A Complete Guide To LinkedIn Profile Optimization [+3 Rare Tips That Help You Stand Out]

In 2024, LinkedIn remains the largest and fastest-growing professional networking platform with over a billion active users that include individuals from CEOs to interns. This significant growth reflects LinkedIn's evolution from a mere job discovery platform to a vital tool for network expansion and professional connectivity.

Networking on LinkedIn goes beyond simple connections; it is about strategically building relationships that foster both business and personal growth. However, the challenge lies in standing out in an already crowded marketplace.

How do you ensure that your message is not only seen but also gets a positive response?

The key is in crafting cold messages that are not only personalized but also clearly aligned with the interests and needs of the recipients.

This involves a deep understanding of your target audience, the effective use of LinkedIn’s lead generation tools, and a strategic approach to outreach.

Throughout this blog, we will delve into the various steps that will help you perfect your cold messaging technique. By mastering the art of the LinkedIn cold message, you can transform the way you network, opening up a world of opportunities that could redefine your professional landscape.

What Is Cold Messaging On LinkedIn?

"Cold messaging" refers to the practice of sending a professional message to someone on a digital platform without any prior intimation, connection, familiarity, or context. Typically, these messages are used to sell a product or service, inquire about opportunities, or initiate a professional conversation between two parties who have not previously interacted. 

On LinkedIn, cold messaging is a common tactic employed by users from various professional backgrounds to achieve diverse objectives, such as:

1. Cold Messaging for Business Marketing: Businesses utilize LinkedIn cold messaging to directly engage their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) contacts, aiming to market new products or services efficiently. This direct marketing approach allows companies to personalize messages, ensuring they reach a highly targeted audience.

An effective cold message for business marketing should highlight the unique benefits or features of the product or service, addressing directly how it solves specific problems or improves the recipient’s business/life. The message should be concise, attention-grabbing, and tailored to reflect an understanding of the recipient’s industry or personal business needs.‍

2. Startup Recruitment Through Cold Messaging: Startups often rely on cold messaging to scout and recruit top talent who may be looking for new career opportunities. This approach allows startups to communicate directly with potential candidates, presenting the unique opportunities and benefits of joining their growing team. It’s an essential tool for startups aiming to attract skilled individuals in a competitive job market.

A successful cold message from a startup to a potential candidate should not only focus on the job description but also the culture and vision of the startup. It should make a compelling case for why the candidate should consider a career shift, emphasizing how their specific skills and aspirations align. Personalization is crucial, as it demonstrates genuine interest in the candidate’s career and not just their fit for the role.

3. CEOs and Targeted Networking: For CEOs and other senior executives, cold messaging is a strategic means of expanding their professional network with other thought leaders and potential business partners. This form of networking is targeted, with a focus on establishing meaningful connections that can lead to mutually beneficial collaborations.

An effective cold message for CEOs should start with a brief introduction of themselves and their company, followed by a clear explanation of why they are reaching out to the specific individual. The message should propose a clear potential benefit or point of interest, such as a shared business goal or a recent industry development that might be of mutual concern. ‍

4. Job Seekers and Cold Messaging: For job seekers, especially those in highly competitive markets, cold messaging can serve as a direct conduit to decision-makers, bypassing traditional application channels. This proactive approach puts their qualifications and enthusiasm directly in the spotlight, increasing their visibility among potential employers.

An effective cold message from a job seeker should clearly depict why they are an ideal fit for the position or the company. The message should detail relevant skills and experiences and express a strong interest in the company’s values and mission. Distinguishing themselves from the competition, job seekers should also convey a personal connection or insight into the company, showing that their interest is well-researched and genuine.

How Is Cold Messaging Better Than Email Outreach?

Statistics reveal a compelling narrative: LinkedIn InMails enjoy up to a 25% response rate, while emails generally see only a 10% response rate. 

This contrast is because of several distinct advantages that LinkedIn's InMail system offers over traditional email outreach. Understanding these differences can help you refine your approach to professional communications, ensuring that your outreach efforts are more personalized, visible, and effective.

1. Enhanced Personalization: LinkedIn InMails are designed to help with a higher degree of personalization. When recipients receive an InMail, it's clear that the sender has chosen them specifically, rather than sending out a generic message to a crowd. This sense of individual attention makes the recipient feel special and more inclined to engage. 

In contrast, cold emails often feel like just another number in a bulk marketing campaign. People generally prefer feeling singled out for a unique opportunity rather than being one of many, which is why personalized InMails tend to generate more interest and a higher likelihood of a response.

2. Perceived Value and Commitment: InMails come with a cost, which signals a sender's commitment and seriousness about the engagement. This investment suggests that the sender values the potential connection highly enough to spend resources on it, enhancing the perceived value of the message. This is not usually the case with emails, which can be sent in large quantities without incurring any cost, potentially diminishing their perceived importance. 

The financial aspect of sending InMails acts as a filter, ensuring that only those messages that are truly considered worthwhile by the sender are transmitted, which increases effectiveness.

3. Increased Visibility: Unlike emails that can easily be lost in spam folders or missed among hundreds of daily emails, InMails are guaranteed to reach the recipient’s LinkedIn inbox. This direct delivery to a professional's LinkedIn account significantly increases the chances that the message will be read. 

LinkedIn's messaging system also notifies users when they receive InMails, adding an additional layer of visibility that emails lack, further enhancing the likelihood of engagement.

‍4. Transparency and Professional Relevance: The transparency of LinkedIn as a platform adds a layer of trust to InMails that emails often cannot match. Recipients can immediately view the sender's profile, verify their professional standing, and assess the relevance of the message. This ability to quickly validate the sender’s professional identity and build immediate trust. 

Cold emails, lacking this level of transparency, can often appear suspicious or irrelevant, making them less effective in establishing a trustworthy communication channel.

Step-By-Step Cold Messaging On LinkedIn

To be able to maximize the cold messaging facility offered by LinkedIn, you need LinkedIn Premium which will grant access to Sales Navigator.

Step 1: Create A Leads List

On your Sales Navigator dashboard, you will see a handful of filters. If you set them to point toward the exact kind of people that you wish to reach out to, Sales Navigator will generate a list of prospects and show you details like their names, designations, companies, headlines, About sections, recent posts, degree of connection with you, and recent job updates. Add them to a custom list.

Step 2: Prepare A Subject Line

Choose the first relevant profile to message. A LinkedIn InMail requires a subject line and has a body that ends with a signature. Your subject line has to be the most creative part of your InMail – it determines whether your message will even be opened. Personalize it and include the recipient’s name. Add context but don’t sell.

For example, if you’re reaching out to pitch your financial advisory services, your subject line can be: “James, your revenue can be 300% higher.”

If you want to talk to someone you’re looking to hire, your line can be: “Emma, you could be our senior software engineer.”

If you wish to sell someone your course, it can be: “Looking for life-changing fitness advice?”

Step 3: Write The Message

Crafting the perfect LinkedIn cold message requires precision and a clear structure. Start by introducing yourself and explaining how you came to know of them, perhaps through a mutual contact. It's also important to acknowledge their work—this not only shows genuine interest but also establishes a connection. 

Briefly mention your services and clearly showcase the benefits they stand to gain by working with you. Always include a direct call to action (CTA); provide a simple way for them to reach out, like a booking link, which respects their time.

Ensure your message is concise and relevant—C-level executives highly value their time. Avoid overstepping by criticizing their current operations just to highlight how your services could help; this can come off as disrespectful. Instead, focus on how your offerings are beneficial. 

Step 4: Follow Up

You can feel free to hit them up twice in all: Once a few days after your InMail and the second time after a fortnight. Remind them politely, don’t demand an answer. CEOs are very busy people so it is possible that your InMail simply slipped their mind.

Serve them everything on a platter. If you’re following up, resend the booking link or brochure website. They value convenience.

Don’t follow up more. If it crosses the edge of annoyance, you’ll end up losing not just a connection but also your reputation in their circle.

3 Cold Messaging Templates

When you send messages on LinkedIn to their Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), the approach must be strategic and personalized. The message should start by acknowledging the recipient's position, subtly flattering their professional status while establishing a common ground.

This not only personalizes the message but also shows a genuine interest in the recipient’s work. It's crucial that the message then transitions into a value proposition that is relevant to the recipient's interests. 

This approach is direct and respects the recipient's time, while clearly stating the purpose of the outreach. The tone should remain professional yet approachable, reflecting your position but also your willingness to engage on a level that respects the recipient’s expertise and time.

Two examples of outbound messages that a CEO sent to ICPs.

1. Key Points to note from the example below:

• Engagement: The message directly addresses the recipient by name and references specific work. This demonstrates genuine interest.

• Acknowledgement: It appreciates the recipient’s profile visit and content, setting a positive tone for further interactions.

• Constructive Feedback: The sender suggests enhancements to LinkedIn profile sections to get them interested.

• Link to Relevant Work: An overview included in the message showcases the sender’s work, adding credibility.

2. Key Points to note from the example below:

• Personalization: Start with a specific observation about their current LinkedIn activities or lack thereof.

• Value Proposition: Clearly state how your service can benefit them, backed by relevant statistics or success stories.

• Call to Action: Encourage a follow-up action, such as a meeting or a phone call, to discuss potential collaboration.

An example of an outbound message that a CEO accepts from another party.

1. Key points to note from the example below:

• Personal Connection: The sender mentions a mutual connection who has facilitated the introduction, providing a trusted link.

• Shared Interest: The sender identifies a shared interest or sector, specifically mentioning their involvement in A&I (presumably a field or industry), which helps establish common ground.

• Acknowledgement of Reputation: The sender notes that Justin Welsh speaks highly of the recipient, Keyur, which not only flatters but also adds a layer of credibility and intrigue to the outreach.

• Future Interactions: The sender expresses enthusiasm about seeing what Keyur creates, indicating an interest in Keyur’s work. This opens the door for future interactions and potential collaboration.

Conclusion

Writing the perfect LinkedIn cold message is all about being clear, concise, and respectful. Introduce yourself professionally, commend their work, explain how you can help, and always include a direct call to action. This straightforward approach saves time and builds trust, making it easier for C-level executives to see the value in connecting with you.

If you're looking to utilize the full potential of LinkedIn and improve your professional presence, we're here to help. We specialize in partnering with executives to use LinkedIn as a powerful tool for reputation-driven business growth. To discuss LinkedIn branding for your profile, feel free to schedule a call with us!

In 2024, LinkedIn is the largest and fastest-growing professional networking social media platform. Compared to Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook, LinkedIn is gaining more popularity by the day as the best channel to find high-performance individuals, initiate conversations that fulfill, and expand circles to greater levels.

It is no wonder LinkedIn has also begun shaping its algorithm to bring to every user tons of networking and growth opportunities. What started as a typical job-discovery platform is today buzzing with CEOs and interns, corporate and entrepreneurial minds, scientists and artists, students and retired officers. Networking on LinkedIn has become a boon thanks to its highly connection-based and community-driven nature.

This blog talks about how you can navigate through LinkedIn and its seemingly complex yet highly advanced features to expand your network. In 2024, make the most of this hangout spot for professionals seeking like-minded peers to connect with and learn from.

Why Should You Network On LinkedIn?

When you talk about “networking”, what exactly is it that you refer to?

Is networking simply adding units to your follower count?

Is networking the act of collecting names of people in high corporate positions so that you can reach out to them when you need a favor?

Is networking merely a one-sided deed of receiving information, commendation, or service?

In the most mature terms, networking is a bidirectional interaction between two parties who are willing to help each other grow. Both offer great conversational prompts, show interest in each other’s work, provide solutions when the other is stuck, and vouch for one another when times are tough.

There definitely are benefits of networking on LinkedIn, like getting endorsed for your skill set, winning life-changing recommendations from leaders, and having a smooth lead generation cycle. However, networking in its truest sense is a genuine connection that two people establish over time for reasons greater than self-fulfillment. For this purpose, you must turn to LinkedIn. Why you should double down your networking efforts on LinkedIn is explained below.

➤ For one, unlike other social media platforms, on LinkedIn, your identity is your designation, company, and professional achievements. You are known for your true self. Your identity is greater than external beauty and materialistic possessions. On LinkedIn, you get to brand yourself based on merit, knowledge, and true personality. This makes LinkedIn a zone to proudly be yourself, display your achievements, and support fellow users. While other social media platforms tend to be about competition, LinkedIn is commonly known for its collaboration.

➤ Second, the network you seek here will consist of professionally driven, entrepreneurial individuals who are passionate about personal growth, just like you, and believe in community growth through relationship management and deep conversations. Most LinkedIn users take healthy advantage of thriving in a community amidst pragmatic minds that are focused on spearheading their way into the future. You can rest assured that less sincere people find no place on LinkedIn.

➤ Third, advanced AI-enabled and technologically developed features that LinkedIn offers for targeted networking, filtered outreach, and ingenuous connection make this platform the best choice for meeting new people. Your networking here can be mindful and deliberate. Of course, people can chance upon your profile, but you can reach out to people you want to talk to specifically through filters and search results. You can choose to reach out to exactly 3 CEOs from New York City who have been working with FinTech for the past 7 years, and LinkedIn will bring you a list of candidates that fit into the description!

Invest heavily in your network, both qualitative and quantitative. After all, your network is your net worth.

How To Network On LinkedIn – Top 6 Ways

Personalized Connection Requests

When you first create an account on LinkedIn, you will come across the option of a “Connection Request”. This button is the gateway to getting to know another person. All profiles on LinkedIn are open to the public, that is, you can view another person’s profile picture, headline, banner, About section, work experience, and education, among the other handful of sections. Access to this information means that you can thoroughly analyze who to reach out to if you wish to expand your network in a deliberate manner.

The easiest way to catch someone’s attention on LinkedIn is to send them a connection request.

A “Connection Request” is a polite proposal to be part of someone’s network and in turn, to have them over as part of yours. A connection is a two-way follow; now, you both can not only view each other’s posts on the main feed, but also can talk to each other via the DMs, leave each other recommendations, endorse each other, and further explore their 1st-degree connections. A connection request is like the first handshake toward nurturing a future relationship.

Now, when you’re extending a hand of friendship, you need to be offering something valuable that the recipient can gain from. Else, there must be a specific purpose behind your connection request. Only then will any high-value profile agree to connect with you. This does not necessarily mean a future deal or a financial benefit. It can mean an eager ear to listen to their experiences, a humble request for guidance, or even gratitude for their business model.

That is why, in your connection request, you must always leave a note, as LinkedIn’s suggestive pop-up shows. Add in context; sending across a blank one might seem like a rude demand.

Here’s how you can personalize your connection request note:

• Start with how you heard about them. When you make them the center of focus, their interest in your message is peeked and you secure their attention for the next half a minute.
• Inform them about the medium through which you discovered them and their work. You could have heard about them through a mutual contact or connection. You might have been drawn towards their business thanks to a webinar you attended. You might have read their newly launched book. You can even congratulate them on their startup’s funding round.
• Mention the intent with which you reach out. It can be admiration, conversation, or simply relatability. You can even authentically inform them about future business possibilities that you look forward to with them.
• Always end with a call to action. Let them know if they can send you an email or a reply with a LinkedIn message. Otherwise, you can end with a simple indication that you would love to hear back from them.

