You’re probably aware of some of the most popular social media platforms for lead generating.
I’m certain you know about the value of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and you might believe you’re all set if you use all three as part of your lead generating plan.
If you’re a B2B company, though, you might be losing out on a huge chance to develop both brand awareness and income if you’re not using LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is the most effective sponsored and organic social channel for B2B enterprises, and with a smart strategy in place, you can become unstoppable.
Of course, this is easier said than done. The process of lead generation on LinkedIn might be difficult if you don’t have a clear strategy in mind.
In this guide, I’ll go over everything you need to know about LinkedIn lead generation, so you can start coming up with the best strategy today!
What Is A Lead?
First things first, I have to be sure you’re clear about the definition of a lead. What is a lead on LinkedIn?
A lead, typically known as a “prospect,” is a potential customer.
The term “lead” can have several definitions depending on the organization. For some businesses, a “lead” is a contact who has already been identified as a potential customer, whilst for others, a “lead” is any sales contact.
However, regardless of definition, a lead has the potential to become a future client.
To maintain a high conversion rate, sales teams must generate the maximum number of leads possible.
Not everyone is a good fit for every company, and not all leads are created equally.
Enter lead generation.
9 Best Practices for LinkedIn Lead Generation
How do you get leads on LinkedIn?
All of the actions and methods you do to acquire potential consumers are referred to as lead generation.
LinkedIn lead gen is crucial because nurturing leads can turn into paying customers who buy and use your products and generate income.
Let’s see how you can use LinkedIn to generate leads.
1. Ensure your executives have a strong LinkedIn presence
It might be difficult to decide where to focus your early efforts on LinkedIn when you’re just getting started.
Should you construct a great LinkedIn page and start contributing information to your company’s feed right away? Should you start by putting all of the job opportunities to attract fresh applicants?
Consider your company’s top executives and their LinkedIn profiles.
Could they make more intelligent contributions to LinkedIn groups in your sector or update their feeds more frequently?
Your leaders might, more than likely, need to be doing more to expand their LinkedIn following.
2. Create a powerful LinkedIn page for your company
This may seem insignificant, but your profile is quite important.
In many circumstances, you’ll be interacting with folks you’ve never met before. You must ensure that your profile is as optimized as possible, or you risk being flagged as a spammer.
You’ll want to make sure your LinkedIn profile is active, with thought-provoking content and contributions to existing LinkedIn discussions.
3. Post relevant content and regular updates
Consider providing a variety of content formats to ensure that your LinkedIn page and profile are strong enough.
Including industry-relevant content in your marketing materials will help you establish yourself as a competent source and develop relevance and trust with potential consumers.
You’ll start to form relationships with like-minded experts who meet your target client profile once you’ve established yourself as an intelligent, valued source.
If you post frequently, you’ll become a known face on their page, making it easy to start new discussions.
Plus, the material you provide might expose you to new audiences.
When one of your contacts likes a post you’ve written, it appears in a new lead’s feed. This lead will see that a mutual connection has liked your article, confirming your reliability and authority and maybe encouraging them to issue a connection request.
4. Join LinkedIn groups your clients are in
At its foundation, LinkedIn is a social media site like any other. Users build groups focusing on industry-relevant interests, much like they do on Facebook, and you should join these groups and chat with other professionals.
Use these groups to gain a better understanding of your target audience.
Learn from what members have to say and find common industry pain points and how leads want these issues solved.
5. Make sure your sales and marketing teams are on the same page
You’re probably well aware of the recent shift in customer purchasing habits.
Customers nowadays conduct pre-purchase research online and frequently use marketing information to inform their purchasing decisions before contacting a sales representative.
This means that consumers are getting increasingly adept at learning about the services they require and moving further into the sales process before reaching out.
It’s becoming increasingly important for marketing to address the demands of consumers who are inquiring and exploring, and then transferring that information over to salespeople in a smooth manner so that sales has context on the trip customers have already taken.
6. Leverage your connections with current customers
LinkedIn’s major attraction is networking, and you should take advantage of this function for lead generation.
Connect with existing customers and clients on LinkedIn, and learn about their industry connections, as they may be of interest to you.
Ask for referrals, references, or just discover how to contact a connection they have that matches your customer profile if you have ties with existing clients you connect with.
Due to the fact that LinkedIn is a professional network, such requests are less intrusive, obnoxious, and salesy than cold contacting someone after obtaining their phone number online.
Leads can accept your invitation to connect, go through your profile, and perceive your common connections as a seal of approval.
7. Stay active on the platform
LinkedIn, like all of your other social media accounts, demands consistency.
You’re not establishing yourself as a continuous presence with your contacts if you upload an article once a week and then log out.
You should also keep in touch with your leads on a regular basis. Disappearing in the middle of a discussion is not a good look, and it does not increase their desire to conduct business with you.
Use platform analytics to learn about your audience’s interests, when and which of your articles generate the greatest traction, and develop a strategy that will keep you regularly active and visible on LinkedIn.
8. Follow up with old leads before targeting new ones
You’ve probably heard that lead generation is all about numbers. If you target enough people, you’ll ultimately make a sale. In some ways, this is correct.
However, the quality of these leads is equally crucial.
Many individuals get a large number of leads, make contact, and then stop.
What’s the issue with that?
There isn’t any sort of follow-up. And if you know anything about lead generation, you know how important follow-up is.
There’s always a chance that your message will go unnoticed, or that your prospect will become distracted and forget to read it later.
It’s typical for your message to be lost in the shuffle, especially on social networking platforms, which means you can easily lose a potential consumer if you don’t follow-up.
Not to mention that you’ve also squandered the time and work that went into generating those leads.
That being said, now another issue pops up – When is it OK to send a follow-up message?
Three days, in my experience, is perfect for the initial follow-up. You should communicate with your prospects on a regular basis, but you have to be careful not to come off as pushy or annoying. Balance is key.
9. Craft a convincing opening message
When you reach out to someone, you just have around two sentences to present yourself as a professional and explain why you’d want to connect.
Here’s an example of a nice, basic template:
Hello [name],
I stumbled across your profile on LinkedIn and felt it would be beneficial for both of us to connect. I’d love to connect with you if you’re interested.
Thank you.
[your name]
To make it even better, start by looking at their profile and finding something intriguing that you can connect to, then include it in your invitation.
Perhaps you’ll see that they’re in a neighboring city, in which case you might edit your invitation to something like this:
Hello [name],
I stumbled across your profile on LinkedIn and felt it would be beneficial for both of us to connect. I notice you work in Austin, and I live in Georgetown, which is right down the road. I’d love to connect with you if you’re interested.
Thanks,
[Your name]
A connection request has a character restriction of 300 characters, so it has to be short and to the point.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is, without a doubt, one of the most effective channels for generating leads.
If you know how to use it correctly, you can wind up with some high-quality leads who are ready to become paying clients.
However, as beneficial as lead generation might be, it is also a time-consuming process.
It’s easy to waste months without seeing any results if you don’t employ the appropriate tactics to target the right people.
Along with the techniques mentioned above, I also recommend you to find an effective LinkedIn lead generation tool – the methods I described and a good tool make a killer combo.