Hey Prompt Entrepreneur,
In this final Part we look at how we can leverage our LinkedIn audience to build our business.
Obviously the exact methods we use will depend on our business and our particular niche. I’ll provide a set of methods with details to help you decide which are most applicable to your business.
One important factor here is that direct monetisation is not possible on LinkedIn in the same way as it is on Youtube (via ads), X (sponsorship and ad revenue share) or other social media platforms that have built in methods.
Therefore we need to be a bit smarter on LinkedIn and work on moving prospects off-platform.
I’ll run through some potential methods, ending on the most important.
Let’s get started:
LinkedIn Audience Engagement
1. Newsletter
One of the strongest plays using LinkedIn is to move followers into your newsletter.
Newsletters work particularly well on LinkedIn as its an expert based platform formed around certain niche (professional) topics.
If someone is enjoying your content then chances are they’ll be interested in your newsletter too.
Once you have someone in your newsletter you can more directly monetise as you have a direct line to them.
Pushing sales-y posts on LinkedIn itself doesn’t work well but in your own newsletter you have much more latitude with your content and sales.
Vitally you’ll also have their email address. So any changes to LinkedIn’s algorithm down the line will not affect you. On LinkedIn (or any social media platform) you don’t own your audience – but with email you do.
Don’t have a newsletter? There’s a whole Prompt Playbook about setting up a a newsletter business if you want to go deep.
In that guide we talk about setting up a newsletter business using a third-party tool called beehiiv. It’s the best in class for setting up a newsletter.
However, in the case of LinkedIn there’s an additional factor in play. LinkedIn actually has its own newsletter functionality.
You can write, publish and build an audience for you newsletter fully inside LinkedIn.
Some benefits of doing so:
- Ease of use – it’s right there in the interface so there’s no need to learn a new tool.
- Cost – LinkedIn newsletters are free whereas setting up with a dedicated newsletter service will come with some cost.
- Initial blast – the first time you launch your newsletter LinkedIn will message everyone in your connections. When I launched a newsletter on LinkedIn I had 10,000 connections – I immediately got 1000+ newsletter subscribers just from this initial push.
- Inbox delivery – unlike other LinkedIn messages and notifications newsletters go straight into your followers’ email inboxes. Normal notifications are limited to in-app LinkedIn notifications rather than the email inbox.
Disadvantages:
- No email addresses – you do not get access to your subscribers’ email addresses. These means if you want to move to another platform later you cannot migrate the email addresses. Arguably they are not “your” subscribers because of this. This is the main disadvantage.
- Limited tool – the LinkedIn newsletter tool is fine for basic text and images but if you want to do anything advanced like polls, referrals gifts, recommendations etc. you are out of luck.
- No newsletter monetisation options – platforms like beehiiv allow for premium subscription levels which allow subscriber revenue. LinkedIn doesn’t have anything similar.
Whichever tool you decide to use getting people into a newsletter is a strong step in building your relationship with them and moving prospects towards becoming customers.
2. Webinars and events
LinkedIn supports the ability to schedule and promote events to your followers.
There are a few options here but webinars are the most direct route to monetisation.
Webinars are also a common tool in B2B (business to business) sales which aligns with the audience type on LinkedIn. Lots of the people on LinkedIn will be used to attending and making purchasing decisions based on webinars.
Writing a webinar is beyond the scope of this guide. I recommend you check out Russell Brunson’s Secrets Trilogy for a full walkthrough.
Here however is a basic prompt using Brunson’s Perfect Webinar Script to give you a basic webinar structure:
Act as a sales webinar expert
Follow the guidelines below
For the user required elements refer to the work of Russell Brunson to ask me for inputs. Ask for each input individually, wait for user input then move to the next required input.
For each requirement explain the concept, provide a description and example. Assume I do not know what you are asking for.
Follow the perfect webinar guidelines below to structure the webinar.
#Perfect webinar guidelines#
The webinar has 3 main sections:
1. Introduction (5 mins)
Big Promise: Describe the main benefit the audience will get from the webinar.
Hook to End: Offer an incentive for attendees to stay until the end.
Command Attention: Ask attendees to close other tabs and focus.
Qualify Yourself: Explain why you're qualified on this topic.
Future Pace: Help the audience imagine their future after implementing what you teach.
2. Content (60 mins)
The One Thing: The main idea/benefit of the webinar.
The 3 Secrets: 3 supporting points that back up the One Thing.
3. Close
Transition: Ask permission to make a pitch.
The Stack: List all the bonuses/items included in the offer.
If/All: Justify the price by linking it to the key benefits.
Price Reveal: Reveal discounted price compared to higher starter price.
To generate a custom webinar script, the user would need to provide:
The topic/niche
The One Thing main benefit
The 3 Secrets supporting points
Bonuses/items to include in The Stack
Benefits to mention in If/All section
Pricing details for Price Reveal sectionPrompt Output 💬
The prompt will walk you through step by step how to construct a webinar. The output above shows just the first step – ChatGPT will continue with similar explanations, examples and questions until it has all the information it needs to construct your sales webinar.
