19 Actionable Steps For Turning Cold Leads Into Ready-To-Buy Prospects On LinkedIn

Is your profile photo a nice friendly headshot that clearly shows your face and gives off a professional image.

Professional header image that represents you and your brand

Clearly, describe how you help people / the desired outcome of working with you, instead of just using your job title.

Use the Featured Content section to showcase some of your best work so prospects can find it easily.

Include an certifications and licences as prospects can find you by searching for certain skills your certifications cover.

Make sure you fill out your skills and get endorsements. These will help your profile show up more in searches and provide social proof to prospects looking at your profile.

Use this new feature so you can easily be found by people looking for up to 5 of the services you offer. Lots of people are still not using this as it's new, so start using it now and you can get ahead of the game.

Create a strategy document so that you have a clear plan of what you will be posting, why and where the content will come from. Spending the time to plan this upfront, will pay dividends in the long-term.

Consider using themes for topics for posts, so you know the type of posts you want people to associate with you, and ensure you make full use of all the content you have available.

Create a Hashtag Plan so you know which are the best hashtags. Bear in mind, the biggest, most populate hashtags are also the most competitive so try using hashtags that are popular, but maybe not the most common as you'll have more chance of your content being found.

Get a list of sources for content, whether that's who will create new content or which credible sites can you can curate content from. This will save you a lot of time once you start posting.

Upgrade your LinkedIn account to a Sales Navigator account (approx. £65pm) as it offers more detailed filtering of prospects and allows you to create lists and monitor them quickly and easily.

Create audience lists of your ideal prospects in Sales Navigator.

Monitor your audience lists on a daily basis so you can see which of the prospects are posting regular or changing jobs, both of which are great conversation starters.

Engage with the prospects on your audience lists on a daily basis. Log in, see who's posting, visit their profile and then read and comment on their posts. Lots of people 'like' posts, but far less comment, so by commenting you start to stand out and your prospects will soon become aware of you.

Create an effective Connection Request message template that doesn't look like you're directly trying to sell to them. One effective approach is to ask a question/for help, as people are more likely to respond. Here's an example: Hi NAME, I am writing in the hope of finding that person who handles FUNCTION at COMPANY. So if it makes sense let me know what your calendar looks like. Thanks,

Just like the Connection Request, you want a 1st Degree message template that doesn't focus on a sale. Obviously you have a lot more characters to play with for a 1st Degree message so you can put a bit more to help get their attention. For example: Hi NAME, I am writing in the hope of finding the appropriate person who handles marketing. So if it makes sense to talk, let me know how your calendar looks. DESCRIBE HOW YOU CAN HELP Some of our clients include X, Y and Z. If you are the appropriate person to speak with, what does your calendar look like? If not, who do you recommend I talk to? Thanks,

Create a list of the metrics to measure your success, such as the number of prospects, number of times you engage with each prospect, number of connection requests/messages sent and number of leads generated. Tracking the same metrics will ensure you can measure success effectively.

Make sure you track your performance at least once a month so you can be sure you are on track and getting the results you expect. This way you can be sure everything is working as expected, or make the adjustments necessary to improve the campaign.