LinkedIn Marketing Strategies: The Complete Guide to Boost Your Strategy | Mindustrious

Hi, my name is Sushil Kumar Jain and I have been in the lead generation industry for over 8 years. If I had to make a call on which social media platform would give me the best ROI on posting, I’d bet on LinkedIn. And over the years, I know enough to understand that LinkedIn is a lot more than just another social media channel — it’s the ultimate tool to generate B2B leads of quality. 

LinkedIn is successful in getting leads converted with their professional focus, and some of the best lead conversion rates in the industry. So, if you are looking for ideas to tweak your lead generation to capture more leads, you are in the right place. I’ll walk you through the top LinkedIn marketing strategies for lead generation and show you how you can use them to increase your sales.

LinkedIn Is The Top Choice for Lead Generation

If you’re wondering why LinkedIn is so effective for lead generation, consider this: B2B lead generation is the number one platform on LinkedIn. A 2023 study indicates that 80% of all social media B2B leads generated come from LinkedIn.

That is a huge opportunity you shouldn’t dismiss. In fact, the lead conversion rate on LinkedIn is 3x that of other major social media platforms, making it the top platform for building connections and creating leads of high quality.

Let me break down the importance of LinkedIn with some numbers:

• With over 875 million members across more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is a very good platform to raise your authority and connect with your target audience.
• LinkedIn has also found that 4 out of 5 LinkedIn users are decision makers or influencers in their companies, twice as likely to have buying power versus the average internet user.
• According to 2022 statistics, 92% of B2B marketers rank LinkedIn the number one most effective platform for content distribution (Content Marketing Institute, 2022).

Obviously, if you’re not using LinkedIn for lead generation, then you’re missing out on an enormous amount of leads that you could have been showing up to this.

How to Generate Leads on LinkedIn | 8 Marketing Strategies for Lead Generation

Now that you know why LinkedIn is so important for lead generation, we need to talk about how you can take advantage of it. So, over the years, I’ve used eight marketing strategies for lead generation, and I’ll take you through those.

1. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Lead Generation

Optimizing your profile is the number one step to creating leads on LinkedIn. So, your profile needs to be treated as a digital storefront. They won’t engage with you if it’s not appealing, if it doesn’t speak to your target audience. See this sample profile:

Here’s how you can optimize it:

• Profile Picture: Pick a professional, clear photo. LinkedIn says profiles with photos get 21x more profile views and 36x more connection requests.
• Headline: Your headline should instantly explain what is valuable in terms of content that you can bring. Rather than just list off your job role, tell them how you assist your audience. For example, ‘how to help B2B companies to generate high quality leads with LinkedIn marketing strategies’.
• SEO Optimization: Relevant keywords, keywords your target audience might search for is what you would use. Doing this’ll help you appear more on search results.
• Cover Photo: Use it to promote your brand, your expertise and the service you are offering.

2. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Persona

Before you begin reaching out to leads, you need to know exactly who you are going after. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and Buyer Persona, come in at this point. Both these documents are important in fine tuning your outreach and making way for high quality leads.

• ICP: It decides what type of company would be best suited to run your product or service. This contains information, such as company size, industry, and geographic location.
• Buyer Persona: This is very target specific, showing your ideal lead at that particular company. It contains job title, pain points, goals and decision making authority.

When you know exactly who you’re targeting, your outreach becomes more effective and personalized.

3. Leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Advanced Search

I have 8 years experience in lead generation and in my opinion I can’t recommend LinkedIn Sales Navigator enough. It’s a paid tool but provides advanced search filters to narrow down and find the right leads. For example:

• Lead Filters: You can search leads by job title, industry, company size etc.
• Account Filters: These make it easier to find those potential clients — companies that match your ICP (ideal customer profile).

The Technology Used Filter is especially great for software or SaaS B2B companies. It enables you to discover companies that employ technologies comparable to your product or, yes, that have a product similar to yours. It also means you can have strategic advantage reasoning to reach out to leads that are already familiar with a solution like yours.

4. Create and Share Valuable Content

LinkedIn lead generation is supported by one of the key content marketing pillars. Something that I learned at a young age and being a seasoned lead generator, I know that educating your audience before trying to sell to them is more valuable. Sharing valuable content is probably one of the best ways to do this. This could include:

• Case Studies: How your solution has helped others.
• White Papers and eBooks: Creating an in depth guide on topics related to that.
• Educational Posts: Tips, trends, and actionable advice around your industry.

When you share valuable content, you’re positioning yourself as the thought leader in your field. Edelman's study found that 54% of decision makers read thought leadership content for over an hour per week.

5. Use LinkedIn Ads for Targeted Lead Generation

For those that have the budget, LinkedIn Ads can boost your lead generation. There’s just no way around it — with LinkedIn’s advanced targeting options, you can guarantee that your ads hit the right people at the right time. 

Here’s how you can use LinkedIn Ads effectively:

• Sponsored Content: They’re native ads that show up in users’ feeds. Promote gated content with them like eBooks or webinars, where you need to collect user contact in order to access it.
• Lead Gen Forms: With this LinkedIn feature, you can collect leads directly on the platform. That means users don’t need to exit LinkedIn to fill out a form, saving time and making the experience smoother.

6. Implement a Personalized Outreach Strategy

Once leads have been produced, it’s time to begin speaking with those leads. Lead generation on LinkedIn is about personalized outreach. 

Here’s how you can do it:

Personalized Connection Requests: Never send the 'I’d like to connect' type of message. Don't just add in a generic note like we want to connect, however — include a note about why you want to connect. If you mention their profile or something recently about their or their activity.

Follow-Up Messages: Once you connect, don’t start pitching your product right away. Begin by having a dialogue with your potential clients, add value, and provide them with relevant content. If you warm things up in the relationship, you can follow up with a message effectively introducing your product or service.

Pro Tip: When you send outreach messages, never take the quantity first; it has to be quality. You’ll be able to talk to a smaller set of leads that are more well defined and more interesting.

7. Use LinkedIn’s Retargeting Feature

With LinkedIn, you can retarget website visitors or users who have engaged with your content. Retargeting ensures the lead doesn’t slip through the net and allows you to re-engage with a customer who’s already shown an interest in your brand.

Say, if a person engages your pricing page but doesn’t convert, you can display an ad in their LinkedIn feed to ensure they remain aware of your brand. This is why retargeting increases your chances of converting, it targets leads that are already aware of your business.

8. Build Relationships and Engage Regularly

You will never build a relationship by selling alone on LinkedIn, you need to engage with your network daily. Make it a habit to:

• Comment, like & share your connections’ posts.
• Ask thoughtful questions to start conversations.
• Acknowledge other people on their gains or work anniversaries.

The more consistently you engage with your network, the more you will stay top of mind and build real relationships that will eventually lead to conversions.

Wrapping Up

As an expert with 8 years of experience in B2B lead generation, I can tell you that LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools for B2B lead generation. If you follow these marketing strategies for lead generation, you will be generating more qualified leads and growing your sales. With an optimized profile, clearly defined target audience, valuable content, LinkedIn advanced tools and personalized outreach, you’ll be in good shape.

If you’re ready to ramp up your LinkedIn lead generation, start using these tactics today and see your network and sales opportunities quickly grow. Happy networking!