Did you know that LinkedIn lead generation is one of the most vital activities for the sales departments of B2B companies?
“Why?” you ask.
Well, because LinkedIn is the #1 social media for generating leads. Its lead conversion rates are 3x higher than any other major social media platform. Moreover, LinkedIn alone generates 80% of B2B leads coming from all social media channels a company uses.
We can go on with the metrics, but you get the gist. LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for generating tons of qualified leads that convert successfully.
Sadly, many people do not take advantage of this social media platform. Or they do not have the desired results using LinkedIn lead generation and just give up.
So, in this complete guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know about LinkedIn lead generation. To be more precise, you will learn:
- What is LinkedIn lead generation;
- How to generate qualified leads on LinkedIn whether you are a marketer or a sales person;
- What you need to do before you even think about a LinkedIn lead generation;
- Top intent-based strategies to make your LinkedIn lead generation flow in with results and shorten the buying cycle;
- What are the best LinkedIn lead generation tools are;
- How to perform outreach after you generated high-quality leads;
- Answers to most frequently asked questions about LinkedIn lead generation.
What Is LinkedIn Lead Generation?
LinkedIn lead generation represents activities associated with identifying, gathering, and warming up potential clients on LinkedIn. Sales and marketing teams do so by using ads, forms, various tools, strategies, and outreach to generate qualified leads. It is an ongoing process that creates steady income for all B2B companies.
Why LinkedIn?
With the competitive market, generating high-quality leads has become somewhat of a challenge for B2B companies. Thus everyone needed to step up their lead generation efforts to stay relevant in the market.
That is where LinkedIn comes in. With 875 million members from 200+ countries, this #1 social media for professionals became a goldmine for B2B marketers and sales executives.
Due to a large pool of professionals, 4 out of 5 LinkedIn users drive certain business decisions. Hence this audience has 2x buying power of the average web audience. Therefore, LinkedIn has been recognized as a perfect place where companies can find ideal leads and offer a solution to their problems.
To make it easier for you to find the perfect lead, LinkedIn provides insights such as job titles, company they work in and its size, content they like and more. Moreover, this social media platform offers many ways sales and marketing teams can use to acquire qualified leads. So we will talk about all of them today.
How To Generate Leads From LinkedIn?
To generate high-quality leads on LinkedIn you need to perform different sales and marketing activities, leverage performance data, and improve. These activities include but are not limited to defining target audience, outreach, creating or sharing gated content, communicating benefits, and lead nurturing.
Depending on whether you are a salesperson or B2B marketer these activities may vary but do have the same goal. So let’s break them down and check out what is the main focus for each professional.
LinkedIn Marketing For Lead Generation
LinkedIn marketing is a form of digital marketing where B2B marketers use LinkedIn to promote businesses, share content and generate leads. In most cases, marketing managers use LinkedIn to provide value and raise awareness through posting educational or gated content on the company page, thus generating more leads.
In other words, marketers use LinkedIn to:
- Provide value through posting educational and engaging content on the company’s LinkedIn page;
- Raise awareness about the product/service by creating and sharing case studies or specialized landing pages;
- Grow following and increase engagement with target audience;
- Create gated content and share it on LinkedIn with benefits and call-to-action for the said content;
- Optimize LinkedIn page and content for SEO;
- Host and share an online event ( webinars, hangouts, etc).
As a part of their marketing strategy, some content marketers even become influencers or thought leaders themselves. This way, digital marketing managers can expand their network and have an additional channel to share their content.
The previously-mentioned activities are heavily based on organic content marketing. However, as a part of LinkedIn marketing, you can get paid traffic, engagement or generate leads by publishing sponsored content, aka ad campaigns.
LinkedIn Ads
Digital marketers often publish sponsored content through the LinkedIn campaign manager as part of lead generation efforts. They do so by specifying their target audience with certain demographics or other parameters and presenting them with the purposeful ad they create.
For example, they can create an ad campaign with a call-to-action button to visit a landing page with gated content. The target audience then goes to a landing page and leaves contact information.
For those who don’t know, gated content is digital material, such as educational videos, ebooks, or other documents that request users to fill out a contact form before they can download or access them. This is one of the classic ways marketers use to generate leads.
Therefore, to get their lead gen forms to a wider audience and gather potential customers for their sales team, digital marketers can opt-in for sponsored content on LinkedIn as a part of their marketing strategy.
What does this mean in terms of activities? Well, marketers can use LinkedIn campaign manager to:
- Raise awareness about their business or product;
- Boost content engagement;
- Launch lead generation campaign (LinkedIn lead gen forms or landing page promotion);
- Or message your potential customer directly through ads.
They say a visual is worth more than a thousand words, so here is how sharing gated content or launching a lead generation campaign works in real life.
Even though LinkedIn ads are a part of overall LinkedIn marketing, they are not mandatory for LinkedIn lead generation, as you can do certain things organically. However, they can be immensely beneficial if you wish to go all in.
That said, here is what all LinkedIn marketing activities would look like in a funnel.
Using LinkedIn Outreach For Lead Generation
LinkedIn outreach signifies contacting and warming up potential customers on LinkedIn. It is the next step in the lead generation process, once salespeople finish with LinkedIn prospecting or after the marketing team acquires contact information through gated content. LinkedIn is the preferred social media for outreach due to communication simplicity.
Salespeople can outreach two types of leads to generate and qualify them: inbound or outbound leads. Inbound leads are the ones who have already interacted with your company (e.g. gave their information due to lead generation strategy or contacted via chat). On the other hand, sales professionals outreach outbound leads by themselves after finding them via prospecting.
Outreach on LinkedIn is definitely a long and separate subject on its own. However, there are definitely a couple of main principles we must mention for the sake of this article.
LinkedIn Outreach Principles
Firstly, LinkedIn outreach is the main part of the social selling strategy. In other words, it focuses on building relationships, offering a solution to problems, and nurturing leads throughout the buying journey.
For example, you will usually find sales professionals starting the conversation on LinkedIn by asking about the lead's workflow. Or they will offer educational content or case studies long before they pitch their product or service.
Secondly, LinkedIn outreach is about quality, not quantity. So make sure to find and outreach the right people according to your ICP or Buyer Persona.
Lastly, as marketing can retarget website visitors, salespeople can use retargeting of their own. To clarify, they can reach out to people they already had contact with in some shape or form and didn’t convert. The outreach message can be a simple follow up to catch up after a while or a full product update, depending on where they left off the conversation.
With that in mind, here is a funnel with all the activities that sales people go through regarding LinkedIn lead generation.
If you do not have time to do the above-mentioned activities, you can always hire a LinkedIn lead generation agency to do it for you. However, if you wish to do it yourself, stay tuned as we will show you tips, tricks and strategies on how to do it right.
What Do You Need to Do Before LinkedIn Lead Generation?
As previously stated, LinkedIn lead generation is undoubtedly the main focus for B2B companies. However, you can’t just dive right into LinkedIn lead generation without first establishing the basics.
If you do, you will generate a miserable number of leads and not the good ones either. The reason for such an outcome is poor LinkedIn lead generation basic steps, strategy, targeting, and outreach method. Luckily we will cover everything below.
Are you ready? We will start with what you need to do first.
Create Highly Converting LinkedIn Profile
Before you start any LinkedIn lead generation activity, you must improve your LinkedIn profile and optimize it for conversions. If you do it thoroughly, it will stand out from other profiles and attract more people to visit it.
For example, your LinkedIn URL optimized for SEO and the LinkedIn headline created to boost LinkedIn lead generation will get you more profile views. Even a profile and LinkedIn cover photo can get you 14x more profile views. More visits will result in a lot more connection requests and engagements.
Let’s take a look at this way. What profile photo captures your attention first in the following example?
We would guess that your answer is the lady with the orange background.
The reason she captured your attention is the fact that she implemented steps that more than 80% of LinkedIn users don’t.
People are more prone to send you a connection request if they like your profile. Furthermore, they will accept your requests frequently. Thus, your success in generating new leads, acquiring new users, and even selling will increase significantly.
Marketers, this goes for the company’s LinkedIn page, as well. Set the high-quality logo as your profile picture, add a high-quality cover photo that mirrors your branding, and import as much info as possible. Lastly, don’t forget to optimize your LinkedIn public URL for SEO, as LinkedIn users and search engines will use it to find your page.
So, to stand our case, optimizing your profile will improve the conversion rate. Thus, it is one of the most important first steps to successful LinkedIn lead generation.
Define Your ICP And Buyer Persona For LinkedIn Lead Generation
Ideal Customer Profile and Buyer Persona are complementary documents that define your perfect customer and their company. In other words, they contain lead specification variables such as job title, the industry they work in, company size, or location.
You should create your ICP and Buyer Persona based on your current customer data. This way, these documents will contain what type of lead:
- Has the shortest buying cycle;
- Keeps high retention rate and LTV;
- Refer your product elsewhere.
If you do not define your ICP and Buyer Persona, you won’t be able to:
- Prepare your LinkedIn lead generation outreach message that converts;
- Generate high-quality leads;
- Or create thought-leadership content to appeal to your ideal potential customers.
In other words, you can’t do all these things because you don’t know who you are doing it for, to begin with. So be sure to define both to make your LinkedIn lead generation strategies more effective.
Become A Thought Leader
Here is an interesting fact for you. Did you know that many decision-makers, 54% of them to be more precise, claim they spend 1+ hour per week reading and reviewing thought-leadership content?
Being someone others follow to discover more about their position-related news is one of the essential activities of LinkedIn lead generation. Keep in mind that being a thought leader is a continuous process. Once you get started with it, you need to be consistent to grow your network.
The best hook for any thought leader is offering valuable and actionable content to your network. Moreover, you will have better engagement if you add proof of success, for example, the exact results you achieved.
By offering a lot of valuable content, you’re earning people’s trust and building the image of an expert in your field. This will help you gain influence status in your market and get tons of leads through your posts.
Whatsmore, you will connect with people on a much deeper level by being proactive and initiating different conversations based on your content.
How To Become Thought Leader?
Provide people with actionable steps to implement in their business. In addition, these steps should demonstrate your experience in improving your own or someone else’s business. Or, you could share stories about tools and strategies you used to get incredible results.
To clarify the previously stated, let’s go through an example.
Why did this post work?
