My Insane LinkedIn Routine

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.

In this post, I review why I use LinkedIn, how this fits into our growth strategy, the results delivered, and how I got started; I will dive into my six-step routine, and I will cover 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 using 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. I am convinced we would not have achieved our growth and momentum without it.

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, 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 uncomfortable with 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 a small number compared to the big names on LinkedIn like Chris Walker or Richard Van Der Blom. 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, Tim Hughes 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.

My Six-Step LinkedIn Process

Why would I share it if this process has been instrumental in our success? Crazy right?

The truth is that this is not rocket science. The key elements may be very familiar to you. The thing is that it is a lot of hard work. It takes discipline and commitment to keep improving. It means doing things daily, weekly, and monthly, and it means being continuously curious.

So here goes!

1. Setting Up Your LinkedIn Foundation

The keystone of your LinkedIn strategy is your profile. If you want to improve your LinkedIn strategy, start here. Why? A great profile will increase the chances that people will connect with you.

There is a lot that goes into creating a great profile. The best thing you can do is download Adam Franklin’s checklist or check out Richard Van Der Blom’s. I used their guidance to create and optimize mine. I refresh my profile at least once per year and constantly tweak it.

Here is my current profile. I have changed the image and the headline at least 20 times and this seems to work well for sending connection requests.

Important Tip: Make sure you are set in Creator mode. I believe this is now automatic, but double-check it as it enables you to access more features.

The next thing to consider is getting Sales Navigator. I use Sales Navigator Core, which costs about $100 per month.  I do this primarily as it allows me to create and manage lists. For example, I have a target list of people I would like to add to my network, which I use for step 2. I also have lists of Healthtech Marketing Network candidates and members.

2. ABC  – Always Be Connecting

Every business day, I send connection requests from a list set up in Sales Navigator. My Sales Navigator subscription allows me to send 800 connection requests monthly, so I send up to 40 requests per business day.

I use a simple welcome message mentioning our shared interest in healthcare technology. If they prefer to follow rather than connect with me, I offer my newsletter as an alternative.

I typically get a 25% acceptance rate. It used to be as high as 40%, but over the last few years, the scourge of people who connect and immediately pitch something has hurt people’s trust in invitations to connect.

Important Tip: The best way to increase your network is to make it a daily habit. I have a personal Trello board with my tasks set up by day. I delete other tasks as I complete them, but this task is never deleted, so I never forget to do it.

I used to send a sequence of messages to new connections in the first few weeks after connecting. I never really got much value out of this, and I also think that the constant barrage of sales pitches has created a lot of distrust. I stopped a while back.

The only outreach I do is to invite a few select candidates to join the Healthtech Marketing Network. I am careful not to be spammy when doing this.

3. My Daily Content Posting Routine

The most significant time investment is posting to LinkedIn 4-5 times weekly. Most of my posts are designed to educate and share insight and ideas. This includes one-off posts about a specific topic, sharing something I have learned from somebody on my team or a partner. I also share new content we have created, including our podcast and blog posts.

I have a detailed marketing calendar that maps our marketing plan daily. This includes a daily LinkedIn calendar. I find that when I plan 2-3 weeks ahead, write the posts ahead of time, and schedule the posts, the quality of the posts is better. Most importantly, these get higher viewership and engagement.

Quality matters more than quantity, but you must post at least 3 times a week.

Important Tip: Keep your audience on LinkedIn. LinkedIn wants people to stay on LinkedIn, so any time you send someone to another site, your posts get limited exposure. Sharing blog posts with a link in the body of the posts is a big No-No. If you share a link, put it in the comments.

I also mix up formatting types. All text posts that are 200-300 words long typically work best, and I have learned an effective format from Richard Van Der Blom: Grabber headline, short paragraphs, 4-5 tags, and close with a CTA.

Adding an image can make these posts work even harder. If I include a video, I always load it natively into LinkedIn. Sharing a YouTube video works against you.

In addition to educational posts, I create occasional posts promoting our services. I should probably do this more often than I do. I may be oversensitive about coming across as too salesy.

From time to time, I run surveys. They are little played out, in my view.

I used to share documents and carousels, but they are a lot of work to create, and I have struggled to get high enough engagement from them to justify the time.

I share something personal very occasionally. These tend to get the highest engagement, but I recommend doing this sparingly. LinkedIn is a professional platform—it’s not Facebook.

4. LinkedIn Newsletter – A Differentiation Opportunity

The LinkedIn Newsletter is one of my favorite LinkedIn features. Every two weeks I publish a long form article like this. It allows me to go deep on a topic in a way I can’t do in a regular post.

Note: This is the first time I have done three in a week, but this would have been a 3,000-word article. The best practice is to keep articles just below 1,000 words.

My Healthtech Ideas newsletter has over 3,000 subscribers. While I have not analyzed this, I believe the LinkedIn newsletter reaches a different audience than my email newsletter. I am sure there is overlap, but there is no doubt that, in combination, it extends the reach of our content.

It is important to have a regular cadence. According to Richard Van Der Blom, the best is every two weeks. I publish mine every other Tuesday.

Important Tip: Not many people and forms use this feature. It’s a great way to differentiate yourself and reach a new audience.

Writing a long-form piece takes much effort, so I repurpose it across channels. The same content is published as a blog post and a LinkedIn newsletter. I then email it to my newsletter subscribers and create multiple short posts about it.

I also add podcasts and YouTube videos, often the basis of articles like this.

Here’s the video of the podcast episode that I used to create this article.

https://youtu.be/AX-0fdlU8FU

5. Next Level Engagement Tactics

There are many ways to leverage LinkedIn features to engage your audience. For example, when we run an event like a Webinar, I will publicize it both via our website using email to drive registrations and create a LinkedIn Event.

LinkedIn events make it easy to invite your LinkedIn network to sign up for your event. In addition, we use LinkedIn Live to stream an event via LinkedIn and run it over the web via Streamyard.

Important Tip: Engage with others’ content regularly. This is critical. According to Richard Van Der Blom, authentically engaging with others increases your reach and following. He recommends dedicating 30 minutes per day to this, especially before you publish your own post.

We have run paid ads via LinkedIn a few times. They work incredibly well in building awareness and engagement for our clients, although they can be prohibitively expensive in lead generation. We don’t invest much ourselves, as our organic reach has been sufficient.

6. Monitor, Measure and Optimize

The final recommendation seems obvious, but many don’t do this – Monitor, Measure, and Optimize.

I have a monthly marketing dashboard that includes the following LinkedIn metrics:

• Connections

• Acceptance rate

• Followers

• Impressions

• Engagement

• Profile views

• Newsletter subscribers

I also analyze the source of new customers. While I can’t exclusively tie these back to LinkedIn, I know that 50% of our customers come from our 4-corner inbound strategy, and LinkedIn is a critical element of this. I also know that LinkedIn influences the other 50% of our sales from referral sources.

This allows me to track our growth rate and how well our content is performing. I study which posts perform best and use this information to optimize what I post continuously.

Important Tip: Follow Richard Van Der Blom and read his algorithm report. It’s brilliant and will help you stay on top of changes in the LinkedIn algorithm, and you can adapt.

Keys to Success

My network’s growth on LinkedIn has been twice that of other channels over the last four years, second only to website traffic growth. Website traffic has grown 8X over the previous four years, compared to a 4X increase in LinkedIn impressions. However, website traffic has plateaued while LinkedIn continues to grow.

I believe 90% of my success with LinkedIn is consistency, 5% is optimization, and 5% is inspiration.

My posts rarely exceed 1000 views per day, and the ones that topped 5,000 were down to luck. Success is a grind. In my case, it’s been about hitting base hits, singles, the occasional double, and very rarely home runs.

 LinkedIn superstars like Richard van der Blom and Chris Walker have built massive followings through brilliant content with a provocative point of view. They have sustained their growth through a disciplined and consistent approach.

 You have to invest the time. My typical week on LinkedIn looks like this:

• Daily connection requests: 15-30 minutes

• Content creation and posting: 30-60 minutesMessaging targets 1-2 hours per week

• Weekly planning: 1-2 hours per week

• Monthly analysis: 1-2 hours per month

Do’s and Don’ts

There are some rules of the road. I have learned most of these things through trial and error. By following several key people on LinkedIn, I am constantly finding new ways to avoid mistakes and improve my LinkedIn game.

Here are my top 10 Do’s and Dont’s.

Do’s:

1. Make it Personal

• Share authentic personal stories and experiences to make educational posts more engaging.

• Include occasional personal updates. Personal posts often get the highest engagement, but don’t overdo it.

• Aim for a balance of 80% professional and 20% personal content.

2. Optimize Posting Timing

• Post 2-3 times per week consistently

• Wait at least 18 hours between posts

• Schedule posts ahead using Premium features

• Engage with your network 15 minutes before posting

3. Focus on Strategic Engagement

• Respond to comments within 90 minutes

• Batch process responses 30-60 minutes after posting

• Engage with ideal customers and industry leaders regularly

• Build relationships before attempting any sales

4. Master Content Distribution

• Put links in comments, not in main posts

• Use native video uploading instead of external links

• Create “snackable” content (short videos: 20-60 seconds)

• Limit hashtags to 3-5 per post

 5. Maintain Content Quality

• Plan content calendar 1-2 weeks ahead

• Mix content formats (text, video, polls, slides)

• Focus on educational value over promotional content

• Write posts a day in advance for better quality

 Don’ts:

1. Avoid Common Pitfalls

• Don’t “connect and pitch” immediately

• Don’t edit posts immediately after publishing

• Don’t post more than once within 18 hours

• Don’t use clickbait tactics

 2. Prevent Network Abuse

• Don’t over-tag people or companies

• Don’t spam connection requests

• Don’t automate personal interactions

• Don’t send generic connection messages

3. Maintaining Content Integrity

• Don’t copy others’ content

• Don’t use vague or misleading headlines

• Don’t post without a clear value proposition

• Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity

 4. Avoid Engagement Mistakes

• Don’t ignore comments on your posts

• Don’t engage negatively with others

• Don’t neglect your existing network

 5. Manage Your Brand

• Don’t post irrelevant content

• Don’t be inconsistent with posting

• Don’t mix personal and company page strategies

A Final Note on Personal vs Company Pages

Big confession here

99% of my effort goes into my personal page. I run two company pages Health Launchpad and the The Healthtech Marketing Network. While I do weekly updates and occasionally encourage my network to follow these pages, my strategy is to invest in building a personal following rather than a company page.

This made sense during the early part of Health Launchpad’s journey, when the brand was heavily associated with me. However, as the company is growing to be bigger than me, we need to reassess this.

Overall, I believe that many of the processes and best practices I am advocating above apply to company pages; our challenge will be balancing the continued growth of what has worked and growing our company page following.

If you liked this and want to learn more…

1. Check out more posts like this in the Healthtech MarketingLearning Center. It is chock-full of articles, use cases, how-to’s, and ideas.

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5. Work with me directly. Let’s book a growth session and we can explore ways you can improve your marketing using the latest techniques in account-based marketing.