How to Rock at Lead Generation Through LinkedIn in 2024

What is the biggest challenge faced by any budding entrepreneur, business owner, or freelancer?

Most of them struggle to generate qualified leads that can be converted into faithful customers.

With the advent of the internet and digital marketing, the techniques for lead generation have also evolved. You can no longer rely solely on age-old tactics such as cold calling and promotional SMS.

Then, what should you do?

Instead, you should focus on using different social networking sites such as LinkedIn for lead generation. LinkedIn has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception in May 2003.

At first, it was considered a platform for professional networking. However, it has slowly evolved into an extremely powerful tool for brand building and lead generation.

It is not surprising that LinkedIn has attracted more than 612 million users from 200 countries around the globe.

In this post, we will discuss some of the most effective LinkedIn lead generation tactics. But first, let’s take a look at what sets it apart from other lead generation tactics and social networks.

Shall we get started?

What is the True Potential of LinkedIn for Generating Leads?

When you think of social media marketing, LinkedIn is not the most obvious choice. However, this professional networking site offers a goldmine of B2B marketing opportunities.

Don’t believe me?

In fact, according to the Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn, 82% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing. This is mainly because LinkedIn is often frequented by top-level influencers, decision-makers, and industry thought leaders.

Armed with the right strategy, you can grab their attention and grow your business while generating leads. You can also use LinkedIn to increase website traffic and reinforce brand credibility.

The following infographic published by LinkedIn sheds more light on its power as a marketing tool:

Image via LinkedIn

Impressive, right?

A robust LinkedIn lead generation strategy can take your business to new heights. However, promoting your brand on LinkedIn can be extremely tricky. You have to grab the limelight and generate leads without appearing overly promotional.

Once you figure out the best way to promote your business, there’s a good chance that your website or blog will get many new visitors. You should be able to convert your website traffic into qualified leads and multiply your revenue.

Now let’s take a look at the best techniques for LinkedIn lead generation:

Complete Your LinkedIn Profile

One of the most crucial aspects of LinkedIn lead generation is to have a complete and up-to-date profile. It offers the first glimpse of your skills and offerings to potential clients and recruiters.

Therefore, it must be captivating enough to make a powerful first impression.

This is especially important for entrepreneurs and freelancers who are looking to bag new projects and assignments and attract potential customers.

Your LinkedIn page should contain comprehensive and relevant information about you including your work experience, job titles, academic background, professional achievements, etc.

Mention the projects you have worked on and provide a clear description outlining your role and contribution. Request recommendations from your colleagues and employers to strengthen the credibility of your profile.

In addition to completing your personal profile, you should also create a Company Page for your business/brand. Provide complete details about your company including its size, location, operational years, products/services, etc.

An up-to-date Company Page makes your brand appear more trustworthy and professional. Add your company logo and website URL to further boost brand awareness.

Utilize LinkedIn’s Advertising Options

If you want to take your content beyond your existing connections and followers, you should start exploring the various advertising options offered by LinkedIn.

The simplest way is to create sponsored posts using your most engaging and valuable content.

LinkedIn facilitates extremely specific and precise targeting; thereby helping you reach out to the right audience.

For instance, HubSpot utilized LinkedIn Sponsored Content to generate 400% more leads than other lead generation channels.

Like HubSpot, you can create SEO-friendly ads and drive qualified traffic to your website through LinkedIn advertising. Compelling calls-to-action and personalized messaging in ads can help maximize your conversions.

It has also been observed that the quality of leads from LinkedIn is far superior compared to those acquired from other channels.

Image via LinkedIn

Additionally, you can also create sponsored InMail campaigns to facilitate LinkedIn lead generation. InMail allows you to reach the LinkedIn inboxes of your potential clients using a personalized message.

You can use InMail to share top-rated content or upcoming offers with your target audience.

Don’t Ignore Optimization

The potential of search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t limited to Google. In fact, you can use the same principles to optimize your profile and Company Page.

Why is that important?

It ensures that your name or your brand shows up when someone searches for products or services related to you, on and off LinkedIn. This, in turn, makes it extremely beneficial for LinkedIn lead generation.

The first step is to identify the keywords you want your profile to rank for. This requires an understanding of the search queries and phrases that your target audience is likely to use. Just like SEO, you can also optimize your profile for long-tail keywords to target more specific leads.

Let’s say you are a fashion photographer based out of Chicago. You would want your profile to pop up when someone searches for a “fashion photographer in Chicago.”

If you want to drive more traffic, you need to include your website URL on your LinkedIn page. This, in turn, will open new business opportunities by connecting you with potential customers.