Firstly, the opening line promises a lot and entices readers to discover more about the story.
Secondly, the author showcases the astonishing results and what they could bring to anyone who follows the same steps.
Thirdly, by explaining how the content they share helped his company, the author provides the direct benefit and why people should read the document.
Lastly, they include an alluring CTA so people continue engaging with the post. Moreover, said CTA plays the main role in increasing this post’s tremendous reach (98,910 people).
How?
Well, this post uses the LinkedIn algorithm to its fullest potential. To clarify, when you publish a post, this is what the LinkedIn algorithm does:
- First, it shows your post to a small group of people called a test group;
- Secondly, if the test group engages with your post, LinkedIn starts showing your post to all your 1st-degree connections and their friends;
- Lastly, if the 2nd or 3rd-degree connections engage with it, it will appear in their network too.
That’s how the wider audience can see this post and engage with it.
What the author asks of people who want to see the guide, in this case, is to first engage with the post by commenting on it.
That’s why the post became viral. And not only did the post become viral, but it paved the way for network expansion and lead generation. All that from the post alone. Wow!
Build Your Network And Relationships On LinkedIn
Being a thought leader is all nice and fun. However, you won’t get far unless you use this social media for what it truly is for: building a network and nurturing real relationships with other members.
There is no workaround for this one. The only way to build a relationship with your network is to reach out and start a conversation with them (read between the lines - LinkedIn outreach). Talk about their work experience, and what they find most challenging or exchange tips. You can also have a digital coffee with them.
That said, establish a habit of finding new people to interact with each day. After all, from honest and good relationships, great customers are born. And that is Social Selling for you folks.
Create A Personalization Spreadsheet
Speaking of Social Selling, you should know that its backbone is actually personalization in communication. Nobody would want to talk to you if you appeared generic or dishonest. Thus, if you wish to do LinkedIn lead generation right, you need to first hyper-personalize your communication on this social media.
So, when you start generating leads on LinkedIn, you need to research what that person is all about so you can start a genuine conversation. The one thing that will help you keep organized in this detective work is a lead personalization spreadsheet. It is a simple yet effective document where you will gather everything about your leads, such as:
- First and last name;
- LinkedIn profile URL;
- Company name.
- The topic of the content they published;
- What stood out for you the most from the particular post;
- School they went to;
- Field of study;
- Jobs they posted;
- The technology they use;
- Company growth information;
- Personalized message intro (the message you can create based on above mentioned);
Keep in mind that this spreadsheet functions as an actionable document you can use in your LinkedIn lead generation efforts. Don’t worry. We will explain how it actually becomes actionable, so stay tuned.
Understand Buying Signals When Doing LinkedIn Lead Generation
If we needed to label the urgency of what you should do before LinkedIn lead generation, this would be Very Urgent on our list. Why? Because marketing and sales change their approaches rapidly. So you must keep up with these changes to stay relevant in the market.
To be more precise, you need to be aware of this change called buying signals. It is the activity that leads perform to indicate buying intention for a specific product or a service. Or a buying signal can be an event that has taken place within the company that changed the company’s needs.
For example, a prospect can post about a service explaining their good or bad experience and demonstrate their (dis)satisfaction.
Content marketers and sales are already using buying signals to generate high-quality leads with specific intent because it is a way to faster and better conversion. Consequently, LinkedIn is no exception.
For example, marketing may notice a buying signal if visitors from LinkedIn go to several pages and end up on a pricing page in one session. Marketing then can post sponsored content on LinkedIn, retargeting those who ended up on a pricing page with another highly-converting landing page.
The sales team, on the other hand, can notice a person liking a case study they shared. After checking if the person has interacted with the business in some other way, they will outreach them on LinkedIn to connect or follow up on the said topic.
That is what is happening in sales and marketing at the moment. People are figuring out holistic high-intent and signal-based approaches, and you should be one of them. So if you plan to work on LinkedIn lead generation, first learn to detect these signals on LinkedIn and use them to their fullest potential.
Top LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategies To Generate More Leads in 2024
Do not worry if you are still unsure of buying intent and how to create your strategy based on it. We’ve got your back. Some of the LinkedIn lead generation strategies listed below will give you an idea of how to do the prospecting on LinkedIn to detect these signals, find them, influence them, and reach out to your leads at just the right moment.
1. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator Search For Lead Generation
LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a platform for sales executives, is a the first method for B2B lead generation.
Apart from the leads they get from marketers, who use LinkedIn lead gen forms, sales executives can generate their own leads using Sales Navigator’s extensive list of filters.
Sales Navigator offers Lead filters to search for your Buyer Persona and Account filters if you wish to find your ICP.
However, amidst all the filters, we wish to highlight one in particular that every sales expert in SaaS companies would like to see - the Technology used filter. This filter allows you to find people who use software similar to yours or even your competitor's products and reach out to them.
Simply go to your Sales Navigator Account filters and find Technology Used or search by keyword.
Once you do, go to that company page and find the decision-maker and reach out to them.
You can also send them gated content that will act like a LinkedIn lead gen form for your marketing team. They can use it to target the leads with other beneficial content. Whatsmore, you will raise awareness and establish contact with them without pushing them to buy, but rather pulling them towards your company.
2. Search According To Your ICP Or Buyer Persona
One of the well-established ways for B2B lead generation is to use the LinkedIn search filters to their fullest.
Dear sales teams, this is where your ICP and Buyer Persona come into play. If you read our guides, then you already know that each piece of information in these documents should be actionable.
Set the filters according to the documents using either LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator accounts to narrow your search. Once you do, copy the search URL. You are going to need it soon.
Trust us. By combining LinkedIn lead generation with your ICP or Buyer Persona, you will notice far better results than before since your leads will be more qualified.
3. Use LinkedIn InMail Templates For Lead Generation
LinkedIn InMails are direct and private messages you send or receive from a LinkedIn account that is not in your network.
InMails is a nifty feature for salespeople to use if they cannot get a hold of the lead using other methods (e.g. by sending a connection request). To clarify, once you send an InMail, the person will receive a notification as they would for regular messages.
If you are unsure what type of message to write to generate leads and get additional contact information via InMail, stop by our other blog and check out 13 LinkedIn InMail examples with a 25% response rate formula.
4. Job Posting Search
If a company publishes a job post, it usually means that they:
- Got funding for the department;
- Something is not right in the current process;
- Or a person from the team is leaving for some reason.
Whatever happened here, this is your chance to investigate and detect the buying signal.
In other words, this LinkedIn lead generation strategy focuses on job vacancy search, adding companies to a spreadsheet, and then finding decision-makers and reaching out to them.
Here is how you can generate leads by discovering specific job posts. For example, let’s say your company outsources sales specialists. To find these job posts, simply type that keyword in the LinkedIn search field. For example, you can search for a Sales Manager and use all filters to get as close to your ICP as possible.
Once you find the desired company, go to their LinkedIn page and search for decision-makers within those companies. Lastly, write them down in your Personalization Spreadsheet so your outreach can later be more effective.
5. Team Up Sales And Marketing Efforts For Ultimate LinkedIn Lead Generation
We cannot talk about LinkedIn lead generation and miss mentioning the marketing and sales synergy. Today people research services of interest first before contacting sales or support. Thus, it became essential for marketers to cater to these research needs by creating content and working alongside the sales department to generate leads with personalized sponsored content.
On the other hand, salespeople are responsible for inbound contact and outbound activities. They do this through thought leadership, prospecting, and personal contact once the lead lands in the funnel.
Here is an example of how sales and marketing activities should be in synergy.
Thus, one of the main LinkedIn lead generation strategies should be aligning their activities on LinkedIn too. In other words, marketing and sales should:
- Communicate the same benefits and messaging;
- Create gated content;
- Serve personalized content on LinkedIn;
- Address immediate pain points and buying signals.
It is essential to align your sales and marketing teams since they are equally valuable. In other words, if the sales team targets the leads using buying signals, marketing should do the same as one of their activities. For example, if sales send the leads to a book-a-demo page, marketing can create a LinkedIn lead generation ad to target people who visited the demo page but didn’t convert.
Note: To reach the ultimate results using lead generation, the best-case practice is to extend your lead research beyond LinkedIn. In other words, discover other places to find B2B sales leads according to buying signals and trace them back to LinkedIn for outreach.
6. Check For Buying Impulses By Searching LinkedIn Hashtags
LinkedIn offers many holistic ways to generate leads. Thus, searching for the leads who shared their pain points or someone who wasn’t satisfied with your competitors via hashtags is one way to do it.
This strategy is perfect for zeroing in on the leads based on buying signals. However, it might need some time as it requires manual work.
All you need to do is type your competitor’s name to find dissatisfied customers, search for the hashtag. Or explore hashtags to find a person who asked for advice on their pain point.
Once you do, write down everything you discover in your personalization spreadsheet. This way, you will gather all the information you need to personalize the message for the outreach.
7. Combing Through LinkedIn Groups
You can also find the leads by searching through LinkedIn groups - the themed places for professionals of all caliber to share their thoughts and experiences or ask questions about the group topic in one place.
Unfortunately, post-engagement-wise, LinkedIn groups are dead. However, that doesn’t mean that your leads aren’t there or their content. In other words, these groups still hold a place for LinkedIn accounts that joined the group in the first place. So go ahead and find the groups your Buyer Persona would be in. Join those groups and leverage them for LinkedIn lead generation by reaching out to its members or finding a post that demonstrates buying signal or intent.
For example, if your target group is marketers, you can search the group by keyword and find your ideal leads.
From there, you can invite them to connect with you by writing a message such as this:
Hey Aanya, I’ve seen your interesting posts on the right partnership in digital marketing in the Software/Technology group. So I’m reaching out in hope to connect with you on that topic.
8. LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy That Includes Targeting Posts
One way to jump over gatekeepers and reach decision-makers directly is to find content that appeals to them. Let’s take a look at the following post, for example.
If you click the reactions or comments, you will for sure find some decision-makers out there.
This is a valuable LinkedIn lead generation strategy, as you will have the perfect conversation starter once you outreach the decision-maker. For example, your conversation starter, based on the previous example, could be:
Hey Tomer, I noticed you liked Gary Vaynerchuk’s post on making decisions easier by watching consumer behavior, being customer-centric, and putting in the hours. I wanted to ask you how you make decisions in your company. Are there any obstacles and challenges in what Gary mentioned? Let’s connect on this.
