There are tons of articles about social media tactics that you can use to get more traffic or leads for your business, especially on LinkedIn lead generation. And while tactics can be useful, without cohesive strategy tactics are useless.
If you haven’t had great success with social media, I urge you not to give up. You just need to keep learning and testing until you find the right tactics for the right situation. Social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than the average lead conversion rate. (Source: HubSpot)
If you are looking for the best place to start your lead generation strategy, hands down LinkedIn will give you the best result. Why LinkedIn lead generation so fruitful you may ask, here is your answer –
- Total number of users – 500 million (24/4/2017)
- Number of LinkedIn users in U.S – 128 million (30/4/2016)
- Unique visitors every month – 106 million (28/4/2016)
- Geographic reach of LinkedIn – 200 countries and territories (18/4/2014)
1. Make Connections Count
Have you ever received a friend request on Facebook from someone with only three other friends (and it wasn’t from any of your family member or someone who joined 3 seconds ago)? A huge red flag probably went up and you probably were skeptical about accepting the request.
This similar uneasy sensation takes over when somebody sees a LinkedIn profile that hasn’t been maintained. To use LinkedIn to its fullest potential, it is necessary to make more than a few connections in your field daily. Then, those networks will perceive that you have reliability and be more likely to work with you because of that.
One tactic to start is to go through the contacts of somebody you have already made a link on LinkedIn. Ask your connection if they will introduce to the third party. This wise gesture will be appreciated by everyone.
Be cautious when sending connection requests to strangers, however! Here is an instance of a real-world situation that went wrong for lack communication gap.
Kelly Blazek, an established business woman with about 1,000 LinkedIn connections, was contacted by a fresher wondering if Blazek knew of any job opportunities in her area.
The college grad did not know Blazek personally or professionally. But the college grad was taking a gamble, and maybe didn’t even anticipate a reply.
Well, he got a reply and it was not a positive one. Blazek was furious.
“Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky,” Blazek wrote, “Wow, I cannot wait to let every 26-year old jobseeker mine my top-tier marketing connections to help them land a job.”
The response should have been handled better, but there’s another important lesson to be learned from here as well. Not everyone likes receiving connection requests from complete strangers. It is necessary to use your judgment when reaching out or sending a request.
2. Stay Consistent
The best way to represent your profile and let people know that you’re interested in making connections is to post regularly.
You can use the LinkedIn Today for discovering news within your field. Then share those newsworthy contents. This is an easy manner to add posts and you can be sure that whatever you are sharing is relevant to your peers.
This way you’ll be seen daily by your LinkedIn network. Suppose someone in your network need your kind of specialty and in that situation, your name will pop into their head first because you were always there with your specific content.
You can also link Twitter to your LinkedIn profile so that your twitter followers will also receive your shares.
3. Ask Questions With Resolution
You can use your status updates efficiently by posting business relevant queries. Post questions about industry trends and industry news. You probably have some professional connections so why don’t you start a conversation with them through a simple status post? This is an effective method to stay in touch with your networks and to make sure you are being dynamic on LinkedIn.
4. Find Your Industry Peers
Turn to Google in order to find more connections. Here Boolean search can be helpful for LinkedIn lead generation.
- Post your query with site name: when you are certain that you want your answer from a specific site. For example, (site:linkedin.com)
- Get results that comprise synonyms by putting the ~ symbol immediately in front of your search query. Like, higher education and university.
- Use inverted commas (“”) when searching for the exact phrase. For example, “marketing students”.
- “OR” lets you search for multiple words at once. By using “OR”, you can search one word or phrase along with a second word or idiom.
- “AND” lets you search for data that definitely comprises all the words you searched for.
- Use ( ) to establish your search when using multiple AND/ OR mixtures.
5. Contribute Effectively In Conversation
Remember that university course you took where grades relied totally on class conversation and input. Since it was compulsory to speak out in class, you learned about your peers. Maybe later you waved at them across campus or offered them a free ice-cream, that’s because you already knew them.
LinkedIn will give you best output if you participate more on this platform. LinkedIn has plenty of targeted discussion groups, so pick groups where you will be able to share your expertise and where your leads mostly hang out. If you can offer the best advice or solution to a problem your fellow mates will see you as a go-to person and LinkedIn lead generation/ lead nurturing will be easier.
Once you’ve established a connection with lead it will be easier to approach them with your service. From your discussion groups, these new friends will see you as an expert.
6. Be Niche
Yes, this is the advice you heard countless time.
But it is a classic and you can apply this to LinkedIn. Give people genuine compliment and invest time to learn about that person. They will, at least, feel compelled to reply. Then you can tell how your business might work effortlessly with theirs. You’re opening up a dialogue and that can help generate leads. This is simple, quick, and effective. You can use this method with individuals you have no previous contacts with and need a way to familiarize yourself through LinkedIn.
Another task you should be doing on LinkedIn is responding messages in a friendly manner. Be polite, be eager to answer questions, be engaging with everyone who wants to talk with you. These could be possible leads and you want them to know that you are obtainable.
7. Notice Viewers
In LinkedIn, you can see who has viewed your profile. You can see who is already interested in making a connection. Use the attribute to view these probable leads and then send them a welcome message. It can be something simple like, “Hi, is there something I can help you with?” Again, this is a way to open up dialogue and that will be helpful for LinkedIn lead generation. Maybe they just need that extra push from you, in order to start a successful affiliation.
Over To You
LinkedIn lead generation has a ton of potential beneficial to grow your business if used creatively and effectively. Most essentially you should be engaging with your connection in any way that you can, and you should be doing this on a daily basis. These are some simple steps that you can take that could pay off in a big proportion.
Have any great stories about connecting through LinkedIn? Any unexpected ways LinkedIn helped your business grow?
