Use marketing strategies to generate qualified leads and turn them into customers! Check out Lead Champion’s 7 tips on how to do Lead Generation on LinkedIn.
Find qualified leads on LinkedIn in 7 steps
The lead generation process is different in every company, but the representation we find most effective is that of the 7 steps, designed to take you through all the moments leading to purchase.
In our “4.0” world, we know that our customers, to get to us, all take a different path. Yet there are common elements: searching for information online, researching companies, comparing with competitors, choosing a supplier.
These processes can be guided and influenced through various tools: the website, certainly, a good blog with articles dedicated to the product, company pages on social media with tailored content, but also one’s personal profile.
Among all the tools we can use, LinkedIn holds a prominent position. Due to its relational nature, it is a great tool for getting the word out about one’s products or services and finding new B2B qualified leads.
In this article we will see how to apply the 7 steps of Lead Generation on LinkedIn in a practical way. To make everything clear I will give an example for each of them, following a single “thread.”
We will explain how Anita, a salesperson at CoffeeBreak, which sells office coffee machines, could build her network on this social. Let’s specify that she works in B2B and that her typical customer is the SME.
Let’s get started!
1. Plan your lead generation activities
Every respectable social activity has a defined content plan. LinkedIn is what we can call an H2H, Human to Human. This new perspective allows us to go beyond the concept of B2B or B2C, and get back to seeing our counterpart for what they are: a person like you.
Like any self-respecting interaction, it all starts with how you present yourself. Profile picture, summary, cover image, experiences… All these things are important, but don’t lose sight of the main content: the posts.
People who want to get in touch with you, with your company, will go and see what you comment on, what you post, what you recommend. That’s why you need to plan a strategy that reflects yourself and your brand.
Don’t leave things to chance, it is from the planning phase that your lead generation starts, especially on LinkedIn!
Another key thing to define is the buyer persona you will target. This in fact indicates the typical customer, the person to whom you will target posts and advertisements.
Example
Every day she will post something on her profile, with the intent of raising awareness and pushing for sales. These posts will be different in nature:
- posts about her daily life
- product pictures
- articles about coffee and its benefits.
In fact, posting something personal makes your contacts feel like they really know you. Photos, on the other hand, allow people to get to know the product, and understand how it works. Finally, articles on topics related to the basic product (coffee) will help build authority around the brand.
2. Attract new qualified leads
It all depends on your target audience. Who are the people you need to sell your product? Who are you targeting? What, then, is your buyer persona?
LinkedIn is a social, and as such it works through connections.
What you need is to define your target audience. You don’t need to add hundreds of users; you need to find those who could enhance your customer network.
On LinkedIn, in fact, it is not important to have your end customer among your contacts. What’s unique about this social is that whatever you comment on or recommend is placed in your contacts’ newsfeed. This greatly expands the resonance of posts.
Each of your posts must aim to push to your users’ comment or advice, only in this way will 2nd and 3rd degree connections be able to see it.
Anita decided to post something humorous and engaging, so as to prompt salespeople to comment or recommend the post.
“I think every Autogrill should offer at least one coffee a day to salespeople!
But I guess I’ll have to go back to my office today, too, and have coffee with our CoffeeBreak!☕”
A humorous post, which hits a category, will elicit comments and likes. These will make the post visible on the newsfeed, where it will be seen by other employees of the commercial company.
Among them will be Mario Rossi, its next buyer.
3. Convert your links into leads
If your strategy is well planned, if your posts attract the right people, then you will soon find several interested comments under your posts.
LinkedIn gives results slowly. Don’t expect to publish a post and immediately find yourself inundated with contact and appointment requests. First you will have to work on your image, convey trust and engage your audience. Only then will the first qualified leads start coming in.
Don’t forget the main point. Only through your posts will you be able to gain visibility and insert yourself into the minds of potential customers.
A good way to get to this is to bring your network to the site. There they will find out about the product, the special features, the use, and then they will decide whether or not it is an interesting product.
In order to keep track of activity on the site, anonymous tracking software may be necessary. In fact, this allows you to monitor the company site and find out the traffic that is generated by different B2B lead generation campaigns.
Software like Lead Champion discover allows you, for example, to track companies coming to your site, thereby also monitoring the effectiveness of your activity on Linkedin. This way you can see which companies are interacting with you both on social and on the site, and you will have the ability to create efficient communication with these qualified B2B leads.
Example
Each of Anita’s posts is linked to coffeebreak.co.uk, the product page or the contact form.