Furthermore, you can check the post reactions a dissatisfied customer wrote on your competitor and generate the people who agreed with their opinion. The possibilities are endless.
9. Generate Leads From Event Attendees List
If you wish to research your leads’ buying signals, you need to start thinking about what LinkedIn events your ideal audience attends. Whatsmore, you can find them all in one place. Attending an event of this kind gives you valuable insight into their problems and needs.
To target event attendees, you need to first search for the events. Then, choose the event and click the Attend button.
Next, click the Attendees button and check for the list.
Once the event is live, be sure to write down all the questions, concerns, or comments your leads have so you can personalize your outreach later on.
10. Referral Program For LinkedIn Lead Generation
LinkedIn’s main benefit is networking. So why shouldn’t you use this benefit for LinkedIn lead generation?
The key here is to connect with your customers and offer them an incentive to refer your service to people who might be interested in using it. In other words, you can create a referral program for your current customers.
Here is an example of how the LinkedIn lead generation referral program works. First, you can offer a 20% discount for 1 month to your customer for every LinkedIn user who comes to your demo. If they find three people, that’s a 20% discount for 3 months.
What happens, in this case, is that if the recommended leads convert, they can branch out and find other leads for you to contact and convert.
This referral program acts as word-of-mouth and a passive LinkedIn lead generation. You get leads with the buying signal, and your clients become your advocates. In return, they receive an incentive. Win-Win.
11. Generate Leads From Your LinkedIn Post
Posting content on LinkedIn as a thought leader is the most beneficial way of attracting the leads you wish. The type of content you post is your decision and creative liberty. However, for LinkedIn lead generation purposes, be sure to post in a way to appeal to high-quality leads in a unique and personalized way.
Once you see the reactions piling in, you can gather the LinkedIn profiles in one place, and outreach them manually or use the LinkedIn automation and Email software to do it for you. But we will talk about this soon.
12. Gated Posts As LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy
Another thing you can do for LinkedIn lead generation that includes posts is to create a piece intended for acquiring new B2B leads.
To clarify, B2B marketers publish lead generation campaigns to boost their overall lead generation efforts. The type of sponsored content they publish the most are gated content and LinkedIn lead gen forms with call to action.
Similarly, salespeople can share gated content with their network. The catch is to write about the benefits of said content within your post. At the end of your post, you can share a landing page that leads to a form. Or you can ask the network to leave a comment on your post for two reasons:
- To appeal to LinkedIn’s algorithm and get more eyes on your post (more engagement leads to more impressions);
- And to have a reason to contact the leads directly and keep the conversation going (or use a lead generation tool to do the outreach for you).
Here is an example. Do you remember the post example from the How to become a thought leader section? Yes, that was gated content designed specifically for starting a conversation with new leads who are already interested in seeing the valuable content. What’s best is that they are the ones who initiated the contact. Thus social selling can go upright from here on now.
To post about gated content for LinkedIn, you can share any valuable piece your marketing team prepared for you. Or you can write one from your experience – the choice is yours. However, keep in mind that this content needs to showcase good results as proof, be industry-specific, and aim to cater to your prospects’ pain points.
Just try it, and you will see why this strategy is one of the best for B2B lead generation.
13. Linkedin Lead Generation Forms (Lead Gen Forms)
LinkedIn lead gen forms are a type of LinkedIn ad where the leads need to fill in a form to access the promoted material. It is similar to gated content on the website. However, the only difference is that LinkedIn alone hosts the lead gen form.
Once the lead clicks on the call to action, LinkedIn prefills the form, making it easier for leads to submit the information. You can then easily access the leads list, download it, and import it into the preferred automation tool. Or send it to your sales team. 🙂
LinkedIn charges this type of ad by cost per lead. In other words, you pay once the lead fills out the form. However, it can get quite expensive. It all depends on the industry and other parameters, but the projection for 2023 is that the average cost per lead on LinkedIn will be $75.
In addition, please keep in mind that not all LinkedIn lead generation ads need to have a LinkedIn lead gen form. They can be a single image or a video that leads to another landing page with the form. So let’s talk about them.
14. LinkedIn Lead Generation Ads
As we previously stated, LinkedIn ads are powerful thus, they are one of the best strategies marketers can apply. However, many shy away from launching the ads due to their complexity at first glance.
However, marketing teams, to be fair, LinkedIn lead generation ads are not for a scare. They are just a tad more expensive. 🙂
So here is how to launch any other type of lead generation ads in 7 simple steps.
7 Steps To Create LinkedIn Lead Generation Ad
Go to the Work section and navigate to the Advertise button.
Next, if you already have your account set up, choose your account and click the Create button and choose Campaign.
Then, select the goal of the campaign. You can choose among awareness, website visits, engagement, video views, and conversions. If, for example, you wish to promote your LinkedIn group or company’s LinkedIn page, choose the engagement campaign type. Or, if you wish to publish the LinkedIn lead gen form, use the Lead generation under Conversion.
Next, define their target audience. While choosing who you wish to see your LinkedIn ads, you can set parameters such as demographics, job titles, or similar parameters. Or, you can opt-in for retargeting your website visitors via LinkedIn Insight Tag. In both cases, do not forget to set conversions to track metrics.
Then, select ad format and placement (should you wish for LinkedIn to distribute your ad elsewhere). Keep in mind that message type ad acts as LinkedIn InMails, and will be labeled as Sponsored (unlike regular InMails). Moreover, the recipient will receive a notification for a message but won’t be able to respond or follow up with you. They can only interact with your call-to-action button.
Your next step is to select the budget and conversion tracking if needed.
Create Your Ad
Now the real fun begins. Once you click Next, you will arrive at the ad dashboard. To start, click the Create new ad button.
Lastly, create your message, enter the website URL where your gated content is and define a call-to-action button. Here, you are making sure that the core message resonates with the selected target audience, depending on where they are in the buying journey.
What’s more, keep in mind that this interface differs depending on the ad form you choose. Here is how it should look if you wish to create a LinkedIn lead gen form.
Once you insert the ad details, click Create at the bottom right of the screen, and your ad will be ready. You can then track your metrics and success back in the campaign manager.
LinkedIn Lead Generation Ads Examples
One of the shortest and sweetest ads we’ve seen must be the LinkedIn lead gen form that Hubspot published. It carefully emphasizes benefits - everything one needs to promote their business on Instagram and offers a cheat sheet as an easy solution. Moreover, the LinkedIn lead gen form auto-populates the fields, and the leads need only to click the Submit button.
Next on our list is GetResponse, who asked one of their customers to create a short video.
This ad is a win because of three reasons. Firstly, they used video format, which is the preferred format nowadays. Secondly, their customer gives a testimonial, a live word, and their experience with the product. Lastly, they promote their forever-free account, so it’s easier for the leads to sign up without any obligations.
Last, but not least, we have Atlassian’s webinar promotion.
Not every lead generation ad needs to have a service sign-up as the ultimate goal. Webinar sign-ups work for different buying cycles just as well, and Atlassian recognized it.
What is a win in this situation is not the copy above, nor a visual (though it helps), but the wording “on-demand”. You see, many of us do not have time, or have different schedules. So it makes it harder to fit one webinar by the time it is up live. The phrase “on-demand” makes it easier for leads to sign up, as they can watch the webinar whenever they find the time.
15. Use Sales Navigator’s Buyer Intent Feature For Lead Generation
Lastly, Sales Navigator introduced its Buyer Intent feature. It offers insights into accounts showing the level of interest. Buyer Intent helps sales professionals reach out to the right people and companies at the right time.
How it works is that LinkedIn tracks accounts that interacted with your business on many levels (e.g. if the leads viewed your profile or a company page, accepted your request, etc). It then labels them by the level of interest and recommends them to you. It is a perfect way to generate leads that previously showed some level of interest in your company.
However, keep in mind this feature is only available for Sales Navigator Advance and Advance Plus users. Thus if you have a Sales Navigator Core account, you won’t have this functionality.
Best LinkedIn Lead Generation Tools
LinkedIn lead generation tools are automation tools that streamline your lead generation activities on LinkedIn, help you track metrics, and optimize your efforts for success. In other words, these somewhat done-for-you tools automate the processes, such as prospecting and initial outreach, that you’d otherwise do manually. In addition, they help you with time-consuming tasks, thus saving you time to focus on closing the deal.
What’s more, LinkedIn lead generation tools are data-driven. To clarify, they provide you with precise metrics of your activities and show you how to optimize them for better results.
So what tools and platforms are the best for your LinkedIn lead generation efforts?
Campaign Manager For The LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms Ads
Unlike the Sales Navigator platform created for sales executives, LinkedIn’s campaign manager is a tool created for marketers. It basically allows marketing specialists to publish a different kinds of ads on LinkedIn,
As we previously mentioned, one of the best ad types is the Lead Generation Form ads. However, they are and will be expensive as they directly generate the leads’ contact info on LinkedIn.
Thus, you are probably wondering if you can use something less expensive. Yes, you can generate leads on LinkedIn via outreach, which is a cheaper method, even if you use the tool with it.
Sales Navigator For Prospecting
We cannot stop gushing about Sales Navigator simply because it offers many possibilities for sales professionals to streamline prospecting efforts as part of LinkedIn lead generation. In other words, Sales Navigator offers:
- 15 different Account filters to narrow down your search according to your ICP;
- Apply 29 Lead filters to find your Buyer Persona;
- Leveraging the Buyer Intent feature to generate high-intent leads;
- Setting alerts for leads or companies to get a notification if something changes;
- Integration with CRMs (such as Salesforce);
- Creating Leads lists to separate and save different decision-makers profiles.
And these are just to name a few, as there are many other Sales Navigator features for lead generation. However, be aware that the features you'll have at your disposal entirely depend on the type of Sales Navigator plan you use. Thus, read about all the plans and choose the one that will suit you best.
So, once you find your ideal leads, you can outreach them directly from Sales Navigator or use the LinkedIn automation tool.
LinkedIn Automation Tools Designed For The Outreach
You could outreach the leads manually. Simply define the personalized message according to the info you gathered about them in the document. Then, outreach them one by one via LinkedIn or email.
