This is one of the challenges with evaluating LinkedIn. You can see reactions, comments and impressions, but those numbers give you a limited view of how people are responding to your content. When you’re marketing a service built on experience and trust, there can be quite a bit happening between someone first noticing your work and deciding to contact you.
Link to 1. Get More Specific About the People You Want to Reach 1. Get More Specific About the People You Want to Reach
When I ask someone who they want to reach on LinkedIn, “potential clients” is a common answer. We need to get more specific to make decisions about what to write, who to connect with and where to spend time.
Think about the work you want to attract and the people involved in it. An employment lawyer might focus on HR leaders and in-house counsel at growing companies. An accountant might want to reach founders who are preparing for a transaction. A consultant might work with marketing leaders who are building a team.
Once you’ve identified those people, spend time learning what matters to them. Read what they share, look at the events they attend and pay attention to the questions they ask. Use what you learn to develop content that relates to their responsibilities and concerns.
For a law firm, this can also be a useful conversation between lawyers and the marketing team. Choose a practice or industry priority, identify the people you want to reach and agree on a few topics that would be helpful to them. That gives everyone a clearer direction than a general request to post more often.
Link to 2. Think About Everyone Who Can Help You Get Hired 2. Think About Everyone Who Can Help You Get Hired
It’s easy to focus all your attention on the person who signs the engagement letter. But introductions and recommendations can come from many places, including former colleagues, other lawyers, accountants, consultants and people you’ve worked with earlier in your career.
For example, a private equity lawyer may want to build relationships with investment professionals, operating partners, portfolio company executives and intermediaries. Those people have different responsibilities, but each may have a reason to introduce the lawyer or bring them into a conversation.
This affects both your network and your content. Review whether you’re connected to the people around the work you want to do. Then think about what would help them understand your experience well enough to recommend you.
Make your content easy to pass along. An article that clearly explains what a founder can prepare before a sale gives someone a useful reason to send your name to a business owner. Your content can help a referral source make the introduction.
Link to 3. Create Content for People at Different Points in the Process 3. Create Content for People at Different Points in the Process
Someone who has just started learning about an issue has different questions from someone choosing counsel next week. Your content can help both, but they may need different information.
Take a lawyer who advises business owners on succession planning. One article could explain the decisions owners often put off. Another could discuss what to address with family members or business partners. A third could walk through how to prepare for an initial meeting with advisers.
Together, those pieces give readers several ways to learn from the lawyer. They also give the lawyer useful material to share during conversations.
The same approach works for consultants, accountants and other business professionals. Think through what people ask when they first encounter a problem, when they’re evaluating options and when they’re ready to get help. Build content around those questions, using the language you hear from clients.
Link to 4. Stay Visible Between Business Development Opportunities 4. Stay Visible Between Business Development Opportunities
I often see people become more active on LinkedIn when they have an event to promote, a new role to announce or an immediate need for business. After that, they disappear for a while. It’s understandable when client work gets busy, but maintaining some activity gives people more opportunities to become familiar with you.
Choose a routine you can realistically maintain. That might include a useful post each week, thoughtful comments on other people’s content and time to reconnect with a few contacts. Work with the schedule you have and build from there.
Those activities give your network a fuller picture of what you know and what you pay attention to. They also create natural reasons to stay in touch before either person needs something.
Link to 5. Plan the Follow-Up Before You Publish or Host an Event 5. Plan the Follow-Up Before You Publish or Host an Event
A webinar registration or article download can give you an opportunity to build a relationship, but someone has to decide what happens next. I encourage teams to work through that before the event or campaign launches.
If you’re hosting a program for business owners, identify who will follow up with existing contacts, how you’ll share the recording and which questions could become additional content. Give the lawyers or professionals involved a useful reason to reach out.
Personal follow-up takes more thought than sending everyone the same message. Someone who asked a question may appreciate an additional resource. An existing client may welcome a conversation about how the topic relates to their business. A new contact may want the materials and time to read them.
Keep the message connected to what you know about the person. A relevant follow-up gives them a reason to respond and shows that you were paying attention.
Link to 6. Look at Who’s Engaging and What Happens Next 6. Look at Who’s Engaging and What Happens Next
When reviewing LinkedIn activity, I want to know who we’re reaching and whether it’s helping us develop the relationships that matter to our work. Reactions and impressions can help us understand how content is performing, but we also need to look at the people behind those numbers.
A technical post may attract a relatively small audience that includes several relevant in-house lawyers. A broader career post may reach many more people and help you reconnect with former colleagues. Each can serve a purpose. Assess the results against what you wanted the content to accomplish.
Keep a simple record of meaningful developments, such as an introduction, a meeting request or a conversation prompted by an article. When someone contacts you, ask how they came across your work and what prompted them to reach out.
You won’t be able to trace every opportunity to a particular post. You can still gather enough information to make better decisions about the subjects you cover, the relationships you develop and the activities worth continuing.
Link to A LinkedIn Marketing Checklist for Lawyers and Business Professionals A LinkedIn Marketing Checklist for Lawyers and Business Professionals
Choose one area of your practice or business to work on first. A clear focus makes it easier to put these ideas into action and see where you’re making progress.
- Identify the type of work you want more of and the people connected to that work.
- Review whether your LinkedIn profile clearly explains your relevant experience.
- Build a list of clients, prospects and referral sources you want to stay in touch with.
- Write down the questions people ask before they hire you.
- Create content that helps readers understand the issue, evaluate their options and prepare to get help.
- Set a manageable routine for posting, commenting and personal outreach.
- Plan who will follow up after each webinar, event or marketing campaign.
- Review who’s engaging with your content and whether you’re reaching your intended audience.
- Track introductions, conversations, meetings and opportunities so you can learn what’s helping your business grow.
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