Episode 18: LinkedIn for Local Retail: Untapped Growth Strategies with Expert Scott Aaron
Are you an independent retail store owner who's missing out on connecting with local professionals - your ideal customers - simply because you are not leveraging LinkedIn? You probably didn’t think it was for you. You thought wrong. It’s a big opportunity.
This episode is a bit different from the usual episodes we have here on Main Street Matters. We invited an expert who shares his expertise on WHY WE SHOULD and HOW WE CAN increase our REACH, BUILD BRAND AWARENESS, and garner TRUST. Terresa Zimmerman welcomes LinkedIn expert Scott Aaron to show retailers how they can tap into this often-overlooked platform for business growth. Scott is an award-winning online marketer, a 4x best-selling author, a top podcaster with over 1 million downloads on iTunes, and a speaker known for turning LinkedIn connections into traffic, millions of dollars in business revenue, and strong personal brands.
Full disclosure: this is NOT a paid spot for Scott. We just think the information is that important for you and wanted to point out many of the free resources Scott pulls together for you.
In this Episode, Scott shares practical strategies for using LinkedIn's free features to build meaningful local connections and create an authentic online presence that converts into foot traffic - all without getting lost in the social media time quagmire. GET YOUR FREE LINKEDIN ASSESSMENT HERE
In this episode:
Why LinkedIn is relevant for independent retail store owners
How to build a targeted local network of up to 30,000 connections
The power of using your personal profile to boost your business’ online presence
Tips for creating attraction marketing content that solves customer problems
Strategies for showcasing community involvement and building trust
The importance of sharing behind-the-scenes content and personal stories
How to leverage LinkedIn's free features without paying for premium services
Step-by-step guide to optimizing your LinkedIn profile for local business
Ways to integrate community events and promotions into your LinkedIn strategy
GET YOUR FREE LINKEDIN ASSESSMENT HERE: https://www.magpaiassessments.com/4124/0
Connect with Scott Aaron
Scott’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottaaroncoach/
His podcast - Networking and Marketing Made Simple
His websites
(Personal) http://www.scottaaron.net/
(Company) http://www.thetimetogrow.com/
Scott’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottaaronlinkedin
Connect with Us:
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Website: www.mainstreetmatters.co
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/main-street-matters
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@MainStreetMatters_MSM
Host - Terresa Zimmerman:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terresachristensonzimmerman
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Full Transcript
Terresa Zimmerman:
Are you using LinkedIn for your business? You're thinking, wait, I'm a retail business. LinkedIn is a business platform. So no, of course I'm not using it. That's what I was thinking. But I had this great conversation with Scott Aaron. He's a LinkedIn expert and I learned so much that I asked him to join me on Main Street Matters. Scott has owned a retail business, so he's been in your shoes. He's going to share why LinkedIn is one of the most interesting and useful platforms for you to use as an independent retail business, and a few nuggets on how as well. It's easy, it's targeted, and it costs you nothing. Listen in, let us know what you think. This episode of Main Street Matters is brought to you by Wood Underwear, Marquesi Jin Frati Neckwear, and Inspiro Tequila. I'm your host, Terresa Zimmerman. Welcome to Main Street Matters. I am excited to have Scott Aaron on today. Scott is a LinkedIn guru, specifically marketing and sales, all things marketing and sales, and specifically on LinkedIn. Welcome, Scott.
Scott Aaron:
Well, I'm grateful and honored to be here and looking forward to dropping as much knowledge and information as possible.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Excellent. Well, this is a different conversation that we've had because most of our conversations are with independent retail store owners. And so having you on is a little bit of a different twist. But, you know, when we connected on LinkedIn, I thought, gosh, you know, so many of our stores We go to look for them when we are posting about them or promoting them. And if they have a company page, it is empty or not claimed. Or if they have a personal page, they're not really active on it. And they're retail stores. So I think LinkedIn isn't naturally where they think to go promote themselves. But there are a few out there who are doing it really, really well too. But I think in most of what I've seen, myself included, we're not doing all that we can do to leverage the platform. And most of our stores, Yes, they're retail, but they're servicing business people, right? So they are serving a group of people that is absolutely on LinkedIn. So I thought if you could bring your expertise to bear for this audience, the independent retail store owner audience, how they can leverage LinkedIn, why they should leverage LinkedIn, maybe I'm sure you have opinions on that too. So if we can cover that today, I think that would be a really interesting episode for everybody.
