The LinkedIn inbound marketing tactics that don't work for getting clients

I’ve built my entire freelance writing business off of inbound leads.

This means clients find me.

Businesses find my website, LinkedIn profile, guest posts or social media profile and contact me for writing.

This happened in 2014 and it’s still happening in 2024.

As a freelance writer, you might be more attracted to active ways to gain leads like cold pitching or searching job boards.

That’s fine, but the best and highest paying clients all come from inbound marketing.

So, let’s look at the ones that you’re probably doing wrong. Don’t worry, I’m still doing one or more of them still!

4 LinkedIn Inbound Marketing Tactics You’re Doing Wrong

The first one is:

Not defining your niche

One way to attract clients is to have a niche but many new writers fail to define their niche on LinkedIn.

They instead, want to be a generalist and appeal to many clients at once.

These two examples show wildly different niches that don’t really connect to each other.

Writer and Opera singer.

Tech writer and passionate about climate work

When you title yourself these random traits you enjoy or have, it doesn’t help with defining your niche.

It’s okay to use keyword or variations of your title.

For this writer on LinkedIn, they’re telling prospects that they do freelance and copywriting for B2B and B2C audiences.

Those terms are related to each other and helps him define his niche and target audience.

If you need more help figuring out a freelance title, check out my guide.

The second inbound mistake you might be making is posting to the wrong audience.

Part of inbound marketing is frequently posting on LinkedIn.

The more often and consistently you post, the more your views and audience grows.

That’s a good thing right?

Wrong!

It’s much better to target the RIGHT audience than posting to any audience.

I’ll be the first to say that I have trouble doing this.

Since I serve freelancers, I often post about freelancing on LinkedIn but I use LinkedIn to find clients too.

So, it’s a toss-up of what I post and who it’s for.

This is a LinkedIn post for potential clients but the audience that resonated or saw were writers.

So, don’t do as I do!

Instead, post relevant content for potential clients.

This means showing them how your writing can help their buisness.

The next inbound marketing tactics you’re doing wrong is:

Optimizing your LinkedIn profile without a USP

Part of inbound marketing is to have a highly optimized LinkedIn profile.

But if you don’t have your unique selling point, it’s all for nothing.

This is the reason that helps you stand out as a writer and makes clients want to hire you.

Your USP can stem from who you are as a person (a mom or founder) or what you do (interview-based writing or LinkedIn ghostwriting).

If you struggle with a USP it could be because you haven’t defined your niche yet!

For more help on figuring out your niche, check out my guide.

The last inbound marketing tactic you might be doing wrong is:

Using a template or AI to generate posts or comments

Part of your inbound strategy on LinkedIn is to post consistently and comment on other people’s posts to grow your network.

Many people are using cookie-cutter templates or worse, AI, to write their entire posts or replies.

And this isn’t only happening on LinkedIn. Jimmy Daly of Superpath said his top complaint from users of Help a B2B Writer is the use of AI.

So, if you want to land amazing clients, you have to be authentic and show off your writing.

Something crazy happened during my pitching challenge for my Freelance Creator Newsletter audience.

Instead of taking hours to cold pitch, as soon as I switched to a new process, it took minutes.

To learn what’s going on with my pitching challenge and to be notified of my next issue (on May 22, but you’ll have access to the archives), sign up to this private cozy community!

My goal is to have 40 subscribers!