Let’s take a look at a successful connection request note:

Michael did everything right while sending Keyur a connection request. His note began with the recipient’s name, not missing the chance to grab his attention. Then, he introduces the context that drew him towards Keyur’s profile – most probably from a recent post that Keyur put out. He also ended it with a CTA, requesting Keyur to connect back. Thus begins a conversation between leaders. As is evident, Keyur extends an invitation to meet off the platform. What more can you ask for?

However, there are certain social constructs that you must adhere to while sending a connection request to avoid repelling the recipient.

The worst notes force complicated thought-spirals. Complex questions, interrogative suggestions, and news-related opinions are a no-no. Your note must be welcoming and positive, not intimidating and repelling.

Once accepted, your connection request note turns into a DM message – voilà, you found your way into their network.

Consistent Mindful Engagement

On LinkedIn, remember that the best way to find connections is to remain active throughout the year. 

Engagement is a way to get in touch with fellow leaders and potential connections on LinkedIn. Once in a while, leave valuable comments and congratulations on posts of people and companies that you want an in to. By engaging with their content, you are showing your support and encouragement for their work. This way, you can begin adding not just the posting profile to your network but also fellow C-level executives from the comment section!

For example, look at the above connection request sent by someone who found Abha through another LinkedIn user’s comment section. The intent is declared, the source of information is conveyed, and a mutual contact is referred to. All these factors add up to enough incentive providing the recipient of the connection request a fair enough desire to reciprocate.

Over time, such organic engagement can bring you leads if you are looking for hiring or marketing growth, too.

Curious Visitor Tracking

With LinkedIn Premium, you open up the gateway to abundant data metrics that help you network smartly.

One of the most celebrated data points is that you can track who visited your profile. Every few days, you can take a peek into who is interested in discovering your profile and work. The source of intimation will not be known but once you get to know who viewed your profile, you can filter the names that you want to add to your network and reach out to them via a connection request.

The advantage gained here is that you know that your lead is warm – they already have familiarized themselves with you. You have to take it to the next level now.

This is best done when you are at the top of their mind. If they have viewed your profile now and you manage to reach out to them within the next 2 hours, it gives the best networking result since they still might recall your name and work. Any longer than that will reduce the probability of them remembering you.

Outreach Through Filtering

If you wish to add a very specific category of leaders to your network, you can take the help of the filtering option that LinkedIn gifts to every profile.

It’s simple:

• Type in a domain of your interest in the Search bar. You can type in the most commonly used keywords related to the domain or look up companies and names too.
• Choose which aspect of the search results you want to explore further. You can choose between people, posts, companies, locations, degrees of connection, events, and many more.
• Click on “People” to know accounts, “Posts” to find relevant active members, and “Groups” to be part of a community.
• Set a few filters and you will see a list of highly qualified leads for your network. You can begin your connection with them and enhance your circle.

Groups & Events

LinkedIn Groups & Events are mass networking opportunities. Through LinkedIn Groups & Events, you can gain access to communities of people who are connected with one another through a common goal, interest, affiliation, or company. You can become part of a strong entrepreneur leadership network.

Joining Groups can open up doors to partnerships, conversations, deals, and outsourcing possibilities. You usually have to request to join a group and are expected to meet the set criteria to be accepted. Once in, you can post relevant content here, answer questions, hold discussions, and participate in group activities.

LinkedIn Events are live hostings for the public that are free to create and be part of. These include workshops, casual meetups, and webinars. A lot of business leaders launch scheduled LinkedIn Events and send out invitations for special attendees. By partaking in one of such Events, you can gain instant access to 100+ potential collaborators and thought leaders at once (you can view the number of attendees per event).

Events can help you promote your business, find new connections, collaborate with domain experts, and interact with a whole new crowd of people who can take your work forward through word of mouth. You can search for upcoming events from your Home page too, or click on https://www.linkedin.com/events/.

Proactive Organic Posting

The best way to increase your network and add noteworthy personalities to it is by maintaining a reputable digital brand on LinkedIn. How?

The answer is through proactive and consistent organic posting on your profile.

Build a content strategy around your domain of expertise and begin creating content around it. The more you put yourself out there, the better people will know you. You can update your profile regularly, post about your thoughts and opinions, or teach people about the subject matter you hold expertise in. Through this churning out of content, people will begin paying attention to you and your network will expand naturally.

This conversation is a great proof of the benefits of proactive posting. George came across a post that Keyur put out. He reached out and communicated his admiration for Keyur’s content, thereby carrying the conversation forward and leading it to a collaboration opportunity.

As an entrepreneur, regularly writing and posting content can become a time-consuming practice. You can consider a low-volume, high-value routine and delegate the entire cycle to a team of experts – LinkedIn ghostwriters or account managers. These talents understand your personality, format your experiences into stories, and maintain regular activity on your profile. An agency like GrowedIn can partner with executives like you to help you leverage LinkedIn’s potential so that you can build it into a channel for lead generation and network expansion.

Over time, you will begin seeing an influx of messages and connection requests from fellow executives, potential clients, business partners, investors, etc., and thus, you can steadily work on becoming part of an entrepreneur leadership network.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator – How To Leverage It For Networking?

LinkedIn offers the ultimate networking tool that ranks at the top compared to every other social media platform – the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful B2C and B2B lead generation tool that can transform the way leaders interact with one another. It comes with a LinkedIn Premium package. Over LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can set even more filters and gain higher visibility than you could with the basic, default account. Here’s how to go about it:

Step 1: Define Who You Are Looking For

A leads list is a tally of profiles that fit into your ICP. A leads list helps you perform social selling better by filtering and categorizing profiles.

To create a leads list, go to Sales Navigator and click on “Leads Filters”. This is what you will see:

Begin inputting the data that relates to your ICP closest. Let’s say that you wish to network with individuals from Google Fiber and Google DeepMind specifically for a certain project. Set the corresponding filter accordingly:

Similarly, you can set other filters and narrow down to a handful of personas that you would want to network with:

‍Step 2: Generate A Leads List

Once your filters are set, add these profiles to a leads list. You will be thus saving these accounts for future reference. You can even create multiple parallel leads lists so that your network-related outreach can be maximized.

Type in your description to help you navigate through multiple lists later and save the list. Now, not only will you be able to go back to these very accounts, but you’ll also be served system-recommended leads along the same lines by Sales Navigator! You can keep track of these profiles’ activities and edit the list as and when your requirements change.

Step 3: Create A Personalized Message

Once you have your leads in place, start reaching out to them with the pure intent of networking and getting to know them better. You must remember that unless you include a purpose, value, and CTA in the InMail or connection request, there are low chances that you get a reply. Personalize the subject line and messaging according to their work, profile, and life. Here’s an example:

By such personalized and deliberate outreach, you can strike up conversations and make your time on LinkedIn worthwhile, by spending it only on people you wish to invest in in the long term.

3 LinkedIn Sales Navigator Networking Secrets

The potential of LinkedIn Sales Navigator is tremendous. LinkedIn Sales Navigator not only brings you a superior channel to connect with great minds, but it also serves you on the platter several data points that you can use to your benefit. It shows you the number of days that a certain profile has been active, the exact people who viewed your profile, the number of searches performed, the rate of acceptance of InMails (direct messages with profiles that aren’t connected yet), and more.

Studies reveal that inculcating LinkedIn Sales Navigator into your network expansion and lead generation efforts produces a 312% return on investment within 3 years. Because of impressive statistics like these, this tool becomes indispensable when you talk about strong networking strategies on social media.

Let’s reveal 3 less-known LinkedIn Sales Navigator secrets that can ensure the best results.

Personalization

LinkedIn Sales Navigator reveals a lot of activities that go on in a certain user’s profile. You can gain access to a recent business update or news item that a profile has been part of and tagged in. What a golden chance to start a conversation with this!

Take this opportunity to stay updated with what’s going on around the world with potential connections on LinkedIn. When you begin a discussion based on updates in their lives, it leaves a good impression and can make the conversation less synthetic. Relatability can be a compelling reason for someone to accept your connection request or InMail. By leveraging this emotion, you can refine your networking capabilities.

Automation

Did you know that LinkedIn Sales Navigator lets you know which leads on your list go on to accept your connection requests and InMails?

This information can unpack loads of conversational opportunities. Look out for this update when searching for potential connections in your leads list. Be it a business competitor or an ally, you can enrich your conversations with this opener.

Utilization

You only get a limited number of InMails per week with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. So it becomes imperative that you use each very deliberately by thoroughly analyzing your leads list and narrowing your outreach list.

Here comes the third trade secret – “Open” profiles do not consume InMails!

Open profiles are LinkedIn accounts that allow you to send them direct messages without having to connect with them first, and without any cost of InMail count.

You will see the tag “Open” next to their headlines as shown below:

Fully utilize these free InMails and increase the number of users you reach out to. The more outreach messages you send, the more networking benefits you profit from!

Conclusion

There is no doubt that LinkedIn networking can lead to benefits like working together and collaborating with fellow entrepreneurs. With LinkedIn, you can put in committed effort in networking mindfully to find your place among an entrepreneur leadership network. If you wish to double down on networking strategies but need a helping hand, GrowedIn can be your best bet. We help leaders like you convert LinkedIn into a networking channel such that you can enjoy maximum business ROI with digital growth. If you wish to make 2024 the most profitable year for your business on LinkedIn, reach out to us today.

Of the 745.78 million LinkedIn users on the planet, 174.51 million are satisfied LinkedIn Premium customers. That is more than one-fifth of the total user base. With such a massive LinkedIn Premium fanbase, this paid side of LinkedIn is booming with advanced features coming up every other year. LinkedIn Premium offers business benefits for lead generation, targeted cold messaging, and focused networking.

There are LinkedIn Premium plans for every individual out there. There are plans for students, job seekers, CEOs, and even sales executives. “A plan for every professional goal, and a positive outcome for every plan”, seems like LinkedIn’s motto with its Premium facilities. Not just that, LinkedIn Premium goes a step further – you can choose between individual and team plans, making it cost-efficient and collaborative.

Which plan should you take up? How much is LinkedIn Premium? What features suit your professional goals best?

This article addresses exactly those questions. Everything you need to know about LinkedIn Premium is right here.

Basics About LinkedIn Premium

When you sign up for LinkedIn, you create a default “Basic” account. This account offers a few basic features. You can optimize your LinkedIn profile sections by filling in all the necessary information about your life and work. Through your About section, you can talk about your purpose on LinkedIn, your current work profile, the businesses you manage, and your passions. You can send out and accept connection requests, engage with posts that your connections put out, and publish content of your own.

As a free account user, you get limited yet definite benefits of networking and hiring, if need be. Even on the free account, there is a benefit for all kinds of users.

If you’re looking for a job, you can access the profiles of HR professionals at companies that you wish to work at. If you’re looking to hire a bunch of renowned, well-deserved candidates for a recent opening at your company, you can put out a job post and let your network know that you’re open to hire. If you’re a student looking for internship opportunities, you can leverage your basic LinkedIn account to promote yourself and reach out too.

However, no matter what your intention on LinkedIn is, you can always turn to LinkedIn Premium if you wish to make pure focused advancement. LinkedIn Premium opens up an arena of characters that you can add to your deck of cards to make your progress on LinkedIn quicker.

How?

There are a few features that you can familiarize yourself with before we jump into the different LinkedIn Premium plans:

InMails

LinkedIn Premium brings with it a feature called InMails. These are inbuilt messaging options that you can use to reach out to very specific people of your interest. A LinkedIn InMail can be thought of as a LinkedIn Email – an allowance of sending people a direct message without being connected with them.

An InMail has a subject line that defines WHY you wish to talk to the person in question. It has a character limit of 1900 for the body of the LinkedIn InMail, enough for you to explain what you do, how you came across that profile, and why you wish to add them to your network.

Since InMails are a part of LinkedIn Premium, different plans come with different allowances. Some plans offer up to 15 InMail messages a week while others come with a limit of 100.

InMails are the best way to grab a prospect’s attention and prove that you are worth their time and energy. Entrepreneurs love LinkedIn InMails to reach out to potential partners while job seekers find solace in outbound opportunities for employment.

Smart Links

LinkedIn offers a very advanced lead generation feature called Smart Link.

A Smart Link is created when you upload, say, your pitch deck on the platform, a lot like how Google Drive gifts you a copiable link upon uploading. Through the copiable link that LinkedIn Premium offers, you can track 3 main data points:

1. Who clicked on and opened your document,
2. How much time a certain user spent on your document, and
3. For how many minutes did a certain user spend on a specific page on the document.

With this data, you can win prospects like never before. Once you are notified about an account opening your document, you can extract these data points and reach out to them. For example, let’s say you decide to publish your product brochure on your Smart Link. You pin this link up on your LinkedIn profile, in the “Featured” section. Now, if the CEO of a company you’ve always had eyes on checks out your Smart Link, you will be able to track his movement on it. You can then send him a polite invitation for a meeting to seal a potential deal.

Some consider Smart Links to be the epitome of sales inbound lead generation. They help with informed decision-making and personalize your approach toward each client. You can track engagement trends and even modify your marketing strategy accordingly.

LinkedIn Analytics

LinkedIn has an effective in-built data tracking and performance management system called LinkedIn Analytics. This helps you gather data on various ad campaigns that you can run. All paid ads will revolve around parameters like registrations, purchases, clicks, and website visits. With LinkedIn Analytics, you can gain a thorough understanding of definitions that form your marketing strategy, thus enabling you to make better decisions. After all, the higher the ROI upon every campaign, the better results you get out of being on social media.

Different LinkedIn Premium Plans

There are 8 different LinkedIn Premium plans.

LinkedIn is more than just a professional networking site; it's a platform that offers various tools and resources to help you meet your career and business goals. Among its offerings, LinkedIn Premium stands out with 8 different plans.

Basic LinkedIn Account

This plan opens the door to professional networking at $0. It's perfect for those just beginning their journey on LinkedIn, including students, recent graduates, and professionals taking their first steps into online networking. 

By creating a detailed profile and connecting with professionals across various industries, users can build their network and explore job opportunities. While the Basic LinkedIn plan is free and provides essential tools for entering the professional world, it also comes with inherent limitations that might prompt an upgrade as career needs evolve. A few highlights of this plan include:

• Users can create a comprehensive professional profile highlighting their skills, experiences, and careers.
• The ability to connect with like-minded professionals across the globe helps users expand their network into new opportunities.
• Access to a broad range of job listings enables users to find and apply for positions that align with their career aspirations.

However, the Basic account's limitations become apparent as users seek to deepen their networking and job search efforts. The lack of LinkedIn InMail credits restricts direct communication with professionals outside one's network, a potential barrier to making new connections or inquiring about job openings. Furthermore, the Basic account offers only insights into who has viewed your profile, providing limited data for understanding your visibility on the platform. Users miss out on LinkedIn Learning, a valuable resource for professional development and skill enhancement.

While the Basic LinkedIn account might seem limited compared to its LinkedIn Premium counterpart, users can still utilize its power to significant effect. Individuals can dramatically increase their visibility and connections by actively participating in groups, engaging with posts, and utilizing the platform's networking features. 

