LinkedIn has a powerful native post platform where you can share updates, stories and information. 

Yet, most people are still struggling to use this to gain leads and sales. Over the past few years LinkedIN has been a huge source of revenue for my business and I regularly get messages like these: 

Stories are the way the human race has communicated since the dawn of man, and instead of writing on cave walls we now write on social media ones.

As a result, a good story is essential for growth and sales on LinkedIn.

But how do you tell a good story?

Well, there are many different frameworks but this 3 stage one I have found the easiest for LinkedIn:

• STAGE 1: SET UP 
• STAGE 2: CONFLICT
• STAGE 3: RESOLUTION

How this works in practise is as follows.

The set up is the first few lines of your post, the conflict is the main body of your post and the resolution is the ending.

The Glitter Lung technique is something I learned from Ash Ambirge's Creative Writing Course (this is just one gem from the course) and it is perfect for LinkedIN.

The basic premise of the technique is to combine two things together that you wouldn't normally see written in the same paragraph or line. 

And when it comes to business writing it can be tough to make your words stand out (because let's face it not all businesses operate in glamorous industries). 

No one expects the word glitter to be next to the word lung, so if you want to say your industrial refrigeration systems are designed and built by Elves from the North Pole then do so. 

So, the next time you have a boring sentence in your LinkedIn post try and add something that shouldn't ever be there.

So you have written a long post that you spent 20 minutes crafting and your reader trusted you enough to read each and every line.

And then they get to the end of the post and.........nothing. 

You need to give your readers a pay off at the end of your posts and this magic happens in the last third of your post.

It is your 'resolution section' of your story or any post type you use. 

The pay off is usually the key learning point of the post:  

Yes, you want a learning point to your post but you also want your readers to take action.

But here is the issue, most people never ask people to do anything.....the result is they do nothing. If you contrast this with a sales page you will see a lot of buy now buttons.

Why?

Because people need to be told what action you want them to take...and LinkedIn is no different.

So make sure you add a call to action to at least 2 posts a week (do it daily if you want).

An example of a call to action for LinkedIn is below:

Headlines are really powerful, we all know this.

The problem is that a standard LinkedIn post doesn't have a headline function, but there is a solution.

You need to use the first line to place your headline. 

The job of the first line is to stop the scroll. You want them to stop going down their feed and read your post.

Click the resources below to find some headline ideas:

51 Headline Formulas

Buffer Headline Formulas

If you are getting uncomfortable talking about yourself all the time on LinkedIn, a great method to switch this is to start talking about other people.

One of the best ways to do this is to find people in your industry and talk about their work and results.

This isn't some kind of tactic to gain more followers but is genuinely about making your LinkedIn feed more varied and it is nice to help others as well. 

From what I can tell the 'Give Kudos' feature on LinkedIn is massively underutilised but it still remains a fantastic way to thank your team, staff and also people you have worked with.

To get started press the post button on your feed.

While Kudos posts are a great way to show thanks and good work from your team, you don't just need to limit yourself to be grateful with that process.

Gratitude posts are merely being thankful for something be that your role, your family, your kids, your company or even your boss.

There doesn't have to be a particular thing that someone has done but just by being grateful for something makes LinkedIn a more positive experience for others and in turn makes your feed a better place to be. 

In every industry there will be thought leaders, and you know who they are. In the previous section, we talked about commenting on thought leaders content, that is great, but with this tactic, I want you to share their content but also give your views to your audience.

This technique is a great way to piggyback off the content from others and also you will be able to highlight your views on the subject.

It's a super quick way to come up with content for the day if you are struggling, but I recommend you do this anyway because it shows your audience that you are keeping up to date with the latest news and trends in your niche.

This is a live example of mine:

An empathy introduction is one of the most powerful ways to get the attention of your target audience on LinkedIn.

Why? Because it tells your audience that you 'get them'.

So how do you do this?

It depends on your audience, but the formulas I like to use are:

JOB TITLE + PROBLEM

And

FEELING + JOB TITLE

So how does this look in practice?

"Marketing managers struggle to find quality SEO agencies."

Or

"I feel sorry for marketing managers; they have one of the toughest jobs around".

By doing this, you grab their eyeballs.

