Using LinkedIn for Effective Lead Generation
Lead Generation with LinkedIn
Did you know that when it comes to generating tons of precious leads, LinkedIn is almost three times more effective than Facebook and Twitter? This begs the question though – how exactly is this so?
The great thing about Linked is that there are a number of possible ways to generate leads with it using features like LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn Today, LinkedIn Company page and many more. LinkedIn Groups is considered the most effective of these features and offers tons of benefits particularly when it comes to lead generation thanks to another valuable feature called “LinkedIn Announcements”. If all of these are fairly new, you can think of Announcements as a crossover between email and social media marketing.
All about LinkedIn Announcements and lead generation
LinkedIn Announcements enable you to directly send email messages to members that have joined your LinkedIn group. Hence, it can be described essentially as email marketing via LinkedIn. The group announcements will be sent to whichever email address the user has associated with their LinkedIn account. Emails can be quickly sent by navigating to the “Manage” page on your LinkedIn group but what does all these have to do with lead generation?
Simple – while you may be able to generate sufficient leads through other features in Linked on a month to month basis, our social media studies shows that results can be drastically improved with LinkedIn announcement not only for the day email messages were sent but for several days following that as well. Wouldn’t it be great if you can boost results in lead generation whenever possible? Of course this all depends on how well you write your LinkedIn announcements for lead generation and here are a couple of tips for doing just that:
Tips for writing LinkedIn Announcements for generating leads
- Writing LinkedIn announcements for your social and web marketing campaign is very much similar to writing a good email copy – never use generic subject lines and focus on creating a catchy and descriptive subject that shows people what you have to offer
- Encourage them to read – begin with a compelling message; anything that captures the attention of your readers and assure them that your emails are worth reading. You can use mind-blowing facts or statistics and smoothly transition everything towards what you have to offer.
- Provide Compelling CTAs (Call to Action). It could be about a coupon, blogs or exclusive downloads like eBooks. Point your readers somewhere that will further benefit them. Convince your readers that it’s worth their while to click through and don’t forget to clearly tell them why they should instead of leaving them wondering.
- Monitor your announcement and set it as a featured discussion in your group page
- Tweet your announcements
- Send it!
That’s all there is to it! If you are using LinkedIn groups for your business, it would be in your best interest to begin sending good LinkedIn announcements to boost the effectiveness of your lead generation campaign.
I use LinkedIn and find that it does generate leads but I never feel that I’m using it as fully as I’d like to. Some of that is down to time but some of that is not always knowing what to do with something like “announcements” …this has been a helpful nudge to move closer to proper lead generation. More please!
The “call to action” is well-thought out for this post. Many people forget the power of a coupon or a freebie when trying to run a successful web marketing campaign.
Agreed. We all love a free lunch. Social media competitions can really get people talking, clicking, liking, etc. If you can give away a free holiday in Hawaii, that’s grand but you’ll also generate traffic with a free coffee.
3 times more effective than facebook or twitter?!! I need to get on linked in…
LOL, Bob! Linkedin is excellent if you want to do business marketing that will actually lead to sales. Just look at how GM pulled $10 million from Facebook — FB ads didn’t work for them. It’s much better to create organic advertising through something like Announcements.
LinkedIn is definitely a super way to generate leads. I haven’t used LinkedIn announcements (although after reading this, I want to) but I have gotten a lot of leads from the people I’ve networked with there. Is this company a place where I can get some input into writing effective announcements? I get tongue-tied.
I use Linked In regularly (IT consultant) to connect with past and future employers. I like Linked In announcements but had never thought to put a call to action in the content. I can’t run a contest for a free toaster, but you got me thinking that there might be some way of encouraging a conversation. Cheers.
This is a good article and you do a solid job of discussing Announcements which is a fantastic lead generator. LinkedIn has gotten some harsh press over the leaked passwords but people should use LinkedIn even more now because no company would let lightning strike twice. All in all, it remains the best way for me to network with like-minded people.
Linkedin is better than Facebook for drumming up new business. Announcements is where it’s at but you have to do the things you’ve written about. Shocking how many people don’t.