This proactive approach not only enhances the value of the Basic account but also lays the groundwork for more strategic networking and career development opportunities in the future.

As a no-cost option, the Basic LinkedIn account is an excellent starting point for those new to the professional landscape. It offers a foundation for building an online presence and beginning the networking journey. Yet, as users' professional goals grow and become more specific, moving to a Premium plan can unlock advanced features and tools designed for better engagement and career advancement.

1. LinkedIn Premium Career

‍At a monthly rate of $29.99, this plan is a strategic tool for professionals eager to navigate the competitive job market more effectively, by elevating visibility to recruiters and exploring new career opportunities.

For C-level executives and seasoned professionals, LinkedIn Premium Career, for $29.99 a month, is similar to having a VIP pass in the job market. It ensures that your profile does not just exist among the masses but stands out to key decision-makers and recruiters actively seeking top-tier talent. This plan is not merely about seeking opportunities; it's about ensuring that the right opportunities find you. Here are some key features:

• Insights into who's viewed your profile over the past 365 days, letting you see potential employers or recruiters who have taken an interest.
• The ability to send 5 InMail messages monthly directly to recruiters or potential employers, opening the door to conversations without needing a prior connection.
• Unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning, where you can pick up new skills or polish existing ones to boost your marketability.
• Information on how you compare to other applicants gives you a clear picture of where you stand.
• A special badge on your profile indicates to employers that you're on the hunt for new opportunities, increasing your chances of being noticed.

Is this plan a wise investment?

For professionals actively seeking to transition into leadership roles, enhance their visibility in their industry, or secure pivotal career opportunities, the answer is a definite yes. 

The premium features provided are specifically aligned with the ambitions of high-caliber professionals, offering not just enhanced job search capabilities but also opportunities for personal development and direct engagement with potential employers.

However, for those not in active pursuit of a new position or satisfied with their current role, the benefits might not justify the cost. The value of this plan lies in its ability to match ambitious professionals with equally ambitious opportunities. 

LinkedIn Premium Career is more than a subscription; it's an investment that provides the tools and visibility needed to not only navigate the job market but to do so with precision and strategy.

2. LinkedIn Premium Business

‍At $59.99 per month, LinkedIn Premium Business boosts reach and brand presence, ideal for professionals and businesses focused on fostering connections, gaining insights, and driving growth.

In the world of business, visibility and insights are currency. LinkedIn Premium Business acts as a lever, enhancing your ability to connect with peers, clients, and industry leaders while providing deeper insights into market trends and your own profile's performance. It's like having a business consultant who guides your networking efforts and maximizes your potential for success. Some highlights of this plan are:

• Enhanced visibility of your profile ensures that you're seen by more people, increasing your chances of connecting with potential business partners and clients.
• Unlimited browsing of profiles in your network allows you to see and be seen by potential industry contacts without restrictions.
• Advanced search filters enable you to refine your search for connections based on specific criteria, making it easier to find and engage with relevant professionals.
• Detailed business insights give you a competitive edge by providing valuable data on industry trends, helping you make informed decisions.
• 15 LinkedIn InMail messages are provided monthly. This helps to reach out to more people directly, facilitating conversations that could lead to new business opportunities.

LinkedIn Premium Business, at $59.99 per month, is not just about expanding your network; it's about strategically building connections that matter. It offers a suite of tools designed to position you as a key player in your industry, enabling you to explore new avenues for growth and collaboration.

For executives and professionals with a strategic mindset, this plan is not just beneficial; it's essential. The ability to gain insights into company data and trends can be a game-changer in making informed decisions and staying ahead in a competitive market. Moreover, the unlimited browsing and advanced search functions allow for a more targeted approach to building meaningful professional relationships.

However, if your primary focus lies outside of networking and market insights—say, more indirect job seeking or content creation—the full spectrum of benefits offered by LinkedIn Premium Business might not align perfectly with your needs. 

At its core, LinkedIn Premium Business is about empowering professionals with the tools and insights necessary for strategic business growth and effective networking. Whether you're looking to broaden your professional network, gain competitive insights, or foster business relationships, this plan offers a comprehensive suite of features to help you achieve your objectives with precision and efficiency.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core

‍This plan, at $99.99 per month, boosts sales strategies with advanced features for targeting, understanding, and engaging leads, making it essential for professionals aiming to enhance their lead generation efforts.

At $99.99 a month, LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core is perfect for sales professionals keen on elevating their strategy. It’s an invaluable resource for enhancing lead generation tactics, packed with tools to accurately identify, comprehend, and connect with prospective leads effectively. Its key features include:

• With an enhanced search feature, you can filter potential leads using specific criteria, ensuring your outreach efforts are targeted and relevant. This precision tool helps you sift through LinkedIn’s vast network to find individuals and companies that match your ideal customer profile.
• Utilizing an algorithm tailored to your sales preferences, this plan provides personalized lead recommendations. This feature introduces you to potential leads you might not have identified, expanding your prospecting horizons.
• Stay updated with real-time notifications about job changes, company updates, and news related to your saved leads and accounts. These insights allow you to tailor your communication and outreach strategy, ensuring your messages are timely and resonate with the current state of your prospects' businesses.
• Organize your sales efforts by saving leads and accounts directly within the platform. This organization tool helps you keep track of your sales pipeline and ensures that you're nurturing relationships with potential clients systematically.
• Reach out to prospects directly with personalized messages, even if you’re not connected. 
• 50 InMail credits are provided monthly, which is perfect for sales professionals sending outreach messages to target and engage.

In the competitive landscape of sales, having the right tools at your disposal can make all the difference. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core is more than just a database; it's a strategic partner in your sales process. 

While LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core offers a wealth of features, it comes with a premium price tag that might not fit every budget, especially for freelancers or small businesses. Additionally, the sheer volume of tools and data can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a learning curve to fully leverage its capabilities. There's also a reliance on the platform's data accuracy and the potential for key decision-makers not to be active or responsive on LinkedIn.

This plan is an amazing tool for sales professionals looking to elevate their sales game. It combines advanced search and targeting, personalized engagement, and actionable insights into a powerful platform that can transform your sales results. For those committed to achieving sales excellence, Sales Navigator Core is the strategic choice that can help you reach your goals.

4. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core Advanced

‍Priced at $149.99 monthly, this plan is specifically designed for sales teams and professionals who mastered the basics of LinkedIn’s sales tools and are ready to dive deeper with more sophisticated features for collaboration and strategy.

The Advanced Sales Navigator plan builds on the solid foundation established by the Core plan, introducing an elevated suite of features aimed at optimizing team collaboration and refining lead management processes. It's crafted for sales professionals and teams seeking to harness the power of collective networking through features like TeamLink, and for businesses intent on deploying a more sophisticated, coordinated approach to sales. Here’s how this plan stands out:

• TeamLink stands out by allowing you to leverage your entire team's network, not just your own connections. It opens doors to warm introductions through colleagues, significantly broadening your outreach potential.
• With more LinkedIn InMail messages at your disposal, reaching out to a wider array of prospects becomes feasible, enabling more personalized and direct communication.
• Organizing and prioritizing leads and accounts is streamlined with advanced list functionalities, allowing for more targeted sales efforts and follow-ups.
• Stay on top of changes within your target accounts with custom alerts, ensuring you're always informed about opportunities for engagement or follow-up.

The LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced plan is tailor-made for those who have outgrown the foundational tools of the Core plan and are in search of advanced functionalities that support collaborative and strategic sales initiatives. Additionally, businesses that emphasize strategic, relationship-based selling will find this plan’s advanced features instrumental in achieving their sales objectives. In a nutshell, it’s designed for sales veterans and teams eager to leverage LinkedIn’s full potential for targeted, effective sales campaigns.

While the Sales Navigator Advanced plan offers a ton of cool features, it’s not without its limitations. The higher cost may stretch the budget for smaller teams or individual sales professionals. Furthermore, making the most out of this plan's advanced features requires a bit of a learning curve, meaning you'll need to invest time into mastering the platform to see significant returns on your investment.

Essentially, LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced is for those who view sales not just as transactions but as opportunities for strategic growth and relationship building. With its advanced set of tools and features, it’s designed to elevate sales strategy, fostering more meaningful connections and driving success. However, it’s most beneficial for those ready to invest both financially and in terms of time to harness its full potential.

5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core Advanced Plus

‍This plan elevates the Advanced plan with CRM integration, streamlining sales processes for large operations. Pricing isn’t public, so businesses should consult the LinkedIn sales team to explore suitability.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Advanced Plus stands as the ultimate selection for enterprise sales teams, building upon the Advanced plan with critical CRM integration. This feature not only simplifies sales workflows but also boosts lead management efficiency, tailored for the demands of large-scale operations. It's important to note that pricing for this premium option isn't publicly listed. Businesses interested in understanding how this top-tier plan can fit their specific needs are encouraged to reach out directly to the LinkedIn sales team for more details and potential customization. These are some key features:

• Advanced Plus users gain access to all the features of the Sales Navigator Advanced plan, providing a wide array of foundational tools for targeted lead search, personalized outreach, and strategic account management.
• Seamlessly auto-save LinkedIn activities and searches directly into your CRM, ensuring that valuable interactions and leads are captured without manual entry.
• Specifically tailored for users of Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, these integrations offer functionalities like Salesforce Data Validation and Contact Creation, enhancing the synergy between LinkedIn sales efforts and CRM management. This ensures a streamlined workflow where sales data and activities are consistently aligned and optimized for efficiency.
• Recognizing the unique needs of enterprise sales teams, LinkedIn offers Sales Navigator Advanced Plus with custom pricing. This plan can be tailored to fit their specific sales strategies and objectives.

For enterprises that rely heavily on LinkedIn for their sales activities, choosing Sales Navigator Advanced Plus can be a game-changing investment. This plan is an ideal match for large enterprise sales teams that benefit from its advanced features and CRM integrations, supporting their complex workflows and extensive lead management requirements. It’s also perfect for organizations seeking to tightly integrate LinkedIn activities with their CRM systems, ensuring a seamless flow of sales data and activities. Companies that use LinkedIn as their main sales channel will find that this plan provides all the necessary tools and integrations to fully harness their social selling potential, making LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator Advanced Plus a strategic asset for enhancing sales performance and efficiency.

Despite its extensive features, this plan has limitations, primarily its undisclosed pricing, which might deter small businesses due to potentially high costs. The complexity and depth of its features, while beneficial for large teams, require a significant time investment to master, which might not be feasible for every organization. Additionally, the full utility of its CRM integrations hinges on whether a business already uses compatible systems like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics. For those not utilizing these platforms, much of the plan’s CRM synchronization and advanced integration features may go underutilized, potentially limiting the plan's appeal to companies not prepared for or needing such deep CRM linkage.

In summary, LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator Advanced Plus stands as the ultimate solution for enterprise sales teams aiming to leverage LinkedIn at the highest level. With its custom pricing model, businesses have the flexibility to adapt this powerful tool to their specific sales landscapes, ensuring that their investment is as efficient and impactful as possible.

6. LinkedIn Recruiter Lite

‍Priced at $170 monthly, this plan helps hiring managers make the most of their recruitment processes. Recruiter Lite facilities like unlimited visibility of connections beyond the 2nd degree, saved templates, and candidate recommendations make hiring a smoother and more efficient process for managers.

The LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is for growing businesses to find the right people to fill critical roles. This basic version is a recruitment helping hand. It understands the basic pain points that hiring managers go through – highly skilled candidates with the passion to work to be found within a short span of time. That’s why this plan helps you go beyond just posting about a job vacancy and having to scour through hundreds of direct messages to find the right fit. The following features open up:

• Organize and group candidates using more than 20 filters that sort them according to the domain of work, years of experience, companies worked at, and even location.
• Send out up to 30 InMail messages per month to profiles that have caught your eye. Reach out with a personalized subject line and make hiring outbound to save you time, energy, and training resources.
• Let the algorithm give you candidate recommendations based on your posting, engaging, searching, and filtering activities. Find profiles that not only match your job description but also fit into your personality requirements.
• Use the “Who viewed your profile” data to extract profiles interested in your work. Proactivity can be seen as a good indication of sincerity.
• Systematically organize names into the pipeline option to help you move forward with applications better.

The LinkedIn Recruiter Lite plan is carefully designed for easily shortlisting qualified leads for job roles. Don’t underestimate the power of holding a direct conversation with candidates to understand how good a fit they are in your company. Focusing on relationship-oriented hiring will give you an edge over your competitors in the market. The most advantageous position that LinkedIn Recruiter Lite gives you is access to sending even those profiles messages that aren’t currently looking for a job switch – you can keep them in the loop with your company updates such that they can reach out to you when the time comes.

7. LinkedIn Recruiter

‍This is a more advanced plan compared to its Lite counterpart, priced at $835 monthly. It is the best systematic plan that TA & HR teams can turn to when hiring is a top business priority and targeted outreach is the way forth.

The LinkedIn Recruiter tool is usually a great recruitment support system for companies of large sizes where hiring happens on a monthly basis in huge numbers. LinkedIn Recruiter helps with sourcing candidates for more competitive roles within a short period of time. You can work with bulk messaging and reach a wider audience at once. Take hiring beyond posting and spreading word of mouth. Your connections can only take you so far; use LinkedIn Recruiter for the following benefits:

• Gain access to 100% of LinkedIn’s network within a few clicks. Hire from any description at all, any background at all. Leave no stone unturned while looking for the exact model fit for your job vacancy. Your company deserves only the best people.
• Double down on pitching to potential candidates through the allowance of 150 InMails a month, 5x the number you get with the Lite plan. The benefit is direct – bulk messaging increases your chances of coming across the ideal candidate.
• Hiring solutions include 40+ advanced filters ranging from those “Open To Work” and profiles that are “Most Likely To Respond” based on their recent activity on the platform.
• Bulk-send 25 messages together. This option makes it convenient for you to reach out to a handful of candidates with similar skill set, talent, experience, and location.
• Use the Application Tracking System integration connected with LinkedIn hiring tools. These are multi-user to facilitate team collaboration and communication on the platform. You can share candidate information to fellow managers and even manage hiring decisions via a common dashboard.
• Custom reporting with pipeline analytics makes your hiring process smoother by maintaining a distinction between candidates most likely to be hired and those who can be kept in the loop for future roles.

Through advanced application management, LinkedIn Recruiter makes sure you can never go wrong with recruitment decisions. When you get to connect directly with those willing to reciprocate, hiring and future collaborations become a convenient reality. The talent pool you dive into can mean a whole new insight into candidate analytics.

8. LinkedIn Learning

‍There are 3 kinds of LinkedIn Learning plans: Individual, Team, and Organizational. For 21 or more users, pricing is customized as per LinkedIn’s sales team. For 2-20 users, you can avail of LinkedIn Learning at $379.88 per seat a year.

