The Social media landscape is rapidly changing.
What was once a leading social media platform is now struggling. Yes, I am looking at you, Facebook. Same is the case with Twitter. LinkedIn and Pinterest are leading the way. If you want to connect with decision makers and influencers, then you should focus on LinkedIn.
Most people think of LinkedIn as a professional network where you can post jobs and create resumes to get your dream job. LinkedIn can do much more than that.
According to LinkedIn statistics, 61 million LinkedIn users are top level influencers and 41 million are in decision making positions. Furthermore, 79% of B2B marketers consider LinkedIn as an effective source for lead generation. 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn. Combine all that with growing user engagement, LinkedIn should be your preferred choice for lead generation. How can I generate leads through LinkedIn? We will answer this question in this article.
In this article, you will learn about effective ways to generate leads from LinkedIn.
1. Identify Your Best Client
Start off by setting a clear goal and objective. Ask questions like What do you want to achieve on LinkedIn? What kind of people do you want to connect with on LinkedIn? Answering these questions will help you find your ideal clients. Once you have a target audience in mind, you can form the right partnerships and make the right connections. For that, you should look to establish yourself as an expert in their industry.
2. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
Have you ever visited a poorly optimized LinkedIn business page? I can bet you might have stumbled upon one or more such pages because most businesses don’t properly optimize their LinkedIn pages, which is why they struggle to make the right connection, let alone generate leads from LinkedIn. That is where digital marketing agency can help you out.
Here are some things you should keep in mind when writing your LinkedIn business profile:
- Be specific and stay focused on your ideal customers
- Highlight the pain points of your target audience
- Offer them solutions to their problems
- Don’t be salesy
- Use social proof and testimonials
By following these steps, you can easily present yourself as an expert in your niche. Highlight your unique selling proposition and tell your prospects what makes you stand out from the crowd. Add a few testimonials with real client names or business names that backup your claims. You can also use the space as an opportunity to explain what it is like working with you so clients set the right expectations from the beginning.
3. Create Content Driven by Purpose
Did you know that you can also publish articles on LinkedIn? Unfortunately, most businesses don’t even know that let alone use this handy feature. Publishing high quality articles related to your industry builds your credibility and is a great way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
Want your LinkedIn articles to do well? Here are some of the steps you must follow.
- Use attention grabbing headlines
- Include the keyword in your headline
- Use high quality photos
- Tell stories to evoke emotions
- Backup your points with data and facts
Spend time on crafting irresistible titles so that users are persuaded to click on the post and read it. Don't forget to optimize your post title by including the main keyword in the headline. The best way to keep the readers engaged and get your message across is to tell an interesting story so start your content with an interesting story that your target audience can relate to. Your content should deliver value to the readers. Backup your claims with facts and statistics. Last but certainly not the least, add multimedia to your content as nobody likes to read large blocks of plain text.
4. Make New Connection Daily
Stay active on Linkedin and try to make new connections every day. You can take advantage of Linkedin’s advanced search feature to find and connect with second degree connections. Your goal should be to make 1000 highly targeted connections. Identify connections that have never bought your products or shown any interest in your products and remove them from your connection list. Building thousands of highly targeted connections might take months or even years in some cases but the effort is well worth it as it will set you up for success especially, when it comes to generating leads through LinkedIn.
5. Engage, Engage, Engage
There is no point in making thousands of connections on LinkedIn if they are not going to engage with you. Choose your LinkedIn title carefully as it is displayed everywhere and can make or break your engagement efforts. Choose a few relevant keywords in your industry and search for content that is ranking higher on the platform. Comment on these top posts and see what happens. Gary Vaynerchuk uses a unique engagement strategy on Instagram, which you can easily replicate on LinkedIn to attract dozens of people to your business profile. Write your LinkedIn business profile in such a way that it persuades your target audience to reach out to you.
Conclusion
If you are still considering LinkedIn as a platform to post jobs and find the best talent, you have got it all wrong. LinkedIn can do much more than that. With a large percentage of decision makers and top level executives, it is a great tool for generating B2B leads and increasing your sales and revenue, especially if you use it the right way.
Your focus should be on building long term relationships, engaging with your audience and delivering value to your target audience instead of sending them sales pitches straightaway. Start off by optimizing your profile, building new connections and interacting with them on a daily basis. Share useful content that solves their problems. Once you have a pool of clients, choose your best clients and turn them into brand advocates. This will help you attract new clients and grow your business.
How do you generate organic leads from LinkedIn? Share it with us in the comments section below.
About the Author: Irfan Ak
Irfan is a digital marketing strategist & a guest blogger on various websites. He is currently associated with Branex which is one of the leading digital marketing agency. He has worked with various other brands and created value for them.