How to Use LinkedIn For Lead Generation: The Best Playbook for Lead Generation

Everyone is talking about how successful they’ve been at generating B2B leads on LinkedIn. You hear around the office, at conferences, and when you are around your colleagues and friends, but when you ask exactly how to get results you get a bunch of vague replies.

“Oh, it’s so easy! You just have to connect with people and send messages.” Or, “You just have to get in there and mingle like you’re at a convention.”

But once you sit down at your desk to do your own research, you start to wonder if the time it takes to comprehend how LinkedIn lead generation works is worth the time you are taking away from prospecting right now.

We’ve been in your shoes before and we’ve seen the other side which is why we have created this playbook to get you started on your journey.

While LinkedIn should not be your only means of B2B prospecting, sales professionals like you should incorporate LinkedIn as a foundational pillar to a strong lead generation strategy because it provides a more transparent and personalized connection, makes it easier to network with the right prospects, and supplies a way for you to establish yourself as an authority in your niche so you can outperform your competitors.

What is LinkedIn, and What are its Benefits for Lead Generation?

You’ve probably heard of LinkedIn, and you may even be one of the 830 million members. But whether you are an avid user or sans a profile, LinkedIn has some exciting features that can help you grow your business.

If you are not familiar, LinkedIn is a social media platform used by professionals to showcase experience and expertise, discover career opportunities, network with people worldwide, and share trending topics. In other words, LinkedIn is the Facebook of the business world.

But more recently, LinkedIn has been gaining popularity as a lead generation platform because it’s the perfect environment for incubating and nurturing new relationships without conferences or referrals.

Since LinkedIn is hyper-focused on all things business, there are a variety of matchmaking tools like Sales Navigator, InMail, and targeted advertising to help you hone in on decision-makers that fit your ideal client profile (ICP). We’ll discuss these in more detail later.

Not entirely sold yet? Well, how about this.

While active members only spend 11 minutes a day on LinkedIn — a third of the time that most Facebook users devote to their news feed — 4 out of 5 of those LinkedIn members influence business decisions which makes it one of the most useful platforms for sales representatives on the market.

Even though members are less active, it doesn’t mean their less accessible. LinkedIn’s mobile app makes it easier to connect with prospects as notifications are sent directly to their phone. And an average InMail reply rate of 10-25% has proven that those prospects are more apt to chat it up with like-minded professionals about opportunities that promote growth and overcome challenges.

How to Use LinkedIn for B2B Lead Generation

Since 2002, LinkedIn has evolved from a simple resume hosting and sharing site to a more collaborative, virtual community of professionals sharing diverse opinions, ideas, and theories. 

To use LinkedIn for lead generation successfully — and with the algorithm’s full blessing — you have to understand the platform’s purpose. 

LinkedIn’s mission is to “… connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.” 

Pretty simple in concept, but how does it relate to lead gen? 

Think of LinkedIn’s mission statement as your guiding star. When crafting a connection request, InMail, or post, you should ask yourself, “How will this make the people I am trying to reach more productive or successful?” By aligning yourself with LinkedIn’s mission, you’ll be able to make the most out of the platform’s tools and develop more authentic connections with other professionals. 

There are three main ways you can generate leads organically on LinkedIn: your personal profile, company page, and groups. Your profile is great for building relationships, while the company page is best used for driving brand awareness, and the groups are the best of both worlds. By employing this trifecta in unison, you’ll be able to gain traction faster. 

If you’re ready to start generating leads on LinkedIn, you can get your profile and page prepared for prospecting in less time than it takes your favorite pizzeria to deliver your dinner. But building up your network will take some time because of LinkedIn limitations. Patience is a virtue, after all. 

The first place you’ll want to start is your LinkedIn profile. Let’s go through it together and see if we can spruce it up a bit. 

How to Create a LinkedIn Profile that Attracts Potential Clients

To harness the power of LinkedIn lead generation, make your profile part of your elevator pitch. The way LinkedIn is set up, it’s only natural to start filling out each section like a resume. Resist the urge. Instead, think of your profile as the homepage of a website. Your goal is to keep visitors scrolling and call them to action.

Similar to websites, SEO matters. When it comes to being discovered, keywords play an essential role in the LinkedIn algorithm. Take a moment to brainstorm some phrases your prospects might be typing in the search bar and include them in the sections we will optimize today.