LinkedIn Learning is a place where you can gain knowledge about any skill set that you require for your next job, next promotion, next project, or even next venture. Through a supportive community and interactive learning environment, you can enjoy the luxury of systematic learning through video and text modules. Get access to technical, soft, and hard skills related to any domain at all. Here’s what you can expect from LinkedIn Learning:

• Access to a comprehensive, all-encompassing library of knowledge with 20,000+ courses created by industry experts means that there are no bounds to learning at any age irrespective of background.
• Receive personalized content generated by AI through an analysis of your learning interests, activities, and progress.
• Learn effectively through video content at your own pace. Watch and read content, pause whenever you want, and take your time with grasping the bits. The more theory you absorb, the better you become at understanding the fundamentals of each domain.
• Connect with fellow learners and engage in healthy discussions on concepts. This will help drive different lessons home and boost your motivation to make the most of your learning.
• Through homepage customization, you can create a learning path with milestones specific to your very profile.

Being a lifelong learner takes an investment of time and energy, and LinkedIn Learning helps you with exactly that. Instructors come from different backgrounds and they are those who have done the groundwork themselves. LinkedIn Learning helps you enrich your existing knowledge and bridge the gap between you and the next best aspirational level. In fact, as a business owner, you can even upload custom content onto the LinkedIn Learning platform for your team to go through along with their course to help your team bind better with your vision.

Benefits Of LinkedIn Premium

According to your purpose on LinkedIn, you can choose which LinkedIn Premium plan you desire best for your business. The best benefits of LinkedIn Premium compared to being on a basic plan are listed below.

Higher Visibility

With LinkedIn Premium, you can be assured of one benefit – Higher traffic visiting your profile. When you sign up for LinkedIn Premium, the platform not only promotes your profile and any activity on it, but also pushes your profile further up the search engine. It understands how sincere you are about growth on your profile and can organically help you gain higher profile views, content visibility, and search results.

Improved Access

With LinkedIn Premium comes a sense of community amongst other Premium users. The golden tag next to your name reflects a certain section of users who wish to take their business a level further than average. LinkedIn Premium sets you a class apart. It gives you access to like-minded entrepreneurs and industry thought leaders just like you. Thus, externally, you will illustrate an improved enthusiasm for your network.

Internally, on the backend, you will be able to analyze who looked your profile up and gain insights that can be useful in connecting and reaching out to prospects. This access is exclusive for Premium users.

Better Connectivity

LinkedIn Premium brings you the ease of creating lists, filtering prospective clients, sorting profiles, and messaging those you wish to interact with.

“But doesn’t that come with the basic account too?”

The catch is that you can directly drop into the inbox of a profile that you haven’t even connected with yet. You will not need to rely on connection requests anymore. By directly hitting profiles up, you increase your social selling success rate.

Heavy Targeting

In the real world, reaching a specific group of people for a niche requirement of yours might need a heap of referrals, testimonials, and connections.

With LinkedIn Premium, you can reach the best minds through just a few clicks. Within minutes, your lead list on Sales Navigator can begin working on scouring through locations, designations, company sizes, etc., and take you to the exact ICP that you wish to reach.

Great Collaboration

Sales Navigator makes LinkedIn Premium a must-have if you are looking for collaborative ventures over LinkedIn. This can mean you teaming up with fellow entrepreneurs or you joining hands with your sales teams to boost social selling performance.

Through leads list building and algorithm-generated recommendations, you can take up the Team plans that LinkedIn Premium comes with to handle operations better and be on the same page through a common dashboard. You can use this to recruit better, find investors that interest you, reach out to great minds, and track Smart Link data effectively.

Refined Hiring

The facility of the Recruiter System Connect on LinkedIn helps integrate your Application Tracking System (ATS) with the platform. Through this, you can smoothen out all the creases in your hiring process so that every time you have a job opening, you can make the most of the opportunity. Making hiring outbound can maximize your recruitment success, so utilize the RSC feature to target, reach out to, and analyze candidature in a more refined, enhanced manner.

Disadvantages Of LinkedIn Premium

The biggest disadvantage of LinkedIn Premium is its price offerings. Access to LinkedIn Premium opens up the doors to features that simplify social selling and network expansion, but the price to be paid for these products can exceed the budget a lot of individuals keep aside for the same. In such a case, it is best to take up a team plan for a company larger than 10 members so that each member working on outbound strategies can make the most of the cost.

LinkedIn Career seems to offer no disadvantages. Once you learn how to navigate through profiles and distinguish yourself from other candidates, LinkedIn Career only makes your journey more worthwhile.

As a student, one major downside to LinkedIn Learning is the absence of certifications from any establishment. Plus, some courses are infamous for not being updated with the latest information. However, you can be assured that if you sign up for LinkedIn Learning, the structured systems in place, the meticulously prepared exercises, and the polished testing rounds will help you gain expertise in the concept chosen.

If you’re a solopreneur just starting out on LinkedIn, Sales Navigator will change your entire sales and marketing game. However, it is recommended that you first work on your LinkedIn profile optimization, refine the content on your company page, and begin organically networking and engaging on the platform. Through consistent personal branding, you will begin warming up your inbound channel. LinkedIn Premium will be an additional feather to your cap.

Final Verdict – Is LinkedIn Premium Worth It?

The advantages of LinkedIn Premium plans tip over the scale any day. While LinkedIn Premium does cost a significant amount of cash, most entrepreneurs consider it an investment, not an expense. The conversation rate you will achieve through targeted leads list generation will not just balance out but also exceed the cost of purchasing Premium. The excellence of candidates to fill your job vacancies will take your business to the next level – in front of that number, LinkedIn Premium would not qualify even as an opportunity cost!

As a student just starting out in the corporate world after graduation, a verified tag from LinkedIn Learning will help you gain an edge over all other candidates. Your peers will have to walk double the distance that you can cover by signing up for various LinkedIn Learning courses. In the long term, you will gain an exponentially higher return on your investment in LinkedIn Premium.

As for a solopreneur, combining the power of Sales Navigator with personalized outreach scripts can facilitate a quick expansion of your new client base. There is nothing better than directly talking to prospective clients and converting leads when they are warm, instead of depending on cold emails and messages.

If you wish to try out LinkedIn Premium before going all in, you can take up the free trial version that the platform offers for a month. If it fits into your vision, you can begin a recurring payment cycle from the second month onwards.

All in all, LinkedIn Premium can turn out to be one of the best business investments you can make if you can explore all its offerings and capitalize on its features. Yes, LinkedIn Premium is definitely worth it.

Conclusion

LinkedIn Premium has 8 products that you can avail of according to your interest and purpose on LinkedIn. Keep all worries about its worth aside – with the golden brooch by your profile, you can win on the platform.

We partner with executives to help them leverage LinkedIn’s potential and build it as a channel for reputation-driven business growth. If you’d like to discuss LinkedIn branding for your profile, you can schedule a call with us.

If you are a business leader, entrepreneur, or industry expert, you are likely familiar with these works:

- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey

- Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki

- Onward, Howard Schultz

- The 360 Degree Leader, John C. Maxwell

Did you know that all these books were ghostwritten?

Professionals today recognize the importance of building a presence on digital platforms for both their business and personal brand. However, they often do not have the time to consistently produce quality content to build a reputation. This is where ghostwriting comes in. Ghostwriting simplifies your work by allowing you to delegate the creation of high-quality narratives that reflect your voice to a skilled writer.

In this blog, we’ll explore what ghostwriting is, the need for it, why you should hire a ghostwriter, where to find trustworthy ghostwriters, and more.

What Is Ghostwriting?

Ghostwriting is the practice of writing content for someone else, who is then credited as the author. This can include a wide variety of content types, such as books, articles, speeches, blog posts, and more. A ghostwriter is responsible for creating content based on the client’s ideas, voice, and direction.

A contract between the author and the writer typically includes a confidentiality clause so that the ghostwriter remains anonymous. If they are acknowledged, it’s usually as a co-author, collaborator, or researcher.

The Need for Ghostwriting

If you're an executive, you might find yourself seeking ghostwriting services for two main reasons.

Firstly, you might not have enough time to write. For many busy executives such as CEOs, business leaders, and founders, time is incredibly valuable. Whether it's articles, blog posts, or social media content, writing requires significant time and effort. Hiring a ghostwriter can bridge this gap, allowing you to focus on your core responsibilities.

Secondly, you have the expertise, but you may be unsure about how to write it yourself. Many executives excel in their fields due to their deep knowledge and expertise. However, translating that expertise into well-written content can be challenging. Writing is more than just having the subject knowledge. A ghostwriter has the ability to communicate ideas effectively, structure content logically, and engage the intended audience.

By setting up an hour-long interview with your ghostwriter each month, you can transfer your ideas and vision so that they can consistently create content to manage your digital reputation. Many professionals find that the interview process brings clarity about their methods, business practices, and personality. When they express ideas to someone else, it forces them to articulate and refine their thoughts—a process they may not typically prioritize otherwise. As a result, the powerful written content, whether an article or a batch of blog posts, often feels like an added bonus.

Most executives want to stay visible in their community, which is why they usually focus on LinkedIn as a primary platform for ghostwriting. So, let’s dive in and understand what LinkedIn ghostwriting is all about.

What Is LinkedIn Ghostwriting?

Maintaining your reputation is no longer just about traditional PR; your digital reputation matters just as much. This is where LinkedIn ghostwriting comes in. If you're an executive, you likely use LinkedIn for networking and career growth but might not have enough time to develop your presence on the platform.

Many CEOs, business leaders, and founders hire LinkedIn ghostwriters to increase their visibility and position themselves as thought leaders while effectively conveying their own or their brand’s message. Depending on specific needs, a LinkedIn ghostwriter creates consistent original posts, manages content scheduling and publishing, and engages with followers, industry peers, and other thought leaders in your niche.

Perhaps you are asking yourself why you should choose LinkedIn over so many other platforms, such as X and Instagram. Well, get ready to find out!

Why Is LinkedIn a Better Choice Than Other Platforms?

Over 65 million decision-makers use LinkedIn for their professional identity. Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn can influence your personal brand in two unique ways:

1. LinkedIn as your business card: Your LinkedIn profile has become your new business card. An updated and active profile filled with quality content reflects positively on your personal brand. You can easily boost your visibility and credibility by driving meaningful engagement with your network through insightful articles, thought leadership pieces, and industry updates.

2. LinkedIn as a networking hub: Regularly posting on LinkedIn is like attending a networking event every single day. It's a highly effective way to attract potential clients and business partners and to stay connected with like-minded executives.

Why Should You Hire a Ghostwriter? 

You should consider hiring a ghostwriter if:

1. You want to be a thought leader

Thought leaders gain influence by consistently and persuasively sharing their perspectives. However, as an executive, you do not have the time to turn your ideas into a full content calendar. That's where ghostwriters come in—they do it for you.

2. You want to maximize the value of your time

One of the greatest advantages of working with a ghostwriter is how it amplifies the value of your time. In just one hour, you can generate enough material for 2-3 LinkedIn posts, a long-form article, weekly newsletter content, and even social media updates. You can transform a single hour into weeks of high-quality content.

3. You want to maintain a consistent presence

Consistency is key when building your personal brand, and a ghostwriter ensures you’re always visible to your audience. From maintaining a regular publishing schedule and creating engaging social posts to crafting newsletters, a ghostwriter can handle it all seamlessly.

4. You want to develop a unique brand voice

Professional ghostwriters are adept at capturing your unique perspective and maintaining consistent messaging. They adapt content for different platforms, create a recognizable style, and ensure authenticity in every piece of content. The result? A cohesive brand voice that truly sounds like you.

5. You want content that drives results

Ghostwriters do more than just write—they structure content strategically, target specific audience needs, and optimize for engagement. They also track performance and adjust based on insights, ensuring your content resonates and drives results.

Remember: The most influential voices in business aren't writing everything themselves. They're focusing on what they do best while leveraging professional writers to amplify their message.

How To Find Trustworthy Ghostwriters?

Finding a good ghostwriter for the first time can be confusing. Here are steps to guide you through the process: 

Step 1: Start by defining your needs.

Clarify the type of content you need and decide whether it’s articles, blog posts, social media posts, or other forms of writing. You should consider the specific industry you want to cover, the tone and style that best represent your brand, and any particular goals you want to achieve with this content. It’s also important to have an idea about the frequency and volume of content required.

Step 2: Prepare a suitable job description.

You need to prepare a detailed job description that accurately reflects the needs outlined in step 1. Start by providing background information about yourself or your brand. Then, provide the details about the role, including the desired experience and qualifications required for the position or project. Be sure to specify the budget or compensation you are offering, along with any deadlines and other specific requirements.

Step 3: Start looking for ghostwriters online.

There are a few ways to find ghostwriters online. First, you can post a job on job boards and social media platforms like LinkedIn. Besides using LinkedIn’s job posting, you can also collect referrals from your network. Second, check out freelancing forums and platforms like Fiverr and WriterAccess. Here, review their listed projects and reviews to check their suitability for your brand. Afterward, reach out to your top choices and start a conversation. Lastly, consider reaching out to marketing or personal brand agencies. Agencies generally offer a variety of writing services, specializing in areas like LinkedIn ghostwriting. 

Step 4: Schedule interviews with candidates.

Once you have narrowed down the number of ghostwriters you would like to work with, it’s time to hear from them. Conducting interviews is extremely important because even if you have already examined their portfolio and liked their work, you still need to ensure their approach and work style align with yours, especially considering the close collaboration involved. 

Interview questions depend on the project or job role, but here are a few examples:

- How familiar are you with the specific subject matter or industry?

- Can you describe your writing process?

- How do you usually collaborate on ghostwriting projects?

Step 5: Find the best match and finalize the agreement.

Hire the ghostwriter who best meets your requirements in terms of skills, communication style, and understanding of your brand. This is also the time to negotiate terms such as payment structure or revisions policy. Make sure to document everything in a contract to protect both parties.

How Much Does a Ghostwriter Cost?

There is no straightforward answer to this question since the cost of hiring a ghostwriter can vary greatly depending on many factors. These include the scope and complexity of the job role or project along with the expertise of the ghostwriter. They also involve the type of content needed, the timeframe of delivery, and the monetary expectations (whether per word, per hour or per project) of the ghostwriter. Please remember that it might be reasonable for some ghostwriters to charge higher rates, given their extensive experience.

The bottom line is that you should research the typical rates for ghostwriters in your particular area and discuss these with potential candidates to reach common ground. Please note that the cost should meet both your budget and their expectations for fair compensation.

When Is Ghostwriting Not a Good Idea?

Ghostwriting solves a lot of problems for busy professionals. However, it might not always be ideal. Before working with a ghostwriter on a project, ask yourself these three questions:

- Do you have a deeply personal connection to the story, and only an authentic first-person narrative will do it justice?

- Would your audience feel misled if they found out that someone else wrote the content under your name?

- Do you need to share highly sensitive information to give the ghostwriter the necessary context, even if that information won’t make it into the final piece?

If your answer is mostly yes, it might be a better choice to write the content yourself. If you are concerned about the quality because you are not confident in your writing skills, you can consider hiring an editor to touch up the final piece.

Ready to have a ghostwriter on board? Here are three best practices for working together efficiently. 

