also share personal content as; check ins, opinions or pictures. LinkedIn is mainly focused on business related content and still struggles a bit when it comes users sharing personal content. The personal part of Twitter is one of the reasons why Twitter is a great place to find information about your prospects. The better you understand your prospect and the more your know about their interest the better you can build a strong relationship. 

But Twitter is not only a great place to find information. It is also a great place to engage with prospects and customers. You can follow people without connecting and you can start a conversation at any time. Twitter is the place were you can have a conversation with a complete stranger without annoying people. In fact, people love to have interactions on Twitter. You can interact with everybody in an organization, from the intern up to the CMO, everybody is on the same "level". This means you can have interactions with the CEO (if you are prospecting him) without writing engaging emails or InMails. LinkedIn is different from Twitter. InMails are great to get people on the phone but maybe a tweet is faster, easier and also more successful? 

To answer the question, is Twitter a better platform for social selling than LinkedIn? No, I don't think so. Aldo interactions on Twitter are easier and faster than the ones on LinkedIn I also think they have less value compared to LinkedIn interactions. A tweet is gone in seconds compared to a LinkedIn connection or InMail. When you follow your prospects on Twitter they don't follow automatically back, this takes time and this means you can't influence them with your content before they follow you back. Ones a LinkedIn connection is made you have your prospect in your network and you can start sharing interesting content to built a relationship.

Does this mean LinkedIn a better platform for social selling? No, both platforms have great benefits and are extremely useful for social selling. But, I believe Twitter and LinkedIn are the most powerful when you use them together. A good understanding of the difference between the platforms is the start of social selling. Engage with your prospects on LinkedIn and Twitter and you will become a social selling star!

7 tips for personalized LinkedIn invitations to grow your network

Twitter is like going to a bar and speaking with a lot of (new) people. LinkedIn is like having diner with one person.

When you keep this in mind, it makes sense there is a different between the two channels when it comes to social selling. Twitter is a place where you can follow and unfollow a lot of different people and have a network of people you don't know. Your LinkedIn network is based on people you can add value to and people how add value to you. Your LinkedIn network is a place were you build long time relationships and it is place where you send and share information personalized and relevant for your network. Building a strong LinkedIn network takes time and investment. And this all starts with a personalized LinkedIn invite to the people you want to add to your network.  

A personalized LinkedIn invite is honest

There can be different reasons to add a person to your network. Maybe you are prospecting the person, maybe you want a job at the company they work for or maybe you have a personal interest in their career. No matter what the reason is, be honest about why you want to connect. You have a low amount of characters, so try to keep your message short and explain why you want to connect.  

Tell the person you want to connect with how you know him

LinkedIn's network still grows extremely. This means that you, and the people you want to connect with, get a lot of invites. A lot of people only accept invites from they people they know or see the value of adding the person to their network. This means it makes sense to tell in your invite how you know him or her. Maybe you don't know the person, if so, tell how you found their profile and why you found their profile. This explains why you want to add them to your network. 

Make it personal

One size fits all invites, fit nobody. Don't waste your time sending similar invites to different people. Write personal invites to connect. When you spend a bit more time per invite you will have a higher number of people accepting your invites. Let's think about this; how long does it really take to add a short message to your invite?

Find something you have in common 

When you work at the same company, you went to the same school, you have the same interest or you are active in the same LinkedIn group you have something in common. When you mention this in your invite people are more willing to accept your invite. It is always interesting to speak with people with a similar interest or background. 

Don't be lazy, read profiles

Before you send the invite, take the time to read the person's profile. You can use the information from their profile in your invite. This shows you've done your homework. But it also shows you have an interest in their career. A personal interest is always a good reason to accept your invite. 

Be enthusiastic 

Be enthusiastic in your invite. This makes it not only a very nice message to read, people find it really hard to say no to enthusiastic people. And let's be honest, would you say no to a message like that?

Say thank you

When people accept your invite, say thank you. This shows you're happy to have them in your network. And it shows again a personal interest. After sending the invite, your "thank you" message is the next step in building the relationship and engagement. Again, spend a bit of time on sending the thank you message, the results will be amazing!

I personalize almost every invite. It helps me grow my network and build stronger relationships. When I receive standard invites I ask people why they want to connect with me. A strong and valuable LinkedIn network helps you during your whole career, that's why it is worth spending some time on building it!

With this type of content you will get thousands of shares and likes

Nothing feels better than getting a lot of shares and likes on you content. It gives you the feeling people like your content and it helps you to engage with your followers and fans. Sometimes you expect a lot of engagement around your content and nothing happens. And sometimes your content goes viral! What is the secret of sharing popular content? Well, there are different types of content that will give you a high number of shares and likes. And when you see these examples you will not be surprised!

Personal content

People love to see and read personal stuff. The more personal you are, the more people will engage with you. And this doesn't mean you should only share pictures of yourself. But you will see that content about your life or daily work will grow your engagement. A great example are the fitgirls. These girls share what they eat, how they look at the gym and even what they order only. Of course, this is an extreme version of sharing your personal life but the number of followers and fans these girls have is amazing! 

Quotes

The popularity around quotes started on Instagram but now you see quotes everywhere! Quotes score really good on LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest. The reason why people love quotes is they recognize themselves in the quotes. Quotes can be funny or motivate you, but most important, quotes are positive and that's what people love! Don't over do quotes, a quote per week is enough. Spend a bit of time finding the right quotes and see the results!

Infographics 

We all like facts but we don't like to read long text messages. This is why the infographic is perfect! Infographics are the perfect way of sharing complex information in a really easy and fun way. Share infographics who are easy to read and in the interest of your followers and fans. People love to learn and infographics are a great way to learn and to remember information. These fact pictures are easy to make with free software available all over the internet. But, only share infographics if you have something relevant to say. A weekly infographic can be to much, keep the infographic special. 

