Generate B2B leads with LinkedIn
Generate B2B leads with LinkedIn
1. Update your LinkedIn company page with your brand’s sales pitch and a CTA to a lead-generation landing page.
The header image is the most visual aspect of your page. Use an image that attracts attention or sparks interest. The description is designed for a clear, succinct pitch of your value proposition. Speak directly to your target audience and invite them to convert. Only the two lines are always displayed, so a strong opening to your description that grabs audience attention is key. Make sure your recent updates are clickable and conversion-oriented. That way, even those who don’t click through to your website can still get basic information about your brand. While secondary to your company page, personal brands also play into audience perceptions. If you are planning to interface with prospects on LinkedIn, take the time to refine and optimize your personal profile, and publish content under both the company page and your personal presence.
2. Search LinkedIn with relevant keywords to find groups in your industry and niche, then narrow your search according to category, relationship level, and language.
Focus on groups that are active, highly relevant, and medium sized. You can also open your own group to gain industry recognition and leadership, but you will need a plan to encourage enough members to join for a lively discussion.
3. Contribute daily or weekly to your LinkedIn groups and answer questions with expert, in-depth advice, or ask thought leadership questions.
Actively search for questions you can answer or topics you can credibly weigh in on. Write clearly and correctly, and always include your company in your answer. But be careful not to focus too much on your company to avoid sounding like a sales pitch. For example, you can use your company as an example in presenting a solution, but the solution shouldn’t only be a promotion of your company.
4. Publish long-form educational LinkedIn Pulse content at least once a month.
LinkedIn can be an effective blogging platform to write and expand your thoughts, establishing yourself as a brand and connecting with leads in your industry. If writing is not your strength, work with a freelance writer. Focus on topics and keywords relevant to your products or services. Incorporate links to your website, and end with a link to your lead generation forms. You can effectively repurpose your existing content by reviewing Google Analytics for top-performing content on your website. Tailor that content to LinkedIn’s audience dynamics by inviting comments or asking readers to message you with questions. Setting your website as canonical helps to avoid SEO penalties due to content duplication.
5. Build a target audience profile with LinkedIn's Sales Navigator Tool.
Use geography, relationship, industry, job title, and employer variables to keep your search focused on your most relevant potential prospects. Alternatively, you can use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search to find the prospects most relevant to your brand: Click the search people icon on LinkedIn’s header menu. Focus on the center column, filtering your search by location, school, profile language, company, industry, and other variables relevant to your audience.
6. Limit your target audience search to prospects who have connections in common with you.
Being able to reference mutual connections makes it easier to build authentic relationships. You can expand your reach beyond this audience group, but might need more effort to explain your value to them and avoid perceptions of spam.
7. Send a personalized connection request to prospects, and take the time to build a relationship and learn about each prospect before pitching your business.
Personalized requests help your invite stand out from others in the same industry. Address each prospect by their first name, and try to mention any commonalities as well as at least one thing about their profile or business you find interesting. Learning about your prospects and engaging with their posts can help you build rapport and understand their pain points before the request.
8. Create a paid campaign using LinkedIn's Lead Generation Ads.
Lead ads have a built-in lead gen form that allows prospects to provide their contact information through LinkedIn. This helps to convert prospects without the friction of going through your website first. For example, you can create retargeted lead generation ads that target recent website visitors. This increases audience relevance and maximizes the chance that they’ll convert.
9. Track your paid and unpaid lead generation efforts to optimize the prioritization of your efforts and budget over time.
For example, if you find that your paid lead gen ads bring in more prospects than leads found through the Sales Navigator Tool, you can focus more resources on lead ads in the future.