Bonus: 3 Best Practices for Working With Ghostwriters

1. You should create a reference database.

If you want to ensure that the ghostwriter produces original content that aligns with your style and voice, provide them with a database of content that has worked for you in the past. If you are just starting out, you can share examples from other sources and explain what you like about them. It’s easier for a ghostwriter to understand what you mean by “formal storytelling” when they have specific content to refer to.

2. You should prepare detailed briefs.

Ghostwriters can’t read your mind. When you assign a project, always provide a detailed brief that clearly states your expectations. This is extremely important to eliminate any ambiguity about what exactly the output should be. Of course, the amount of instruction will depend on your preferences, needs, and trust in the ghostwriter.

3. You should invest in building a ghostwriting management system.

Many professionals make the mistake of assuming that no work is needed on their part beyond hiring a ghostwriter to manage their content. However, the biggest challenge is managing your ghostwriters and the content they produce. If you don't spend time building a management system, the ghostwriters will not be used to their full potential, which means you will just end up wasting money. When working with ghostwriters, make sure to set aside additional time for discussing project details, sending pieces back for revisions, and providing detailed feedback to better align the content with your tone and vision.

Conclusion

By now, we know that ghostwriting is an excellent solution for individuals with valuable ideas but lacking the time, energy, or writing expertise to articulate them. 

If you are an executive or industry expert looking to step up your LinkedIn content game, look no further than GrowedIn. We help build authority & thought leadership through our monthly hour-long interview process. If you’d like to squeeze the most out of LinkedIn’s potential, feel free to schedule a call with us.

LinkedIn today has over a billion users, of which 10 million are C-level executives. With such a large base of peers, it is important that you make your profile the most unique, noticeable, and creative one out there.

Your LinkedIn headline is arguably the most important part of your LinkedIn profile. It is the first thing after your name that catches the eye. A LinkedIn headline captures the essence of your work, role, and personality in less than 15 words. The more concise the messaging in a LinkedIn headline, the higher its impact.

Your LinkedIn header can make all the difference in gaining an inbound lead and losing a potential client. The most evident reason is that your LinkedIn headline is the first line about you that any other user can read even before visiting your profile. Be it a Google search or a LinkedIn connection recommendation appearing on someone’s feed, it is your LinkedIn header that defines who you are. Moreover, as you comment, share, message, or connect, it is your profile picture and headline that you get judged by.

What Makes A Good LinkedIn Headline?

Before we get into the components of a good LinkedIn headline, let’s get one popular myth out of the way – that LinkedIn headlines must only have your designation and company name.

That is utterly incorrect.

You are much more than just your employment or designation. You bring to the table much more than just your job title. Your thoughts, strategies, critical thinking, interests, opinions, business visions, and even your experiential learnings mould your personal brand on LinkedIn. That’s why, a LinkedIn headline must reflect who you are as a personality in yourself along with what you do.

What distinguishes a good professional LinkedIn headline from average headers is how quickly yet accurately it can convey the answer to, “What will this person help me with?”

A good headline for LinkedIn shows your unique value proposition. It illustrates exactly what sets YOU apart from the hundreds of your competitors on LinkedIn.

Your headline can be your best advertisement and your worst enemy. The power a good LinkedIn headline holds can never be understated. This section of your profile is innately your 220-character elevator pitch.

Format Of A LinkedIn Headline

A LinkedIn headline can usually be of 3 main syntaxes:

1. Formal:

This is the simplest way, more specifically the default way, of defining yourself on LinkedIn. This isn’t the most creative or interesting way to put yourself out there, but it is the most straightforward one.

1. CEO @ <company name>, Head Of Operations @ <sister company>
2. Founder of <company> | Business Coach | Author | Venture Capitalist

2. Approachable:

This format is a solopreneur’s favorite. It goes with a sentence structure, making you sound welcoming. The header in this case talks about how you create an impact in the lives of your ideal client base. This need not be the exact company tagline. It can, of course, be along the lines of the company vision though.

1. We build digital success stories
2. I can help you future-proof your business
3. Helping managers streamline their systems

‍3. Descriptive:

When you choose to go descriptive, you choose to represent your company, startup, or business. This format reflects an authoritative tone with a background of sincerity.

1. Get Leads Within Your Grasp | Customer Success Manager @ <company name>
2. Financial Advisor @ <company name> | Making Marketing Methodical For FinTech Companies

You can decide which format suits your profile the best depending on the intention behind establishing your LinkedIn brand. If you are on LinkedIn to invite opportunities, intelligent conversations, and valuable connections, read along to double down on what works best for you.

How To Write A Good LinkedIn Headline?

The best LinkedIn headline looks like this:

Simplified version of what you do or help people with | Position in company

Why?

It’s because this is the entirety of your job role, nature, vision, and skill set all defined in one.

But more importantly, it incentivizes the reader to reach out to you and begin a conversation that can spiral into a discussion on a potential deal.

That happens when you spark an emotion through your LinkedIn headline. Only then will you get them to R.E.A.C.T.

The R.E.A.C.T. Approach

Named thus, the R.E.A.C.T. approach is a framework you can use to prepare a good LinkedIn headline that stands out and effectively prompts prospects and peers to “react”. This reaction can be in the form of a connection request, an InMail message, or a comment.

Fundamentally, your LinkedIn headline should do just enough work that it brings people (positively your ideal client base) to your profile. The rest of the elements can take up from there.

Relatability

People often respond to relatable content. Speak directly to your ICP in a language they understand. Break down heavy industry jargon into simple commonly spoken phrases to drive the point home.

Esteem

Generate a feeling of high esteem. Proudly state your highest designation; this typically applies to CEO, CMO, CXO, CTO, etc., roles. This means increasing your prospects’ trust in you, leading them to initiate a conversation with you, possibly about how a collaborative endeavor can solidify.

Attention

Grab their attention. Put yourself in their shoes and try to zero down on what exactly your ICP would be looking for. Present your USP in a unique, eye-catching format such that you become the only profile worth the attention.

Curiosity

There is something about cliffhangers that lures people into clicking on your profile and reading up about you. Through your LinkedIn headline, you have to ensure that you intrigue them just enough about your work that they instantly become interested in knowing more.

Temptation

Hit the nail on the head with your LinkedIn headline. A good headline for LinkedIn is so clear that someone reading needs no more than your headline to sign up for your brand and service. Tempt prospects into reaching out to you.

20 Inspiring Examples For Professional LinkedIn Headlines

Keyur Kumbhare

Keyur’s LinkedIn headline is the best example you can take.

His headline talks first about his value proposition. He has clearly defined what he wants you to approach him for. His services are clear and presented in an SEO-friendly way; moreover, he has directly stated who he runs his business for. To add to his credibility is his designation.

Aditi Negi

Aditi’s LinkedIn headline checks the R.E.A.C.T. list too. The mention of personal branding for C-suite executives through copywriting is all you need to know about her. There is enough temptation to reach out to her and book a call. This is a great way to use the descriptive format of LinkedIn headline writing.

Florian Decludt

Florian has implemented the descriptive format well. You know exactly what he offers and where he works. His headline makes you curious about how he drives revenue for agencies. That will be what takes you to his page and discover more about him.

Jack Gibson

Jack’s headline lacks nothing. There are no distractions and no filler words; only direct messaging standing for what he brings to the table and has achieved through his work. Such a LinkedIn headline ranks high in terms of SEO too since he has mentioned keywords such as “passive income” and “wealth building strategist”.

Luke Shalom

This LinkedIn headline has 3 clear elements: Luke’s high designation at a business, his skill set around content creation and social selling, and his target audience, founders. Coming across this LinkedIn headline on, say, your feed, will immediately make a founder looking for social selling services feel heard – feel relatable. Once Luke has this attention, the rest of his LinkedIn profile will carry ahead the conversion part.

However, this headline is too long to be considered efficient. Look at the image below, this is how the headline will cut off when viewing it on an active LinkedIn feed:

Only half a headline is shown! Easily, it can be assumed that not enough content is shown on his headline for you to get captivated enough to check his profile out. That’s why, it’s best that you start with an immediately noticeable headline and then talk about your designation at the company.

Mike Jones

Mike’s LinkedIn header leaves no scope for confusion or misunderstanding. It is the right mix of attention-grabbing words, curiosity-generating content, and clarity. Notice one thing in his headline: He hasn’t overexplained what EOS stands for. Clearly, he has done his research on his ICP well enough to know that this industry keyword is a colloquial term enough for him to mention without additional details.

Victoria Repa

Victoria’s headline might not be ideal but it’s among the better ones on the platform. She has clearly defined her designation, what her business does, and her skills apart from just one company. However, she fails to address one main concern – how does she inspire the change that she claims to bring about?

There also are 2 elements that you would want to avoid: The Forbes 30 Under 30 and the Harvard Guest Speaker mentions.

While these achievements are remarkable, there is no need to mention them right in the headline. It could be the first attachment in the Featured section below the headline if you must, but LinkedIn headlines must only be restricted to your current work and value proposition; it only looks more boastful than authoritative.

Alyona Mysko

Alyona’s headline is short, simple, and substantial. It has everything you need to get interested enough in her profile. With a few grammatical corrections, it can do for an ideal headline. Such concise representation can increase the chances of prospects wanting to converse with you. After all, delivering a message within 10 words is a skill that separates the top performers from the average crowd.

Tom Gerhardt

“Simple guidance for complex humans” is a great way to define your USP. While his company works on building efficient fiscal solutions for businesses, the vision that drives him is simplifying complexities. It is difficult to scroll past such a good LinkedIn headline without giving it a double take and then clicking on Tom’s profile to read more about him.

Eric Raza

Straightforward headlines create the most promising profiles. Eric’s header is a classic LinkedIn headline example of a business card format. He comes across as an approachable COO – look at the smartly placed verb, “helping”. The headline is almost certain to retain the attention of a scrolling eye and attract relevant prospects to Eric’s work.

Kelsey Gardipee

Now Kelsey’s headline is a good analysis to consider. She has defined her role very well as a CSM. However, she makes the grave mistake of losing precious headline characters in repeating her skill set. Instead, she could have mentioned her ideal client persona. Or, she could have added a couple of SEO-targeted keywords relevant to her industry.

Another mistake that you can avoid is including personal information, like the mention of being a military spouse. The presence or absence of the statement makes little to no difference to her as a professional. If this data is to be included, you should do so in the About section.

Micheal Brown

Take a look at Michael’s LinkedIn headline. Such a headline indeed acts as an asset to his personal brand. It is a declaration of his role, the company he works at, and the venture he runs. Anyone in the physician leadership role coming across this headline will know exactly who to go to for help.

Cathy Yules

Cathay’s LinkedIn header is incomplete in a way. We neither know of her company or role nor do we see which industry she is referring to. However, it is clear that she works with high-level management to optimize their working systems. It generates curiosity, leading us to visit her profile and figure out how. Though not ideal, the descriptive format is applied here and with a few amendments, this headline can win on LinkedIn.

Mohit Lalvani

Dr. Lalvani has great content for a headline. His LinkedIn header is filled with SEO-fulfilling keywords relating to his business and industry, and it also mentions the niche skill set he has experience in. Moreover, his being a seasoned entrepreneur adds to the credibility of his authority as a thought leader.

But, there are improvements that this headline can do with. For one, it is too long to be read from the comment section or connection recommendation view. The mention of his PhD can be eliminated from the headline and highlighted in either the About section or the Education section – a headline should only talk about the present-day expertise. The lengthy statement talking about his D2C and B2B experience can be cut short and placed towards the end. Plus, what Captain Zack is or does is unclear – does it deal with haircare? Skincare? Petcare?

Ideally, his headline could have better looked like:

MD @ Mascot Spincontrol | Founder of Captain Zack | Skin, Hair, & Pet Expert | D2C and B2B Entrepreneur

Vedika Bhaia

Being one of the biggest influencers and businesswomen on the platform, Vedika’s headline surely makes it to the cut. One makes no mistake while interpreting her line of work and domain of expertise. A Google search on LinkedIn content marketing will ensure that her profile appears towards the top results.

While it isn’t wrong to include numbers and data in the headline, we would argue that such remarks can be reserved for a better place for representation, sparing the headline. Headlines must be soft selling points, not direct sales pitches.

There is another issue with such a headline – there are too many keywords crammed into this limited space. The repetition of “LinkedIn” and “Marketing” shows poor planning on the copywriting part. Instead, a simpler approachable format would have helped catch the eye better.

Aadil Bandukwala

At first glance, Aadil’s headline looks short, smart, and sharp. But giving it a second thought, there is no specialty in it; it’s generic. There could be hundreds of B2B SAAS marketers on LinkedIn working on a global leadership level. There is no unique proposition that serves as a distinction between this profile and any other. Though such a headline falls into the format of an ideal LinkedIn header, it adds no value to the user’s personal brand. That’s why, it is more important to pay attention to the actual content of the headline than merely fit it into a formatted structure.

Palak Rathi

This is a good LinkedIn headline example to analyze. Through defined and straightforward messaging, Palak has made it evident that she helps content creators get better at their jobs. The headline is simple and is readable from even the comment section. However, mentioning that she is a CA, albeit an accomplishment, is not relevant to her role at all unless she is open to accepting work in the CA domain. She could also do away with the Content Creator tag since it is too generic a term to be considered a skill set.

Hansi Mehrotra

This is a unique style of putting yourself out there! From this LinkedIn headline example, you can adapt the descriptive and creative sentence structure that Hansi has used to describe what she does through her business. By interpreting her headline, one can say that she creates content on the above-mentioned bubbles, undoubtedly. She could make one addition to her headline to make it better: her designation at the firm (even if her own).

However, it is vital to note here that any grammatical or spelling errors must be corrected before publishing your headline. As you see, the miscapitalization can leave a negative impact on the viewer – it can mean all the difference between a prospect approaching or rejecting you.

Samanvaya Pant

This is one among the better LinkedIn headlines on the platform. There is a direct declaration of Samanvaya’s designation and thus-explained role at the relevant company. Additionally, he has mentioned who he works with and on what scale. Such phrases are essential to eliminate any scope for confusion and set apart his ICP from the rest. Though his headline does not exactly fit into any of the R.E.A.C.T. elements, it does make his intention on LinkedIn clear. You can take the reference of this headline if you wish to be formal and matter-of-fact in your profile.

Usually, such a headline format works for executives who work at well-known companies, MNCs, or internationally established companies, because that would take away the responsibility of explaining what services one can expect from the profile.

Vince Yamat

Vince has a headline that caters to the “Esteem” factor in the R.E.A.C.T. approach. He is the MD and CEO at a company and works with investors and startups. So far, this headline looks good. But dig deep. Would this not fail to qualify as one providing a USP, something unique that only Vince offers on the platform? The headline is neither eye-catching nor tempting enough to reach out to him. A few more details as to his company’s value proposition or market differentiator would have hit the bull’s eye. Remember, if your headline does not create an urge to visit your profile, connect via a note, or reach out through messages, then it doesn’t serve any real purpose at all.

8 Mistakes To Avoid While Writing A LinkedIn Headline

So far in the article, we have gone through everything that must be done correctly for a LinkedIn headline to be effective.

Let us now take a look at what to avoid so as to preserve a high LinkedIn reputation through your header.

