How To Generate Leads & Sales From LinkedIn (Without Having To Pay For Ads) With Paul Higgins
In the podcast:
01:03 – Podcast Updates
04:09 – Guest Introduction
08:14 – Steps to Get Active and Stand Out in LinkedIn
13:43 – Why Should Your Profile Stand Out
15:20 – Where Should You Send Your Potential Client
15:57 – Thoughts on Adding People on your Database from LinkedIn
18:25 – Further Steps to Stand Out in LinkedIn
20:56 – Adding Video Case Study to your Profile
23:00 – Way in Engaging with the Right People in LinkedIn
25:03 – Balancing Features vs. Benefits
27:51 – Adding Personal Stuff on a Business Setting
31:24 – Questions that Evoke Responses
32:42 – Certain Posts that Works Well Regardless of the Industry
33:44 – With Image vs Non-Image Posts, Building Relationships with Posts
37:48 – Where Paul is Facilitating all the Strategies
42:22 – Advice to Give Someone Starting out in LinkedIn
Paul Higgins and I talk about the 3 steps to generating leads and sales using LinkedIn. Paul has been consistently getting amazing results from LinkedIn and he shares all his secrets on this episode.
How To Generate Leads & Sales From LinkedIn (Without Having To Pay For Ads) With Paul Higgins in PDF
Podcast Updates
Ilana:
Ilana Wechsler here with another episode of Teach Traffic. So welcome back to today’s podcast. Before we get stuck into a quick intro about this episode, you might notice something a little bit different. You might notice that on your phone, this podcast image looks a little bit different. And you might also notice that when I said Welcome to Teach Traffic, that’s a little bit different to what you might have subscribed to before.
So yes, we have actually changed our podcast name. And obviously the image that goes with it to now be called Teach Traffic, which was once called Talking Web Marketing. So don’t be surprised if you notice something different from now on. That’s because that’s what we’ve done. And you might be wondering why and that’s because we are about to launch a new website called TeachTaffic.com
And so we are obviously aligning the podcast to be in line with this new change on this new website, which will soon launching TeachTraffic.com is going to be a home and a central location for all my online video training material and our online community. It’s a place where we teach people exactly how to run profitable Google ads, and Facebook ad campaigns and teach people all about Google Analytics.
So stay tuned for when that goes live. Okay, on to today’s episode, and today I am interviewing a person called Paul Higgins. Some of you may have heard of him. He’s certainly not new to the online space. And I’ve actually known Paul for quite a while. So it was a real pleasure of mine to finally get him onto my podcast and interview him. And he’s got a really interesting story where he also came from corporate like me. He spent I think it was 18 years Working for Coca Cola.
And obviously life took a little bit of a turn one day and he decided to leave his corporate career and go out on his own. And he helps people a lot with online business. And he gets really good results with generating leads and sales through LinkedIn. And actually Paul has been helping me with LinkedIn and helping me write a good LinkedIn profile, which you can check out at linkedin.com/ilanawechsler. So I think it is. I probably should know that.
Anyway. So I thought I’d interview Paul on this episode to talk through how you as a business owner or marketing person can get results with LinkedIn, the steps that you’ve got to take and really these are the steps that Paul has helped me take firstly improving my profile on LinkedIn, and in crafting posts, etc. So I really pick people’s brain in this episode, and we dive deep into the steps and strategies that you can apply to your profile. So stay tuned for this episode.
Guest Introduction
Ilana:
Welcome to this new episode, Paul Higgins. It’s absolutely wonderful to have you here. And great to be here, Ilana. Yeah, no, I’m so stoked. It’s been a long time coming. And I’ve been wanting to interview you for a while, because you are fast becoming an authority on how to get more leads and sales through LinkedIn.
So yeah, I wanted to invite you on today’s episode to discuss some tips and strategies that business owners can do to try and also equally get more leads and sales through LinkedIn. So thank you for coming on and agreeing to take some time out of your day.
Before we kind of get into I guess, the meat and potatoes of tips and tricks and stuff like that. Do you want to give our audience a quick sort of intro about who you are and what you do?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, so Paul Higgins from “Build Live Give“, as you said, and you know if I won’t go right back through my history, but I worked for Coca Cola for 10 years, I was very fortunate My father worked there, they said I’d never be able to and I did. And I had an amazing career.
I’ve met my wife there. So it was it was fantastic. And, you know, it was such a well, it’s been such a brilliant company for so long. So I learned a lot about branding, I learned a lot about how to run a business. Most importantly, I learned a lot about small businesses, because most of our clients were small businesses, and made up the, you know, the lion’s share of their business.
