How Does Linkedin Generate Leads? I should start off by saying that I am not a user of Linkedin. I have an account but have never really used it. I wanted to get into writing about Linkedin, because a lot of my friends use it and ask me what they should do to make sure their profile is successful and secure. So that’s why I decided to begin researching how LinkedIn generates leads and what reasons users post updates on their LinkedIn profiles.
I’m willing to bet you’ve already heard about the importance of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter — and if you use all three as part of your lead generation strategy, you might think you’re all set.
However, if you’re not using LinkedIn you could be missing out on a major opportunity to grow both brand recognition and revenue, especially if you’re a B2B business. In fact, studies have shown that LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social channel for B2B businesses, and 82% of B2B marketers report finding the greatest success on the platform.
Generating B2B leads can be both challenging and rewarding for any business, especially for small businesses like yours. How does Linkedin generate leads? Does it work? The answer is yes. You can generate B2B leads from LinkedIn. In fact, there are many ways and techniques to do it. For small businesses, extracting lead from LinkedIn isn’t easy due to the numerous options and approaches
These statistics make sense, especially if we consider platform-specific demographics. The average Instagram user scrolls through their feed, like photos of their friends, watches their favorite celebrity’s Story, and occasionally uses the platform to find and purchase products.
Generating B2B leads can be both challenging and rewarding for any business, especially for small businesses like yours. How does Linkedin generate leads? Does it work? The answer is yes. You can generate B2B leads from LinkedIn. In fact, there are many ways and techniques to do it. For small businesses, extracting lead from LinkedIn isn’t easy due to the numerous options and approaches
LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy
As a refresher, lead generation refers to all of the activities and strategies you use to attract potential customers. Generating leads is important because, with nurturing, potential customers can become paying customers that use your products and drive revenue.
LinkedIn’s typical audience comprises professional decision-makers with purchasing power, helping you speak directly to the potential customers that can become paying customers. Below, we’ll discuss how you can use LinkedIn for lead generation.
1. Make sure your executives have a strong LinkedIn presence.
When you’re first getting started on LinkedIn, it can be tricky to know how to dedicate your initial efforts. Should you create a compelling LinkedIn Page and immediately begin posting content to your business’s feed? Or should you start by posting all your job openings to attract new talent?
Shriber suggests another strategy: “We definitely want to fuel the growth of small businesses that have aspirations to grow to become larger, and we put together a playbook that allows them to do that. The playbook always starts with the individual LinkedIn profiles of the employees at the company, and in particular, the executives at the company.”
“[Executives are] trendsetters. They can make statements about what they stand for, and in many cases, develop a strong following in relatively short order.”
Consider the leaders at your company and their current LinkedIn presence. Could they contribute more thoughtfully to LinkedIn groups within your industry or post more often to their feeds? More likely than not, your executives could be doing more to grow their LinkedIn following.
For instance, let’s take a look at Sallie Krawcheck’s, CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, LinkedIn activity:
Krawcheck uses LinkedIn wisely, leveraging the platform to promote content from her own investment company while also liking or sharing other relevant financial content geared towards women. Ultimately, Krawcheck uses LinkedIn to build a personal brand and help her followers find valuable content related to investing and women in finance. Ideally, your executives should be doing the same.
2. Create a powerful LinkedIn Page for your business.
Once you’ve ensured your own executives have a strong LinkedIn presence, it’s time to cultivate an impressive page.
You’ll want to ensure your page is active, with thought-provoking content and contributions to conversations already happening on LinkedIn.
Shriber notes — “Once you’ve got a strategy related to your executives and their presence on LinkedIn, step two is to think about the presence of your company on LinkedIn. We have a product called LinkedIn Pages, which has been incredibly powerful for businesses that want to establish their place in the world’s professional community.”
“[LinkedIn Pages is] a free product,” Shriber adds, “and really, at the end of the day, it’s a place for you to stage the content that you have to offer, and really promote all of the benefits that you have for people that want to follow you.”