So without further ado, let’s take this from top to bottom. Go ahead and open your LinkedIn profile, and follow along to make sure you’re attracting the right kind of attention:

Picture: Be honest. Are you still sporting the picture you took ten years ago in your mom’s bathroom right before that fancy New Year’s party? If so, then it’s time for an update—no need for a photo shoot. Just make sure you have good lighting, a clean background, and professional attire.

Headline: Okay, this is probably the most critical 220 characters in your LinkedIn profile, so make them count. Defaulting to your job title alone won’t win over your prospect. Make yourself stand out with an enticing value proposition, mini-mission statement, or professional philosophy. If you’re drawing a blank, take a look at the influencer in the niche market you are trying to attract. Dissect their headlines and Frankenstein one together that works for you.

About/Summary: Here’s where you can add some depth and detail. You have an article’s worth of space in your about section — 2,000 words, to be exact. Start with a strong intro that really hooks the reader because your summary will be truncated with a “see more” option after the first three lines. Fill the body with a story explaining how you help people overcome some of the most challenging industry-specific problems. Seal the deal with a strong call to action and maybe even a calendar link.

Experience: Instead of listing your duties and responsibilities, focus more on your achievements. If you helped a Fortune 500 company reduce ad spend by 25% in six months, then tactfully weave it in. Do the same for your previous positions, keeping in mind ways you can still organically contribute to your keyword counter.

Education, Licenses, and Certifications: These sections may or may not hold any weight to your lead generation efforts, but they are still good to complete. You might find a unique way to bond with your prospects through a mutual alumni status or training experience.

Skills: Go ahead and show where you shine, but don’t worry about snagging as many endorsements as possible. While the skills section is helpful for recruiters, it’s not a huge focus for those optimizing for lead generation.

Recommendations: Do you have a recent client for whom you went above and beyond? Ask if they will write a quick recommendation on your LinkedIn profile. This will help ward off any skepticism, especially when approaching prospects via InMail.

See, that wasn’t so bad, but you have one more step. A step that most people skip but that is detrimental to improving your LinkedIn lead generation outcome. In fact, LinkedIn found that those who are adamant about excelling in this step are 51% more likely to meet their sales quota.

This step is maximizing your Social Selling Index (SSI) score.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of a LinkedIn SSI score. You can check out your SSI score for free here, and it is updated daily. Your SSI is based on four aspects that LinkedIn believes make people great at selling: developing a professional brand, connecting with the right prospects, engaging with insightful topics, and building meaningful relationships.

As you review your SSI score, LinkedIn will give you tips and tricks on how you can improve your ranking. If you would like to be a social selling leader, aim for a score of 70 or higher.

In addition, you can boost your SSI score by 20%, according to LinkedIn by investing in a Sales Navigator account. This is due, in part, to the many robust features that make Sales Navigator the ultimate prospecting companion for creating laser-focused lists of prospects.

Use LinkedIn to Network With Key Influencers and Decision-Makers

Another reason to sign up for Sales Navigator is the ability to perform unlimited searches and profile views. Basic accounts are restricted based on behavior that signals recruiting or lead generation activity making it difficult to network with prospects at scale.

Through Sales Navigator, you’ll also have access to advanced filters that take you beyond job titles and company locations. You can use your unlimited access to tap into niche groups of decision-makers and influencers.

For example, say you want to target cybersecurity directors that have changed jobs in the last 90 days so you can introduce some new ways similar professionals in the industry are increasing regulatory compliance.

Or maybe you want to connect with CMOs who have mentioned TikTok in a past post to introduce an influencer program that can help brands reach 50% more video viewers organically.

With Sales Navigator, you can hone in on these specific prospects and so much more. You are only limited by your creativity.

After you build your lead lists, it’s time to create an outreach game plan. Your first step is to send connection requests. Increase your acceptance rate by personalizing the 250-character invitation based on shared interests, recent platform engagement, or trending industry topics. Once your connection request is accepted, you’ll be able to message your new connections directly without character limits. It’s still best to keep your copy short and sweet while offering helpful insight or content.

To scale your LinkedIn lead generation more efficiently, research automation tools like Meet Alfred and Meet Alfred alternatives to see if you can find one that fits your needs. Most platforms integrate directly with LinkedIn and provide control options to keep your outreach aligned with realistically timed human behaviors.

But say you’re having trouble building your network with your ideal clients. Consider following those that don’t accept your connection request. Not only will it be a feather in their cap, but it will also send the prospect a notification that will prompt them to follow back. It may remind the prospect of your initial attempt to connect.

