How to Attract New Clients on LinkedIn
Is there a proven formula to effortlessly attract your ideal clients using LinkedIn? Simply visualize your perfect prospect, and they'll send YOU a connection invitation asking you for a discovery call.
if only...
What actually works these days when it comes to getting new clients and customers from LinkedIn?
You may be eyeballing some nifty-looking LinkedIn automation tools and profile viewing bots to save yourself time and get the attention of the right people.
They claim they'll get you *hundreds* of new connections and *dozens* of sales calls lickety-split!
Then, your spam-o-meter turns on to remind you that this icky approach is NOT aligned with your values.
So, should you just start posting a lot of content that speaks to your target audience? How long will that actually take to get the LinkedIn algorithm working for you?
Puzzling, I know.
While everyone is either looking for a shortcut to automate results OR pouring countless hours into writing content... there's actually a better approach that is a hybrid of INBOUND to OUTBOUND on LinkedIn -- that works like a charm!
In this next episode of Mondays with Mindi, we're going to demystify what it takes to attract new business on LinkedIn with the perfect blend of activities -- no more wasted time doing things that don't work or crossing your fingers that your complex automation setups do the trick!
Attraction versus Interaction
Attraction is a very tricky word…
What does it bring to mind for you when you hear the term “attract new customers”?
I feel like we get this sense that they will just SHOW UP in our inbox without us having to do much because we’re just so magnetizing and irresistible.
So, we start focusing on “becoming more magnetizing and irresistible” to attract these new clients. That’s what we think they want, right?
The problem becomes that we’re so focused on OURSELVES to become more “good-looking” in the business world that we can often forget about the people we’re trying to attract.
Think about this from a relationship standpoint. What actually draws you to another human being in a friendship, in a romantic sense, even a business partnership?
Is it that they’re just so darn good-looking?
That they look like they work out a lot?
That they have the right jawbone or cheekbones?
Their hair is just magnificent?
Their style is impeccable?
Or is it something else entirely?
You might immediately notice someone because of one of these things, but that doesn’t actually kickstart the relationship and the actual attraction.
We’re looking for something MORE in a relationship than just objectively noticing the person is attractive.
If we were trying to attract someone from a relationship sense, there’s more that goes into it than looking good.
It’s about WHO we are as an individual. It’s about our quirks. It’s about our outward focus on helping others. It’s how we engage with other people. It’s our sense of self-confidence in the world, our comfortability with ourselves, our understanding of how we FIT in the big scheme of things.
But most importantly, it’s about our interactions with people. When it comes to a relationship, it’s all about the interaction.
Without positive interaction, attraction cannot exist.
Think about this for a moment from a business perspective. Are you just trying to “look good” but never actually getting the opportunity to interact with real, genuine, authentic people?
In our pursuit to ATTRACT, we forget the role that INTERACTING plays in this process.
Waiting to Interact Until AFTER You Attract
How many of you have heard from the experts that you need to build a killer personal or company brand FIRST before you start engaging with your potential prospects?
*raises hand*
We take this advice to heart and start building up a personal brand and focusing on ME, ME, ME! What do I need to do? How do I want to help people? What are MY areas of expertise?
I get it… I’ve been there and gone inward more times than I can count.
The danger here is when we focus so much on ourselves that we forget about how we can actually help and engage with the people who need us most and how they need our help.
Let me tell a story about someone I know pretty well (points at me)...
She’s an entrepreneur, really wants to help people, pretty standard stuff.
Her Massive Transformative Purpose (think Steven Kotler, author of Art of Impossible) is to create content that has a positive impact and inspire people to self-actualize in life and work creating their own lifestyle by design.
Throughout her self-discovery journey, she realized that she has a skill set that people actually want and need, but she’s been spending YEARS refusing to recognize it because it comes naturally to her, and she’s bored with it.
She realized it was her own inner resistance. She wanted the new, the flashy, the shiny.
But, a wise friend got through to her and asked, “Why are you complaining about all of these people coming to you for help on this one thing you do REALLY well, probably better than anyone I’ve ever met? What’s the harm in putting together a program that would actually help people, solve your own problem of TEACHING what you do instead of DOING it?”
Hah! Brilliant. Why had I not thought about this before?! Solve my own problem of not wanting to actually do so many done-for-you LinkedIn profiles and teach people how to do it, even if they don’t consider themselves a writer.