 

The late Gary Halbert is one of the world's best-known copywriters, and this technique is one of his.

To make your content connect with the reader, you can tell them where you are while you are writing your post.

It goes like this:

"I am writing this post at London Euston while waiting for my train".

"I am sat enjoying a coffee in my local Starbucks and catching up on emails......."

Do you see how powerful this is?

I bet your mind went directly to the locations when you read the words.

Give it a try; you will be surprised at the results. 

If you want to gain traction quickly on LinkedIn become the bad guy of your industry.

Ok, perhaps not literally but certainly when it comes to content.

Is there a practise or activity that goes on in your industry that you despise?

If so, talk about it, turn the spotlight onto it and expose this.

The downside of this approach is that you will gain some negativity from people who undertake this action, but this is good for you because you are showing people that you are different.

Here is an example:

In every story, there is a hero, but you have to understand that the hero in the customer's story is the customer...not you.

This is where I see people go wrong on LinkedIn; they are trying to be a hero, and this creates an issue in the mind of the consumer.

I see this a lot where people are always posting about their PR.

When posts such as "We have been featured in ( insert magazine/newspaper)" dominate their LinkedIn and account for 20% of their content, you know they have crossed into the hero zone.

Instead, post helpful content and you will be seen as the guide in their story.

Or in simple terms, be Master Yoda and not Luke Skywalker.

I don't need to go over this in too much detail and depth, but people love lists, so why not create posts on LinkedIn using them.

Give the lack of space you will have in the feed you will probably only have room to write 3, 5 and maybe at a push 7 items but here are a few ideas:

3 People You Need To Follow In LinkedIn Today

7 Companies Doing Amazing Work In (insert industry)

5 Ways To (insert goal)

Tips posts are the gold of LinkedIn because they are both helpful, entertaining and also show you as an expert.

You can write them as lists posts but can be stories, how to posts or even case studies.

The format doesn't really matter, what is essential is that the post gives your target audience a tip.

So, what is a tip?

A small but useful piece of practical advice.

Tip posts makeup at least 50% of my content on LinkedIn and have been a huge driver of revenue.

And because I think they are so important, check out this full post of mine:

This is straightforward but powerful.

If you want to stand out or make a point of your post stand out, write in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Not the whole post, just the parts or words you really want the reader to take notice of.

Hashtags are now a significant part of the LinkedIn game, and if you want to be discovered by more people, using hashtags is a great way to make your content discoverable by people who are looking.

If you aren't sure what hashtags to use click the discover more button on the page. 

I see people post on LinkedIn all the time but mostly it is very poor content. Part of the reason for this is that the posts lack intent.

To get around, you must ask yourself this question.

"What do I want this post to do?"

Do you want to:

Gain a lead?

To showcase your knowledge?

Connect with your audience?

Help your customers to solve a problem?

Whatever the post you are writing, make sure that you have a clear goal in advance, and another trick is to look at the post you have written and ask yourself.

"What does this post do?"

If you have asked the question before you write the post, you should have the end result you desired. But ask yourself anyway and if the answer isn't what you want, change the post before publishing.

This is more of a copywriting trick than a post format, but it works incredibly well.

When you are writing a post give the readers 3 options to take.

For example:

"When it comes to creating great content for your business you have 3 options.

You can outsource to a freelancer.

You can hire internally.

Or you can choose an award-winning content agency with writers that have a track history of generating leads and sales."

Clearly, you will place your business/ service as the best option, but it is a useful tool that you can generate posts from or add as a call to action at the end of another post type

This is another superb line you can add to a post in any part to get the reader onside.

Add the line 'I bet you are like me' and then follow up after this with a character trait, feeling, desire, goal, frustration, career history...the list is endless.

"I bet you are like me; your inbox is flooded with people giving you problems and not solutions."

"I bet you are like me, fed up of agencies promising the earth and delivering little in return."

"I bet you are like me; you believe that your customers deserve the best quality customer service."

Insert 'I bet you are like me', and you will have your target audience see you as being on their side and show you understand their problems.

I see people create great content and then they give the dreaded call to action of 'comment below'.

This comes from YouTubers who tell their audience to comment below, and it is a tactic used on Facebook as well.