Scott Aaron:
Yeah, I mean, there's a lot that I can share, but what I'll first say, when we had our first conversation, what really kind of struck a chord with me is my background was in storefront business ownership. I had three health clubs in the downtown Philadelphia area from 1997 to 2016, so around 19 years. Long time. Long time, long time, a lot of ups, lots of downs, but I learned a lot about owning a business. I got started very young. I was 19 years old. And for me, it was understanding that when you own a storefront business, like the one that we have and had, and like the ones that a lot of people own that are listening to this podcast, you have to be your greatest PR, sales, and marketing asset. When we started in this space, having a storefront business like the ones that we had, the internet really wasn't a thing. There was no social media. Social media came out. I remember having Friendster and MySpace, but Facebook didn't come out until 2004, 2005. Yes, LinkedIn did come out in 2000, 2001, but people weren't using it for the way that they're using it now. And I remember hiring local guys from the neighborhood, you know, stuffing people's doors with flyers to check out our gym. I mean, that's how we kind of advertised and we had postcard mailers and all that stuff. So the way that I kind of correlate that to LinkedIn now, presently in 2025, is LinkedIn is your online highway bulletin board. Like it is literally, it's your advertisement board for when people are driving down that virtual online highway on LinkedIn, they have to stop and look at what you're doing. So you have to just make that correlation between the things that we did or still do in person to market ourselves and to get our brand and our visibility out there. And then obviously correlating that to more of the online space that a lot of people are in. And I know what many of you may be thinking in your heads right now. Well, I'm a storefront, you know, retail business owner. Do I even have a place on LinkedIn? Well, the answer is yes.
Scott Aaron:
88% of the LinkedIn population are decision makers. 12% are service providers or business owners, right? So there's a target market for you. And the interesting thing is that the last statistic that I really like to share with people is that 97% of people on LinkedIn never post a thing. Only 3% post one time per week or more.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Wow, that's shocking.
Scott Aaron:
And, but if you, if you really kind of dig into those statistics, what that tells you is you have such an amazing advantage for organic visibility than other people. So do you want to be part of the 97% that are completely invisible? Or do you want to be part of the 3% that is getting all the visibility from the 97%? Now, the other thing that I really want to clarify is many of you listening to this podcast, you may be a local storefront business owner. So here's the beautiful thing about that. That's actually a very advantageous thing, just to kind of give you a story really quickly. A client that I still work with, we've been working together. I've been working with him and his business for about four years now, and Since he brought me on to consult with his business, and he's a local business owner now, he's not in the retail. He provides a service. He's in the masonry business, which is even a little bit more niche, right? So he actually works with commercial and historic residential buildings and rehabs them. And he's in the greater Detroit area. So he brought me in to consult with his company to basically say, hey, can you help me build my presence on LinkedIn, highlighting and showcasing me as the expert? But also, how do I build a network of just people in the greater Detroit area that are within my ideal client persona that I can then market to and with and connect with? Since then, he's brought in on top of everything else that he's doing, probably an additional $3.5 million of revenue since we started working together. And that's possible for anyone and everyone. So why I wanted to say that first and foremost is that if you're a local retail business owner, you can build a network on LinkedIn up to 30,000 connections locally, nationally, or globally. So pick the largest metro area that's closest to you. So if I owned a storefront in the greater Philadelphia area, well, you better believe when I'm connecting with people on LinkedIn, it's only going to be people that are in the greater Philadelphia area because I can serve them first and foremost. So you can filter by location. So if you know, So I, I believe in demographic, uh, KPI research. So KPIs are key performance indicators. So as a, as a retail storefront business owner, you should be kind of looking at the demographics of the people that are buying from you from a professional standpoint. You know, are these doctors, are these lawyers, are they small business owners? You know, what are they in sales? Like what is their, what do they do when you know that information? LinkedIn is a search engine. It is just like Google. It's just like Yahoo. It's just like Bing. There's a search bar. So literally you can type in the keyword or keywords of the ideal client persona that you wish to connect with on LinkedIn, that