Once you have picked your keywords, the next step is to incorporate them into your profile. You can use these keywords in your job titles, description, skills, and other sections.

You can also run a LinkedIn search for these keywords and take a look at the top profiles.

Observe how they have used the keywords in their profiles and try to replicate the same in yours.

If you have a Company Page, make sure you also optimize it for relevant keywords.

Connect with Profile Visitors

LinkedIn sends you a “Someone has viewed your profile” email every time your profile gets a visitor. Most people end up ignoring such notifications.

Sound familiar?

However, when it comes to LinkedIn lead generation, these emails can give you a plethora of useful information and even help you find potential customers.

When someone views your profile, it is likely that they have taken some interest in your products or services. It is advisable that you track them down using the email notification.

Alternatively, you can also use the “who’s viewed your profile” section in the “Profile” drop-down menu of your LinkedIn profile. This can help you generate leads and connect with more potential customers and in turn, grow your business.

Publish Engaging Content

You can make yourself more discoverable on LinkedIn by optimizing your profile and Company Page using relevant keywords. However, in order to retain the attention of profile visitors, you must publish high-quality, original, and relevant content.

How will relevant content help?

This will help position you as an authority figure on certain subjects and strengthen your reputation as an industry thought leader. This, in turn, will help with your LinkedIn lead generation.

When you are creating content for LinkedIn, you must understand why senior-level executives choose to spend their time on the platform. They are not looking for redundant and run-of-the-mill blog posts in their LinkedIn feed.

Instead, they are looking for content that will educate them and help them stay abreast with the latest developments in their industry.

Therefore, in order to generate leads, you should strive to publish content on industry trends and thought leadership. Make sure you lend your unique perspective to every piece of content.

However, it can be challenging to come up with top-notch content regularly. That’s why I recommend using ProWritingAid. This tool can write articles for you when you provide 3 to 5 words to it, and the results are pretty good too!

Get ProWritingAid Now!

You should accompany your posts with eye-catching headlines, graphics, videos, presentations, statistics, etc. Refrain from publishing self-promotional content too often.

Take a look at the following graph to understand the type of content that fares well on LinkedIn:

Image via BuzzSumo

In addition to creating engaging content, you should also ensure that you publish regularly. It is advisable that you create a content calendar outlining the topics and posts that you wish to publish in the next few months.

This will prevent your LinkedIn page from appearing outdated and can help increase engagement and leads.

Create Conversion-Friendly Posts

In addition to featuring high-quality content created using tools like ProWritingAid, you should also add attractive captions, bullet points, and visual elements such as emojis to your LinkedIn updates.

You must also accompany these posts with appropriate calls to action and links. This aids LinkedIn lead generation by driving more traffic to your website, blog, or landing pages.

To successfully generate leads on LinkedIn, make sure you don’t flood your posts with self-promotional jargon. Instead, you should provide your audience with additional resources that will help them acquire more information about you and your brand.

Need inspiration?

For instance, take a look at the LinkedIn Company Page of General Electric.

Image via LinkedIn

GE’s LinkedIn profile doesn’t bombard readers with promotional content. Instead, they are presented with interesting posts that link back to the company’s website. This is a very subtle way of increasing website traffic and thereby, generating leads on LinkedIn.

Seek Help from Your Colleagues and Employees

Your company’s workforce can be one of your biggest brand advocates on LinkedIn. You should encourage them to share your content on their personal LinkedIn profiles.

That will help expand your reach and reach their networks on LinkedIn. This, in turn, increases brand awareness, boosts brand credibility, drives website traffic, and ultimately, helps with LinkedIn lead generation.

In addition, you should also ensure that all your colleagues and employees have completed their LinkedIn profiles. You can also ask them to list your company as their employer and provide a link to your Company Page.

This puts your brand at the forefront every time someone visits their profile.

Join LinkedIn Groups

An effective way of widening your audience and escalating the LinkedIn lead generation process is to join all relevant groups on LinkedIn. Don’t restrict yourself to the groups that solely pertain to your industry/niche.

Instead, expand your horizon and join groups that might be remotely related to your niche and can help you grow your business. Take a look at LinkedIn’s guide on selecting and joining the right groups.

Once you have joined a group, make sure you contribute to the group conversations with relevant content. You can even include links to your blog posts or landing pages to increase website traffic.

Sound good?

It is. In addition to establishing new connections, it positions your brand as an industry expert. Make sure your comments aren’t inundated with self-promotional content to prevent them from being deleted by LinkedIn’s spam filter.

