How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

written by Houston Golden
Founder & CEO, BAMF Media
March 11th, 2021
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Your LinkedIn summary is the heart of your profile.

It might not be as flashy as a header image with CTAs and your products, but it’s an area of your profile that you can use to convert potential clients and grow your organization.

Think of it as the heart of your profile.

You won’t get a lot of people reading the entire bulk of it, but you want the people that do to understand what your mission is.

In today’s guide, I want to help you create a LinkedIn summary that connects with your prospects, resonates with their visions, and converts.

How Do You Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts?

Your LinkedIn About Summary is one of the most critical areas of your profile that you have to write and optimize for.

Not a lot of people will go through your entire summary, but for the people that do, it provides one of the best places for conversions to happen.

It’s your only chance to both capture someone’s attention and tell them about your organization’s ­– or your persona – life story.

The LinkedIn About Summary section is one of the few places in your profile that you can personalize for it to be truly yours.

But, here’s what.

Crafting a good summary is often a delicate balance between storytelling, selling, and being as brief as possible.

It isn’t exactly a walk in the park for a lot of us.

However, we’ve laid down a couple of pointers that will help empower you.

Let’s start by examining the breakdown of a LinkedIn summary.

Parts of a LinkedIn Summary

Above the Fold

“Above the fold” is usually a term used by marketers to explain the first part of a website that appears on a browser before a visitor scrolls down.

On LinkedIn, this is the part of your summary that’s visible before they click on “See more”.

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Now as we mentioned earlier, not a lot of people who get on your profile will want to see more, but all of them will be exposed to the first two lines of your summary.

These three lines serve a couple of critical functions:

  1. As a contact placeholder so you don’t have to use other valuable areas of your profile to host your email or phone number.
  2. As a lead qualification tool, you’ll know who’s really interested in what you have to offer if they managed to scroll down and contact you via the contact information that you have there.
  3. It’s a great area to put an additional CTA to convert other prospects.
  4. And, finally, as a teaser for folks to check out the rest of your profile.

The simplest way that you can create an “above the fold” section is to put in your contact information along with an offer to try out your services.

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

This can be your:

  • Meeting link on an app like Calendly
  • Link to a landing page on your website
  • Business phone number
  • Professional email address

However, at BAMF, we want you to take your growth a step further.

Instead of directly putting in contact information on the first line, why don’t you put in something intriguing?

On the “above the fold” section of my personal profile, I put in a question before any contact information or my personal story.

This adds a little intrigue to the LinkedIn summary and it also serves as a CTA.

While we’re on the subject, we advise that you keep the second line of the first three lines free of text. This creates a good break between the words.

The Middle

The middle is where most of the meat is in.

This is where you can talk about who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

So, start with a personal story.

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

You want something that speaks to your customer and highlights how they can get closer to their vision for their organization.

After you’re done with that, talk about why you’re on LinkedIn in the first place.

  • Are you on LinkedIn to help people, sell, or look for a job?
  • How can you help better the life or ease the painpoints of the person that’s on your profile?
  • How will your customers be able to contact you?
  • Who are your “ideal” prospects?

The End

Your ending is where you drive it home.

Avoid writing anything sales-y or you’ll end up making it cheesy, you want something thought-provoking that encourages your prospect to think about how they can work with you in the future.

Keep it simple.

You can use the end to punctuate your vision.

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Finally, the very last line is where you can leave a link to your website or put in your contact information once again.

If you had a choice between the two, pick the link to your website, it ensures that the prospect isn’t saturated with sales speak.

Optimizing Keywords

Make sure that you include a couple of keywords in your LinkedIn summary.

However, keep it organic and don’t overstuff your profile.

Ideally, you want to use three to five keywords max.

Proofread It!

It doesn’t matter if you think it’s perfect.

Read it twice and maybe read through it once more.

Random typos or bad grammar can put off a prospect as fast as a bad review.

Why?

The prospect might think that the lack of proofreading is a sign that you – or the organization that you represent – don’t pay attention to detail.

Here’s a tip.

Make sure you run your new summary through Grammarly to pick up on common errors – if you’ve got the premium version that’s even better – then get a couple of other eyes on your summary before you post anything.

This extra step can help you make the most out of something that you really worked hard on.

Optimize it for Mobile

Here’s what.

Most users check LinkedIn on their phones, and it really helps to optimize your summary for mobile.

You can do this by breaking up the large pieces of text into smaller paragraphs so that someone on their phone can easily read through them.

Large pieces of text are not appealing, especially on a mobile device, so you want to make reading your summary as easy as possible.

This also works to your benefit if they’re viewing from a larger screen.

The aim is to keep your summary to a few paragraphs with a maximum of three lines in each.

If you can achieve everything in single lines, then that’s even better.

However, for the part that’s above the fold, you want to keep that to a single line.

This way a first-time visitor will be encouraged to click one “See more” button since they’re expecting the summary not to be text-heavy.

Emojis

Emojis are a good way to divide up your content and add a little flair to what you’re writing.

Don’t worry it doesn’t make your Linked summary any less professional, it just accents what’s already on it.

Remember, the LinkedIn summary is pretty text-heavy, so you want to make sure that you add some color.

