When I first met her, Kathryn Bishop was almost ready to give up on her business and get back into teaching.
As an Accountant, Bookkeeper and CPA, Kathryn was having a hard time generating a steady and predictable stream of qualified leads to keep her business out of a “boom or bust” cycle that living off referrals often provided.
Even though she was fantastic at her job, Kathryn was having a hard time figuring out a way to market herself on LinkedIn.
She knew her ideal clients were on the platform, but was unsure how to stand out from the crowd of countless Accountants, Bookkeepers and CPAs online.
Kathryn is a great storyteller, and one story that stood out to me as we talked was about her childhood.
Your Story = Client-Attracting Content
Her dad was a contractor and her mom a CPA, meaning Kathryn literally grew up in the construction industry, having to be on a job site every Saturday morning by 8 a.m. to help her dad.
(She joked about how it was her dad’s way of making sure she didn’t stay out too late on Friday nights in high school!)
As a result, Kathryn grew up with unparalleled insight into and expertise around the unique dynamics of running your own contracting or construction business, how the books worked (thanks mom!), the role your family plays and much more.
When it came to her LinkedIn profile, I immediately realized we could niche Kathryn to an audience that would understand her – construction companies and contractors.
I changed her LinkedIn profile headline to read like this:
Construction Accounting & Bookkeeping 👷♂️ Construction Payroll & Taxes 🏗️
(Tip: I like using industry-specific emojis to break up the text of your LinkedIn headline. So instead of a traditional line break or comma, try using an emoji that relates to the industry or service you provide. In Kathryn’s case, I added construction-related emojis to her profile headline.)
I rewrote the rest of Kathryn’s LinkedIn profile in the same vein, niching it to be all about how she helped a target audience (contractors and construction companies) get a benefit they wanted (industry-specific expertise around their accounting, bookkeeping and tax planning).
Then our agency team started reaching out to and engaging with contractors and construction professionals 1-on-1 using Kathryn’s LinkedIn profile.
Within 60 days, Kathryn called me in a panic.
“You need to turn these LinkedIn lead generation campaigns off!” she told me. “I have too many new clients and too many leads. I can’t get to them all!”
I’ve never been so happy to be “fired” by a client!
In fact, Kathryn’s business blew up so much that her husband Brian quit his day job and came to work for her.
And, in a great example of the long-term benefit of LinkedIn, I got an email from Kathryn more than two years after we stopped working together with another amazing result.
“Out of the blue, someone from when you ran those LinkedIn campaigns for me contacted me and we’re going to start working together,” she wrote. “He said he knows everything about running his tree trimming business except the books, and already he’s sleeping easier knowing I’m on it.”
Mind you, this was two years after Kathryn and I stopped working together!
Therein lies the power of a LinkedIn headline that helps a target audience instantly understand how you can help them solve a key problem or challenge they have.
How To Create a Client-Attracting Case Study
As I illustrated to start this article, one of the most powerful ways to win new business on LinkedIn is utilizing niche-specific case studies.
What I’ve found over the years, however, is that so many case studies miss the mark.
Many just “brag” about the results, but don’t explain how they achieved them – at least not in any great detail.
Other case studies don’t share the full names, occupations or anything else about the people involved, leading you to wonder if they were made up to begin with.
If you want to create a compelling Case Study, here’s a simple 3 step process:
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What it was Like (the situation the client came to you in)
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What Happened (what you did for the client)
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What it’s Like Now (the great outcome the client got as a result)
Let’s break it down further using Kathryn Bishop as an example.
What it was Like: Kathryn was fed up, frustrated and all but ready to give up on her CPA practice due to a lack of quality leads. She was this close to shutting the doors on her business and going back to academic teaching when we first met.
What Happened: I used some specific strategies, structures and frameworks to generate leads for her on LinkedIn. (Some of which I’ve shared above, and more of which I share in the full Case Study.)
What it’s like Now: Kathryn got so many leads so quickly she had to tell us to turn OFF her campaigns, which of course is the best problem ever if your job is to generate leads for a client. She got so many new clients that her husband, Brian, quit his day job to go work for her, and she still got new leads and clients two years after she stopped working with NMG.
That is how to create a Case Study that converts.
It’s three simple steps, and each one tells a story (What it was like, What happened and What it’s like now) involving a real person or business.
How To Leverage Case Studies on LinkedIn
First, I turned Kathryn Bishop’s story into a niche-specific Case Study for Accountants, Bookkeepers and CPAs.
Next, I built a list on LinkedIn of Accountants, Bookkeepers and CPAs.
Finally, I sent each of them this 1-sentence LinkedIn message:
Hi (NAME) – should I send over a free Case Study of how we helped North Carolina-based CPA Kathryn Bishop attract so many new clients on LinkedIn that she had to turn OFF our campaigns and have her husband quit his job to work for her?
The beauty of this model is that you’re leveraging LinkedIn to target a niche audience (Accountants, Bookkeepers & CPAs) with niche-specific content (Case Study about a CPA) related to your niche service (LinkedIn lead generation) and you’re qualifying their interest with a quick 1 sentence message.
Of the prospects we send that message to, if someone replied “Yes,” we share the Case Study and then start personalizing our follow up messages (using the person’s LinkedIn profile for icebreaker ideas and talking points) as I outline here.
See how this works?
If my Case Study does its job, an Accountant, Bookkeeper or CPA will read it, and get to know, like and trust Nemo Media Group and see how we helped someone just like them get a specific outcome (qualified leads via LinkedIn) that they too want.
That’s how you utilize Case Studies to attract niche clients here on Linkedin!
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