After that’ll you need to either deliver the sales webinar live or pre-record it as an “evergreen” webinar. I recommend doing it live the first few times so that you can adjust and improve your content – once it is tight you lock the content down in a recorded version.
3. Sponsorship and branded posts
Once you have a large enough following in a particular niche you’ll begin to receive offers to sponsor your posts. Companies want to be visible to your audience and will be willing to pay for this visibility.
This will happen naturally as you become known in your niche but you can also speed the process up with outreach.
Draw up a list of targets and use LinkedIn InMail to direct contact marketing managers at those companies. Use this prompt to generate a basic introduction:
Act as a cold outreach expert
Generate a compelling outreach message for me to use on LinkedIn to get a company to sponsor my posts.
This is the introductory message.
Think about what the company would want to hear from me and include placeholder areas for me to fill in the details. Prompt Output 💬
4. LinkedIn Outreach
The most important LinkedIn sales and marketing technique is direct outreach.
LinkedIn is rare in that it allows us to send direct messages to individuals who work at certain companies.
For instance if my goal is to sell to UK based digital marketing agencies with over 100 staff I can use LinkedIn to find those companies and then the exact individuals who I need to talk to at the company.
There are two basics ways to do this:
- Connect with the prospect and then message them
- InMail
InMail is a premium feature that allows you to send messages to anyone on LinkedIn even if you are not connected. InMail is part of paid LinkedIn accounts and you only use up InMail credits when the prospect reads it.
Both InMail and standard messages have basically the same outcome: allowing us to connect with prospects and deliver a direct message that we use to begin a sales conversation.
Obviously if you are following this guide and growing your connections via your content and engagement you have a better chance of being able to directly chat without having to use InMail. This is a major benefit of building a following.
You can choose to send manual messages to people you want to talk to – to do this we basically follow the search methods outlined in Part 3 where we talked about engagement. Instead of visiting profiles and sending connection requests though we send messages. Nice and simple.
However, if you want to automate this process and make it more efficient you have two options:
- Use a semi-manual tool like Taplio to create prospects lists and make it easy to send tailored messages.
- Use a full automated tool like Meet Alfred to message en-masse
Both are effective – it’s really a question of whether your offer is niche and specific or wide and general.
If niche and specific use Taplio for a more accurate, focused approach. Each prospect counts so you don’t want to burn them using a blanket message.
If your offer is broader you can use automated messaging via a tool like Meet Alfred.
Either way you’ll need a basic sequence of messages. In Taplio (or if doing this manually) you’d customise more.
If using a wider approach you’d do less customisation of the sequence.
Use this prompt to get the first draft of your outreach sequence:
Act as a LinkedIn cold outreach expert. Give me a 5 message campaign to send to a prospect, including the timings.
Prospect details: [add prospect details]
Offer details: [add offer details]
My details: [add own details]
#Guidelines#
Research the prospect to find commonalities that can serve as an ice-breaker. Look for mutual connections who can introduce you.
Keep messages short, around 3 sentences focused on sparking interest.
Provide social proof by mentioning big name clients you have worked with.
Offer something valuable for free like an ebook or case study, with prospect's consent.
Send your portfolio to showcase your work if relevant.
Personalize messages instead of just using templates.
Use a CRM to track leads and follow up at optimal times.
Follow up persistently over 1-2 months if needed, offering value like free consultations.
Space out follow-ups strategically instead of bombarding prospects.
#Guidelines end#In this example I used
- Prospect details = marketing managers for AI projects who might be interested in sponsoring a newsletter about the use of AI for entrepreneurs
- Offer details = free guide, call, paid consultation in that order.
- My details = copy, paste of my entire LinkedIn profile
Prompt Output 💬
The prompt will generate 5 messages, each with a time delay.
If you want to be even more specific you can use an individual’s profile in the prospects details input.
As always edit to your preferred style and tone of voice.
Pulling it together
LinkedIn can be a powerful platform for building an engaged audience around your niche. While you can’t directly monetise followers on LinkedIn like other platforms, with some strategy you can leverage your audience into sales and subscribers. We’ve talked about some ways to do so in this Part.
The key here is to view LinkedIn not as a standalone platform, but as a launch pad to build relationships that you can transition off platform.
Remember to always lead with value on LinkedIn. This is why we started with content and engagement before moving into growth strategies and monetisation.
High-quality content builds authority and trust. Automation like messaging tools are the accelerator, not the engine.
LinkedIn is just one powerful piece of the entrepreneurial puzzle. We discuss other element in the newsletter and other Prompt Playbooks.
But used strategically, LinkedIn can become a cornerstone of a successful inbound marketing and sales process, especially in B2B niches. Pull all these techniques together into a cohesive strategy, and you’ll be well on your way to building a profitable business accelerated by LinkedIn.