So I really love that but I had a bit of a two things were happening. One is that my health was taking a bit of a a decline, good inherited condition. So I had to sort of prepare for that. And then the second thing was I just wanted to run my own business and I didn’t go overseas, very much family oriented and at the time.
It might change now but back in, you know, 2010 it was sort of pretty simple if you wanted to get higher than I was a director, so to you know, to damn from the group MD, if you wanted to go higher, you basically had to sacrifice a bit of family time, and I wasn’t prepared to do that. So in 2011, I started in the wild journey of solo partnership.
Ilana:
Nice. Well, I can certainly relate, having also come from a corporate background, and also having to make that tough, but not so tough decision to choose family over corporate life, I guess. And, Paul, you and I’ve talked at length about the transition from corporate into owning your own business, which is what your podcast actually is also about is sort of corporate escapees, which there are many people who are corporate escapees.
So anyway, that’s not digress. Thank you for your intro. So I guess, recently or not, I guess probably six months ago now, at the time of this recording, I went to a Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. And I attended some sessions and workshops on LinkedIn.
And I have to say, before I went to this to the sessions, I thought I logged into LinkedIn, maybe once every six months, I was one of those people that are sending me these LinkedIn requests. I never, I didn’t even know my password.
You know, I had this completely dormant and basically a dormant profile, but leaving Social Media Marketing World and leaving those workshops, I left thinking LinkedIn can be a game changer for certain types of small business. And then soon after that you and I had a conversation where you were telling me the amazing results that you were getting on LinkedIn.
And it made complete sense to me, having seen lots of sessions on it, and some of the amazing ways that people do that. So I wanted to talk to you about the ways in which that you get your amazing results on LinkedIn, because that I think there is also a positive in the market that LinkedIn is full of spammers and people, you know, me pushing stuff.
So I would imagine this is the right way. And there’s a wrong way of doing LinkedIn and the elegant way and the not so good way. So do you want to maybe walk us through? I guess if for someone like who was me before you and I kind of started while you were helping me with my LinkedIn profile?
What would be the first step for somebody who, you know, like, I was never having logged into LinkedIn, or once every six months? What would you say is the first step for somebody who wants to start being more active on LinkedIn?
First Steps to Get Active in LinkedIn
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, look at Great question. And if I if I just before I answer that, I’ll just go sort of one step above that, which is, no, I was really struggling to get leads into my own business, you know, run a group mentoring, business in a membership. And I really struggled have come on podcast, I’m about to launch a book.
But I was really struggling to get consistency, you know, word of mouth referrals is where I got most of my work. I thought, you know, how do I get more dependable source and you know, that was always looked at free, then paid or know that you do some brilliant paid work.
And then I looked at joint ventures, so I had a bit of a combination, but I hadn’t really found something that struck and I’d been on LinkedIn since 2009, you know, I’ve got nearly 10,000 1st connections are really value my relationships on LinkedIn are thought, you know, that’s really my biggest asset, it’s bigger than anything else I’ve got had, I better better leverage it.
And that’s sort of where that it started. And what I did was went to three key experts in the world, and just said, Look I’ll pay for a one on one session, you just told me exactly what I should be doing. They gave me that, which was very kind of them, then I went and tested some stuff.
And that’s where I came up with, well, what is my methodology to get leads on LinkedIn? So that’s sort of a quick backstory. But to answer your question, I think, you know, the first thing is your profile. I think that’s where people should start. I’m amazed that, you know, I talked to someone and I’ll articulate themselves so well.
And then I looked at their profile, I think, hang on, is that the same person? Like, it’s completely different? So you know, I think getting your profile, right. And there’s not many things you need to change. And if you know, if it makes value, and sort of goes through what I think is some of the key changes that you can make on your profile.
Ilana:
Yeah, that I think that’s a great idea. Because you certainly helped me with my profile. And I think what the advice that you gave me would be really helpful for somebody else. So…
Paul Higgins:
yeah, and I know also have a checklist as well that people can refer to at the end, so they can get that at, you know, BLGdownload.com. But the first thing is to have a great looking profile pic. So I think that’s, you know, pretty obvious, but you want to make sure you’re smiling looking to camera, and there’s not a distorted background, and don’t have one that’s 20 years old, you know, people can sort of pick that up straightaway. I think mine’s a few years older than what I for years ago now. But yeah, not not really. (laughs)
Ilana:
I would imagine, not a picture which has been cropped, and you know, they’ve taken the picture was originally maybe their wedding photo and then cropped out their part their significant other.
Paul Higgins:
Like, you know, get on Fiver get, you know, there’s so many people that can help you with, with getting that peak, right. So you know, if you can get a professional pic, that’s great. I personally have my key color, my key color is orange. So I make that as the background that really stands out. And that’s the thing you want to do also his stand up, but in a good way.
