With over 930 million users globally, LinkedIn isn’t just a digital resume but has evolved as a professional go-to networking hub that can leverage connections to generate revenue.
Usually, personal branding on LinkedIn is about building a reputation and using it to attract leads who finally contribute to revenue. Thus, it is a critical part of revenue generation. It shares the same principle as a firm’s revenue marketing strategy, where each effort is diverted towards building a strong revenue stream.
To get a clear idea of what is revenue marketing and how a personal branding strategy on LinkedIn can help, you need to understand how they relate.
Revenue marketing emphasizes converting marketing activities directly into measurable revenue. Adopting its principles for LinkedIn strategy will take you beyond the top-of-the-funnel activities and connect each marketing effort directly to leads and revenue.
Coupling these two can help gauge the outcomes in the leads pipeline and open doors to new opportunities, partnerships, and revenue streams.
Here are five ways to boost revenue through an effective LinkedIn strategy.
Let’s get started!
Tapping in the profile optimization
LinkedIn is a powerhouse for professional networking, wherein a stellar profile is your ticket to grab eyeballs. Profile optimization requires you to strategically enhance every section of your LinkedIn profile to represent the best, most professional, and most genuine version of you. It’s all about making yourself both findable and unforgettable.
For example, the below profile showcases everything in a snapshot, from a customized URL to a cover image and past jobs.
Source: LinkedIn profile of a professional working at Apple
How to optimize LinkedIn profile for personal branding
Think of your profile as a billboard on LinkedIn, where millions are vying for attention. It tells the world who you are, what you stand for, and the value you bring.
But how can you ensure your profile doesn’t blend into the background but resonates and reaches the right people?
Headshot and banner: Keep a high-quality (in terms of resolution) and professional photograph as your profile picture.
Compelling headline: More than just a job title, your headline should convey value.
Source: LinkedIn
For instance, if you are a marketing manager, don’t just write the position, instead, use phrases like helping businesses skyrocket their online presence.
Personalized URL: Customize your LinkedIn URL to reflect your name or personal brand.
Narrative-driven summary: Instead of a bland bio, craft a narrative. Who are you? What’s your story? What value have you brought, and to whom?
Endorsements & Recommendations: These serve as social proof. Prioritize getting these from colleagues, mentors, or clients who can vouch for specific skills.
Tips for nailing profile optimization
Rich media usage: Integrate videos, slides, or portfolio pieces in your summary or experience section to give your profile some depth and a chance to showcase your hands-on expertise.
Keyword optimization: Think SEO, even if it is a LinkedIn profile. To increase your discoverability, integrate industry-related keywords throughout your profile, especially in the headline, summary, and experience sections.
Join and engage in groups: This displays your association on your profile, and active participation can boost your visibility among group members.
Consistent activity: Regularly share, comment, and post meaningful content. A great profile only works if you are an active, value-adding member of the LinkedIn community.
Quantify achievements: Try to provide numbers to your actions to make your profile look credible. So, when you write a bio, instead of saying, “Managed a sales team,” try “Led a sales team that achieved 150% of their yearly target.”
Content strategy for LinkedIn personal branding
LinkedIn has transformed from a professional networking site to a comprehensive platform. Nowadays, it serves as a platform where thought leadership, storytelling, and industry insights thrive. Therefore, devising an effective content strategy can help form a strong personal brand on LinkedIn.
Source: This professional shares every sort of content on LinkedIn.
Here’s how to go about it:
Create different types of content
Articles: Publish long-form content that delves deep into topics. Also, share personal experiences, industry trends, or case studies.
Posts: Short, insightful tidbits or updates are ideal for sharing quick thoughts, celebrating achievements, or sharing valuable resources.
Videos: Videos generally have higher engagement rates of 0.16% than 0.09% of posts. Therefore, create and share tutorials, interviews, or even personal stories in video format.
Infographics & slides: Visual content that’s easy to digest and share. You can create infographics or slide formats to summarize complex ideas for better engagement.
LinkedIn polls: A relatively new feature, polls can engage your audience, gather opinions, or understand industry trends.
Source: An example of a poll
Here, the above-mentioned poll on the cybersecurity can be engaging for enterprises looking to bolster their security. Such insights can help key decision-makers strengthen their cloud security posture management and include some major cybersecurity best practices.
