How to Use LinkedIn to Find Better Leads

Published on September 21, 2016

LinkedIn is the number one source of social media lead generation for B2B marketers, by just about every metric. 59% of marketers identify it as their top source for lead generation, and 92% leverage it over all other social platforms. It’s the most-used social platform by Fortune 500 companies, is the top pick for B2B product launches, and it doesn’t just stack up against its social peers: LinkedIn also boasts 6X the ROI of Google AdWords.

So, you may be asking yourself, why is my brand not seeing all of these incredible results with LinkedIn?

While LinkedIn can be an invaluable resource, it’s also important to recognize just how different it is in many ways from other social channels. You can’t just treat LinkedIn marketing as you would Facebook and expect the same results.

Ready to rack up high quality leads with LinkedIn? Here are five ideas to jumpstart your B2B marketing now:

1.) Share Valuable Content

The most effective way to generate leads over LinkedIn is by producing and sharing high quality content. Whether it’s through sharing the blogs and multimedia posts from your own site, or by making use of LinkedIn’s built-in creation functions, like SlideShare or Posts, it’s hugely important to demonstrate your company’s value and relevance by making your profile a resource full of thoughtful, educational material. Promoting content will lead to higher engagement with your followers and connections, which will in turn lead to you expanding your audience and building up your credibility – leading to more conversions.

2.) Make Use of Groups

One advantage LinkedIn offers over other social platforms is its unique group features, which allow you to find, target, and interface directly with exactly the sort of influencers and businesses you want to be working with. Does your company primarily deal with home insurance? Join real estate groups! Looking to target small and medium-sized businesses? Request access to local networking or trade groups.

Once you’re in, use these group channels to exchange information and dialogue. Don’t just focus on self-promotion: Instead, share your content and jump in to comment and compliment others’ posts once or twice per week.

3.) Target Your Connections with Search

Of LinkedIn’s 400 million-plus users, the site identifies about 61 million as “senior level influencers” and 40 million as “decision makers.” How do you cut through the less-important connections in order to really target the right audiences?

Use LinkedIn’s effective search tools to really find, listen, and connect with the audience who wants your service and has the ability to make the deal happen (in other words, a scorching hot lead). Narrow down the job roles you target (CEOs, CTOs, COOs, etc.), the location in which someone is based, and the industry they work in. From there, reach out soft at first; connect and maybe send a few messages. And don’t be afraid to offer to change media if it will make you more comfortable – you’d be surprised how many decision makers would jump at the chance for a 10-minute phone call over an endless email chain.

4.) Retarget Your Website Visitors

These next tools are a little more advanced, but they could bear a lot of fruit for those willing to put in the extra effort.

Take a look at this great Social Media Examiner post for guidance on how to embed code on your site, similar to Facebook Pixel, that will allow you to “see everyone who visits your website in the Who’s Viewed Your Profile section on LinkedIn.” Because these people have shown interest in your site already, it’s safe to think of them as relatively warm leads, safe to contact via email or LinkedIn message.

5.) Go Premium

And for those willing to spend a few dollars, LinkedIn’s premium service offers a number of tools designed to help with lead generation. The Lead Builder feature, for example, allows you to automatically filter contacts by company size or seniority, and allows you to better understand the keywords that will lead you to your targeted leads. Similarly, the Sales Navigator will allow you to hone in on ideal prospects by filtering through criteria like company size and relationship level, then saving your search results and parameters.

Looking for experienced LinkedIn pros to help guide you through the process? Ready to start generating high quality content to buffer your SEO and social media marketing efforts? Geek is here to help! Drop us a line to get the conversation started.