Table of Contents
- Define Your Target Audience
- Optimize Your Linkedin Personal Profile
- Offer Value & Quality
- Share Presentations & Other Documents
- Upload Videos with Transcripts
- Use Hashtags
- Share Trending News
- Tag People & Companies in Posts
- Send Invitations
- Use Linkedin Polls
- Tag Your Page in Your Posts
- Consider Using Follow Ads to get 1,000 Followers
Linkedin is the place to be in social media right now when it comes to lead generation. While Facebook has drastically reduced its organic reach (how many people see your posts), Linkedin is attempting to grow its market share. As a result, Linkedin has updated its algorithm to reach a substantial number of users without paying for any advertising.
Just like Facebook was an excellent opportunity for generating free leads in 2012, Linkedin is currently the best place to build our brand and generate leads for your business. It won't last forever, though, so make sure you make the most of it in 2021.
Define Your Target Audience
Before you start any marketing campaigns, you should define your target audience and ideal customer persona. You should then find out where they hang out online and investigate their pastimes, issues, problems, and ambitions. For example, if you target small business owners, you could join relevant groups on Facebook, Linkedin, and Reddit. You can then look to see what questions and posts are getting lots of engagement. You could also create your posts and ask how your product or service could help them or could be improved upon.
Optimize Your Linkedin Personal Profile
To make the most of LinkedIn, you need to make the most of your profile and your company page. By growing your network with your profile, you will add more organic reach to your company posts when you share them.
Optimize your profile by adding a professional headshot. Fill in all the relevant sections of your profile and ask people for endorsements and testimonials.
Offer Value & Quality
Many experts tout inbound marketing as the best way to approach all elements of digital marketing at the moment. With inbound marketing, you begin by researching and identifying the issues affecting your target audience and then providing content that provides solutions and answers to those problems or issues.
For example, if you target small business owners, then creating a guide to social media marketing or Google Ads for beginners might be of value to them. You could make a video and upload it to Linkedin, and you could also create a Slideshare presentation.
Share Presentations & Other Documents
When creating a post, you should see the icons for an image, a video, and a document near the bottom of the window.
By sharing documents of value, you can generate engagement on both your company page and personal profile. For example, you could take notes from a recent conference or webinar, present them neatly in a Word document and upload them as part of a post. You could also create a PowerPoint presentation and upload that. The great thing about documents is that they are not used often by other pages and Linkedin members, so it can make it relatively easy to stand out on someone's newsfeed, which will typically be full of links and text posts.
Upload Videos with Transcripts
As with documents, you can use videos to stand out from other newsfeed items on Linkedin. However, adding captions or transcripts is essential as most Linkedin users will view your video on mute. You could do this with most new video editing apps or an app such as Voicella, which does it automatically for you.
Use Hashtags
Use two or three hashtags on each of your posts. Before you use a specific hashtag, you can search for it using the search function at the top of the Linkedin platform. Here you can check if the hashtags are relevant to you and your target audience.
Share Trending News
When you are logged into Linkedin, on the homepage, on the right-hand side, near the top, you should see a section entitled “Linkedin News.” If you click on a relevant headline, you can share a trending story and add your insights and commentary. The fact that the stories are already popular on Linkedin means that if they are relevant to your audience, they have a good chance of generating engagement for you if you share them in a post.
Tag People & Companies in Posts
When you create a post, you can tag people and company pages using the @ symbol before their name. A great way to do this is to compliment them in some way. For example, you could state the best tools you have used for your small business are SEMRush and Moneypenny, and then tag those business pages in the posts. Chances are, the companies or people will engage with and share your posts.
Send Invitations
Once you have created your Linkedin company page, be sure to update all the necessary information and upload a profile image – usually a professional logo and a cover image. As an admin, each month, you should invite 100 members to follow your Linkedin company page. If you don't use them, you will lose them, so make sure you take advantage of the invites when they are available.
Use Linkedin Polls
Linkedin polls are a relatively new interactive feature on Linkedin. They are a bit like a mini-survey, with a question that you create accompanied by up to 4 multiple choice answers.
From a lead generation perspective, polls are great because you can use them as a lead-qualifying tool. You can see which members, choose which answer.
For example, if you are a personal trainer, you could create a poll asking people which element of fitness or diet users find the most difficult. Then, when your vote has run and finished, you could see who choose a specific answer. Perhaps “lack of support” was one of the options. For those who chose this option, you can reach out to them, offering them a free offer or a free information pack full of fitness tips, including ways to keep motivated and where to find support online.
Tag Your Page in Your Posts
When relevant, you can create posts on your profile and tag your company page in the center. This tactic can be effective if you encourage any employees on Linkedin to do the same.
Consider Using Follow Ads to get 1,000 Followers
If you want to see results quickly, using ads specifically designed to gain followers can help you get started. With a base of 1,000 followers to begin with, you can expect a much higher rate of engagement than you would if you started from scratch with 0 followers.
Conclusion
Linkedin is an ample opportunity right now in terms of lead generation, regardless of whether or not your company operates in the business-to-business industry. By adding value and showing expertise, you can become an authority in your niche and generate followers and leads.
Thank you for reading!