And if all else fails, you can also try InMail.

Send LinkedIn InMail Messages to Reach Your Most Valuable Prospects

So, what exactly are InMails, and how do you use them?

InMail messages are a feature available for premium LinkedIn members that grant the option to directly communicate with other LinkedIn members that are not 1st connections. Those with a Sales Navigator account have 20 monthly credits, which is why InMails are reserved as the Hail Mary pass of LinkedIn lead generation.

To stretch your credits further, optimize your InMail messages with a powerful, personalized intro and a direct call to action. LinkedIn will return credits to your account for any InMail that has been accepted, declined, or responded to as long as it is within 90 days of the send date. LinkedIn will also send a snippet of the InMail to the prospect’s email, which improves your chance of getting noticed.

As you start attracting more attention to your profile through connect requests and InMail messages, it will become necessary to ramp up your LinkedIn engagement with relevant content that speaks to your prospects.

However, if you want to skip InMail and have your full message land directly in your prospects’ inboxes, consider a LinkedIn sales prospecting tool to help curate an email list.

Post Noteworthy Content on Your Profile and in Groups

While platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are focused on connecting with family and friends through entertainment, LinkedIn is focused on networking with peers and professionals through education.

Members scrolling through their LinkedIn posts are on the hunt for new and exciting business trends that could further their careers or solve a particularly painful problem.

Your posts will start popping up in their feed for members who have accepted you into their networks. This is your opportunity to shine a halogen light on the exciting new ways you’re helping similar industry leaders survive and thrive.

While your content will be different from other social media platforms, the formula for success is the same.

Optimize for Engagement: LinkedIn’s algorithm decides how and when to display posts to your network based on interactions. The more comments, likes, and shares you have, the longer your post will be served to other members. So put a purpose behind every post. Ask for feedback, start a poll, or share an inspiring story.

Post Frequently: The fortune is in the frequency when it comes to LinkedIn. Yes, engagement is imperative, but you’ll have more opportunities the more you post. That being said, you don’t want to post just to post. Create a content calendar to stay on track while also capitalizing on those special moments life brings your way.

Include Pictures and Videos: Did you just have dinner with your favorite client after a huge breakthrough? Or did you attend an exciting conference where you learned some invaluable lessons? Or maybe you just had a professional epiphany on your family road trip. Capture those moments and share them with your network. By showing people the real you and how that translates into your professional world, you’ll be more likely to find common ground that leads to lasting relationships.

Tag Relevant Members: Get other members involved by dropping names of companies and connections in your posts. Not only does it boost your reach, but it can be a great way to recognize exciting achievements and milestones publicly. It’s easy to overdo it on this one, so keep your tags to a maximum of five per post.

Include Trending Hashtags: Content that matches members’ interests are prioritized in their feed. Hashtags are a great way to signal LinkedIn that your post is relevant to certain members. To find the best hashtags for your post, use the search option in LinkedIn and type in “#” + the keyword or topic. You’ll be able to see the number of members following each hashtag and decide which ones would give you the best results.

Post During Peak Hours: Each platform has certain times during the day when users are inherently more active. For LinkedIn, peak posting hours commonly align with peak business hours. As a rule of thumb, keep your post going Monday through Friday between 7 am and 3 pm.

The more you post, the more it will become second nature. Not every post has to be perfect, and in the beginning, your reach will be relatively low. But keep at it, and you’ll eventually have prospects approaching you.

Not every post has to be a sales pitch, either. In fact, it is highly discouraged by most marketers. Talk about how much you love making a difference in your clients’ lives or some surprising new findings your company discovered after years of research. Keep your calls to action relevant. The same goes for your company page, albeit the content will be a bit different.

Monitor Your Company Page and Measure Results

Like your personal profile, your company page on LinkedIn can be a great way to engage with your clients; however, instead of connections, you’ll be looking to gain followers. You can implement the “formula” in the above section to drive traffic to your company page. Your page’s content calendar will be more robust than the one for your profile, but it will be necessary to build an audience around your brand.

As far as the context of the content goes, have you heard of the Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook method outlined by Gary Vaynerchuk? It basically means that you repeatedly give before you ask. Every time you push for a sales-related action, you should be providing value three times over.

When building out your post content, think about how you could serve your followers through educational videos, downloadable templates, and webinars. Simply jumpstarting a conversation around something like an upcoming challenge that will affect your niche market can also add value. There’s a lot of room for creativity as long as you contribute to the community.

