6 steps to attracting prospects with LinkedIn

If you’re on social media, you’re most likely spending your time on Facebook, but you might be missing some low-hanging fruit when it comes to listing leads.

If you are looking to grow your business with a limited budget, there is no better place to look than LinkedIn.Using an SEO and keyword approach, I have gotten my profile in the top 10 percent of most-viewed profiles in the real estate industry.

I recently sat down with Josh Turner, a best-selling author of “Connect,” who teaches people how to hack this powerful platform.

You can listen to our conversation here.

LinkedIn is a blend of prospecting and marketing

If you’re like most businesspeople, you likely have a LinkedIn profile, but you are probably not optimizing the LinkedIn platform. If you don’t see the value of LinkedIn, I just want to remind you that it is the platform for business professionals instead of Facebook, which is for everyone (according to a July 2015 Pew study).

I absolutely hate when a “guru” tells you to do a bunch of stuff without explaining how to do it, so I’m going to break it all down for you.

1. Set up a solid profile

The first step is pretty basic and shouldn’t require much more explanation, but you might need some clarification on step 2.

2. Write a professional headline

When creating your headline for LinkedIn, too many people have taken the Twitter approach, which looks something like “Toby Salgado #podcaster #investor #adventurer.”

This simply does not work on LinkedIn. You need to tell your story in a succinct manner. Try this format: “Toby Salgado, San Diego’s No. 1 downtown luxury condominium Realtor.” It’s a better way to create your headline.

Crafting your headline in this manner is more succinct, and you’ve also approached it with LinkedIn SEO in mind. Using an SEO and keyword approach, I have gotten my profile in the top 10 percent of most-viewed profiles in the real estate industry.

3. Create a headline that speaks to your ideal prospect

Illustrate your value proposition or unique selling proposition (USP). Most agents want to say, “I’m in the top 1 percent” or “I’ve sold a billion dollars worth of property.”

Well, that’s great — but in reality, nobody cares. People want to know what you can do for them — not what you’ve done in the past. The best type of USP or unique value proposition (UVP) for an agent gives a guarantee.

Here are a few examples: “I guarantee to sell your house in 30 days, or I’ll buy it.”

If you find that a little aggressive for your tastes, you could do something as simple as, “Your home sold, guaranteed.”

Whatever you decide to use, focus on what you feel your unique value proposition is to your client.

4. Illustrate your value proposition, and join 50 groups

This is where the magic happens. LinkedIn will let you join 50 groups for free. Once you have identified what your ideal client looks like, you are able to track them down and begin to build a relationship.

Let’s say I sell downtown luxury condominiums in San Diego. My typical client works for a major employer such as Qualcomm or Hewlett Packard. I can then put some thought into what groups they would join on LinkedIn and opt into those groups.

Now I have a platform I can use to start building an audience. You can begin by sharing content that these people would find valuable. If you’re not a writer, that’s OK. You can curate content without actually writing your own.

An example of a good post on LinkedIn might be, “7 tips on how to get top dollar for your home,” “Why the Fed will increase interest rates this quarter” or something like “Why you need a home inspector.”

There are a million different topics that your readers will find valuable.

Will people read your posts? Some of them will; if nothing else, you stay top-of-mind by being consistent.

By consistently touching these people you are making an impression, which at the end of the day is what marketing is all about — your prospects seeing your name and messaging over and over.

5. Create or curate content that your prospects will find valuable

Just like sending emails, you will have a certain percentage of open rates. When someone does find your article headline compelling enough to click on, this is where you really need to shine.

6. Drive traffic to a landing page where you gather emails

You can’t just let them read your article, think it’s interesting and then close it out. You need to have a compelling call-to-action and drive them to a landing page where you can trade another freebie article or video in exchange for their email address.

This is how you build your list and slowly build that relationship with your readers. As a real estate agent, you probably don’t know how to code a landing page, and you probably don’t have a developer on staff.

You can quickly and cheaply set up a landing page using leadpages.net (we have no affiliation with this company other than using their pages).

Bonus time: Install a Facebook Pixel on your landing page to retarget your visitors on Facebook.

If you are not familiar with a Facebook pixel, let me explain. A pixel is a few lines of code that you install on your site or page. When a person visits your page, the pixel recognizes them when they are on Facebook, which allows you to buy Facebook ads and retarget these people.

Buying ads to attract these Pixelated visitors is cheap because Facebook recognizes them as visiting your site and wanting to learn more about you.

Here is a tutorial on how to create and install a Facebook pixel.

Your business is either marketing-based or prospecting-based, but the most successful agents use multiple channels to develop customers and re-engage past clients.

Using LinkedIn and Facebook pixels are a few economical and powerful channels to build the listing side of your business.

Toby Salgado is the host and managing director of Super Agents Live (podcast) and Real Estate Radio Experts (radio agency). Follow him on Twitter.

Email Toby Solgado.