Providing services on LinkedIn typically refers to professionals and businesses using the platform to market, sell, and deliver products and services to other LinkedIn members. With over 850 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become a popular place for service-based businesses and independent professionals to find new customers and promote their offerings.
What types of services are offered on LinkedIn?
A wide variety of services are offered on LinkedIn, including:
- Consulting services – Business, marketing, financial, HR, and IT consulting
- Creative services – Graphic design, writing, video production
- Marketing services – Social media marketing, SEO, market research
- Business services – Web development, bookkeeping, virtual assistance
- Coaching and training services – Executive coaching, career coaching, corporate training
- Recruiting services – Job posting, headhunting, screening
Essentially any professional service can be offered on LinkedIn. It provides a platform for service providers to connect with an engaged, professional audience.
Why do service providers use LinkedIn?
There are several key reasons providers offer services on LinkedIn:
- Targeted audience – LinkedIn members are there for professional networking and business purposes.
- Established profiles – Member profiles provide insight into jobs, skills, interests, and more.
- Trust and credibility – Recommendations help establish authority and trust.
- Lead generation – Many options exist for generating new business leads.
- Ad platform – Sponsored content and ads enable targeted promotion.
- Showcase work – Portfolios and case studies can be shared.
In short, LinkedIn enables service professionals to connect with the right audience, establish credibility, promote their services, and generate new business.
How do service providers market themselves on LinkedIn?
Service providers use several LinkedIn features and functions to promote their services, including:
- Complete profiles – Detailed profiles show expertise and experience.
- Showcase pages – Special pages to highlight services, work, testimonials.
- Content posting – Regular posts to publish relevant content.
- Article publishing – Posting long-form articles to establish thought leadership.
- Adverstising – Using LinkedIn’s self-service ads platform to promote services.
- Sponsored content – Paying to amplify organic posts to reach more users.
- Direct outreach – Messaging other members to promote services.
- Recommendations – Getting recommendations from past clients.
The most successful providers have complete profiles highlighting their expertise, share valuable content consistently, leverage LinkedIn ads, and obtain quality client recommendations. This helps them attract the right prospective clients.
What are some best practices for service providers on LinkedIn?
Experts recommend several best practices for service professionals using LinkedIn to market their services and attract clients:
- Optimize the profile with an informative headline, detailed summary section highlighting services offered, and media that demonstrates expertise.
- Regularly publish long-form, insightful articles and posts that provide value.
- Actively engage with other members by commenting on posts, joining groups, and building connections.
- Leverage Company Pages and Showcase Pages to create dedicated spaces to highlight services.
- Use LinkedIn ads to promote service offerings and content to defined target audiences.
- Build a strong recommendations list from satisfied clients.
- Focus on helping others first before promoting services.
- Use analytics to assess content performance and optimize approaches.
The main keys are providing value, establishing expertise and credibility, leveraging LinkedIn’s tools, and developing authentic relationships with prospects.
What mistakes should be avoided?
Some common mistakes service providers should avoid on LinkedIn include:
- Using a generic, incomplete profile. Profiles should showcase expertise.
- Making overt product pitches vs. sharing helpful content.
- Poorly targeting ads and sponsored content.
- Automated, spammy outreach messaging.
- Posting too infrequently.
- Focusing too much on promotion over relationship building.
- Not optimizing content based on insights.
- Paying for LinkedIn services without a clear strategy.
The platform works best when used to establish relationships and demonstrate value first before actively selling services.
What are some examples of successful service providers on LinkedIn?
Some examples of service providers effectively leveraging LinkedIn include:
- Ramit Sethi – Personal finance advisor who publishes advice content and promotes his courses.
- Michael Brenner – Marketing consultant who posts videos and articles to promote his services.
- Pam Moore – Social selling trainer who shares tips and generates leads with long-form posts.
- Phil Pallen – HR consultant who curates and promotes content to establish thought leadership.
- AJ Wilcox – B2B influencer who leverages LinkedIn ads and content to promote his marketing agency.
- Jeff Bullas – Digital marketer who uses his Company Page and content to attract digital marketing services clients.
These examples showcase professionals who leverage LinkedIn content and community-building to successfully attract new business.
Conclusion
LinkedIn has become a key platform for service providers targeting other business professionals and companies. By optimizing profiles, consistently sharing valuable insights, building connections, leveraging LinkedIn’s marketing tools, and focusing on value first, service providers can successfully build credibility and attract new clients on LinkedIn. But it requires a strategic, long-term approach focused on relationships and thought leadership.