Your profile is a cold open, not a footnote.
A LinkedIn touchpoint in an ABM Stars campaign only works if the connection request gets accepted. The profile behind it is the single biggest lever we have for improving those odds. This is a working guide to the parts of a profile that decide whether a prospect connects, replies, or scrolls past.
This is what a prospect should land on.
A real LinkedIn profile, built the way this guide describes. The numbered markers flag the five things doing the heavy lifting. Everything further down breaks each one down into do and don’t.
Solving IT headaches for business owners | Cyber security, cloud, AI & automation | Managing Director, SuperIT 2
London, United Kingdom · Contact info
500+ connections
- Managed IT, cyber security and cloud for 30+ owner-run businesses across London.
- Built the AI and automation practice that now clears routine admin for clients.
The 3-second read
A sharp headshot and a banner that says what you do. This is the only part read before anyone decides to keep scrolling.
Role, niche, outcome, target
“Managing Director” tells a prospect nothing. Your role, who you serve, what changes for them, and who it’s for does.
Proof in the first five lines
Who you are, what you deliver, proof, what you want next, how to reach you. LinkedIn cuts it off after five lines, so proof can’t sit at the bottom.
Proof, pinned
A case study, a client result, a short write-up. Evidence a prospect can check before they’ll take your call.
Found on purpose
Decide what you want to be found for, then make it show up in the headline, About, experience and skills consistently, not just once.
Look like someone worth a fifteen-minute call.
- Use a clear, neutral, approachable photo. Face visible, shoulders up, taken in the last two years.
- Use the banner to say what you do, what you want, and where to find proof. A portfolio link or an email.
- Match the banner’s tone to how you’d actually greet someone in a meeting.
- Crop yourself out of a group photo. It always shows.
- Leave LinkedIn’s default grey banner in place.
- Use a logo-only banner with no human context or way to act on it.
Role, niche, outcome, target, in one line.
- Build it from four parts: your role, your niche, the outcome you deliver, and who it’s for.
- Example shape: “Managing Director, SuperIT, cutting downtime 40% for growing business owners.”
- Use words your buyer actually searches for, not internal titles.
- Stop at “Sales Director at [Company]”. It says nothing about value.
- Stack five job titles separated by pipes.
- Use vague buzzwords like “synergy” or “thought leader.”
Five lines. Proof has to be in them.
- Follow one shape: who you are, what you deliver, proof, what you want next, how to reach you.
- Put the proof, a number, a result, a name, inside the first five lines, before the “see more” cut.
- Write in first person, short sentences, one idea per paragraph.
- Start with “I am a results-driven professional with X years of experience.”
- Save your best proof for paragraph four. Most readers never expand it.
- Let a template voice replace your own.
Decide what you want to be found for.
- Pick 3 to 5 terms your buyer would actually search: the niche, the problem, the outcome.
- Repeat them consistently across headline, About, experience, and skills.
- Check “People Also Viewed” and search results occasionally to see what’s actually surfacing you.
- Use different phrasing for the same idea in every section. It dilutes the signal.
- Optimise for internal job-title language nobody outside the company searches for.
- Set keywords once and never revisit them as your niche shifts.
Pin the proof a skeptical buyer wants to see.
- Pin one case study, one client result, one short post. Evidence, not opinion.
- Under each role, write two lines on the problem you solved, not just duties.
- Update Featured whenever a campaign lands a strong result worth showing.
- Leave Featured empty. It reads as nothing to show.
- List responsibilities with no outcome attached.
- Bury your best proof three roles down the page.
One great recommendation beats twenty polite ones.
- Put the keywords your buyer would search for at the top of the skills list.
- Ask one or two clients for a specific recommendation naming the problem you solved and the result.
- Endorse colleagues genuinely. It’s often returned in kind.
- Lead with soft skills like “Teamwork” over what you’re actually known for.
- Chase volume. Twenty recommendations that all say “great to work with” carry less weight than one specific one.
- Leave the skills section at LinkedIn’s suggested defaults.
You don’t need to be a creator. You need to look alive.
- Comment three times a week. A genuine, specific reaction to someone else’s post counts as activity.
- Post something original once every one to two weeks.
- Reply to comments on your own posts. It’s what keeps them visible.
- Go quiet for months and then post only when hiring.
- Only ever like posts. It doesn’t build a footprint.
- Post generic motivational content with no point of view.
Make it easy to act on a good impression.
- Put a working email address in the About section, not just buried in a job listing.
- If on Premium, turn on the option to book a meeting directly from the profile.
- Make the very next step obvious. A link, an email, a calendar.
- Make a prospect hunt through experience entries to find a way to reach you.
- Rely on LinkedIn’s default “Message” button as the only path to you.
- Leave a strong profile with no next step at the end of it.
The final test: would a stranger act on this?
If a profile doesn’t make a stranger confident enough to reply, book a call, or click through, it isn’t finished yet, whatever the checklist above says.