Accessing your target audience and then generating leads from LinkedIn content can be a tall order when your services are niche and specific to a certain industry, sector or individual. You can follow all of the LinkedIn best practices that are out there, but sometimes it’s still not enough when the service or product you’re trying to sell is for the few and not the many.
What to do?
Fear not, with LinkedIn’s additional advertising services you can combine your social media strategy with a more direct way of reaching prospects. Using the information gathered from inbound leads generated by social media content, or to reach new prospects altogether, LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator and sponsored direct Message Ads offers the opportunity to find relevant prospects and send them messages directly.
Using the company LinkedIn page as a marketing lead generation net, Sales Navigator and direct Message Ads are the selection phases that complement the process.
We’ve put together a play by play list of how to use both platforms as well as a list of best practices, so you can find better sales prospects.
LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator
LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator gives sales reps access into LinkedIn’s vast and rich data pool for more effective analysis.
The information includes:
- Buyers
- Influencers
- Strategic partners
- Career changes, promotions, or new positions
- Potential leads who view a company profile, personal profile or particular piece of content
- What leads are sharing what items of content
The platform allows users to search precise details in order to locate the people who match their buyer persona, and then:
- View their activity
- See their ports of pain and trends
The alert and filter features let users:
- Monitor leads
- Find more concentrated leads
- Find similar prospects
Benefits of using Sales Navigator:
- CRM integrations
- Targeted searches
- Automated lead generation
- Powerful sales insights
Best practices:
- Save and monitor key prospects and accounts
- Document findings in an account map
- Organise prospects with tags and notes
- Turn on notifications for live data
LinkedIn Sponsored Message Ads (aka Inmails ads)
LinkedIn sponsored direct Message Ads allow sales reps to communicate to the people who really matter. These messages should not be a sales pitch, rather a conversation starter.
A useful tip to engage the recipient is to give something for free:
- Product or service
- Free admittance to an event you’re hosting
- A free coffee voucher, then ask for a meeting to use the coffee voucher
- The first initial messages need to create positive sentiment, this will allow for the sales to pitch to follow later
Benefits of using sponsored Inmail ads:
- Increased engagement and response compared to traditional emails
- Response rate averages three times higher than a normal email
- Measurable analytics
- Ability to tailor and personalise content
Best practices:
- Select the right sender for each message
- Include a banner ad
- A/B test campaigns
- Keep messages short and get to the point
- Don’t be afraid to be informal
- Make it personal
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