Mistake 1: “Let It Be”

When you sign up on LinkedIn, you are gifted a default LinkedIn headline according to your present job role and company name.

Don’t let it be. Don’t leave it as it is and not bother to change it. The first biggest mistake you make is assuming that this default headline will be enough. But LinkedIn recommends a hundred other CEOs the same headline, with only a change of company name. You don’t want to be lost in the sea of namelessness, do you?

Let’s not be known as “yet another”s. We’re here to build a personal brand – let’s make it stand out.

Be proactive about your LinkedIn headline. It is your first impression, make it count.

Mistake 2: “Everything At Once”

LinkedIn experts abhor one habit that most executives have – being the overachiever right in the headline. While it is quite understandable that you might wish to pour in all your achievements and accomplishments in one singular line, assuming that you will be well-reputed as a highly esteemed businessman/woman, remember that doing so will only make you look desperate for attention.

Don’t spam your headline. Sometimes, less is more.

Mistake 3: “Art Decorator”

The urge to decorate the LinkedIn headline has overwhelmed us all at least once. Giving in to it is a big mistake a lot of people make.

The headline is not a space for adding emojis, fancy fonts, or superfluous adjectives.

Emojis take up critical space and make you look less professional. Fancy fonts come across as cheap and unnecessary in the business world. And adjectives like, “ambitious”, “innovative”, “adventurous”, and “dedicated”, will not add any value to your headline. These words will only eat up crucial characters that could be otherwise put to use to cater to SEO.

Mistake 4: “Dictionary Please”

Often, C-suite executives make the mistake of assuming that the technical terms they use are commonly known to all. Within the sales domain, for example, abbreviations like AIDA, NPS, BANT, and ACV might be day-to-day vocabulary, but to someone looking for sales experts to handle their business, these are heavy industry keywords that bounce right off the head.

Use simple words that convey your niche in a relatable way. Take the help of a professional LinkedIn expert to understand what kinds of words can and cannot be used in the headline to make the most of this section on LinkedIn.

Mistake 5: “Autocorrection”

When you’re drafting your LinkedIn headline, don’t forget to be mindful of the right spellings, tenses, verbs, and capitalization. This also includes avoiding the usage of made-up abbreviations, like shortening “Manager” to “Mgr”. It will make you look very amateurish, not to mention the algorithm not picking the word up as a valid keyword. At the end of the day, such minor mistakes can be quite repelling to the eye.

Mistake 6: “All That For Nothing”

Headlines that do a lot of talking but don’t really convey much at the end of it must be gotten rid of at the first opportunity. Nobody signs up for verbose – cut to the chase and only write terms, roles, and keywords that add value to your brand. Take the LinkedIn headline example stated above. This person has mentioned a bunch of fluff words only to establish himself as a content writer who works with SEO. Instead, he could have written a line about what his area of expertise is (finance, IT, healthcare, education, marketing, business), who his ideal prospect is (CEOs, students, job seekers, investors), or even what he helps his clients aim for and achieve (aspirations).

Don’t overexplain in your LinkedIn header, even if you think it will “impress” the algorithm. Your leads will thank you for being straight and to the point.

Mistake 7: “To Date”

There are professionals on LinkedIn who have been working in several domains for the past 3 decades even. If you’re one of them, you would know that it is quite tempting to list down all your ventures in your headline. You could have been the MD at company A, the VP at company B, the CEO at company C, and the Founder of the latest startup D.

Experts suggest that you only should include Startup D in your headline – your latest venture only.

Relevance is key and although all your work to date indeed adds up to your knowledge base and experiential wisdom, your LinkedIn headline is not the right place for this exhaustive list. Your About section will do better justice to it. But the header must only talk about what you currently want to be approached about.

Mistake 8: “Misplaced”

Avoid making this critical mistake while forming your LinkedIn headline. Good LinkedIn headlines do not include elements that have dedicated sections elsewhere on LinkedIn, like:

• Your location
• CTA to your landing page
• Hashtags
• Hobbies
• Awards or certifications
• Hiring requirements
• Contact details

Conclusion

Clear, concise, and catchy headlines rank on LinkedIn. Finding the right words and the best format to make your LinkedIn headline rank among some of the best LinkedIn profiles on the platform can be challenging. That’s why most high-ranking headlines come about through an expert’s help. Only a well-written LinkedIn headline will put your personal branding game at its best stage.

We at GrowedIn partner with executives to help them leverage LinkedIn’s potential and build it as a channel for reputation-driven business growth. If you’d like to discuss LinkedIn branding for your profile, you can schedule a call with us.

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networking platforms for professionals driven by the passion of growing their business and personal brand organically. Millions of executives, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders have accounts on LinkedIn for one or both of two reasons: To know and to be known.

Most of these fail at both.

Why? Because their LinkedIn profile is not optimized at all. A blank, incomplete, or confusing LinkedIn profile is the antidote to reputation-driven business growth.

That’s why you need an engaging, trustworthy, optimized LinkedIn profile. Several studies prove that communicative CEOs on LinkedIn increase their ICP’s reliance on them by 77% compared to those profiles that were passive and dead. Clearly, in 2024, you need LinkedIn profile optimization to be a priority.

What Is LinkedIn Profile Optimization?

Your LinkedIn profile consists of various elements like the headline, the About section, the Featured dashboard, the Experience segment, and even a profile picture. An “optimized” LinkedIn profile, simply put, has all elements filled, and filled correctly, so that they all add up to form a highly esteemed persona for you.

An optimized LinkedIn profile is your digital clone that speaks for you even when you’re away.

Each section on your profile must have data filled up to the present-day mark. This includes any talk you might have given, a new startup currently in stealth mode, or a recommendation you received.

Your story throughout the profile must be coherent and factually verifiable. Data like timelines, names of institutions, and career trajectories must be consistent. The links and documents you upload to your profile should act as assets, leading your clients directly to either your website, landing page, discovery call, or recruitment platform, depending upon your social media intent.

LinkedIn profile optimization pays off when your business offline completely transforms thanks to the impression your profile creates. Its worth comes to light when at a networking event, a fellow entrepreneur comes up to you, seeking to connect with the personality they saw online.

This is where most executives fail. Most leave their LinkedIn profiles barren – don’t be one of them.

Why Is LinkedIn Profile Optimization Important?

Why is it not enough to fill in your LinkedIn profile with pure data? Why should I invest in good storytelling and systematic presentation?

Imagine being at a networking conference and receiving a business card with an illegible name. Or a confusing designatory title. Or a quirky email address.

The entrepreneur you met and the man that the business card represented turned out to be two polar opposites. The sincere personality and deep intellect that you found yourself in the company with suddenly seem dull and faded because of the horrible business card. You are left with a feeling of repulsion, since investing more time in a relationship with this leader seems confusing now.

A business card with zero color palette alignment, informal emojis, incorrect capitalization, and inadequate contact information is worthless. It is, in fact, worse than never having a business card to offer at all.

Your LinkedIn profile is a lot like a business card. It represents who you are, your contact details, your line of business, and your perspective towards professionalism.

It speaks your language. It talks about your life and business. It is the digital replica of what your business means to you, what kind of clientele you work with, and what kind of future your business sees.

An optimized LinkedIn profile shows your history to generate trust, talks about your present to gain leads, and paves the way for the future to grow your network. That’s why, it is imperative to invest in it well.

Complete LinkedIn Profile Optimization Strategy Analysis

The best way to understand this analysis step by step is to treat your LinkedIn profile as an inbound lead generator. This applies if you’re looking for clients, partnerships, candidates to hire, and even collaborative opportunities.

When is your LinkedIn profile an inbound lead generator?

It is when someone who lands on your profile gets a crystal clear idea of the following:

1. The exact definition of your work and business fundamentals.
2. The unique value proposition that makes the investment of time and energy in you worth it.
3. The exact link, email, or direction to contact you immediately.

Remember that the quicker your LinkedIn profile is able to exhibit the above information, the higher your chances are of retaining engagement. Let’s get into the complete LinkedIn Profile Optimization Strategy Analysis:

Banner

Your LinkedIn banner is the very first thing a person sees when they land on your profile. Your LinkedIn banner is a loud announcement about how you are as a professional. That’s why, it’s important to leave a good impression to rope the prospective viewer into further scrolling through your LinkedIn profile.

A LinkedIn banner is the digital face of your professional identity. It’s best that you align it with your brand's color scheme and core values. Consider incorporating your tagline to reflect your professional expertise subtly; however, prioritize engagement over direct selling. This approach ensures you're perceived as welcoming, fostering genuine connections rather than merely focusing on transactions.

You can even add in a CTA. This can be about leading them to your main website, your personal blog site, your company’s landing page, or a discovery call link with your team. However, note the emphasis on the optional condition – avoid adding links to all the above at once. This will only cram your banner and come across as overwhelming and salesly. Remember, less packed is more premium.

It's crucial to maintain clarity and avoid overloading your banner with excessive information. A clean, well-organized banner enhances readability and engagement, whereas a cluttered design can deter potential connections. 

Optionally, highlighting notable collaborations and providing contact information can add value, provided they are integrated thoughtfully without compromising the banner's visual appeal and simplicity. However, a lot of thought leaders avoid doing so since LinkedIn already has a dedicated “Contact Info” section for the same.

Profile Picture

For your LinkedIn profile picture, think of you approaching someone with a handshake in the digital world – your expressions must be sincere, professional, and warm. The ideal LinkedIn profile picture size is 400 x 400 pixels; sticking to a 1:1 ratio to ensure your face fits perfectly without any awkward cropping.

Clarity is key, so avoid any haze, blur, or filters that can diminish the photo's professionalism. Keep the background simple and distraction-free to ensure your face is the focal point. If possible, try minimizing the number of colors in the palette. More than 3 would look gaudy and might not suit certain industries, like IT or finance.

A professional headshot works best. Whether you opt for business attire or something more casual, the aim is to present yourself as you are! This photo should reflect your personal brand and align with what your ICP expects to see. Aim to include just your head and shoulders in the frame to keep it focused and clear. Avoid accessories like hats and sunglasses if it doesn’t suit your personality too.

And if it suits you, flash a smile. A smiling profile picture can work wonders, making you seem more trustworthy and approachable.

Headline

Your LinkedIn profile headline is an entire research element on its own. This is one of those spaces that require immense thought and investment of energy. An ideal LinkedIn headline defines your work and value proposition in less than 10 words. This is where you show everyone what you do and how you help others, followed by your current position and the company you're with. Steer clear of leaving it empty or settling for the default – this is your chance to shine, not to blend in with the crowd.

Be it a Google search or a LinkedIn connection recommendation appearing on someone’s feed, it is your LinkedIn headline that defines who you are. Whenever you engage with another account or send across a connection request, it is your profile picture and headline that you get judged by.

The ideal headline format is: Your Work | Position @ Company

You can define your headline in multiple ways:

1. Industry terminology followed by ICP:

2. Complete sentence about what you do and for whom.

3. Complicated business model simplified.

There are a few mistakes to avoid while preparing your LinkedIn headline. For one, avoid overcramming your headline with multiple achievements or designations. Only keep your latest venture published. That will be the most relevant point for connection that your ICP will look at. Second, while it is highly recommended that you include SEO-friendly or industry-specific keywords in your LinkedIn headline, you must avoid hyperspecific keywords that are known only to a handful of people from your niche. Third, fancy fonts and emojis must be avoided at all costs.

If you want to master writing the best professional LinkedIn headline that you can for your profile, we highly recommend you read our blog, “How To Write A Professional LinkedIn Headline [+20 Inspiring Examples]” to understand more.

Location

The location of your LinkedIn profile must be a reflection of where you are currently. As popularly misconstrued, it should not be set to your prospective clients’ geography.

Why is this important? Imagine a potential client lands in your town and is looking for the services you offer. Seeing that you are in the same area could be the deciding factor for them to reach out, offering a chance to meet in person and potentially seal a deal.

On the contrary, if the location you have set does not match with your real geography, it will only leave the client in distrust, crumbling your relationship before it even begins building. Thus, keeping your location genuine on your LinkedIn profile not only positions you for local opportunities but also upholds the integrity of your personal brand.

Contact Information

LinkedIn has a dedicated section for you to fill in your contact information. The elements typically include your email ID, phone number and type, address, birthday, website, and an instant messaging feature that you can link with any other platform like Skype.

The most important thing to remember while filling out this section is that all your contact information must be up-to-date. LinkedIn facilitating 1:1 personal contact shows that this section can be a goldmine for you to directly be approached by leads.

Keep in mind that you must only fill in a professional email address, not one that was informally made for personal use. Try to use an easily replicable and trustworthy email ID. Avoid amateur email addresses like sunny.cool@gmail.com. Instead, follow your company’s email address and phone numbers – there is nothing better than being contacted while at your workplace.

Don’t forget to get your phone number verified on LinkedIn. Your profile will thank you.

About Section

The LinkedIn About section is the ultimate “lead generation tool” that you can leverage to best optimize your LinkedIn profile. In your About section, you should talk about your entire story – from the time you started investing in your skill set, the purpose of your business, the turning points in your career, and the biggest milestones you’ve achieved so far. You can also write about the kind of clients you work with, the vision you see, and the leadership management style you carry. Some CEOs also like talking about what their hobbies are and how anybody interested can contact their teams to discuss work. This LinkedIn summary can help your profile in more ways than just an introduction.

Adopt a storytelling format while writing your LinkedIn About section. A story keeps the reader engaged and helps them get to know details about your journey that they can not only resonate with but also be inspired by. Through your About section description, one should know everything about your work, vision, motivation, clientele, product, personality, and background.

One misconception most executives have is that the LinkedIn About section should look like an elaborate resume.

Absolutely not.

The About section is a space you completely own. It is the best podium to put out what you want others to know about you. Talking about your journey helps others understand the brain and mindset behind the success of your company. It helps build trust and empathetically connect better. Even if you don’t have successful ventures through and through, including them in your About section shows how persistent you have been in achieving your dream. Justin Welsh’s about section is the perfect example of how to write your story.

However, do not beat around the bush by including irrelevant information like your personal life details. Remember, if it does not add up to the final entrepreneurial personality that you have, then it has no place in the LinkedIn About section.

Also, there is no need for you to add your skill set as if you wish to be recruited, or details about your product as if you are out to sell. The only intention behind the About section on LinkedIn is to put yourself out there for people to know.

Featured Section

The Featured Section on LinkedIn is a very interesting part of your profile. It is the best platform to showcase your best works that you are most proud of. Here’s a list of works you can display:

1. Research papers: A lot of industries hold in high regard research papers published by experts and leaders. Scientific journals or academic reports with high ranking invite intelligentsia of your domain to your profile, opening up doors to various opportunities.
2. TED talks: If you have ever given a TED talk presentation on its official platform, definitely consider adding it to your LinkedIn Featured section. This adds credibility to your stance and business ideas. In fact, you might even rope in a few mentoring opportunities through such authorization.
3. Newspaper publications: One of the best way to proudly talk about your business is by featuring any newspaper reports talking about your company and its success. Any update regarding investor funding, revenue milestones, CSR activity, Fortune 500 listing, or awarded nominations can add reputational value to your profile.
4. Landing page link: Where else to best place the direct link to your website and business than the Featured section? This section appears loud and clear on your profile and is a sureshot way to capture leads.

