How To Use LinkedIn To Generate Leads

LinkedIn is an important social selling tool – in particular if you work for a B2B company. In fact, we know that 33% of B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to research purchases and LinkedIn traffic generates a higher visitor-to-lead conversion rate compared to other social channels.

According to Hubspot, LinkedIn’s average conversion rate is almost three times higher than Facebook or Twitter’s.

So, how do we take advantage of this important social selling tool?

(Feel free to skip the blog post and view the presentation I created below.)

LinkedIn for Selling – How to Generate Leads Using LinkedIn from Amanda Leeman

To generate leads with LinkedIn there are four things you can do.

1. Optimize your LinkedIn profile for search just like you would your website.
2. Download your connections to generate lead lists.
3. Use personalized cold outreach messages.
4. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for cold outreach.

Here, I’m going to dig into each of these and give specific, tactical recommendations you can do.

1. Optimize your LinkedIn profile for search just like you would your website.

When you think about your LinkedIn profile you want to think about it in terms of search. What do you want to be found for? What keywords define your business?

To do this ensure you have a descriptive headline that utilizes frequently searched terms and that the “about” section expands on your headline. Below is an example of a LinkedIn profile that has been optimized for search.

In this example I’ve optimized my LinkedIn Profile to be found for digital marketing related terms.

2. Download your connections to generate lead lists.

Did you know you can download all of your connections on LinkedIn into a CSV? This is a hidden feature that many don’t know about. If your connections’ email addresses are public you’ll get their email addresses, job title, company, and more.

Here’s how to download your LinkedIn connections in a few quick steps.

1. Click on My Network at the top of of your LinkedIn profile.
2. Click Contacts on the lefthand side of the page.
3. Click Export Contacts on the righthand side of the page.
4. Find “Get a copy of your data” and click the information you want to download. Make sure you have Connections checked.

3. Use personalized cold outreach messages.

Decision makers are spammed on LinkedIn with copy and paste messages. Ideally, you should personalize each and every one of your outreach messages and likewise offer something in return to your contacts (i.e. a special offer, a free quote, etc).

4. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for cold outreach.

Normally I don’t like pushing paid solutions, but LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator has some nice features at a reasonable price point.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows sales teams to engage with contacts and accounts within the LinkedIn platform without barriers. It also comes with a number of additional features and filters compared to the everyday platform.

Features include:

• Ability to send InMail to anyone without being connected. The number of messages you get per month changes with the level of the product.
• Additional filters when searching for people. There are more than 20 different filters you can use to segment your search.
• Save prospect lists and sort your list by tags you create.
• Get recommended leads based on the sales preferences you set.
• You can also integrate it with Outlook for more efficiency.

For pricing on LinkedIn Sales Navigator you can visit their website.

What does this all come down to?

LinkedIn is a great social selling tool if you put in the time and effort. And, if you work for a B2B company you need to incorporate LinkedIn as a part of your selling strategy.

If you have any questions about LinkedIn and how to use it for your business, send a note to amanda@therosedigital.com. I’m here to help.