Another way to increase engagement with your page is through company hashtags. By setting hashtags for your company page, you’ll be able to like, comment on, or share any post that incorporates those specific hashtags in their posts as your company instead of your personal profile. You only have three to choose from, but you can swap them out whenever you like.

If you find yourself lacking followers, take advantage of your 250 monthly credits available to invite your network to follow your page. This is the perfect way to boost your organic reach while building a targeted group of followers that fit into your ICP.

You can track how your company page performs through LinkedIn’s admin analytic tools. View stats like follower metrics and demographics, visitor highlights, updates, and competitor comparisons. As you dive into the data, you’ll be able to adjust your strategy and optimize your page. Rinse and repeat.

Analyze, Optimize, and Start Again.

LinkedIn is an excellent platform for generating B2B leads, but if you’re not the Mr. Miyagi of prospecting right out the gate, don’t let it stop you from continuing the practice. You’ll need some time to master the processes.

A Google search will confirm that you have options when it comes to LinkedIn analytic tools. Whether you are focusing on your personal profile or company page will determine which services will work best for you.

Check in with other industry influencers weekly or monthly to see what’s working in their network. Read up on stories that are ranking as top professional news on the right side of your newsfeed, and weave in aspects of those topics to see if it affects your engagement.

To analyze and optimize your direct messages, think of it as an email marketing campaign. You’ll want to test variations of your outreach to see what leads to the highest open and response rates. Take note of the direct messages and InMails that catch your eye so you can try out similar tactics.

Once you have a handle on generating leads through your profile and company, you can move on to more advanced strategies like using LinkedIn groups to uncover new prospects.

How to use LinkedIn Groups for Lead Generation

LinkedIn Groups provide a way for members to find other professionals with mutual interests to share expertise and experiences, engage in focused discussions, and offer guidance and support.

Before joining, take a look at the number of members and the rules to ensure the group would benefit from your insight and solutions. Consider your goals and reasons for joining, and make sure they line up with the group’s purpose.

As we mentioned before, LinkedIn members are not as active on the platform compared to other social media networks. For that reason, you should aim to join groups with 1k members or more to increase your chances of engaging with professionals that are active on the platform.

You’ll have to wait to be accepted to the LinkedIn groups you want to join, but once you are in, there are a couple of different ways you can start generating leads.

Use LinkedIn Groups to Reach New Prospects and Increase Visibility

For lead generation, LinkedIn groups can offer cohorts of individuals that match your ICP. You just have to research the demographics of each group to verify it’s comprised of your dream clients.

Here’s another excellent place where Sales Navigator will come in handy. You can use the lead filters to make a list of all members within the group and further narrow the list down to those who match specific job titles, industries, experiences, etc.

With your new, targeted list, you can create messaging based on recent posts or topics commonly discussed amongst the group. When reaching out to these prospects, mention your shared membership status to establish common ground. For a higher chance of success, don’t start with a hard sales pitch, but crack open windows of opportunity by offering advice. If your solution is relevant, there will be ways to weave it into the conversation naturally.

If you struggle to become 1st connections with your ideal prospects, you can direct message 15 group members per month without dipping into your InMail credits.

Already a member of some LinkedIn groups and ready to take a more active role? Let’s look at ways to build your personal brand outside your network.

Use LinkedIn Groups to Build Your Personal Brand and Connections

For many LinkedIn members, groups are trusted sources of valuable knowledge and discussions. Groups are also a great way to increase your credibility by sharing relevant content while widening your reach.

Join as many groups as you can that fall within your niche and that you can feasibly keep up with weekly. Familiarize yourself with the rules, so you make a good impression on the admins and stay consistent with the group’s goals.

Every seven days, admins can recommend a post to the group and notify members — based on the LinkedIn algorithm and individual settings. By building a solid relationship with those managing the group, you can increase your chances of a post you submit being recommended.

Spend about 15-30 minutes a day liking and commenting on content within your favorite groups to build your presence and personal brand. Not only will you be developing a closeness with other members, but also you’ll be practicing and perfecting skills that will make it easier to start your own LinkedIn group.

It may seem a bit intimidating to build a group from scratch. But if you follow along with this LinkedIn lead generation playbook, you’ll have established yourself as an expert in your field, and your connections will inherently follow. Similar to your company page, you’ll be able to invite your 1st-degree connections to join. When deciding on a focus for your group, consider where there is a knowledge gap that other groups are not filling and build around that niche topic.

