LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful platform for growing each recognition and revenue as a B2B business.
In truth, audiences exposed to brand messages on LinkedIn are 6X more more likely to convert, in response to data from the social company.
But and not using a clear strategy in mind, the duty of lead generation on LinkedIn can feel difficult. Which is why I sat down with Jim Habig, VP of Marketing at LinkedIn, to learn a few of his key insights, in addition to additional recommendations on how one can use LinkedIn for lead generation in 2023 and beyond.
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LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy
As a refresher, lead generation refers to all the activities and techniques you employ to draw potential customers. Generating leads is vital because, with nurturing, potential customers can change into paying customers that use your products and drive revenue.
LinkedIn’s typical audience comprises skilled decision-makers with purchasing power, helping you speak on to the potential customers that may change into paying customers. Below, we’ll discuss how you need to use LinkedIn for lead generation.
1. Make sure that your executives have a robust LinkedIn presence.
If you’re first getting began on LinkedIn, it may be tricky to know how one can dedicate your initial efforts. Do you have to create a compelling LinkedIn Page and immediately begin posting content to your enterprise’s feed? Or do you have to start by posting all of your job openings to draw recent talent?
Habig agrees that it is vital to optimize your organization Page to make a robust first impression. He encourages marketers to make sure their Page is complete and up-to-date with relevant information like a business description, logo, website URL, and industry.
Nevertheless, an often missed opportunity to generate leads falls on individual employees’ pages.
As Habig puts it, “You will need to encourage your leadership teams and employees to have well-crafted personal profiles with skilled headshots, descriptive headlines, and detailed job experiences.
He adds, “A consistent brand presence builds credibility, attracts the appropriate audience and fosters trust amongst potential leads.”
Consider the leaders at your organization and their current LinkedIn presence. Could they contribute more thoughtfully to LinkedIn groups inside your industry or post more often to their feeds? More likely than not, your executives could possibly be doing more to grow their LinkedIn following.
As an illustration, let’s take a have a look at HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan’s recent LinkedIn post:
Rangan uses LinkedIn properly, leveraging the platform to share helpful, relevant content geared towards business leaders. Rangan uses LinkedIn to construct a private brand and help her followers find invaluable content related to business growth. Ideally, your executives ought to be doing the identical.
2. Create a strong LinkedIn Page for your enterprise.
Once you’ve got ensured your individual executives have a robust LinkedIn presence, it is time to cultivate a formidable Page for your enterprise.
You will need to make sure your page is lively, with thought-provoking content and contributions to conversations already happening on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Pages is a free product that may also help your organization construct visibility on the platform. It is also a key Page to accommodate your brand’s thought leadership content, similar to videos, commentary from executives, and curated information from other sources.
Take a have a look at LinkedIn Company Pages: The Ultimate Guide [+ 12 Best Practices] to learn more.
3. Post relevant content and have interaction together with your audience.
To make sure your LinkedIn page and profile are strong, consider posting various content types, including video. Featuring this industry-relevant content can allow you to position yourself as a knowledgeable source and establish relevance and credibility with potential customers.
As Habig puts it, “Creating and sharing high-quality content tailored to your target market’s interests is vital to driving engagement and generating leads. Share a combination of content types — like blog posts, infographics, case studies, and videos to maintain your audience engaged.”
He continues, “And don’t forget to affix the conversation! Proactively reply to comments and answer inquiries to foster relationships together with your audience and showcase your expertise.”
If you’re recognized as an insightful, invaluable source, you’ll begin to develop connections with like-minded professionals that suit your ideal customer profile. Should you post often, you’ll change into a daily on their feed, and familiarity makes it easier to initiate further conversations.
Should you assume that the connections you have got on LinkedIn are professionals inside your industry, they’ll expose you to recent audiences with the content you post. When your connections click ‘Like’ on a post you’ve made, it could show up on the feed of a recent lead. This lead will see that your shared connection has liked your post, vouching on your credibility and authority, and possibly prompting them to send a request to attach.
To be certain that you’re creating content that individuals need to see, follow your page analytics to determine what resonates with them essentially the most and create accordingly.
4. Join LinkedIn groups your clients and customers are in.
LinkedIn, at its core, is a social platform like every other. Just as you possibly can on Facebook, users can create groups centered around industry-relevant interests, and you must join these groups and have conversations with other professionals.
You possibly can post content and updates to encourage discussions about relevant topics or just talk in regards to the services you offer. Should you’ve joined groups properly, your potential customers can see what you say and start to acknowledge you as a source of invaluable information.
You can even use groups to learn more about your audience. If members are lively, learn from what they are saying and discover common industry pain points and the way leads want these issues addressed. Use this information to your advantage, and create hyper-targeted value propositions once you reach out that talk on to your customer’s needs.
5. Use LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content to make sure your content reaches your intended audience.
Businesses with small marketing budgets could also be wary of putting money behind paid campaigns on LinkedIn. They often ask — We have now a small marketing budget, and we would like to make use of it properly. Where should we spend it? On condition that LinkedIn is the highest paid and organic channel for B2B businesses, spending your money on the platform could be price your while.
Habig suggests, “Think about using LinkedIn’s promoting and sponsored content solutions to succeed in the appropriate audience based on aspects like job title, industry and company size.”
He adds, “You will need to utilize sponsored content to advertise your top-performing posts or lead generation forms to capture invaluable lead information. Try testing various ad formats like sponsored InMail, carousel ads, and lead gen forms to discover which works best on your target market.”