The other one is that the custom backgrounds are a lot of people just have the plain background for LinkedIn. And you know, that’s normally a key indicator that you’re not really that active on the platform. So you got to remember, most people, 60% of people work on mobile, on your profile, and all that I might spend a minute, two minutes.
So what you want to do is that header, which is the key banner, you want to make sure that that really compelling. So what I say is have an inspirational picture, just be careful where because on your mobile versus your desktop, your profile does move from left to right. So just make sure that you’ve got that right, I tested on both.
So you know, whatever image you’ve got, try to keep it to the right hand side. And then I think you should always have your brand you should have who you serve, and what result you get for them. So I think that’s really important. So instantly people go on, okay, this is for me, because it’s like any marketing, you only want to, you know, you want to basically have people that are interested in what you do.
And they only give you a split second to do that. Not different at all website. So I think there are a couple of key things. The next is your, your headline. So I’m a big fan of people are the box. People, you know, everyone does it. It’s like, I just want to Yes, that’s all great.
But you know, what did I actually do? So I think you know, you should have that at the start of your profile. Once again, on the mobile phone, it comes up so they can see that. So it’s very clear from them, and then have a, you know, I help x. So who your ideal client is to achieve y through Zed.
And Joshua Bailey is a great example of that. I think he’s actually got that Aziz headline on his profile, but that’s the next thing. And the lightest datas, I don’t have emojis in it, I used to recommend having emojis in it. And now they recommend not to have that. So that’s sort of the start. So any questions so far on that one Ilana?
Importance of Profile Standing Out
Ilana:
One question, in terms of the headline, is that what appears below your name? When you comment on somebody’s post or something?
Paul Higgins:
Yes, it’s correct. It’s your key stamp for wherever you post or like. So you know, to me, that’s why, you know, I recommend that it’s probably you know, the second most your background hitter is your first most important real estate. And the next one, you’re actually you had a headline, I should say, what you what you describe yourself.
And like I said, most people all talk to, and then I’ll have there, on my second screen, I’ll have their profile up, I’m like, Well, you know, your LinkedIn profile is so, so generic or so far away from what you’re telling me.
Ilana:
And I guess from what you’re saying, the sole purpose of your profile is to attract the right person, but turn away the wrong person, is that right?
Paul Higgins:
Correct. You’ve got to speak directly to them. So a lot of people, you know, used to use LinkedIn as a resume, and so people doing corporate, but if you’re, you know, listening in your run your own business, it’s actually not about you, it’s about your client.
So you want to really make it easy for them to say, should I read more? And you want to make it really easy for them to say, do they understand me? And that’s sort of the about section, which is, you know, I have a simple formula, which is now what what you’re writing to the, to your ideal client, and you’re writing about their pain points.
What happens if the don’t change it? So you agitate, then what’s your solution in a simple form, and then what’s a simple call to action if they want to find out more, but it’s always written as them so often I’ll see someone’s profile, it’s like still a resume, it’s all about, it’s about writing about them. It’s not about you, it’s about the people that want to work with you.
Where Should You Send Your Potential Client
Ilana:
Right? Okay. And the ideal call to action would be sending them to your website, or..?
Paul Higgins:
Look, I find a email. So I find that’s probably the easiest call to action, you want to make it easy for someone. So you know, I’ve tested different things, you know, link our website, etc. But I think an email is probably best. And that also helps you engage with someone because LinkedIn is a great platform. I love it to death.
But ultimately, you want that email in your CRM or in your database to add value in the future. And therefore, I think an email is the best.
Thoughts on Adding People on your Database from LinkedIn
Ilana:
Definitely. What do you what are your thoughts? We’re going to digress a little bit, but if somebody sends you an email, then from LinkedIn, do you think it warrants adding that person to your database? Just we’re digressing a little bit I’m just because some people do this? Yes, I have some as I go.
Paul Higgins:
No, sorry. Yeah. So give me an example. So I understand a bit better.
Ilana:
Let’s say for example, I say someone’s post. And I check them out on LinkedIn ago. Yep, that’s cool. send them an email, right? And then they’ve automatically added me to the database and then newsletter.
Paul Higgins:
No, I wouldn’t recommend that.
Ilana:
It’s a pet peeve of mine. (laughs)
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, same here. And always treat this, as you know, how do you want to be treated, you know, so don’t treat someone different to how you’d like to be treated. So for me, you know, we stay within the platform first. So if anyone ever sends me a connection request, and it’s got no context to doesn’t have a customized message, which I recommend everyone do a customized message on your mobile phone, if you just hit Connect, it doesn’t do that you’ve actually got to press more on your mobile phone.