However, I have a question: What would happen if you generate hundreds or even thousands of leads? Would outreach them manually and watch over each step of the outreach process for every lead?
Well, the good news is you don’t have to. You can use a LinkedIn automation tool to do it for you.
LinkedIn automation tools are software that helps you save time by streamlining the most time-consuming part of the outreach process.
To clarify, let’s take our very own Skylead, a LinkedIn automation and Cold Email software. With Skylead, you can streamline the process of:
1) Finding your target leads;
2) Building your network to accelerate becoming Thought Leader;
3) Outreaching and establishing the first contact with your leads according to their behavior via Smart Sequences (this is one of the best Skylead’s functionalities);
4) Sending native hyper-personalize messages with variables, Images, and GIFs to increase the response rate;
5) Finding and verifying your leads’ email addresses to multichannel your outreach;
What’s more, you can integrate Skylead with your CRM and send data via Zapier webhooks or by using API. The choice is yours.
That said…
How Should You Approach Outreach After Previously-Mentioned LinkedIn Lead Generation Activities?
Our third and final part of the ultimate guide to LinkedIn lead generation will show you how to leverage a LinkedIn automation tool to streamline your outreach process. Moreover, we will cover how to approach your leads and start converting them seamlessly.
Let’s go!
Save The Time And Outreach Smart
Here is how you can use Skylead to get the outreach done easily and quickly. Firstly, go to your Skylead dashboard and click the Create new campaign button.
Next, choose the lead source, aka where Skylead will pull your leads from. For the sake of this article and to show you how to use a Personalization Spreadsheet, we will choose to upload a CSV file. In addition, don’t forget to name your campaign.
Be sure to create a new CSV file out of the information you gathered about your leads. The only condition here is to insert a person’s LinkedIn profile and/or email address. If you cannot find the person’s email address, you can use one of these ways to find emails yourself or let Skylead take care of that.
Skylead provides the following native variables you can use to personalize your messages:
- First name
- Last name
- Current company
- Years in current company
- Total career positions count
- Total years of experience
- College name
- Occupation
In addition, you can insert other information in columns, such as the topic of the article they wrote, and Skylead will recognize them as custom variables. In other words, this column becomes actionable data you will use in your outreach.
For example, your CSV file can end up looking something like this:
Once you click next, set up your additional campaign settings and when you wish to launch your campaign.
Smart Sequence Creation
Welcome to the Smart Sequence builder page. Here, you need to create an action path that Skylead will follow once you launch the campaign. This action path (Smart Sequence) will observe the leads’ behavior and act accordingly until they respond to your outreach.
Simply drag and drop actions and use different conditions based on their behavior to maximize getting in touch with your leads.
Do not forget to write personalized messages for an invite to connect, InMail, LinkedIn, or Email message steps.
The good practice here is to connect with your leads on a deeper level. So, craft your outreach messages to be as genuine as possible. For example, if you wish to send an invite to connect, try one of our invite-to-connect templates with up to a 78% acceptance rate, such as:
Hello {{firstName}}, I’ve noticed you have {{MutualConnectionName}} in your network. I worked with them at {{CompanyName}} a while back. I really loved {{whatYouLovedAboutMutualConnection}}. That said, I see that we are both in the {{IndustryName}} industry and would love to have you in my network.
Or, if for example, a lead doesn’t respond, get inspired by our follow up after no response templates and write something thematic like:
Hey {{firstName}}, I’ve just seen your fantastic LinkedIn post on {{Topic}}. The thing that really resonated with me was {{Quote}}. It would be great to hear more about how your business operates in this regard and also share some of my tips if you’re up for it. What do you say? Would you like to chat about this?
After you define all the steps and messages, you can finalize the process by clicking the Start campaign button and your campaign is ready. Easy peasy.
Frequently asked questions about Linkedin Lead Generation
Oh, what a journey has been so far, hasn’t it? However, we still want to cover everything there is to know about LinkedIn lead generation. Therefore, here are a couple of FaQs to sum up LinkedIn lead generation.
What specific challenges do companies face when implementing these strategies, and how can they overcome them?
Companies may face challenges like creating engaging content and measuring ROI. Overcoming these involves using analytics for insights and continuously refining strategies based on performance data.
How do these lead generation strategies integrate with other marketing tools and platforms for a cohesive campaign?
Integration with other sales and marketing tools can be achieved through CRM systems and marketing automation platforms, ensuring a seamless flow of lead data and consistent messaging across channels.
Can small businesses or solo entrepreneurs effectively implement these strategies on a limited budget, and if so, how?
Small businesses and solo entrepreneurs can effectively use these strategies by focusing on highly targeted outreach and leveraging free or low-cost tools available on LinkedIn for engagement and networking. They can also get a LinkedIn automation tool and cold email software that has an excellent price-to-feature ratio, like Skylead.
Which LinkedIn Ad Format Is The Best For Lead Generation?
The LinkedIn ad format best for lead generation is a Single Image ad because it looks organic with other content you see in the newsfeed. Moreover, if combined with Lead gen form, it can bring amazing results. The next best thing is to promote gated content on your website.
How Do I Target A Lead On LinkedIn?
You can target leads with your ads by using LinkedIn campaign manager. All you need to do is to define demographics, firmographics, and other parameters of your target audience or choose to retarget your website visitors via LinkedIn Insight Tag. Then create an ad, and publish it.
How Do I Generate B2B Leads On LinkedIn?
You can generate B2B leads on LinkedIn by using any of the strategies mentioned in this article, such as posting gated content, using lead generation form ads, and generating leads from event attendees. Moreover, you can generate leads from job postings, leveraging Sales Navigator’s buying intent feature, and more.
Why Is LinkedIn Best For Lead Generation?
LinkedIn is best for lead generation because it’s the #1 professional network in the world. According to LinkedIn, lead conversion rates are 3x higher than any other social media. Moreover, 4 out of 5 LinkedIn users drive certain business decisions and have 2x buying power of the average web audience.
Ready To Scale Up Your LinkedIn Lead Generation?
LinkedIn is the #1 place to generate new leads by creating valuable content and reaching out to new connections.
However, before you get started with LinkedIn lead generation, you need to make sure to:
- Create a highly converting LinkedIn profile;
- Define your ICP and Buyer Persona;
- Become a thought leader;
- Build your network and relationship regularly;
- Create a personalization spreadsheet;
- Learn more and understand buying signals.
Once you do, you can apply one or all LinkedIn lead generation strategies to generate leads.
LinkedIn lead generation works best if you combine it with other lead generation methods outside of LinkedIn and then circle back to LinkedIn to outreach them.
However, you don’t have to do the outreach alone. Skylead can help you out with that. So come by, check out Skylead, and start your 7-day Free Trial!
Have you ever wondered, "What is my LinkedIn URL?" or "Does it affect my professional experience and lead generation?" then, stay tuned. By the end of this blog, you'll learn:
- What is your LinkedIn URL
- Where to find it
- Why and how to change it on the desktop and in the mobile app
- How customizing it affects your experience and helps your LinkedIn lead generation
- 3 ways to customize your it if someone has already taken a specific URL
- What to watch out for
- Best tips and tricks from our experience so you can stand out from the crowd and make your profile accessible and searchable.
What is my LinkedIn URL?
LinkedIn URL is your profile’s unique URL address automatically assigned to every LinkedIn member. You can customize it for a more professional LinkedIn experience and share it with people to connect with them by going to your LinkedIn profile and copying the URL located in the browser address bar.
Every LinkedIn profile URL starts with https://www.linkedin.com/in/ followed by your name and some numbers (user ID) which you get by default when you open your LinkedIn profile for the first time. Here’s an example of a default profile URL https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzana-ristic-48a636207/. The part in bold of your profile’s address can be customized to look more neat and professional.
The same rule applies to any LinkedIn company page.
When shared, your LinkedIn profile URL is clickable, and it leads directly to your profile on the platform. You can send it in a message, hyperlink your email signature, or copy-paste it into your resume so that people can easily check what you're all about professionally.
How to find my LinkedIn URL?
There are two ways you can find your LinkedIn URL.
#1 Option - Go to your LinkedIn profile page and check out the address bar. This is your shareable LinkedIn profile URL.
#2 Option - Stay at your LinkedIn homepage. Click “Contact info”.
This is your LinkedIn URL.
How do I copy my LinkedIn profile link?
You can use either method mentioned above to copy your LinkedIn profile link. In other words, go to your LinkedIn profile, find your LinkedIn profile link in your browser address bar, and copy it from there. Or you can copy it directly from your contact info on your LinkedIn profile page.
How to change your LinkedIn profile URL?
#1 Go to your LinkedIn homepage. In the top right corner, you’ll see the “Edit public profile & URL” section. Click on it.
#2 This action will take you to a separate page. Again in the top right corner, click on the pencil icon to change the customizable section of your profile URL. After you’ve finished, click “Save”.
NOTE: Both LinkedIn and search engines will take some time to detect the URL changes. However, you should see the URL change right away in the Contact info section of your profile. Until the URL changes everywhere, make sure you copy-paste it from there.
How to change the URL for your LinkedIn company page?
You can and should customize your company's LinkedIn account URL as well. The same rules apply to LinkedIn accounts.
#1 Access your LinkedIn company page and click the “Edit page”.
#2 Choose “Page info” and type in the custom URL for your company.
How to change my LinkedIn profile URL in the app?
This is how you change your profile URL on the LinkedIn app.
#1 Go to your profile home page. Click on the 3 dots.
#2 Choose the Contact info option.
#3 Click the pencil icon to edit your contact info on the LinkedIn app.
#4 Click here to go to a page where you will be able to change your LinkedIn profile URL.
#5 Click here to edit the customizable part of your LinkedIn profile URL.
3 ideas on how to customize your LinkedIn profile URL
If your name is not particularly unusual, or you wish to optimize your LinkedIn URL to show up in LinkedIn and Google search results more often, here are 3 ideas we used and tested to do it.
#1 Use the combination of your full name and title
This is the combination we spoke about earlier, as it can work well for both LinkedIn and Google SEO, especially if you are holding a C-suite, upper management, or any decision-making decision that you know people will search for. You can combine it with your company name as well if you think that could help your lead generation.
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-head-of-sales
www.linkedin.com /in/john-smith-ceo-skylead
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-skylead
#2 Use your brand name, brand nickname, or a combination of your brand name or nickname plus your company name or a specific keyword.
