How to Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation: 8 Key Strategies for 2024
If you're in B2B SaaS, LinkedIn is where your customers are. It's an impressive, yet often underutilized, tool for lead generation. But with a few tweaks, it can be a powerful pipeline builder for your company.
Why Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation?
In short, LinkedIn is home to your customers and the platform makes it easy to engage with them and grow your audience. The "why" of LinkedIn lead generation falls into these key areas:
- Integrations
- Audience
- Targeting
- Thought leadership
- Branding
Integrations
According to a State of B2B Marketing report from Wpromote, almost 90% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation.
Unlike other platforms, LinkedIn provides B2B marketers with some very unique value propositions. For example, the underrated ability to integrate with other software applications like your CRM and marketing automation tools like HubSpot.
This makes it hands down one of the best professional networking platforms that you can use for running lead generation campaigns and seeing the ROI on your lead generation efforts.
Professional Audience
Unlike most other social platforms, LinkedIn is designed particularly for professional networking. LinkedIn users are generally seeking business connections and opportunities which makes them more receptive to B2B marketing messaging. This is really what makes the platform ideal for generating leads.
LinkedIn’s platform is composed of a wide range of working professionals who could also be industry thought leaders and decision-makers. This makes this platform unique and a goldmine for connecting with potential customers who are actively seeking solutions to their business problems.
Targeted Ads
LinkedIn provides some of the best targeting and retargeting options allowing companies to reach potential customers based on attributes such as job title, industry, company size, and more. This precision is hard to find in other solutions.
The ability to target your audience so specifically increases the likelihood of connecting with the right leads at the right time who could be interested in your products and services. This leads to higher conversion rates and a better return on your marketing spend.
Thought Leadership
Establishing thought leadership as a brand is a big part of what LinkedIn allows companies to do. Providing companies and individuals alike the presence that establishes credibility and trust with their audience. This is another reason why marketers turn to LinkedIn campaigns for lead generation.
Sharing valuable content and engaging in meaningful discussions can help foster this trust which will help ultimately attract clients to your brand.
Brand Visibility
Another good reason to use LinkedIn for lead generation is that this platform allows companies to amplify their brand visibility and reach a large audience.
Through engaging content marketing and active participation in relevant groups, businesses can expand their network and increase the likelihood of being noticed by potential leads.
8 Strategies for LinkedIn Lead Generation
Now that we have shared some context around why you should use LinkedIn for lead generation, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how your campaign manager can use this powerful platform within your B2B marketing strategy.
Here are my top 8 LinkedIn lead generation strategies:
1. Create a Powerful LinkedIn Business Page
A compelling LinkedIn page for your business is crucial for leaving a lasting impression on your audience.
Companies should customize their company page with strong visuals and comprehensive company descriptions that highlight their unique value proposition.
Ensure your business page has relevant content to showcase your company’s latest achievements, events, and even new product launches. Draw your audience in with compelling information that grabs their attention and encourages them to engage with your brand.
2. Optimize Your Personal LinkedIn Profile
A well-optimized LinkedIn profile is also essential for establishing credibility and trust at a personal level. Companies can ensure that their employees, especially those who are active on the platform, include relevant keywords in headlines and summary sections to enhance discoverability through search.
Along with a compelling headline, use a professional photo on your profile. Share your individual skills, accomplishments, and experience with your network and demonstrate your qualifications as a reliable source of information for your given industry and niche.
3. Ensure Your Executives Have a Strong Presence
One of my favorite strategies for lead gen on LinkedIn is to leverage your company’s executive team.
Executives within your business can play a significant role in your lead gen strategy as they are often seen as credible and experienced individuals. So much so that LinkedIn has actually created this 12-Step Executive Playbook to help sharpen your team’s use of the platform
Executives can use their LinkedIn account to share insights, participate in discussions and showcase their company’s achievements. Having executives that are engaged can attract leads and create a positive impression for your brand. Use this group of individuals and their expertise to humanize your brand and build rapport with potential and existing clients.
4. Post Relevant Content that Sparks Conversations
With more than 94% of B2B marketers using LinkedIn marketing to distribute various types of content, it’s no wonder why this strategy makes our list of the top eight. Sharing informative Linkedin content like articles, case studies, and company updates consistently allows you to position your brand as an authority within the field.
Use this content to engage with your audience by responding to comments and messaging. Your company should also encourage your employees to share similar LinkedIn posts and content to expand your brand’s reach and help amplify your message.
Where companies often trip up in leveraging this strategy is in having a lack of consistency in content sharing. It is not enough to post sporadically on this platform. As a brand, you should have a calendar in which you know exactly what your company will be posting and when. The same goes at the individual level.
5. Create and Promote Valuable Lead Magnets
Offering lead magnets such as webinars, ebooks, and whitepapers is another effective way to capture contact information for potential leads.
Your company should be creating valuable and informative content that addresses your target audience’s pain points and promote these assets across LinkedIn and other marketing channels. Then, be sure to use LinkedIn lead gen forms as templates to collect information from the member if they click on the call-to-action button.
Consider using strong visuals and persuasive copy to entice your audience to submit their personal information and download your assets. Make sure that your landing pages provide a user-friendly experience and clear call to action to help optimize your conversion rates.
6. Join and Engage in Relevant LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are a great way to engage with like-minded professionals and potential leads. As a member, you can join industry-specific groups where your target audience is active. If you find someone who you are interested in networking with, the process is as simple as sending a connection request.
Within these groups, you can contribute to discussions and share industry insights. It’s highly likely you will find high-quality leads within these niche groups Try to avoid overtly promoting your products and services in order to maintain a trustworthy reputation.
Building relationships within these groups can lead to organic lead generation for you and your company. Make sure to actively and consistently participate in discussions so that you can position yourself as an industry expert and gain the trust of potential clients.
7. Use LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content
For our marketing friends, LinkedIn’s ad platform offers various options such as Sponsored Content, InMail, and Text Ads to promote your company’s brand and reach your target audience.
LinkedIn has some great targeting options to deliver your ads to a specific demographic of people. You can test your ads and use various optimization techniques to get the best results and lower your cost per lead. Sponsored content spreads directly within your target audience’s feed, blending in with other organic content.
Similarly sponsored InMail allows you to send personalized messages, ensuring your message is directed to the right audience. The open rate for Sponsored Inmail is a staggering 166% higher than traditional email marketing benchmarks. With all this said, LinkedIn makes it easy to create and store templates right within the platform.
8. Utilize LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is one of the best LinkedIn lead generation features that allows businesses and salespeople to perform LinkedIn outreach and engage with new leads more effectively. Sales Nav provides some advanced search filters and real-time insights to help sales professionals connect with and build meaningful relations with prospects.
Some of Sales Navigator’s premium features also enable businesses to engage with leads and nurture them throughout the buying journey. The thing I like most about Sales Nav is that it empowers sales teams to build a comprehensive step-by-step outreach strategy. This strategy will help reps track engagement, identify qualified leads, and ensure they follow up, which ultimately can lead to increased lead generation for your business
Bringing it all Together
Over the past decade, LinkedIn has clearly emerged as a powerful platform for its subscribers, marketers and sales professionals alike. The opportunities to connect with professionals and build a compelling network are really something unique to this platform.
Leveraging LinkedIn does require brands and individuals alike to consistently provide relevant and value-based content to be most effective. With a dedication to this and strategic planning, LinkedIn can become a valuable asset in your overall marketing and B2B lead generation strategy.
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