By managing your group, you’ll have more opportunities to make meaningful connections, share your expert advice, and become an authority for the ICPs you sell to regularly. You’ll also gain access to insightful analytics, which can help optimize your LinkedIn lead generation strategy.

Track the Results of Your LinkedIn Group Marketing Efforts

Automation tools, like the ones mentioned in the networking section, can help you divide your outreach into targeted sequences so you can compare how one-on-one outreach to group members performs against other methods.

Tracking how group engagement generates leads can be more difficult. The best practice in this scenario is to take notes and assign descriptive tags in your CRM so you can determine the sales cycle for LinkedIn group leads. However, don’t be discouraged if you find the time from prospect to purchase is much longer than other lead generation strategies. There may be unattributed opportunities that are subconsciously flowing in from your efforts. As long as you are growing month-over-month, keep the engagement going.

(If you need help deciding where your prospects are in the pipeline following these tips can help you.)

Of course, when it comes to your group, you’ll have a holistic overview of the people joining, group growth, and member activity. You can use these stats to guide your subsequent content and outreach plan. A successful and dynamic group can take a great deal of time to manage. LinkedIn makes it easy to split the responsibility with trusted colleagues by allotting 10 admin and 20 manager seats to your group account.

Funneling this type of organic traffic into your pipeline is hands down the most cost-effective way to generate leads, but LinkedIn advertising may be just what you need to scale if the pace is too slow.

Tips for Using LinkedIn Ads to Generate More Leads

If you’ve had any experience with Facebook or Instagram advertising, LinkedIn’s platform will seem very intuitive. However, if this is your first time paying to promote your content, then the information below will help you give you a crash course on what you need to get started.

Choosing Your LinkedIn Ad Type

When creating a LinkedIn ad, the first decision you have to make is your objective: brand awareness, consideration, or conversion. Next is your format, which includes single images, videos, or conversation ads. Making these choices upfront helps you match your content with your goals.

The complexity of your advertising campaigns should be based on your budget, skill level, and audience preferences. Creating a brand awareness ad with a single image that directs people to a high-converting, downloadable template would be perfect for beginners. As you become more comfortable with the platform, you can set up multi-step campaigns that drive traffic to your website and retarget those that don’t convert.

These types of campaigns are guided by your audience settings which help you get in front of the professionals who would benefit from your solution.

How to Reach Your Target Audience with LinkedIn Ads

Targeting. Targeting. Targeting.

It’s the most important thing in advertising. You can have a fantastic offer and outstanding copy, but without the right audience, you are like a street performer strumming the most melodious song in the middle of an Iowa cornfield.

The majority of targeting options available in Sales Navigator are also available for you to use in advertising, with a few minor exceptions. This means that if you want to focus on a precise audience like CEOs in the gaming industry with a 50% increase in headcount growth, you can.

But what really puts the icing on the prospecting cake is the matched audience options. So let’s say you have a spreadsheet of past opportunities that never led to a sale or a list of leads you are currently engaging with through outbound campaigns. You can upload those contacts to the advertising platform to remarket to those individuals or enhance your multichannel approach. You can follow a similar process for companies as well. Keep in mind that you’ll need at least 300 matched profiles or 1,000+ companies to use matched audiences on LinkedIn.

Alternatively, you can create lookalike audiences based on your current client demographics if you have a sufficient number of contacts. LinkedIn will create a target audience surrounding shared attributes so you can find similar leads without having to dive deep into filters.

Lastly, you have the ability to retarget online visitors through LinkedIn Insight Tags that can be embedded into your website. While retargeting is considered a more advanced strategy, it can significantly increase awareness and consideration while decreasing your cost per customer acquisition by keeping your brand top-of-mind with your prospects.

Once you have your audience in focus, you can put some attention on perfecting the presentation.

Make Them an Offer They Can’t Refuse

There is just no substitute for a personalized offer. It’s the difference between receiving an IKEA gift card or a handcrafted bookshelf for your birthday. Well-thought-out gifts just mean more to the receiver, and the same is true for your lead magnets.

And again, this is why targeting is numero uno in advertising. By grouping your audiences into tight niches, you can create irresistible offers that speak directly to your prospects.

Before creating something from scratch, look in your arsenal of sales enablement materials and onboarding documents. Do you have anything you could repurpose? Can you turn a white paper into an ebook? Can you spin a quick start guide into a template? Or maybe you have the resources to go all out and host a webinar event. Whatever you choose, stick with what piqued curiosity and enlightened your current clients on their buyer’s journey before testing new content. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, especially when your marketing budget is on the line.