High quality pictures

Nothing is as annoying as low quality pictures. The better your picture looks to more people will like your picture. Spend time making the right picture and try to make different kind of pictures. Don't share similar pictures over and over again. Pictures are one of the best ways to engage with people but pictures are also one of the best ways to loose people. I think we all recognize the bad quality food pictures on Facebook. These pictures are not relevant to me, always the same and it is difficult to see what is on the picture. Reason enough to block those people. So remember; original, high quality and relevant pictures!

Action shots

People like to see other people in action. Are you raising money for a charity, attending a 10 km run or do you have a great day at work? Share action shots with people. Nowhere days you can share content anytime and anywhere. That's why people expect you to share content on location. By sharing this type of content you take your followers and fans with you on your journey. People will feel like they are part of the event you are sharing. This will lead to high engagement and more motivational comments for you!

 

When you share content, think about this; Would you like or share the content? Is this relevant for your followers and fans? And is it high quality content? If your answer to one of those questions is no, please don't share the content and find something better!

Social selling only works when you love what you do

Yes, Social Selling only works when you love what you do. If you don't like social media or the product you try to sell you will never get results from social media. And I don't say this to scare you, I want you to spend time on the sales channels that work for you. Some people are really good in cold calling (yes, I know a few of those people), some people write the most engaging emails in the world and some people use social media to hit their target. So what do successful social sellers love?

Social sellers love the products they sell

Social sellers are advocates in their market and product area. They believe in the solutions they sell. Social sellers love to learn more about their product area and market and even more important, they love to share their knowledge. The main focus of a social seller is engagement. Sharing knowledge and experience helps social sellers build strong long time relationship with their prospect and customers. Social sellers love to learn about prospects and customers by listening to what they say on social media and use this information to share relevant content with their followers. All information and knowledge available on social media helps social sellers grow as an advocate, every day. 

Social Sellers love social media

Of course, social seller love social media. But does this mean that they are online 24/7? No absolutely not. Social sellers have a good understanding of the social channels they use. They know what to share, which channels to use and they know how to have conversations on the different channels. This means social sellers prepare their social activity. They use different tools to schedule tweets and LinkedIn updates. This saves time! But since social sellers love social media they check the different channels at least a few times per day. A lot of social sellers start their day on social media and end their day online as well. Social media is the place where they learn constantly about their interests, prospects, customers and the market they sell in to. Social media is the information source for those sellers!

Social Sellers love to meet new people

For social sellers, social media is a great place to meet new people. Social sellers find new prospects by using social media. They engage with influencers, other advocates, product experts and people with similar interest. Meeting new people helps social sellers grow their knowledge and their network. For social sellers, using social media doesn't feel like work and meeting new people is one of the reasons. Sometimes, social media feels like going out for a drink and have short chat with other people in the same pub. Some people you like, others you don't. You spend more time on people you like than people you don't like, this is the same online and offline.  

So do you love what you do? And do use the right channels to reach your prospects and customers?

How to use your LinkedIn profile in every stage of the Sales Cycle

Let start with saying that it is almost impossible to sell via Social Media. You still need a phone or a face to face meeting to close a deal. But why do we call it Social Selling? Because Social Media helps you find new business, build a valuable network, engage with prospects and start conversations. 90% of key decision makers doesn't respond on a cold call. But, you can use Social Media in every stage of the Sales Cycle. Yes, your LinkedIn profile helps you with prospecting, engage with prospects, product demo's and closing deals.

Prospecting

Maybe you have a long list of account names or maybe you focus on new business. It always takes a lot of time to find the right people to engage with. LinkedIn is the perfect place to find the right people. You can see their profiles, read about their careers and experiences and get a good understanding of their job roles. This helps you finding the right prospects before speaking with the prospects. LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator are great tools to help you filter on job roles, seniority levels, locations and Sales Navigator feeds you with relevant information. This not only saves a lot of time, it also helps you find other key decision makers how are involved in the buying process. Today, more than 5 people are involved in the buying process. This means you can engage with more than one key decision maker and be sure that you influence the right prospects.

Recognize the need

When you found your prospects and you have a good understanding of their job roles, the company and the market they are active on it is time to start the conversation. You can use your profile to connect with prospects, to send InMails and to use Teamlink. Personalize every message you send. Also a connection invite needs to be personalized. Add a call to action to every InMail you send. After sending InMails and connection invites keep on sharing relevant and interesting content. When you receive an InMail back or when your prospect connects with you it is time to pick up the phone! Schedule a call and use your sales skills to find the compelling event.

Solution presenting

When you spoke with your prospect over the phone or face to face always connect on LinkedIn with your prospect. Send a personalized connection invite. When you have scheduled a demo or a meeting with a pre sales your prospect has an interest in understanding your product. Now it is time to share product related content. You can share content on your timeline or you can send a short private message to your prospect with the content. Don't do this every day, only when you have very valuable content, your prospects will appreciate this.

Closing the deal

The best part of the Sales Cycle, closing the deal. Follow your prospect, like his posts (not stalking) and read his updates. Specially the reading is important now. When you speak with your prospect mention the post and let the prospect know that you have a personal interest in your prospect. Make your prospect feel special. It is not about you, it is about your prospect now.

Retention

Don't forget about your customer after you've closed the deal. Keep on building the relationship. It saves a lot of time and energy to keep your customer in stead of finding a new customer. Send you customer a private message now and then, just to let your customer know that you think about him. And trigger your customer with relevant content, your content can lead to a new opportunity!