He continues, “So, when you come to a good LinkedIn Page, you’ll find information about what the company does, but beyond that, some of the thought leadership that’s happening. There will be video content as well as the written word, commentary from executives, but also in many cases, information that’s curated from other sources. It doesn’t just need to be from the marketing group or from an internal source.”
3. Post relevant content and updates.
To ensure your LinkedIn page and profile are strong, consider posting various content types, including video. Featuring this industry-relevant content can help you position yourself as a knowledgeable source and establish relevance and credibility with potential customers.
When you’re recognized as an insightful, valuable source, you’ll begin to develop connections with like-minded professionals that fit your ideal customer profile. If you post often, you’ll become a regular on their feed, and familiarity makes it easier to initiate further conversations.
If you assume that the connections you have on LinkedIn are professionals within your industry, they can expose you to new audiences with the content you post. When your connections click ‘Like’ on a post you’ve made, it may show up on the feed of a new lead. This lead will see that your shared connection has liked your post, vouching for your credibility and authority, and possibly prompting them to send a request to connect.
To ensure that you’re creating content that people want to see, follow your page analytics to figure out what resonates with them the most and create accordingly.
4. Join LinkedIn groups your clients and customers are in.
LinkedIn, at its core, is a social platform like any other. Just as you can on Facebook, users can create groups centered around industry-relevant interests, and you should join these groups and have conversations with other professionals.
You can post content and updates to encourage discussions about relevant topics or simply talk about the services you offer. If you’ve joined groups wisely, your potential customers can see what you say and begin to recognize you as a source of valuable information.
You can also use groups to learn more about your audience. If members are active, learn from what they say and discover common industry pain points and how leads want these issues addressed. Use this information to your advantage, and create hyper-targeted value propositions when you reach out that speak directly to your customer’s needs.
5. Use paid products to ensure your content reaches your intended audience.
Businesses with small marketing budgets may be wary of putting money behind paid campaigns on LinkedIn. They often ask — We have a small marketing budget, and we want to use it wisely. Where should we spend it? Given that LinkedIn is the top paid and organic channel for B2B businesses, spending your money on the platform would be worth your while.
Shriber told me, “Once you’ve built that strong LinkedIn Page, companies tend to realize that that audience that’s consuming information is incredibly valuable, and it’s different than what they’re finding on other platforms.”
He adds, “We have a series of paid products that you can then move into that allow you to insert content into the LinkedIn feed. Now you’ve got a series of followers or you’ve got a set of targeted members that you care about. Suddenly, they’re seeing your content appear in the feed itself and there are some really rich ways to turn that engagement into actual activity.”
While LinkedIn has a native ads management service, you can also use HubSpot’s ads management tool to create, organize, and execute advertising campaigns on LinkedIn. You’ll also get access to high-quality reports that explain ad performance, helping you optimize a strategy to meet your customers’ needs.
6. Ensure you have strong sales and marketing alignment.
You’re likely all too familiar with the recent shift in consumer buying behavior. Nowadays, customers are researching online ahead of time and typically use marketing content to inform their purchasing decisions before even reaching out to a sales rep.
Shriber describes the shift like this: “What you’re seeing now, is consumers are becoming more savvy about learning about products and services that they need and progressing deep into the sales process before they reach out, raise their hand, and say that they need help.”
He adds, “It’s becoming incumbent upon marketing to really meet the needs of customers that are investigating and exploring, and then seamlessly handing that off to salespeople so sales has context on the journey customers have already traveled.”
“I’ve got a number of customers that have come to me and said, my salespeople know my target customers better than my marketing group. They’ve been in the business for 20 years, and they know all the key people, so I’m going to use them to create awareness, build a brand in a way that historically has been reserved for marketing.”
On the flip side, of course, marketers play a heavier role in closing a deal. Shriber told me, “Imagine, for example, that you’re procurement and you’re trying to negotiate a contract. Historically, that’s been the domain of a sales professional, but today, savvy marketers know that that’s where you are in the sales process.”
