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Show Notes
Background
Sarah Hughes is an award-winning B2B marketing consultant and LinkedIn specialist with more than 25 years of experience helping businesses turn marketing activity into commercial results. Through her company, Boost Business Growth, she helps business owners and experts sharpen their positioning, transform their LinkedIn profiles into stronger sales assets, and build targeted prospect networks using LinkedIn and Sales Navigator.
Many coaches spend many hours toiling to create LinkedIn content, hoping the algorithm will happen to put it in front of the right people. But there is another (and better) way to use LinkedIn. One that gives you far more control over who sees you, when and how they see you.
In this episode, Sarah Hughes, the LinkedIn Growth Expert, shares how coaches can stop relying on random reach and start deliberately building a LinkedIn presence and network full of the people they actually want to work with.
Stop Waiting for the LinkedIn Algorithm
Posting on LinkedIn is valuable, but relying on the algorithm to find clients is not a client acquisition strategy. Coaches can spend hours creating content and still miss opportunities because they are not actively building relationships and starting conversations.
LinkedIn should be treated as another form of networking. The same principles that work in face-to-face networking apply online: build genuine connections, communicate with people, and avoid immediately pushing a sales message.
Your LinkedIn Profile Does the Heavy Lifting
A strong personal profile is the foundation of LinkedIn marketing. People will often look at a profile before deciding whether to connect or start a conversation, so it needs to clearly communicate who you help, what you offer, and why people should trust you.
A company page can also be useful for coaches and solo business owners because it protects the business name and domain, allows keywords to be added, and provides a company logo that can appear in the employment section of a personal profile. However, personal profiles should remain the main focus for networking, positioning, outreach, and content.
Recommendations are another important part of a LinkedIn profile because they provide social proof. Even excellent coaches can miss an opportunity when their profiles contain no client recommendations.
Build the Right Network
Having a large network is not enough. The quality and relevance of the network matter because meaningful connections are more likely to engage with content and create opportunities for conversations.
LinkedIn connections are divided into first, second, and third-degree connections. First-degree connections are people directly connected to you, second-degree connections are connections of your connections, and third-degree connections are connected through another level of the network.
Shared connections can also create opportunities for introductions and transfer trust. Existing clients can be particularly valuable because their networks may contain people who match your ideal customer profile.
Recruiters can also be useful connections because they often have extensive networks. However, irrelevant people who are simply trying to sell something should not automatically be accepted as connections.
Use LinkedIn as a Relationship-Building Tool
The real strength of LinkedIn is its ability to help businesses find, target, and understand potential clients. It provides access to valuable market intelligence and allows users to identify prospects based on factors such as industry, location, business size, experience, and other characteristics.
Sales Navigator can provide additional search and targeting capabilities for businesses that need to build a more specific prospect database. However, subscriptions should be evaluated based on whether they are actually helping generate business rather than simply becoming another unused expense.
Focus on Conversations, Not Just Content
Content is important, but posting alone is not enough. Coaches also need to communicate with their network and create genuine conversations.
Cold direct messages that immediately promote a service are similar to walking into a networking event and putting a business card in someone’s face without first having a conversation. Building relationships should come before selling.
A strong LinkedIn strategy combines three elements:
- Profile: Make it clear who you help and why someone should contact you.
- Network: Build relationships with relevant prospects, clients, influencers, and referral sources.
- Conversations: Communicate with people and develop relationships rather than relying solely on posts.
Create Prospect-Centred Content
Content should focus on the audience rather than simply promoting the business. Effective content helps prospects recognise their own problems, needs, and goals.
Authenticity and personality can make content more engaging. Highly polished, generic marketing content can feel impersonal, while genuine experiences, stories, observations, and personal perspectives can create stronger connections when they remain relevant to the audience.
Content should also use a mixture of formats rather than relying on one type of post.
Understand LinkedIn Engagement
LinkedIn rewards content that encourages meaningful engagement and keeps people interacting with the platform. Comments, shares, and the amount of time people spend with a post can be more valuable indicators of engagement than simple reactions.
The first hour after publishing can be particularly important for initial engagement. However, engagement should come naturally from a relevant network rather than relying heavily on artificial engagement groups or coordinated commenting.
The goal should be to build an active and relevant network that genuinely wants to interact with the content.
Make Your Profile Searchable
LinkedIn can contribute to visibility beyond the platform itself. Public LinkedIn profiles can appear in search engines, and LinkedIn content can also contribute to how people discover an expert.
Keywords therefore matter. The words that businesses assume their ideal clients search for may not always be the actual terms people use. Understanding relevant keywords and placing them strategically throughout the profile can improve discoverability.
Privacy settings should also be checked regularly to ensure that the profile is visible as intended. It is useful to view the profile while logged out and check how it appears on both desktop and mobile devices.
Have a Clear LinkedIn Strategy
The central message of the conversation is that LinkedIn should not be approached as a random cycle of posting and hoping for results.
A strategy should determine:
- Who you want to reach
- Why those people are relevant
- How you will build your network
- How you will start conversations
- What content will attract the right audience
- How your profile supports your positioning
- How your network can create referrals and introductions
The objective is not simply to generate more views or followers. It is to turn LinkedIn activity into meaningful client conversations.
Ready to see how well your LinkedIn strategy is actually working?
Complete the LinkedIn Diagnostic and book your free 20-minute Diagnostic Review with Sarah, click the links below:
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Stop Waiting for the LinkedIn Algorithm to Find You
Coaches do not need to spend all of their time trying to please the LinkedIn algorithm. They need to build relationships, understand their ideal clients, create relevant content, maintain a strong profile, and consistently have genuine conversations. A clear strategy makes it easier to identify where time should be spent instead of simply posting more and hoping for the best.
Do not wait for the algorithm to find your clients. Build the profile, network, and conversations that help the right clients find and trust you.
Listen to the full episode of Small Business Talk episode 366.
You can also find the video versions of the Small Business Talk Episodes on YouTube.