This is particularly useful for people who have common names or whose brand is widely known under their nickname. For example, if your name is Daniel Bonatti, but you branded yourself as a marketing expert under Dan Bonatti or Dan Bon, this can be your LinkedIn profile URL go to.
www.linkedin.com/in/danbon
www.linkedin.com/in/dan-bonatti
www.linkedin.com/in/dan-bon
www.linkedin.com/in/dan-bon-creartive
www.linkedin.com/in/dan-bon-marketing-specialist
#3 It can be same as your website or a blog or a business page
If you are known for a specific brand or a website or a blog on a specific topic, you can use it for your LinkedIn profile URL as well. If that website name includes your personal name that’s even better, if not, that’s fine too. This way, you’ll get your brand out there even more, not just on Google but on LinkedIn too.
www.linkedin.com/in/marketing-with-john
www.linkedin.com/in/marketingwithjohn
www.linkedin.com/in/marketingformarketeers
Why should you change your LinkedIn URL?
#1 It looks more professional.
Customizing your profile URL looks more professional and gives you instantly more credibility. It shows that you know how to use the platform and that you indeed do utilize it for social selling strategy and other business purposes. Other LinkedIn members will feel more comfortable talking business with you online and you will close more deals in a shorter amount of time.
We have a full lesson dedicated to optimizing your LinkedIn URL as a part of our masterclass Set up your LinkedIn profile: Complete guide.
#2 You’ll show up in Google and LinkedIn search engine results more often.
If you optimize your LinkedIn URL and the way you optimize it can affect how often and how high your profile will rank in their search results.
Yes, a well-customized profile URL plays a significant role in LinkedIn SEO and LinkedIn Xray search.
LinkedIn SEO refers to the way you write and use your profile to increase its ranking in a search and therefore its visibility. The higher your profile is ranked when someone searches for a particular term, the more views your profile is likely to get.
LinkedIn X-ray search is a method used to do LinkedIn prospecting on Google. In other words, using the Google browser, you can search for the profiles without using LinkedIn internal filters.
Both search engines take into account the URL of your profile and rank you accordingly. That’s why, sometimes, it can be useful to put specific keywords in your LinkedIn URL as well.
We tested this thoroughly, and here are several examples we found of how to include specific keywords in your profile URL that can rank you better in search engines.
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-head-of-sales
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-vp
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-growth-specialist
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-saas
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-ceo
www.linkedin.com/in/john-smith-content-team-lead
Options are endless and their success majorly depends on how well you can predict your ideal lead’s search intent.
4 LinkedIn URL restrictions you should know about
Your custom URL can be 3-100 characters long. Also, you cannot use spaces, symbols, or special characters.
The customizable part of the LinkedIn profile URL is NOT case-sensitive. This means that you can’t use capital letters to try and differentiate your choice. LinkedIn recognizes www.linkedin.com/in/johnsmith and www.linkedin.com/in/JohnSmith as the same URL.
You can change your LinkedIn URL up to 5 times in 6 months. Unless you wish to be stuck with a URL you don’t like, we strongly advise you, before clicking that “Save” button, to make sure that your choice is good enough for the next 6 months.
Your original URL will be unavailable to other members for 6 months. LinkedIn thinks that reassigning your original URL to another member in less than 6 months would make plenty of confusion.
Frequently asked question
How does customizing your LinkedIn URL specifically impact your visibility on LinkedIn's own search engine compared to Google's?
Customizing your LinkedIn URL can enhance your profile's visibility on LinkedIn and Google searches by making it more recognizable and memorable. A personalized URL is easier to share and more likely to be clicked on.
What are the best practices for choosing a custom URL if your preferred name is already taken?
If your preferred name for a custom URL is taken, consider adding relevant professional identifiers like your job title, industry, or certifications. This maintains the URL's professional and personal relevance.
Can changing your LinkedIn URL frequently have a negative impact on your profile's online presence or SEO?
Frequently changing your LinkedIn URL could negatively affect your online presence. Links to your profile may become broken, and it could confuse connections. It's best to choose a URL you're satisfied with for long-term use.
Ready to showcase your new LinkedIn URL?
LinkedIn profile URL might seem like a less visible part of your LinkedIn branding, but as you may see, it’s not.
It affects the way people see the professional YOU and how high your LinkedIn profile ranks on the platform and on Google.
Whether you are on LinkedIn to network or for lead generation, a custom-made URL is your friend. And so is Skylead.
If you are in search of practical marketing and sales knowledge, you can check out our Outreach knowledge hub. On the other hand, if you are searching for a tool that can take over time-consuming sales processes and allow you to put more focus on closing the deal itself, sign up for a 7-day free trial and see how Skylead can be your trusted ally.
It’s 2024, and LinkedIn is still the most essential and fastest-growing professional network globally. As such, it is full of potential clients, connections, and different growth opportunities.
It takes only one wrong step to lose the deal of a lifetime or make a wrong impression that could cost you money and your business image. That’s why proper professional etiquette is important for building and maintaining your brand.
To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, we decided to share how to network on LinkedIn and some dos and don’ts from our own experience.
How to network on LinkedIn
Networking on LinkedIn is a powerful tool for building professional relationships, expanding your career opportunities, and staying updated in your industry. And we, as a company, can vouch for that.
We’ve been in the industry for 5 years, and LinkedIn is our second nature. For example, our CEO, Relja Denic, first started networking on LinkedIn in 2019. Since then, he managed to gain about 25K connections and 22K followers. Not to mention our other crew members.
That said, here are the actions that will help you understand how to network on LinkedIn.
#1 Connect with people from your area of expertise
To expand your network on LinkedIn, the first choice would be to find people whose occupation is the same or similar to yours. You can exchange tips, tricks, and valuable resources.
That said, your connection request message can sound something like this:
Hey {{firstName}},
I saw that you are also {{Occupation}} and wanted to connect with you and exchange our experience, tips, and tricks. 😊
#2 Connect with your target audience
One of the best ways to network on LinkedIn and research your market is to ask your target leads yourself. Don’t be afraid of how to network on LinkedIn with them. Simply say you’re exploring their position and current challenges. Like this:
Hey {{firstName}},
I noticed you work as {{Occupation}}. I am currently researching {{Occupation}}’s challenges and pain points, so I was wondering if you’d like to connect and chat about it. 😊
#3 Attend LinkedIn events and mingle
Another way to network on LinkedIn is to attend LinkedIn events and chat with other attendees. To find a list of attendees, apply for the event yourself by clicking the Attend button.
Then, hit Attendees to get a list of all the people who are attending the event.
You can then send them a connection request such as this one:
Hey {{firstName}},
I noticed you’re also attending {{eventName}}. I’d love to connect and chat about our experience and the value we get from there!
Or you can simply send them a message from the Networking tab.
#4 Join LinkedIn groups
LinkedIn groups are considered to have no engagement whatsoever. However, that doesn’t stop you from approaching each member individually and genuinely connecting. That said, join the LinkedIn group that aligns with your and your potential client’s interests and industry.
Being part of a LinkedIn group whose members are from the same industry as you gives you a chance to learn from other people’s experiences, know what your competitors are up to, and connect with your colleagues.
On the other hand, being part of a LinkedIn group whose members are your potential clients helps you understand their needs, concerns, and what they expect from certain products or services (that might be the ones you are offering).
In any case, it’s a win-win situation!
Extra tip: You can also target members of a specific LinkedIn group if you upgrade your LinkedIn plan to Sales Navigator.
That said, to get to the members’ list, hit Show All in the upper right corner.
Then, send them a message explaining why you wish to connect with them. If, for example you joined a group with people from your industry, give this message a go:
Hello {{firstName}},
I noticed you are also a member of {{groupName}}. I would love to connect with you since I can see we're both in the {{industry}}.
#5 Create content and engage with people who comment
If you’re passionate about creating and posting content on LinkedIn, you should know that this can be another form of networking on LinkedIn. For example, a 1st-degree connection can comment on your post. In return, you can like their comment, respond, or message them and continue the conversation.
In addition, if your post reaches your 2nd or 3rd-degree connections and they comment or like a post, send them a connection request. However, be sure that your connection message is not out of context.
6 dos for networking on LinkedIn
Personalize invites to connect
LinkedIn is a place to network, but that doesn’t imply randomly adding anyone you run into.
It is rather a platform for meaningful business connections and as such it is highly recommended to reach out to people you either know or are interrelated with due to the nature of your industry.
Either way, it is always a good practice to send a personalized Invite to Connect.
Firstly, if you are reaching out to someone you don’t know, why risk being banned on LinkedIn in case they click on the I don’t know this person option? A certain number of these will get you restricted, you know?
Secondly, many people on LinkedIn appreciate Invites to Connect with an explanation of why they should connect with you. It doesn’t need to be a full-on sales pitch, but rather an interest or a reference in common. This is why a well-planned LinkedIn prospecting and targeting people attending the same event or those who are members of the same LinkedIn group can work so well to your advantage.
If you follow one simple tip such as this one, you will significantly increase your success on LinkedIn and stand out from numerous people who don’t consider it at all.
Complete your LinkedIn profile
Most people will not reply if your LinkedIn profile is incomplete. Or if they’re nice, they will do it reluctantly. This is because without a profile picture, experience, and LinkedIn summary, nobody can get an entire picture of who you are and what you’re about, and they would think the profile is fake. That said, to keep your integrity, finish up your entire LinkedIn profile.
Respond promptly
Just like with Emails, responding promptly to your Messages, Invites to Connect, and LinkedIn InMails is a sign of professionalism.
Good etiquette implies replying within 24 h.
Of course, the timeframe within which you answer is equally important to the content and tone of your message.
Any of the people you are responding to might be your future client, collaborator, or colleague. Make informed decisions and give confirmed information.
This way you will build the image of a trustworthy, knowledgeable professional with integrity.
And that’s what we all want, don’t we?
Introduce people
Introducing connections to each other creates positive social capital for you.
It shows that you genuinely care about people making meaningful connections that could benefit the industry.
Furthermore, a highly appreciated gesture of this kind will invoke the law of reciprocity.
Namely, your connections will most likely return the favor by introducing you to other professionals that are, in their opinion, good for you.