GrowedIn’s CEO, Keyur’s Featured section talks about what he wants to be approached for – his business:

Parallely, Justin’s Featured section looks like this:

Avoid one major Featured section red flag – Promotional videos or advertisements. The intent behind your LinkedIn profile optimization must be to invite and not sell. When people realize that they are being sold to, they consider you to be too self-centered. Instead, look to invite, connect, and engage. Building relationships will take you longer than direct selling.

Experience

As a VP or a C-level executive, there are high chances of you having more than 1 work experience, not just in terms of corporate hierarchy but also the number of companies that you have worked with.

The best way to go about optimizing your Experience section is by beginning with your latest venture. Always write the expanded company or job title as it is officially recognized and popularly accepted. For example, choose to write Ernst & Young LLP over EY, and Vice-President over VP; the reason being a higher level of professional decency.

What you would want to do with your Experience section is talk about the unique value you served at the place. Describe how you took the company revenue numbers to the next level. Talk about the strategy you implemented to multiply sales by 180% in 2 years. Include how, through promotions in the same company, you lowered the attrition rate by half. Take a look at Keyur’s profile:

Data and statistics in this section can really up your game. Data helps drive positive decisions home and reflects authenticity. Leaders think better in terms of data and relevant industry keywords, so remember to cater to the same. Including industry jargon also fulfills SEO criteria and ranks your LinkedIn profile higher during search results. Make the most out of this section for improved professional opportunities.

Education

While formal education may precede your current career by more than 15 years, including a brief description of your degrees offers significant advantages. Leaving this section blank overlooks the potential of your alumni network, which can bring you opportunities such as guest lectures and consulting projects. There have been instances wherein a 3rd-degree fellow-alumnus connection has brought to a CEO the invite to discuss a position on the college’s advisory board.

Staying in contact with people from batches other than yours can also mean attracting prospective clients and employing from a pool of talented individuals. Any point of similarity translates to an increased conviction among individuals.

You can keep the Education section short. It works if you mention 4 main details about your education – the name of the university, the course you pursued, the duration, and the final academic result you scored.

Licenses & Certifications

In the Licenses & Certifications section of your LinkedIn profile, it's important to highlight the professional credentials that show your expertise and stand out in your field. Instead of listing every certification you have, focus on the ones that directly relate to your core business operations and substantiate the long-term vision of your company. Explain briefly why each certification matters and how it fits into your professional journey. This helps to show your dedication to staying updated on industry standards and best practices. For example, if your business is in the financial services sector, acquiring a CFA, FRM, or ACCA certification can help build trust among your prospective clients. 

One tiny tip that can transform your Licenses & Certifications section is to ensure that your credentials are in order, i.e., the logo, the official title, the name of the issuing body, and the dates of the certificate are correct. Such minor actions reflect the level of sincerity you have for your work and knowledge.

Volunteering

In the volunteering section of your LinkedIn profile, spotlight your commitment to giving back to society. It is important that you create a positive impact beyond your workplace and business objectives. This section can be used to showcase your involvement in community initiatives, non-profit organizations, or charitable causes that align with your values and interests.

However, rather than simply listing volunteer experiences, provide context for each role, explaining the significance of the cause and your contributions. This section demonstrates a well-rounded approach to leadership, highlighting your dedication to social responsibility and community engagement. A volunteering experience can be a one-time activity or a recurring event in your life. At the end of the day, if you can share a heartfelt story about your volunteering experience, it adds testament to your strong morals as a leader in power to make a difference in someone’s world.

Skills & Endorsements

Leaders who aspire to set themselves apart from competitors must make the most of this section. In the Skills space, make sure you add a mix of hard and soft skills. It is best if you powerfully combine business, personal, industry-related, and management skills to bring out your holistic skill set. As much as being a “Financial Management” expert is important, you also must talk about your “Empathetic Leadership” skill. After all, the best leaders are those who can offer critical thinking and analytical skills with the support of high emotional intelligence.

Where a lot of leaders go wrong is by spamming their Skill section with more than 10 skills.

The right practice is to pick the right keyword for each subset of skill you have. For instance, avoid repetition with “Strategic Thinking” and “Strategic Planning”. Something more specific like “IT Business Strategy” will add credit to your profile. Also, numerous accounts of “Team Leadership” and “Educational Leadership” with “Organizational Leadership” sounds redundant, not to mention a desperate move to prove yourself as a leader.

The Endorsements aspect of this section is what really carries the day. Every skill can be endorsed by someone in your connections. An endorsement is a verified recommendation, almost a medal-like stamp of honor, that your profile wins by highly esteemed professionals who willingly vouch for your expertise in that particular field, be it an interpersonal skill or industry knowledge.

The higher your endorsements by reputed profiles, the better your LinkedIn profile optimization.

Recommendations

It is a wonder why LinkedIn places this section towards the bottom. This space deserves a podium on your profile. The Recommendation section is a pinboard where you can display all the official testimonials that you have received by industry leaders you have worked with.

There are 2 parts to this section – Receiving and Awarding. Recommendations that you have received appear first. Recommendations are typically 5-liner gratitude-filled messages that a renowned executive leaves on your profile talking about the positives of working with you. Strong accurate adjectives that describe your work ethics, relationship management, leadership style, business acumen, and team attitude can make a massive difference in how your profile is viewed reputationally.

Take a look at this recommendation that Keyur received:

LinkedIn is not a one-way channel where you only must receive. Recommendations are best given too. Consider writing recommendations for prominent industry leaders that you have worked with. Avoid flattery; the more genuine your recommendation, the stronger your bond becomes. Recommendations are the perfect media to reinstate trust in your working mindset.

Languages

Towards the end of your LinkedIn profile optimization journey comes the Languages department. This can be useful when you work with international companies. This is only to expand your accessibility to a wider range of prospects. It won’t impact the reach of your LinkedIn profile in any way, so you need not worry if you can only list 3 languages too. Make sure you include the proficiency you have in each language so that it becomes easy for prospects to approach you.

3 Rare Tips That Nobody Tells You About LinkedIn Profile Optimization

Tip 1: Your LinkedIn URL Matters More Than You Think.

When you first create an account on LinkedIn, you are given a default URL by the platform. You might find a combination of alphabets and numerals separated with hyphens to resemble your name.

The first favor you can do to your LinkedIn profile is to get rid of that encoded junk and replace it with a clean personalized set of letters forming your name. If that is unavailable, append a couple of relevant hyphens or add in your initials, and you’ll find yourself a LinkedIn profile URL that is not messy and readable.

Why should you do this?

The purpose this plays is a lot like a clean, “firstname-lastname”-based email address. It becomes easy to type out should someone look up your LinkedIn profile.

Tip 2: Your Activity On LinkedIn Forms A Huge Part Of Profile Optimization.

Try looking up someone’s LinkedIn profile today. A huge portion of their profile apart from all these elements mentioned above will be occupied by their “Activity” section. This part reflects all your online activities like commenting, posting, resharing, and reacting to posts. From the external view, your latest 3 activities are displayed. Comments that you put out even a year ago can be visible on your profile if you haven’t made any other proactive LinkedIn output.

If there are very old comments or posts in your Activity section, your profile comes across as dead or inactive. That’s why, it’s important that you regularly either put out posts on your profile or publish substantially valuable comments on other posts. This way, prospects that land up on your profile will know what you invest your energy into and are interested in.

‍Tip 3: There Is A Patents And Publications Section Too.

If you wish to upload official documents of patents that you have won or important publications that you have authority over, then LinkedIn gives you a separate space apart from the Featured section to do so.

You will find this section when you click on the “Add profile section” button and scroll down to the “Additional” option. This special dashboard will stand out since not many of your peers might have patents on their name!

How Can I Get My LinkedIn Profile Optimized?

LinkedIn profile optimization can be a long one-day task. The articulation of your messaging, the decision about links to be added, the design of the banner – every element needs thorough analysis and inspection. You need to keep in mind SEO-specific keywords and know what keyword volume is most preferable for your profile to rank among the best when search results relate to your domain.

We understand that this might get technically overwhelming. To save you time and bandwidth yet get you the best results on profile optimization, GrowedIn can step in. We work on C-level executive profiles to transform their LinkedIn personal brands to facilitate their reputation-driven business growth on the platform. We’re only a call away at growedin.link/discovery.

40% of LinkedIn users interact with business pages every week. If you do not have a LinkedIn company page yet,  you are potentially missing out on a lot of relevant eyeballs, which could help strengthen your business’s reputation and awareness.

While you might feel that an optimized LinkedIn profile along with publishing regularly on the platform is enough, it is most certainly not. You might end up building an authoritative personal brand, but there’s more to it.

What if your audience that discovers you through your personal profile wants to know more about your company?

What if they want to check out your services?

What if they want to apply for a role you’re looking to fill?

Your personal LinkedIn profile is about you. You need a separate landing page solely for your business. Let us learn more about the benefits of creating your company page on LinkedIn.

Advantages of Creating a LinkedIn Company Page:

1. It acts as a trust engine.

It is 2024, and just having a website isn’t enough. Your prospective customers and candidates will do an exhaustive search across the internet to find anything and everything about your company. A LinkedIn business page helps you reiterate your brand’s mission, vision, and values. This, along with regular content publishing helps build trust and assures them that they are choosing a good solution partner.

2. It helps you rank higher and get more website traffic.

LinkedIn content is indexed by search engines. Regular updates on your company page can increase your visibility in search engine results, driving more organic traffic to your website. Please note that links from the LinkedIn company page to your website are usually no-follow links. This means they won’t directly boost your website's SEO ranking like do-follow backlinks do. However, they can still drive traffic to your site and increase your visibility, which is always a good thing!

3. It helps you generate relevant leads.

LinkedIn company pages also let you run highly targeted, objective-based ads on the platform. If you’d like to add more leads and fill in your pipeline, you can experiment with running a couple of campaigns for Conversion Ads & Lead Gen Forms to find out which one works better for you. Without a company page, you can only run Thought Leader Ads, which are not very useful and relevant for lead generation.

4. It helps you recruit the right talent.

Every week, about 61 million people actively look for a job on LinkedIn. It is one of the most preferred platforms for potential candidates to look for the right opportunity and for companies to attract the right talent. With your company page on LinkedIn, this process becomes extremely seamless and you can post a job in just a few clicks. 

Let us now look at the different types of company pages you can create on LinkedIn.

3 Different Types Of LinkedIn Company Pages

When you create a company page, you get to choose from the three options. Let us look at each of them separately.

1. Company:

A company page on LinkedIn is a typical business page for a company or organization of any size - small, medium, or large. It is designed to promote the company’s brand, share updates, and engage with followers, including customers, employees, and other stakeholders. 

Here’s an example of a good company page:

2. Showcase Page:

A showcase page on LinkedIn is a sub-page linked to a company page that allows businesses to highlight specific products, services, or initiatives. It is designed to create a dedicated space for marketing different aspects of a company, catering to different set of audiences. 

Here’s an example of a good showcase page:

3. Educational Institution:

An educational institution page on LinkedIn is a specialized page designed for schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations to build their presence on LinkedIn. 

Here’s an example of a good educational institution page:

Let us now go through the step-by-step process of creating a business page on LinkedIn.

How to Create a Business Page on LinkedIn

Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide to help you create your LinkedIn company page:

Step 1: Sign In to LinkedIn (if you haven’t already)

Head over to LinkedIn.com and sign into the platform using your credentials. Please note that you need to have an existing LinkedIn account in order to create a business page.

Step 2: Head To “Create a Company Page” Button 

Click on the “For Business” icon (a grid) in the top right corner of your LinkedIn homepage. At the bottom of the dropdown menu, click on “Create a Company Page”.

Step 3: Choose the Type of Company Page

LinkedIn will present you with options for the types of pages you can create, including Company (small, medium, and large businesses), Showcase page, and Educational institution (schools and universities). Choose the one that is relevant to your organization.

‍Step 4: Fill In The Basic Company Details

• Name: Enter your company’s officially registered name or brand name.
• LinkedIn.com/company/*: Create a public URL for your LinkedIn company page. LinkedIn will inform you about the availability of your chosen URL. If you type “xyz”, your LinkedIn public URL will be LinkedIn.com/xyz.
• Website: Enter your company’s website URL.
• Industry: Start typing your industry name and select the most relevant option.
• Organization Size: Select the appropriate size of your company based on the number of employees.
• Organization Type: Select the type of company, such as public, private, nonprofit, etc.

Step 5: Add Your Logo and Tagline

• Logo: Upload a high-quality image of your company’s logo. The recommended size is 300 x 300 pixels.
• Tagline: Enter a brief tagline that summarizes your company’s mission or value proposition in 120 characters or less.

Please note that all images must be in PNG or JPEG format and should not exceed a maximum file size of 3MB.

Step 6: Review and Create Page

On the right-hand side, you will find a preview of the information you’ve entered. You can review the data here before you proceed. Once you are satisfied, mark the verification box to state that you have the authority to represent the company or school. Finally, click on the “Create Page” button.

Step 7: Complete Your LinkedIn Company Page

Now, you will be able to access the admin view of your LinkedIn company page. This is a dashboard where you can manage and make adjustments to your page.

Once you reach here in the final stage, you can fill in the following sections:

• About Us: Write a detailed description of your company in this section. It should expand on your tagline and include relevant keywords to increase discoverability. The character limit for this section is 2000 words, and LinkedIn lets you write and publish this in multiple languages.

• Location: It is a good idea to include at least one location for your company. This can be your company registered or HQ location. Remote companies who do not have a physical office can leave it empty. 

• Cover Image: Upload a cover image that represents your brand. Many brands choose a different format of their existing logo or latest marketing campaigns. Ensure that it matches your brand colors, font, and overall vibe. The recommended size is 1128 x 191 pixels.

You can also include a company telephone number, the year your company was founded, and add LinkedIn groups that you wish to display on your page.

Once you’ve gone through the steps above, your LinkedIn company page has been successfully created and is ready for sharing. Take some time to explore your page further and check if all fields are completed.

How To Manage Your LinkedIn Company Page?

‍

Just creating a company page on LinkedIn isn’t enough. Once you have published the page, it is important to ensure that the company page remains active, engaging, and aligned with your business goals.

Add Relevant Members

The best way to make sure that your company page stays active is to assign the responsibility to some of your most trusted team members. You can add them as administrators to make sure that they have the necessary permission to post updates, respond to leads, and make necessary changes. 

Depending on their role and position at your company, there are different types of admins you can appoint to your page:

1. Super Admins: They have full access to all permissions, including adding and removing other admins.
2. Content Admins: They can modify the page's content and publish posts. They can also respond to incoming messages and look at the performance data.
3. Analysts: They can only review the page’s performance analytics and export data.

Monitor Your Analytics

What gets measured, gets improved. Regularly monitor LinkedIn page analytics to track key metrics such as unique views and impressions across different areas, including content and visitor analytics. You can use these analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of your content strategy and make data-driven decisions.