Emojis are a good way of doing that.

I usually use them to punctuate a CTA or as bullet points.

(Don’t forget, you can also use them in your posts.)

11 LinkedIn Summary Examples to Inspire You

1. Sabir Semerkant

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Sabir is a zealous e-commerce growth hacker with a vast array of skills under his belt.

Rather than just mention what he does, he jumps in to give you examples of his accomplishments.

This showing versus telling method works well to bring in prospects.

You can follow Sabir’s example and just list down the other talents that you have on your summary instead of overloading your headline.

This allows you to keep things streamlined.

2. Jenny Foss

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Jenny Foss keeps things personal and interesting.

She starts off by telling you what she does in a quick conversational manner.

Then, she moves on to talk about the vision that she has for the people that she works with.

The ending also follows our strategy of providing interested prospects with a means to contact her.

It’s short and sweet – in the perfect balance.

3. Robbie Abed

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

You know you are a skilled marketer when people can’t resist reading your stories and publications. Robbie Knows the importance of a good first impression, and that is why his summary rocks.

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

He keeps things interesting by narrating his professional life in a way that weaves together facts, stories, and anecdotes. He has also managed to exclude overused LinkedIn buzzwords- something that plagues a lot of summaries.

4. Jonah Silberg

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Jonah’s profile is one that you’ll never forget.

Sometimes people have the attention span of a goldfish and it’s ideal that you feed them interesting bites about yourself that they’re likely to remember.

This chap’s summary ends in the second line. Super crazy, don’t you think? But, you can’t sell yourself well in two sentences, and Jonah knows that.

Just to remind you, the point here is to remember to have fun while writing your summary and get your profile visitors to remember you.

5. Muhammad Niaz

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Muhammad understands how vital storytelling can be in moving a brand’s influence to the next level.

He starts his summary by telling us a little about his experience of climbing Mt Everest.

Literally

And, towards the end of the first paragraph, he drops the essence of the story – perseverance. (Plus, he also mentions his initial story again.)

He says he doesn’t believe in quitting and will always push through the hardest conditions to deliver what’s required. This technique of integrating your life story into your summary can separate you from a pool of many commoners.

Don’t go overboard though, as people might mistake your pitch for bragging.

6. Micah Day

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

When you are writing a LinkedIn summary, you need to give a 360-degree view of yourself, your role, and your company.

There is power in being as comprehensive as possible (just as long as you can keep readers hooked). Micah does that excellently.

She mentions her role, what it entails, and why it matters. She doesn’t just mention her position- she passionately describes it and gives reasons why she is proud of what she does.

Another thing I love about her summary is the fact that it exudes confidence. People who exude confidence are naturally attractive to prospects.

7. Jeff Molander

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Jeff knows he is on LinkedIn to sell himself and his company.

Right off the bat, he starts to tell his readers that he knows the sales tactics that are working currently. Without wasting more space, he drops some of the services he sells and backs them up with his previous work experience.

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

At the end of his summary, Jeff doesn’t leave anything to chance; rather he goes ahead to invite his readers to contact him via the contact details on the page.

The most striking part about his summary is that it’s structured like a website. You get all the information you need without sacrificing any space.

You pretty much don’t need to visit his website to know that he’s legit.

8. Ryan Holmes

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

Ryan is the founder of Hootsuite- a social media management platform. He also happens to be a top influencer on both LinkedIn and Facebook.

Can’t help but say it- I love the cover image.

He clearly communicates what he does through his ventures- his company, his investment firm, and his books, and shows that he’s a value-driven entrepreneur- someone worth following.

It’s written in the third person and that adds such a nice touch because it sounds almost like a biography.

9. Maurice Piggue

linkedin summary, How to Create a LinkedIn Summary That Converts (Plus, 9 Examples!)

For the job seekers out there, Maurice’s profile is a shining example.

Maurice has done an excellent job of making his summary as exhaustive as possible while keeping it neat (I would have liked more spacing though).

When you’re looking for a job, you need to detail what you’re good at and what you’ve been good at something that Maurice has done very well.

Listen; you can be an acclaimed scriptwriter, a keen blogger, or a top-end graphic designer but without showing off your recent publications or designs, you won’t stand a chance.

Prospective employers will want to peruse through your samples or past work experiences before initiating a conversation or presenting an offer. So it’s imperative that you clearly detail them.

Takeaways

Here’s what.

If your profile hasn’t brought in any inbound leads yet, you need to start fixing it up ASAP.

It could be other elements that aren’t working or maybe it’s just your LinkedIn summary that isn’t working.

Remember, your summary is the heart of your profile. You want to wear your heart on your sleeve when you interact with your prospects.

Being intentional and relational is what works with growth hacking.

Happy writing!

About the Author

The name's Houston Golden. I'm the Founder & CEO of BAMF — a company I've grown from $0 (yes, really) to well over $5M+ in revenue over a span of 5 years.

How did I do it? Well, it's quite simple, really. I've helped hundreds of business owners and executives get major traction (because when they win, we win), I tell all on this blog.

Growth hacking is a state of mind. Follow along as I explore and expose the unknown growth strategies and tactics that will change the way you think about marketing.
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