There is no better way of growing your business network than through positive word of mouth. Remember that the best advertising for business is free. But it takes time to build trusted and loyal connections.
So, stick to our dos over here.
Stay top of mind
Your lone presence on LinkedIn is not enough for staying top of mind of your connections.
- Post quality content.
- Respond promptly to Messages, Invites to Connect, and InMails.
- Congratulate people on promotions and new jobs in a professional manner, while still showing that you genuinely care.
- Respond to comments and reactions to your posts and tag people you are replying to.
- Post authentic responses to the most interesting discussions.
- Join LinkedIn groups.
Check your SSI
If you run out of networking ideas, check your LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score. It will show you your overall networking status and what networking area you can improve.
5 don’ts for networking on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is NOT Tinder
Avoid adding people just because you like their looks.
Avoid adding people just because.
Don’t start messages with “Hello Dear”, give compliments that are not business-related or argued, or send any type of messages with a strong personal note.
Not only will you be ignored, but you will be marked as a spammer, and most likely earn a reputation as a weirdo.
News travels fast.
People will not be eager to connect with you, let alone do any business with you.
Don’t spam people
Sending irrelevant, long, impersonal messages that don’t bring anything to any of the sides involved cannot earn you a good reputation.
It’s like a story of a girl who cried wolf.
If you keep sending messages that are only spamming other users, once you send something meaningful, nobody will be interested in reading it or answering back.
Save your Messages and InMails for significant business outreach and communication.
Your contacts will appreciate hearing from you less but leading insightful conversations regarding your industries or any other business-related topic.
Don’t post self-serving content
Whether sharing content or replying to messages or a discussion, make sure to provide value first and foremost.
The biggest mistake on LinkedIn is the misconception that people care about what you have to say. They only care about finding solutions to their problems or gaining valuable insights into the industry trends and demands. That’s all.
There is always a way of giving something to your readers while managing to promote your product or services.
Don’t ignore job proposal & invitations
Even if you are satisfied with your current job, you never know what the future holds.
Don’t burn bridges.
Answer to any job or business proposal you might receive. Be polite and professional.
Firstly, you don’t know if life will take you in that direction. The offered position might not even be in line with your future aspirations. However, have in mind that that company has other departments as well.
Secondly, the world is small. The Human Resources Manager that contacted you for that particular job might be the Human Resources Manager for another company in no time. And they will remember if you ignored or were impolite when they reached out.
The same applies to LinkedIn users who write to you regarding business opportunities and collaboration. Maybe you are not interested at the moment, but that’s for sure not the reason not to keep the door open for future contact.
Don’t talk negative about competitors
Social media can be such a negative space.
People have had it enough already.
Not only does everyone want to belong to a positive, proactive, and like-minded community, but posting negatively about your competition is a sign of bad sportsmanship.
Did you know that when you are talking badly about someone, people who are listening are subconsciously attributing all the negative features to you?
Treat others with respect just as you would like to be treated.
Also, have in mind that even when you are commenting on behalf of yourself, people might ascribe your opinion to the general attitude of the company you are currently working for. Be careful about it, especially on LinkedIn which is, as we said before, a professional network.
You are representing your brand, your company, and the industry at the same time.
Frequently asked questions
How can one measure the effectiveness of their LinkedIn networking efforts beyond the Social Selling Index Score mentioned in the article?
Measuring the effectiveness of LinkedIn networking extends beyond the Social Selling Index Score through the analysis of connection growth rate, the relevance of new connections in your industry, engagement (likes, comments, shares) on your content, and direct feedback from your network, reflecting the value and impact of your networking efforts.
What specific strategies can be used to recover from a negative impression or mistake made while networking on LinkedIn?
Recovering from a negative impression on LinkedIn involves acknowledging the mistake directly if it affected specific individuals, demonstrating professionalism in your response, and consistently sharing valuable content to rebuild your reputation. Engaging positively with the community and offering genuine contributions can gradually restore trust and credibility.
Are there any tools or features within LinkedIn that can help automate or facilitate networking activities without violating LinkedIn's policies on automation and spam?
LinkedIn offers several tools to streamline networking without breaching its policies, such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator for targeted connections and insights, and LinkedIn Learning for improving your skills and offering value to your network. However, you can use LinkedIn automation tools to build your network while respecting LinkedIn’s policies.
Now you know how to network on LinkedIn. Are you ready for it?
Networking, brand engagement, and generating leads on LinkedIn are the activities that are strongest than they have ever been.
Therefore, LinkedIn is not just your online resume.
It reflects your entire way of doing business and communicating with your leads and customers.
Everything that happens on LinkedIn has consequences, positive or negative, that you have to be ready to take responsibility for.
Since it’s better to be safe than sorry, stick to our tips and you will be just fine.
Here are 13 proven LinkedIn InMail examples for 13 different LinkedIn scenarios to get you inspired and help you save the necessary time to compose compelling messages that get responses.
LinkedIn InMails are for many platform members a mystery, therefore underused and often wasted. That’s quite a shame, taking into account that, according to the official LinkedIn learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of between 18 to 25% compared to cold emails’ 3% average response rate.
For this reason, we’ve dedicated an entire resource to a detailed explanation of what LinkedIn InMails are, how many InMail credits each subscription plan has, how to check the status of your InMails, how to know whether you’re sending a free or paid LinkedIn InMail, and much more.
After you know this extremely useful LinkedIn feature to its finest details, check out our guidelines for writing a LinkedIn InMail that is likely to get a response and get inspired by the LinkedIn InMail examples shared below.
Some of the templates were directly used by our Sales Team in their outreach efforts, and some were directly inspired by our other teams’ examples used for LinkedIn lead generation, recruitment, and content promotion.
For more InMail examples, detailed outreach strategy, and sales templates for every step of the multichannel approach, check out our Sales E-Book: Sales Templates That Leveled Up Skylead. It is available for free download.
What makes a good LinkedIn InMail?
- Personalizing your InMails.
Not personalizing your InMails will make them look more like spam. Even if you wrote a compelling sales message and maybe even highly relevant to your lead, you MUST show that you’ve done your research. I mean, there’s no way to convey relevance by sending a generalized InMail anyway. This implies that personalizing your InMail should go beyond calling your prospect by name. Good LinkedIn prospecting starts with thorough research of who you are talking to and their pain points.
- Don’t make it all about yourself.
The 1900+ InMail characters at your disposal are not for self-promotion. Briefly introducing yourself and what your business is about can be beneficial for the outcome of your LinkedIn InMail. However, make sure it doesn’t take up all the space. Always focus on making it about the person reading the InMail.
- Investing time into coming up with a catchy subject line.
Think of a LinkedIn InMail as a cold email. Your open rate will depend on the subject line and your response rate on how much relevance you manage to convey through the body of your email. But, we'll get to that later. For now, think about how to get your lead to open your InMail.
- Keeping it to a reasonable length.
Yes, we said that one of the LinkedIn InMail benefits is for sure its extensive character limit. However, this doesn't mean that you have to use all of it. Busy decision-makers that you are trying to reach out to via InMail are still very busy even when they do open your InMail. Practice the art of writing compelling and straight-to-the-point sales messages.
LinkedIn InMail template #1: Reach out to a potential collaborator
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Are you still providing {{service/product}} services?
InMail message:
Hey {{firstName}},
I am currently in need of a {{occupation}} in the {{industry}} industry. After doing some research, I came across your profile. I decided to reach out to you, due to {{reason}}.
Do you still provide {{service}} services?
If yes, I would love to discuss it further with you.
Thank you in advance!
Kind regards,
{{yourName}}
{{yourCompany}}
{{contact}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Are you still providing copywriting services?
InMail message:
Hey Jenny, I am currently in need of a copywriter in the SaaS industry.
After doing some research, I came across your profile. I decided to reach out to you, due to your vast experience in lead generation-related topics and your university degree in software engineering.
Do you still provide copywriting services? If yes, I would love to discuss it further with you.
Kind regards,
Edward Jones
LeadUp Technologies
edward.jones@leaduptech.com
This InMail template works because:
- It is clear that you’ve researched and picked a handful of LinkedIn members whose professional background you found relevant to the type of collaboration you need.
- You approached with a concrete reason and reference.
- Even if your lead is not interested in collaboration at the moment, it is always good to connect with someone who is a potential collaborator in the future.
LinkedIn InMail template #2 Invite your lead to an event
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Join us for {{event}}
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
{{CompanyName}} is organizing the {{event}} event in {{location}} on {{date}}. Our goal is {{goal}}.
Since you work as {{occupation}}, I thought it would be interesting for you to check it out. Some of the main topics that will be covered are:
- {{topic1}}
- {{topic2}}
- {{topic3}}
If it sounds interesting, here are more details on the link - {{link}}.
In case you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
{{Name}}
{{Title}} at {{Company}}
{{Contact}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Join us for Best Digital Practices for 2023
InMail message:
Hello John,
TMS Advertising is organizing the Best Digital Practices for 2022 event in the Marriott Hotel on December 5, 2022. Our goal is to gather digital marketing professionals and discuss innovative digital practices and predictions for 2023.
Since you work as a Digital Marketer, I thought it would be interesting for you to check it out. Some of the main topics that will be covered are:
- 2022 tendencies expected to die out in 2023.
- Top challenges of 2022 digital marketers, and how to solve them in 2022.
- New types of influencers and how to approach them.
If it sounds interesting, here are more details on the link - http://www.bestpracticesevent2023.com.
In case you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Jennifer Collins
Head of Growth at TMS Advertising
jencol@tmsadvertising.com
This InMail template works because:
- You’ve done the research, know who you are talking to and that the event can be of your lead’s interest.
- Mention their occupation to specify at whom the event is aimed Leads can work in different industries, yet it is their role/title in that specific industry that counts.
LinkedIn InMail template #3 Offer your service/product to a decision-maker
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Need help with {{problem}}?
InMail message
Hello {{firstName}},
We are currently helping {{companyType}} companies to {{service/product}}. I see that you are {{occupation}} at {{currentCompany}}, so I thought you might see the value in it.
{{product/service}} can provide the following for your business:
- {{problem1}}
- {{problem2}}
- {{problem3}}
However, our {{product/service}} is not limited to this!
I would love to have a chance to jump on a quick call and discuss each challenge you meet at your workplace that our {{product/service}} could help solve.
