The LinkedIn network can be used not only to enhance company awareness and develop a comprehensive network but also for sales. Let’s discuss in detail what should be done to make your LinkedIn account an additional tool that brings profit.
What is lead generation in LinkedIn?
The three main features that should interest you from the very beginning are:
- Defining the niche of your business (what exactly is the final point of your work);
- Determination of the decision-maker (who you need to target, who is interested in our product);
- Correct submission of an offer (how to sell your services and/or goods to someone who has shown interest in you).
LinkedIn sales will work only when the customer understands what he will buy and what problems he will solve by contacting you. Attracting sales from LinkedIn will work only if you present yourself to the client from a favorable side for the interlocutor, pointing not only to his pain but also to your uniqueness. This is especially true for B2B, which has its titans, whose offer on the market is quite difficult to interrupt.
How to identify your target audience?
First of all, you should define the locations, industries, functions, seniority levels, and company sizes of your clients. This is information you can utilize when you search for more people to connect with, or when you create LinkedIn Ads to find new clients.
Also, it`s better to direct all messages, advertising, and efforts to the heads of departments. In many companies, the business owner is an ideological inspirer, but the final decision will remain with the decision-makers, which means it is necessary to contact them.
So, if your IT product regards to improvement of marketing strategies connect to marketing managers, if it is developed as a financial tool then connect to the financial department head.
Alternatively, if you are connected with more people than just your clients, you can research their company pages. Expand the company page description to see the company size and industry, as well as a few additional details that you can use when you search for connections or create ads.
The second important factor is the specifics. Use all available analytics to clarify the interests and pains of your client, finding intersections with what exactly you can give and what problems to solve. The quality of the lead depends on the accuracy of targeting. It makes no sense to bring 100 people, of which only three are willing to give you their money.
Before proceeding directly to attracting sales through LinkedIn, you should clarify the following information:
- What business spheres are relevant to your product/service?
- What achievements help to improve the quality of life of your client?
- How do you assess the result of the work?
How to attract sales to LinkedIn without selling?
The very concept of LinkedIn is sharpened for long-term relationships, not for a momentary sale. You should establish friendly relations and trust, and only then begin to ask the right, leading to the case, questions, identifying needs and points of contact. Be polite and positive, show a potential customer what and why you can be interesting, and give him space.
Seek out active industry groups and be the most helpful person in them
LinkedIn groups are home to people looking for answers. When you find groups where your ideal customers are actively engaged in discussions that have lots of comments, so, be helpful. This will get your name in front of as many potential customers as possible.
Start by using LinkedIn’s group search feature. When you find ones that sound like they would be home to your customer base, ask to join. Once you’re in, look at the latest discussions. If you see lots of posts that consist solely of a shared link with no comments or discussion, leave the group. No discussion means little visibility.
Starting a discussion by posting to the group is the only way to get your headline under your name. You don’t even need to create a post, just to get exposure. Say something that will start a good conversation and draw the right kind of attention. If you can’t find groups where your ideal customers are actually having discussions, it will allow you to take the lead and create your own group.
How to create a Linkedin group for your customers?
While Facebook groups are growing in popularity because of their organic reach in the newsfeed, LinkedIn groups have a few advantages that Facebook lacks.
For starters, LinkedIn group owners can email group members once a week and feature discussions in your groups. It’s best not to be overly promotional and keep content informative and relevant, as group members have the option of unsubscribing from emails or can leave the group altogether if they find it too sales-driven. But if you can present information in a way that entices members to connect with you directly, then this could lead to a sale.
Unless you have a wildly popular business, don’t create a LinkedIn group with your business or product name. Instead, think of an interest that would draw your ideal customers together and allow them to create a community.
Your sales team can start and maintain discussions in your group on a daily basis and personally connect with potential customers when they reach out. This is a simple yet effective way to sell in the group without actually posting a sales pitch.
Use the LinkedIn Open Networker groups to your advantage
There are people on LinkedIn who want to network with as many people as possible called LIONs: LinkedIn Open Networkers, who have created groups dedicated to similar users. You can search for them using the group search feature and join them, but remember to read the group descriptions first; some cater toward specific locations and industries.
For Premium LinkedIn Members, Once You Are Accepted Into These Groups, You Can Use The Advanced People Search To Find Your Ideal Customers Within Groups That You Are Not Currently Directly Connected With. To Search, Check The Box For 2nd Connections (The Easiest Ones To Start With), Select The LION Groups You Belong To Under The Groups Column, And Then Select Your Criteria In The Other Areas.
As mentioned before, connect with people individually and with a personalized message. However, since LIONs are open networkers, they are more likely than the general population to accept your connection.
