How and why to use LinkedIn for lead generation
The main goal for most people to be on LinkedIn is to be findable by a Head Hunter or the Human Resources Director of a company in case:
- A new career opportunity would present itself
- People who are really looking for a new job
Thus job seekers or people open for new jobs and headhunters.
Some people create their page just for their own ego or in order not to be lagging behind.
Whatever reason of registering on LinkedIn, the data base has become a good source for contacts. More and more LinkedIn gets used to find contacts within companies for lead generation and even customer retention as new contacts can be identified. LinkedIn gives even insight in the organizational structure of the company as people post their titles or functions in their company.
LinkedIn gives you fast access to the names of several people in a company with their function and department.
Decision makers and influencers on LinkedIn
As most of the 45 million people on LinkedIn:
- Are male
- Have an above average degree
- Are part of the middle, senior management or are even executives
- Are business decision makers in 50% of the cases
- Are from different industries
(with a bias to information technology and telecoms)
- People from North America and Western Europe
Not limited to the US like other contact data base sites.
These demographics make the LinkedIn population extremely interesting for approaching as new contacts within companies.
Using LinkedIn for lead generation
There are several methods to use LinkedIn in the process of lead generation:
- The short cut
- The networking
The short cut method:
You can find names of people in companies by:
- Logging in to LinkedIn and search
- Google a company name
You can use these names found to address them directly by calling or emailing in the hope to create interest.
Although this seems an apparently great solution, there are some problems with it.
Even though you can inquire about the company and estimate the potential interest in the products you are selling, you are not sure about their interest.
Once you have defined the best possible contact within LinkedIn for a certain company, you need to have an interesting proposition to make to them in order to generate interest.
Wouldn’t it be better if you would only address companies that have showed interest in one or more of your products by visiting your website and then try finding the best contact within the company that you can address with the most appropriate proposition?
The networking method:
In order to exploit the possibilities on LinkedIn more effectively for lead generation and contact finding:
- Sign-up and post your profile on LinkedIn
- Find groups and join industry groups on LinkedIn that relate to your business
- Answer questions without having a sales pitch for your products
- Post content in these groups to build credibility
- Ask questions in order to get conversation going with other members
- Invest time and effort
- Build relationships and network
The main challenge is:
To turn the online relationship conversation into a sales conversation without killing the relation.
The short cut can work if you know about the needs or interests of the company. If you are not aware about these, then you are shooting in the dark: just like email campaigns or cold calling.
The networking method is probably the best but will consume time and requires patience and creativity for content or to pose interesting questions.
As you have built a relationship, chances are this will last longer than the hit and run approach of the short cut.
How do you use LinkedIn?
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So straight forward article. As a newbie as myself I’m encouraged to know that to deposit time into networking media is good in a long run.
An insightfull post. Will definitely help.
Apart from traditional marketing, these days most of the marketers use viral marketing. I came across a website called how2talk2.com. It allows people to write articles about their products and services for free in a fun way. You write an article in the form of how to actually talk to someone and you can include links on all of your websites in your articles.
Also, thanks for the great post!”
[...] depending on geography and industry. There are many advices on the Internet explaining how to use LinkedIn for your [...]
[...] depending on geography and industry. There are many advices on the Internet explaining how to use LinkedIn for your [...]
[...] your advertising your marketing has to mingle amongst the people in the social marketing – even for BtoB. This is stepping out of controlled and safe environments that just required money and somewhat [...]
[...] your advertising your marketing has to mingle amongst the people in the social marketing – even for BtoB. This is stepping out of controlled and safe environments that just required money and somewhat [...]
If you want one extra trick to find new leads : Look at who viewed you competitors profile.
The Easiest, Cheapest and Fastest Way to Get New B2B Leads Using LinkedIn
http://philgo20.com/2009/12/the-easiest-and-fastest-way-to-get-new-b2b-leads-using-linkedin/