LinkedIn Prospecting for Online Lead Generation: DIY

Posted by Katie Coombs on May 25,2015

 

LinkedIn_Miner_3-1

It's not uncommon to hear colleagues say LinkedIn is the best social media platform to market their products and services. I can't think of another social media platform where people put their entire life's work history out there for the world to see, the way we do on LinkedIn. The full career disclosure approach most of us take when setting up our profiles is exactly why LinkedIn is such a robust database of potential customers!

Using LinkedIn to generate online leads sounds like a complicated process and you should probably hire help, right? I assure you it's really not difficult. To simplify it, the process of "mining," or identifying the right target prospects is a repeatable, solitary exercise akin to digital pick and shovel work.

Overly-simplifying the process, basically you need to:

  1. Identify a group of target prospects
  2. Send a (customized) Connection request 
  3. Send a "Thank You for Connecting" message via LinkedIn
  4. Take conversations live with new leads

Here's the breakdown in a bit more detail: once you've completed a search and identified a group of target prospects, it's time to request a connection. We always recommend crafting your own connection letter, rather than using the generic default verbiage LinkedIn provides.  This allows you to establish that the conversation is meant to be business related, immediately. Anyone who accepts your connection invite should then be sent a LinkedIn "Thanks for Connecting" message that transitions to the beginning of the business dialogue. 

Now is the time to take the business conversation out of Social Media and begin to nurture the relationship with your new (and engaged) lead. Since they've accepted your connection invite, you now have access to their email address.

Although this process is hugely valuable, it is a numbers game and can be time consuming.  We typically mine prospects and request connection in batches of 50.  Of the 50, typically 20-25 will connect. Those people each receive the "Thank You for Connecting" message, explaining your business interest. As a general trend, this process generates between 4-6 leads per batch for our clients.  The people who connect, but do not respond to your message will still see all the valuable content you're posting and sharing.

If you want more leads, do more prospecting.

LinkedIn_Tracking

For efficiency, we recommend standardizing your initial connection request and Thank You letter.  You can then copy/paste.

Our free eBook The Art Of LinkedIn Prospecting For Online Lead Generation covers everything from best practices when setting up and optimizing your profile, to the benefits of joining industry relevant groups. We discuss the successful method we've developed internally, to tag, sort and track prospects and the outcome of our efforts. Since everyone thinks and works differently, you may find a better tracking method works for you, so don't be afraid to experiment. Having organized documentation is great for reporting purposes and allows us to demonstrate progress, value and return on investment to our clients!

 

Ready to learn how we do it?  

Download our eBook today!

 Like what you've read? Check out our other LinkedIn and Online Lead Gen related blog posts:

Topics: Social Selling, Online Lead Generation