THE SIDE HUSTLE SHOW

with Nick Loper

Episode 383

LinkedIn Lead Generation:

How to Attract Your Ideal Clients on LinkedIn

(w/Helen Pritchard)
http://www.sidehustlenation.com/383

Helen Pritchard from HelenPritchardOnline.com has been using LinkedIn to gain paying clients
for more than 10 years.
She now teaches other people how to make money on the platform by tailoring their profile to
their ideal client’s needs, and creating an ecosystem that cultivates a community within their
niche.

In this episode, Helen shares the processes she teaches students on her LinkedIn course. She
covers everything from how to set up your profile to attract and convert clients, how to find and
connect with clients, and where your time is best spent on the platform.

Why Did You Use LinkedIn to Build Your Business?

“LinkedIn was the answer to all my prayers, that’s why I’m so passionate about it,” Helen told
me.

Helen found LinkedIn during a time of need. Back in 2008, the UK was going through a financial
crisis.

Helen and her partner’s building business went bust, she separated from her partner, had kids
to look after, was personally in debt to the tune of £90,000 ($105,000), and was dealing with
anxiety issues.

She was working in social media management at the time and needed £2,500 per month to pay
the bills. So, she started using LinkedIn to find new clients.

Helen set herself the goal of finding 10 clients, each paying £250 per month to cover her bills.
She was able to quickly achieve that.

That was 10 years ago, but Helen said if anyone’s looking to use LinkedIn today to find clients,
the same principles still work.

“It’s dead simple, it’s really, really easy,” Helen told me.

What Are You Doing to Make Your Profile Stand Out?

“I make LinkedIn profiles about the ideal client, not the person whose profile it is,” Helen said.

She uses her profile as a landing page, not a personal profile. She’s found this to be very
effective at attracting clients and teaches others to do the same.

Helen said the headline is one of the most important parts of a profile to do this. She teaches
her course attendees to write a headline that talks to their ideal clients and identifies the
problems they have. Not to talk about themselves.

Helen also ran through all the major points she teaches in her LinkedIn training course, these
are:

• Know who your ideal clients are

• Sell one thing to one person, at one time, at one price
• Know how many of those things you need to sell to hit your target
• Be consistent about putting your message out there
 • Do things that make you feel uncomfortable; like recording videos and asking for
business
• Build your audience every day by adding new people and engaging with them

Does LinkedIn Work for Everyone?

“LinkedIn is the only platform on the planet where you can handpick your audience,” Helen told
me.

If you pick a niche, produce content relevant to that niche and your clients, then engage with
clients, you’ll create an ecosystem that contains you and your clients she explained.

Helen calls this “Lighthouse marketing” because she’s putting her content out there like a light
that’s shining on the people who want to see it.

As long as you’re willing to pick a niche, Helen said using this tactic on LinkedIn works for
anyone.

This doesn’t mean you can’t pivot at a later date. Helen has gone through three transformations
herself. She started as a social media manager, then was running recruitment ads on
Facebook, and is now a LinkedIn trainer.

All you have to do is change your headline, profile, and content to align with your new clients
and you’re good to go.

Ways to Find Clients and Build an Audience

Helen runs free 5-day challenges to help people build their audience on LinkedIn. During these
challenges she does Q&As, one of the most popular questions she always gets is how to find
clients.

To answer this, she’s developed a framework around three methods she teaches

1. You know who your ideal clients are by job role or title.

If this is the case, just type in their title on LinkedIn and you’ll find potential clients to invite to
connect.

2. You’re targeting something on people’s hearts or minds

This could be something like losing weight, feeling overwhelmed at work or at home, etc.

This category requires a bit of investigation. Helen said you can do some Google searches for
industries with the highest rate of dissatisfaction to look for people feeling overwhelmed.

Or, if you’re in the fitness niche for example, you can start looking at industries with money,
such as banking. You can then niche down and tailor your fitness content to bankers, for
example, to attract those clients.
As long as you niche down and focus your content towards your ideal audience and search for
those pain points, Helen said you’ll find your audience and you’ll be one of few people serving
them.

3. You know your niche but not the people

If this is the case, you can look for people who have won awards or gained some form of
recognition in your industry and start from there.

How Are You Connecting with People on LinkedIn?

As well as producing content to bring people into your ecosystem, Helen also recommends
proactively reaching out and asking people to connect with you.

Contrary to the advice you may have heard, Helen said you don’t need to write a personalized
note when connecting with people.

This works for her because she uses a headline on her profile that makes it clear what she can
offer the people she’s reaching out to. Helen said then when people see her headline and
realize she’s offering something they want; they connect with her.

Once the connection is made, her new contacts are drawn in with the content on her profile.
She has a mix of videos describing what she does, social proof and testimonials, some personal
stuff about herself to build trust, and a call to action notifying people where they can buy her
course.

What's a Good Content Posting Strategy for LinkedIn?

Helen doesn’t spend much time worrying about the engagement statistics or how the algorithm
works on LinkedIn.

“People need to focus on putting out content consistently, and not worrying about engagement
and reach,” Helen told me. “It’s not important.”

Helen releases a lot of content through posts on LinkedIn. Posts are for shorter-form content;
she either writes up something or syndicates content she’s posted on Facebook or elsewhere.

You can also produce articles on LinkedIn. These are for longer-form content, but Helen said
she doesn’t do much with articles as they get less engagement than posts.

Are LinkedIn Groups Worth Using?

Helen didn’t mince her words when I asked her if people should be using LinkedIn groups; “No,
absolute waste of time, LinkedIn groups are rubbish,” Helen said.

For those new to LinkedIn, there are loads of groups to browse and you can join up to 50. You
may be able to find a group with a cluster of people that you’re interested in, so it can be a good
way to find new connections.
Helen said they’re not good for sharing content or engagement though, and the same applies to
business pages.

How Many Connection Requests Are You Sending Daily?

Helen used to send 100 connection requests a day, and she would teach her course members
to do the same.

She’s since heard that LinkedIn can impose restrictions on accounts sending a high volume of
requests, so she now recommends sending 10 a day. She emphasized consistency here –
sending 10 every day, even weekends.

What’s Next?

Helen has loads of things coming up this year.

She was filling up seats for another free 5-day LinkedIn challenge when we recorded the
episode. That’s coming off the back of a challenge that had 3,000 people participating.

Helen does four launches of her LinkedIn mastermind course a year. Most of her processes are
automated, and she has a team of 9 helping. She hit a million pounds in sales last year, so her
courses are crushing it.

She is also branching out into some new areas. Helen is part of a book called SheCan365
which supports female entrepreneurship, has a magazine in the works, and some other new
products on the horizon.

Helen’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Just pick one thing. Sell one thing to one customer at one price until you reach your
target.”

More Info:

• https://www.sidehustlenation.com/383
• https://www.facebook.com/LinkedInLeadGen

Until next time!

-Nick