you can bring them into your network, and then you can filter by location. So just saying maybe the top five ideal client personas are lawyers, doctors, accountants, small business owners, and sales professionals, right? Those are the people that typically shop at your store. So every day you can do a different search for those individuals and then filtering by location to the greater Philadelphia area. And then you can send out your connections that way, but don't exceed a hundred per week or you'll get dinged. So you can send a hundred targeted connections per week for that specific ideal client persona in that specific location that you're in. Now, if you're a national brand and such, where you have stores everywhere, where you're more of like looking to nationally connect, then you just filter by the United States of America or Canada or wherever you are.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, yeah. No, I'm glad you brought that up because so many of our stores, you know, we deal with Main, I call it Main Street, but we're really talking about downtowns of our local communities. They're independent retailers. They typically have one store. Some of them have a handful of stores, a wider footprint. And many of them, especially the men's clothing stores that do suiting and that sort of thing, some of their client bases do go farther and wider, but a lot of them are just local, right? So I'm glad you brought that up because it isn't natural. I think it's not intuitive that you get on LinkedIn and think, oh my God, I can create a community that is really just about my physical community.
Scott Aaron:
Well, I think that's what makes LinkedIn so special is because you don't have to do paid advertising or paid marketing to target the audience that you want to build, right? Because they're giving you all of these search criterias and you can even filter by industry. So you don't even have to type in like a keyword. You can just search and then you can filter by, you know, whatever industry that business development or, you know, transportation, whatever it is that you want to do. And I think that's why LinkedIn becomes such a valuable asset to any business owner, whether you're a storefront retail business owner or online like myself and my wife, you're still looking to get more eyeballs. And I think we've never been in a greater opportune time to get as much organic visibility online ever before than right now. And it's never been easier. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get in front of people. It's literally LinkedIn is free. I still have never paid for any of the paid versions of LinkedIn. I've never done premium. I've never, never did navigator. I've never done recruiter. So the fact of the matter is, is that you can do this by leveraging just the free basic version and again, connecting with the right people. But then obviously the secondary thought and feeling may be, well, what is it that I need to do? What kind of content should I provide? Should I be producing content at all if I'm in the retail space?
Terresa Zimmerman:
Well, yeah, and that I got to tell you, I mean, I do this. When I talk to, I do this personally, but when I talk to the store owners, and you even mentioned social media, I mean, eyeballs roll. My eyeballs roll. It's like, it's a time sock. I'm going to go down this rabbit hole. I'm going to get caught with all the dog videos, and I can't help myself. The next thing you know, four hours have gone by, and I haven't been productive, and I'm not even sure what I've posted. is even interesting or worthwhile. So, you know, how I think personally, I spend more time on LinkedIn. I appreciate what I'm seeing there. But how how does an independent retail owner go about, you know, doing this? How should they do it?
Scott Aaron:
Well, I would say first and foremost, above all else, I would really focus the visibility of your LinkedIn profile first. So really think about… I mean, your personal profile. Personal profile. You could have a company page, which that could be a separate episode, but I want to focus on I want to focus on the personal profile of the business owner. So what you have to think about is something that I call the passenger side perspective. The passenger side perspective is the potential customer that you're looking to attract to your business. So you have to think about it in your mind. If I was my own best customer and I happened to stumble upon my LinkedIn profile, would it be very clear what my business is all about, who I serve, and what I provide? And if the answer is no, then I would start right there. You have to be very clear. And just like a website that many of you probably have, websites are all SEO based search engine optimization. So the more optimized your website is, the more likely you are to appear on the first search page of a search engine like Google and Yahoo. The same thing goes for LinkedIn. You want to appear in that first search result when someone is typing in X, Y, and Z into that search bar. So you have to think about what would my ideal customer have to type in the search bar that would allow my profile to populate? So is it business apparel, sports apparel, whatever the case, I'm just throwing out some examples.