Many of the articles posted come from the company blog, this in fact allows us to direct leads directly to the website.
Bringing our Mario Rossi to the website will make it easier to convert them into leads and conclude the first part of our lead generation process.
4. Strengthen your relationship with prospects
As we said, inspiring trust and professionalism is the goal behind actions on LinkedIn.
There is one note we want to make. Being professional does not mean only making serious posts. Remember what we said at the beginning? On LinkedIn you are targeting qualified leads, yes, but they are people like you.
Your contacts hate spam, aggressive advertising, posts that are too long (for no real reason) or too controversial. There is a beautiful saying about this: “speak as you eat” means you should speak simply, directly. Don’t get lost in long, complex sentences, and don’t use fancy or respectful language.
Write nice posts that reflect your everyday life, that make you sound real. An authentic post attracts much more than an overly stiff and plastered post.
Example
Anita cares about making a good impression on her most qualified leads and making herself likable in their eyes. For this very reason, she decided to use a very light tone of voice for her posts in order to create a relationship with her connections.
Rather than writing, “after a productive but tiring day I can finally indulge in my beloved coffee with Coffee Break,” which seems a bit boring in her eyes, she prefers to write, “now I really need my Coffee Break! After spending a day in the car selling my product I also need to try it, don’t I?”
5. Approach your qualified leads
Ricorda quello che ho detto nel punto precedente: i tuoi contatti odiano i contenuti troppo push.
Remember what I said in the previous point: your leads hate content that is too pushy.
If everything has gone according to plan, by now you should have found someone really interested in your product. Now you need to win them over.
At this stage, qualified leads need to get more information about your product, to understand how it can really benefit him. Alternatively, he needs to start a conversation with someone from your company.
6. Don’t attract on LinkedIn alone
The customer is ready to buy: however, do not fall into the mistake of using only LinkedIn as a communication tool.
Example
Anita asks Mario for his email and phone number, contacting him personally and leading him to purchase the coffee machine. She already has his confidence; he knows the product because he has heard it praised for a long time. Anita proceeds with her sales strategy, and concludes the negotiation.
7. Delight your new leads
The most important phase of lead generation on LinkedIn comes at the end.
The customer must never feel forgotten. It is critical to remain available for any problems or concerns, and to make sure they know they can always contact you.
And if there is really one thing you can do because of LinkedIn, it is to always be close to the customer.
Also, within a social the satisfied customer will be your best free advertising. His or her comments and “recommends” will make others understand the benefits of your product as well. People, in fact, tend to give more weight to customer experience than to companies’ self-reviews.
Example
Anita, during your daily sales and lead generation work, always stays in touch with Mario.
Has the new version of the product come out? Is there a special offer for him? Does he need maintenance? Thanks to the relationship that has been created Mario knows that he can count on Anita in case of need. This not only makes him and the company satisfied, but also makes Anita the supplier most recommended by Mario to his friends.
Conclusion: what are you waiting for? Start finding qualified leads on LinkedIn!
The 7 steps of Lead Generation on LinkedIn, if well planned and managed, are the ones that lead the user to become a customer. This, as anticipated, can be managed in different ways and with different tools.
With Lead Champion discover, for example, you can track companies coming to your site. This allows you to find qualified leads and check the effectiveness of your LinkedIn activity.
Lead Champion discover shows you the companies that have visited your site and the detail of the navigation; by analyzing this data, together with the data obtained on LinkedIn, you will have a good overview of the effectiveness of your lead generation activity and you will be able to define the next steps having some more information.
- Set a content plan that allows you to introduce your product to connections;
- Attract interested people through your posts: the more engaging they are, the higher the chance of reaching the potential customer;
- Convert connections into leads through direct links to your site, blog or landing pages,this way you can measure their interest;
- Strengthen the relationship through dedicated publications and comments, this way the lead will feel involved in the sales process and be even more “satisfied” with the product;
- Approach leads by showing yourself as an industry expert and a “disinterested” advisor, this way they will see that you don’t just want to sell them a product but help them;
- Acquire the contact and proceed to sell the product;
- Delight the customer by staying by their side, this will also guarantee you good “free publicity”!
Every company, in order to create an effective lead generation process, obviously needs to analyze its business and figure out the best strategy and tools to use.
Take the advice we have wanted to give you, therefore, with proper caution. A lead generation effort, especially when implemented through social, must be adapted.
Also always remember that processes like this need a settling-in period and various adaptations based on the type of business, need and capacity.
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