5 LinkedIn hacks that are sure to boost your ROI

With nearly 800 million users across the globe, LinkedIn creates a unique environment for business professionals to flourish.

From sharing career updates and industry news to communicating with prospects and launching marketing campaigns, LinkedIn is a multifaceted platform that can also act as a sales funnel when used efficiently.

In the words of expert social seller Jill Rowley, “The modern buyer is digitally driven and socially connected, your salespeople need to be too.” You may not have considered LinkedIn to play an active role in boosting your ROI, but there are many hacks that can be used to improve KPI’s, ultimately yielding more conversions and eventually revenue.

Discover powerful strategies to enhance your ROI with these LinkedIn hacks, complemented by the utilization of a LinkedIn email scraper for effective implementation.

Breaking down ROI

Before we dive into LinkedIn, let’s quickly break down the fundamentals of Return on Investment (ROI).

ROI is one of the basic metrics used to measure long-term success. It is calculated by dividing profits by costs, or in other words, returns by investments. Generally speaking, the higher the ROI, the more efficient your performance is.

While ROI provides a snapshot of the big picture and evaluates success in retrospect, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are used to quantify specific targets along the way. Both of these metrics are critical towards monitoring performance and understanding where efforts should be refined or relaxed.

The most common framework for developing KPIs is the SMART method. This acronym suggests that KPIs should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely in order to accurately reflect the success of any given endeavor. Some of the most common KPIs for social media include the number of clicks, followers, impressions, audience engagement, site traffic, and reach that your content receives.

Because KPIs are definitive of accomplishment, you should optimize them to see your success reflected in the ROI. Performance indicators will help you to make sense of any data that is collected and can help you break down the monetary return on every action, down to the dollar.

And now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for... LinkedIn hack time.

1. Connect your CRM with LinkedIn

One of the most effective ways to capitalize on the valuable data that lies within the LinkedIn interface is to connect it directly to your CRM.

How many times have you had to copy and paste your prospects’ contact details between platforms? Or maybe you made an unprofessional double-contact because you forgot to transfer your LinkedIn interactions into the CRM?

Now imagine there was a tool that could eliminate all of these hassles…Well, the good news is that there are many!

Surfe is a sales productivity tool that connects your CRM with LinkedIn, enriches contacts, and develops messaging templates to personalize your outreach. No more switching back and forth between tabs, no more data input errors, no more forgetting to update your CRM. Surfe will help you stay on top of your prospects while eliminating hours off of your workload.

You can then reinvest the time that would have been spent doing mindless data entry into selling.

If you're struggling with LinkedIn prospecting, our guide can provide you with step-by-step instructions to get started.

2. Broaden your reach with LinkedIn Live

LinkedIn is constantly ramping up its features to compete with other social media platforms and the latest and greatest is LinkedIn Live. LinkedIn Live allows you to broadcast live from your LinkedIn platform for other users to tune into.

Whether it’s making a big announcement, hosting an informational webinar, promoting an event, or interviewing a guest speaker, the possibilities are almost endless. Once you register your event on LinkedIn Live, your audience will have the option to mark their attendance status so that you can track your viewers and prepare accordingly.

The greatest thing about LinkedIn Live is that anytime someone marks themselves as an attendee, your event will be visible to all of their connections. LinkedIn Live yields about 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than other broadcasting platforms because it encourages feedback and engagement within LinkedIn.

One way to make the most out of your live stream is to provide your viewers with exclusive perks such as an e-book or discount code. Doing so will encourage people to participate and give your brand more exposure. It is also a nice way to say thank you for their attendance.

Looking for a game-changing technique to enhance your outbound pipeline? Learn how to leverage Boolean search on LinkedIn in our article, "Boolean Search on LinkedIn: The Sales Superpower You Need to Boost Your Outbound Pipeline."

3. Make your posts pop

Did you know that you are not limited to the standard LinkedIn font? What better way to stand out from everyone else on your prospect’s timeline than to apply a unique formatting style that catches their attention?

If people passively scroll past your post, all of the time that was invested into creating content is essentially useless. Make your post pop so that viewers have no other choice than to stop and read what it says.

Here is an example of the difference between the standard LinkedIn font and a generated font.

Immediately, you can see the difference. The bottom image captures the reader’s attention because the chosen serif font differs drastically from LinkedIn’s standard sans serif font. The contrast also helps differentiate the text from the profile information and CTA’s that appear on the post.

There are a number of fonts and styles that you can choose from across the web. Here are a few of our favorite font generators:

• Cool Symbol
• Lingo Jam
• Fancy Fonts

Have fun with it, but be careful not to go overboard. Make sure the text is still readable and use this hack sparingly to maintain the cleanliness of your profile.

In addition to exploring different fonts and styles, consider enhancing your LinkedIn profile further with Close's LinkedIn Headline Generator and LinkedIn Summary Generator. By refining your headline and summary, you ensure that your profile stands out and makes a strong first impression to your network and potential leads on LinkedIn.

Now that your profile is visually appealing and has a strong professional summary, you’re ready to fully leverage the power of LinkedIn for networking and business growth.

4. Change your “Connect” button to “Follow”

If you are looking for ways to grow your network, try changing the Connect button on LinkedIn to Follow. While a connection requires a two-way relationship, a follow is a one-way relationship that allows people to access your page without the need for you to accept every connection invitation.

Doing so will give people that might not know you personally the opportunity to access your content and extend your reach across the platform. The whole process is less intrusive than building a connection and will take the pressure off of those that are interested in your page, but hesitant to send a request.

Follow these steps to make the switch:

1. Click Me on the LinkedIn homepage banner.
2. Select Settings & Privacy under Account.
3. Select Visibility from the menu bar on the left and click on Visibility of your LinkedIn activity.
4. Scroll down to the bottom and under Followers, switch the toggle to Yes under Make follow primary.

It’s that simple! It is only a matter of time before the followers start coming in and you see your organic impression count going up.

5. Feature your top posts on your profile

Have an important post that you want to pin at the top of your profile? Whether it’s your best work, free downloadable content, or a major accomplishment, there are probably some things that you wish every person who visits your LinkedIn profile could see.

Fortunately, LinkedIn has created a solution to prevent your old posts from getting pushed to the bottom of the Activity section on your page.

Follow these steps to attach a Featured section to your profile:

1. Click on Add profile section on the header of your LinkedIn profile page.
2. Under Recommended, select Add featured.
3. Click on the + button to the right of Featured.
4. Select which type of content you would like to share and proceed accordingly.

Adding featured posts to your page is the best way to capture the attention of visitors while highlighting the things that you are proud of.

Bottom line

Depending on what you are hoping to get out of the LinkedIn platform, we encourage you to apply some or all of these hacks to organize your workflow, increase your engagement and reach, and draw attention to your valuable content. In the increasingly saturated world of social media, the more you can do to differentiate yourself from your competitors, the better. Take advantage of everything that social selling has to offer by optimizing your LinkedIn platform for your prospects.

A great CRM will support your social strategy and so much more. If you're in the market, check out our free resource: