Before a consumer thinks about using your services, they conduct a secret digital interview of you and several rival suppliers. This interview always involves visiting your website; and it generally involves inspecting your LinkedIn profile as well.
These days, every business owner understands the importance of having a great website. But few have a great LinkedIn profile, because they mistakenly think of it as an online CV. It’s not – it’s a marketing document. In other words, the role of your profile is not to impress potential employers but potential customers.
Five years ago, you could get away with having a substandard LinkedIn profile. But in 2025, it’s the digital equivalent of showing up to an important business meeting wearing tracksuit pants, because it makes you look sloppy and unprofessional.
Remember: potential customers are secretly reading your LinkedIn profile before deciding whether to call you or the other suppliers they’re researching. If those rivals’ profiles are more professional than yours, you can hardly blame customers for choosing them over you.
With that in mind, here are the five things you need to do to create a LinkedIn profile that attracts and converts customers.
1. Upload a professional profile photo
You should present yourself with the same level of formality in your LinkedIn photo as you would if you were holding an important business meeting in your office.
Boring is good – you’ll look reassuringly professional if you’re wearing business clothes and staring straight at the camera. Flashy is bad – you’ll look unprofessional if you’re sporting sunglasses or talking on your phone.
2. Choose a descriptive headline
Your headline can make or break whether a potential customer decides to read the rest of your profile. So don’t waste this valuable marketing opportunity by choosing a bland headline.
If, for example, you were a mortgage broker, you should avoid headlines like “Mortgage broker” or “Example Home Loans CEO”. Instead, you should write a headline that explains what you do and who you help. If there’s space (you have a maximum of 220 characters), you can also include your phone number and explain what makes you so good at your job.
Here are three hypothetical examples:
- Mortgage broker for Sydney home buyers, investors & refinancers | More than 200 five-star Google Reviews | Famous for my friendly, caring service
- I help first home buyers, upgraders & investors with home loans and refinances | 15+ years mortgage broking experience | Contact 0444 444 444 or [email protected]
- Small business finance broker | Call me for business loans, commercial loans, equipment finance, vehicle finance, tax debt refinances & more | 0444 444 444
3. Write a detailed About section
The About section is where you get to talk about yourself for up to 2,600 characters (or about 425 words). Remember, this will be read by potential customers, so you should see this as a marketing opportunity. That’s why it’s generally a bad idea to talk about your family, hobbies or favourite foods.
Instead, give potential customers the answers to these four questions:
- What products/services do you sell?
- What types of customers do you serve?
- Why should they choose you rather than a rival supplier?
- How can they contact you?
For the third question, you can copy/paste Google Reviews into your About section.
For the fourth question, provide your mobile number and email address.
4. Be strategic with your Experience section
The Experience section is where you get up to 2,000 characters to describe each of your jobs. If you really want to nail this section, follow three rules.
First, devote the most words to your current role. Again, explain what products/services you offer, explain what customers you work with, explain why you’re so good and include your contact details. If necessary, you can just copy/paste content from your About section, although it would be better to find a different way to present the same information. Also, you can include Google Reviews – ideally different ones from those in your About section.
Second, include progressively less information as you go back in time – the earlier in your career a role occurred, the less you should write about it. That’s because you want potential customers to focus on your more recent roles, particularly your current one.
Third, for your earlier roles, include information only if it’s relevant to your current career. So if our hypothetical mortgage broker worked as a personal trainer 10 years ago, it would make no sense for him to talk about exercise programs and nutrition plans, because that would have no relevance to his mortgage broking career. Instead, he would be better off writing something like this: “During my time at Example Fitness, I developed strong listening skills and the ability to empathise with a diverse range of personalities, which were to prove invaluable years later when I became a mortgage broker and had to solve tricky finance problems.”
5. List key qualifications in the Education section
The Education section is where you list your qualifications. Again, include only those qualifications that are relevant to your current role. For our mortgage broker, relevant qualifications would include things like a Certificate IV in Finance and Mortgage Broking or a Bachelor of Finance; irrelevant qualifications would include a Certificate IV in Fitness or a Bachelor of Arts.