Terresa Zimmerman:
So Taylor suiting something.
Scott Aaron:
Yes, exactly. Yeah. Think, think about. the specific keywords that you would have to punch in to enable your profile to populate. So that's where you wanna start making sure that your headline is clear, who you serve, the about section is filled out properly where it tells the story, but more importantly, the clients that you specifically serve, the experience section listing your entire history of work, obviously the top one being what you're currently focusing now with your local retail business, having any licenses and certifications, volunteer experience, education. You want a complete profile. You're not filling it out like a resume. You're filling it out like the homepage to a website. The more deep, detailed information, the better. So once you have the component of your website or your LinkedIn profile, which acts as your website done, then it's that secondary aspect that I covered prior, which is connecting with the right people, getting the right people in front of your LinkedIn profile. I would say the most important thing, and this is key, you need to focus on a lot of attraction marketing. I know that may sound like a big buzzword to a lot of you and it's actually, it's a buzzword to me too, but I think in the instance of a local retail business owner, the attraction marketing aspect of your content is essential for your success. Now, when it comes to attraction marketing, you need to focus on the benefits and the solutions to the problems that people have, right? So using your custom suit and tailor example, So what do a lot of business professionals struggle with? Finding a custom tailor that can really tailor that suit to fit their needs because everyone is different shapes, different sizes.
Terresa Zimmerman:
You don't have to take your custom shirts back six times because somebody gets it right the first time.
Scott Aaron:
Exactly. Like for me, I have very broad shoulders. I have a very small waist. I got a nice butt and I got big legs. And so I'm not your typical shape when you're looking to buy a suit because I need to have a bigger jacket for my shoulders. I need to have the inseam tapered because of my thin waist. And I need my pants hemmed a little bit differently because of my waist to butt ratio, all that stuff, right? So when you're highlighting those things in your content, where you're kind of focusing on the problems that maybe some business professionals have with this example, and then you provide the solutions and you position yourself as the subject matter expert. Now, every post that you make is an advertisement for your services and an invitation for them to check you out, right? And you're doing it in a very non-sleazy, non-spammy way because you're leading with value. So when you lead with value, you lead with the problem. This could be done in an image text post. This could be done in a video, which I think would be most powerful for the local retail business owners. Just imagine hopping on camera, grabbing your phone, and all you need is literally your phone your face, your mouth and your voice. That's it. That's all you need. So you don't need fancy equipment. You could be standing in front of your storefront. You just grab your phone out, you turn on the camera and you just basically just focus on the problem. You know, how many of you out there, you know, go to buy a suit and just something is not right, whether it's sleeve length, whether it's the inseam, whether it's the shoulder to waist ratio, you know, How many of you struggle with this? And for me, I struggle with this a lot, and you always link it back to yourself, because people like personal stories. They like knowing the person that's running the business can resonate with them. So the example I give is if someone's going to hire a dietician, they're most likely going to hire someone that's in shape, right? So you want to take advice from someone that takes their own advice. So when you're kind of, I go back to the, remember the old hair club for men?
Terresa Zimmerman:
Oh yeah.
Scott Aaron:
I'm not just the president, I'm also a client, right?
Terresa Zimmerman:
Right, right.
Scott Aaron:
So it's that same adage where you want to position yourself not only as the owner, but your best client as well. So the person who's seeing it, hearing it is resonating with it because like, oh, here's this person who is, um, sharing with me, obviously what they know about this, they've been there. It's something I'm struggling with. I want to go check them out because now, you know, in that video, you could say, listen, if you're in the local Philadelphia, you know, metro area, we're in, in center city, 18th and broad, check us out, come in, say that you saw this on LinkedIn and I would love to serve you. So that's just kind of like a 10,000 foot view of what you could do.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, that's an awesome example too, because for those of you out there who are listening and not watching, you can't see that Scott actually does not have hair. So it was an awesome example.