And then it’ll say a personal link, it’s a personal message or something like that carry me the exact words. But so my team will always send back a reply saying, you know, did you hear? Thanks for looking to connect? Did you hear me through my podcast? Or did you read one of my posts, and what that does is then get them to reply, to see if they’re actually interested in in what I do, and how I could potentially help them. So someone doesn’t reply, we reject it.
And someone replies with something that is just, you know, is is of no value, we basically reject them as well. Then on to your point, if we’re in a conversation, if someone’s liked, or commented on my post, which is great, we send them, you know, a message based on that, and how that goes, if it goes into sales call, always ask them what they’d be like the added to the list.
And it you know, the other option is I give them a value, which is, you know, like an opt in, which is that checklist that I mentioned before. And I say, you know, if you do that you’ll be subscribed. And you know, we’ve also got a double opt in. So, you know, once again, I want to protect end on LinkedIn, often the email addresses someone’s personally my address, it’s not always a company one. So that’s why we like to get the email from them rather than try to guess it.
Further Steps to Stand Out in LinkedIn
Ilana:
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so going back to what we were talking about before with the profiles, we’ve got the head of a custom picture, our headline in the about section, are there any other components that were missing, we need to fill in for the ideal profile?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, look, just quickly that you know, the experience, so I recommend that you’re, you’re about is about the client, remember, and then the next, the experience just goes into a little bit more detail. But it’s once again, client facing, and especially your company is client facing what you run now.
So you know, go and have a look at my LinkedIn at Paul Higgins, triple five. And you’ll see how that flows through. The other thing on the about, I recommend three videos. So have a video of your story, have a video of how you work, because people want to know that. And the third thing is have a case study.
So there are three videos, I think the videos is very informative, and it helps and you have that in the about section. And then the other things I’ll just quickly recommend is Sorry, just on the other experiences, if you’ve had good corporate experience, or you’ve had, you know, experience outside of running your own business, just bullet point, the results.
You know, people don’t want a diatribe on each experience saying how wonderful you are, they just want to trust point to say, hey, they’ve been able to achieve these results, and they’ve worked for these companies, then the recommendations, you know, have at least two recommendations know, because that’s what will show and make sure they current and make sure that the current from the client you love to serve.
So that’s that the volunteer experience, I think is really important if you do that have it in there. And the skills and endorsements have about 40 skills, but it should top three that are critical and you can pin and unpin those.
So I recommend, know if what you’ve got at the headline should effectively mirror what you’ve got in your skills. And that’s really important. So I think those are the things that you know, if you get those right, now, as you post and drive more traffic to your profile, you’ll be in in great shape.
Ilana:
Okay, and LinkedIn will tell you how many people are viewing your profile. Is that right?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, correct. And what we do is we basically anyone that does, we’ve got a, you know, a standard message that we send to people. It’s not spammy, it’s not creepy.
But we do send that out. Because you know, some Armada got busy, you don’t know what’s happened, they’ve quickly look at your profile, you know, what’s going on in their life. So we just always make sure that if they do want to find out more that, you know, we give them the opportunity.
Adding Video Case Study to your Profile
Ilana:
Okay, going back to the videos, what about if somebody, I guess, struggles to get a video case study or something like that? Is it sort of high production value? You know, is something on their mobile phone sufficient? Or do you think?
Paul Higgins:
I think where you know, and you and I are into it, you know, James’s conference earlier in the year, SuperFastBusiness live, which was great. And, you know, it was all about that authenticity, and, you know, humans dealing with humans.
So I actually think, you know, just getting someone on zoom or Skype, and just ask them a few questions, and I answer it and then cut that into a two minute Case Study.
I think that’s fine. I don’t think it has to be high production value depends on who your target is. But if you’re targeting, you know, other entrepreneurs, solo printers, I think that’s more than fine. If you targeting enterprise, well, then maybe you might have to invest a bit more.
Ilana:
Okay. Because sometimes people will have the attitude that, you know, if it’s not great quality than it does more harm than good as a but you know what I mean?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, and I think that’s been a bit tested this this year for my experience. So, you know, if you look at my about video, it’s, you know, poorly shot, or it’s like someone shining, the sun on my face. You know, it’s not great, I keep saying, I’ve got to, you know, I’ve got to go and update that.
And, you know, people just keep commenting and saying, I love your about I love your story. So you know, I think progress rather than perfection is probably the best there.
Ilana:
It’s funny, you mentioned that one of my favorite sayings or mantras, take imperfect action, but some people think that’s not great, because it’s not perfect, but it’s just I guess, the way I run my business.