Consistency is key
A regular posting schedule is necessary when you have a LinkedIn strategy for personal branding. Some assume consistency means posting every day, which often ends up in not-so-well-thought posts. But that shouldn’t be the case. Instead, consider consistency to build habits and drive audience anticipation for some quality content.
Start small: If you’re new to regular posting, start with posting once a week and gradually ramp up as you gauge audience reactions and your capacity.
Content calendar: Draft a simple content calendar for a month. Jot down topics or themes for each week. It reduces the “what to post” anxiety. You can check out these content calendar templates to get started.
Notifications: You can also try using some tools or simple reminders to alert you when it’s time to post so that you don’t miss out on anything.
Engage, don’t just broadcast
LinkedIn is a two-way street. You do not simply keep posting and publishing the content. Think of engaging users as well. For example, react to comments on your posts, engage with other users’ content, and always be a part of the conversation. LinkedIn rewards active users with better visibility.
Consider the image below for the best time to post on LinkedIn in 2023.
Source: LinkedIn post engagement depending on day and time
Allocate time: Dedicate specific time slots in your day just for LinkedIn engagement. You must spend this time commenting, sharing, and genuinely engaging with other content.
Ask questions: Make your posts interactive by inviting opinions and seeking insights or experiences from your audience.
Acknowledge engagement: When someone takes time to comment on your post, recognize it. A simple thank you or an insightful response can go a long way.
Keep it authentic
Share successes and learning experiences when following a LinkedIn strategy for personal branding. This helps build trust with your audience since people connect with stories.
Narrate real-life experiences, professional and personal challenges you faced, and the lessons learned. It resonates more than mere facts.
Here’s how to ace it!
Balance your narrative: Share a lesson or challenge for every major win or success story of your brand and make it more holistic.
Adopt storytelling frameworks: Instead of stating facts, use a storytelling framework. Begin with setting the context, introduce a challenge, narrate your journey, and conclude with an outcome or a lesson.
Ask for stories: Encourage your audience to share their experiences in response to yours, which helps foster deeper connections and community building.
Networking and relationship-building
Do not limit the power of networking to growing the number of connections on LinkedIn. Instead, strive for the depth to foster professional relationships beyond just a digital handshake.
A successful LinkedIn strategy for personal branding goes beyond mere profile optimization and content creation. At its heart, it’s about building genuine, lasting relationships.
Why? Because people don’t connect with profiles, they connect with people. They will remember the conversations you brew, the stories you share, and the times when someone reached out to them, adding value to their day.
How do you ace it like a pro?
Let’s explore.
Active commenting: Stop passively consuming the LinkedIn content. Instead, dive into the comments section to engage with the author or other commenters. Share your insights, give a different perspective, or appreciate good content.
Over time, this active participation can lead to meaningful conversations and collaborations.
Example: Let’s say someone in your network shares an article about the latest trends in content marketing. Instead of a generic “Great read!” comment something like, “Fantastic insights, especially point 2. I recently implemented a similar strategy for my brand, resulting in a 15% increase in engagement. Thanks for sharing this!”
Offer help without expecting returns: A successful networking on LinkedIn requires you to reach out to connections who might benefit from your expertise. It can be sharing valuable resources, offering guidance, or introducing them to someone who might help.
Example: If you see a post from one of your connections expressing challenges with their current marketing approach, reach out with a comment like: “Hey <name>, I noticed you’re facing challenges with your marketing funnel. I recently overcame a similar hurdle and would happily share some insights if that helps.”
A LinkedIn strategy for personal branding hinges on two key factors: content and connections. Your content highlights your skills and value, while networking builds trust and cements relationships.
Lead generation on LinkedIn
When investing (time, effort, and money) in personal branding, you anticipate some returns. Thankfully, LinkedIn opens up access to top industry professionals and leaders who can turn to leads. But unlocking this potential requires precision, patience, and creativity.
Here are some of the best ways to explore.
Create targeted content
Tailor your content for a specific audience to enhance its appeal. As someone growing a personal brand, you can share challenges and triumphs, host Q&A sessions, share how-to guides and tutorials, provide recommendations, etc.
Source: LinkedIn targeted ad setup
This showcases your expertise and attracts the right audience to your profile, having a higher chance of conversion.
LinkedIn polls and surveys
These two are highly underrated yet powerful tools. Conduct polls or surveys about industry trends to engage the audience. The responses can provide direct insight into their preferences and pain points, helping you tailor your content offerings to drive leads.
