How I set my LinkedIn profile up like a landing page

My 5-part formula to convert more viewers into followers...and customers

Author

Tommy Clark
October 14, 2024

Hey!

Welcome to Social Files—your no-BS guide to generating demand for your B2B product using social & content.

Hope you had a great weekend. Spent mine running, in the gym, and catching up on sleep. Also kept making progress on the Foundation books. Started slow, but growing on me.

Then Sunday was spent planning content for Bluecast. Starting to see more and more paid users upgrade btw. So cool to see. Once again, thank you for the support since launch.

If you want to try a free trial and write better content, faster…click here.

Got a good one for you today all about LinkedIn profile set-up.

Shall we?

🔎 DEEP DIVE

How I set my LinkedIn profile up like a landing page

My 5-part formula to convert more viewers into followers...and customers

What happens when you actually start getting traction on LinkedIn? When 1-2 of your posts start popping off, and…wait for it…people who didn’t know you before start going to your profile??

You want to make sure they stick around, right?

That’s what I’ll help you with today.

And the good news is that profile set-up is easy, will take you 10-15 minutes, and it’s kinda a “set it and forget it” thing.

Your LinkedIn profile is a landing page.

When you run an ad, you usually drive that traffic to a landing page. That page is create with one goal in mind—convert that visitor into a customer (or email subscriber, but you get the point).

The headline, the subheadline, the hero image, the bullet points, the testimonials, the list goes on…all meticulously selected with the intention of making a visitor a customer.

You should think about your LinkedIn profile the same way—except the headline, the subheadline, the hero image are your profile picture, your headline, and your featured links.

How can we set up your LinkedIn profile in a way that maximizes the conversion rate (CVR) of a visitor into a follower?

There are 4 components to this.

Picking your profile picture.

Please. Don’t overthink this.

There are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:

  • Clear, high-resolution

  • Up close (preferably a headshot above your shoulders)

  • Background should be a single, solid color

That’s literally it. Here are a few examples:

No. Don’t use a selfie.

No. Don’t choose a full-body picture.

No. Don’t have a messy background.

This is less about looking “professional” and more about making it as easy as possible for people to recognize you on the timeline. You want your PFP to be clear and close up because it’s going to be tiny for folks, especially on mobile. Make sense?

The ‘header’ image doesn’t matter a whole lot, in my experience. If you want to do a cool “branded” graphic, go for it. If you want to make it an IRL photo, go for it. I have not seen this make a huge impact.

Here’s mine. Scrappy and simple—though it does communicate the value prop of my content quite effectively:

Writing your headline.

Your ‘headline’ is the one-sentence line of text that appears under your name on LinkedIn.

The cool part about this is that your headline shows up on the timeline as viewers see your content.

This means it can be a way to both:

  • Get visitors to your profile

  • Convert them to followers once they’re on your profile

I have a 3-part formula for writing LinkedIn headlines:

[ROLE] + [COMPANY] + [VALUE PROP]

For example, my headline is:

CEO @ Compound | Co-founder @ Bluecast | Building a social media agency for B2B companies

People instantly know what my role is and what they’ll get out of following me (social strategy for B2B startups).

Don’t overcomplicate this and don’t try to be too fancy. And please, for goodness’ sake, don’t write some headline like:

“Marketing Wizard who will 10X ROI on Facebook Ads for Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs”

Chill. Please. You're scaring the customers.

Here are a few more examples for you to model:

About your ‘About’ section.

You’re going to notice a common theme as we move through the components of a LinkedIn bio:

Don’t overthink this.

The proper set-up for a LinkedIn bio is also quite simple.

[1-2 sentences on what you're building]

[1-2 sentences of social proof]

[1-2 sentences on the type of content followers can expect from you]

In following this format, you answer 3 questions that your visitors have:

  • What do you do?

  • Why should I trust you?

  • What do I get out of following you?

A lot of founders think they need to write a novel in their ‘About’ section. Nobody’s reading all that. Keep it concise and compelling.

The goal of your LinkedIn profile page is twofold:

  • First, you want to convert the follow. This way, the viewer will continue to see more of your content, more often.

  • Next, you want to move folks who are ready to the next obvious stage of the buying journey.

Featured links help you move folks closer to the $$$.

You can pick a handful of links to make front and center on your profile. Pick 1-2 links, max. LinkedIn will let you do 5+. This is dumb. Confuses people.

When people are presented with too many options, they might get overwhelmed, leading to decision paralysis where they can’t make a choice at all. Think about what happens when you’re looking at a packed restaurant menu. Or when you're looking at a list of 25+ potential Airbnb’s for your next trip. Same thing happens when you decide to stuff 7 links in your LinkedIn profile.

1-2. Max.

What should you point these to?

Simple:

  • Home page (do this if you have no other lead magnet)

  • Your best case study

  • ‘Book a demo page’

  • Lead magnet

If I had to pick 1-2 from the above, I’d choose:

  • Your best case study

  • Lead magnet

The case study will appeal to folks who are considering your product and are close to buying. The lead magnet (in my case it’s this newsletter) moves folks to an owned, long-form platform like email where you can continue to send them propaganda—that’s what marketing is, right?

BTW — don’t neglect the thumbnail image on your featured links!

Think of these the same way a YouTuber thinks of their thumbnails. How can you use imagery to increase the click-through rate?

Here’s how I have mine set up:

(If you want those 50+ content templates, you can grab them here)

I also like how Adam Robinson uses his thumbnail image to clearly state the value prop of RB2B. Also notice how the color is bright and eye-catching.

Setting up your Button.

LinkedIn recently rolled out this feature that allows you to have a CTA button appear next to your profile picture and headline on the timeline.

Make sure you have this in place. Here’s a LinkedIn help doc on how to set it up.

I’d have this point to a landing page where people can opt-in to your lead magnet. I have mine pointing to my newsletter landing page. You might have end up here, reading this, through that route.

If you don’t have a lead magnet, here are some other options:

  • Home page (do this if you have no other lead magnet)

  • Your best case study

  • ‘Book a demo page’

  • Lead magnet

You’ll notice these options are the same as the Featured Links section. That’s because the goal of this CTA button is also to move customers to the next obvious step in the buyer’s journey.

That’s it.

It’s that simple. Check these boxes, and your LinkedIn profile will be set up to bring in revenue.

I use this playbook for myself. We use it across our clients. And now you can use it too.

That’s all I’ve got today.

🗃 FILE CABINET

Here’s my favorite marketing and business content I bookmarked this week.

Check these out.

BEFORE YOU GO…

One more thing!

Running a quick test. If you read all the way to the end of this newsletter (or skipped to the conclusion…lol) reply with the 🤝 emoji.

Trying to see something.

Talk soon,

Tommy Clark

PS: Check out Bluecast with a free 7-day trial here (no CC required).

PPS: If you want Compound to run a founder-led content motion for you… save a spot on our waitlist here. We’re at capacity through August, but looking to partner with some SaaS startups in September.