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, and you look, you know, we all think about our businesses. 100% of the time, like I said, most of clients come to a profile will give you two minutes, and they’ve got a lot going on in their life.
So I’ll never view it through the eyes that you view it. So give yourself some permission. And what I do is constantly updated based on conversations I’m having, I think that’s more important than making sure it’s pretty.
Ways in Engaging with the Right People in LinkedIn
Ilana:
Yeah. Okay, awesome. So now that we’ve got a really good profile, we’ve got out all the components that we’ve talked about, what do you think is the next step for somebody who wants to be I guess, more active on LinkedIn and start engaging with it with the right kinds of people?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, well, look, I certainly taken an outbound, sorry, an inbound approach, which is I think, organic posting, is where there’s lots of value at the moment. So you know, there was, you know, organic was big on Facebook, and no one knows that better than you, Ilana. But you know, that sort of ship has sailed and LinkedIn are welcoming it with open arms onto their platform. And I can’t say that changing for some time.
So, you know, it’s a great chance to be posting to your ideal client. And, you know, we’ve sort of got the the key themes that I do are, I post five times a day, some people post, sorry, five times a week, some people post three times a week, but I think, you know, some some sort of inspiration, which shows more of a you, I think, is always a great post, I think, you know, something that shows your expertise, and most importantly, giving them tips on and giving them tips of value on something that you know, more about than the most people in the world.
And the third thing is, you know, a call to action where you might have a client example, or something where people understand more about what you do. So that’s sort of like the strategy of post. And most people say, I’ve got to get a content plan. And I’ve got to, you know, I’ve got a, you know, I can’t post yet, because I haven’t got everything sorted. You know, it’s a classic case, you’ll never have everything sorted. LinkedIn is brilliant, because as soon as you post, you’ll know how well it goes.
Because it gives you views, likes and comments. So it’s very quick to give you that feedback. So my, you know, we’ve got a structure which will run through in a moment, but my view is you just start posting and post based on what your ideal client is saying to you every day, the questions that they’re asking you and sales calls, the questions that you’re solving within client meetings, they’re the things that people will want to hear about, I think that’s a lower risk if you post on those things.
Balancing Features vs. Benefits
Ilana:
Okay, so let’s go into some of that, that structure, because it’s, to be honest, it’s something that I’ve kind of struggled with, to some degree, because I’m in quite a technical field. But yet nobody’s interested in the technical aspects of pay per click marketing.
So for somebody, and I guess everyone has that same situation in their industry, maybe what it what they do is, is a certain level of expertise, but then that’s why they’re hiring that person is for that expertise.
So how much content Do you bombard people with? Maybe bombard was not the best word. But like you know, like, that, that balance between, like, I guess, features versus benefits.
Paul Higgins:
Yep. Well, I think that you know, that the first thing is that I can’t remember exact how many words but it’s 1300 characters for post, right? So it’s not a lot of words, it’s about 200 words, that you’ve got a ride. So people, you know, once again, so it’s going to be difficult to post etc. It’s not, it takes me 15 minutes to write a post that I’ll get 5000 views to. So you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot easier than you think. But it just needs a good structure.
So the content can change the structure. So the structure is, you know, for me, it’s got to have a really killer, compelling headline, no different to any copy. But what you remember is, is a view is only someone flicking through a feed. So a view doesn’t mean I’ve actually stopped them viewed your posts, they’ve just flicked through.
So the most important thing is, I say, just pretend you’re a journalist, writing in a newspaper headline. So just go pick up a paper, you’ll see exactly what they do is normally a statement, it’s never a question. And it’s intriguing enough to get someone to say, hey, I want to know more about that. The other one is the photo. So the photo walls will be also what they see.
So a compelling image. And you know, I use a lot of images for my personal life. And I find that they will, we’re better than a standard stock image that you can, you know, get on some great sites, we’ve got some sites that you can use with your aggregators, so that’s excellent. But I think, you know, having a visual that’s relatable is great.
Adding Personal Stuff on a Business Setting
Ilana:
I was just gonna say, well, that’s not surprising, really, given. It’s a social network at the end of the day, so people want to know, the person behind the brand, the business, I mean, that’s always going to be more compelling to people, as you say, human human people buy from humans, you know.
So I’m not surprised you get that result, those better results with a personal profile. I would imagine, though, that some people might feel a bit funny about putting personal profile personal pictures of their life in such a business setting. You know, I guess, the tough one, isn’t it?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, look, I think it’s become you know, it’s it’s still business, but I think it has become a little bit more social, I’m hoping that, you know, it doesn’t slip too far down. But if you know you are your brand, in a lot of cases, I am my brand. So I think that’s, that’s okay. The other thing is, you know, like, if you’re going to give us a checklist, or a download, or something of value, well, you know, put an image of that on.
