When prospects google you, they’re going to find you in two places- your website or on your social media- your LinkedIn profile.
That’s why it’s essential to ensure your LinkedIn profile is updated. Think of your LinkedIn profile as a foundation for your business branding. People continue to do business with people; it’s even more critical for independent advisors because clients do business with you, not a large institution.
The goals of your LinkedIn profile are to:
- Establish yourself as the trusted advisor.
- Grow your business
Here are pointers on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile:
Your Profile Headshot
Think of your profile picture as the key to making the best first impression. It’s the first thing people see when they look at your profile, and it can help set their expectations for what you’re like as a professional.
Please use a professional photo for your profile where you’re smiling and preferably wearing your logo colours.
Background photo
The second visual element on your profile is the background photo. Take advantage of this real estate and use a cover image with your tagline and contact details. It’s one of the best opportunities to show how you help clients visually.
Another tip: you can change this regularly: RRSP season, Financial Literacy month or RESP deadline.
Professional Headline
Your LinkedIn professional headline is an opportunity to pique curiosity about what you do and have prospects, clients, and centres of influence check you out. No rule says it should only be your job title. Instead, I would use the headline creatively, emphasizing who you serve, the problem you solve for them, and what success looks like after they work with you.
Here’s an example:
“Financial advisor specializing in helping employees retire with financial confidence.”
Remember that your headline appears everywhere. This means it always appears under your photo and name when you comment, post, share, like or write an article.
Summary
Use your LinkedIn summary as an opportunity to tell your story.
This is where you can go into detail about Who you serve, what you do and who you are. Take the time to inject your personality into your summary so prospects can get to know you better.
Make sure you also include your contact details (ex., website, email address, book a meeting link) because if you’re not connected on LinkedIn, your contact details won’t appear.
If you have a video of yourself, please add the video to your summary; this is a great way to stand out. Adding the video establishes you as the trusted advisor, and if it’s done well, it will immediately establish credibility and authority with your prospect.
There are two sections a video can be included on your LinkedIn Profile: Summary and Experience. I would take advantage of both.
Experience
You should post about your experience; I suggest bullet point format because people like to scan when they’re looking on a screen versus reading every word. In addition, you should highlight your skills and duties and how it helps your current clients.
When completing your experience, ensure the company name and logo are displayed in your experience section. Remember, the goal is to position yourself as the trusted advisor, so leverage your company’s reputation.
Education
It seems self-explanatory but emphasize how the school helps you with your current role.
To gain further credibility, ensure the school name and logo are displayed in the education section.
Accomplishments
If you’ve taken any financial courses, this is where you can add the CFP, CLU, CHS designations and investment courses or any courses you’ve taken.
Every course you take here should be added to your accomplishments. You put in the hard work and invested time to better yourself as an advisor; please make sure you acknowledge it.
If you have qualified for MDRT or any conferences, please include this too.
Recommendations
Ask for recommendations- this goes a long way for advisors, especially new referral sources or prospects checking you out. Remember that up to 84% of consumers noted that reviews were critical in their purchasing decisions.1
Your LinkedIn recommendations can also be added to your website; if you haven’t done this, please talk to your web developer to do this.
I know this is a lot to keep track of, so we’ve put together a checklist so that you can make sure your LinkedIn profile is super optimized. You can download it here:
If you need help with your financial marketing, please don’t hesitate to book a free consultation: