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180 | LinkedIn for Coaches: From Zero Visibility to Booked Out · Women in The Coaching Arena

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  If you are copying and pasting DMs to strangers, posting inspirational quotes that get three likes from other coaches, then let's talk about how LinkedIn can actually work for you as a coach.
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  I posted on LinkedIn five days a week for six months before I got a single client from it.
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  Six whole months, five days a week, ready to give up, and then finally, three people DMed me in the same week, like buses, all saying that version of, "I've been following your posts for months, and I think I
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  need your help."
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  So LinkedIn definitely works, but it does take consistency, and this is what most people don't appreciate when they start their business.
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  It also isn't a strategy in itself.
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  Whereas it used to be much easier, in all honesty, back in 2020, it's not really easy now because the platform is so much bigger.
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  Welcome to Women in the Coaching Arena.
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  I am Jo Lott, and I have helped hundreds of coaches to build brilliant businesses.
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  Today, we are talking LinkedIn because it's the one place where nearly all of my clients have originated from, and that's in lots of different niches, executive coaching, career coaching, and now business coaching.
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  So it can work for you whatever niche you are in.
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  And I know it's really tough right now because the algorithm has changed, so it's not just in your head.
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  It really is hard now to get reach.
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  LinkedIn have recently moved to paid ads, which they had never really gone big on before, so it's looking a bit more like your Instagram or Facebook feed where most things are adverts.
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  So therefore, they will be limiting reach to encourage you to pay them to show people your post.
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  But you can still do this for free, and LinkedIn still is brilliant.
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  Your ideal clients are there scrolling over their tea or coffee.
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  You just need to give them a reason to stop and notice you.
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  So why LinkedIn?
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  Why not Instagram, TikTok, or whatever else is out there?
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  Here are three reasons I chose LinkedIn as my core platform.
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  So first is the audience.
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  LinkedIn is full of professionals, people with careers, with budgets, who are actively thinking about their development.
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  If you are a career coach, leadership coach, confidence coach, then people are already there, and they're far more in a buyer's mind than usually people aimlessly scrolling on Instagram.
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  I find LinkedIn converts more people because they are in that buying mind.
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  But again, I have had clients manage to succeed on all platforms, so it's completely up to you, the individual, as to how big you want to go to your social media.
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  And I find LinkedIn very forgiving, as in they're quite happy with a post a day or maybe three posts in a week, whereas me personally have found Instagram requires a lot more creativity, a lot more stories, a lot
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  more involvement in your life.
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  So it just depends on you as a person, but I chose LinkedIn for those particular reasons.
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  You can reach people directly through searching in the search bar, which is unlike most platforms, because you can actually search for their job title, which is ideal.
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  Well, for me it's ideal 'cause I know the job title of the people I'm searching for, which is coach.
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  But even if you are a leadership coach, for example, it's still ideal to find lawyers or accountants or whoever else you might want to search for in the feed.
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  So even if you are a leadership coach, you can still search for job titles in LinkedIn, which is unlike other platforms.
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  Okay, so let's move on to your profile.
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  This is where most coaches go wrong before they've even posted anything.
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  Your LinkedIn headline is losing you clients, and your LinkedIn headline is that most important bit.
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  It's the first thing people see under your name.
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  If yours says something like, "Life coach, ICF-accredited coach" Passionate about helping people be their best selves.
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  I'm sorry, but it's very unlikely to do any work for you.
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  Your ideal client doesn't care about your job title or your accreditation at this stage.
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  They care about whether you can help them in particular, so your headline needs to answer one question.
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  What do you help people do?
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  Something like, "I help women in tech get their next promotion."
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  So be specific, be clear, and make it about them.
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  Now let's move on to your About section.
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  Think of this as your mini landing page.
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  Not a CV, not your entire life story, but start with them and their pain.
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  When I review clients' LinkedIn profiles, if they first started their business, their About section is usually all about them.
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  So, "I have 20 years experience.
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  I have done this.
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  I have done that," and they forget to actually speak directly to their ideal client.
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  So do check out your own About section now and see if you're using the word you rather than using the word I all of the time.
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  So really show how you got here, what you understand, and finally, you move on to what you offer, and that is the part that most people miss, a clear next step.
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  So what do you want them to do next?
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  So for me, at the end of mine, it might be listen to my podcast.
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  It might be download my free guide if you have a lead magnet, pins in your featured section.
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  It might be book a call.
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  It might be send me a DM.
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  But make sure you have a call to action at the end of your About section.
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  Your banner should ideally be clear and professional with a line about why follow you.
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  Also use it to put your call to action, so whether that is check out my featured section for certain offer, certain lead magnet, wherever it is you want to take them to.
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  So you don't have to completely repeat your headline, because it goes just above your headline, but say something interesting that will immediately communicate why I should follow you.
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  Okay, so let's move on to posting now.
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  So stop posting inspirational quotes on LinkedIn.
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  I need to say something here that might sting, but those inspirational quotes we all love as coaches feel nice to post, they get a few likes, but nobody has ever read, "Be the change you want to see in
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  the world," and thought, "Right, I need to hire this coach."
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  Here's what actually works.
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  Repeatable problem post.
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  So you name a specific problem your ideal client is having.
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  Really think about the problem that your client is having and try not to be vague here.
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  We're talking micro-specific.
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  We want them to think, "Oh my goodness, she's describing my actual Tuesday."
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  Something like, "You know that feeling when you've been in the same role for five years, everyone tells you to go for the promotion, but the thought of it makes your stomach feel sick?"
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  Then you share your insight or your experience, and you end with something soft like, "If this resonates, drop me a comment or DM me."
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  Or ideally, I would be saying, "Sign up for my free guide."
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  Sometimes from a post, people aren't always in a position to want to buy from you.
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  I often think about LinkedIn as reach, so reaching lots of people, and your email list is where you generally make sales.
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  This type of post works because your ideal client reads it and thinks, "They're actually describing my life."
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  Post two is the authority teaching post.
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  This is where you're gonna share your expertise, practical, actionable stuff that shows what you're actually talking about.
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  Something like, "After working with 200-plus coaches, here are three things that actually get clients and three things that don't."
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  That could be a post that I would put out, for example.
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  But really do make your content genuinely useful.
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  I think this is the biggest mistake I see, and most people's posts are not good enough to really help people learn anything new or follow them or gain a great insight.
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  So the more generous you are, the more that people will trust you.
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  Okay, so let's move on to the story post.
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  So a real transformation with permission from your ideal client if you feel like it's too close to an actual client discussion.
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  Where were they before they worked with you?
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  Where are they now?
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  And what made the difference?
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  One of the coaches in my program came in, qualified for a year already, with zero paying clients.
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  Within four weeks, she had done five market research calls, which is a task I set us in our first four weeks of working together.
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  She got really clear on her niche, she got clear on her offer, and her first paying client came from one of those conversations.
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  That is a story worth telling.
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  Now let's look at engagement.
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  Your comments are free advertising on LinkedIn.
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  This is, again, the bit most coaches skip, and it might matter more than your actual posts.
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  Your comments are free advertising on other people's posts and other people's audiences.
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  When you leave a thoughtful comment on someone else's post, everyone else reading that post who wants to look at the comments will see your name and your headline, and they may think, "Oh, I see, she helps people like
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  me."
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  And that is essentially standing on someone else's stage for free.
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  Do be careful with this.
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  Leave a great comment.
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  Take your time.
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  Really do think, "What can I add to this perspective?"
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  Do this every day, maybe 10 or 15 minutes.
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  Leave 5 or 10 comments, and that's it, and you will be amazed how quickly people start clicking through to your profile and maybe following you.
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  Now let's talk about connecting.
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  When someone engages with your content, send a connection request.
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  You might want to do a personalized note like, "Hi, Sarah, thanks for your comment on my post.
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  I would love to connect."
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  Or you don't have to leave a personalized note at all.
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  You can simply hit connect.
