OPTIMISE YOUR PROFILE IN LINKEDIN JUST WITH 7 ADVICES

Many people have a LinkedIn profile but only upload their academic qualifications and professional experience, which is a great mistake because there are a lot of steps to get better profile.

Today LinkedIn is really useful to connect with different kind of professionals in many fields, however it is one of the social networks which is less optimised by users. How can we take advantage of all its facilities?

1. ANY FOTO IS NOT ENOUGH

Remember that an image is worth a thousand words, your profile photo can say all about you so in LinkedIn it is necessary to keep in mind these advices:

• You must appear alone in the picture: forget group photos on holidays or that picture in which you cut out someone. This is not professional.
• Your face have to be shown: avoid pictures where your body appears entirely or close-up photo (an eye, for example). Eloquence is expressed by the face. It is better one in which you feel natural, neither very formal nor very informal.
• Don’t forget smiling: this always transmits a positive image of you. To smile too much and not to smile enough is not good, one which shows you just like you are is adequate.
• Clear, well lit photo and your face in the middle.

This seems quite obvious but many people are still making these mistakes. Try to look at some profiles and you will see a lot of people with a bad optimised photo.

You need to have a profile photo. Unless there is a photo, your profile will never be 100% completed so your searches will not be as effective and your profile will not appear in all searches.

2. INCLUDE KEY WORDS IN YOUR PROFILE

Keywords in LinkedIn are very important. Most of the users use them in the title of the introduction, but we need to know how to optimise this item in order to achieve more results in searches.

Before to start, it is better that you know keywords of your profession, so think about what words describes you better.

3. KEEP SEPARATELY THE CONTENT WHICH DESCRIBES YOU

To improve your curriculum in LinkedIn, don’t forget to divide and organise all the info correctly. Distinguish appropriately among extract, experience, projects, languages, aptitudes and validations, education and additional information.

Extract is the first thing which will be read about you. This have not to be a summary of your career, take advantage of the space to write a text that persuades other to contact you and keep reading your profile.

In the part of experience there will be a list of all your jobs, their duration and what you did it in each one. Where you worked and what your position was are not enough.

In projects, remember to highlight what you are doing now.

Regarding to languages, it is good to stand out those you are fluent in, certificates you got and curses you did.

Aptitudes and validations are one of the most important parts of your profile, where you can show your professional skills. Generally, we tend to forget this part and not to realise its importance. LinkedIn will help you by suggestions about which words are better for your professional profile.

Taking education into account, don’t write what school you went, it is better to summarise the most important steps in your education (usually your last academic experience) which is that you want to be assessed.

Eventually, in additional info you have to take advantage of this space to write all you were not able to in the other parts: your websites, Twitter, interests…

4. PERSONALISE EVERY EMAIL TO MAKE A CONTACT

Don’t write the typical message predefined by LinkedIn, other could interpret it like you do not have enough time to make a personal message, you are lazy or stuff like this. Go further, create a personalised email for every different contact you make. Tell them why you are connecting and having in your list of contacts.

5. TO BE PART OF GROUPS

Using groups in LinkedIn could help you a lot of, it is not just for sharing current topics, news… You only have to start looking for those groups which are related to your professional sector and seeking new interesting contacts for your profile. Professional groups will make your name more known in the sector, you will obtain new contacts and visibility. Even more important, you may achieve synergies with other people who are interested in the same as you.

6. CREATE YOUR CONTACT NETWORK

Don’t start adding a lot of people, you need to create new contacts little by little. Having a good number of contacts will make you have more visibility and the possibility of be in touch with more people. It is better not to saturate and send messages without sense, just send it to people you know, then add more people to your network.

7. POST AND SHARE

Posts are the first thing which is possible to see when we are in LinkedIn and they are even better than groups. This is the best way to show you like an active person.

Write and share content with value, which reflects your way of thinking, what you feel attracted and your knowledge. Always keeping an eye in your audience, because they must feel that you share good and interesting info. In this way, you will achieve your contacts share and recommend your posts so your profile will reach more people.

DO YOU HAVE ANY BUSINESS? AVOID THESE ACTIONS IN INTERNET

Today surviving in internet is not easy for a company. It does not only consist of wanting to remain, but to know how to deal with the web. Staying in internet is not just to post occasionally in your networks, this implies a studied, conscious relationship with your clients, and also to follow a code of conduct which is learned by observation, keeping an eye on other companies, and specially using social media like users.

Although no one sets the rules of the game and there are no specific user manuals, here it is possible to find some examples of bad actions that companies must avoid when they interact with customers and visitors in social media or other online places.

Separating online from offline reputation: there is only one reputation, therefore strategies based in being very good listening or answering in internet does not make sense if you do not carry out actions which improve your offline business. Reputation must be as a whole and take into account that reputation depends on your interaction with customers in the real world.

Number instead of quality as objective: in recent times performing in internet means for the companies to accumulate fans and followers, believing that this is the easiest way to measure the effectiveness. However, the number is nothing without quality. It is preferable less followers who actually are interested in knowing what you do than a large audience which does not mind your company.

To answer just because you have to do it: there are few actions that grow such a bad reputation as standard and empty answers, for instance “thanks, we will take it into account”. Customers want a warn relationship in which they feel that there is a person who is talking with them instead of a robot. You must give real solutions!

Being impulsive: Internet allows and needs immediacy in interactions with clients, but this does not means to answer the first thing which comes to your mind, especially when it has to do with solving a problem or answering negative criticisms. It is better to think it and not to give a rapid response. You must be aware of your words because these will stay for a long time, affecting the perceptions of the people about your business.

To create fake profiles: whether the profile is to fight against the competence or to reinforce yours, this is not a good idea. Some companies still use this strategy, but users realise easily what profiles are fake, which finally means give a bad image of the business. It is far much better to spend your efforts improving in other ways.

Not to accept negative criticisms: there are still some companies which do not admit negative criticisms. Fatal error. It generates an image of intolerance and lack of respect to the clients who want to collaborate for improving your business. Although criticisms are very difficult to deal with, it is quite better to show your listening, self-criticism skills and decisive attitude to your clients instead of losing them because of an intolerant position. You need to accept responsibility and see it like an opportunity to learn, improve and, more important, to recover the clients who are disappointed with you.

Crossing the thin line of spam: which is the perfect point in online communications? When do you lose your customers’ interest? Info which can be very interesting for a client may be irrelevant for another one. You must to think really good how many and how often your communications will be launched, and also what content you want to transmit. You need to be aware of users and clients’ tolerance to brand info is less than the tolerance to info of friends and known people. It is not necessary that they are in touch with you everyday.

To be obsessed with “trolls”: it is frequent that every company finds its archenemy who always opposes, it does not mind what it does. The “troll”, which is trouble maker, is easily recognised by users and is not worth to pay attention to him.

Not to take care your tone in communication: to get defensive, show a hostile position, bad responses or not to use tact in your answers could be a disaster in the future. It is really important to have the proper tone in communication and take the needed time for answering in order to keep happy your audience.

“To buy” opinions: to offer discounts, promotions or a special gift with the purpose of obtain loyalty is quite different from offering rewards in return for opinions, likes or stuff like this. The first one is absolutely recommendable, however the second one will create followers who just want the prize. Eventually it is only noise and it seems that reputation is purchased.

AN EASY WAY TO INCREASE THE EFFICACY OF YOUR E-MAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN

E-mail marketing campaigns are more than just sending emails. These marketing actions must be considered as a useful channel in which you can be in touch with your users, continue offering new promotions, and also engage them to your brand. However, to get all of this, it is necessary that people who receive your emails open and interact with them.

How to create the perfect email? How to persuade the users of opening your emails when they have other twenty in their inbox? How to make your offer more attractive in order to obtain clicks and visits to your website?

Whether you are starting with your email marketing strategy, or you have been developing it for years, there are eight components which you need to pay attention to make your campaigns more effective.

SUBJECT

To get the lector attention, a subject is needed. This is the first thing your users will see before opening the email, and also it will make a difference between a high open rate and failure. Due to this, it must be relevant for your audience so that you have to know their concerns. For example, if you are sending emails to an entrepreneur list, you need to know that they always have a lack of time to complete all their tasks. Therefore, you have to catch the attention with subjects like “Are you ready to save time in your sales?”. In this way, they will be intrigued and want to know how you can help them.

Another advice related to the subject optimization is to customise emails including the of the individual who receives the mail, or utilising direct actions like “download” or “get it free”.

SENDER’S NAME

It is important to create a strong confidence with your subscribers. The sender’s name is another component that will be seen before to open the email so to choose a good name and use it constantly will make readers recognise your emails easily.

Marketing email must be personal. For this reason, it could be good to incorporate an image of the sender with his signature, which results to users more friendly and seems that the email comes from a person. Also you can try different names in order to know which the best option is.

BODY MESSAGE

You have to make your emails brief and convincing enough. Marketing experts usually focus on this item strongly in order to optimise their messages. It is really important to get the proper language, tone and design with the final purpose of achieving more clicks.

Firstly, you need to ensure that the mail describes clearly your offer. Write short, convincing, interesting messages. Tell a story, use statistics which can make stronger your words and don’t be afraid to utilise a direct speech. Also, brief paragraphs and pictures are essential because if you write an essay with a lot of text, people will lose interest.

IMAGE

Emails must be visually attractive and the best way to get it is a good picture due to this reinforces the message you want to communicate.

Choose relevant images with suitable quality, which show your offer to the users. For instance, if your product is an eBook you just have to put its cover and this would be right. First of all, your users will look at the pictures of your email.

CALL TO ACTION

The purpose of your emails is to obtain clicks on them from your users, and afterwards to turn on clients. For this reason, call to action is likely to be the most important component in your marketing email campaigns.

Whether it is a switch or a link, you need to make sure that your call to action stands out so that users’ eye must be guided to it. For example, putting the call to action in some place of the email in which people do not have to go down along your message is a good action.

