linkedin-gtm

name

linkedin-gtm

description

Run a LinkedIn B2B motion in three layers — content and authority (hook shapes, four content types, profile optimization, 1-of-1 positioning), warming (move prospects from cold to warm with engagement before any outreach), and outreach (decision-maker research, connection requests, a 4-message DM sequence, sell-by-chat, inbox triage) — on a 60-90 minute weekly rhythm with human approval on everything outbound, plus a profile conversion layer (headline/banner/featured/About/CTA), lead-magnet posts with comment-keyword delivery, and niche first-touch openers. Use for "LinkedIn GTM", "LinkedIn content plan", "LinkedIn outreach", "book calls from LinkedIn", "LinkedIn lead magnet post", or LinkedIn profile optimization.

LinkedIn GTM

Three layers that only work as a sequence: build authority so the ICP knows your name → warm prospects through engagement before you ever message them → run outreach that converts because the relationship already exists. Authority makes warming work; warming is what separates a ~15% connection-acceptance experience from a much higher one.

Hard rules that override everything below: LinkedIn's terms prohibit unauthorized automation and scraping, and accounts get restricted for it — every outbound item (post, comment, connection note, DM) is a human-approved draft, "auto" modes are never used, and the caps below are ceilings, not targets. Never fabricate results, engagement, or credentials. Reply-rate and reach figures are rules of thumb, not measured guarantees.

Voice rules (every post, comment, and DM)

No em dashes. No AI vocabulary (leverage, delve, streamline, harness, unlock, foster, synergy). Specific numbers beat adjectives. One sharp insight per comment beats three vague ones. Capitalize names. Comments 200–350 characters; posts 900–1,300 characters. Everything is a draft until approved.

Layer 1 — Content and authority

Positioning first. Fill "I help [who] achieve [specific outcome] using [specific method]" and test it: could a competitor say the same sentence? is there a metric or timeframe? is the method named? Fix before posting.

Post structure: a hook in the first two lines (only those render before the fold — they must earn the "see more" click), a body that carries a story or argument with real numbers, and a closing question or resource that gives readers a reason to comment. Ten reusable hook shapes (anaphora, obituary-for-an-old-practice, year-over-year pivot, curiosity gap, list reveal, confession, contrarian, before/after, one-question, cold open) live in this repository's workflows/gtm/linkedin/templates.json bank.

Four content types, one rotation: proof (client results with before/after numbers — most converting), framework (a process the ICP can apply), authority (a genuinely held contrarian position — most comments and DMs), story (an experience turned into a lesson — best reach). Rotate two proof/framework posts plus one story/authority post, three posts a week minimum.

Pre-publish audit: check the hook, strip AI tells (em dashes, rule-of-three lists, banned vocabulary, fake-candid openers), flag hashtag spam and external links in the body, keep length between roughly 600 and 1,800 characters, and confirm there is a reason to comment.

Profile as landing page: headline = who you help + outcome + credibility (not a job title, under 220 characters); About = two-line hook, then empathy, method, proof, CTA, in first person under 1,500 characters; Featured = one lead magnet, one best post, one external proof, each with a working link; Experience = action-result bullets with metrics.

Engagement window: reply to comments within 6–24 hours of a post going live — that is when author replies multiply distribution.

Layer 1c — The profile conversion layer

Traction only becomes booked calls if the profile a DM recipient checks actually converts; every surface sells. Headline (renders in search, post bylines, and DM previews): "I help [ICP] achieve [SPECIFIC OUTCOME] in [TIMEFRAME] with [UNIQUE MECHANISM]" — or the broad variant "Achieve [OUTCOME] with [MECHANISM]" — never a bare job title, with any appended guarantee or accolade real. Banner: one line of real social proof and the offer stated directly (statements, not questions), left quarter clear for the photo overlay. Featured: the credibility shelf — best educational post with a CTA, one real case study or testimonial, one free resource. About as a short-form sales letter in six moves: a pattern interrupt addressed to the ICP → one credibility sentence with a real number and timeframe → three specific pains → the named mechanism in two-to-three sentences → three real client results → a trigger-word CTA ("DM me [WORD] for [NEXT STEP]"). CTA placement: four coordinated slots (custom button, banner, About close, Featured links) so prospects at different depths each hit one. Templates live in the profileLayer rows of the bank.

Layer 1d — Lead-magnet posts

A lead-magnet post trades a real asset for an action: bold real claim about what the resource delivers → three-to-five specific components inside → one line of real proof → "Comment [KEYWORD] + connect and I'll send it over." Hooks trigger desire, curiosity, or fear; preview media of the actual asset raises conversion. Keep the necessary actions minimal — every added step cuts comments — with at most one bonus action for a bonus reward. Delivery is a human or human-approved draft, never automated: connected commenters get the link plus one specific related question; new commenters get it in a comment reply or connection note. Delivery is never held hostage to the connection, every promised DM is actually sent, and scarcity lines are used only when literally enforced.

Niche first-touch openers

Nine honest, manually-sent openers for common service niches live in the bank's nicheOpeners rows: direct case study ("we helped [REAL CLIENT] go from [BEFORE] to [AFTER] — against me telling you how?"), short probing question, shared event, funding congratulations, live job listing, SEO keyword callout, builder template offer, pain-point with an observable company signal, and an honest feedback ask. Each carries its honesty condition — the signal must be genuinely observed and every claim real.

