LinkedIn Best Practices: Seven Ways to Maximize Your LinkedIn Recommendations

You’ve sought and received recommendations on your LinkedIn Profile…What else can you do with them?

Also called testimonials or endorsements, recommendations cater to your prospects’ desire to understand why they should work with you, based on your clients’ experiences.

For example Janine Moon, a career and executive coach in Columbus, Ohio said that a prospect became her client due to the “kick in the pants” piece of a testimonial on her web site: “Janine provides what all good coaches provide: a belief in her ‘athlete,’ knowledge of ways to improve form for maximum results, praise and acknowledgment, and a kick in the pants when needed.”

Give your prospects more opportunities to walk in your clients shoes with the following tactics:

1. Include standout LinkedIn testimonials on your company web site, either on a separate web page or woven into the copy throughout the site.
2. During sales conversations with prospects, casually mention a testimonial when relevant.
3. If you’re a job seeker, include a testimonial from a past boss, in your cover letters.
4. Include client testimonials in your sales letters and emails, presentations, brochures and proposals.
5. Learn what your clients truly value about you and your services by reviewing new endorsements every couple of months.
6. Use two to three results-oriented testimonials to create mini case studies on your company web site (with your client’s permission). Outline the problem, solution and results.
7. Insert a testimonial into the “Summary” section of your LinkedIn profile.

Highly successful small business owners or soloprenours stay focused. They consistently implement only two-three marketing and sales strategies *proven* to obtain the most profitable clients for the least amount of money, time and energy. One example is extending the reach of your existing marketing copy and information such as your testimonials.

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Stop Guessing & Begin Planning for Success!

Are you an experienced business owner or coach who is constantly trying new things to gain clients? Instead, create a solid sales and marketing process that you know works. Make crucial marketing decisions based on who you most desire as clients, your own strengths and what motivates you.

“Andrea’s approach to marketing begins with a simple concept: you can’t do everything, so you must select the tools that work best for you. She required that I complete an analysis of my sources of business over the past several years. Yuck! Data Collection! I resisted the process for weeks… When I finally completed the exercise, I was THRILLED that Andrea had persisted. The analysis revealed that I was about to discontinue something that had, in fact, been my second-highest source of business — that alone made the marketing plan priceless. In addition, as a result of my work with Andrea, I shifted several key marketing priorities and realized that I can improve my marketing leverage by spending just a bit more time on a smaller number of marketing activities.” — Jim Smith, The Executive Happiness Coach, Cleveland, OH

If you desire client-getting tactics that work, contact me today at 513-561-2642, or email me at adale@tothepointwriting.net.

This blog was written for the ezine Concise Marketing Advice (CMA).  Receive this ezine in your inbox by subscribing to CMA via the sign-up box in the upper left hand corner of this page.

Tagged as: LinkedIn profiles, Testimonials