5 Powerful LinkedIn Profile Tips and Examples for Digital Agency Owners
Is your LinkedIn profile losing you leads? As digital agency owners, we’re expected to look great on every social media platform so our ideal customers can find us. But what if your LinkedIn profile is out of date and not optimised?
If your LinkedIn profile isn’t looking its best, you’re leaving money on the table. The good news is, I have five simple tips that will make a big difference straight away. You can also see real-life, inspirational examples in this vlog.
Why You Should use Your LinkedIn Profile as Part of Your Marketing
People are in a business frame of mind when they use the platform. Did you know that 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn drive business decisions? (Get more mind-blowing stats from Hootsuite here)
- You can use your LinkedIn profile organically for great results. Consistently posting engaging content and being present are key to getting noticed by your dream clients
- If you’re not charging enough, and your audience is on LinkedIn, use the platform to demonstrate your expertise and show them why you’re the best agency for them!
So often, digital agency owners feel too overwhelmed to do anything about their LinkedIn profile. I hear things like:
- How do I get started? My profile is so out of date! Isn’t LinkedIn like a online CV?
- My clients see me as the web designer I was 10 years ago, how can I show them the expert I’ve become and charge my worth?
- What’s OK or not OK to post on social media?
- Do I need a personal profile or company page on LinkedIn? (Bonus wundertip: I have a great video to help you with this!)
Keep reading for my best LinkedIn profile tips so you get noticed by your dream clients and ditch LinkedIn shame!
1. Make Sure Your LinkedIn Profile can be Found on the Platform
To get as many viewers on your LinkedIn profile as possible, you need to optimise it for search. Add the best search terms and keywords for your target market as well as your agency’s services offering throughout your profile.
It’s important to do this in the headline and in the ‘About’ and ‘Skills’ sections. This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise and show your dream clients why they should work with you.
Here’s an example for a LinkedIn Profile ‘About’ section that is packed with keywords.
2. Encourage People to Check You out When Your LinkedIn Profile Appears in Search
A good profile is like a conversation opener and your best homepage and sales page all in one. It’s an attention grabber on adrenaline for your digital agency!
Don’t be shy about promoting yourself – show what makes you and your agency different and better from the competition.
Use your LinkedIn profile to show your personality and expertise so that people simply can’t help clicking on your profile.
What Your LinkedIn Profile Looks Like to Visitors
The first thing that shows up is your headline, and if you still just have your job title on there, you’re losing out on a valuable marketing opportunity. Instead, use it to explain how you help your dream clients.
The headline is also a way to highlight how you’re different to all of your competitors (watch the LinkedIn Profile Tips vlog for a wundertip on how to see your current rank against your peers!)
Remember – it’s a conversation opener, so make it easy for people to have a talking point. You might like to mention a hobby or an interest.
For example, one of my lovely Wunderstars clients – Karl Godfrey – packed his newly-updated LinkedIn profile with keywords and he highlighted that he’s got 15 guitars (at the time of writing this blog) in his headline.
My own LinkedIn profile headline shows who I love working with (digital agencies, of course!) that I’m a vlogger and that I have a weakness for German bread.
Using the headline is an easy way to add some personality and highlight what makes you different.
Many of you are fantastic designers and the second thing that grabs attention are great images. Yes I hear you say, ”A picture is worth a thousand words” and it’s the same on LinkedIn.
Your headshot photo needs to be current, approachable-looking and professional.
Plus upload a banner image that is on brand – you can show off a hobby, your portfolio or a lead magnet. Use this space to really increase your authority. I’ve got a couple of examples for you from people doing this really well.
Dan Knowlton uses his LinkedIn profile to tell visitors that he’s a regular event speaker. He’s even added a note on his profile picture to let people know that his agency is currently hiring staff.
Imogen Allen is another of my brilliant Wunderstars, and she’s selected such an approachable photo. This amplifies her human approach to website building and content strategy with her fabulous WIF product.
And you know I love purple too, so I simply had to mention Imogen’s profile ????
3. Stand out, Show Your Expertise and Connect with Your Audience
Here’s a LinkedIn profile tip that’ll get you ahead of the crowd! The platform introduced ‘Featured’ in addition to the existing ‘Media’ sections fairly recently, and this is a great way to show off your authority, your best content and portfolio of previous work.
Highlight the best bits that are relevant to your dream clients across all your LinkedIn sections, and use the featured section for both your most popular evergreen content as well as your most recent – it’ll really make your profile stand out in a good way.
I’ve got a couple of great examples for you that illustrate how to do this.
Vito Peleg has done this really well – the images he uses are so friendly you simply can’t help checking them out.
And Jennifer Bourn has used every opportunity to show off her stunning portfolio and added super-relevant volunteering positions to her LinkedIn profile.
Populate all the sections LinkedIn suggests for you – anything that will help you get a five-star profile is a good thing. Always check out how you can maximise the latest LinkedIn features – here’s a great site to discover what is planned.
Another relatively new feature is the audio introduction (‘Name Pronounciating’) option – look for the little speaker icon beside a user’s name. It allows you to share audio snippets and is a different way you can grab people’s attention when they visit your LinkedIn profile. Dan Knowlton uses his well.
Writing Your LinkedIn Profile Tips
- LinkedIn is no longer stuffy, so make your tone of voice approachable and human
- Avoid using the third person if you’re a one woman/man show, it sounds too formal
- Make your profile easy on the eye. Break text blocks up by using bullet points and add emojis if that works for your sector
- Use the language of your target market and avoid complicated and bloated words on LinkedIn
- Avoid being too techy unless you’re targeting other techies
- Pack your text with keywords but write with people in mind
- Include a call to action, such as your email address or a lead magnet download
- Show your human side, a LinkedIn profile is a great conversation opener!
4. How to Grow Your Influence and Show Your Expertise with Your LinkedIn Profile
For me this is really the next stage in your LinkedIn success journey, and there a few ways to do it:
In your content and About section talk about how you help your clients, and show how you understand their challenges. Explain what transformation they achieve by working with you.
Just imagine what your dream clients need to know about you, then talk about it in your ‘About’ section.
Consider publishing long-form articles that share your story. Pick stories that relate to their pain points. Show off the transformative results you achieve for your dream clients. Add relevant tips and invite questions to encourage people to comment. This will get your post seen by their network.
Bonus wundertip: If you want to increase the reach of your content and grow your network, I share some time-saving tips in this vlog.
5. How to Check Your LinkedIn Profile Against Your Peers
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that you can see how LinkedIn ranks your profile against your peers. If you want to know, check out the LinkedIn Social Selling Index, which offers you a great benchmark how you’re improving your LinkedIn networking.
And if you want to know who is searching for your services right now, watch this video and find out!
Need Some More LinkedIn Help?
Many of my clients started off as really LinkedIn resistant. I get it, it’s not my favourite platform either.
But knowing the kind of results you can get from the platform if your audience is on there, why not let me help you too break down your LinkedIn roadblocks?
Work with me to boost your LinkedIn profile by booking a Power Hour consultation. I’ll get to know your target audience and can make LinkedIn improvement suggestions you can implement straight away.
Or, you can download my free ‘30 days of content inspiration for digital agencies’ guide to make it easier for you to come up with wunderbar LinkedIn content that sells and engages.
You can also enjoy my popular LinkedIn YouTube playlist and binge watch tips for digital agency owners!
