As a business owner looking to kick off a lead generation strategy, now is the best time to start. LinkedIn lead generation is one of the most lucrative and interesting forms of lead generation, especially for a business owner.
With a well-designed LinkedIn lead generation strategy, you can boost the number of sales calls booked each month, thereby creating ample opportunities for new business. However, it is essential to note that you can only enjoy the benefits of LinkedIn if you play the long-term game. That is why experts advise business owners to put more effort into posting meaningful content to the right audience to get the expected results.
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LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy
Although the success of a LinkedIn lead generation strategy depends on the long game, you can quickly see results if you start early enough. Still trying to figure out how to start? This blog discusses 18 tips on how to create LinkedIn ads campaigns to kick off your LinkedIn lead generation strategy.
#1 – Optimize Your Profile
Profile optimization is first and foremost in a LinkedIn lead generation strategy. Optimizing your business and personal profile for engagement is crucial in driving engagement.
When optimizing your profile, fill out your profile conversationally. Also, it is best to avoid bulleted lists in your about and job description section. Instead, write these sections as if you are explaining them to a friend. Experts recommend using a professional picture with a high-resolution background—it helps to optimize your LinkedIn lead generation profile.
Links to your websites are also important. You should also ensure that the information on your page is always fresh and current. This helps you capture and hold potential leads’ attention.
#2 – Leverage Current Connections
LinkedIn’s selling point is the networking the platform provides, and it is essential to take advantage of this feature for lead generation purposes.
You can connect with your current customers and clients on the platform and learn about their industry connections, which may be valuable for your business. Similarly, you can ask your existing clients for referrals and references while reaching out to their connections that match your customer profile.
Because LinkedIn is a professional platform, making these requests is not as pushy or salesy as cold calling someone you got their number online. Therefore, your leads can receive your connection requests, check through your profile, and also trust you when they see your shared connections.
Reaching out and connecting with new leads is a warm outreach, and that is because you already know them and can provide value and make propositions relating to their interests.
#3 – Reinforce Positive Connections
After posting a relevant article on your page, you may receive positive feedback from other LinkedIn members. It is best to reply and thank them politely for their comment publicly. You can then follow up by sending them a connection request to join your network. If the member accepts, you have gained a new connection and a potential lead.
#4 – Follow Up On Old Leads
Lead generation is a game of numbers. The more you target people, the higher your chances of landing a sale. But lead generation is much more than the number of leads. The quality also matters. Many businesses make the mistake of generating leads, initiating contact, and stopping, failing to follow up.
Studies show that 80% of sales must be followed up five times for success. But unfortunately, almost 50% of businesses send only one follow-up. Without follow-ups, your prospects could get distracted and miss your message. It is ideal to reach out to your prospects again after three days, and this counts as the first follow-up.
Besides losing out on potential customers, you also waste time and effort it took to generate those leads when you fail to follow up adequately. Fortunately, you can automate follow-ups by setting up an autoresponder series. This way, your follow-up process is hands-off, and you can experience an increase in qualified leads.
#5 – Use A Focused Outreach
A focused outreach instead of a spray-and-pray method is crucial to the success of your lead generation strategy. How about you start a conversation with your leads instead of selling to them immediately? It is common to see many poor strategies on LinkedIn use the spray-and-pray method. They fail because many C-level prospects do not engage connection requests or messages from people they do not know.
To break through this barrier, you must be strategic and focused on whom you are reaching out to and connecting with. A great way to prove your legitimacy and vet yourself to prospects is to post informational and engaging LinkedIn content regularly.
#6 – Leave Out Cold Leads
Many people think lead generation means obtaining and sending emails to a list of people who may or may not fit their ideal prospects. This approach needs to be corrected on many levels. One, the leads are not well-targeted and are therefore not qualified. Also, since the people on your list have not shown any interest in what you are selling, the chances of converting them to solid sales are almost zero.
Fortunately, there is a way to carry out cold outreach to a hyper-targeted audience.
- Establish the action you want from your audience. It could be to hop on a call or schedule a free consultation
- Create your list of hyper-targeted prospects. You can do this by typing in the job title in your search bar. Then further extend your search by using filters to get a targeted group of leads.
- Initiate contact with your list of targets. When you hit the connect button, you have several options that may need you to enter an email address. Instead, use the connect as a friend option. You don’t have to provide an email with this but ensure you attach a message to your connection request. A template will save you time, but it is best to adopt personalized messages. For example, you can go through a prospect’s profile to garner more information about them.
- Build a relationship with your prospects before selling to them. It is best to engage their content and send them messages. This helps set the stage for sales conversion much later.
- Move your prospects off LinkedIn. LinkedIn is great for prospecting and not selling. After getting your prospects interested enough to join your marketing funnel, you can take them through the sales process outside the platform.
Although carrying out a cold outreach this way seems tedious, it is much more effective than sending messages to unqualified leads.
#7 – Look Out for Decision-Makers
Identifying the right decision-makers to reach out to is the next step in building your LinkedIn lead generation strategy. LinkedIn provides industry, location, and job title filters to help you find the right prospects.
Suppose you know the companies you want to target but don’t know the specific leads to target in that company. In that case, you can simply search for the employees on LinkedIn company pages.
Remember that LinkedIn is a professional networking site. So, when reaching out to decision-makers, your connection messages must be professional. Ensure you introduce yourself without mentioning your offers at that point.
#8 – Join Relevant Groups
LinkedIn has several groups focusing on one industry or the other. It is best to join groups that you have actual industry knowledge and experience in and are comfortable with. That said, you do not have to limit yourself—you can expand your professional network to new territories.
You can join multiple groups, considering LinkedIn is famous for facilitating business-to-business (B2B) connections. So even if the industry is out of your comfort zone, you can gain knowledge beneficial to you and your company.
