Complete Linkedin Lead Generation Strategy Guide

LinkedIn is an ever-growing business network with more than 310 million monthly active users. And 80% of those users are typically involved in the decision-making process. 

So…

That makes this platform the ideal option for brands to implement different strategies for sales growth and promote their outsourced business solutions.

Although the network is primarily business-oriented, a hard-selling approach is far from perfect. You need to engage your audience in intelligent ways to quickly and efficiently reach your business objectives. 

In this guide, you’ll learn how to dominate on LinkedIn with brilliant strategies for sales growth.

Why Should You Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation?

LinkedIn is a powerful social platform that offers many features to help you connect with potential leads and improve sales. It’s a super competitive alternative to most marketing approaches due to its low cost and excellent user base. So that makes it the go-to option for many organizations looking to grow and expand their business.

What Are the Benefits of LinkedIn Lead Generation?

LinkedIn has a large 500 million user base full of professionals and business owners. And those leads have the highest conversion rates with the lowest cost-per-lead (CPL) compared to users from any other social network.

There are many techniques for generating highly-qualified B2B leads for free and within the shortest timeframe. For instance, you can use the search function to find new leads, join and be active in industry-related groups, or reach out directly to potential customers. 

On the other hand:

There are premium lead generation strategies and tools you can use on LinkedIn to accelerate the process. You can buy a premium account or the Sales Navigator to gain access to more features and streamline the process.

How to Use LinkedIn for Sales Leads? Proven B2B Lead Generation Outreach Strategies

Create Powerful Content to Engage Potential Leads

LinkedIn suggests you split your budget by 60:30:10 on reach, nurturing, and acquisition respectively. However, this is generic advice and rarely works for most companies.

For better results, your budget split should be 60:40 for reach and nurturing — especially when you’re just starting out.

How do you reach and nurture at the same time?

Using content marketing…

Content marketing is the process of creating valuable content aimed at increasing brand awareness and boosting sales. It focuses on long-form guides and thought leadership to help potential customers make well-informed decisions throughout the research phase. 

The most engaging type of content to prioritize in your marketing is informational content. As the name suggests, informative posts aim at educating potential customers on specific topics and providing them with all the possible solutions. Blogs, infographics, and educational videos work well if you’re trying to build awareness and reach your target audience.

Improve Your Profile With LinkedIn Tools and Data

Tools like SHIELD are excellent for assessing your LinkedIn performance and lead generation efforts. Sprout is another LinkedIn management software that helps you track clicks, reach, and engagement metrics. 

These tools offer huge value by enabling you to gather data and use it to guide your content marketing efforts.

Connect With the Right Decision-Makers (Quality Over Quantity)

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a highly effective strategy that focuses on individual customer accounts instead of broader markets. It’s the practice of offering personalized interactions and 1-1 experiences to leave a bold impression on each prospect. 

LinkedIn is one of the best platforms to find success with this approach. 

Here’s why:

ABM allows you to mainly focus on high-quality prospects that are most suited to work with your brand. This is an excellent fit for LinkedIn because it helps you go from sending thousands of connection requests a week to only a few hundred. 

While doing that, your acceptance rate will go through the roof, and you will be able to develop long-lasting relationships with target clients.

So how do you maximize your success with ABM?

You must continuously hone in on decision-makers instead of low-level managers to accelerate the process. Also, be sure to do your research and learn more about each prospect to maintain a personalized experience throughout the interaction.

Most importantly, your connection request has to answer these three questions:

• Why do you want to connect with this person?
• How is this connection mutually beneficial?
• What should they do after receiving your request?

Boost Visibility With Updates and Posts

LinkedIn’s algorithms value active participation over most other metrics. The platform was designed to make it easy for its’ users to share their expertise and find precise answers to their questions. 

So, one way to gain traction with LinkedIn is to post new updates and content regularly during peak times. While doing so, use three to five hashtags in your posts and share them on relevant groups to maximize reach and visibility. 

Set Clear Objectives From The Start

The thing with LinkedIn is that if you’re not winning, you’ll necessarily be losing. What that means is that if your business isn’t growing, it might be leaving room for competitors to win and dominate.

You can easily lose on this giant platform by being vague in your approach.

Setting a straightforward aim for your LinkedIn strategy is vital for finding success. That’s because, without any clear objectives, you’ll waste a lot of time following the wrong strategies and metrics. For instance, you may have a hard time deciding whether you should have a CTA and which action to call for exactly.

So what is it that you’re looking to achieve with LinkedIn? 

• Do you want to generate more leads?
• Are you trying to connect with more prospects?
• Would you like to grow your personal or company profiles?

Use LinkedIn InMail to Reach Out to Prospects

InMail is a feature that allows you to connect directly with potential customers and impact their decisions. You can use it to strike up a genuine conversation, share new content, or promote upcoming offers for marketing purposes. 

The quality of leads from LinkedIn InMail is superior compared to other channels. That’s because the majority of LinkedIn users are business professionals with high commercial intent.

Strengthen Your Brand

Your company or personal profile makes up the first and most essential impression each prospect will have about you and your company. It can make or break your brand by affecting how it looks in the eyes of potential clients.

Therefore:

You want to make sure it’s professional, trustworthy, and attractive enough to make an impact on decision-makers.

A good LinkedIn profile is comprehensive and includes relevant details about you and your work. It highlights your best work, biggest achievements, as well as projects you’ve worked on in the past.

And it also features endorsements and positive feedback, which are a huge plus when the competition is tough.

Drive Direct Traffic to Your Website From LinkedIn

You can get website traffic by promoting your brand on LinkedIn using banner ads, paid promotions, or simply organic content. And the costs for these ads are much more affordable when compared to advertising on other platforms.