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  Again, don't try and go too far here, or no one will ever like your post again, so be careful with things like, "Hi, Sarah, I'm a coach, and I can transform your life.
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  Here's my calendar link."
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  And I'm sure you would never do that.
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  And DMs can be brilliant if done right.
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  Be genuine, be curious, don't pitch too soon.
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  Build that relationship first.
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  The opportunity to talk about your work will come naturally in the end, but it does require patience.
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  I get pitch DMs every single day.
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  Someone will connect, and you automatically know they're gonna be pitching you immediately.
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  I've got a lot more fussy with who I accept now because I can immediately tell who's going to pitch me.
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  And honestly, I just think, "Ugh, another one of those," and I move on.
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  Here's a simple LinkedIn rhythm for coaches in less than three hours a week.
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  Monday, one post, something authoritative or a client story.
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  Wednesday, one post, a repeatable problem or teaching point.
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  Every day do 10 to 15 minutes of commenting and connecting, and maybe once a month you might want to do a longer article or LinkedIn newsletter.
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  That's it.
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  You can do this in school hours.
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  I know, because I have done this over the last six years.
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  Now I want to be honest, I have had a real steady LinkedIn consistency for six years, and only last week did I fall off the wagon and felt like I had nothing new to say.
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  The algorithm and content at the moment feels so AI-driven that I just couldn't find the enthusiasm to really think about what I wanted to share.
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  So if you go through stages like that, don't worry, it happens to everyone.
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  And one thing that's really helped me is to ask myself, "What has happened in the last seven days that I could talk about?"
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  Really look at your calendar and start thinking, "What did I learn this week?"
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  And it's really helped me to feel excited about sharing content again.
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  And like I've mentioned a few times in this episode, the algorithm has changed.
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  You are not imagining it.
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  Everybody's talking about it.
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  Posts that would've done brilliantly a year ago just don't land the same way anymore.
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  Ride the wave is my advice.
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  Somebody messaged me yesterday, a client's worrying about this, and I was just like, "Just ride the wave."
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  Like, we can't control the algorithm.
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  Stick with what you can control, or at least try and learn what is working now, but don't get too obsessed because by the time you've worked out what's working, it will have probably changed again.
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  Now let's cover what really makes LinkedIn work at the moment, which is deep marketing.
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  I talk about this a lot and, for example, deep marketing might be something like this, a weekly podcast or video, a consistent email newsletter, live events I've built what I call a marketing ecosystem, not just a LinkedIn strategy,
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  and that is what I want for you too eventually.
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  But if you are starting out, LinkedIn is still one of the best places to begin.
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  Three to four times a week is great, and consistency matters more than volume.
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  One more thing, LinkedIn Lives.
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  Several of the coaches in my program have started going live together on LinkedIn, and it's been brilliant.
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  Daisy and Emma went live last week and had a proper conversation, and it was really, really good.
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  Rachel and Daisy co-hosted a webinar.
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  You can also do a Q&A, ask a coach anything behind the scenes type of series.
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  So be creative here.
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  Really think about how people can get to know you without it being a huge commitment, like you starting a podcast or a YouTube channel.
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  LinkedIn is not complicated, but it does need consistency and a bigger strategy behind it.
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  So do show up a couple of times a week, engage daily, and watch what happens.
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  One tiny thing you could do after today's episode is update your headline.
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  So have a look.
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  Does it communicate really clearly to your ideal client?
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  Does it bring in your authority?
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  So for example, one thing you could do is say ex-Deloitte or something if you had a name-dropping former employer.
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  Really think about how you can bring your personality and your background into your LinkedIn headline.
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  If you are watching on YouTube, do hit Subscribe.
• 15:17
  And if you are listening on Apple or Spotify, please do hit Subscribe or Follow so you don't miss future episodes.
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  And if you know a coach who is wanting to use LinkedIn or scared to do that, then do send this episode to them.
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  Thank you for listening today, and like I always say, trust yourself, believe in yourself, and be the wise gardener who keeps on watering the seeds.