Whether you want to generate leads for B2B, real estate, or small businesses, LinkedIn is an important tool that will get you started in the right direction.
Over 700 million people are actively using LinkedIn every day including high-level decision-makers and executives in the business.
It has been proven that LinkedIn works and the people are there, but why is it that most business enthusiasts still struggle to generate leads?
The reason boils down to one of these two buriers to entry:
- Getting potential clients to accept connection requests.
- Knowing what to say in your first message to book an appointment.
In this article, am going to show you how you can actually connect with your dream clients, send your first messages, and schedule more appointments.
How to generate Leads on LinkedIn: a step-by-step guide on landing your first dream client.
It doesn’t matter if you are starting from scratch or you are looking to restructure your approach to LinkedIn marketing, this article is for you.
Here is a helpful guide on how to present yourself to your potential clients and improve your marketing strategy on LinkedIn.
Step 1: Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
This could be the ultimate deal maker or breaker when it comes to connecting with other people on LinkedIn.
Your profile has to be intriguing enough to make the other person, who might be your next client, respond to your connection request.
Remember that nobody knows you personally.
Therefore, your profile picture, professional skills, and experiences are what will determine the response to your connection requests.
Potential clients only care about what you can do for them.
Step 2: Send Your Connection Requests.
When sending connection requests, there are two options;
- You can either press the plus (+) button and send the default message to somebody hoping that it might work.
From my experience, it actually works mostly when your profile has been optimized for your potential client/customer.
Therefore, sending a default message is a little faster plus it has the potential to give you results.
- Or you can send a more personalized message that gets higher conversion rates.
An example of a custom message request can be something like this;
“Hey Pete, I saw you have been in the digital marketing space for 3 years now and I’m impressed with your work on 123 (work they did). Thought it might make sense to connect here.”
This message is more intriguing.
Thus, sending some signals to the other person that you actually did your homework and they are triggered to respond.
Here is another example;
“Hey Pete, I noticed you have been in the construction business in the Bay Area for 3 years now and I’m impressed with your work. Thought it might make sense to connect here.”
So basically this format reflects what you can include when sending connection requests depending on your niche.
The information to include in your specific niche can be found in their profile but be sure to make it short, precise, and clear to the point.
Some people might think of automating the whole process.
But it is important to be well versed in the manual part of it since it is more personalized and has high touch points.
Automation only brings results when the manual connection requests have worked before, you can’t start off the other way round.
So mastering the manual part will enable you to handle the automation tools well.
This speeds up the whole process while maintaining the personal touch of the message.
If you are starting out on LinkedIn trying to generate leads, I would recommend doing it manually first so that you understand the process of getting results.
This is to avoid your LinkedIn account being banned due to spam requests which might lead you back to square one.
Remember, LinkedIn automation tools always change.
Step 3: Sending Your First Message.
At this point of the process, avoid being general on the value you can provide.
Saying things like, “I can help you with anything”, is a little bit neither here nor there.
Be more specific on the services you provide and get the prospect more curious.
Ask more questions so that the prospect doesn’t have to hesitate to say yes to your request.
Here is an example of what the message could look like;
“Hey Pete, I noticed you started your own creative agency and wanted to reach out. I help agencies like yours get more clients without spending money on ads. Any chance you need help with this?”
The text above addresses the three main components of the ideal message that asks questions leading to a conversation;
- What you do,
- People you help and
- How you bring value.
The prospect will definitely get curious about learning more about your services.
If you want a more direct call to action message that will attract a direct response from the prospect without having many conversations, here it is;
“Hey Pete, you probably know that one of the most challenging parts of owning your own creative agency is signing on new clients. Now I actually help creative agencies consistently get new clients without having to spend money on ads. Some of my clients include 1,2 and 3. So if you are interested in learning how you might be able to do the same in your business, feel free to schedule a time to talk on my calendar here: [link]”.
The above text addresses the three main components of a message toward the prospect;
- Identifying the pain/problem,
- Offering value/ potential solutions,
- Mention some of the clients you have helped in the past/social proof.
- Call to action.
This is more straightforward forward and the prospect has to make up their mind if they are in on not before they send you a reply.
If the prospect doesn’t respond to the message, proceed to the next step below.
Step 4: Following Up.
The number of times you need to follow up depends on your niche because sometimes the prospect didn’t get enough time to respond.
Following up 2 to 3 times is better if you are starting out but you don’t have to say anything new, just reiterate what you had said before.
Write one or two sentences just to remind your prospect of your services.
Here is what the follow-up message could look like;
“Hey John, wanted to follow up with you to see if it still made sense to talk about how we might be able to help you with 123. If it does, let me know what your calendar looks like.”
Whenever you are sending a follow-up message, you don’t want to copy and paste the same text from last time, paraphrase it instead.
Remember, you are trying to get a response from your prospect.
Step 5: LinkedIn Marketing.
You don’t have to go viral when it comes to marketing yourself on LinkedIn.
Make sure to just be creating content that your connections will consume and share on your behalf.
Read Also: SEO Marketing Campaign: A Helpful Guide for Search Engine Optimization in Small Business.
The content that you post will help in selling your brand to prospective clients.
This often increases the chances of them replying to your message.
It’s another way of engaging with your prospects so that you are not just sending out messages.
The content that you post can either be a video, long-form copies, pictures, or what you are doing professionally on a daily basis.
Just make sure you are sharing what you are good at.
So that is how you can use the combination of outbound lead generation and marketing techniques to increase your response rate with people you connect with.
Repeat that process as much as you can while improving on it and you will definitely book appointments with different clients.