In order to optimise the mail use clear actions which transmit importance such as “download”, “sign up now” or “get it today”.

Finally, a great option to optimise calls to action is to include along the text some links and buttons which do not take subscribers down to the same page. In this way, you are giving them more possibilities to click and get more info.

LINKS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

If you want your content to be shared, make it easy for the users. You will not only achieve that your content reaches more people who are not in your data base, but you will be able to increase the number of followers in your social media too.

Include links in order to share the content in all of your emails, giving different options to your users (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…). Another advice to optimise these links is customise with your own message so that if you write a funny email you will get much more audience.

TERMINATING THE SERVICE

This is important, firstly, because it is illegal not to include a link in which the users can unsubscribe from your newsletters. Also, it is not valuable for you to have in your list contacts who are not interested in your products or services. Offer them the possibility to terminate the service. Actually, thanks to this your open rates and clicks will be more accurate due to you just will send emails to the people who are interested in your products.

It must be easy to find. This does not mean that it has to stand out just like your call to action, but to hide it is not a good idea. If users cannot find it, they might mark your mails as spam and this could harm your reputation.

PHONE OPTIMIZATION

Have you ever opened an email with your phone and the text was too big, short, small, large… or simply, to move along the mail was difficult? Like for you, the user do not want this stuff.

Design your email marketing campaigns in order to they are adapted to any device. Use some optimised stencils and test them before.

HOW DOES INBOUND MARKETING FUNNEL WORK?

Currently remaining at the online channel is really important in order to get a competitive position in the market, and also it is a good way to reach new clients. There are lots of companies, however, which do not know how to create effective plans and actions to achieve more traffic in their webpage, online sales, and even more important to engage its digital customers. For this reason I consider that it is quite relevant to explain how inbound marketing funnel works, because it might help many people who are not sure about how to start (or continue) with their online strategy.

First of all, the inbound marketing funnel is the path that the potential customer follows from he starts looking for a product or a service in internet until he buys it or the company achieves his engagement or loyalty. This funnel consist of four parts or stages: reach, act, convert and engage. All of them are very important and it is necessary to take care the fourth steps.

REACH

In this first stage customers are seeking in internet some information about products, services or another stuff, which is known like exploration. Basically, you have to get that the customer visit your online place.  In this way, there are many tools in order to attract visitors and to stand out among other competitors such as search engines, social media, publishers, blogs or word of mouth. Perhaps the first three are the most important and effective. Regarding to search engine, it is possible to use pay per click campaigns or to optimise the webpage by:

• Keywords
• Website speed
• Submitting the site index
• Social media signals (likes, followers, comments)
• Inbound links

In social media there must be much interesting content for the target customer so that interaction is enhanced, which will make others to know your company, product or brand easily, and do not forget that the same strategy in the blog works. In case that some customers have already try your product, it is good to encourage them to explain and share their experience.

In order to meet the results of the strategy, it is always interesting to measure some items, for instance, in this stage followers, fans, visitors or inbound links are key measures.

ACT

In this step, once the customer is in the website there should be something that gain his attention so that he spends more time in your page, blog or community. This could be content which is relevant, inspirational, useful or problem solving. It means that the time that the customer is in the webpage must be worth.

In addition to this, it is quite interesting to subscribe them to a mailing list. In this way, it is possible to be closer to the customer and to remind him of your brand. Also, thanks to this tool you are able to facilitate the sale by discounts, personal offers or stuff like this. But before you need to obtain the visitor’s contact details which sometimes may be difficult to get. At the moment that they land upon the website, you can ask their contact information. However, in my opinion this is not the best option. On the other hand, it is more recommendable to offer some gift, whitepaper, eBook or something free and valuable for them.

In order to measure the results, there are some key measures such as time on site, shares, comments, likes, leads or contact mail.

CONVERT

This point is likely to be the most difficult in the process due to it is the moment in which the potential customer turn on to a real customer and decide to purchase the product. To achieve the sale it is important to have led a good e-commerce process and to carry out efficient policies in product, price and promotion.

Another remarkable think is to keep in touch with the contacts that you got it in the previous step by e-mails, updates in social media, blog posts and more offers with free gifts. Also, they need to get deeper details why you are the best option in the market so that content should be more commercial. In addition, you will find more purchases if you drive them to the sales webpage.

Eventually, the results can be measure by analysing orders, revenue or the average of the order value.

ENGAGE

Last but not least, once the customer has purchased your product you must ensure that he is happy with it and feels that the product or the service is more special than he expected. Afterwards, it is extremely important to keep in contact with your customer by sending more useful information, asking him about the product or service, and enhancing him to recommend your brand or to share his experience. This is the best marketing for your brand and it may be a great source of new clients, starting the process again.

Repeated purchase or referral are two key ways to measure the results that you can achieve thanks to this step.

Conclusion

With the inbound marketing funnel it is possible to increase the traffic and the sales in a webpage by uploading attractive content for the customer. This may be a long process until starting to see the results but you must be constant and keep in touch with the visitors a clients.

If you have any doubt about how it works, just leave a comment and I will answer as soon as possible!