Your LinkedIn headline is the most important part of your LinkedIn profile. It goes with you where ever you appear on LinkedIn. It is your shop window, your elevator pitch. So it’s essential that it clearly and succinctly explains exactly what you do.
What is your headline?
Your headline is the type that sits right below your banner and your photo. LinkedIn has recently extended the length of your headline from 120 characters to 220 so you have even more freedom as to what to write.
Why is your headline so important?
Your headline follows you everywhere you go on LinkedIn. Every time you post something or comment on someone else’s post, the first part of your headline shows up beneath your name. Therefore, your headline is one of the first things that anyone sees about you. It is what introduces you when you ‘meet’ someone on LinkedIn.
Get it right and you could have potential customers clicking on your profile to find out more about you. Get it wrong and no one will know what you do, why you do it and if you can help them. If that’s the case, you won’t make any new ‘friends’ on LinkedIn – or if you do, they won’t be the ones you’re after.
What makes a good headline?
A good headline really does grab attention. BUT – you don’t want to grab just anyone’s attention, you want to grab the attention of your potential customers. Yes I know it sounds really basic but so many people get this wrong.
Basically your headline needs to be like Ronseal. It needs to say exactly what you do.
Step 1
The first step you need to take is to know who your ideal customer is! If you don’t know who you want to sell to, then how do you know how to talk to them?
Finding out who your ideal customer is can be a long process and you may need some help. Knowing who your ideal customer is will not only help you write your headline, it will also help you with your whole LinkedIn marketing strategy.
Your ideal customer can change over time; as your business grows or changes direction. It is vital, however, that you have one at all times!
Step 2
Say in your headline who your ideal customer is. Take this example:
Susan Alrashe has clearly identified that she works with “leaders in banking and finance”. So, if you are one of those people, you will want to know more about how Susan can help you.
If you are not then you won’t bother. This is just as important for Susan as it is for her potential clients as it saves Susan time dealing with people that she doesn’t want to work with! Win-win!
Step 3
Tell your ideal customer what you can do for them. It’s all very well telling people that you work with them, but what do you help them achieve?
Here’s another great example of someone who has done this really well:
What Tracy has done here is not only say how she can help her clients on a practical level but she has also talked about what she can make them feel and do with the knowledge she gives them. This is such powerful stuff – and all in so few characters!
Step 4
Tell your ideal customer how you’re going to help them. This is a great place to explain how you could work together or how your service or product actually works.
This is a great chance to explain how you work in a way that no one else does. It’s a way to show how you are different from your competitors. Here is a fantastic example of this:
Diana is proud of the fact that she handpicks her assistants; this is what separates her from other recruitment consultants. What is great here is that Diana also says what her process helps her clients achieve.
Step 5
The ‘personal’ bit. So, you’ve written an attention-grabbing “Does what it says on the tin”, Ronseal-style headline aimed directly at your ideal customer. Fantastic! What is a really good end point though, is to add something personal, something about you which could make a good conversation starter or which may make people sit up and really take notice. A great example of this is John Espirian:
Who knows what a douche canoe really is? The message gets across though and it is a great ‘opener’. Anyone wanting to connect with John would just have to ask them what he means by that phrase and – boom – friends for life!
So there you have it. How to write a LinkedIn headline to grab your ideal customers!
When you’ve done yours please let me know and I’d be happy to look at it for you and tell you what I think.
If you’re really stuck and don’t know what to write, DM me on LinkedIn and I’ll see if I can help you.
