LinkedIn Marketing: Why LinkedIn Lead Generation?
Praise Sim, Copywriter, GENIA
24 November 2020
Social Media advertising is great. It’s relatively straightforward and easy to manage. But there’s no denying that it can be ridiculously expensive over the long haul!
One of the great benefits of Social Media is the vast amount of users that surf it every day. But that also means that a lot of your budget could be spent targeting the wrong people, both businesses and consumers alike.
Do you find that your cost per lead is high, and yet you face low conversion rates? The reality is that you are probably struggling to find the right audience for your advertisements or outreach.
In fact, you are not alone in this.
According to a marketing report from Wpromote, 62% of B2B marketers say that LinkedIn generates them twice as many leads more than the next-highest social channel.
Linkedin is a platform that professionals go to when they want to take their business up a notch.
Why? Because the intent of an average user in LinkedIn varies largely from one from a social media like Facebook or Twitter. LinkedIn is typically used to help users stay informed with industry happenings, job surf, hunt for employees, and seek out tools to optimize their workflows.
And if your business can offer a solution to their needs, LinkedIn could be your best bet in attracting their attention.
LinkedIn Lead Generation for B2B Businesses
B2B purchase decisions, by nature, tend to be complex and require more deliberation before purchase. And many of the questions that stakeholders ask every day can be found on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is also home to 675 million monthly users, of which 2.8 million are decision-makers, and 260,000 are C-suite executives.
What are the Benefits of LinkedIn Lead Generation?
1. It’s made up of professionals with purchasing power.
Over 20% of LinkedIn users can make buying decisions for their companies. 75% of LinkedIn users have incomes over $68,000, and 44% of them have incomes over $100,000.
And according to HubSpot, executives from all Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn, and a recent survey of business executives found that 76% of them check their LinkedIn accounts on a daily basis.
2. LinkedIn lead generation is one of the most effective.
According to LinkedIn’s, studies show that 80% of B2B leads generated through social media come from LinkedIn. This is because unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn offers:
Professional Data –– LinkedIn makes it easy for businesses to navigate the location, industry, position, and seniority of a user –– details that can help your business to reach the right people in the right way.
Business Context –– Users of LinkedIn use the platform to research business topics and seek career opportunities, hence naturally adopting a more receptive mindset for B2B messaging.
News Feed Products –– Ads on LinkedIn appear alongside content in the news feed creating a seamless experience for its users.
3. LinkedIn lead generation converts more leads for less.
Whether you are looking to do lead generation for free or with a paid strategy, you would be spending a lot less as compared to running a similar ad campaign on Google or any other social media platform.
In fact, the cost-per-lead on LinkedIn is reportedly 28% lower than Google Ads, and as found by HubSpot, they also have double the conversion rate.
Who does LinkedIn Lead Generation work best for?
B2B companies looking for targeted results. LinkedIn outreach allows marketers to get incredibly granular about the audiences they want to target. From the industry, size, to the job title and seniority, LinkedIn offers an array of targeting options that ensure you reach the right audience.
With these functions, your company can better identify audiences that can benefit the most from your service and assess the degree of influence they have over decision-making.
That being said, how your company positions itself and presents to your target audience can determine the success of your campaign. Having a well-defined value proposition and a clearly defined target audience will help produce solid results.
LinkedIn for B2B Marketing: Perfecting Your LinkedIn Outreach
(Information adapted from Jake Jorgovan)
1. Optimize your LinkedIn Profile
#1 – THE TAGLINE
The tagline is the first thing your prospects will see, and it will easily determine the first impression left on the reader.
This tagline appears when someone lands on your profile page, whenever you post in the news feed, when someone sees your message and when you show up in “Recommended People”.
Make use of this opportunity to capture your audience’s attention and attract them to your profile. A good tagline should be relevant, valuable, and memorable!
#2 – YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE
The goal of your LinkedIn profile is to convince your audience that you are indeed the solution to their problems. And unlike your tagline, you are not limited to a single line!
Keeping to these rules will guarantee you a terrific LinkedIn profile:
- It should be all about your prospects
- It should be clear and concise
- It should deliver true value
- It should present you as a solution to their problems
#3 – YOUR LINKEDIN HEADSHOT
“Your headshot is like the logo of your personal brand.” –– (source)
A headshot is the easiest way to not only be noticed by your friends and family but also to a wide spectrum of viewers, from potential employers to prospective clients. It’s a little step that allows people to relate to you and form a positive connection with your brand!
2. Engage – Reach the right people
Step #1: Send Connection Requests
Connection requests may be unusual and awkward to people that you do not know. But lucky for you, that is exactly what LinkedIn was designed for! When reaching out to potential clients, keep in mind 2 things:
- Be natural and give a reason for reaching out. This can be as simple as mentioning a common industry, job title, or change in companies.
- Create a conversational connection request. Keep it short, sweet, but impactful enough to build on later on.
Step #2: Drip Messages Over Time
Once someone has accepted your connection request, you can begin a simple conversation by thanking them for accepting the request before engaging them in dialogue. The goal in mind is to direct them to a pain-point you know they are likely to have and thus provide a solution.
If you haven’t heard back from a prospect after a week or so from the first outreach, a small demonstration of credibility can go a long way. This can be in the form of sharing a client testimonial in relation to your prospect’s pain point, a case study, or a valuable resource.
These messages will demonstrate to them that you can help them to get to where they want to be and that you have an offer too good to resist!
3. Convert – Engage, re-engage, and then engage once more
1) Start Conversations
As opposed to the cold outreach approach –– pushing directly for a sale, starting a conversation is focused on getting your foot in the door at your target audiences’ accounts. Naturally, people are more willing to engage in conversation and may probe with questions about your business, from what you do, who you serve, and how you can benefit them.
This process of conversation allows you to transition from an introductory stage to one where trust is built and ultimately leads to a sales conversation.
2) Don’t be too eager to close a deal. Aim for a Phone Call!
“Remember, people like to buy. They don’t like to be sold.”
Bear in mind that your goal is to create just enough interest to move the conversation from a LinkedIn chat to a phone call or email dialogue.
Don’t try to hurry the process of closing a deal on LinkedIn! Instead, let the conversation transition naturally to a phone call, where you can make the actual sale.
3) Research your prospects
Taking a few minutes to research each prospect can help you to craft a personal response that is more likely to resonate with them, as opposed to firing off a response without context or purpose.
4) Ask Questions
Giving your pitch right away is a surefire way of killing any conversation off on LinkedIn. Instead, you should be asking questions to keep the conversation moving along and toward the direction of your value proposition before you ask for a phone call or appointment.
Questions form the foundation of good conversation, and a good conversation enables you to build trust with your prospects. Remove the focus off yourself and talk about your prospect by asking questions!
Perfect your Lead Generation Strategy with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
There is no better way to reach your audience than having them find you! A lot of the lead generation strategies involve carefully crafted outreaches on multiple channels across multiple platforms. And often take a painstaking process even to land a phone call.
With Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), you are tapping into the network of people who not only fall into the criteria of your ideal audience but are also actively looking for a solution to their pain points, making them easy conversions
At GENIA, our mission is to turn your business into a content hub and help your business establish an authoritative website, “an established resource centre for a particular niche”, where people go to whenever they require information from that particular industry.
The best way to do so is by generating traffic to your page consistently and sustainably, and the only way to do so is to generate organic traffic through smart SEO planning, powered by strong and relevant content.
