How to grow your audience and email list on Linkedin

1,258 new connections in 3 months
1,777 new connections in 4 months
2,852 new connections in 6 months

Those are real numbers from many of the campaigns we have run for our clients at Lead Cookie.

Those are thousands of new connections that will now see their content in their newsfeed, and we have set up funnels to drive many of those new connections to email list subscriptions.

But how do you do it?
How do you actually grow your audience on Linkedin?
And how do you drive those people to sign up for your email list?

In this post, I will give you the exact frameworks and scripts we use to do this for our clients at Lead Cookie.

A simple trick to generate more leads on Linkedin

About six months ago, an agency owner told me about this interesting Linkedin tactic that he used to win one of their best clients.

At first, I was skeptical on if the approach would actually work. So before recommending it to any of my clients or readers, I decided to give it a shot myself.

After 6 months, I can now cite closing more than $10,000 worth of consulting business from this passive tactic. And as I write this, I am in negotiations with one of my biggest clients to date which could take that closed number to $60k or more.

All of that revenue came from a simple lead generation tactic on Linkedin.

How to shorten sales cycles with an entry level offer

For years, I operated without an entry level offer. Both when I had my agency, and as a solo consultant.

But eventually I decided to make a shift and try out selling an entry level offer. The first few months were rocky, but eventually, I saw the light and decided never to look back.

Utilizing an entry level offer has drastically changed my business and my income.

This article outlines the journey I made with selling an entry level offer, mistakes I made along the way, and it gives you a roadmap for creating your own offer.

Lessons learned from a year of evolution

Many of my long time followers will notice that I haven’t blogged lately. In fact it has been almost two months since my last post.

For almost a year and a half I blogged weekly with not exceptions.

That worked well, for a while…

And then I started my year of evolution.

My goal with this post is to share with you some of the drastic changes in my business over the past 8 months, and the lessons I learned along the way.

Blog, Business Development, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, Outbound MarketingJake JorgovanSeptember 3, 2015

Under promise, over deliver

If there is one mistake that nearly all creative professionals are culprit of, it is this.

They make promises to clients, and then they don't deliver on them.

They tell a client "I will have that to you tomorrow."

Then tomorrow rolls around, and they break the promise. They don't deliver. This broken promise upsets the client and it hurts the relationship.

Work less, enjoy life more

There is always more work to be done.
There is always another project to be started.
There is always more we could be doing...

Blog, Creative Work, FreelancingJake JorgovanMay 12, 2015

A barbershop in Thailand

There is a barbershop in Thailand...

Blog, Business Development, Freelancing, MarketingJake JorgovanApril 27, 2015

How to handle projects with an unclear scope

You know the situation.

A prospect comes to you with a project and the scope is just unclear.

So how to we handle these situations when a client comes to us and the scope is unclear?

How do we proceed forward and not commit ourselves to something we later regret?

My goal with this post is to outline a method to handle these situations and also get paid for your time.

Blog, Business Development, Consulting, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your CareerJake JorgovanApril 21, 2015

How to conduct a personal quarterly review + My Q1 review & Q2 goals

One of the fastest ways for any individual to make positive change in their life is to set goals, and then work at achieving them.

Every quarter, I do a quarterly review where I review my previous quarter and set goals for the upcoming quarter.

Below you will see a list of my quarterly goals I set for Q1 with the actual outcomes for each of those goals. Then I also dive into detail about what went well, and what didn't.

I encourage you to take this format and apply it to your own life and do your own Quarterly review.

The freelancer pitch framework - Stop overcomplicating what you do

There is a recurring trend I see among nearly all creative professional who are considering starting their own business or are in the early phases.

They overcomplicate what they do.

Learning to easily communicate what you do is one of the most important things every creative professional must learn.

The price of creativity

Creativity. There are few sellable goods or services that have such a wide range of pricing as creative work.

Why is it that one painting can cost millions of dollars, while another can't even be sold?

Why is that one designer can charge 10x what another designer charges for the exact same service?

My goal with this post is to share with you two examples of creative pricing in action, and then explain to you why they are priced the way they are.

LEAN Marketing

Several years ago Eric Ries published an popular business book called The Lean Startup.

The core principle of the book is that you shouldn't invest large amounts of time, money and energy into a new business up front without knowing if it will work.

That same principle is true for marketing your creative services.

The most powerful way to differentiate your creative business

All of us that do creative work face a similar challenge.

Despite our best efforts to be unique, at times we can feel like a commodity.

While we may have our own unique style, there are hundreds of other creatives out there with their unique style as well.

So it begs the question, ‘How do I differentiate myself in the creative field?’

My goal with this post is to share with you the single most powerful way to differentiate your creative business.

How to make the jump to freelancing full time

One of the biggest questions I regularly get through my site is from creatives who are wanting to quit their jobs and freelance full time.

They know they want to do it, but they are afraid to make the jump.

In this post, I will share with you two strategies for making the jump and stories of freelancers who have done it.

The art of perception

Early in my career, a mentor shared with me a piece of advice that would change me forever.

"Perception becomes reality"

Those three simple words changed how I approached business, and my personal life.

Instead of being the floundering kid with a mediocre business, I began to change how the world perceived me.

Blog, Creative Work, Freelancing, Launch your Career, MarketingJake JorgovanJanuary 19, 2015

Why you should have 'a list of people you like'

For years, I have used a strategy that has both improved my quality of life and generated a large amount of income.

The strategy has never cost me a single dollar, and I enjoy executing it.

Its not complicated, and it is something anyone can do.

I keep a list of people I like.

Around the world in 347 days : Lessons learned from a year of travel

This week I returned to the United States after 347 days of traveling abroad.

In this year long trip, my girlfriend and I visited 13 countries and had an experience unlike anything I could have ever imagined.

My goal with this post is to share with you a bit of our experiences, and lessons learned from our lap around the world.

The most underutilized method of acquiring new clients

Direct outreach includes e-mail prospecting, sending letters in the mail, etc.

Many don't believe direct outreach works. They are inundated with spammy requests all day and thus, they think all direct outreach is spammy.

But the truth is, direct outreach is an effective method of acquiring new work and it doesn't have to be spammy.

Personally, direct outreach has lead to 30% of my income this year.

My goal with this post is to share with you a few methods on utilizing direct outreach to grow your freelancing business.

It's time to rethink networking

If you are like most people, you hate networking.

The idea of walking into a room and schmoozing a bunch of people hoping to find an ideal prospect probably sounds horrible.

But networking doesn't have to be that way.

My goal in this post is to share with you just a few ways to expand your network without feeling sleazy about it.

The art of client communication : How to win clients and keep them happy

One of the biggest areas of freelancing that many people fail to even think about is client communication.

Client communication may be one of the single most important factors in building your business.

How you connect with clients has the ability to turn one off jobs into repeat clients, referrals, and raving testimonials.

My goal with this post is to teach you some of the basic concepts of client communication.

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