Shriber adds, “They’re able to target that procurement person, send in some relevant content related to validation of the solution, why it’s valuable, what other customers are saying about it, and all of a sudden, that marketer has played a key role in getting the deal closed.”
All of which is to say — it’s critical you align your sales and marketing teams since they play equally valuable parts in finding prospects and closing deals, and they overlap more heavily now than ever before.
To figure out strategies for better aligning your sales and marketing departments, take a look at this Ultimate Guide to Sales and Marketing.
7. Leverage connections with current customers and clients.
LinkedIn’s main draw is networking, and you should 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 may be relevant to you as well. If you have relationships with existing clients you connect with, ask for referrals, references, or simply learn how to get in contact with a connection they have that matches your customer profile.
As LinkedIn is a professional network, such requests are less pushy, spammy, and salesesque than cold calling someone after finding their number online. Leads can receive your request to connect, browse your profile, and see your shared connection as a guarantee of trust.
In addition, when you connect with new leads, you’re using warm outreach. This means that you already know a bit about them and can immediately make propositions that relate to their interests, providing value to them off the bat.
8. Maintain a consistent presence on the platform.
Just like all of your other social media sites, LinkedIn requires consistency. If you post an article once a week and then log out, you’re not establishing yourself as a consistent presence with your connections. You also want to communicate consistently with your leads. Disappearing in the middle of a conversation is not a good look and does the opposite of furthering their interest in doing business with you.
As mentioned above, use platform analytics to learn about your audience’s interests, when your posts get the most traction, and create a strategy that will keep you consistently present and visible on LinkedIn.
Ten Ways to generate leads on LinkedIn
1. Create a polished and personally branded profile on LinkedIn.
If you haven’t already, spend some time perfecting your profile to make sure it is clear what you do and what your strengths are. Focus on your headline and summary. It should be compelling.
Your headline will automatically be displayed as the last job you’ve had unless you change it manually. Sales expert and author Jill Konrath put together a great video on 4 steps to writing your LinkedIn headline and summary. I’ve applied her lessons to my profile. You can access Jill’s free how to learn LinkedIn rapid learning mini-course here.
You can also check out how you rate on LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index. The tool can help recommend ways to get better. For example, my results indicated that I could improve in “engaging with insights.”
2. Connect, Reconnect, and help — marketing at its best.
Help first. Start connecting with your current and past contacts, focusing on relationships where trust already exists. It’s easy to search LinkedIn to find individuals you’ve lost touch with. Then reach out to them and offer help in some way.
When you get a new business card from someone you meet, look them up via LinkedIn and invite them to connect with you. If you’re just starting as a LinkedIn user, you can import your contacts from Outlook, Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!, or AOL. Be sure to include your distinct URL in your email signature, on your traditional resume, on your blog, on your website, and your business card so that others can connect with you quickly.
3. Reach out to former clients.
You can track what your previous customers have been doing since you last saw them — with no awkwardness. Instead of sending a me-first message, contacting a former client makes a positive comment about something they’ve done. Ask questions about their new projects. And again, look for ways to help.
4. Join LinkedIn Groups where your clients/customers gather.
Groups can be incredibly powerful to your personal brand. Use Advanced Search to find practitioners within your firm and in the industry at large. Through these groups, you can learn a lot about your industry by tuning into the conversations. You may discover new industry-wide pain points and learn about options to solve those pain points. Find out more about your industry by watching from afar will give you real, everyday insight into ways you can help and connect.
5. Post relevant content on groups (if that’s their approach) and answer targeted questions
First, figure out the rules of the group. If they allow content sharing, start building your credibility in the group by sharing relevant content that fits the group’s interests. This content includes relevant blog posts, links to articles you have written, posts that quote you, and event notices for webinars. Be sure to stay sensitive to the dynamics of your group — don’t ever try to dominate the conversation. Your materials should be a helpful resource, not a sales pitch for you.
