LinkedIn is not just a superb B2B platform—it’s a great place for lead generation, regardless of the industry, seasonality, or the number of people in your company.
Personally, I’ve been using LinkedIn for lead generation for the last 3 years. And finally, I’ve come up with the idea of writing out the best practices in that realm. Having this experience, I can gladly say—generating leads on LinkedIn is really worthwhile.
This is the secret sauce in this post (chronologically):
- why generating leads is so important
- how to generate leads on LinkedIn
- how to convert leads on LinkedIn into customers
And much, much more.
So, what are the 9 best strategies to generate B2B sales leads on LinkedIn?
Let’s delve into the details.
Optimize Your Profile for Lead Generation
Lead generation is a must for every business, but first things first. Optimize your profile in detail.
As the saying goes, “You are judged by how you present yourself.” This is exactly how it works when building a profile on LinkedIn. No one will trust an entrepreneur or lead generation specialist whose profile doesn’t meet any standards.
I receive inquiries from my clients asking for help optimizing their LinkedIn profiles. After all, for someone who has never dealt with it, it can be quite challenging. No worries, this is my job to cover that. Nevertheless, you wouldn’t believe how many profiles are incomplete, missing photos, or lacking a company description. And what’s even more surprising—these people are using LinkedIn to generate leads. They schedule meetings and even close sales! Imagine what could happen if their profiles were up to recommended standards…
How to optimize your profile? Start with the basics:
- Record a voice message
- Add a good profile picture
- Complete your experience section
- Add a link to your company on your profile
- Set a background photo related to your company
- Change your profile name to make it easier to find you
- In the introduction, describe your experience in detail (you have up to 2,500 words for this!)
And much, much more.
A professional-looking profile = more potential leads
P.S. There are many more things you should incorporate into your profile to appear more credible and generate more leads. Want to know what they are? Contact me, I will help you!
Personalize Messages
A personalized and dedicated message is a prerequisite. Your prospect doesn’t want to hear how many offices you have around the world or how many clients you serve—your prospect wants to know how your solution will help them generate better results.
In this situation, even the most optimized profile won’t help if your messages are weak.
What will help personalize your message? Thorough research. Exactly. Sift through your prospect’s profile and gather the most important information to increase the chance of converting them into a customer.
What might be the potential challenge of your prospect’s company? What your prospect’s company does? What’s his job title & what does he?
Remember to personalize the most important aspects in relation to how your company can help your prospect.
Here’s what else you can personalize:
- job title
- company’s name
- prospect’s name
- company revenue
- the last contact date
The rest depends on what your company offers and what ‘special points’ exist between you and your prospect.
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator
At first glance, LinkedIn Sales Navigator may seem like a rather “complicated” tool with many features. Fortunately, this misconception quickly fades.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an essential tool for every salesperson or SDR to generate high-quality leads. But what exactly is the definition of a lead with a high flair?
Such a lead or prospect is, above all, someone for whom our solution is relevant. And that’s the best definition. If we have a lead with a huge budget, but our solution isn’t useful to them—they won’t buy from us. In that case, the lead will still be in high demand—but not for us.
LinkedIn SN primarily helps us verify who our ideal customer profile (ICP) is. That is, how well a particular profile matches our needs.
By using this platform, you will primarily find out:
- Who is my prospect?
- Where does this lead work?
- Is my product relevant to this lead?
- How much (potentially) could they earn?
- What’s their job role and what do they do?
- How long have they been working at a particular company?
And of course, much, much more.
By the way, is Sales Navigator only for salespeople? Of course not! Here’s why.
This platform is also used (or perhaps mostly?) by talent acquisition managers, HR managers, and anyone who is permanently searching for job candidates. Personally, when I was recruiting for my previous company, I had the opportunity to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for this purpose, and it worked really well.
As you know, a candidate can tweak their CV in ways that can be quite elusive. With LinkedIn, that doesn’t quite work the same way.
Maybe your next lead is a new employee? If you’re professionally involved in sourcing candidates, that wouldn’t be surprising at all! 😉
Share Valuable Content
B2B lead generation isn’t just about reaching out to your prospects. It’s also about showing them that you have something they need. How do you do that? Share valuable content with your network—and do it often.
If you’re building expertise in a particular industry, write about it. Share your experiences, discoveries, case studies—anything that adds extra value to your readers.
Even if you’re selling a niche product from someone else, there’s plenty of space to showcase it to the world. How do you do that?
Let’s say you’re selling animal feed. I know—it’s a tough topic. But there’s a lot to work with. Focus on the value your company provides. Then, write about it and publish it on LinkedIn.
B2B lead generation isn’t just about reaching out to your customers with “something you’ve got for them.” It’s all about their interests and what problems your solution can solve.
Use LinkedIn Content Creation Tools
If you’re already creating content, it’s time to find the right tool for it. What tool is that, and why?
Using content creation tools for B2B lead generation on LinkedIn is no longer just a nice addition. Now, it’s a necessity.
I’ll admit, if you’re posting something only a few times a month on your LinkedIn, this solution might not be for you. But if you take social selling on LinkedIn seriously, then it’s going to be a must.
Creating content can sometimes be difficult. Every idea needs to be unique, and the competition doesn’t rest. That’s where Scripe (and other content creation tools) come in to help you build expertise and deliver increasingly better content.
- Ideation
- Content planner
- In-depth analytics
- Voice memos as a post
These are the top four features that impressed me while using Scripe.
The fact is, your content won’t be created 100% by AI. It could be, but you’ll lose a lot of quality and authenticity. I don’t recommend that approach. However, I do recommend a solution where 100 hours of your work can be replaced by 20. Just as effective, with content that’s just as good (or perhaps even better?) and with equally precise lead generation.