The problem is that LinkedIn has low engagement rates when compared to those platforms. If you ask people to comment below, they risk their competition seeing their comment and also risk a loss of status by admitting they need something you have or can offer.

And even worse than this, if no one comments you lose social status in the eyes of your followers.

Instead, tell them to message you.

This is far better for all involved because neither of you risks losing status and also it adds a level of mystery because no one knows how many people took up your offer.. 

People like knowing how you work and the process they need to go through, it gives them a structure to your work process.

So, for example, my process is simple.

1. Book in for a free 30-minute consultation

2. We develop an in-depth strategy to gain results for your business.

3. We deploy this strategy

There will be a process within your business that you rarely talk about but is very powerful.

Perhaps all leads speak to the managing director first, or maybe you have a free survey, consultation, discovery call or strategy plan you offer.

What's the next step they take after this?

What step do they take after the middle stage?

Tell people about your process in your posts and show them how easy and frictionless it is to do business with you.

The word imagine is incredibly powerful.

"Imagine you are on a beach in Jamaica and the water is crystal clear and you have an ice cold beer in your hand."

See how powerful that works.

It is a lot like telling someone 'don't think of a polar bear', the result is that you have that polar bear jumping into your brain.

However, in your LinkedIn posts, you can use this same process to get your audience thinking about their desired goals or get them thinking about the thing they fear (and your service removes that fear).

For example; "Imagine coming into work, and your inbox is full of leads."

"Imagine you have turned up to work and there is a flood, your air conditioning system has gone down and right now you have an entire office of 50 staff on the hottest day of the year, and several are saying the heat is making them ill."

Once you get them imagining you can introduce how you can help them to get that future or avoid it.

We looked at micro commitments earlier, but you can use open questions as well in your posts to gain interaction, leads and sales.

When we ask questions in our content, we get people thinking.

And thinking is exactly what will get people contacting you.

So what kind of open questions should you use?

This is entirely up to you, but ask them questions as if they were on the phone with you and you want them to expand on a subject.

An example might be:

"What are you struggling with right now in business?"

"What annoys you the most about (insert industry)?

When did you start (insert career)?

You want your target audience to work their brains because once they stop scrolling and start thinking, you have got their attention.

My advice is to sprinkle questions into your written posts.

If you genuinely need help, then LinkedIn is full of people that are there for you or are prepared to suggest a solution.

Not only will you get the answer you are looking for you will also add to your connections.

What advice do you need?

Career advice, recurtimnet, technical...anything.

Try it, and you will be shocked at how many replies you end up getting.

No one wants doom and gloom all day.

People want to be motivated, and LinkedIn is just the place to share your goals, desires and thoughts.

People respond well to motivational words on LinkedIn, so try and be positive on the platform and create posts that inspire others.

We all like new things, and if you are in business, offering new services, processes and content is a must to stand out.

Content such as blogs, webinars, courses and podcast are examples of new offerings you can make.

But revamping old content and also making changes to your services, adding bonuses or discounts are all things you can write about on LinkedIn.

The easiest way I have found to do this is to think 'what have I changed this week?'

Once you have found something, get on LinkedIn to talk about it.

You might have noticed that I write on LinkedIn in short sentences.

And yes, this goes against almost every English lesson you took at school.

So why do it?

It all has to do with eye tracking and reading speed.

The average person reads about 200 words per minute and people on LinkedIn are usually at work and short of time.

The result is we need to make it as easy as possible to read our posts and make them quick to consume.

The solution is to write shorter sentences and also break up your paragraphs into no more than 2 or 3 lines at most.

What do you get if your combine and Infographic with a LinkedIn post?

An Infopost.

And Larry Kim is the master at producing these.

The great thing is that you can find information for posts such as these across the web with a quick Google search.

Next head over to your favourite online graphics tool and get creating some eye-popping Infoposts.

One tool that works well is Adioma.

LinkedIn doesn't have to be a boring place; you can provide entertaining content for your audience using images.

Memes were once a no go area for LinkedIn but sharing comedic images about your industry is quite powerful.

The Daily Sales is a great example of this:

There are a lot of stats available across the web that support your business model, and these can be found with a quick Google search,

So, why not take these and make a custom image with them or share the image and credit the original source.

We often don't talk enough about our results online, so why not start doing this.