Particularly, Habig believes the LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms is considered one of the platform’s strongest offerings for lead generation.
He told me, “LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms streamline lead generation by auto-populating users’ LinkedIn profile information once they click in your ad. This simplifies the method for users, allowing them to submit their information with ease and boosting lead generation efficiency. Moreover, the collected data will be effortlessly synchronized together with your CRM system.”
Moreover, it is important to notice other native content features — similar to articles and polls — can allow you to increase engagement together with your audience.
While LinkedIn has a native ads management service, you may also use HubSpot’s ads management tool to create, organize, and execute promoting campaigns on LinkedIn. You’ll also get access to high-quality reports that designate ad performance, helping you optimize a method to fulfill your customers’ needs.
6. Ensure you have got strong sales and marketing alignment.
You are likely all too acquainted with the recent shift in consumer buying behavior. Nowadays, customers are researching online ahead of time and typically use marketing content to tell their purchasing decisions before even reaching out to a sales rep.
With savvier consumers, it’s now critical that marketers meet the needs of consumers who’re further along the customer’s journey after which seamlessly hand them off to sales so sales has the context on which stage of the customer’s journey the patron is at.
Moreover, many salespeople know the goal customer higher than anyone, so leveraging sales reps’ knowledge when creating marketing materials is significant.
All of which is to say — it is vital you align your sales and marketing teams since they play equally invaluable parts find prospects and shutting deals, and so they overlap more heavily now than ever before.
To determine strategies for higher aligning your sales and marketing departments, take a have a look at this Ultimate Guide to Sales and Marketing.
7. Leverage connections with current customers and clients.
LinkedIn’s essential draw is networking, and you must use this feature to your advantage for lead generation.
Connect with current customers and clients on LinkedIn and learn from who their industry connections are, as they might be relevant to you as well. If you have got relationships with existing clients you connect with, ask for referrals, references, or just learn how one can get in touch with a connection they’ve that matches your customer profile.
As LinkedIn is knowledgeable network, such requests are less pushy, spammy, and salesesque than cold calling someone after finding their number online. Leads can receive your request to attach, browse your profile, and see your shared connection as a guarantee of trust.
As well as, once you connect with recent leads, you’re using warm outreach. Which means you already know a bit about them and might immediately make propositions that relate to their interests, providing value to them off the bat.
8. Maintain a consistent presence on the platform.
Identical to your entire other social media sites, LinkedIn requires consistency. Should you post an article once per week after which sign off, you’re not establishing yourself as a consistent presence together with your connections. You furthermore may need to communicate consistently together with your leads. Disappearing in the course of a conversation just isn’t a superb look and does the other of furthering their interest in doing business with you.
Moreover, to make sure you’re reaching the appropriate audiences, consider leveraging LinkedIn Matched Audiences to retarget website visitors.
Habig says, “LinkedIn offers advanced targeting capabilities to allow you to connect together with your ideal audience. With LinkedIn Matched Audiences, you possibly can retarget website visitors, create contact-based audiences using email lists or CRM data, or construct account-based audiences by targeting specific corporations. This feature enables you to have interaction individuals who have already shown interest in your enterprise or usually tend to have an interest.”
He adds, “For newcomers to LinkedIn or those looking for guidance on establishing targeting, think about using LinkedIn’s pre-built audience templates. These templates simplify the method and cater to numerous audiences, similar to doctors, recent college graduates, millennials and more.”
As mentioned above, use platform analytics to find out about your audience’s interests, when your posts get essentially the most traction, and create a method that can keep you consistently present and visual on LinkedIn.
The Most Effective Content for Generating Leads on LinkedIn, In keeping with LinkedIn’s VP of Marketing
When asked which content Habig believes performs best on LinkedIn relating to generating leads, Habig told me two major sorts of content typically win out: educational, and thought leadership.
As he puts it, “There is a delicate balance between offering what I’ll call practical content geared towards the practitioners and presenting forward-thinking thought leadership. Each are essential for capturing the eye of your prospects and customers.”
Habig continues, “Providing educational content — similar to how-to guides, case studies, whitepapers and e-books — positions your brand as a ‘helpful teammate’ that your audience can depend on for support and expertise.”
On the flip side, you do not need to disregard the potential power of thought leadership, either.
Habig says, “It’s crucial to include thought leadership, demonstrating that you simply’re in tune with the industry’s trajectory. In keeping with recent research conducted in collaboration with Edelman, 50% of C-suite executives say that top quality thought leadership has ,more impact on their purchase decision-making during economic downturns than when times are good.”
After all, you will need to evaluate your individual content analytics to find out what performs best together with your own audience. But consider testing these recent formats — in the event you have not already — and see how they do.
What Marketers Get Incorrect When It Involves LinkedIn for Lead Gen
Finally, I had to ask: What’s the most important mistake marketers make relating to LinkedIn lead gen strategies?
Habig had a simple answer: “People underestimate the impact that creativity can have in growing your enterprise and attracting recent leads. In a recent report, we found that 69% of people said B2B purchasing is just as emotionally driven as B2C. Creativity is a strong way for businesses to construct their brands, differentiate themselves, and tell compelling stories in regards to the problems they’re solving that can pique the interest of their audience.”
Which is nice news for many marketers — who likely got into marketing for the storytelling in the primary place.
