LinkedIn has quickly grown into a powerhouse for B2B marketing. For small businesses and solopreneurs, it’s a unique opportunity to build your brand, connect with potential clients, and drive sales – and you don’t have to make silly videos, either.
But it can feel overwhelming to start marketing on a new platform. You might even be procrastinating it.
I’m here with the simplest way to get started content marketing on LinkedIn (as a solopreneur who’s used it to bring in over $70k revenue in one year). Don’t worry, we’ll cover all the best practices for you overachievers too! Let’s start with the logic.
Your LinkedIn Content Marketing Plan
Step 1: Connect
LinkedIn is all about connections. It’s a networking platform, after all. The most important thing for you to do is grow your network by making connections.
You should be making new connections before, during, and after you start content marketing. And you can use this free guide to learn how to make the right connections and start conversations in the DMs.
Obviously, with people who are relevant to you and your business. Your ideal clients, your peers, people who do what you do.
Step 2: Impress
Okay so making new connections will get eyes on your posts. But so will making posts that improve your “impressions” a.k.a. views. This will also help you get new followers.
Step 3: Engage
Once you’ve impressed, it’s time to engage. This will get you even more impressions, new followers, and – most importantly – build your community.
Engagement is a key part of this plan. If you do not engage, your content will not perform as well as it could. If you feel you don’t have time for engagement, there are people who can help with that!
Step 4: Convert
Now that you’ve built your audience and engaged them, you can start converting them into your customers. You can do this through the direct messages, in the comments, and even directly in your posts.
There’s a fine line to walk here: DM etiquette, posting enough top of the funnel content to keep your impressions up, and also being direct. LinkedIn is primarily a business platform. Everyone’s there to do business. Don’t be afraid to be clear and direct about what you’re offering. (don’t worry we’ll talk more about this!!)
Step 5: Repeat
I’ve been using LinkedIn to get clients since 2019. I’ve never followed a perfect content calendar or strategy. The one thing I’ve done all along is spend time on the platform.
I typically spend 30-60 minutes per day on LinkedIn.
● Sometimes I write posts and schedule them for later.
● Other days I send a bunch of connection requests to the relevant people working at my ideal clients.
● And then there are the days when I just engage with the activity on my posts, optimize my profile, and interact with the posts of my favorite people on LinkedIn.
I do something to contribute to one of the first 4 steps every single work day. That’s what makes it easy for me to consistently get clients from LinkedIn.
How to Get More Followers & Connection Requests
The first step, getting connections. If connect requests come to you LinkedIn likes you more. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be sending connection requests too. Here’s how to build your network:
Optimize Your Profile: Experience, headline, featured section, about, and images are all key to presenting yourself as someone to connect with, follow, and buy from. This free webinar will help you with that.
Engage Authentically: Interact thoughtfully and helpfully with other people’s content. This will spike your follower count and have connection requests coming to you.
Showcase Your Expertise: Share valuable insights and thought leadership content (posts without a sales proposition) to position yourself as an industry expert. You can use a lead magnet in these posts, though! Grow your email list at the same time!
Hot take: LinkedIn suggests that hashtags will get your post in front of more, relevant people. However, most users I know haven’t seen any benefit to using hashtags… I usually recommend my clients don’t bother using them.
How to Get More Impressions
This will get you more followers and position you as more of an expert. Here’s how:
Post Consistently: Aim for 10-20 posts per month. This frequency helps you reach about 60% of your unique audience and proves to LinkedIn you’re here to help!
Optimize Posting Times: LinkedIn suggests that posting between 7 am and 11 am local time on weekdays is best though. They also say that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday will get you the most action.
Hot take: The best time to post is when you’re online. They want to see you interacting with your post and your connections’ posts in a 30 minute window around when your post goes live.
So schedule your posts at a time you know you’ll be on LinkedIn. I usually aim to be on there for 30 minutes at 9:30 or 10 am every day and schedule my posts for that time, too.
LinkedIn says Friday is the worst day to post. I, however, have seen the best results on Fridays… so treat timing as an experiment! You never know what will work for you.
How to Get More Engagement
Alright, now it’s time to really find your fans and make some friends! Get engagement with any of these tactics:
Ask Questions: Encourage your audience to engage by asking for their opinions or experiences.
Use Polls: LinkedIn polls are a great way to boost engagement and learn from your audience simultaneously.
Respond to Comments: Foster conversations by responding helpfully or with another question to comments on your posts.
Share Personal Stories: Posts with a personal touch tend to resonate more with your audience and encourage engagement. You can use GenAI to make some of your posts, but at least 1/2 of your posts should be hand-written. Trust me. It makes a huge difference.
Experiment with Formats: While text-only posts and screenshots get more impressions, videos and photos of yourself can drive higher engagement rates.
Hot take: Controversial takes get a ton of engagement (and impressions). But you shouldn’t post them all the time. I usually post one “hot take” each month and they’re always my top performers.
How to Drive Sales & Get Clients
What did you really want to start content marketing for? Probably getting clients, am I right? If so, try these:
Share Your Services: Use the rule of thirds – about a third of your posts should be focused on your services, new products, or availability for work. If people don’t know what you’re offering – you’ll never sell anything.
Use External Links Wisely: Contrary to popular belief, posts with external links in the copy can drive high engagement. Don't be afraid to include links to your services or products directly in your posts. But don’t put links in all of your posts. The rule of thirds works well for this, too.
Create a Content Funnel: Tailor your content to different stages of the sales funnel:
○ 40% for awareness (attracting new followers and cold leads)
○ 30% for consideration (warming up potential clients)
○ 20-30% for conversion (encouraging direct action)
Case Studies: Share success stories and client testimonials to build trust and credibility. What you did, how you did it, the results of what you did, what the client said – it all shows how you do your work and how well you do it!
Offer Value: Provide free, valuable content to build trust and position yourself as an expert in your field. Lead magnets, YouTube Videos, Blogs, Podcasts, Newsletters, and any other content can either be repurposed into valuable LinkedIn posts or shared on LinkedIn!
Hot take: I turn my newsletter into 3 LinkedIn posts every week. I basically say the same thing 3 different ways. Then, I share about my newsletter coming out. Easy peasy! Other than that, I fill in with my opinions, portfolio pieces and testimonials, and sales posts.
Best Practices
Do not let “best practices” and the overwhelm of perfectionism hold you back from posting. You don’t need to follow all ****of these guidelines all the time. It’s better to post something than nothing at all.
Personal Accounts > Company Pages: Personal accounts tend to perform better than company pages. If you're a solopreneur, focus on building your personal brand.
Schedule Your Posts: Use LinkedIn’s native scheduling feature to schedule your posts in advance. This can lead to more than 2x better impressions compared to spontaneous posting.
Start Conversations: Focus on creating content that sparks discussions. Ask for opinions, share controversial (but professional) takes, and encourage your network to share their experiences.
Build Community: Engage with your followers regularly, comment on others' content, and foster a sense of community around your brand or expertise.
Analyze and Adjust: Regularly review your LinkedIn analytics to understand what content resonates best with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly. Here’s my favorite template for that, LinkedIn’s native analytics aren’t detailed.
You’ve got this
Remember, success on LinkedIn doesn't happen overnight. It requires consistent effort, valuable content, and genuine engagement with your network. Treat it like an experiment, continually refine your approach based on your results!
Start small, be consistent, and don't be afraid to show your personality. LinkedIn may be a professional network, but it's still social media – people want to connect with real, relatable individuals.
What I’m doing for my personal brand
The only posts I intentionally plan are the ones in the considering and conversion phase because they’re usually a part of a bigger launch strategy that I’ve cooked up to sell a specific product or service.
I usually just write posts when I feel inspired – often by a comment I’m leaving on someone else’s post, something a client said, or a question someone asked me. Otherwise, I just turn my newsletter into posts and share about my newsletter, upcoming events, and my podcast.
Then, I schedule them for the next weekday that doesn’t already have a post scheduled at 9:30 am. I have posts scheduled out for the next 2 months.
Not because I strategically planned them or “batched” posts or made them perfectly optimized for best practices. You can do those things but it really doesn’t need to be perfect for you to grow rapidly (I’m talking 5k new followers in less than a year). It’s so much easier to just remove all the red-tape and barriers and post!!
Key takeaways for you
TL;DR? Here are a few quick actionable pieces of advice you can take away from this article to make your own content better.
Explicitly ask for engagement (likes, comments, reposts) in your posts.
Post controversial opinions for higher engagement and impressions (aim for twice a month to start).
Your best time to post might not be the typical recommendation. Find your own by analyzing your content! For now, just schedule your posts for 30 mins before you plan to be online.
Text-only posts and screenshots get the most impressions, while videos get the most engagement.
If you want to include an external link, put it in the post copy rather than comments for better engagement.
Tailor your content to different stages of the sales funnel: 40%+ for awareness, 30% for consideration, and 20-30% for conversion.
Spend 30-60 minutes daily on LinkedIn for best results, focusing on interaction shortly after posting.
Rachel is a freelance writer for EdTech companies. She studied Education and Achievement Motivation at Wheelock College. She made it through college on a trusty Lenovo Yoga. When she’s not writing, she spends her time adventuring in the outdoors, doing arts and crafts, and snuggling with her cat, Bonnie.
Find her on LinkedIn and her website.