LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the internet. You can use LinkedIn to find the right job or internship, connect and strengthen professional relationships, and learn the skills you need to succeed in your career. You may be focusing attention on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for lead generation. And they are great. But do not forget about Linkedin. LinkedIn offers a unique professional network for its members. Using this platform differs from person to person and business to business. Mostly it involves making the most of networking options and considering paid advertisements.
Is LinkedIn Good For Leads?
The vast majority of business-to-business marketers consider LinkedIn an effective source for generating leads. It is the most popular social media platform for both organic and paid business-to-business marketing activities. LinkedIn allows users to create an online identity to help connect with professionals and stay up to date on the latest industry developments. Marketers report that LinkedIn generates twice as many leads as other social networks. Most users are on LinkedIn to network. Additionally, LinkedIn’s message ads seem to be better than traditional email marketing tactics, they have an open rate of 50%. The conversion rate is the percentage of users who take a desired action. A study by HubSpot conducted a study with 5,000 businesses and found that LinkedIn had the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate. The conversion rate of 2.74% was three times higher than Twitter and Facebook.
LinkedIn Is The Only Platform That Has A Business-Focused Mindset
LinkedIn is different from other social networking sites in that it’s designed solely for the purpose of professional networking. A LinkedIn profile page is essentially an online résumé. It’s an ocean of professional networking opportunities. Unlike Facebook and other social media platforms, it’s a logical entry point for business-oriented people who don’t have time to waste slogging through a lot of personal posts. There’s little appetite for trivial or personal sharing on LinkedIn. People trust the information and content shared on LinkedIn because it’s shared by true professionals. LinkedIn was named the most trusted social platform in Business Insider’s Digital Trust report.
Lead Generation Strategy On LinkedIn
As a refresher, lead generation refers to all of the activities and strategies you use to attract potential customers. Generating leads is important because, with nurturing, potential customers can become paying customers that use your products and drive revenue. Before embarking on any marketing activity, ensure that you thoroughly understand your audience, it is critical if you want to succeed. LinkedIn’s typical audience comprises professional decision-makers with purchasing power, helping you speak directly to potential customers that can become paying customers. Write a compelling LinkedIn summary section that will entice other professionals to want to connect with you. Make sure if the company has a LinkedIn page, you are on it.
Creating A Powerful LinkedIn Page For Your Business
Once you’ve ensured your own executives have a strong LinkedIn presence, it’s time to cultivate an impressive page. You’ll want to ensure your page is active, with thought-provoking content and contributions to conversations already happening on LinkedIn. Once you have a strategy related to your executives and their presence on LinkedIn, step two is to think about the presence of your company on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a free product, and at the end of the day, it’s a place for you to stage the content that you have to offer, and really promote all of the benefits that you have for people that want to follow you.
The Real Power of LinkedIn is You LinkedIn Profile
The Business pages is a great way for potential clients to view all your information in one spot like employees, posts, services, location, and more but your LinkedIn Profile allows you to connect with new prospects who may need your services. It also lets you connect with potential referral partners who can help you find more prospects. Your Company LinkedIn the page allows leads to learn more about your company and follow you if they want but it’s a very PASSIVE role where you add content and info to the page and hope prospects and referral partners will follow the page. Your LinkedIn profile is PROACTIVE because it allows you to connect with people who directly need your services or products. The LinkedIn profile allows you to connect with people who already know and work with the types of prospects you want to know. You take an active role in connecting with these prospects and referral partners so that they can receive the posts and updates you add to your profile through their feeds. It’s all about getting the right message to the right person at the right time and your LinkedIn profile allows you to get those messages to the right people. All you need to do is get them to accept your connection request. Remember to treat potential connections like you would want to be treated. Explain briefly why it would be good to connect and don’t charge into your sales pitch. As always, be there to help them with their problems and build the relationship. You can build relationships with chats to each other through LinkedIn. Maybe you can meet on zoom for a non-sales meeting. Share some helpful links to them about posts you’ve written. Whatever it takes to build the relationship. Once you have a relationship, the business will follow so focus on helping people you connect with on LinkedIn. Make it a point to connect with prospects and referral parts for 15-30 minutes each week. Put it on your calendar and do it consistently and you will reap rewards but you can’t go in hard and then come back to it 3 months later. It has to be a habit and something you work on each week.
Ways To Get More Connections And Grow Your Network On LinkedIn
LinkedIn is meant for networking, and there are many ways to accomplish this. Here are some ways how you can get 500+ connections on LinkedIn:
- Spend at least 15-30 minutes everyday networking on the platform.
- Join and be active in LinkedIn groups.
- Send a personalized “connect” request/message.
- SEO optimizes your profile by including keywords on your summary, headline, and skills.
- Use keywords to find industry contacts you are not yet connected to and proactively reach out to them.
Present Yourself As A Knowledgeable Source Of Information
Your personal brand is not just what you do or where you work, it’s the way people perceive you as an individual from the brand you build around yourself. Social media happens to be the best place to build your personal brand and the single most important way you can set yourself apart in your industry. The greatest part? You are in control of your own personal brand, how you present yourself, and engage online with potential clients and customers. There are a lot of social media channels out there, and it’s important you choose which is the best for your profession. For most industries, the best social media channel for building your personal brand is LinkedIn. Posting relevant content that your target audience finds interesting or intriguing is integral to building a strong LinkedIn presence. This is your opportunity to present yourself as a knowledgeable source of information. As your network grows, so does your credibility.
Join Industry-Relevant LinkedIn Groups
How do I join an industry group on LinkedIn? To search for groups to join:
- Tap into the Search bar.
- Type keywords or group names into the search bar and tap Search.
- In the search results page, filter the results by tapping Groups on top of the page.
- Tap the group name you’re interested in to learn more.
- Tap REQUEST TO JOIN.
You should be present wherever your customers and clients are. Join industry-relevant groups where you are likely to find your ideal clients and start conversations with these potential leads. Groups are essential for building rapport with other professionals in the industry.
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ABOUT MAIN STREET MARKETING
Since 2006, Main Street Marketing has been creating Internet Presence Solutions for small businesses mainly in the Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky area. Main Street Marketing uses internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media, lead generation, and video to create a true Internet Presence for its clients. When integrated correctly, this core group of services provide results together that none of the services could provide on their own or in phases.
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