Writing posts that get the most attention on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get leads. Let me show you what I mean…
My most popular post on LinkedIn this year got 20.5K impressions, 129 Likes, and 66 comments. Yet it didn’t bring me any leads. That’s because I shared a marketing tip for freelance writers in this post. It wasn’t written for my ideal clients.
The posts that generate leads for my freelance writing business get a measly 1,000 impressions, seven Likes, and two comments.
The difference between a writer who lands clients on LinkedIn and one who doesn’t (if they’re both publishing content) lies in their content strategy.
One posts random stuff just to check it off their to-do list. The other keeps their ideal clients in mind and shares valuable information to convert prospects to leads. And if you want leads to grow your business, you need to focus on publishing the most effective content — not vanity metrics.
So if you’ve been posting on LinkedIn and not getting more and better leads in your inbox, you may not be creating lead-generating content. Let’s fix that.
5 Tips to Create Lead-Generating Content on LinkedIn
1. Imagine your ideal client reading your posts — what’s in it for them?
Why imagine? Because they are reading your posts, often without engaging. This is why the number of Likes and comments is no measurement of content quality. My clients often tell me they followed my content for months before they reached out. They learned about the kind of work I do, how I work with clients, what kind of projects I take on, etc. Then, when the time was right and they had the budget, they reached out to me.
Picture a past/current client reading your LinkedIn content. Would they find your posts helpful, enlightening, or valuable in some way? What message is your content sending to your potential clients? Assess your content on these parameters.
Then, write as if you are having a conversation with your prospects. Write to educate them about acquiring new customers, building brand recognition, and creating topical awareness around their business with content.
By imagining your ideal client as the audience, you’ll be more likely to write content that appeals to them, tuning out all the noise on LinkedIn.
2. Answer questions/concerns from actual prospect conversations
Get content inspiration from discovery calls. Here’s what I know: there’s a stream of content everywhere; you just need to draw from it.
Record discovery calls and spend some time going through the recordings. What common questions do prospects on these calls ask over and over again? Can you spot any moment of disconnect? What did your prospect want to know? What was their top concern?
A few common questions prospects ask are:
- What sort of experience do you have in this industry?
- Can you tell me about one particular company you worked with and how the content you created for them helped their sales/marketing KPIs?
- Have you ever had your content rank on SERPs?
- Can you provide us with a reference to your past work?
- How and when did you get started as a content writer?
These are all content ideas! You can answer these questions for your ideal clients through your LinkedIn posts.
3. Share your boundaries and non-negotiables so you find the right leads
Talking about your business boundaries and non-negotiables helps prospects self-qualify or disqualify. For instance, share that you get paid 100% in advance for all your projects. Or that you never work over weekends. Or that you don’t take rush jobs.
When you openly discuss your business boundaries, your ideal clients will be attracted to you, and the not-a-good-fit leads will stay away. This way, you will land clients who share your values. These clients will stay with you longer as your work ethic fits together. And they’ll be fun to work with.
Good-fit clients lead to the peace of mind you deserve in your freelance writing business.
4. Answer this: why should your clients trust you?
A common concern for both parties, you and your clients, is establishing trust at the beginning of a working relationship. I’ve spoken to two leads recently who said in different words, “We’ve been burned by an agency, and we’re being cautious about who comes in to handle our content now.”
This is great information for me to create content around. It’s also a great opportunity to build trust with these new clients.
You can share testimonials, case studies, and processes openly to establish trust and credibility even before your prospects contact you.
Create content that says, “Look, other companies have trusted me and benefitted from my services. I have a set process of delivering high-quality content, and I work with high integrity and take accountability for the quality of work I deliver.”
Side note: I used to feel like sharing my process of writing a blog post was repetitive content because many writers use the same process. But I soon realized that while I’m connected to hundreds of writers on LinkedIn, my ideal clients are not.
So, while you may see many posts about writing high-quality blog posts, your ideal clients may be relying on you to educate them about the blog writing process.
5. Show the end result — your samples
Show them what they will get out of working with you. If you haven’t already, organize your samples for easy navigation. This way, clients can sift through your work and see specific samples in their industry and for the specific kind of content they need.
Here’s how my portfolio is organized on my website. My prospects can navigate different kinds of samples through the sidebar.
Create LinkedIn posts where you share links to your samples. These posts say, “Look, I’ve done this before and can do it again.”
To which your prospects might say, “Hey, I need something similar.”
See how keeping your ideal client front and center can help you create lead-generating content on LinkedIn?
When you start using these tips to write your posts, you may not have your content go viral but you will land better and more leads that bring money into the bank.
