Hi Reader,

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How do you come back from an unannounced month-long break from your newsletter? With a power-packed issue. While I was away, I was posting on LinkedIn consistently for one reason. I wanted to get better at copywriting.

In a one-on-one meeting with my manager a couple of weeks ago, I told him I wanted to be a better copywriter. You can guess what his advice was: “Write and post on LinkedIn every day until you notice a difference”. And that’s exactly what I did. So today’s issue is all about how I got better, plus some other insights I’m sure you’ll love.

In today’s edition:

• How I got better at LinkedIn
• Storytelling + persuasion tactics = conversions
• The OKR tracking template I’m using in 2024

Estimated read time: 4 minutes 40 seconds

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How I got better at LinkedIn ✍️

Fun fact: I got my current job through LinkedIn. I’ve also been doing some hiring lately for a Social Media Lead, and LinkedIn is my favorite place to find ideal candidates. Being active on LinkedIn can bring you one step closer to achieving your goals.
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Trying to land more freelance gigs? Write on LinkedIn. Looking for a new job? Write on LinkedIn? Need to generate leads for your business? LinkedIn.
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If you ask me, short-form social content is the future of content marketing. And for anyone in the B2B space, LinkedIn should be at the top of your channel list. But many people find writing on LinkedIn daunting. I get it. I was here too.

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I got better at writing LinkedIn posts by being consistent. And by being consistent, I’ve noticed a lot of what works and what doesn’t. Here are some of my tried and tested tips for succeeding on LinkedIn ⬇️
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Start by identifying the ‘meat’ of the post

What value is your post going to provide? Always ask yourself this first before you start writing. This way, you can keep your post centered on one key message.
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Write a killer hook

I like my LinkedIn hooks to contain 2 sentences. One ‘attention grabber’ and a ‘scroll stopper’ right after it, but that’s just me. Your hook needs to do two things:

• Introduce the ‘meat’ of the post
• Spark curiosity so your audience reads the whole post

Here’s a hook a wrote recently that I thought was great 👇

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Deliver on your promise

LinkedIn is full of founders and professionals who have walked the talk. So there’s no fooling around there. The body of your post needs to deliver on the value you promised in your hook. Anything else will hurt your credibility and destroy the personal brand you’re trying to build.

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Optimize for mobile

Few people know this, but line breaks happen after 45 characters on LinkedIn’s mobile app. This means that your hooks need to be 45 characters or shorter to avoid being cut off by the ‘see more’ CTA. Here’s some line break perfection 👇

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Be simple and straightforward

Again, there’s no fooling around on LinkedIn. Don’t try to prove your expertise with lots of jargon. The smartest people can explain complex terms in simple language, so you should too. Your posts should always provide value without fluff.

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Speak, but on paper

LinkedIn is full of many people trying to sound professional. But what stands out is authenticity. And nothing sounds as authentic as a conversational tone. Write your posts like you’re speaking to a colleague.

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As someone who’s always struggled with consistency, writing on LinkedIn hasn’t been much of a challenge. My advice for you is take it one day at a time. Start with text posts, then move to single designs or pictures, before graduating to carousels and videos. The most important thing to remember is to stay authentic.

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Storytelling 🤝 persuasion tactics

No matter how you think about it, marketers really only have one job. And that’s to keep persuading people to do stuff. Subscribe to a newsletter? Download an app? Sign up to use a product? Follow a social media account? It’s all persuasion.

Recently, I noticed how well storytelling and popular persuasion tactics go together. In fact, persuasion works best with stories. Let's look at two powerful persuasion tactics and how storytelling makes them more effective:
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Loss Aversion

People hate losing more than they love winning. That's loss aversion in a nutshell. Now, imagine weaving this into a story. Storytelling makes the fear of missing out more tangible. Follow these steps to write a story using the loss aversion tactic:

• Identify a pain point your ICP faces.
• Describe the consequences of not addressing the issue.
• Introduce your product/service as the solution that prevents these losses.
• Show the positive outcome of using your solution.
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Social Proof

People always look to others for cues on how to behave. I know many people who won’t sign up to a product unless they know someone else who’s had a good experience with it. That's where social proof comes in.

Social proof does more than tell you that others use the product. It shows you how it's transformed their work or life. Follow these steps to write a story using social proof:

• Collect real customer experiences and testimonials.
• Choose a compelling customer journey that shows transformation.
• Map a narrative arc: go from discovery to trial to success.
• Include specific, measurable results achieved by using your product/service.
• Talk about how the customer became an advocate for your brand.

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Stories make your product’s benefits more personal and the losses more real. So, the next time you're writing a case study or an ad, tell a story.

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An OKR tracking template to try in Q3 📊

It’s the last Friday of Q2, so you should be gearing up for performance reviews and goal setting for Q3. Whether you set your goals yourself or track what’s been set for you, I have something for you.

Here’s the Notion template I’m using to track my team’s OKRs this Q3, and for the rest of 2024.

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It feels good to be back. Cheers to doing your best for the rest of the year. It’s really all you can do.
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Until next time,

Olohireme

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