For some, LinkedIn presents an opportunity to showcase skills, accomplishments, work history, and professional interests – establishing a personal brand. For others, such as sales and marketing teams, LinkedIn is a uniquely well-placed sales tool that can help you build your sales pipeline and generate revenue quickly.

But to avoid being overwhelmed and misdirecting your efforts, you need to have LinkedIn strategies in place. Let’s look at how you can lay a foundation on LinkedIn that will maximise your chances of sales success down the track.

Understanding LinkedIn’s potential

Traditional lead generation is time-consuming. It’s a process that usually involves networking events, sending countless cold emails, and meeting with prospects at all stages of the buyer journey and handling the buyer education process along the way.

Three new accounts are registered every second on LinkedIn – and that volume alone should tell you that there is a better way to do lead generation. There’s an almost endless flow of fresh opportunities hitting the market every day.

But when the volume of potential leads is virtually unlimited, the strategic approach is to focus on getting targeted about who you talk to, the way you prioritise those conversations, and the signals you look for when someone is ready to buy.

For a look into the kind of success you can enjoy on LinkedIn with even limited resources at your disposal, check out this guest post by Caroline Warnes, Director at Only Good Content.

Creating and sharing compelling content

When it comes to sales, content is king. Posting on LinkedIn regularly and engaging with others to demonstrate that you’re there to create value, is a proven strategy for successful lead generation on LinkedIn.

Different ways you can approach content development for LinkedIn

Developing content doesn’t have to be a battle. You can leverage common content formats to capture attention and develop subject authority.

Developments and trends

Sharing your take on the latest developments and trends in your industry lets you demonstrate knowledge and awareness of your sector. Providing your own commentary on the latest news lets your audience see into your process and how you add value.

Business highlights

It’s not a bad thing to be proud of what you’ve achieved! Sharing updates about successful projects and satisfied clients is a brilliant way to build confidence among your audience that you’re well positioned to help them with similar problems.

Practical advice

Providing value before ever making an ask shows integrity. Find ways to share your own step-by-step tutorials that address common pain points and show audiences that you’re not there to sell a ‘shell’ service that they can achieve themselves for less.

Writing engaging posts

Even the best advice falls on deaf ears if it doesn’t resonate. When drafting content for your LinkedIn strategy, ensure that you are:

• grabbing attention with well-crafted opening sentences,
• using clear, concise and compelling language,
• focusing on readability – using lists where relevant,
• supporting your message with visual content,
• Encouraging engagement by posing questions.

Think of this effort as the foundation for any work you do down the line in paid ads, eDMs, SEO or in remarketing. You need an organic presence first!

Boosting your presence online through relevant groups

LinkedIn, like other popular social media platforms, presents users with the opportunity to ‘find their people’ online. And if your offering is targeted enough, this means there will be a handful of groups online that you should definitely be talking to.

Locating these groups and actively participating can help you stand out and gain traction as a thought leader in your space. Here are some ways to get involved:

Introduce yourself

Introducing yourself and the work you do is the best way to cut through the uncertainty that keeps potential connections from reaching out. Don’t be afraid to share some details about your journey and what you’re looking for in the group.

Weigh-in on topical issues

Every industry has its own updates to share and issues to discuss. Much like posting for a wider audience, we encourage you to get involved in discussions around the key issues facing your sector, the tools you rely on, and novel approaches to challenging issues. This is another chance to demonstrate authority on the issue and manage your brand.

Reach out directly to other members

Being a member of the same group is a great starting point for a productive conversation. The context is there, and if you’ve been posting regularly then they might already know a bit about you and your business. Don’t be afraid to reach out directly to those you believe you can help, and make it clear you’re there to network!

Take care of your profiles

The first places your prospects will look after finding out about your service is your personal and business profiles – which makes it essential that you’re taking care of how they look.

A well-maintained profile builds on the trust and brand authority you work on elsewhere with posts and group discussions. Some things to take care of include:

• Images: Be sure to have a strong profile picture and use the background image to showcase your brand.
• Text: Get a little creative with your headline. But be sure to include specific mentions of what you do and who you do it for.
• About: Summarising your story in the about section is your online ‘elevator pitch’. Don’t waste the opportunity!
• Experience: Let the world know where you cut your teeth, where you grew, and where you’re heading next.

Employ advanced lead generation strategies

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a native LinkedIn sales solution that puts you in touch with advanced search capabilities, visibility into extended networks, and enables you to leverage personalised algorithms to develop a more complete understanding of your target audience.

But it’s not a complete solution for lead generation, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator does not remove the need for experience in identifying strong leads, prioritising outreach, and leveraging key indicators to maximise your chances of conversion.

At Higher Ranking, we’ve developed our LinkedIn Lead Generation tool as a one-of-a-kind way to reduce the time lost to chasing ill-fit leads and sales dead-ends.

We’d love to show you how it works – book a demo today!