Encourage Your Colleagues To Set Up LinkedIn Accounts

Do you know what’s better than consistent activity on your LinkedIn company page? It is ensuring that in addition to posting on the company page, all your team members are active on LinkedIn and posting about the company while tagging them in your posts. This ensures that your prospective candidates have your company on top of mind and you’re able to stand out from the rest of the players in the market. If your team does not have an updated LinkedIn profile yet, this is the time to encourage them to do it while their most recent role links to your company page. 

Define Content Guidelines For Your Brand

When you start posting on your LinkedIn company page, it is important to maintain consistency in tone, writing style, and content type. Develop concise and clear guidelines to uphold quality across all posts and ensure alignment with your brand objectives and values.

Build Out A Social Media Calendar

The best way to ensure consistency on social media is to prepare a well-thought-out social media content calendar that is effortless to follow. Pages on LinkedIn that post weekly experience 5.6 times more follower growth. When you plan and schedule content well in advance, you will never miss a week of posting. It will also allow you to think of original ideas rather than create something random because you cannot miss posting. 

What To Post On Your LinkedIn Business Page?

Let us break this down into two subsections: 

1. Different ideas of content
2. Different formats of content

5 Types of Content Ideas for Your Company Page:

Company Updates

Keep your target audience informed about your business activities by sharing updates such as product launches, event announcements, and special offers, among other things. You can also share recent news articles, press releases, and media coverage featuring your company to generate interest and authenticity.

Case Studies

Case studies are a powerful way to show your product or service in action by demonstrating how you solved a problem for a customer. They are especially effective for B2B content marketing. By highlighting real-world examples of how you solved a particular problem for a customer, you can help your prospects understand the impact of your products or services.

Thought-Leadership Content

Sharing insightful and authoritative content can position your company as a leader in the industry and attract the right kind of eyeballs. This can include posting your analysis of recent trends and developments, offering perspectives on how they might impact the future and how-to guides.

Company Culture Posts

Nothing is more refreshing and human than showcasing your company culture, including how you treat your team and service your customers. This allows you to highlight your company’s mission, values and vision through posts that reflect your organizational ethos.

Featured Partners

You should repost content created for your brand and tag key partners, such as clients, collaborators, and sponsors. Sharing their content, especially when it includes testimonials and reviews, can build trust and credibility with your audience.

Now that you have a few content ideas in your head, let us dive into different post formats:

7 Different Types of Content Formats For Your LinkedIn Business Page

Text-Only Posts

When you want to share a personal story, experience or insight about a particular topic that requires a thoughtful explanation but not in length, then consider using text-only posts. The character limit for posts is 3000 characters. LinkedIn wants to keep users engaged on the platform so avoid using external links. It may impact the reach of your posts negatively.

Carousels

Carousels are best for sharing tips, short presentations or case study. Keep the presentation dimensions to 1080 x 1080 or 1920 x 1080 and save the document as a PDF. Try to design the presentation in a consistent format in terms of elements, fonts, and color scheme used.

Articles

Articles are the best for sharing thought leadership content. You can use it to write in-depth pieces of analysis that really go deep into a particular topic. Try to make it more digestible by breaking it down into sections, using headers and bullet points.

Occasions

If you want to share a milestone like an accomplishment and anniversaries, occasions can be your best bet. The celebration option allows you to make a short announcement in cases where an entire post might be irrelevant and lengthy.

Events

There are two types of events on LinkedIn:

1. In-person Events: They are organized offline at a physical venue and can be promoted on LinkedIn.
2. Online Events: They can be of three types:

Audio Events: These are real-time, audio-only conversations without video, screen sharing, or text chat. Audio events can go live directly on LinkedIn without third-party tools.
LinkedIn Live Events: These are streamed on LinkedIn with real-time comment interactions and a recording available on your page or profile. They require LinkedIn live access and a third-party streaming tool.
External Events: Hosted off LinkedIn but promoted on LinkedIn. Here, organizers must share an external link for attendees.

Native Videos

Native videos are great for case studies, explainer videos, and client testimonials. Please note that the maximum allowed video length is 10 minutes.

Polls

Polls are extremely useful to collect quick insights while also starting a discussion. You can use them more within groups rather than your wider public network to target a specific group of respondents.

7 Best Practices For Your LinkedIn Company Page

1. Complete Company Page Details:

Most business pages on LinkedIn are incomplete and have several sections missing, which makes it difficult for their target audience to discover them. Make sure that all fields on your LinkedIn company page are fully completed, especially your company name, website URL, company size, and a detailed “About Us” section.

2. Add Relevant Page Admins:

As mentioned in one of the previous sections, it is as important to keep a company page active and running as it is to create the page. Delegate posting to your social media team by adding them as admins to help manage the company page. Please note that to be added as an admin, one must follow the LinkedIn page. ‍

3. Post Consistently:

Once you have a team in place, ask them to maintain a social media calendar and regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged. Consistency in frequency and timing of the posts helps build and retain followers. The best time to post on LinkedIn is when your target audience is most active and the best way to figure that out is to experiment with different posting times.

4. Engage With Your Audience:

Actively interact with your audience by replying to comments, addressing their questions, and joining discussions. Try maintaining an engagement routine by setting aside dedicated time for certain days in a week to browse your LinkedIn feed, identify relevant posts and leave thoughtful comments.

5. Customize Your Call-to-Action Button:

If you have a landing page or destination for your visitors that is different from your website, LinkedIn lets you customize the call-to-action button on your company page by selecting a suitable CTA from the dropdown menu. For example, if your primary service is online training sessions, consider customizing the call-to-action button as “Sign Up” or “Register” to direct traffic to your dedicated landing page.

6. Try LinkedIn Ads:

If you have a dedicated budget for performance marketing, you can use LinkedIn ads to reach a larger, targeted audience. Sponsored content, InMail, and display ads can help increase your company’s visibility. It can come very handy while running specific campaigns. However, if you do not want to run a full ad campaign, you can also boost a particular post as a quick, low-investment alternative. 

7. Include Images:

LinkedIn posts with images see twice as many comments. LinkedIn has also observed that custom image collages (featuring 3-4 images in a single post) perform extremely well for organizations. While visual content tends to perform better than text-only posts, you should still avoid posting irrelevant images that are not contextual to the topic of the post.

Conclusion

Creating a LinkedIn company page is not just about having a presence on another social media platform. It’s about positioning your business in a professional network that values expertise and growth, which ultimately opens a multitude of opportunities for your brand.

We work with executives and industry experts to help them build authority & thought leadership on LinkedIn. If you’d like to squeeze the most out of LinkedIn’s potential, feel free to schedule a call with us.

More than 11 million users are posting on LinkedIn in 2024, but only about 1% will reach the topmost positions in terms of reach, engagement, branding, and leads generated. This is because social media platforms like LinkedIn highly depend on 1 factor that is difficult to maintain – consistency.

Consistency in the world of LinkedIn posting can be defined as sticking to the same time and same days of the week every time you post. That is primary; whether you post every other day or only twice a week is secondary.

But how do you choose that “time”? Before we answer this question, there are 2 more important questions to be asked.

Is The “Best Time To Post On LinkedIn” A Myth?

A lot of LinkedIn users ask if there really are “best times” to post on LinkedIn, or if this is merely a myth.

Simply put, it is not. LinkedIn, just like any other social media platform, runs on an algorithm. And algorithms love repetition.

If you perform the same act regularly enough around the same time, then over a few weeks, the algorithm will become trained enough to support your posts at that time. Now, imagine thousands of users posting at some common time during the day. This would imply that the LinkedIn algorithm is going to be most effective and supportive at that time.

That would be the ideal posting time.

How does this work, though?

The “best” days and time to post on LinkedIn aren’t the same for everyone, but this data does remain constant across industries or niches. This is because as humans, we often think in a like-minded manner to our peers belonging to the same line of work. Most doctors might consider the early morning window of around 7:00 am for LinkedIn. Professionals in the education domain might prefer 10:00 am as a better choice.

The best times to post on LinkedIn reflect those parts of the day when your target audience or preferred engagers are active. These windows of time are when you can attract the most eyeballs and ensure that your content gets the attention it deserves, organically. In fact, it’s not just humans that justify this data point of “best” and “worst” times to post on LinkedIn in 2024 - it’s the LinkedIn algorithm itself. The algorithm boosts your content in these hyperactive time slots.

That’s double the strength of LinkedIn for promoting your post.

Should I Post Every Single Day On LinkedIn?

Posting regularly on LinkedIn will prove to be a good habit to follow. But posting regularly does not mean posting every single day. It means posting often, at equal intervals. For example, if you have a LinkedIn management team handling your account, you can try reaching a mark of about 20-22 posts in a month, excluding weekends. Such regularity will keep you reputationally relevant on the platform.

However, posting every day on LinkedIn is not a good strategy if you are doing all the work yourself.

If you’re a CEO, there are a million other high-value tasks that you can give your time and attention to that will generate 10x higher direct returns than LinkedIn will, with a higher rate of guarantee. 

As an executive, posting at the best time on LinkedIn about 3 times a week works well. You stay active enough on the platform and stay visible to your ICP.

{{related}}

Best Time To Post On LinkedIn [Updated As Of March 2024] - Weekly Analysis

Remember that these times are with respect to your local time assuming that your business and your ICP belong to the same timezone. If there is an exception, for example, if you are a business operating in Australia but catering to clients in the US, then it’s best you consider these below timings to be US local time zones. This way, you will be able to reach out to your target audience when they are most active.

Monday:

11:00 am

Mondays start fresh yet hectic. Business has been waiting since Friday, and when the clock strikes 9 on Monday, it all comes pouring in.

That’s why most businesses prefer to check their LinkedIn feeds a bit later during the morning.

This is why data also shows that 11:00 am is the best time to post on LinkedIn on Monday. It is the most effective time for your post to reach a large audience. More importantly, the right audience.

‍Tuesday:

7:00 am

Because the week’s already begun and the pipeline’s already flowing, professional minds are going to be attacking their workloads on Tuesday. This means that social media can take a back seat. That’s why, it’s best to choose a time early in the morning to complete your posting and let LinkedIn take it up.

As per reports, 7:00 am is the best time to post on LinkedIn on Tuesday, while on a commute to work, if that makes the scenario convenient for you.

Wednesday:

12:00 pm

Just got off your back-to-back brainstorming sessions in the morning? You’re not the only one. Most companies say that Wednesday is their tightest day, packed with meetings. It all falls into place with LinkedIn also reflecting that most users come to social media to take a breather from work.

That’s why the best time to post on LinkedIn on Wednesday is 12:00 pm, when your ICP is likely to check what’s up just before they break for lunch. This isn’t just for entrepreneurs or C-class leadership roles. Even those wanting to grab the attention of recruiters can make the most of this minute to reach far and wide.

Thursday:

12:00 pm

Work tasks take up most of a Thursday, leaving post-noon sessions open for LinkedIn regulars to catch up. This is the best day to make the most of corporate stories that emotionally engage and educate. That’s why, the best time to post on LinkedIn on Thursday is 12:00 pm, just before you dive into the second half of the day.

CEOs, talk about your worst mistake, your best deal ever, your favorite mentor to date, and your secret recipe for sealing deals in 5 minutes. Post about your resilience. Talk about the future of FinTech. Make Thursdays thought-provoking.

Friday:

8:00 am

Fun Fridays start with people checking their LinkedIn feeds before their workdays start. Actually, Fridays are known to be great timestamps for clients to close those deals that have been on their radar for quite some time now.

Strange, but definitely strategic.

That’s why, the best time to post on LinkedIn on Friday is 8:00 am. It maximizes your chances of getting leads generated since your clients are probably out there looking for you. You can also utilize this time to send people connection requests because many people might be in the mood to focus on expanding their networks.

Disclaimer: The above time windows are purely based on data. However, the most important practice is to choose any time convenient for you and stick to it every time you post. You can choose to post at 10:00 am every single time, and as long as you prove to be active at that time on the platform, it is the best time to post on LinkedIn for you.

Should You Post On LinkedIn On Weekends?

Ideally, no.

LinkedIn on the weekends is lazy.

Posts reach fewer accounts, people don’t actively engage as much, and technical thought-inducing content dies soon.

Weekends must be reserved for slow, engaging, emotional, soft-launch stories. Rewinding from the stressful corporate week that just passed, employees might take their weekends easy. People usually look for no-brainer, non-educational content during these days.

That’s why a picture of your dog at the park might rank higher than a bulletin on why digital transformation is the way ahead.

You can post on weekends occasionally, but it’s best to keep it independent of your content strategy.

The best time to post on LinkedIn during the weekends can be considered from about 10:00 am to 11:30 am.

‍Disclaimer: It is worth mentioning again that these timings are the averaged-out data points. Ultimately what matters is whether you are consistent with whatever time you choose.

The Worst Times To Post On LinkedIn In 2024

Simply put, the worst times to post on LinkedIn are those when your ICP is most likely to ignore your activity.

The worst time to post is typically during non-business hours, like from 10 pm to 5 am (bedtime). In fact, data will show that any posting time beyond 8-9 pm should not be preferred since your post will remain on active feeds only till an hour after posting. This means that the lifetime of your post will decrease.

The lifetime of a LinkedIn post is the countdown to its expiry. After being published, engagement on a post stays active for about an hour. As time passes, the chances of the post topping on your connections’ feed lowers exponentially. By the 12th hour, your post is almost forgotten. This holds true for most content, except hiring posts, since they remain active through constant sharing from connection to connection.

That’s why, the worst times to post on LinkedIn to post are:

• After 10:00 pm
• Before 5:00 am
• Between 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm

{{free-resource}}

Bonus: Top 3 LinkedIn Scheduling Tools

To maintain your posting consistency on LinkedIn, it’s best to take the help of an automated scheduling tool for publishing your posts. You can address the comments and requests at your own convenience any other time during the day.

Here are our top 3 choices:

1. Publer: With Publer, you don’t need to worry about missing the publication of your post at the time you have chosen. If you decide that 10:30 am is the best time to post on LinkedIn for you, put up your posts on Publer and set that time. Plus, it also helps you schedule the first comment on your LinkedIn post in advance.
   
   In fact at GrowedIn, Publer has proven to be the best scheduling and comment-originating tool that can also kickstart comments.

2. Buffer: Buffer is the simpler version of Publer in many senses. It is a basic, easy-to-use tool that helps you maintain your posting time, but doesn’t allow intiating engagement through the first comment.

3. Taplio: Taplio is a level ahead – it also lets you generate content for your posts through AI. However, if you really want your posts to make a difference in your marketing strategy, we suggest you have them written and not generated.

Conclusion

While there are best and worst times to post on LinkedIn in 2024, it is essential to remember that at the end of the day, consistency matters more than punctuality to the times mentioned above. Pick a time of the morning that suits your work schedule best and constantly show up on LinkedIn. That will make a huge difference in post visibility and reach of content. The “best” time to post on LinkedIn can only be a suggestion, not a rule. Experiment around to figure out what works best for you and your profile.

We partner with executives to help them leverage LinkedIn’s potential and build it as a channel for reputation-driven business growth. If you’d like to discuss LinkedIn branding for your profile, you can schedule a call with us.