Over the past few years, LinkedIn has emerged as the go-to social network for anyone operating in the B2B space. If you are an agency, then your clients are certainly active on LinkedIn. But where do you start?

The first step is your profile optimization. At my company, Lead Cookie, we have run over 300+ LinkedIn outreach campaigns. As a result, we have optimized our fair share of LinkedIn profiles along the way. In this article, we will share everything we have learned about profile optimization and give you a framework for optimizing your own.

Why your LinkedIn profile is so important

Even if you are not actively using LinkedIn as a sales channel, it’s essential to optimize your profile. The reason is that your prospects are likely using it as a research channel.

Whenever I meet someone new in business, LinkedIn is the first place I go. I use it to learn more and understand the background of the individual I am talking to. From someone’s LinkedIn profile, I can make judgments about their experience, credibility, and much more.

There is a large portion of the market that is using LinkedIn in this same way. They use it to research and find the professional background of each person they are talking to. This means that even if you don’t meet your prospects on LinkedIn, your prospects are likely still using it as a way to research and validate your credibility.

The #1 mistake in LinkedIn profiles

There is one common mistake that nearly everyone makes when it comes to their LinkedIn profile… They make it all about themselves.

This makes sense considering that LinkedIn started as a place to house your online resume and apply for jobs. Yet, the platform has evolved. Today, LinkedIn is also a sales and marketing channel for your business.

That means that if you are using your profile as a place to house your resume, then you are missing out. After all, if you are an agency owner… who cares about your resume anyway.

So, if your profile is not a resume, then how do you approach it?

Your profile should be about your prospects, not you

Instead of making a resume-style profile, you want to, instead, approach it more like you are writing copy for your website. You want your profile to be a sales page that speaks to your customers’ pain points and problems. You then want to explain and articulate how your agency can solve those problems.

This simple mindset shift goes a long way to increase the quality and conversion of your profile from visitors into leads.

The #2 mistake in LinkedIn profiles

The second biggest mistake most people make when it comes to their LinkedIn profile is failing to optimize their tagline. Your tagline is the short sentence of text right under your profile picture. In the screenshot below, “We help B2B companies generate sales-ready leads on LinkedIn,” is the tagline.

 

This tagline is extremely important because it follows you around all over LinkedIn.

  • When you post in the news feed, your tagline shows up under your name.
  • In suggested people to connect with, your tagline shows up.
  • When you send a new connection request, your tagline shows up.
  • When someone visits your profile, the tagline is the first thing they see.

Anywhere you go on LinkedIn, your tagline follows. That is why it is essential to get it right. A good tagline can amplify your efforts on LinkedIn, or sabotage them.

A simple framework for your tagline is:

I help X do or accomplish Y through Z.

In that formula:

X = Who you serve

Y = Benefit you bring them

Z = How you do it

So at Lead Cookie, we help B2B companies (X) generate sales-ready leads (Y) on LinkedIn (Z). This simple framework is one of the easiest ways to make your value proposition clear and concise to visitors.

How to optimize the rest of your profile

At this point, you know that your profile should NOT be about you and that you need to optimize your tagline. But what about the rest of your profile?

While there are a lot of small tweaks you can make, the most important areas to get right are:

  • About section
  • Experience section

The About section

The About section on your profile is where you are able to write a summary about yourself. In this section, you want to once again make this all about how you help your prospects. Here is a simple framework to do that.

  • What I do – Clearly articulate your value proposition
  • How I do it – Explain how your company works
  • Who I work with – Describe your ideal customer
  • What people are saying – Include a testimonial or social proof
  • My Background – Use this for any interesting or relevant personal background
  • Contact me – Tell someone how to get in touch with you

Going back to our example with Isaac, here is his optimized About section.

The Experience section

When someone visits your profile, they will typically scroll to your About section and your Experience section. Both are the quickest ways to get insight into who you are and what you do. For the Experience section, you want to make sure that your company is positioned at the top of your feed, and then use this section to add in language focusing on your prospects and how you serve them.

In this section, you can follow a similar framework as your About section, or customize for your company. This will vary depending on if you are a one-man show or a larger firm. Below is another example of an optimized Experience section.

Final tips

Here are a few final tips to help you on your way.

Keep it clear and concise.

Less is more.

Make it easy for someone to contact you.

Encourage people to reach out to you on LinkedIn and even provide your email in your profile copy. Yes, someone may spam if you put your email on LinkedIn, but that is a price to pay for making it easy for a good lead to reach you.

Get a professional headshot.

When I upgraded my headshot from a casual button up to a photo with a blazer on, I saw a noticeable increase in my outreach results. We have also seen clients with poor headshots have extremely poor results on LinkedIn.

While we would love to say people don’t judge based on appearance, first impressions count. Make sure your headshot is as professional as it can be.

Utilize your LinkedIn Banner

LinkedIn allows you to have a banner that sits at the top of your profile. This is a great place to show off your professionalism and design. If you are an agency, then utilize this space to showcase the quality of your work.

Optimize your profile today

There are a lot of pieces to a great LinkedIn profile, but don’t worry about getting it all absolutely perfect. If you follow the tips in this article, you will be well on your way to a profile that is already better than 95% of all other profiles on LinkedIn.