By Ron Bradley
Most social media are indistinguishable from each other. But not LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has always been the internet’s premier professional network and no other platform even comes close.
It’s also the single easiest way to drum up new professional clients in almost any industry in a pointed yet non-creepy way.
Today we’re going to talk about how to avoid being a pushy financial product peddler and instead turn your LinkedIn presence into something that measurably creates interactions, relationships, and even new clients. (As well as how partnering with professionals can help accelerate your LinkedIn success.)
Start With Your Profile Picture
A professional and approachable profile picture is your first opportunity to make an instantly positive impression. For financial advisors, this means choosing a high-quality, professional photo that conveys trustworthiness and approachability—qualities crucial in the finance industry.
Don’t crop yourself from a group photo at your nephew’s wedding. Take the time to really get this right, even if it means shooting a few dozen shots at home and using the best one.
Crafting a Headline That Captures Attention and Commands Authority
Your headline is the very next thing people read when they see you on LinkedIn. Don’t default to putting your business-card job title as your headline. Think of it like a front-row opportunity for someone to learn about expertise and value.
Effective headlines often include your specialization and a value proposition. A few examples:
- Experienced Financial Advisor Specializing in Retirement Planning
- Helping Dental + Medical Professionals Plan Their Financial Futures
- Your Omaha Advisor Licensed Fiduciary/Retirement Guide
Writing a Compelling Summary
The summary section is your chance to go a bit deeper into what you bring to the table. Here, detail what sets you apart from other financial advisors, like your approach to financial planning or your commitment to one specific audience or type of strategy. This section should resonate with your target audience, underscoring your professional brand and what makes you uniquely equipped to help people build toward their financial goals.
Professional Experience and Accomplishments
This is where you can detail your professional journey, though this is uniquely challenging given the regulations around how financial services can be conveyed publicly. Highlight your tenure, your education, and things you’ve learned, and dive deeper into your specialties in this section.
Highlighting Qualifications
Emphasize certifications such as CFA®, CFP®, or any specialized training relevant to your practice area. These credentials give a boost to your perceived professional standing and reassure readers of your expertise. Even though the certifications themselves may be unknown to lay audiences (most people couldn’t tell you the difference between a CIC and a ChFC®), just the presence of the letters alone conveys credibility.
Growing Your Network
The best way to build new connections is through the ones you already have. People are more likely to accept your connection request if you have a mutual connection. Make your outreach messages short, sweet, and personable. It’s usually best to send a message along with a connection request to ask a question, give a compliment, or give your new connection something valuable.
How to Turn Leads Into Conversations
The value you share will be proportional to the number of new clients you end up attracting through LinkedIn. You can share content both publicly via posts on your own page (which show up in the home page feed) or send it directly to prospects in a one-on-one conversation.
Public Posts
For your public posts, consistency is key. A company would never do an ad campaign for a single day. Devoting just 20 minutes per week to jotting down ideas and creating posts about them can be enough. Consider what you worked on during any given day, and even though it may seem rote and uninteresting to you, there is often a lesson there to teach your audience.
The people who reach out to you are those who see your content many times, even if they don’t necessarily engage when they consume your content.
Direct Messages (InMail)
Direct messaging relies on finding a pool of people who can help you grow your business, and then reaching out to them directly. Many people send off a dozen messages, get one half-hearted reply, and then convince themselves that cold outreach “doesn’t work.”
Correct, it didn’t work. For them. If your response rate is low, try a different message.
Experiment in short versus longer messages, or asking questions versus just sharing facts. Do more people respond when you share your webinar? What about a free guide? Don’t think of your outreach message as “this or nothing.” Evolve the way you connect with prospects.
But won’t some people ghost you and simply not respond, making you feel like you wasted some time? Absolutely. That’s part of the game, and it’s just a fact of life that not everyone you approach will be receptive. Consider your outreach like any other marketing strategy; your connection requests will go out to hundreds of people, dozens may respond to your initial message, and of those, it’s not unreasonable to expect one solid new client.
Types of Value to Share
The only limit to your value-add is your own creativity. You can share things you create yourself (like guides, videos, checklists, webinars, or articles on your own site) or curate useful resources from elsewhere (such as tools, news, or industry insights).
Sharing value is a necessary step in forging new connections and ultimately inducting new clients because of the Law of Reciprocity. If you give someone something, they automatically feel compelled to give something back—even if that something is 10 minutes of their time to hear you out.
The caveat is that this “something” has to be authentically and honestly valuable. In a world rife with spam, be judicious about the quality of content you’re going to tie your name to.
Looking for Professional Help to Accelerate Your LinkedIn Success?
Instead of going it alone, we at Auxani Advisors would love to be your guide and partner in fueling the growth of your business. And stay tuned for next month’s article, in which we’ll dive deeper into how to leverage LinkedIn features for client acquisition.
By positioning yourself and your firm as an experienced, reliable option, you can skip the learning curve and start setting up meetings with prospective clients faster. To get in touch, call 978-880-8763 or email ron@auxani.com.
About Ron
Ron Bradley is Founder and CEO of Auxani Advisors, an entrepreneurial-minded company committed to building businesses and financial success. Ron began his 40-year career as a producer for MetLife, where he was quickly promoted to Regional Director. Though his esteemed career led him to become one of the founding IMOs at Life USA (now Allianz Life Insurance Company) and to serve on the board of directors of a number of leading insurance companies, Ron felt a calling to do more. In 1982, he had a vision of strategically coaching financial professionals to help them grow their businesses. This entrepreneurial spirit prompted Ron to create Auxani Advisors, which now serves those advisors looking for the next generation of retirement products and concepts to meet their clients’ needs.
Ron’s passion for coaching has taken him all over the country conducting workshops, trainings, and seminars to share his knowledge with a variety of financial advisors and firms. To learn more about Ron, connect with him on LinkedIn.