You can find groups on LinkedIn by conducting a group search. Start by typing your keyword in the search bar and select groups. Then click on discover to find groups filtered according to your industry. Next, click on the groups that interest you and read the about section to get familiar with the rules. You can also check the admins and mutual connections.
Finally, if the group fits your goals, you can go ahead and connect with them.
#9 – Do Not Sell Your Content
The posts you share on your business profile should be informative, educational, and relevant to your audience. This is better for generating leads compared to content that advertises your products and services. You can also use the profile information of users visiting your company page to create specialized content.
In addition, if you share your posts in a group, ensure that you tailor the content to the relevant industry and include a call to action.
#10 – Maximize Visibility
You can create a stream of inbound LinkedIn leads with a visible profile. Posting regular and beneficial content to your network is another way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Similar to other social media platforms, an algorithm controls LinkedIn. Fortunately, you can use this to your advantage by posting content that engages your audience. Once you determine the most suitable time for you and your audience, you should aim to post your content around that time.
If you get enough likes and comments on your posts, the LinkedIn algorithm will automatically prioritize your posts in your audience’s news feed, making such posts more visible to your network.
#11 – Participate Heavily
LinkedIn Answers is an avenue for you to share your expertise and knowledge. Offering answers regularly establishes you as a thought leader. LinkedIn lets you link your content or blog post if they answer the question. You can generate leads by optimizing your content and including a call-to-action before linking it to your answer.
#12 – Use Banners To Stand Out
LinkedIn lets you add up to three original banners to your company profile. You can add these banners under your page’s products and services section. These banners link back to your website, generating leads. Unfortunately, many businesses do not use this step. Nevertheless, ensure that you create aesthetically attractive banners to make a good impression on your prospects.
#13 – Automate Lead Generation With Content Marketing
The LinkedIn publishing platform is one powerful feature. You can publish content on the LinkedIn pulse or republish posts from your business page through this platform.
Besides using this strategy to generate leads, you can also use it to demonstrate expertise to your prospect. Showing your customers how knowledgeable you are in your industry is one of the best ways to convert them and shorten the sales cycle. Educating and solving your prospect’s problems through your free content is a sure way to convert them.
Although content marketing is time-intensive, LinkedIn still provides the most receptive audience. The platform has professionals willing to do business with you as long as you educate them. That means publishing helpful content will get you halfway through generating leads that can become lifelong customers.
In addition to publishing new content, you can also repurpose already published content. When publishing your content, ensure you include a relevant call to action at the end of each article. You should publish only evergreen articles and create content that serves your ideal audience. You can also promote your LinkedIn articles on other platforms to generate leads.
#14 – Invest In A Premium LinkedIn Account
Although not compulsory, a premium account is excellent for a LinkedIn lead generation strategy. With a premium account, you can save time and achieve more efficient results.
Although you can filter your searches using a free account, a premium account allows you to conduct advanced searches. You can also use InMail and access people who viewed your profile.
InMail allows you to message people that are not in your network. While looking at your profile views can help you gather warm leads. Before investing in a premium account, test the platform with a free account and if the results are promising, amplify your lead-generation efforts with premium.
#15 – Run A Paid Ad Campaign
With your solid LinkedIn lead generation strategy, running a paid ad campaign is the next step for success. Many B2B marketers already run at least one paid ad campaign on LinkedIn that leads to their sales landing pages.
Creating a series of creative LinkedIn paid ads is crucial to the success of your LinkedIn paid ad campaign. Some of these ads should be retargeting ads—a type of ad targeting a specific group of prospects that have previously engaged with your brand without taking action. These actions could be the purchase of your product or service or booking a sales call.
You can capture the attention of the prospects who have previously engaged your brand through retargeting ads. Since the prospect is already interested in what your business offers, they need a gentle nudge to take action.
#16 – Incorporate Apps
Although LinkedIn is not into apps, there are some available ones to improve your page. For instance, you can install the Google presentation app to highlight your company’s work on your LinkedIn profile. This app can showcase your company’s finest jobs in a PowerPoint presentation.
#17 – Ensure Your Sales And Marketing Align Strongly
There has been a recent shift in consumer buying behavior. Recently, consumers have made informed purchasing decisions by conducting online research and using marketing content. They do all these before even reaching out to a sales rep. This translates to consumers becoming interested in their needed products and services and moving fast in the sales process before reaching out for help.
Therefore, your business’s marketing efforts must meet the needs of your investigating customers. It would be best if you also incorporated your salespeople seamlessly, so they have context on the customers’ journey.
In the same vein, marketers play heavier roles in closing deals. Savvy marketers know the position of a customer in a sales cycle. Consequently, they can send relevant and valuable content to convert customers and close the deal.
Aligning your sales and marketing team is crucial because they both play valuable roles in finding prospects and closing deals. Moreover, there is an overlap in their roles more than ever before.
#18 – Be Consistent
LinkedIn requires consistency, just like other social media platforms. Therefore, communicating with your leads is crucial. Posting an article once a week and logging out does not establish you as a consistent presence with your audience.
If you constantly disappear mid-conversation with your audience, you give them the wrong impression. And instead of furthering their interest in your business, you are doing the opposite.
Understandably, you cannot be online 24/7. So, you can use analytics to learn about what your audience is most interested in and the posts that gain the most traction. Afterward, you can create a strategy that ensures you are consistently present and visible.
Conclusion
You can generate quality leads on LinkedIn. But knowing your way around may make it easier to get quality leads that you can convert to paying customers. Fortunately, with the tips discussed in this article, you can set your LinkedIn lead generation strategy in motion and get higher-quality leads.
