Thanks to LinkedIn – it is literally IMPOSSIBLE for a Course Creator to say ‘they don’t know where to find leads’ or ‘they don’t know how to grow their list’.
Let’s use me as an example. In one of my businesses, Fitness Education Online – I have a whole heap of online courses that help Fitness Professionals grow their fitness business.
Now if I want to get in front of Personal Trainers… The quickest, easiest and most cost effective thing for me to do is…
Simply go to LinkedIn – and type “Personal Trainer” in the search bar…
As you can see above…. There’s 1,330,000 Personal Trainers that I can currently connect with on LinkedIn….
And really – there’s more because I could have also searched for a few other job titles “Gym Instructor”… “Group Fitness Instructor”… “Fitness Coach” etc…
I can literally never run out of leads in my life…
And it’s not just like there’s a heap of Fitness Trainers on LinkedIn… No matter what profession I search – they are on LinkedIn
- Real Estate Agents – 10M
- Teachers – 6M
- Artists – 4M
Now, if you’re reading this and thinking “Jono… All well and good for you buddy! But I don’t target a specific profession… What can I do?”
And here’s the thing…
LinkedIn is a professional networking platform… It’s mainly designed so you can connect with people in a specific profession… So LinkedIn is WAY EASIER if you serve a specific profession….
If you don’t, I’m not saying you CAN’T use LinkedIn – you can and I’ll give a few options below… but just be aware – it may not be as effective for you as someone who targets a specific profession.
Using LinkedIn if you DON’T Serve a Specific Profession
Option 1: Majority
Even if you don’t serve a specific profession, you may find that a lot of your students / customers come from one profession. For example in the Course Creator Community – I don’t target a specific profession BUT a lot of my customers are ‘Teachers’. More specifically ‘Music Teachers’ and ‘language teachers’. I know if I connect with Music Teachers or Language Teachers on LinkedIn – there’s a high probability that they have at least thought of putting an online course together.
Option 2: Tailor
You may tailor a lead magnet to a specific profession. For example, let’s say you’re a relationship coach and you’ve got a course on how to find your dream partner. You may put together a specific lead magnet focused on one profession. E.g. legal professionals. You don’t really have to teach anything too different in the lead magnet – you just make sure all the examples are tailored towards legal professionals. You could then go on LinkedIn and connect with a whole heap of legal professionals and offer them your lead magnet tailored specifically for them.
Option 3: LinkedIn Groups
If all else fails and you don’t have a majority and you can’t tailor – you do have the option of LinkedIn Groups. For example, let’s say you have a course teaching people ‘How To Fish’ – you could join a LinkedIn Group on Fishing and connect with the members there. I just did a quick search (see below) and there’s about 1,200 Groups on LinkedIn for fishing – each with a few thousand members in there.
WHAT’S THE STRATEGY
Now just because you can ‘find’ a particular profession on LinkedIn – that doesn’t mean they are automatically going to give you their email, go through your funnel and buy your course. There’s quite a few steps – in this blog we are just going to focus on making sure the prospect actually connects with us.
STEP 1: Your LinkedIn Profile
Now here’s the thing with your LinkedIn Profile… It needs to be somewhat optimised, otherwise no one will connect with you… However it doesn’t need to be the most amazing resume ever because most people will only skim through it to make sure you’re not a complete weirdo.
All you really need to have optimised is
Your Photo: A professional looking headshot.
Your Headline: A sentence or two saying what you do
When someone requests to connect with you – this is all they see (your photo and headline) – most people will judge whether they accept you or not based on those two factors so they are non negotiable.
The next most important component is your Work Experience. You don’t need to mention every and any job you’ve ever had – just have your current role and maybe 1-2 other recent ones. This is important because some people won’t connect with you based on your photo and headline alone – will head to your profile to see what it is you do and what you’ve done – so make sure you have this optimised.
Those three things are ‘enough’ as long as you have a decent photo, a good headline and your recent experience – you can start connecting with prospects on LinkedIn.
However… If you want to increase your chances of people connecting with you – there’s a few other simple little things you can do.
- Mutual Groups: Join a few groups where your ideal prospects hang out. When a prospect is checking you out – that’s one the first thing that appears)
- About You: Add some content in your “About You” section. If you’re not sure what to write – just write the same thing that’s in your job experience.
- Featured: You can feature a post, article, link etc to appear at the top of your profile – so put something good there – an award / achievement etc
- Activity: Spend a few minutes a day on LinkedIn liking / commenting on other people’s posts – when someone is checking out your profile they can see your “activity” and if you haven’t been active on LinkedIn – that part appears blank and it makes it less enticing for a prospect to connect with you because you’re not going to add any value.
- Education & Certifications – speaks for itself and is super easy
- Skills and Endorsements – if you can add a few of these that’s going to help
- Accomplishments – as above
STEP 2: The Connection Request
On LinkedIn – you basically have two options
– just press the connect button
– connect and ‘add a note’ or ‘personalise the request’
Now I’m a big fan of the personalised request… and don’t get me wrong – if your bio is good – most people will probably connect with you even if you don’t personalise the invite…
But… There’s a big proportion of people who wouldn’t have connected with you, but since you’ve sent a good personalised invite – they will now connect with you.
And it doesn’t take that much longer, I have a copy / paste template that I use (see below) and I just change the name (don’t forget this step :p)
“Hey name! Looks like we’re both in the Fitness Industry and have some mutual connections so would love to connect and see if there’s any way my network can add value to you.”
That’s it – keep it simple 🙂
AFTER THE CONNECTION
Now once someone has connected with you – that’s when the fun starts :)! How can we convert the ‘connection’ to a ‘client / customer’ and I’ve got a strategy for that too – but that’s a whole nother blog – that I’ll write shortly.
In the meantime – start connecting 🙂
AND… feel free to join my Course Creator Community Facebook Group! There are thousands of course creators in there, everyone is super supportive and we all share tips and ideas! Click here to join.
Blog Author
Jono Petrohilos
Director at Course Creator Community
Click here to join the Course Creator Community Facebook Group