7 Awesome Digital Marketing LinkedIn Profiles to Learn From

LinkedIn is arguably the most important social media site there is when it comes to networking and making new connections with prospects, clients, and business partners. Having a solid profile is crucial if you want to be a successful networker on LinkedIn, and there are many reasons for this. 

For one thing, you only have about 10 seconds to make an impression on a potential client or partner, so your profile has to be up to snuff. Moreover, your profile can showcase your accomplishments, your education, and the ways you’ve helped others solve problems and achieve success, and a good profile can help you secure the connections you need to grow your brand and your business. 

So what makes for a good LinkedIn profile for digital marketers? The best way to learn is by looking at what others have done right, so today we’re going to explore seven great digital marketing LinkedIn profiles you can use for inspiration.

1. Neil Patel

Neil Patel is among the most well-known and influential digital marketers in the world, and for good reason: he co-founded KISSmetrics, Hello Bar, and Crazy Egg, he's helped numerous major corporations (such as Amazon and Viacom) with their marketing efforts, he's a New York Times bestselling author, and his highly popular blog gets over 2 million visitors each month. With everything Patel has learned about digital marketing over the years, it’s no surprise that he has a great LinkedIn profile.

So what has Patel done well here? For starters, his profile summary is easy to read, but it’s also packed full of valuable information about his accomplishments that would immediately impress any reader. With a few short sentences, you know he's a bestselling author, a top influencer, and entrepreneur, that he has clout with some major multinationals, how successful his blog is, and how sought after he is as a public speaker. The writing is clear, concise, and to-the-point, but without being overly punchy. He also uses phrasing like “The Wall Street Journal calls me a top influencer,” and by putting the words in somebody else’s mouth, he does a great job of showcasing his achievements without bragging.https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkpatel

2. Aleyda Solís

Aleyda Solis is the founder of Orainti and international SEO consulting firm that focuses on increasing organic search visibility. She also blogs for influential sites like Search Engine Land, State of Digital, and Moz, does public speaking engagements, and has even published a Spanish-language book on SEO.

What you can learn from her LinkedIn profile is the importance of using professional photos to grab the attention of potential partners and prospects. Solis has chosen a great professional headshot for her profile picture, but what’s more is the action shot she's using for her custom background image. As public speaking is part of her repertoire, this photo was a great choice: she's mid-speech while onstage at a conference addressing the audience, and there's no better way to convey the idea of “this is what you get when you partner with me.”

3. Avinash Kaushik

Avinash Kaushik may be best known for his blog Occam’s Razor, but he's also the co-founder of the digital marketing training course company Market Motive Inc., he's a digital marketing expert for Google, and he's a leading expert on helping businesses use data to drive digital change.

One of the most prominent things about his LinkedIn profile is the headline, which is a hugely important element. According to his headline, Kaushik is an Author, Blogger, Digital Marketing Evangelist. This works well not only because it’s pithy and accurate, but also because it grabs attention and pulls you in with the novel term digital marketing evangelist. The term is great because it’s descriptive, but it’s also the title he uses in his role with Google. Beyond that, however, the headline piques interest, and this means somebody will keep reading, and that’s exactly what you want. A good headline should be unique, descriptive, and immediately set you apart from others.

4. Rand Fishkin

Rand Fishkin is best known as the co-founder, CEO, and face of Moz, the immensely popular and influential SEO software company, but most recently he left his role there to start another software and data company called SparkToro, which aims to connect businesses with their target audiences. He's also an author, keynote speaker, successful blogger, and renowned authority on all things SEO.

The reason his LinkedIn profile is notable is because it hits all the bases in terms of best practices, including that he has a succinct but descriptive profile that highlights his past achievements, he's made plenty of connections, and he’s highly engaged with the site. He's got all his experience and education listed, he regularly publishes articles on LinkedIn, and he has plenty of endorsements and recommendations to provide credibility. But one of the most striking things about his profile is how honest and personal it is. When you're reading it, you almost feel like you're talking to Fishkin in person. You get a good feel for his personality just from his profile, and this can help build trust and relationships with connections and prospects.  

5. Larry Kim

Larry Kim blazed onto the digital marketing scene back in 2007 when he founded WordStream, which provides online marketing and advertising tools to over a million people around the world. Since that time, he's also become the CEO of the Facebook messenger marketing platform MobileMonkey and has made a name for himself as one of Medium’s most popular authors.

One of the ways that Kim uses LinkedIn successfully is with his custom background picture because he comically diverges from the traditional professional approach that most digital marketers take. Rather than posting a photo of himself writing or speaking, he juxtaposes his professional profile picture with a colourful animated take on a still from Psy’s hit Gangnam Style, and this certainly works to grab your attention. Beyond that, Kim uses the opportunity of his profile description to boast about his many accomplishments—without being arrogant—and this is something that every good LinkedIn profile will do because you want prospects and potential partners to know what you can bring to the table.

6. Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen is an expert marketer who works as the chief content officer at Actionable Marketing Guide, an online publication where Cohen leverages her extensive marketing experience to provide tips and insights to businesses looking to learn more about things like blogging, branding, and social media, mobile, and content marketing.

The important thing to glean from Cohen’s LinkedIn profile is how adeptly she uses both her profile description and her experience to emphasize the ways she can bring value to prospects and partners. Her focus always stays not on what she's done, but rather on how she has helped others to drive growth, solve problems, and achieve their goals. For instance, instead of calling herself an experienced marketer and brander, she instead describes how her abilities have helped others by providing:

“innovative marketing and branding strategies that increase revenues, drive brand awareness, and solidify customer relationships.”

7. Scott Stratten

Scott Stratten is the president of Un-Marketing, a company that aims to teach organizations everything they need to know about marketing in the modern world, including creating viral campaigns, using social media to increase audience, and the importance of authenticity. He's also been named a top social media influencer, is a bestselling author, and is the go-to guy when organizations want help with relationship building and social media marketing.

There are two key takeaways from Stratten’s profile, and the first is his fearlessness when it comes to name dropping some of the massive global corporations for which he has done speaking engagements. If the goal of LinkedIn is to impress and entice people to work with you, then Stratten has excelled in this department and helped to build his credibility. The second thing to note is his wise choice to include a video of him speaking in his profile description because there's no better way to promote yourself than to actually show what you're capable of.

LinkedIn is a vital resource for digital marketers who want to grow their networks, meet new connections, expand their audience, and reach out to potential prospects and business partners. However, in order to be successful on the site, it’s important to have a great profile, and that means using tried and true best practices that are guaranteed to help you create a winning profile, just as the seven people discussed here today have done.