Utilize LinkedIn Pulse for Lead Generation

LinkedIn Pulse is a news platform integrated with LinkedIn and it is available as a separate app as well.

Why does that matter to you?

You can post articles there and get discovered by a much larger audience than you can reach via your own blog.

Think of this as guest posting, but on a platform with a massive audience base and instant publishing without requiring approval from editors. Posting your articles on LinkedIn Pulse can help you reach a large and relevant audience and help establish you as an industry expert.

And, as this is essentially like a news platform, it is best to publish articles on the latest industry trends and happenings.

Here are some tips to help you use LinkedIn Pulse for lead generation and get the best results out of it:

Optimize Your Headlines

Headlines are the first thing a reader sees and should be compelling enough to make them want to read more. Writing short and catchy headlines is the first step towards getting people to read your posts.

Use Visuals

Using images in your post makes it more attractive and engaging than a boring all-text post. Use eye-catching visuals in your posts to grab audience attention and get more reads.

Add Links to Your Website

Similar to a guest post on any other website, you can add your website links in your articles posted on LinkedIn Pulse. This is a simple and effective LinkedIn lead generation tactic that you should use for all your posts.

However, make sure that the links that you add are relevant and useful and not unrelated to the topic at hand.

Cross-Promote Your Posts on Other Platforms

If you’re using publishing articles as your LinkedIn lead generation strategy, then you need to ensure that you get enough people to read your posts.

How will you manage that?

And, promoting your posts outside the platform is a good means of enhancing the reach of your content. This allows you to reach a larger audience and get more reads and likes on your posts.

And, the more views your articles have, the higher they will be displayed, thus, resulting in more views.

Here’s an example of how the popular marketer, Guy Kawasaki, does it. He has used a high-quality image and a catchy headline to get more people to read his post. He also adds external links to his products and services wherever relevant.

Image via LinkedIn Pulse

Search for Connections on LinkedIn

No LinkedIn lead generation strategies list is complete without the mention of manually searching for people on the platform. LinkedIn is a network for professionals in different fields and thus makes a perfect platform for lead generation.

Moreover, LinkedIn provides advanced search filters that you can use to find relevant leads from your industry.

From the company that someone works in, to their location, you can use numerous combinations of filters to find people.

Here are some of the people filters that LinkedIn provides to help you find exactly the kind of people that you’re looking for.

Image via LinkedIn Pulse

You can use these search options to find people and then connect with them on LinkedIn. Once they accept your request, you can also send messages to them and try to convert those leads.

So, it is an effective LinkedIn lead generation strategy that you can start using if you don’t already do so.

FAQs

Q1. What is LinkedIn lead generation?

A. LinkedIn lead generation is the process through which you can generate leads by using LinkedIn. This can be done by:

• Posting regularly
• Joining LinkedIn Groups
• Utilizing LinkedIn Pulse
• Cross-promoting posts
• Connecting with people
• Using visuals in your posts

Q2. How to create a lead generation campaign on LinkedIn?

A. To create a lead generation campaign on LinkedIn, follow these steps:

• Create the content and ad copy.
• Make a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form template.
• Select your target audience.
• Define your ad budget, bid, and schedule.
• Launch the lead generation campaign.

Q3. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn?

A. To generate B2B leads on LinkedIn, follow the below steps:

• Complete your LinkedIn profile.
• Use LinkedIn ads.
• Include visuals in posts.
• Cross-promote the posts.
• Connect with others.
• Join LinkedIn Groups.
• Publish content with links to your website.

Q4. How exactly does LinkedIn lead generation work?

A. With LinkedIn lead generation, you can get people on the platform to give you their contact information.

Q5. How do I create a Lead Gen Form on LinkedIn?

• Log in to the Campaign Manager.
• Choose Lead Gen Forms from the Account Assets drop-down menu.
• Finish all the sections of the form and create it.

Q6. What are the best LinkedIn lead generation tools?

A. Here are the best LinkedIn lead generation tools:

• HubSpot
• Pardot
• LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms
• Nimble
• Marketo
• OnePage CRM

Are You Ready to Nail Your LinkedIn Marketing?

LinkedIn is one of the best platforms to connect with professionals in your industry and generate leads for your business. And, there are several LinkedIn lead generation strategies that you can use to do so.

With the right strategy, you can grab the attention of potential clients easily. For this, you need to optimize your profile and keep it up-to-date.

But more than anything else, effective LinkedIn lead generation requires a deep understanding of your target audience. So, understand who you want to target on LinkedIn before you select your LinkedIn lead generation strategy.

Did we miss any useful LinkedIn lead generation tactics? Share your views in the comments section below.