👉 Quick Takeaway: When creating content for B2B lead generation on LinkedIn, make sure to also use good tools. There will be a lot of work, but it’s worth making it easier for yourself.
Do you wanna know more about Scripe? Dive into my comprehensive review. It’s all here: Scripe Review: LinkedIn Personal Branding Tool
Build Your Network
Once, I had a conversation with a colleague about building a network on LinkedIn. We had differing opinions, but we came to the same conclusion.
We discussed how to add contacts on LinkedIn. His opinion was that one should only add “high-flair” contacts. He meant that these should be exclusively people he knows, with whom he has had some previous interaction. My view, however, was quite different.
Personally, I don’t think you should limit your LinkedIn contacts to just people you know. That’s what Facebook is for. There, you don’t need someone you haven’t physically met. LinkedIn is definitely a different platform. It’s a B2B space; every contact is a potential person who might buy your product or recommend your solution. On LinkedIn, you’re not posting pictures of puppies or cakes you’ve baked (that does happen, though); instead, you’re sharing posts that could influence your readers’ perception of your company. This platform is the perfect place to showcase what you do, with whom, and what the outcome is.
You can add someone you’ve had a conversation with, and nothing might ever happen. On the other hand, you could add the head of marketing from a manufacturing company. They might visit your profile, check your experience, and realize that you offer something they need. They’ll reach out to you, and you’ll start working together. You’ll help them solve their problems, and you’ll make money. That’s exactly how LinkedIn works.
Therefore, I stick to my guns that more contacts simply means greater chances of success. It really doesn’t matter what industry you’re in—whether you sell strollers or increase profits from marketing campaigns.
Don’t be afraid to send connection requests. Do it often, every week. There’s nothing wrong with it. The more contacts you have, the higher the probability of converting them into business.
Oh, I’d forget! What’s the common conclusion? The more connections, the better. Indeed.
Use InMail, and Do It Right
InMail is one of the best features LinkedIn offers. Oh, just to clarify—the best when it comes to generating leads. Personally, I’ve used it many times, and I definitely recommend it.
So, how does InMail work? Long story short.
InMail works by allowing you to send a dedicated message to your lead. However, you can only do this if you have a premium account. That’s when the real game begins.
InMail significantly breaks the barrier of first contact. It’s designed in such a way that it can’t be overlooked. If you send a message through InMail, it will definitely reach your prospect, supervisor, or anyone else you’re trying to contact.
You’ve written “do it right” in the subject line, and that really makes sense. Why?
Each InMail has a specific monthly message limit. Depending on your package, you might get 15 or 100 messages. As you can see, there aren’t that many. So, if you’re sending low-quality messages, you’ll exhaust the limit without a good outcome. Boost your chances and personalize your messages like a hunter. Every well-crafted message is a higher chance of closing that sale.
Social Selling: Be Active All the Time
Social selling is an organic process of building your visibility using social media platforms. Social selling aims to build relationships, engage with prospects, and create opportunities for business by sharing valuable content and personalized outreach. The most popular platform for this purpose is, of course, LinkedIn.
By creating and posting high-quality content, you enhance your image as an expert, build credibility among readers (later: clients), and naturally generate leads.
Sure, if you’re just starting your journey with social selling, I know it can be a long and slow road. You have to dedicate a lot of time to get the results you really care about. But hey—that’s how building anything works, right? Especially when it comes to your company, image, or capital.
What are the benefits of social selling?
- better pipeline
- higher-quality leads
- expanded reach of your content
- better visibility of your brand & yourself
- nurturing prospects (organically & not intrusively!)
And of course, much much more.
You see—social selling really does make sense.
Wanna know more how to get started your social selling? Contact me, I’ll help!
Use Lead Generation Tools for LinkedIn
B2B lead generation tools for LinkedIn are one of my favorite topics. Why? Even if you visit your prospect’s profile on LinkedIn, sometimes that may not be enough.
Lead generation is also the art of using the right tools for the job. And the truth is—before you use them, you need to know about them. I hope this headline will be helpful in that regard.
There are many B2B lead generation tools out there. From my experience, though, I would recommend using Apollo.io.
Apollo.io is a tool you can use as a so-called email checker or an all-in-one tool for outbound and cold outreach. Personally, I’ve been using Apollo.io for the last 3+ years, and I wouldn’t switch to anything else.
At a certain stage, a B2B lead generation tool will simply become indispensable for you.
> If you want to find your prospect’s email address—you need this tool.
> If you want to call your prospect—you need a lead generation tool.
> If you want to build your pipeline—you need the right solution.
In every situation, you need a tool that can find the necessary data for you.
My choice? Apollo.io helps me, and I’m sure it will be a good option for you as well. You can read more about Apollo.io here: Apollo.io Review: The Best Outreach Tool on the Market.
If you’re wondering what are the 5 Most Common Outreach Tools on the Market, you’ll also find (the possibly best answer).
Now you know all the 9 best strategies to generate B2B sales leads on LinkedIn.
Do you do something that I haven’t mentioned?
Perhaps you’d like to incorporate something into your cold outreach?
If there’s anything you’d like to cover with me, I’m at your disposal!
Hit me up on LinkedIn or X (Twitter)! 😉
And if you liked that post, don’t forget to buy me a latte!
Thank you,
Simon
Author Profile
- Simon Gorlak is a Digital Marketing Expert with over 8 years of experience. He specializes in 3 areas: SEO, Lead Generation on LinkedIn, and Email Marketing. Simon's blog gathers knowledge that helps Marketers & C-level to increase profits from their online businesses. Also, his content helps to reach the most difficult customers, make others' content to be read & purchased. Besides digital marketing, Simon speaks 4 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish & works as a Head of Business at an Indian Start-up.
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