I started writing content online for one reason:

To build awareness and get business for my new freelance copywriting business.

It was January 2022 when I started. I would post and get 0 likes, 2 likes, 5 likes and back to 0 likes. It was annoying but this is what everyone goes through at the start.

It’s normal.

But it wasn’t until month 3 when I started getting serious interest in my business.

I got 0 leads in month 1.

2 leads in month 2.

Then, the breakthrough…

15 leads in month 3.

When I look back to then, I recognise two significant actions I started doing (that I wasn’t doing before) that made the difference.

Let me show you what those 2 actions were:

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1. Networking

I’m a bit of a shy boy.

I like to keep myself to myself. I do my own thing in my own way (probably to my own detriment at times) and I like it that way, too.

So when I started writing content online, I was committing the cardinal sin of all cardinal sins (according to “personal branding experts”)…

I wasn’t engaging.

*gasp*

I never commented on anyone’s post. I never DM’d anyone. I never sent any connection requests.

It felt SO cringy and weird to do that, to me. Because all I knew of LinkedIn was CVs and recruiters and very important business people doing business things and wouldn’t be interested in connecting with some random copywriter.

But this was holding me back in a huge way.

One day, it twigged.

And I don’t know why, but it just did. It twigged that I need to be engaging and I shouldn’t be shy.

Maybe all this “personal branding” advice I’d been reading had finally seeped through to my oversized skull and into my undersized brain

(true story: when i was born the midwife said to my mum: “okay Mrs Barker, no need to worry about the size of his head he’ll grow into that in no time”.)

I went about networking more.

Here's 3 networking actions I started doing:

• Commented on 5-10 posts a day that I liked
• DM’d 1 or 2 people every day saying “I liked your post”
• Sent 5-10 connection requests to people I liked the look of

(in a business and content sense, not in THAT way you creep)

The impact this made alongside putting my regular daily content out was insane.

Engagement spiked, followers spiked, but most importantly…

My inbound leads spiked.

And I started getting referrals.

Dream.

2. Postioning

Now, I was getting inbound leads which was great but I had problems…

Big problems.

At the time I didn’t really know they were big problems because I was happy to actually have someone ANYONE show interest in working with me or paying me. But now, I can see it clearly.

I didn’t have one problem, I had multiple problems:

• I didn’t know who my ideal client was
• I didn’t know how to do sales or close anyone
• I didn’t really have an offer to speak of
• I didn’t have any process or system to deliver a service

But the one that stands out the most looking back is the first one.

I didn’t know who my ideal client was.

And the outcome of this was that whoever approached me, I didn’t know:

• What to charge them
• What problems they needed solving
• How to even identify the person I want to work with

I was literally clueless, winging it.

So I decided to do something about it and work on this:

My positioning.

I worked in marketing for 10 years before going solo as a copywriter, so this wasn’t completely lost on me. But in the heat of the moment with your back against the wall, you tend to throw your knowledge out the window I find. It comes eventually. But you need a nudge.

Anyway, I took 2 actions to fix my positioning:

1. Analysed who saw my content

I used the native LinkedIn analytics to see who was viewing my content the most by demographics.

Turned out for me, it was founders.

So I said “okay, lets go all in on founders”.

Which led me to…

2. Changed my profile headline/banner

This stopped me wasting time talking to people I couldn’t help.

And helped me attract more of the founders that viewed my content naturally.

I started calling out founders in my headline like this:

‘I help busy founders save time writing LinkedIn content’

The key: calling out ‘busy founders’.

Because by seeing that, a founder who is busy knows I can save them time writing. It solves a problem for them. And shows I am the one to solve that problem.

I then changed my profile banner to reflect that too.

That was it.

After I made these two changes, I saw a massive spike in inbound leads.

From 2 in month two, to 15 in month three.

I still had other problems, like closing and providing a great service. But that was because I was a total beginner in running my own business.

If you run a business already and struggle with the lead flow, do these two things and you’ll be set (alongside putting out great content obviously).

But will this help you?

If you’re new to starting a business, put yourself out there.

If you’ve been running a business for 20 years, put yourself out there.

There’s no harm in doing it.

Unless you have some pretty fucked up opinions in which case, maybe keep your mouth shut and let a ghostwriter write some helpful content for you that won’t have you getting cancelled or put in a prison cell.

Put yourself out there and position yourself to help one specific person solve one specific problem.

Can’t be beaten.