5 Reasons To Go Premium Today

Should I upgrade to LinkedIn Premium? This is probably one of the most common questions we get asked when we talk on stage, run webinars or conduct live training sessions.

LinkedIn is a powerful medium for marketing your personal brand and business. So our answer to this question is that any time you look at a new marketing strategy, you should ALWAYS consider the return on your investment for both your time and money.

– Examine the way you currently generate leads.
– How many you are bringing in.
– Who is your target market and how much this costs you.

Then make the comparison between your current strategy and the proposed new strategy and the numbers will tell you whether you should implement the new method or not. Actually let’s do this now, drop everything you’re going right now, get a notepad/pen and answer these following questions:

1) Who is your target market? (location, company size, industry, decision maker, job title)
2) What platforms are you currently using to get in front of this target market?
3) How much is each lead costing you? (time, resources for employing people, advertising costs etc)

Now that you know a little more about your current initiatives, let’s look at how this compares to the outcomes you could achieve if you upgraded to LinkedIn Premium. Did you know that right now there are over 430 million users on LinkedIn and 49% are key decision makers? We have a firm belief that regardless of industry, company size or location we’re all in the business of marketing.

And the sole purpose of why we market our business is to get our message right and get it in front of key decision makers. That said, we believe the key to marketing success is 10% what you say, and 90% how you say it.

If you’re out there using the same saturated strategies like all your competitors, it’s going to be difficult to stand out, cut through and get your message heard. This is why you should be using and leveraging LinkedIn to its full potential before your competition does.

Now if you’re sitting there thinking “How do I leverage it?” and “What’s the benefit of upgrading from a free account to a premium account?” Well, below we’ve shared with you 5 reasons why you should upgrade, without delay. We’re pretty certain once you realize the benefits and how many people you can get in front of you won’t think twice about upgrading to the premium account (and cancelling your alternate marketing strategy):

1. If you have a free LinkedIn account you can only search up to 100 people in an advanced search but on the Premium Account, depending on your level of subscriptions, you can search for thousands of people in your target market and you’re able to save your advanced search criteria.

Using this advanced search strategy we were looking to connect with people in the coaching profession. We connected with 3000+ coaches which ended up generating 150K in revenue out of the exercise.

2. A really useful function on LinkedIn is the ability to save your searches. In doing this, LinkedIn goes to work for you and sends you people that fit this search criteria.

Essentially it’s giving you endless leads on autopilot, that you can then connect with. Just imagine saving a couple of searches and then having notifications of leads of your target market coming to you each week, hundreds each month.

3. A premium badge on your profile increases the number of people who will connect with you. Your LinkedIn page is the foremost searchable page people will view of your profile online. Once you’re on Premium, you’ll realize the difference it will make – people looking at your online profile can see that you understand the significance of your online profile, you’ve put your hand in your pocket and you’re investing in it.

4. You can directly message (or “Open Message”), any other user of LinkedIn Premium without connecting with them. This in itself opens the world to you to leading figures within your target industry.

People are more likely to open and respond to messages through LinkedIn than they otherwise would through email. Take advantage of this and connect with, learn from and form business relationships with key people in your target market.

5. If you’re on LinkedIn Premium, your profile will be more visible in search results. As an example, if a potential client was looking for “lawyers Sydney”.  As a free LinkedIn user, certain details on your profile will be hidden, whereas, as a Premium User a far greater detailed summary is listed – twice as much in fact – immediately giving you an advantage over your peers.

The best part is that you can achieve everything that we’ve mentioned above and more (because, there are lots we haven’t listed) for less than $75 a month. We use business plus which is $47.99 month, but the highest you can pay is $74.99. There is no other platform that allows you to connect with your target market at such a low investment.

But we understand, when doing something like for the first time it can obviously be a little daunting, wondering whether what you’ve done is correct or going to get the result you’re aiming for. To take the guess work out of it, you’re best off outsourcing it to people who have years of experience to ensure you maximise your efforts and also don’t burn opportunities. Remember your first impression can often be your last.