Your LinkedIn Headline is your first impression. It’s what a recruiter or hiring manager first sees when they view your LinkedIn profile. In fewer than 220 characters, your headline needs to say “you’ve found the person you’re looking for!”
In a single sentence, a great headline will communicate who you are, what you do and why you’re incredible. It will catch the reader’s attention, stop them in their tracks and make them want to know more. Every effective LinkedIn profile begins with a killer headline, so let’s get started!
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Coming up
I’m going to tell you everything you need to know to write a headline that helps you land a job faster. You can apply the same logic to writing a LinkedIn headline for your business or for growing a network. At the end of this article, you’ll find example LinkedIn headlines that will inspire you when crafting your own.
- What is a LinkedIn headline?
- Why is your LinkedIn headline important?
- What to include in your headline
- 9 essential LinkedIn headline tips
- LinkedIn headline examples
- Your LinkedIn headline and job applications
What is a LinkedIn headline?
A LinkedIn Headline is a short slogan or blurb that appears below your name on your LinkedIn profile. As you can see from the example below from Resume Writer, Hannah Mason, this piece of text is very prominent.
Why is your LinkedIn headline important?
Let me give you three reasons why you should take time over your LinkedIn headline;
1. A good LinkedIn headline tells recruiters or potential clients what you do. It gives them a reason to take a closer look at your LinkedIn profile and to connect with you.
2. Your LinkedIn headline can help you to stand out from the competition. This is very important in a job search context.
3. The headline section on LinkedIn is an important component of an optimized profile. It’s one of the sections of your profile where you can include keywords. It’s these keywords that help you get found by recruiters and hiring managers.
An effective LinkedIn headline will do 3 things:
1. Speak to a target audience of one
2. Stop the reader in their tracks
3. Communicate your message in under a single second
What should you include in your LinkedIn headline?
There are no hard and fast rules for what you should include in your headline. Instead here are ingredients that will help you to create a standout headline.
Your target audience
A good LinkedIn headline will speak to your target organization. This means it shouldn’t be generic. Instead include specific words or phrases that make it clear who it is you’re speaking to. For example;
- I help fortune 500 organizations to…
- Finance Director for non-profit organizations…
- Social Media Manager putting startups on the map…
Current and target job titles
Recruiters will use specific job titles when searching for people like you. Your headline should help the recruiter to identify you as the person they have been looking for.
A few keywords or phrases
2-3 keywords are enough. More than this could constitute keyword stuffing, and you don’t want that! Again, consider the words or phrases that someone might type into a search bar to find someone like you. Incorporate some of these into your headline to make it more powerful.
A reason to hire you
This is where you add some real spice to your headline. What would make your target companies want to hire you above anyone else? Add this to your headline to make it stand out in the crowd. For example;
- Achieving double-digit growth year-on-year
- Developing marketing strategies that significantly uplift sales
- Integrating Ai solutions that accelerate business growth and increase customer satisfaction
9 LinkedIn headline tips
- You don’t have to stick to text. Use emojis and symbols to help your headline stand out and pack a punch.
- Keep your target job and audience in mind at all times when writing your headline.
- At all costs, avoid the phrase “looking for new opportunities”.
- You can use some caps to make certain words stand out, don’t use all caps though, as this looks like you’re shouting.
- Use Grammarly (ad) to make sure your headline is free of spelling and grammar mistakes.
- You can separate important words or phrases with bullets, arrows or vertical lines.
- Make the most of your full character allowance.
- Have a look at other LinkedIn profiles for inspiration. Career coaches and freelancers often have good examples.
- Use Jobscan (ad) to scan your LinkedIn profile and suggest keywords and phrases for your headline – try it here
Example LinkedIn headlines to get you started
Head of Procurement @ Colas ➤ Global Procurement | Supply Chain Management | Digital Transformation | People Development
General Manager at INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL & RESIDENCES BELLEVUE (Seattle/USA) ► Experienced Area General Manager & Commercial Leader of Hospitality Assets ► 5* Luxury Resorts | Business Hotels | Conference Centers
Litigation Associate at Wade Clark Mulcahy LLP ➤ New York Qualified Disputes Lawyer / Legal Counsel ➤ Insurance, Commercial Contracts, Data Privacy, Cybersecurity, Employment, & Intellectual Property
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) ▫️ Leader of Marketing Strategies That Drive Brand Preference & Significantly Uplift Sales.
Principal Analytics Consultant @ Aimpoint Digital → Data Visualization → Tableau Developer → Business Intelligence & Analysis → Passion for Democratizing Data to Tell Stories
Marketing Director | Senior Brand Leader | VP of Marketing ► Helping CPG, Fortune 500 & Consumer Product Brands Leverage Modern Marketing Strategies to Grow Top-line Sales
Your LinkedIn headline and job applications
A headline is one of the few pieces of information a hiring manager sees when an applicant applies for a job. Most people don’t consider this when they use LinkedIn to apply for roles.
When a hiring manager opens your application they see your name and your headline. They also see your name, experience and education. But it’s your headline that needs to grab their attention. Your headline should tell the reader that you are a great candidate for this role.
Conclusion
A LinkedIn headline might be small, but it’s a huge piece of the LinkedIn puzzle. Think of it as your personal brand advertising campaign, a way to tell recruiters how great you are.
Jobscan is a fantastic tool for optimizing the whole of your LinkedIn profile, including your headline. Give it a try here.