Have a great day.
Best,
{{yourName}}
{{occupation}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Need help with intent data?
InMail message:
Hello Steven,
We are currently helping SaaS companies to understand their audience and know exactly whom to target.
I see that you are the Head of Marketing at GetLeads, so I thought you might see the value in it.
DataCollector can provide the following for your business.
- Accurate analytics
- Increased on-site conversion
- Targeting specific prospects with ads
However, DataCollector is not limited to this! I would love to have a chance to jump on a quick call and discuss each challenge you meet at your workplace that DataCollector could help solve.
Have a great day.
Best,
Anna-Marie Peterson
Head of Sales
This InMail template works because:
- You reached out to a lead with a concrete reference.
- The person to whom you sent an InMail is a decision-maker. You’ve done your research and made a reference to it.
- Even if currently not interested in your product/service, they will probably still want to connect because it is the product/service that could be relevant for their business in the future.
LinkedIn InMail template #4 Content promotion
InMail example with variables
Subject line: To answer your question in {{group/post}}
InMail message
Hello {{firstName}},
I saw that you asked {{question}} in {{group}} / as a comment to {{name}}’s post, and I thought that the blog that we recently posted {{blogTitle}} could help answer your question.
Either way, I see that you work in the {{industry}} industry, and the content that we publish might generally be of your interest. If so, check it out here - {{link}}.
Let me know if you found {{blogTitle}} useful.
Best,
{{yourName}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: To answer your question in Jane Durst’s post comment
InMail message:
Hello Susan,
I saw that you asked how to target leads attending a specific LinkedIn event as a comment to Jane Durst’s post, and I thought that the blog that we recently posted “How to target LinkedIn event attendees: A Full Guide” could help answer your question.
Either way, I see that you work in the Lead Generation industry, and the content that we publish might generally be of your interest.
If so, check it out here - www.leadgencontent.com.
Let me know if you found “How to target LinkedIn event attendees: A Full Guide” useful. Best,
Jane Johnson
This InMail template works because:
- You made a concrete reference to a comment a LinkedIn member left.
- The content you sent is relevant to their question and business/field of work.
- They are more likely to connect with you because your work is relevant to their business/industry.
LinkedIn InMail template #5 Reach out to a mutual connection by recommendation
InMail example with variables
Subject line: {{mutualConnection}} recommended I reach out
InMail message
Hi {{firstName}},
Our mutual connection, {{mutualConnection}}, and I were talking about {{topic/issue/specialty}}. I heard you are an expert on the issue.
I might need relevant insight on {{topic/issue/specialty}} for my business and would love to schedule a meeting with you. If yes, let’s connect on LinkedIn or you can send me an email to the address in the signature section.
Let me know what works for you.
Best regards,
{{yourName}}
{{contact}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Helen Goldberg recommended I reach out
InMail message:
Hi Jasmine,
Our mutual connection, Helen Goldberg, and I were talking about the difficulty and importance of building and maintaining an online presence of a business. I heard you are an expert on the issue.
I might need relevant insight on building and maintaining an online presence for my business and would love to schedule a meeting with you. If yes, let’s connect on LinkedIn or you can send me an email to the address in the signature section.
Let me know what works for you.
Best regards,
Justin Greene
justin.g@jbselectronics.com
This InMail template works because:
- The lead came to you as recommended.
- You made a concrete reference to a person who recommended the lead, and how their name came up.
- You are familiar with the person’s expertise.
- By expressing the need for concrete service/business help, your intention is clear.
LinkedIn InMail template #6 Reach out to a lead as a recruiter
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Loved your LinkedIn post on {{topic}}
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
First of all, I loved your LinkedIn post on {{topic}}! It spurred me to reach out to you, as you seem to be the right fit for the position of {{position}} at {{company}}. I also see that you studied {{studies}} at {{university}} which I find to be a great asset to this role.
Anyways, as you may have guessed, I am a recruiter at {{company}}. I would love to take this conversation further in case you are interested. Here’s a link to the job description - {{link}}.
Please let me know!
Best,
{{yourName}}
{{Contact}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Loved your LinkedIn post on paid advertising on social media
InMail message:
Hello Nicolas,
First of all, I loved your LinkedIn post on paid advertising on social media! It spurred me to reach out to you, as you seem to be the right fit for the position of digital marketer at Jeffrey & Co. I also see that you studied Marketing at the University of Cleveland which I find to be a great asset to this role.
Anyways, as you may have guessed, I am a recruiter at Jeffrey & Co.
I would love to take this conversation further in case you are interested. Here’s a link to the job description - www.jeffreyco/careers/digitalmarketer.
Please let me know if you are interested.
Best,
Nancy Nicolson
n.nicolson@jeffreyco.com
This InMail template works because:
- You reached out with a concrete reference not only to the person’s education and/or experience but to their contribution to the LinkedIn community.
- It’s not just a random InMail, the person is truly qualified for the position and you are acknowledging it.
- Even if the person is not interested in the job offer, they will want to stay in touch with a recruiter who did not just randomly throw a link to a job post at them.
LinkedIn InMail template #7 Reach out to a recruiter for a specific position
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Inquiring about the {{occupation}} job opening
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
I see that you’re the recruiter in charge of the {{occupation}} position at {{company}}.
As a {{occupation}} with over {{years}} years of experience in the {{industry}} industry, I am currently in search of {{positionType}} position in this sector.
I am interested in applying but would like to ask you a few questions first.
Let’s schedule a call.
Best,
{{yourName}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Inquiring about the Head of Sales job opening
InMail message:
Hello Tatiana,
I see you’re the recruiter in charge of the Head of Sales position at MTS Logistics.
As a Senior Sales Specialist with over 6 years of experience in the Transportation and Logistics industry, I am currently in search of a leadership position in this sector.
I am interested in applying but would like to ask you a few questions first. Let’s schedule a call.
Best,
Rosie Goldstein
This InMail template works because:
- You didn’t talk too much about yourself but highlighted the aspects of your career that are relevant to the position you’re applying for.
- There’s a hook, enough to schedule a call. On the call, you can discuss your qualifications, and also get the know the company and its culture.
- By sending this InMail, you will most likely stand out in the selection process.
LinkedIn InMail template #8 Reach out to a recruiter as a job seeker
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Inquiring about your {{department}}
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
I saw that you are a recruiter at {{company}}.
I am a {{occupation}} with over {{years}} of experience in the {{industry}} industry, currently seeking new opportunities.
I’d like to schedule a call and further discuss my qualifications, as I am very open to hearing more about {{company}} and the dynamics of your {{department}}.
Best regards,
{{yourName}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Inquiring about your Sales and Marketing departments
InMail message:
Hello Miriam,
I saw that you are a recruiter at MTS Logistics.
I am a Lead Generation Specialist with over 10 years of experience in the Transportation and Logistics industry, currently seeking new opportunities.
I’d like to connect and chat to see if my background fits any of your openings.
I would like to schedule a call with you and further discuss my qualifications, as I am very open to hearing more about MTS Logistics and the dynamics of your Sales and Marketing departments.
Best regards,
Helen Rosenberg
This InMail template works because:
- You’ve done your research and know that your expertise could be relevant to the company to which recruiter you're approaching.
- The recruiter can tell you right away if they have a job opening or if you could potentially even be a fit for some positions.
- You included data that are relevant to the recruiter but didn’t talk about yourself all the time nor you said too much.
- You asked to schedule a call where you can obtain additional information about the company, and allow the recruiter to get to know you better.
LinkedIn InMail template #9 Invite industry professionals to join your community
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Invite to join {{communityName}}
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
I would love to officially invite you to join {{communityName}}. It is a {{typeOfcommunity}} community aimed towards {{industry}} professionals with the goal of {{goal}}.
We would really love it if you joined. Your vast experience as {{occupation}} spurred me to reach out.
Here is the link - {{link}}, check it out and see.
Hope to see you there.
Have a great day,
{{yourName}}
{{occupation}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Invite to join Ads Growth Hacker
InMail message:
Hello Matt,
I would love to officially invite you to join Ads Growth Hacker. It is a Facebook community aimed toward advertising professionals with the goal of sharing knowledge, discussing current and past trends, and exchanging ideas on how to improve and grow your business through ads.
We would really love it if you joined. Your vast experience as an advertising manager spurred me to reach out.
Here’s the link - www.facebook.com/groups/adsgrowthhacker, check it out and see.
Hope to see you there.
Have a great day,
Michelle J. Spears
Director of Advertising
This InMail template works because:
- The lead’s occupation is relevant to the community. It is not just some random person you’ve invited to join your community.
- The community is relevant to the person’s occupation too.
- You briefly explained what the community is all about.
LinkedIn InMail template #10 Invite a guest speaker to your event
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Be our guest speaker
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
I would like to use this opportunity to invite you to be a guest speaker at {{nameEvent}} event.
Due to your {{numberOfyears}} years of experience in the {{industry}} industry, we felt that your insight on {{topic}} would be an invaluable asset to the {{industry}} industry.
Here is a link to the organizer if you would like to check it out beforehand - {{link}}.
Please let me know if this sounds interesting to you.
Best regards,
{{yourName}}
{{title}}
{{contact}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Be our guest speaker!
InMail message:
Hello Ellis,
I would like to use this opportunity to invite you to be a guest speaker at the 2022 Online Sales Hacks & Tendencies event.
Due to your 8 years of experience in the Sales industry, we felt that your insight on the dying trends in online sales would be an invaluable asset to the Sales industry.
Here’s a link to the organizer if you would like to check it out beforehand - www.mpadvisory.com/events/educational/online-sales-hacks-tendencies.
Please let me know if this sounds interesting to you.
Best regards,
Joshua Henricks
Head of Training and Development
joshua.h@mpadvisory.com
This InMail template works because:
- You are making a concrete reference to the person’s years of experience and expertise. It points out that you’ve done your research and are not inviting a random person to be a guest speaker.
- There is a link to the event so the potential guest can inform themselves on the subject.
- Of the soft call-to-action at the end.
LinkedIn InMail template #11 Reach out to someone who’s using your competitor’s product or service
InMail example with variables
Subject line: {{competitor}} alternative
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
The reason for my outreach is that I saw that your company {{company}} is using {{competitor’sProduct}} to {{mainPurpose}}.