One of the biggest generators of revenue for my business has been from sharing screenshots of client results.

To do this, I use a screen grabbing tool to capture the content, blur out any information that reveals the client and share on my feed.

This takes seconds to do but is a real-time example of results.

Do you have data or other visual images of results that you can share? If so, get sharing it online.

This is a tip I got from my friend, recruitment specialists Selina Rudzik.

She attends a lot of networking events and is often taking photos of herself with the other people at the event.

It is a simple but effective way to grow your presence and also connect with others.

 

Selfies....ahh we all love a good one.

Well, LinkedIn is a great place to share selfies because they are the exact opposite of Instagram.

You won't find many selfies on the beach here.

What you will do is show yourself at work and in your natural environment.

And this resonates with people.

Give it a try.

Not all office buildings are well lit, and sadly if you are using your phone in your office building, it might be time to invest in some decent artificial lighting.

A standing ring light works really well for both video and images but if you haven't got the space or budget, you can pick up a clip on ring light for your phone at low cost online.

If you don't want to invest in artificial light then my advice is to stand next to a window and look out while recording yourself.

This is an excellent way to get light on your face, the issue, however, comes if you don't have a desk next to a window.

Do you know what customers like to see?

Your business....at work.

Like it or not, when a customer hires you, they go away and usually experience a dose of buyer remorse.

"What if they don't do the work?"

"What if they don't get the results they promise?"

"What if I have been ripped off?"

To stop this, most people usually send emails saying 'hey we are working on your project this week' or things like that.

And this is where this beauty of this technique comes in.

Take a picture of your staff at work in the office, because that is what the customer likes to see and also potential customers will love this too.

Because you are countering those worries in advance and you are saying 'hey look at us, we are working hard for our customers'.

And we all want to hire people who work hard

Do you go to a website and see things like this?

Sure you do, it is a list of who people have worked with/ been their clients.

Most websites have this type of section because it acts as social proof.

So, why not take a photo of a client when they sign with you or buy from you and share it on Linkedin?

The great thing about this is that your photo is seen by your audience and also their audience.

Try it....it works.

Again, this is a good thing to show and do.

Does your business engage in charitable activities? Perhaps a bake-off, fancy dress for Children in Need or anything else that comes to mind.
If so, make sure you take a photo of your activities and which charity it is for.

Firstly this makes you look great and secondly it raises awareness for the charity.

Some people don't like to show off on LinkedIn....forget that, this is the platform to celebrate your wins.

So, make sure if your business is nominated for an award or wins one that you tell everyone with a photo.

There are 3 posts you can get from this.

1. Nomination Letter

When the letter comes through the post, take a snap and share on LinkedIn.

2. Awards Night Arrival

Your staff are all glammed up, and you have just arrived at the venue. It is time to line up and get a photo of you all together.

3. Winning The Award.

Regardless of if you are a runner up or you won the main prize, this is an excellent opportunity to show your success by taking a photo of the trophy they gave you.

One of the most significant issues with LinkedIn users is the lack of a system or process for sales.

This is potentially leaving leads and sales opportunities on the table.

Although there are many different sales systems taught by LinkedIn trainers, you can easily make your own.

For example, my system right now is completely inbound based.

I post content on LinkedIn, and people message me when they are interested, and I then lead them to my booking page for a meeting.

But you can make this far more strategic by using set messages/ templates that your company has, use lead magnets and any one of the many strategies in this article.

But document your sales process because it will help everyone on your team understand what activities they should be focusing on when on the platform.

Offers work wonders online, and mine is a free 30-minute strategy consultation.

And this is what everyone sees when they land onto my website.

I use this offer in posts and I also tell people who message me.

It is this core offer that I use to get people onto the phone.

Take some time coming up with a core offer that you can use to entice people to come off LinkedIn and get onto the phone with you because it is on the phone that selling is done.

It might be a free consult, a discovery call, a brand assessment, an SEO audit, a tax review....whatever works for your industry.

Landing pages work really well, so why not try and send traffic to one built specifically for LinkedIn?

There are 2 reasons for this; firstly, you can then track precisely how many leads are coming via your organic LinkedIn work.

Secondly, by making a special offer for your LinkedIn connections only, you make being connected with you that more valuable.