Rejected tactics (recorded in the bank's antiPatterns rows): openers that invent a mutual source and then joke the profile was scraped; AI voice notes passed off as personal human notes; third-party follower/commenter scrapers and fully-automated DM sequencers (LinkedIn-terms violations — engagement signals are gathered manually or not at all); false scarcity; fabricated proof. Calls-per-day and reply-rate figures circulating with these systems are vendor claims.

Layer 2 — Warm before you reach out

Cold prospects (never heard of you) reply rarely; warm prospects (seen your name and content) reply far more; hot prospects (engaged with your content) reply best. Move people cold → warm before the first message with three plays: consistent posting so the ICP sees your name, commenting on their posts before they comment on yours, and light visibility touches (reactions, profile views). Two to four weeks of this and your first message is not cold.

Comment play, human-approved: find posts by ICP-matching profiles, draft a two-to-three-sentence comment that adds a counterexample or data point (never agreement filler, never a product mention), and post at most 15 per day with 30–60 seconds between — each one reviewed before it goes out.

Post-engager play: when a post performs (yours, a thought leader's, or a competitor's on a problem you solve), identify which engagers match the ICP and reach out referencing the specific post or comment. An engager is a warm prospect who already signalled interest in the topic.

Layer 3 — Outreach

ICP gate before any outreach: written target titles, company types and sizes, qualifying signals, disqualifiers, geography, and the buying trigger that makes now the right time. Vague ICPs produce vague outreach.

Connection notes: under 200 characters, anchored to something specific and real (their post, job change, or company signal), no pitch, no profile-scraper phrases. Caps: ~20/day on newer accounts, up to ~40 on warmed ones, never 50.

The 4-message DM sequence (after acceptance): M1 at day 1–3 references why you connected, offers something relevant, ends with an open question, under 80 words. M2 at +3–5 days shares a resource with one sentence of context and no ask. M3 at +5–7 days makes one brief low-friction ask. M4 only if they replied positively without committing — move to the calendar in one or two more messages.

Sell-by-chat (warm prospect → booked call): open by referencing shared context and asking about their situation (messages 1–2, no offer) → qualify with two or three problem-surfacing questions (messages 3–4, listen) → pivot with a one-sentence offer and ask if a quick call is worth it (message 5) → book (message 6). Never send a calendar link before the pivot — it kills the conversion.

Inbox triage: classify unread conversations positive / neutral / negative; for positives, draft a short pitch-free reply that moves toward a call, match their tone, and queue it for approval.

Signal-based targeting: recent job changes (reach out two to six weeks in), engagement on relevant posts (24–48 hour window), and hiring signals (a company hiring the role your product serves is in buying mode).

Layer 4 — Full-funnel social selling

Reframes the whole motion as a system, not a posting habit. Build the audience before you publish — most programs fail because they publish before they distribute. Engineer a network mirroring your market from three groups: target accounts (ICP companies), decision-makers inside them (economic buyers, champions, influencers), and niche influencers who already hold your ICP's attention; grow with segmented invite batches, not volume blasts. Stage content 70/20/10: ~70% TOFU (awareness — thought leadership, educational how-tos, giveaways, carousels, storytelling), ~20% MOFU (problem-to-solution — demos, how-tos, frameworks, playbooks, webinars), ~10% BOFU (conviction — case studies with real metrics, testimonials, product walk-throughs, launch posts); BOFU only converts on top of TOFU credibility and MOFU education. A suggested week: 3–4 TOFU, 1 MOFU, 1 BOFU, plus daily engagement.

Capture buyer signals — a profile visit from an ICP role is a digital hand raise, not a coincidence. Five signals, warmest last: profile visit, profile CTA click, lead-magnet request, qualified post engagement, and direct message (warmest — where most conversions happen; never ignore the inbox). Log each into a CRM/tracker (name, role, company, LinkedIn URL, signal type, date), tag by segment and funnel stage and intent, and route to newsletter, email nurture, retargeting, or a human-approved warm-outbound sequence — fit over volume, and only through platform-native surfaces with human review, never third-party scrapers. Convert through four channels: newsletter (extend the conversation), landing page (clarify the offer), warm outbound (reference their actual engagement), retargeting (reinforce among the aware). The flywheel: content builds trust → trust drives engagement → engagement drives pipeline → pipeline fuels visibility.

Avoid the five strategic mistakes: posting before building an audience, posting only BOFU, ignoring DMs, no tracking system for warm leads, and treating LinkedIn as a feed instead of a pipeline lever. Bank rows: audienceGroups, funnelContent, buyerSignals, conversionChannels, socialSellingMistakes.

The weekly rhythm (60–90 minutes total)

Daily, 10–15 minutes: triage the inbox, reply to positives via sell-by-chat, make a handful of approved comments on ICP posts, send 2–3 approved connection requests. Monday: write, audit, and schedule the week's three posts; harvest last week's engagers into the warm list. Midweek: analyse the best post's engagers and send approved connection notes. Friday: review reply data, send due follow-ups, and note three postable moments from the week.

Reusable rows for all of this — hook shapes, the post skeleton, content-type rotation, warming stages, the connection-note skeleton, DM sequence spine, sell-by-chat phases, safety caps, the profile layer, lead-magnet post mechanics, niche openers, anti-patterns, audience groups, the TOFU/MOFU/BOFU funnel model, buyer signals, conversion channels, and social-selling mistakes — live in workflows/gtm/linkedin/templates.json.