6. Answer targeted questions in areas of your expertise.
Many group members use LinkedIn as a discussion board, and you’ll find many questions posted on any given day. Take time each day to answer a few or to post a few discussions yourself. Respond to questions that are relevant to your expertise or something important to you.
If you find a question, you can answer well from someone you want to do business with who’s relatively senior in a company, write a detailed, high-value response. You never know who’s reading the information. Lots of members gain a foot in the door because of the expertise they lend to a discussion.
7. Check out individual profiles
Find out if your potential customers contribute to blogs. Learn what events they are attending and even the books they are reading. This utility is the beauty of LinkedIn. How many will other sources surface before work history? This aspect helps you be more intentional and have more clues about how you could potentially help.
8. No more cold calls. Use the information to do warm outreach.
An introduction received via LinkedIn is much warmer than a cold call because it comes with trust. You’re not the stranger trying to upsell something; you come with a recommendation from a person that the receiver has a connection to, or you share a common membership in a professional group.
Even if you can’t find a path to connect to someone, sending a direct message via LinkedIn is better than sending a cold email because LinkedIn implies a business context. So when you are checking out a potential customer, you can review their profile, discover their interest and determine if you have something in common with them to help warm up your call with them.
9. Search with Advanced Filters and use messaging, aka InMail.
One of the best features of having a LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator account is using Advanced Filters in a search. Not only can you search by company and relationship, but Premium advanced search on LinkedIn allows you to search by function, location, seniority level, and group size, as well. Pair that with Messages (aka InMail), and now you can contact prospects directly without a referral.
When I write relevant personal emails using InMail with the research I get via LinkedIn, I almost always respond.
9. Create your LinkedIn group
Starting a group gives you control over its content and reach. You can choose to open the group only to people you know, or you can open it up to a much larger audience. The goal is to engage your audience and leverage your thought leadership to make a difference with your group members.
LinkedIn offers tips for consultants using the channel to build their business, demonstrate areas of expertise, and leverage their network.
Check out the B2B Lead Roundtable Group on LinkedIn. I started this group, and it’s all about sharing ideas that focus on the many aspects of B2B lead generation. The group has 20,000+ members, but I’m even more excited about what’s not happening. I’m learning a ton from members because our rules for the group are that it’s 100% discussion only. If you will do this, be ready for the time commitment this will need to be a successful group.
10. Post regular updates.
Spend a minute posting an “Update” or “What’s on your mind?” to your LinkedIn network each day. You can use updates to share a link to an article, blog post, or video relevant to your potential customers and network. Or use the “Pulse” feature on your LinkedIn dashboard.
When you post an update, what you post gets displayed in the feed of all the people connected to your network. Your updates aren’t the place to sell. However, don’t be afraid to share significant announcements or news either. Add value with each update.
It’s that updating process that will spark conversations about opportunities for both you and your contacts. In these conversations, ideas will arise about prospective clients, possible partnerships, and other revenue-generating projects.
LinkedIn Can Help You Attract Your Ideal Customers
Ultimately, if you aren’t using LinkedIn or using it often enough, you’re likely missing out on significant opportunities to grow your business.
As Shriber told me, “We’ve really tried to think through the full spectrum of what you might care about, from building a brand to generating leads, whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise — and we built playbooks that address you where you are, and help you to get where you’re going.”
Conclusion
If you’re a b2b marketer and have your own blog, the chances are that you receive a fairly large amount of leads from Linkedin, as it is among the best b2b marketing channels. But you may be wondering how exactly does Linkedin generate leads.
Implementing these tips into your daily routine will require a time commitment, but it’s easy to join the conversation for a few minutes each day and check-in with various groups. Also, LinkedIn is constantly evolving, so keep an eye on it. As it continues to grow, people will find new and smarter ways to utilize it. You’ll want to be there, ready to dive in and generate leads.