This stubborn entrepreneur took that advice earlier this year, and The LinkedIn Accelerator was born.
This is how solid business ideas come into existence.
Sometimes it takes that outside perspective and LESS focus on what I want to do, what I want to build, what I want to accomplish, how I want to attract -- and listen to what your people actually want and need to help them.
Now, I have an opportunity to help MORE people in a scalable way and empower them to interact with other people on the same journey -- giving them a better quality product, helping them solve their problems in a more effective way -- but it took getting out of my own head and an obsessive focus on MYSELF to get to that point.
AND, a big part of this was my intention to start INTERACTING with people instead of secluding myself in a bubble trying to dream something up.
The funny part is that I don’t even worry about attracting new clients at this point.
I trust that the right people will come across my message, that it will resonate, and that we’ll be able to collaborate or work together in some capacity.
It’s natural. It’s not forced.
This is ATTRACTION and INTERACTION at its best.
What does interaction on LinkedIn look like?
If your potential new clients are more focused on interacting with you than being impressed by how attractive you are as a person, personal brand, or company brand, how does that shift your focus on the WHAT you should be doing on LinkedIn?
It’s all about interacting with people on LinkedIn in a way that feels natural to you and comes across as authentic to them.
You act like a human.
You pay attention and engage with conversations that matter to them.
You get into your direct messages.
You reach out to say “hi, my name is… I see you do X, and it seems like we are on a similar journey.”
You exhibit the right blend of being proactive on LinkedIn to allowing the results of all this proactive engagement to happen naturally.
But what does this actually look like in the real world of LinkedIn?
The Secret: Your Inbound-to-Outbound Formula
Let’s talk about what it looks like to find your perfect blend of Inbound to Outbound activity on LinkedIn, so the attraction and interaction happen simultaneously.
#1 - Your Inbound-to-Outbound Formula
Everyone is different with how much inbound they should do (think posting content, fixing your LinkedIn profile, making sure your personal brand looks good, writing articles.) Not everyone needs to be posting multiple times per day or per week with mini-articles that took probably 45-60 minutes to draft!
Some people need to focus on very little inbound but do a LOT of outbound (think targeting specific industries, niches, people, communities through getting crystal clear on their ideal communities or customer avatar) then reaching out to them directly “behind-the-scenes” in LinkedIn InMails or Messages.
Takeaway: You need to identify what this inbound to outbound formula looks like for you, and then map your LinkedIn activities to your business. No wasted effort!
#2 - What does good Inbound look like?
Inbound can look a LOT of different ways, and it’s figuring out how this should look for you. Some people may want to write a lot of thought-provoking content on LinkedIn and ask for comments to get a two-way conversation, while others may need to get into the comment streams of other industry experts to kickstart that conversation.
Groups may be incredibly helpful for you to create a community around your topic, but other people just need to get into more 1:1 conversations in their DMs. Nobody else may ever see these DMs, but that’s not the point!
Takeaway: Good inbound looks different for each person and each business. You’ll need to define what good inbound looks like for you!
#3 - How do you do Outbound?
A lot of people are afraid to do outbound because they don’t want to come across as spammy or are afraid they won’t know what to say or worried about having too much success (believe-it-or-not!)
Good outbound looks like doing your research up-front and reaching out as a real human to get connected and start conversations with the people you want to do business with in some way. Sometimes, you’re also looking to see if they’ve posted content on LinkedIn (or other channels) and engaging with them there first before sending a direct message, InMail, or connection invitation.
Again, there’s no ONE right way to do this for everyone. There’s a bit of testing and trial-and-error to find the right outbound approach that feels good to you AND also generates the business growth results you’re looking for.
In conclusion, your goal is to create more meaningful 1:1 connections with your LinkedIn network around your areas of expertise using the right blend of Inbound to Outbound activities.
My challenge for you -- start thinking about your inbound to outbound formula on LinkedIn. Have you noticed which activities seem to generate the most results for your business right now? Anything you should lean into more? Stop doing altogether? Seek out help from an expert to dial them in?
Just put your head in this space and start looking at “attracting new clients” as INTERACTION -- not just good branding -- and you’ll begin to see where you can improve now and in the future.
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If you’re looking for that extra edge to figure out how to get that “perfect blend” of inbound to outbound activity on LinkedIn to get more clients for your business, get on my waitlist for The LinkedIn Accelerator where I’ll be doing a free kickoff training to help you flesh out your LinkedIn strategy.
