by 
Are you struggling to build a pipeline of quality leads?
Wondering how LinkedIn can help?
With the right forms of targeting, pitching, and engagement, you can use your LinkedIn profile to secure warm leads for your business.
In this article, you'll discover how to create an effective lead generation process with your LinkedIn profile.
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#1: Use LinkedIn Search to Identify Prospects
While getting more likes and followers for your company page is important, it doesn't necessarily generate leads.
For lead generation, you need to connect with the right audience. Start by narrowing down the job roles you want to target; focus on the people who are most likely to understand the technical benefits of your product and have the authority to make a buying decision. You should consider talking to CMOs, CEOs, CTOs, COOs, or other heads of departments your product or service fits into.
For example, if your product is a social listening tool that helps companies with brand mentions, crisis prevention, and other monitoring opportunities on the web, you would search for and connect with heads of marketing or digital marketing.
After you connect with relevant people, pitch them with a soft sell. Introduce yourself and your company in a soft tone. Instead of trying to tell your new connection how amazing your company is with 500 words, ask to schedule a 10-minute call. It's also important to follow up on your pitch if you don't hear back. Follow up after a week and again after two weeks.
Use Google Sheets and a good CRM to maintain the flow of leads and track each lead's stage in terms of conversion.
#2: Connect With Website Visitors on LinkedIn
When you add the following code to your website, you can see everyone who visits your website in the Who's Viewed Your Profile section on LinkedIn:
These people are validated warm leads because they've shown some level of interest in your company.
As you find people who fit your ideal lead, you can follow up with them via a LinkedIn InMail or an email from your personal business account. For example, your message could read something like this:
Hi NAME,
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My name is NAME and I am the DESIGNATION at COMPANY NAME.
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At YOUR COMPANY NAME, we are SHORT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PRODUCT FEATURES OR SERVICE.
FEATURE 1/SERVICE OF YOUR COMPANY
FEATURE 2/SERVICE OF YOUR COMPANY
The companies that have been working with us for a long time include CLIENT 1 and CLIENT 2.
I was wondering if we could schedule a call sometime this week to discuss this further?
Regards,
YOUR NAME
DESIGNATION
PHONE
COMPANY NAME
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#3: Make Your LinkedIn Profile a Resource
If you follow the lead generation process thoroughly, you'll form a significant number of connections over a short period of time. You'll need to engage your growing audience by sharing educational material that can help them.
For example, if your product is solving problems in the hospitality industry and your leads are upper management of hotels, it's best to share content from your profile that talks about that topic. You should also consider publishing similar content on Pulse.
The point here is to share valuable content that will help you build credibility with your target leads.
To streamline this process, you can use tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule content from your LinkedIn profile.
#4: Share Advice in LinkedIn Groups
One of the best ways to gain credibility, and by extension the notice of prospects, is to share your knowledge and insight with the very people you want to work with. LinkedIn groups offer a way for you to find these people and warm them up.
If, for example, your company sells products or services related to the human resources industry, you should join LinkedIn groups likely to be frequented by industry professionals.
While talking in groups, you need to look for posts that are getting maximum traction and take part in them. As you engage, remember to offer advice in an educational way and avoid self-promotion. Additionally, be sure to share your own thoughts once or twice every week.
#5: Go Premium to Manage Leads With Sales Navigator
LinkedIn's Sales Navigator is a premium tool, but you can start with a 30-day free trial.
With different filters like current company, company size, and relationship level, you can use Sales Navigator to narrow down your search to fit your ideal prospect. You can then save important leads and InMail those who are a top priority for your company.
Use the Lead Builder feature to understand the pattern of keywords that appear in your target lead's profile so you can add qualifying terms to your searches. You can also filter your leads by company size and target leads by seniority.
If you find you're using the same set of filters every time, you can even save the search.
Conclusion
Lead generation needs to be a structured process. Using the tips and tools above, you can use your LinkedIn profile to build a steady stream of leads for your business.
What do you think? Will these tips improve the way you target, engage, and track leads? Do you have other tactics you've used successfully? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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