Use the LinkedIn search and advanced search filters
LinkedIn is a powerful platform for B2B lead generation, especially when combined with personal branding strategies. If you’re adopting a LinkedIn strategy for personal branding, use LinkedIn’s search and advanced search filters to connect with the right audience and drive conversions.
Basic search filters
Use keywords for industry-specific terms, job titles, or skills your target audience might have.
Source: LinkedIn search filters
Use a location filter to narrow the search by geographic region if your services or offerings are location-specific.
Check for connections (1st, 2nd, or 3rd+ degree connections). Targeting 2nd-degree connections can be useful because you can leverage mutual connections for introductions.
Advanced search filters
Refine your search based on industry to narrow down potential leads, a valuable setting if you cater to a particular sector.
Source: LinkedIn advanced search filters
Another handy filter is company size, where you can target content for SMEs or large corporations, this filter is handy.
Use job functions to target specific departments like marketing, finance, or HR.
Check for the seniority level and see if your LinkedIn strategy for personal branding involves targeting decision-makers by choosing senior levels such as “Owner,” “C-level,” or “Director.”
You can target the company from a list to search for employees within those companies.
Strategic connection requests
Once you use the above-mentioned filters, send a connection request by zeroing in on individuals who align with your professional goals or industry niche. You can target decision-makers, thought leaders, or potential collaborators to curate it for maximum value and impact. This method is about understanding the nuances of LinkedIn’s ecosystem and harnessing them for precise and beneficial connections.
How do you send the connection request effectively?
Research first: Before sending a request, study the person’s profile. Discover and note their recent achievements, latest stories and shares, and comments through activities.
The message: Keep it short but sincere. Example: “Hi [Name], I came across your recent article on [Topic] and found it insightful, particularly [Specific Point]. I’d love to connect and discuss it further.”
Follow-up: Once accepted, thank your connection and drive a genuine conversation about mutual interests. Avoid selling anything immediately.
Use LinkedIn’s lead gen forms: LinkedIn lead gen forms are designed to capture high-quality leads with pre-filled forms using the LinkedIn profile data of users.
Source: LinkedIn lead form
These forms collect a lead’s information with a single click, providing a seamless experience for potential clients or partners. Integrate them with compelling content or offers. A good starter here is to limit the number of fields and simplify it for users to submit.
Analytics and measurement
LinkedIn is not just about content and connection, it also offers a treasure trove of insights if you know where to look. Every like, share, or comment is a vote of confidence from your audience, and the analytics provide a roadmap to understand these votes.
Source: LinkedIn analytics dashboard
Scrutinizing these digital footprints helps tailor your content, optimize your reach, and strengthen your brand narrative.
Here are some of the tips to leverage LinkedIn analytics.
Dive deep to track better: Move beyond skimming the surface to gauge the parameters of likes or comments. Instead, check for the demographics and identify people who engage with your content. Which region, industry, or designation are they from? This tells you if you’re hitting your target audience.
Track post patterns: Try to see a pattern in the data and identify what works best to achieve goals through LinkedIn strategy for personal branding.
Source: LinkedIn post analytics
For example, see if videos get more traction on Tuesdays or if long-form articles are a hit on weekends. Observing these patterns can help decide the type and timing of your content.
Engagement vs. reach: LinkedIn data provides rich information about engagement and reach. Here, high reach but low engagement could indicate your content isn’t resonating, even if it’s getting in front of your eyes.
On the other hand, lower reach but higher engagement suggests a deeply interested smaller audience. Both scenarios require different strategies. Low engagement in high reach requires re-evaluating content and integrating interactive elements like polls and quizzes. Subsequently, lower reach and high engagement require deepening the niche focus, leveraging engagers, and using paid marketing.
Use top posts for learning: Occasionally, some posts outperform others. In this case, you must dive into its specifics to identify the content type, topic, time of posting, or a combination.
Wrapping up
With its expansive user base, LinkedIn is a substantial platform for personal branding, networking, and revenue generation. Your success here depends on how you keep the profile, the type of rich and consistent content you share, and much more. You can check out and implement tips that help increase LinkedIn engagement, foster thought leadership, and build your personal brand’s authenticity.
A targeted approach with a LinkedIn strategy for personal branding can result in meaningful conversions for lead generation. Analytics paints a holistic picture, guiding strategies based on data-driven insights to tell stories, connect, and create value.
Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, social media marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.
