Optimizing Your Linkedin Profile + Maximizing LinkedIn For More Opportunities

Before you move any further in our program, STOP and make sure you send a connection request to the 4 Linkedin accounts below so that we can help drive Hiring Managers and Recruiters to your profile and resume:

Joseph Blanco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-blanco-b0a3542b/

Christiana Sara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiana-sara-0655b5173/

Donna Ferri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-ferri-2b5a6221b/

Michelle Blanco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-blanco-50a883221/

Add a quick note when you send the connection request: “I’m in JobPrepped’s program” so that we accept your connection request. Being connected with all of us on Linkedin is super important for you (as well as doing all the below) as this will make sure your profile now populates when recruiters and hiring managers are searching for candidates to fill a marketing position. If you don’t connect with us, Recruiters and Hiring Managers may not be able to see your profile/Resume when they search for candidates as they can only see 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections which will really limit you. So, make sure you connect with each of us so that you become a 2nd or 3rd degree connection with our large network so you start populating in their searches when they’re trying to fill a role as we want to make sure you get as many job opportunities as possible.

Moving on.

Just in case you’re relatively new to Linkedin (if you don’t have a Linkedin account yet, I strongly suggest you create one now – it’s Free), Linkedin is a place to show the business world your value and how strong of a worker you are. The reason why people do this is because this will lead to more opportunities for you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had job opportunities come my way simply due to a post showing off content I created, results I helped my company achieve, or by mentioning a promotion I received.

Trust me, if you go to any of my personal social media pages (outside of Linkedin), you’ll see, I never post. I just don’t like to. But, LinkedIn is different. Posting about this stuff is really important if you want more doors to open and if you want to advance your career faster. This is why you’re already likely seeing so many people posting about what they’re doing now to level-up their skills and work experience and you should be too.

Bottom line I want you taking from this is, I want you to get in the habit of whenever you do something to advance your career whether it’s:

Starting this program
Creating great content for work
Getting hired
Accomplishing something special at work
Getting a promotion
Or getting a new job

I want you to get in the habit of quickly sharing that on LinkedIn. Don’t make the mistake I did early in my career by not utilizing LinkedIn. Once I started doing this, it opened up so many doors and gave me a tremendous amount of bargaining power for my yearly salary negotiations so make sure you’re doing this.

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile

Now that you know posting can lead to more opportunities, let’s make it as easy as possible for hiring managers and recruiters to find you when they are conducting their search for new marketing candidates by optimizing your profile. We do have students that get interviews and job opportunities as a result of optimizing their LinkedIn profiles so I’d highly recommend you do exactly as I say here to help you appear in more recruiters and hiring managers’ search when looking for new marketing candidates.

Understanding How Recruiters and Hiring Managers Find People

The main way we find candidates (other than by posting a job) is by using Linkedin Recruiter which is a paid service and here’s exactly how it looks:

Hiring Managers and Recruiters are able to filter through millions of profiles to find candidates that best suit what we are looking for in a job role using the above filters. By far, and I do mean by far, the most important filters we use are the keywords as we are able to really hone in within the “Marketing and Advertising” industry the exact candidates we want. So, it’s very important that you have the correct keywords throughout your Linkedin profile (primarily in your “Experience” section) to ensure your profile is populating in their search results.

So here are the top things I suggest to optimize your Linkedin Profile so that you can start populating in as many recruiters and hiring managers’ search as possible:

Profile Image
1. Make sure it looks professional and hopefully it’s one that you’re smiling in or at least look friendly.
Banner Image
1. Don’t waste this space. Use this space as a place to easily highlight your unique selling proposition or some amazing stats or guarantees (or something along those lines) that you help your clients achieve. Remember, the more you can grab their attention quickly, the more inclined they are going to be willing to read the other areas of your profile. Imagery stands out a lot more than big bodies of text so you want to make sure you get your core message out within this banner image as people’s eyes will immediately be on this as they visit your Linkedin profile.
Experience Section
1. This is the most important section of your Linkedin profile as this is the main area which will determine if you show up in their search or not. Detail your relevant work experience, emphasizing any previous successes or notable projects especially in the space that you are now helping people in through your freelance business. Highlight your expertise in delivering results for clients and businesses similar to your target audience. Use bullet points to showcase key responsibilities and accomplishments.
2. The keywords you input here are important. Lucky for you, I’ve made this easy for you.
3. You’re going to want to add JobPrepped and that you’re a “Digital Marketing Freelancer” for us. Your start month is the month you started the program.
4. Next, you’ll want to add all of the below bullet points once you’ve completed the work experience assignments. These are the same bullet points that you’ll be adding to your resume and these take care of most of the keywords that marketing hiring managers and recruiters are searching for so this will help you show up in their search results at a much higher rate:
  1. Created a brand awareness campaign and the company’s content marketing strategy which increased monthly leads
  2. Created social media content
  3. Repurposed content to expand the company’s social media and online presence in an efficient way
  4. Developed a hashtag strategy to improve the reach of our content
  5. Designed and created PPC lead generation campaigns on multiple social media platforms
  6. Created an optimized landing page to increase conversions for PPC campaigns
  7. Built targeted audiences for PPC ads to optimize the company’s ROI on their ad spend
  8. Created optimized copy for landing pages and PPC ads to increase conversion rates
  9. Designed a lead generation strategy that increased leads
  10. Optimized a lead generation strategy that increased leads
  11. Optimized the company’s emails that increased open rates and conversion rates
  12. Used automation tools to set up an automated outbound lead generation campaign
  13. Set up and managed a CRM from scratch
  14. Created and optimized an email workflow with if/then triggers to optimize leads through the marketing funnel
  15. Created copy for the lead generation messaging
  16. Utilized social media channels and group pages to find and prospect potential leads
  17. Provided customer service support to guide prospects into our marketing funnel
  18. Increased sales
  19. Performed competitor analysis, keyword research, and SERP Analysis for inbound marketing blog efforts using Ahrefs
  20. Created blog article content based on extensive Ahrefs research and optimized it for SEO purposes
  21. Implemented an effective blog promotion strategy via backlinking, social media, online publishing platforms, working with other publishers, and via content syndication
  22. Increased website traffic via inbound marketing tactics including blog and infographic creation
  23. Established partnerships with industry experts to help further the company’s online presence
Featured section
1. This is a great place to easily drive people to the most important website pages you want them to go to in order to give them the more detailed information they may want about your company or to turn them into a lead.
2. In this section, you can add links to key pages on your website such as your homepage, “Your Services”, “Testimonials”, “Awards or Results”, “Case Studies/Portfolio, or to a page that lets them schedule a 1-on-1 call for instance. Don’t skip this section. Remember, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to start the process of becoming your client and this is a key section. You can make this easy for them by clearly showing them exactly what they need to know to find your service attractive and how they can easily get the ball rolling with you.
3. You should also add a PDF of your updated resume in this section as soon as you make the adjustments I suggested in the Ultimate Resume Guidance section
Headline:
1. Craft a concise and attention-grabbing headline that highlights how you help people. Use relevant keywords to optimize your profile’s visibility in search results. For example:
  1. I help small businesses increase their leads by 50% in 90 days
  2. I help agency owners lower their customer acquisition costs through paid ads
  3. I help small businesses get on page 1 of Google through SEO
About Section
1. Get to your core point as fast as possible here on how you help clients and the end results that your clients see (if possible with any guarantees or stats). Then, go into how you do it in step by step format if possible with the services you offer. It’s important that you do it in this order as opposed to the other way around as people don’t like to read super long summary sections so you need to hook their attention immediately with the result they can expect by working with you first and then, hopefully that was enough to catch their attention so they’ll want to continue to read your process on how you’ll get this done. Your About section shouldn’t be framed as to why you are the best, but rather, how you will help your target audience solve their issue with your service. Use a conversational and engaging tone, and include relevant achievements or success stories.
Licenses & Certifications
1. Add all of your licenses and certifications that you already have to this section as this can help you populate in Hiring Manager’s and Recruiter’s searches when they are looking for applicants.
2. You will get 7 Digital Marketing certifications as part of JobPrepped’s program so make sure you add every certificate you get to this section of your Linkedin profile as you get them (Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, PPC Marketing, SEO Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Content Marketing, Lead Generation).
Ask For A Recommendation via Linkedin
1. You should request recommendations from satisfied clients who can speak to the quality of your services. These recommendations add credibility and reinforce your expertise.
2. This isn’t nearly as important than from satisfied clients, but if you’d like, reach out to some friends/coworkers/former bosses and ask for some recommendations. Ideally, these will be around digital marketing roles but if you don’t have any experience in digital marketing, it could just be a recommendation as a great employee, team player, or hard worker.
Skills and Endorsements
1. Once again, not nearly as important as your work experience section but you can add a bunch of skills as well just in case a recruiter/hiring manager is using their Linkedin Recruiter account and uses this filter (they usually don’t).
2. Type in “Marketing” or “Digital Marketing” and tick off as many areas of marketing as you feel you currently have skills in. We’ll be going over most of this stuff in our program so you’ll have skills in most of these areas as well so you can tick these off now or do this after you finish the program; whatever you prefer.
3. List the skills that are relevant to your services. Include both hard and soft skills, ensuring they align with the services you provide. Seek endorsements from colleagues, clients, or business partners to validate your expertise.