So you know, it doesn’t have to always be about you, to your point, which is a great one, the other one is the same more. So you know, what, you’ve got to carry the exact amount of characters for your characters before the see more, so you can edit it.
And you can see how how that plays out. But to me, you should always have that intriguing statement above the sea more. So you want people to go into more, I see so many posts that are just all crammed. No 60% of people are reading post on mobile, you know, you’re going to make it as easy and spaced out and as easy for someone to actually want to engage in your post.
Ilana:
Which is a classic copywriting technique, it’s the sole goal of the headline is to get you to read the next slide. And then this purpose of the next line is to get you read the next line rather than go straight for the sale. And, and people are going to skim read it.
So you have to space it out. It’s the same with Facebook ads, correctly space out Facebook ads, so they are skimmable, rather than committing to this large chunk of text, which is so hard to read, especially on a mobile.
Paul Higgins:
Correct. And it’s all transferable, right? A lot of people say, oh, I’ve got to learn LinkedIn, I’m like, No, you don’t, there’s some certain things that I’ll talk about in in a moment that you’ve got to know about LinkedIn, but what you do on a Facebook ad, or you know, Facebook, organic in the days is no different to what you do on LinkedIn.
So that part of it, you know, is easy, but you know, it’s, it’s the old saying, you know, just because it’s easy, doesn’t mean everyone does it. And I just see so many posts on like, are, you know, I just love to, to, to help you redo it, because it will make it a lot easier for those people you’re trying to benefit.
The other one is the you know, I like to sort of have a human story in it. So that’s just the way that that are right. And also the end of the post, I highly recommend you do two things. So one is a you’re always ask a question. And when I say always, it doesn’t have to be 100% a post.
But you know, what LinkedIn rewards the most is comments over likes. So if you can get more people to comment, by default, LinkedIn will actually push that post further, both in your network, but also outside of your network if you use the right hash tags.
So you always want to ask a question Plus, it’s more engaging for someone because they want to share their knowledge on it. So you know, why not do that. And there’s an so that’s one thing, the other one is to, I have a standard signature. So it’s just like your email signature.
So as you know, ask people to like it, if I got value, and also people to connect with me if they liked the content of my life more. So you know, they’re the things that I have as a default, once again, you can see that on almost all of my posts at Paul Higgins, triple five.
But the so that, and the reason that you want to do that is because of the next component, which is you want to actually think so first. So you want to like and thank people for making comments and add value by adding comments, because it’s a social platform, like you said, Ilana.
And the other thing is, if you, you know, they your ideal client, and you could potentially message them directly to a personal message through LinkedIn, to see if, you know, you could basically help them. So that’s sort of the reason why we structure the posts the way we do.
Questions that Evoke Responses
Ilana:
Interesting. Okay, so when you said at the end of the post, ask a question, have you seen certain types of questions which evoke more a response versus others?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, look, I think it’s got to be something that easy, and something that’s not too confronting, like, you know, like, you know, it’s obvious People often say, What’s your biggest, you know, business challenge, or whatever I can on their clients are watching their profile as well.
So, you’ve got to have some sensitivities and often sometimes in third person is great. So, you know, if you seen someone do this, or, you know it’s allowing them to share, and also, I like something that’s more positive.
So when was the time that you, you know, did this that was that worked really well. So it’s actually helping them showcase to the world, what value they’re giving. So there are a couple of little tips that I find work a lot better than, you know, a complicated and I would never have a like, you know, some people have three or four questions, and then people are confused.
It’s like, well, which question should I answer? I got two minutes, I’ll just flick on to the next one. So you want to make it as easy for someone because you got to remember, you know, maximum, probably a minute to two minutes they’ve got on your post. And if you’re doing a video, a video should be only a minute long, and it should have captions were possible.
Certain Posts that Works Well Regardless of the Industry
Ilana:
In all the people that you have helped, and I know firsthand that you’ve helped lots of people in lots of different industries. Have you found that there’s certain types of posts, regardless of the industry that you’re in? Which work better versus others?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, I think I think those you know, helpful posts work really well, I know that once again, probably pretty obvious, but where you’re actually giving them something unique that you know, and it’s word that you’re sharing, I think that is, because the whole concept here and organic posts is that you’re giving value first.
And then you’re potentially reaching out to people, whereas the opposite is, you know, outbound. So let’s say maybe through Sales Navigator, where you’re contacting people call, they don’t really know who you are, they’ll have a quick look at your profile.