And if you have a following elsewhere, you can tell them you have a special bonus/ offer, but it is only for people connected with you on LinkedIn, to drive follower growth,

Most companies have newsletters on their websites you can subscribe to.

The issue is that most aren't worth subscribing to.

However, if your business is e-commerce based or sells a range of products, it makes sense to have a brochure on your website.

That way you can quickly direct people/ enquires to that page via a link. The good thing as well is that if you make the brochure accessible only if you supply a name, phone number or email address, you have a lead for your business.

We have discussed messaging people with content before, but creating a high-value piece of content that requires an email address and phone number to access is a great thing to have in your sales process.

It could be a white paper, a report, a free book or anything in between.

You can use this as a way to message people, or if they have declined your offer, this is a great way to keep the conversation going via email.

LinkedIn publisher is a blogging platform that exists within LinkedIn.

And sadly it has been ignored by people over the years, but it is still a very powerful tool to use.

To access this, you click on the write an article button in your feed.

Once there, you can build a blog post quickly and easily.

But what should you write about?

Well, Buzzsumo and LinkedIn created a joint guide on creating content on the platform and best subjects to create content on were 'hot topics'.

These could be people in your industry, tools or tips.

You can find hot topics by going to Google trends and typing in your niche.

Most people create roundup guides on blogs but rarely on LinkedIn, there is a massive gap in the market for this because all of the people you can reach out to are on LinkedIn.

A roundup article allows for a great piece of content to be created quickly and shared via a lot of people.

Things that could do well are '25 experts in (insert field) give their best tips for (overcoming a problem)' and similar types of content. 

Controversy really does win on the LinkedIn platform....but use it wisely.

If you share a view or an opinion that does not sit well with others, be prepared for people to comment negatively.

What I would suggest is that before you create a controversial subject, consider if this fits in with your business goals.
 

Viral loops are a growth hack first documented by Anna Vital.

She gained a whopping 76,000 email subscribers in a month using this method

So what is a viral loop?

A viral loop is a process whereby you give someone something valuable away for free, and in return, they comment on your LinkedIn publisher post and this gets more people interested in your offer.

I used this same tactic on a post in 2017, and it didn't go as well as that, but I did gain email subscribers.

This is what I wrote on that post.

If you are interested in looking at viral loop examples, these links will take you to several.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ultimate-team-workshop-activities-pack-rock-your-next-nick-martin/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-ultimate-powerpoint-slides-save-hours-your-next-pitch-jeffery/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/free-powerpoint-strategy-transformation-templates-20-david-tang/

We have talked about the importance of headlines before so I won't go over this again.

That being said if you want to read a great article on headlines click the link below.

https://buzzsumo.com/blog/most-shared-headlines-study/

This a tactic I have seen used by Neil Patel a lot.

To do this take your first 4 or 5 paragraphs of your latest blog post and put them into a post on LinkedIn publisher.

From there, add a 'click to continue reading ' message that links to your blog post.

This was something that was pointed out to me recently, and I thought 'yeah, that is a good point'.

By adding your case studies to your articles, you have your most powerful sales content accessible for all to see with a click from your profile.

And this is something I will be adding very soon.

If you go to an industry event such as a trades show, conference or an awards evening, there will be a lot of people that thought about going and even more that went.

By creating content on the event, all of those that went to the event are more likely to read this.

And in the process want to connect with the person that wrote the content, making this a simple way to grow your network.

There is no minimum word length for a post on LinkedIn publisher, but if you do post, my suggestion is to follow the guidelines on blogging.

And this is that over 100 words of content is likely to mean, your article will be more valuable.

1000 words of waffle are not good either, but by creating longer content, you are more likely to make it more valuable as a side effect. 

I have never done this, but I think it could be a great idea — guest posting on with a LinkedIn publisher blog.

Guest posting is a powerful way to build connections in the blogging world and on LinkedIn, it could also work.

Now, I have never tried this before, but I am willing to give it a go.

In many ways, this tactic is used by Instagram influencers to grow their followings.

I don't recommend giving someone your password, but if they want to create content for your page I think it makes sense for them to provide you with the content via a Google doc and then for you to build the post, making sure you tell everyone who wrote it and how to follow them on LinkedIn.