The value of your lead magnet will make all the difference in the quality of leads you attract, and the details exchanged in the process.

Make Your Lead Generation Form Minimal

Information is the currency of lead generation, and while the exchange rates are ambiguous, you can make some inferences based on how you would interact with marketing materials.

Think of it this way, would you be willing to part with your name, phone number, email, and physical address for a content calendar spreadsheet? Probably not. But, you might be willing to part with that information for a free webinar on how to grow your LinkedIn group from 0 to 2,000 in less than a month. For each detail you request in a lead generation form, you have to weigh the impact of the offer against the perceived value of the information.

When you set up your lead generation form for LinkedIn ads, you can use the built-in feature or create your own landing page with a lead capture section. There are pros and cons to both tactics. LinkedIn forms are prefilled with available information for members who select your ad, making it possible for your offer to be received in just one click. The downside being that there is minimal customization to the form’s structure. Through your own landing page, you can have more control over design, layout, and context, but building out the page can be time-consuming and usually requires additional tools.

Even though minimalist forms have higher conversion rates, don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a qualifying question or two if it can help personalize your follow-up. Use dropdown menus, radio buttons, or checkboxes for a better user experience.

Build up excitement for your offer in the headline, body text, and call to action to keep leads moving through the form. Pay close attention to the thank you page as well. Clearly outline the next steps for the prospect and deliver on your promise to build rapport instantly.

Once your first ad has been running for about a week, you’ll be able to review the analytics and develop hypotheses about how to optimize your campaigns.

Continuously A/B Test to Reach Your Desired ROI

You can’t make it through a lead generation guide without talking about A/B testing at least once. It’s the way we know if our efforts are making a difference on the bottom line. Luckily, LinkedIn also acknowledges A/B testing as a vital contribution to your advertising success and makes it easy to create coordinated cohorts.

When you launch an ad, your campaigns will be nested like this: Campaign Groups > Campaigns > Ads.

Create campaign groups based on your objective. Use campaigns to test various target audiences, and ads to test content and creative variants. To preserve your budget, make sure there is no overlap in your audiences, so you are not competing with yourself for placement bids.

Avoid making changes to any open campaigns and ads. Instead, create duplicates and then modify them, so you never lose the data collected from other tests.

How you optimize to meet your ROI will be dependent on your objective. A brand awareness ad will need to be focused on metrics like average cost per thousand (CPM) impressions, while a conversion ad will concentrate on the cost per lead (CPL). Use performance and demographic statistics to help verify what you can double down on and what just isn’t working.

There will come the point when the web of carefully calculated experiments becomes too cumbersome to manage without a way to record your hypotheses and findings. Before you get to this point, do yourself a favor and create or invest in a tracking system that will keep you organized.

Track the Results

A carefully thought-out naming convention will be your best friend in improving the efficacy of your advertising analytics. Name your campaign groups based on the objective, your campaigns based on the targeting, and your ads based on the promotion and format. Develop a shorthand to keep things neat and clean, and create a legend so others involved in your advertising adventure will not get lost in the symbols and letters.

With a naming convention in place, you’ll be able to focus purely on the numbers. Create a spreadsheet or integrate with a popular platform to flush out the performing ads while making adjustments or cutting off the stragglers. You’ll have a lot of stats to choose from, so remember to focus your attention on the ones that directly impact the campaign’s objective.

You should always set goals before launching a campaign; the first one should be to break even. But as you gain insight, you will be able to assign realistic metrics more accurately and forecast the outcome.

Advertising can be nerve-racking, but by tracking your results and using it in conjunction with everything you’ve learned today, you’ll be able to maximize your lead generation efforts on LinkedIn.

Conclusion

It’s tempting to put all this LinkedIn lead generation knowledge you’ve gained to work immediately, but for sanity’s sake, you’ll want to break it into stages. Start with your personal profile, then move on to your company page. Once you’re comfortable there, you can build up your presence in groups and maybe start one of your own. Advertising is more of an accelerant: it can stoke the lead gen fire, but it’s not a starter.Diversity is just as important as mastery in your overall lead generation strategy. LinkedIn is not a replacement for other sales channels like email campaigns and cold calling, but it is an efficient way to infuse personalization into your outreach. Block time off each day to network with potential prospects on LinkedIn and you’ll be well on your way to having a steady stream of qualified leads.