I like the posting bit because you’re actually giving them really good value. So I think that’s what works probably the best of the moment, regardless of you know, what’s, what industry and what size client you’re dealing with.
With Image vs Non-Image Posts, Building Relationships with Posts
Ilana:
Interesting. Okay. Have you tested also having an image versus having no image or video at all? Just text?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, look, I have, and it’s, you know, the way that our prioritize is that the writing meet, so texting and pick a probably the best, then followed by text only, and then video, I find video interesting that one, it’s three seconds for review. So you’ll get less total views. But the engagement might be higher.
So you know, views can sometimes be a bit of a vanity metric. So you know, try not to get caught up on that. But I found videos often don’t get the comments, because people will watch the video for a minute. And then I’ll like, Well, you know, I spent enough time on that.
So and also, I think with video is, I don’t know, but I like to read at my own pace. And I like to read the text. So if you are going to do a video post, just make sure that someone could actually read the text as well, because not everyone will read the watch the video.
Ilana:
Interesting. You mentioned earlier that LinkedIn is a great way to build a relationship with people. How do you then build that relationship? of the posts? Like is there a next step that you take with people to start engaging in some kind of relationship building mechanism? Or is it purely through posts?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, so there’s sort of three ways. So one is to like and comment on their post publicly. So you recognize, you know, they’ve they’ve left a great comment to is to send a direct message saying, you know, thank you for liking. And always make sure you specify the specific post, don’t put the link in, but just say what it was because some people, you know, like and comment on hundreds of posts a day, and they’re like, well, which which one’s yours?
So I always put what the topic is. And then the general question I normally ask them is, you know, what your key focus at the moment? Or what what your mind focus at the moment. So that then gives them the chance to come back now remembering the people that I’m direct messaging, I, I look at their profile?
And I think, yes, they probably my ideal client. Right. So if it was someone as CEO of enterprise business, they’re not ideal clients are probably wouldn’t do that to them. But if it was a no, as a consultant, that is, you know, running their own business.
Yes, I would definitely do that. But I think that engages, and then based on that conversation becomes a coffee chat. And I say to people, you wouldn’t walk into a cafe cafe and say, Hi, I haven’t met you. But would you mind buying me a coffee? And that’s what I found, find a lot of the outbound stuff is which you talked about before, you know, that’s a really poor stuff that we’ve all had.
Whereas I think this way, it’s actually making sure you add value by your post, you add value by the comments, and then you’re actually just asking them an open question. So I think that works really well.
Ilana:
Interesting. And you find people are quite receptive to say, I liked one of your posts, I didn’t know you, then you send me a direct message saying, you know, exactly what you said, thanks for liking my post or whatever topic, what am I working on? Do you find people are quite responsive to that?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah. So there’s sort of these two buckets. So why is your first connections, so sometimes you you might have, you know, spoken the first connection for sometimes always look at the messages and just see what the theme is. And if you know, based on the theme, or sort of tailor it or customize the message back to them.
And if they’re a second and third connection, obviously, you’re going to ask them to connect first. So you know, I thank them from the post. And then I just say, Would you be open to connecting, and what they’ll do is go to your profile. And if you’ve done all the work on your profile, you know, they’ll work out whether you’re someone that, you know, they would like to add value to the fact that you’re posting every day getting good engagement, that’s also another trust point.
And then I find about 80% acceptance, right at the moment of the third, the second and third connections, and of the message we’re sending out, I’m getting about an 80% response rate. So it’s quite high.
Where Paul is Facilitating all the Strategies
Ilana:
Interesting. And are you just using the LinkedIn platform itself? Or do you use a third party tool to sort of help you facilitate all this?
Paul Higgins:
No, so we do it all, within LinkedIn on know, there’s, you know, there’s been a lot of automation and bots that have shut down LinkedIn. hapa was one of the key ones recently, we just thought all 90 what we do do use those virtual assistants around the world that do certain activities which can expedient it.
So, you know, if I’m going to send those questions, some of those questions, you know, I would type the exact same thing in so to me on more than come from my VA to come to my profile doing that on my behalf. But when it gets to a conversation, that’s when I take over.
Ilana:
So you share your login with your VA, and then your VA will say, hey, Paul, take this conversation from here. Is that how you manage it?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, technically that’s in breach of the the terms of service for LinkedIn. Well, I think it is, you don’t mean to do that. But I think they’re becoming a lot more liberal than what they used to. Because there’s, there’s a code that you can say, to different countries, very sorry, I’ve got a team in, in South America, and they definitely have to get a code from me before they can actually enter into a different country, you can also set up a complete different VPN as well, if you want to go down that route.