SPEAKER_01:
Yes, I don't have, nothing there, nothing there at all.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Beautifully shaven. Thank you. So let's go back to the profile part of that, because the independent retail store owners It's all about relationships. It is relationship driven and they are so involved with their communities. They do events, whether they're just part of them or sponsoring them or, you know, outfitting the people going to them. They are so in their communities and you see it sometimes in pictures on Instagram, but all of that can go in their LinkedIn profile. It's like all of the boards they serve on, all of the volunteerism, all of the things that their store is involved in in their community every day, it's part of their bio. Which I think a lot of people don't think about that as part of their bio, I didn't. But it's not just a sidebar in the case we're talking about here, it's actually part of the business that they are active and involved in these things.
Scott Aaron:
It helps build the relationship between the person that you're connecting with and the person who's running the business because it's all connecting points. The more that person knows about you and what you do, the more commonality there is, the more shared life and business experience there is to connect between the two people.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, well, and I'm thinking also, you know, it is an opportunity for them to say, hey, you know, three months from now, daddy daughter dance down at such and such building. We are building suits now. Don't wait. Come on in. You know, something like that.
Scott Aaron:
Exactly. Yeah.
Terresa Zimmerman:
And there's all kinds of things that they can do that to get themselves even more involved with community and make those connections.
Scott Aaron:
Yeah, I mean, there's there's groups on there's local groups on LinkedIn, like, which is awesome. So if there's a like, just like, you know, Facebook has local groups, there's local groups on LinkedIn that you can connect with, like, You can connect with local business owners in your local area on LinkedIn and form some really good power partnerships where there could be referrals passed back and forth. It's an untapped market for most people, including local retail business owners. They think that there's not a space for them. There's a space for everyone on LinkedIn.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Right. And I love that you've brought up some really easy steps for people to do that are actually personal. I mean, you know, I am guilty. I am very active on LinkedIn personally. I am guilty of not being so active on the business side of it. But I have the page. It's got the basics. But personally, I'm attached. And that's the part that I love anyway.
Scott Aaron:
Yeah. Well, that's what most people are attached to anyway. It's that personal connection. So going back to the example of my business, you know, we were a local mom and pop gym where everyone knew each other's names. They weren't just a member where you swiped in and, you know, like the gyms today. My mom used to trade recipes with the other women that came into the gym. We would have gym parties at the gym for the member appreciation parties. We were a family. It was the cheers of gyms. Everybody did know each other's name. That's the ability that all of us now have on LinkedIn, because people can really get to know you the business owner. So so many people just kind of promote their business. But what connects people more is the person that's running the business because it allows you to expand your reach, your visibility, your connectability, your rapport, your trust. And I always tell people, no one buys anything from anyone that they don't know, like, or trust. So the more that you can kind of showcase yourself and build that know, like, and trust with the audience that you wish to build on LinkedIn, you will have more business coming into the storefront from that.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, okay, cool. So to recap, and you can correct me if I'm wrong here, elaborate as you like. So build your personal profile. Make sure you have a page, company page, but build your personal profile. Yes. Put it all in there. Connect with your local community. Go out there and do that search for your equivalent of Philadelphia neighborhood X and search on those lawyers, doctors, fishermen, whatever it is your customer profile looks like. Then get your camera out and take a picture of yourself in front of your store or take a video of yourself in front of your store and talk to those people.
Scott Aaron:
I mean, if you look at what Gary Vaynerchuk did in the very beginning when he was building his brand, he did such a great job because People don't even know that his company is called VaynerMedia. They just know Gary Vee, the face of VaynerMedia, because he doubled down, tripled down, quadrupled down on himself. He said, I'm gonna put myself out there, right? I'm gonna post pictures of myself with some value-added content. I'm gonna do short little videos with value-added content. All he did was pour into other people. And then you don't have the chase, because you're getting in front of more people. And like I said, This is the greatest and easiest time to advertise yourself without spending any money. The only thing that you need to spend is the time and the energy and the effort to do it. But once you start, the only way that it doesn't work is if you stop. And that is the honest to God truth.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Yeah, awesome. Scott, I know you have a lot of free programs actually out there for people. I do, yes. I'm sure that there are some upsells to that too where you can consult people directly, but maybe just plus how people can reach you, where they should start if they wanted to hear more from you.