Post expert information regularly
As your network grows on LinkedIn, take advantage of the fact that each time you write a new blog post on your professional profile, all of your 1st Connections will be notified. Make sure your posts are high quality and worth their attention because your connections can easily unsubscribe from those notifications.
You can use your LinkedIn professional profile blog as your main blog and write about topics of interest to your ideal customers. These posts should ultimately link back to a landing page on your website, or end with an invitation to contact you for more details.
Alternatively, if you are already publishing content on other websites, consider publishing a modified version of that content on your LinkedIn profile. Treat it like teaser content that leads to the main content, or as summarized content for people who may not have time to read lengthy articles.
Advertise through LinkedIn
If you can’t spend a lot of time networking on LinkedIn, take the information you learned earlier about your ideal customers and use it to advertise instead. LinkedIn allows advertisers with any size budget to create two types of advertisements: Sponsored Content and Text Ads.
Sponsored Content
- Appear in the news feed
- Has a small Sponsored notation under the company name
Text Ads
- Appear in the right sidebar
- Listed as “Ads You May Be Interested In”
Both of these ad types can be targeted toward your ideal customers. If you’re trying to land a specific customer, you can target every employee from that company by name (assuming it’s a large enough company). This is a particularly useful tactic if you are actively pursuing a large client. Additionally, if you’ve spent a lot of time in a group full of your ideal customers, you can target members of that group.
For brands with larger budgets, you can contact LinkedIn to learn more about LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, which include Sponsored InMails, Dynamic Ads, and Display Ads. All of these solutions can help you reach even more of your ideal customers.
How to make a LinkedIn profile social selling?
It is significant to arouse the trust and interest of the audience. Having one account, you’ll be able to process about 3,000 contacts per month. The key concepts for creating a LinkedIn account look like the following:
Up-to-date truthful data.
One account – one IP and one device.
Visual design. Personal data.
Useful information for the client without spam.
The owners of a highly specialized profile are always in the most advantageous position, there is less competition in their niche, which means that the attraction of sales itself will go much more cheerfully. Obviously, your headline should also include a concise description of your ideal customer and what you have to offer.
Make the information in your profile more precise. This will show potential customers your devotion to helping people like them throughout your career. For an instant, “I helped hundreds of businesses by introducing them to our enterprise sales automation software.” You want to focus on selling your current business, products, and services, so pay the most attention to your current job experience and summary sections.
LinkedIn Headline
Be concise in LinkedIn Headline, because it shows up when
- Your profile appears in Google search results
- People look at your profile for the first time
- Your profile appears in LinkedIn search results
- You post new discussions in LinkedIn groups
- You publish posts on LinkedIn Publisher
- You send private messages
- People see an invitation to connect with you
- You send a request to someone to recommend them
- Someone sees you in their list of contacts
- Your profile appears in the sidebar of another LinkedIn user profile as someone people also viewed
A boring dull profile is unlikely to arouse interest, so take the time to improve the details. Everything is important here, from the photo on the avatar to the banner and a beautiful author’s URL. Specify the projects and companies you have collaborated with, your skills and someone who can give recommendations about your work.
You can also find more information about Linkedin’s profile on our youtube blog.
The monetization method for LinkedIn is extended profiles
There is its own gradation with certain possibilities in each of them. Let’s take a little more detail.
Basic account is what you get by coming to the platform without any fee. You can add people, leave and receive recommendations, view other people’s profiles and communicate in private messages with your contacts.
The Premium Business subscription price will cost 446 euros per year, and among the additional buns – access to your profile statistics, 15 messages to people outside the contact list and the ability to watch official video tutorials from LinkedIn.
Sales Navigator is a tool, which annual subscription costs 594 euros per year, the number of messages reaches 20, and in addition to notifications about changes in your contacts, you get access to an advanced search filter.
By the way, the purchase of an extended profile does not particularly affect the number of contacts added. In the basic profile, you can process about 3 thousand contacts per month, and in the paid profile – about 4 thousand.
As an alternative way of boosting your sales through LinkedIn platform is the top toolkit to keep the data in one place, automate routine work and track performance by GetSales. All-in-one Cloud Automation & CRM to build advanced sales funnels. Why not try it? Especially since we have a trial period.
In Conclusion
Working with LinkedIn has a number of features. This social media platform offers sales professionals many avenues to gain the attention of their ideal customers. It’s just a matter of finding the one that best fits your style—and diving in!
Attracting sales through LinkedIn requires a good knowledge of your audience and product, then the offer will look perfect, and a potential buyer from just contact in the list will become a long-term partner.