Ilana:
Interesting. Okay, so we’ve got the profile, we’re creating posts, then we’re building a relationship, are you would you say that that’s the three ways? What is the three steps that you get, when you hit the way that you advise people to get results? Or is it more to it?
Paul Higgins:
Now, look, I think that’s the critical thing, I think the only other thing is know, you’ve got to get a certain amount of likes, within a certain time period, to get a boost in views. So there’s a bit of control versus to have that’s happening. So pods is a very common word at the moment going around.
And people you know, some people are gaming the system by you know, just getting people to lock their post randomly to get to a certain amount of likes, we don’t encourage that. But what we do do and LinkedIn and themselves, like if you got an article, LinkedIn, welcome you to share that with your, your connections to get it spread. So LinkedIn, want better content out there, and more people seeing it.
So there are some ways that you can trigger their algorithm with a certain amount of likes, that will definitely help your post. And as I said, if you use the right posting technique and structure, the more comments you get LinkedIn will do that. And then lastly, the hashtags.
If you use the right hash tags, there’s some hashtags that are got, you know, 18 million followers. And then I say a lot of people that will create their own little hashtag, and it might have them following it. So if you’re smart around the hashtags that you use, that can also get you.
When LinkedIn boost, you sometimes might get known as trending. So I’ll get an email, say, you’re now training in Seoul opener, you now training in business. And that means that LinkedIn that prioritizing that posts within that hashtag, so if people search for hashtags, you’ll be higher up the newsfeed, they’re not.
Ilana:
Okay, yeah, I’ve had some posts trending in marketing or digital work, I can’t even remember. But I guess I don’t see any results as a result of that trending.
Paul Higgins:
And, and sometimes it’s, you know, it’s like, a coke, we used to say, you know, this 50% of marketing worked 50% that doesn’t use then I which 50 50%. And this is a bit the same I call have people that, you know, will contact me out of the blue and say, Look, I’d love to work with you.
I’ve been following all your posts. I’ve been listening to your podcast, but I never liked or commented. So, you know, he is a thought leadership place here that you can’t put a direct return on. And, you know, that’s way. Yeah.
Not everyone will, will like comment. But you know, there’s people that are reading your content, and they going listening to your podcast, which once again, you don’t really know who listened to your podcast, that is getting a benefit of this. And then you know, that, like, know, and trust you, you certainly building that? And then, you know, it could be random when they actually contact you.
Advice to Give Someone Starting out in LinkedIn
Ilana:
Yeah, interesting. So for somebody starting out what, I guess, some advice that you’d give them? If they were starting out with LinkedIn?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, I think you know, first thing is get the profile. Right. So as I said that BLJ download calm will certainly help with that. The second is, you know, look at so you know, I’m not saying my posted the best in the world, but they do get good results. Just look at my posts and look at the way I structure based on today’s conversation.
And if you do, you know, send me a connection request just mentioned that you heard heard a lot or an eye on this podcast, that’d be great. And then the other thing is just treat your messaging in your scripts, we’ve got some great scripts, that the work but just treat those as if you’re the person receiving it.
You know, if it feels icky to you, and you’ve got that gut feel that you shouldn’t send it is probably a good indicator that it’s not the right one.
Ilana:
Yeah, good advice. Well, Paul, you’ve provided, as expected a huge amount of value for this episode. So thank you so much, for people who want to reach out to you and find out a little bit more about what you do. How can people find you?
Paul Higgins:
Yeah, great. So as I said, there’s that BLGdownload.com. And then also the website is buildlivegive.com. And in there, if you go into the services and has more leads, or get more leads, it’s called, that’ll give you all the information you need.
If you want to join the collaborative that on Ilana and I are in where we do share experiences and help each other LA to constantly improve what we’re doing on LinkedIn. But I know for most of my clients at the moment, you know, they the biggest challenges keeping up with leads, which you know, most of them haven’t had before, I certainly know that I’ve never had that problem before. And a nice problem to have.
Ilana:
Yes, definitely. And there are some people in this group getting amazing results, obviously commensurate with the effort that they’re putting in. But there’s the result there, which is, which is an amazing testament to what you do, Paul, so well done.
Paul Higgins:
Yeah. And and look in the content as always, right. So I just give the structure in the lead the community, but content says but one, it actually went from, you know, about 200 views a post, when she first came in, and the other day, she got a 500,000 view post.
And yeah, her business is just completely, completely blown up in a nice way, just because of what she’s doing. And we’ve got many examples of that. So you know, it is a great time to be part of this. And it’s, you know, it’s not as hard. You think and if you do get some help and get some support in the community, it can work really well.
Ilana:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Paul, thank you so much for your time. Certainly loved chatting to you. And I’m sure we’ll talk again soon.