In addition to the outstanding quality of its leads, LinkedIn allows you to create compelling CTAs (call-to-action) and personalized messages in ads. That’s will enable you to boost clicks and generate more direct traffic to your website.

As if that’s not enough, you’ll also be able to use specific targeting based on specific parameters including location, job title, and company size — so you can mainly focus your campaigns on relevant prospects.

Get Your Friends and Coworkers to Give You a Shout Out

LinkedIn Employee Advocacy helps boost the content of your colleagues and company. 

When employees are supportive of business posts, it helps the company reach a larger audience and shows that the employees are behind the company and its mission. Such a practice is the ultimate win-win situation since it is beneficial for both parties involved.

Integrate Sales Navigator With Your Campaign Manager

Sales Navigator might be the missing piece in your lead generation puzzle. It can offer you great insights and data that can help you better engage with your prospects.

The integration of this tool with Campaign Manager is a good use case for marketers looking to target smaller audiences.

Contribute to LinkedIn groups

It is important to start with groups that are relevant to your niche. When you first join a group, it is recommended to take a close look at the group’s name and think of what questions would be appropriate for the group.

Once you’ve found a group relevant to your niche, it is crucial to contribute valuable information before pitching your brand. The key is contributing before pitching, as this will help you generate leads with more time on your hands. The idea behind joining these groups is that you will find industry leaders and position yourself as a leader in your field.

You must make sure you have joined the right groups before contributing to their conversations. If you’re not sure what group is best suited for your content, check the group’s name and see if it contains words such as “leaders” or “industry.”

If it is a good match, join the conversation.

Personalized Outreach With a Hint of Human Touch

Engaging in dynamic personalization is key to connecting with leads qualitatively. It often adds a personal element that competitors are far from considering. So it remains the surest way to increase engagement and close more deals in less time.

Make a solid impression on any prospects by engaging with them through personalized discussions, sharing targeted blog posts, or leaving newsletter shout-outs. 

“Follow” Before You “Connect”

The thing about sending personalized messages is that they have to be authentic. Simply tailoring your requests with their name and job position generally is not enough for potential leads to get super excited about your connection request.

So:

Before connecting with any potential client, use the “Follow” button to stay updated with their latest posts and articles. Engage with their content and leave relevant comments to make a lasting impression. That’s how you’ll l be able to strike up a meaningful conversation later on.

Many times, when these prospects notice that you’re following them, they’ll follow you back, which you can then use to your advantage and send them a connection request on the spot.

Better yet…

A prospective client may sometimes initiate a connection request when they sense the honest engagement on your part. Although they’ll not always be the decision-maker, this is still a good way to build rapport and relevancy with the company.

Target Warm Leads With Spotlights

The Spotlight approach is the use of Sales Navigator to generate a list of prospects who match your ideal customer profile — and who also have the highest chance of connecting with you.

Since your end goal here is to increase connections, here are four spotlights you should consider focusing on:

“Posted on LinkedIn in past 30 days” — This one is crucial because it helps you find the prospects who are most likely to see your request since they’re actively posting on LinkedIn.

“Mentioned in the news in past 30 days” — Using this as a spotlight is a great way to highlight that you’ve invested time to learn more about the client. It gives you something very specific to talk about and congratulate them on in your initial conversation.

“Share experiences with you” — Shared experiences have always been the ideal common ground between business leaders. Did you attend the same seminar or conference? Do you have any LinkedIn groups in common? Did you go to the same university? Using any of these similarities in your connection request to start the conversation leads to a higher chance of conversion.

“Changed jobs in the past 90 days” — This is a special conversation starter for two simple reasons. First, it’s an easy way to get your foot in the door and talk to the prospect. Second, such clients are usually on the look for new alternatives to overcome their problems and improve on their predecessors.

You may also spend a few extra minutes to find users who are both active and have recently been mentioned in the news. This is an excellent way to maximize your request acceptance rate and boost conversions. You can read more here: How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy to Overcome The Weekly Limitation

Why You Need a B2B Lead Generation Company to Run Your LinkedIn Strategy

LinkedIn has always been a Rolodex for finding quality prospects you can connect with, nurture, and eventually convert. But without the necessary expertise to implement your lead generation strategy, your company is going to waste a lot of time and resources on the wrong things.

Here are four reasons why you must hire a B2B lead generation company:

Save Time For Other Crucial Business Operations

Time is often the most precious resource for any business looking to move forward. When it comes to LinkedIn lead generation, working with a lead generation agency can be the best way to save time without sacrificing efficiency.

Cut Costs And Additional Expenses

Despite its noticeable advantages, hiring in-house is still a drag for many businesses that are struggling to make ends meet. An outsourced lead generation company, on the other hand, offers you the same benefits for less money.

By cutting down expenses related to hiring and training, office space and equipment, as well as payroll — you’ll allow more room for your brand to prosper. All that while guaranteeing that your business profits will remain as high as they could be.

Get Experts on Your Team

Building expertise in sales takes long years of trial and error with practice in a specific field. Because of that, hiring a true sales expert comes at a high price that only a few companies can afford.

Outsourced lead generation solves that problem once and for all as it allows you the freedom to work with experts depending on your needs and expectations. An outsourced SDR will bring new ideas and experience to your team while expanding your access to top-notch technology.

Close More Deals and Boost Revenue

Improving sales is the end goal for everything your business does on any level. That makes it the biggest determining factor for which plan you should implement in your B2B LinkedIn lead generation.

The strategy that yields the highest profits is will always win and come first. That’s exactly what you should expect by outsourcing your outreach plan to an expert B2B lead generation company.