My Insane LinkedIn Routine Part 1

How to Build Your Brand and Win Customers on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has been fundamental to Health Launchpad's success. After five years of operation, it is on track to 10X its business. Over the next three days, I will explain why and how LinkedIn has been instrumental in this in three articles.

Part 1, I review why I use LinkedIn, how this fits into our growth strategy, the results delivered, and how I got started. Tomorrow, I will dive into my six-step routine, and on Thursday, I will cover the Do's and Don'ts.

If You Would Rather Listen Than Read

I discuss strategy in the latest episode of the Healthtech Marketing Show. If you prefer to listen rather than read, check out the episode.

You can also scroll down to watch this on YouTube. It provides tips on how to use LinkedIn to grow your business and your career.

Why LinkedIn?

The infamous bank robber, “Slick Willie” Sutton, was asked why he robbed banks.

Sutton simply replied,

 “Because that's where the money is.” 

I use LinkedIn because that's where the customers are.

I know it’s obvious, but here’s the thing: LinkedIn has been instrumental in winning new customers. Without it, I am convinced we would not have achieved 10X growth and momentum.

LinkedIn has over a billion users. Our ideal customer profile - marketing leadership of healthcare technology firms - are all on LinkedIn, and many use it frequently. LinkedIn is part of most marketing teams’ strategies to win new customers. It’s also part of how healthcare technology marketing leaders network. For many it’s an important place to learn.

LinkedIn is a key part of our inbound demand engine. The four corners and pillars of our strategy are:

1. Educational and thought leadership components like this post
2. An intentional SEO strategy
3. Social media to amplify our message and create new relationships
4. Partnerships that extend our reach further

And it works. Half of our clients have come in through this inbound approach, and LinkedIn is critical. Several new clients have told me that they found an article I wrote via Google (SEO works!), and then they followed me on LinkedIn. When the time was right, they scheduled a meeting via LinkedIn or the website.

The best thing about this is that these prospects are ready to buy. They have researched the solution to their problems, and our content has helped them. Quite often, we are the only firm they are speaking with.

By the way, the other half of our business comes through referrals. LinkedIn is critical here, too, as it keeps our brand in front of referral sources and reinforces our expertise with them.

LinkedIn Is the Primary Pillar of Our Social Media Strategy

(But Not The Only One)

I will come onto LinkedIn shortly, but we also have two other ways to amplify our message. One is an e-newsletter with over 3,000 subscribers primarily used to distribute educational content and keep our network up to date.

The other social media channel is the Healthtech Marketing Network, a private network of over 200 health tech marketing leaders. We invest a lot of time in the network to create ways to help them connect with each other, learn new skills and strategies, and grow their careers. We don’t sell through this, but it helps build relationships and foster goodwill. I also love doing it, as it’s so rewarding.

When I started Health Launchpad, one of my goals on LinkedIn was to create a network of followers in our target market. This would allow me to build our brand organically. I thought of it as the “Adam Channel” or, ideally, “The Health Launchpad Channel.”

 (By the way, I am not very comfortable with the notion of building a personal brand. My primary aim was to build familiarity with my company, not me per se.)

 Back in 2020, I had around 3,000 connections and followers. These had been accumulated over sixteen years, but most were outside of healthcare, and very few matched my ideal customer profile.

 As of this writing, I have over 12,000 followers and over 10,000 connections. This is actually a small number compared to the big names on LinkedIn like Chris Walker or Richard Van Der Bom. What’s most important is not the rate of growth in followers and connections but the additional 8,000 followers added since 2020, nearly all of whom are in our target market.

 In the next article, I will explain how we got there and how to leverage this, but first, how did I get started?

First, I Hired a Coach

Although I have been on LinkedIn since 2024 and have been a marketer for most of my career, I didn’t feel I knew how to use it effectively to build my new business. So, I hired Adam Franklin a coach who specializes in helping solo practitioner business owners, like me in 2020, build a marketing system for their business. LinkedIn is the foundation of this.

 It was kind of spooky. Just as I was thinking about who I should hire, Adam reached out to me on LinkedIn. It was as if he had read my mind.

Adam has taught me much of what I will cover below. Even after working with him for five years, he still gives me new ideas and perspectives.

Hiring Adam was not a small investment, but it has paid for itself multiple times. I don’t think Health Launchpad would have been so successful without Adam Franklin.

I also want to give a big shoutout to Timothy "Tim" Hughes 提姆·休斯 L.ISP , the founder of DLA Ignite who specializes in helping B2B sales teams use LinkedIn effectively. He is one of the top thought leaders in this area. His book Social Selling is a must-read.  I had him on the podcast too and earlier this year I had the pleasure of having dinner with him.

 The other person I follow avidly is Richard van der Blom . His analytical approach to how to use LinkedIn effectively is brilliant. I refer to his analysis, ideas and recommendations all the time.

Tomorrow, My Six Steps To LinkedIn Success

If you want to skip ahead, watch this