25% of adult internet users are on LinkedIn, and unlike others social media networks, these guys mean business, as they’re all networking on the internet’s largest business social media network. Forget the cute dog pictures, the funny cat videos, and the hilarious memes: this is where the internet goes when it wants to get serious and start making money.
However, hold your horses: a lot of people approached LinkedIn the wrong way by using it like they would Facebook, and it’s worth remembering that not everyone you connect with on the platform intends to do business with you. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t leverage Linked in to get some powerful B2B leads.
The best, easiest way to do this is to simply be active. There’s no point saying “look at me!”. The best way to do this isn’t, of course, to scream look at me on LinkedIn, but instead to leverage content that people might find useful – this is a stoic route that keeps your brand high up on their list while also being helpful, two actions that can lead to opportunities further down the line.
LinkedIn has also introduced an awesome new feature called Lead Gen Forms which makes it very easy to grab leads by letting LinkedIn users fill out forms automatically using their profile. Filling out forms in one click is good news for your business, and your business can certainly extract a huge amount of benefits from this otherwise quiet change.
So, there’s no argument that most of us hate filling in forms. It takes time, it takes energy, and we have to do it more often than we’d like. Doing it on your mobile? Well now it’s just 10 times worse! In fact, many people simply just change their minds and skip at this point. That’s’ bad if you’re the business behind the form.
Now, with autopopulating lead gen forms, nobody has to type anything out: just one button press and it’s all done in seconds from a laptop or a phone. As a bonus, because it’s coming from people’s professional profiles, you likely have updated information along with a wealth of juicy marketing data. It’s a win-win for everyone.
It goes further, too: once someone fills in a form, it goes straight to your LinkedIn dashboard, and you’ll be able to download and integrate it into your own marketing automation system. All of this is completely intuitive, and done with a few clicks: there’s literally no headaches left in the flow anymore! The pilot program of just 50 people got 90% to exceed the CPL (Cost Per Lead) – making this a pretty worthwhile experiment, especially when you consider that LinkedIn leads are typically high quality leads: they have more money, they are more serious, and they’re willing to invest in things that will help their business. If you’re tired of low quality leads that suck your time and energy away then this could be the right thing for you.
It’s definitely worth trying this out if you’re already on LinkedIn and looking for a way to make your campaigns drive more value to you – and the great thing is that you’re going to be getting rock solid leads with plenty of information that will help you to better optimize your campaigns.
This isn’t the only way to get noticed, of course. There’s the time-tested, tried and true method of content publishing. I’ve talked a lot about content marketing on here, so you all know just how important this is when it comes to building a powerful brand.
On LinkedIn, that content doesn’t necessarily have to be on your LinkedIn Pulse (their blog network), it can be videos, infographics, white papers, ebooks, or pretty much anything that delivers value to potential readers. This isn’t rocket science, but it can be an arduous task as the content needs to be created on a regular schedule (hiring someone is often the easiest, most efficient solution, as it allows you to focus on your business as the content spice flows freely).
What matters in the content is engaging with people: solving their problems, being friendly and empathic, and generally building a relationship of trust. It’s often said that people need to read around 10-15 pieces of content about something before making their final decision: this is why you should be hitting up that content marketing trail.
It also has other benefits like increasing your visibility within your own network and even building up your profile as people connect with you – the primary intent here is of course to push them further down the funnel and consume other content pieces, and eventually spend some $$$... on your business.
So while the lead gen form is an awesome tool, don’t forget that it’s just one part of what should be your slick, well-oiled machine. Make sure that you’re always providing value and showcasing your expertise so that people know who you are, what you do, and why it will help them if and when they need it.
You can start today, and it’s as easy as sharing content and tailoring the message to meet your audience. Once you’re ready to start collecting leads, all this hard work will pay of in huge dividends!