Prospects don’t want to hear from brands. They want to hear from you.

People are more likely to do business with people they like and trust. Specifically, prospects are reluctant to pay faceless brands or sign contracts with strangers. Additionally, if prospective buyers cannot trust an individual, they are less likely to trust the brand they represent.

Building trust with your prospective customers begins from the first encounter. It may be a one-on-one interaction, your first email, or when they visit your profile. With access to so much information online and through social media, customers today take time to learn about your services before engaging you.

There are several ways to leverage your presence on social media and increase conversions.

Let's look at how you can expand your audience on LinkedIn.

1. Profile Optimization
Many LinkedIn users offer the same services as you, probably to the same customer base. You need to optimize your profile with the right keywords and relevant content to stand out. Optimization guarantees you a higher ranking in search results when prospects search for services you offer.

Additionally, relevant and current content tells prospects that you're an authority in your industry. They are more likely to interact with your profile and engage with your business.

2. Proactive Audience Building
After positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you have to actively build an audience for your content. Begin by creating your ideal customer avatar so that you can target those who resonate with your content and are likely to be your customers.

Provide value by engaging in online conversations and helpfully answering people's questions. You can also share your knowledge in blog articles with clear CTAs that take readers through your sales funnel or LinkedIn profile.

Another way to actively recruit followers is to curate industry news and trends for your audience. Placing yourself as a trusted source of information and ideas will increase your profile visits and engagement.

3. Group and Community Engagement
Besides sharing on your feed, join groups and communities that discuss topics in your industry and regularly contribute helpful information. Participants in such focused groups already intend to purchase related goods or services and they are easy to close.

You can also establish yourself as a thought leader among industry peers through conference presentations and podcasts. This way, you will likely get direct referrals from other trusted service providers in your industry, leading to quick sales.

4. Message Personalization
Adding your face and personality to your content generates more engagement than your brand account. You can connect with customers and perspectives better.

Customers also want pitches and services tailored to their needs and preferences. Personalized messaging also helps the customer feel valued, increasing brand loyalty. Customers are more interested in effectively solving their problems than how many similar problems you have solved.

Let's look at some things you should avoid for effective lead generation.

• Do not talk about your company's history. Your prospects are more interested in what helps with their current problem or needs.
• Do not talk about combined years of experience. Prospects may want to know your background, but keep it to what's relevant to the current task or job. Your audience may zone out if you go into depth about your internship or first job 15 years ago.
• Do not talk about what makes you different from competitors. While this may be the selling point for most professionals, your UVP focuses so much on you, and you may find yourself going on and on. Instead, focus on why your UVP is relevant to your clients.
• Avoid boring your prospective customers. Keep them interested.