Its popularity makes it a great tool for lead generation – a HubSpot study found that LinkedIns visitor-to-lead conversion rate was almost three times higher than both Twitter and Facebook. But to really see the benefits of the platform, you need to dedicate some regular time every week to work to keep front of mind and build credibility within the platform, which essentially will begin to generate leads.
Actively build your LinkedIn contacts
You should already be in the habit of adding new business connections on LinkedIn as and when you receive their business cards. Ramp up your activity by actively seeking out prospective leads with the fantastic LinkedIn Search tool. Search for known companies that you are targeting and work through their employee lists on LinkedIn, particularly focussing on 2nd connections. This way, you can request to be introduced to these prospects through your current connects.
Search for titles of people or people at companies that you may want to connect with. For example, your sales team could use this feature daily by searching for relevant titles at companies theyre trying to penetrate. With a little spying you can learn about your prospective clients new hires, marketing strategies and what news they find important.
LinkedIn Contacts allows you to add notes on all of your contacts profile pages that can only be seen by you. Use this area to keep up-to-date notes about your contacts to remind yourself about where and how you are connected.
Keep front of mind
Once you are connected to someone on LinkedIn, it can be all too easy for them to forget about you. Keep front of mind amongst your LinkedIn contacts with these three tactics:
- Post to your profile: This will appear in your connections newsfeed, a place where users are spending more time. Post useful articles, research and statistics that your connections will want to share and engage with;
- Endorse your contacts: Endorsing your contacts for skills they have listed in their profile is a great technique to remind them of you, and all it takes is the click of a button. They will receive a notification tell them that you have endorsed them; and
- View profiles: Similarly to endorsing, when you view a LinkedIn profile the user will get a notification to let them know. This is another great technique to remind your contacts that you are keen to talk to them. When people can see that you have viewed them, you and your business jump to the top of their mind.
Become a Group influencer
Be selective when choosing which LinkedIn Groups you are going to be active in. It takes time and consideration to become a group influencer, particularly as a lot of groups are used to spam members with direct sales pitches which is an ineffective way to get your audiences attention. Remember, inbound marketing is all about delivering your content to the right people.
Look for groups which are moderated and are updated frequently with an engaged community who provide lots of interesting comments and discussions.Remember to adjust your email settings to give you daily digests of activity within each group.
While you might want to promote your company blog, only do so if itll benefit the conversation. Your strategy should be to position yourself as a thought leader and industry expert, but none of that will happen if you no one finds your posts and comments helpful. The higher your post quality, relevance, and helpfulness to the group, the more authority youll be given.
By following these tips and making sure you dedicate enough time to LinkedIn you should soon begin to reap the benefits of your lead generation efforts.
Alistair Norman is Marketing Director at Tomorrow People.
