LinkedIn is a thriving network that, in recent years, has grown well beyond professional networking and job searches. Today, the platform boasts more than 500 million members worldwide and has progressed into a powerful tool that companies can use to enhance brand awareness, establish industry authority and, perhaps most importantly, generate quality leads.
It’s no wonder that 80% of B2B leads generated on social media come from LinkedIn, and lead generation from LinkedIn was successful for 65% of B2B companies. While there are many paid and unpaid methods to generate leads on the platform, the success of these tactics depends on your company goals, budget and available resources. Below, you’ll find the top methods to engage prospects on LinkedIn and fill your sales pipeline successfully.
Optimise Your Company Page
One of the easiest ways to grow your audience and generate leads on LinkedIn is by optimising your LinkedIn company page. Since company pages with complete information get 30% more weekly views, all pages should include a company tagline, description, logo, cover image and company details.
The company description, or “About” section, should include a compelling message about your organisation, including your brand mission and purpose. Google will display up to 156 characters of your page text in its search results, so be sure the first few sentences clearly define the solution you offer to customers. Search engines crawl LinkedIn pages, so the tagline and description should also include industry-relevant keywords that your audience is searching for.
A recent update to company pages is the customisable call-to-action button. Use this feature to drive your audience to take a specific action, such as “Visit Website,” “Contact Us” or “Register.” Select the option that works best or aligns with a current campaign, and link to the page you want buyers to take action on.
Create and Engage With LinkedIn Groups
Engaging with LinkedIn groups is a great way to connect with professionals and B2B buyers in your industry. There are thousands of groups covering even the most niche of industries. An easy way to discover relevant groups to join is to search for industry hashtags. By regularly interacting with group members, answering industry questions and sharing valuable content, you can boost brand awareness, make personal connections and collect quality leads.
You can also create your own LinkedIn group to deliver industry-focused content, news and company updates. Groups provide the perfect platform to share gated content like white papers, ultimate guides and original research. Share a compelling statistic or quote from your content and link to the corresponding landing page, then offer your high-value content in exchange for contact information.
As a group admin, LinkedIn will even send a daily or weekly group activity digest to your members. You can also send emails to your members once a week — keeping your brand and content top of mind.
Regularly Post Valuable Content
Unlike Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn members expect (and want) to see professional, industry-focused content daily. The platform is perfect for sharing the latest news, research and insights, as well as content that solves your audience’s professional pain points.
Today, LinkedIn members also expect to see rich media content, including images and videos on their feed. Easily create an accompanying image for your posts using platforms like Canva or Venngage, and experiment with LinkedIn embedded video or native video. Include hashtags within your posts so new connections can easily discover your content.
If you’re unsure of the type of content to post on your company page, look to LinkedIn’s new “Content Suggestions” feature, as well as your company page analytics. Here are a few content ideas that will help to attract new leads and promote brand awareness:
Company news, such as new employee announcements or work anniversaries
Product launches or updates
Industry news
Blog posts
How-to videos
Case studies
Images featuring new industry statistics or quotes
Company sponsored events and webinars
Whitepapers, guides and original research
Solicit advice or input on a vital industry subject
LinkedIn Advertising
LinkedIn offers a ride range of advertising options with sophisticated professional targeting. Using any of the advertising formats below (or a combination thereof), you can easily create and launch campaigns that have the potential to reach key decision makers and industry influencers.
Sponsored Content: With LinkedIn Sponsored Content, your brand’s content is delivered directly to your target audience’s LinkedIn feed. Ads are displayed as a company update and are shown on smartphones, tablets and desktops.
One of the latest and greatest features of Sponsored Content (as well as Sponsored InMail) is the ability to add a call-to-action button to your ad, which members can click to access a lead generation offer, such as an e-book or webinar.
After clicking, members will see a form (called a Lead Gen Form) that are pre-filled with their information pulled from their LinkedIn Profile. The form allows members to access your offer without the hassle of filling out their information — and will collect accurate data on your newest leads that are easily accessed within LinkedIn Campaign Manager. As soon as a Lead Gen Form is submitted, members will automatically be shown a “thank you” page that delivers your content or sends them to your website.
Sponsored InMail: Using LinkedIn’s messaging system, Sponsored InMail delivers private messages to your target audience. Your message will only be sent when prospects are active on LinkedIn — allowing you to connect with your target audience in a personal way, when they’re most engaged. Lead Gen Forms can also be added to Sponsored InMail messages for one-click access to your brand’s content.
Dynamic Ads: LinkedIn Dynamic Ads appear on the right rail of desktops and can be utilised for many different types of campaigns. One option is to create a follower campaign, which encourages members to follow your company page. Another option is a spotlight ad, which features a clear call-to-action for your target audience to take action on, such as registering for a webinar, visiting a website or learning more about a product.
You can also create content ads, where members can download a content offer. LinkedIn will collect your leads in Campaign Manager, which you can then nurture with additional content.
Text Ads: Arguably the most cost-effective and powerful option, text ads are perfect for driving targeted leads at scale on a budget. Easily track the number of website conversions tied to your Text Ads campaigns (and Sponsored Content) with conversion tracking. Conversion tracking can be accomplished by installing The LinkedIn Insight Tag and then creating a conversion action. Next, track the performance of your ads through Campaign Manager.
Text ads appear in the right-hand column on the LinkedIn desktop interface, have a 100 character limit and include a 50x50 image. In an ideal world, you want an audience of 60,000 for Text Ads, which can be fine-tuned by location, interest, demographics and skill.
No matter your budget, resources or goals, these methods can help your company bring in qualified leads at scale. Success relies on diligent testing and regular analysis, so get started today to find a winning lead generation strategy that attracts high-value prospects.
How to become a social selling legend
We all know how hard it is to stand out. To be heard through the deafening noise of rivals, commentators, ‘thought leaders’, and anybody else who feels the urge to share. And of course many do, meaning emails and postbags remain fit to burst – with the poor prospect/customer also bombarded across every conceivable digital channel.
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