The Best B2B Lead Generation Channel (Updated 2022): LinkedIn

Contents

• The Best B2B Lead Generation Channel (Updated 2020): LinkedIn
• Business Pages vs Individual Profiles
• Setup an effective business page
• Setup an individual Profile (Use our checklist)
• Yes, You can Rank Your Company LinkedIn Page on Google
• Connect with your Target Audience
• Define your target audience
• Use Boolean search to find them
• Connect with your potential target customers (read: NOT hard-sell)
• Be a Thought Leader
• Get past the “I’m not a writer” myth
• Publish Engaging, Content
• Multiple Formats
• Paid LinkedIn Ads for Amplifying Your Reach
• Targeted, Professionals – get to reach decision makers
• Monitor Results
• Metrics
• Demographics
• Ending Thoughts

Do you want a stream of hot leads coming to your business?

Did you know that B2B companies obtain 46% of their leads from LinkedIn? Now that’s 1 in 2 leads from LinkedIn.

Not only that, the Microsoft-owned LinkedIn contains rich information on their users’ job position and roles, this allows powerful targeting as a business to reach out to key decision makers in companies.

Have you tried all sorts of methods to get leads for your business but just couldn’t crack it? Maybe you’ve cold called, went door knocking, joined networking events, etc.

Or if you’ve tried different forms of advertising such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for B2B leads and have gotten poor results - this article is for you.

If you’ve dabbled into LinkedIn and haven’t got much success with obtaining B2B leads for your business, then you’re at the right place.    
Business Pages vs Individual Profiles

Business Pages vs Individual Profiles

Setup an effective business page

First, setup a business page for your company if you haven’t done so, you can do it here. Business pages are different from your individual LinkedIn Profile.

For this ensure you setup everything properly with the below:

• Company Cover Image
• Company Logo
• Business Description
• Add Page Admins

Hootsuite Has come up with a very helpful video for doing this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=90&v=fLWpwKe5wNM&feature=emb_title

Setup an individual Profile (Use our checklist)

Even for your Individual profile, there are best practices to follow

• Your profile URL
• About Your customer’s pain point, rather than About You
• Photo
• Current Role
• Your Latest Work/ Portfolio/ Awards – provide social proof of why people are using your services, or trust icons to build credibility
• Relevant Skills – list how your skills can help with your client’s problems
• Location – if you have a localized service, this is an advantage. State where you are based and the local clients you can help.

Think about an engaging post which relates to your target customers. Something they do on a daily basis, something that’s a hobby of theirs, or something that is relatable do their day to day life.

We love this so much. It stands out from the sea of “professional” descriptions and brings out her personality.

But ultimately it has a fine balance between friendly and professional – it is well written to her target audience – she positions herself as an expert and lists very clearly the location she specialises in.

Yes, You can Rank Your Company LinkedIn Page on Google

Many people look to only get traffic from the LinkedIn platform itself, but there is another source of traffic you could leverage – organic search from Google.

There are ways to make your LinkedIn Page appear in Google.

• Add Keywords in LinkedIn Position Titles. Instead of putting a job title like “Marketer”, we use more specific call-outs like “I help medical practices get more high quality leads through social media”. This calls out our a) Target audience and b) The Service we provide

• Profile Images - Be sure to use high quality profile images – invest in a professional shot
• ALWAYS Link to Your company page – include the URL to your company page
• State the customer’s pain point. List down the pain points of your target audience
• Compelling solution to your customer’s problem - In your description, list how you help your target audiences with their problem
• Regular Posting & Content

Connect with your Target Audience

Define your target audience

Write down who’s your ideal client. This will determine the networking strategies that we will share below.

Be as specific as possible, list their jobs, what decisions they make and how they are involved of the purchasing process.

Use Boolean search to find them

Once you have described your ideal client, LinkedIn provides a tool called Sales Navigator. This can help you filter out and expand your reach

As you can see – the search and filter functionality allow you to reach out to potential decision makers for your products and services.

Connect with your potential target customers (read: NOT hard-sell)

This is where people fail – they rush in to connect then pitch their product immediately. This will be seen as spam.

As with real life, always get to know the customer first – “connect” with the user. Then send them a friendly message on discussing what value you can add to their business, preferably move them to email or phone call.

Old fashion networking principles apply here – avoid the amateur move of spamming people’s inboxes with sales-y messages.

Be a Thought Leader

Get past the “I’m not a writer” myth

Most business owners think they must be a professional writer to publish their thoughts.

Just like how you speak to your customers when you’re helping them, you can share your thoughts on LinkedIn Posts.

As long as you can help them with their problem, they don’t care how perfect your writing is.

Publish Engaging, Content

Create helpful content that engages with your audience. One way to engage people better is to use video content – film yourself talking to your audience. Again, don’t think about being a Hollywood producer style video. You can start with a Q&A with your customers, answer their questions live.

Multiple Formats

When creating LinkedIn content, rather than creating new content (which is time consuming), try and find ways to repurpose your content in multiple formats.

Here are some ideas to repurpose your content

• LinkedIn Article – write articles and publish it on LinkedIn itself. This is called “Native content”. Where you publish content on the platform itself.
• Video content
• Create Live Video Q&A – take the same topic and engage with your LinkedIn followers
• Pre-recorded video – Record the Q&A session and post it up as LinkedIn content
• Could you create Images or infographics on the same article you wrote?
• Create downloadable informative documents
• Short LinkedIn Posts

Paid LinkedIn Ads for Amplifying Your Reach

LinkedIn’s advertising cost is significantly higher than other platforms, but it allows you to advertise to very specific job titles, something not available (or accurate) on any other social media platform.

Targeted, Professionals – get to reach decision makers

With the targeting above – you can reach out to your target audience with ease. Create ads that offer value to your target audience. A marketing funnel will be needed to ensure you can nurture strangers into leads, and eventually sales.

As a visual, here’s a useful funnel from Marketo:

The graphic above demonstrates how you should be approaching your lead generation efforts systematically. Not everyone is hungry to buy your services.

You must make initial contact, qualify them, offer them a product demo and finally start the sales process of a pitch and close them.

Ready? Head over to the LinkedIn ads page to get started.

Monitor Results

Just like other marketing channels, LinkedIn provides comprehensive data for you to analyse, use and adapt for better results.

Metrics

Track multiple metrics like your reach or engagements. Or if you post a video, track how many video views.

Demographics

The part we love is the demographics. You can view their location, job function, seniority, industry or even company size.

Ending Thoughts

Most people knew LinkedIn as a networking platform.

It is no longer just a networking platform. It has evolved into a very powerful B2B marketing platform. But it is not as easy as just connecting and hard selling everyone you add, as highlighted in this article.

We hope this guide provides you some insights into kick-starting your LinkedIn Strategy.

If you’re looking to generate B2B leads and let someone handle it for you, contact us here.