Scott Aaron:
Sure. Well, I appreciate that. Obviously LinkedIn, uh, you can find me on there. Just search Scott Aaron. I'll come right up. Uh, I do two LinkedIn live trainings every single week, Mondays and Thursdays. So you can always learn from me that way. Uh, my LinkedIn newsletter is called LinkedIn tips and updates. I do a weekly newsletter, kind of recapping things that people need to know to grow their business, uh, whether it is brick and mortar or retail or online, obviously, and that's there for you. Um, my website is scottaron.net. There's actually a free download. on there. If you go there, it's six steps to perfecting your LinkedIn profile. If that interests you, it's completely free. On my LinkedIn profile, there's something called the LinkedIn Scorecard Assessment. Basically, it's a two-minute assessment that basically tells you maybe the things and the strategies that you're missing with LinkedIn that you can focus more on. Uh, and finally, my wife and I are launching something called the expert content society. So this is for business owners, uh, service professionals, coaches, and consultants, um, that are looking to really go all in with LinkedIn and content in particular. So there's going to be monthly challenges, masterclasses, and workshops on how to strategically use LinkedIn content to grow your business. The doors for that open in March, but we do have a wait list and there'll be discounted pricing for people that do want to join. So, obviously, I will include that link for all the listeners so they can get on there as well.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Excellent. Yeah, we'll put all those links in our notes for sure. So, thank you so much, Scott, for coming on. I can't wait to hear the feedback from our audience about this because, I mean, I'm inspired. I need to go improve my profile right now.
Scott Aaron:
Well, my goal is to raise as much attention and awareness in the business world as possible to anyone out there that's looking to improve their reachability, connectability, and visibility. And I know it can be done with LinkedIn and just very simple actions that compounded over time create the result. And I'm also interested to hear what the audience took away.
Terresa Zimmerman:
So I'm going to ask you one question, if it's okay. We did not rehearse this. I didn't tell you I was going to do it, but since you were an independent business owner for so long, why does Main Street matter? When I talk about Main Street, I'm talking about independent retail. Why does Main Street matter?
Scott Aaron:
Well, I think for me, one of the greatest experiences that I have had in business is having a local retail business. Because I'm a big community person and my friends would call me the mayor of Old City. So we were in a very up and coming area of downtown Philadelphia called Old City. A lot of boutiques, a lot of shops, a lot of young business professionals. Oh God, it was so much fun because I would just walk down the street and you see the same faces. You become a fixture of the community and basically they become an extension of your family. And it's long lasting relationships. My dad just got remarried a few months ago and some of our old gym members and trainers were there that we've been friends with for 20. It's important to support the local communities because what makes up this incredible country that we live in are the local business owners. Without local business owners, without entrepreneurs, we wouldn't be flourishing the way that we are. So I really want to encourage all the local business owners, whether you're in retail or whatever the case may be, don't give up on your dreams and really do your best to connect with as many people as possible. And why Main Street matters is because Main Street matters is because business matters. Business would not exist without the Main Street businesses that you are all make and you make that up. So it's more important now than ever to really make sure that you've left your footprint on that local community that you're a part of so you can leave that legacy for others to follow way, way after you're gone.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Love it. Love it. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate your time today.
Scott Aaron:
Absolutely. Grateful to be here.
Terresa Zimmerman:
Thank you for tuning in to Main Street Matters. I hope you found today's episode insightful and inspiring. I'd love it if you would share Main Street Matters with fellow retail owners or anyone else who loves Main Street. And please subscribe so you know when the next episode drops.