{{yourProduct}} is {{uniqueSellingProposition}}.
If you would like to hear more about {{yourProduct}} and how it can benefit your business, I would be happy to chat with you.
Let me know!
{{yourName}}
{{contact}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: FunkyMonkey alternative
InMail message:
Hello Jennifer,
The reason for my outreach is that I saw that your company FunkyMonkey is using SurveyGo to collect feedback on customer satisfaction.
UpSurv is also a customer-survey tool that has the option of exporting individual and all reports as a CSV file, comparing results among different data sources, and finding data matches.
These options speed up the entire survey and data analysis process 3 times. If you would like to hear more about UpSurv and how it can benefit your business, I would be happy to chat with you.
Let me know!
James Uri
jameruri@upsurv.com
This InMail template works because:
- You’ve done your research, and know that the company you are reaching out to uses your competitor’s solution.
- You’ve highlighted your solution’s unique selling propositions instead of just saying how your product is “better”.
- The InMail is wrapped up with a soft call to action.
LinkedIn InMail template #12 Value proposition
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Let me show you {{painPoint}}
InMail message:
Hello {{firstName}},
I heard about the amazing job your {{company}} has done by helping {{client}} {{result}}. Good job on that!
I wanted to reach out because {{whatYourBusinessSolves}}.
This way, you will be able to {{valueProposition}}.
I would like to show you my plan of {{personalizedHook}}. Let’s chat!
Best regards,
{{your Name}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Let me show you how you can get 3x more leads in less time
InMail message:
Hello Jimmy,
I heard about the amazing job your lead generation agency has done by helping Scavo's level up their business. Good job on that!
I wanted to reach out because our software takes care of time-consuming lead generation tasks and allows you to focus your efforts on finding quality leads and turning them into prospects for your clients.
This way, you will be able to manage more clients and make their companies grow more and faster. I would like to show you my plan of getting 3x more leads for your clients in 6h less a week.
Let’s chat!
Best regards,
Annie Matis
This InMail template works because:
- You’ve done your research and mentioned one of the biggest success stories of your clients.
- You connected your product with that story and showed them that their story could be even greater success with your solution.
- There’s a call to action with a concrete reference to what you can do for your potential client.
LinkedIn InMail template #13 Use InMail as the last resource
InMail example with variables
Subject line: Did I cross the line?
InMail message:
Hey {{firstName}},
I tried reaching you via email, so just wanted to check here one last time if I’ve crossed the line. Hopefully not.
Maybe it's me, but I get the feeling now is not the right time to connect.
As a parting gift, I wanted to share with you templates that could help you in your outreach {{gift}}.
I won't be sending you any more messages, don't worry.
All the best,
{{yourName}}
{{title}}
LinkedIn InMail real-life example
Subject line: Did I cross the line?
InMail message:
Hey John,
I tried reaching you via email, so just wanted to check here one last time if I’ve crossed the line. Hopefully not.
Maybe it’s me, but I get the feeling now is not the right time to connect.
As a parting gift, I wanted to share a templates that could help you in your outreach: www.skylead.io/templates.
I won’t be sending you any more messages, don’t worry.
All the best,
Nick Jefferson
Head of Sales
This InMail template works because:
- You tried multi-channel outreach, and nothing worked. That’s why you are using InMail as the last resource to reach your lead.
- There is a free resource included.
- You ask for an apology in case you crossed the line. People are more likely to either respond by saying that they haven’t seen your previous messages/emails/InMails or respond knowing you will not “bother” them anymore.
Frequently asked question
How can one tailor these InMail templates for highly specialized industries or roles to ensure relevance and increase response rates?
Tailoring InMail templates for specialized industries or roles involves researching the recipient's industry trends, challenges, and language. Incorporating this insight can make your message more relevant and compelling, thus increasing response rates.
What are the metrics or indicators to measure the success of these InMail strategies beyond the reply rate?
Beyond reply rate, success metrics for InMail strategies can include conversion rates (e.g., leads to meetings or sales), long-term engagement (follow-ups or continued conversations), and the growth of your professional network within your target industry.
Are there specific follow-up strategies recommended if the initial InMail does not receive a response, considering LinkedIn's limitations on InMail credits?
For follow-up strategies without a response, you should wait a few weeks before sending a polite follow-up InMail. Highlight new information or value you can provide while being mindful of LinkedIn's limitations on InMail credits to ensure efficient use. You can also check if a lead has an open profile. In that case, you can send free InMails without spending credits once a week.
Summary
With this blog, we’ve covered the main things you need for effective and smart use of a LinkedIn InMail, together with 13 LinkedIn InMail examples with a 25% reply rate formula for 13 different LinkedIn scenarios.
The above 13 LinkedIn InMail examples with a proven response rate can be used as they are or adjusted to fit your business goals.
Furthermore, if you wish to speed up your sales processes, and put time-consuming tasks such as - finding the perfect path to your ideal leads, on autopilot, test out Skylead 7 days FREE of charge.
See how Skylead can help you focus on finding the qualified leads for your business and on closing the deal, while the platform thinks of the rest.
If you ask yourself how to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you are in the right place. We will go over a couple of methods you can use to add someone to LinkedIn, including the LinkedIn App, so you can grow your network and prepare for LinkedIn lead generation.
However, that is not all. Keep in mind that building your network is all about building relationships. Thus, we will mention what you need to do before adding connections. Moreover, we will get into the core of what is truly important for a successful professional relationship and, therefore, a successful business.
How to connect with someone on LinkedIn?
Building your network is not just about having a large connection number. It is about establishing relationships, getting in touch with the people from your industry, sharing experiences, and growing your business.
Furthermore, 80% of professionals found networking crucial for career success*. For example, salespeople and hiring managers proved this by finding their perfect leads and ideal candidates while growing their network. And with the rise of social selling and word-of-mouth recommendations, networking on LinkedIn really did become essential for professionals in today's world.
So to take full advantage of networking, let’s start from the beginning - how to connect with someone on LinkedIn.
8 ways to connect with someone on LinkedIn
To connect with someone on LinkedIn via your PC, you can use one of these ways:
- Add connections when creating your LinkedIn account
- Send a connection request via their profile
- Connect on LinkedIn via the “People Also Viewed” section
- Send invites to people from Search Results
- From the “People You May Know” section
- Use the “More Suggestions For You” Section
- Connecting with people from events page
- Asking other network members
Add connections when creating your LinkedIn account
First, when you create your LinkedIn account, you can add connections you might know in real life. LinkedIn recommends them from the school you chose as your education or from the company you set to work in.
In addition, you should know that if you add people to your network using this option, you will not be able to write a personalized note. In other words, when you click the + button, the people you sent the invite to, will only get the following LinkedIn’s general message:
Send a connection request via their profile
The easiest way to connect with someone after browsing through their profile on the desktop is to get back to the top of their LinkedIn profile and hit the Connect button.
If you plan to connect with someone on a LinkedIn app, the process is similar to desktop. The slight difference is that you need to go to the More Options button and click Personalize Invite. Otherwise, if you click the Connect button only, your invite will be sent automatically, and you won’t be able to personalize it.
Sometimes you will notice that a LinkedIn user doesn’t have an immediate Connect button on their profile. This can happen because of two reasons:
- The user either has their creator mode on;
- Or they set the Follow button as primary via their Settings & Privacy page.
So you would need to click the More button and then Connect option from the drop-down menu. In addition, this is how to connect on LinkedIn with your favorite creators.
Here is what it looks like in the LinkedIn app. Click on the ··· button and choose if you wish to send a blank or a personalized invite.
Next, if this person is your 2nd-degree connection, you will have the option to type in the personalized message and let it be on its merry way.
To clarify, you need to write a personalized message to increase the chances of the user accepting your invite. However, there are other reasons, as well.
Message personalization
Firstly, we wish to build our network by building true relationships. Secondly, we want to decrease the chances of people ignoring, declining, and checking the “I don’t know this person” box. Too many refusals can result in LinkedIn account restriction, as this will be one of many signals for LinkedIn that you might be a spammer.
If, however, you wish to add a 3rd+ degree connection, you will first need to answer LinkedIn's question about how you know this person.
Should you say you don’t know them, you will see the following alert.
If you have a LinkedIn Premium subscription, you will be able to send a message but you will use up one LinkedIn InMail credit.
Otherwise, you won’t be able to send messages. Instead, you can only write a note for your connection invite.
Connect on LinkedIn via “People Also Viewed” section
While we are still on the user’s profile, let’s show you another way how you can connect with someone on LinkedIn. If you look at the right end of the screen, you will notice the People also viewed section.
LinkedIn will recommend other people you can add to your network based on the user’s profile you are currently viewing. So, all you need to do is to either connect straight from there or visit that person’s profile to decide if you wish to connect with them on LinkedIn or not.
Send invites to people from search results
If you wonder how to connect with someone on LinkedIn without going through their profile, you can do so using a couple of ways. The first one is to do the "LinkedIn prospecting" of your own and add a connection from the Search Results Page. Simply click the Connect button right to their profile information.
Here is how to connect with someone on LinkedIn via search results within the LinkedIn app. Only be aware that this way, you won’t be able to personalize your message.
How to connect with someone on LinkedIn via network page
To send someone a connection request, you can also go to the My Network section at the top of the page.
Once you do, you will see the list of pending invitations and options to manage your network. From here, If you scroll down a bit, you will have two ways on how to connect with someone on LinkedIn.
How to connect on LinkedIn from “People You May Know” section
After you pass Follow suggestions, LinkedIn will present users who have similar roles as yourself and offer you to add them. Simply find the People You May Know With Similar Roles section, browse through and add a few connections by clicking the Connect button below their name.
In addition, you should know that you won’t be able to personalize invites if you send them through this method. So, to personalize your invite messages, it’s best to go to that person’s profile and connect from there.
Use “More Suggestions For You” section to connect with someone on LinkedIn
If you scroll down a bit more, past the Groups you may be interested in, LinkedIn will surprise you with another suggestion section. In this case, LinkedIn will present the list of people you can add based on shared connections, mutual company, industry, or, again, job roles. Just be aware that this method does not support personalized invites as well.
Add people who joined certain events
This is a nifty way on how to connect with someone on LinkedIn from the same event you attended and mingle. Simply go to the event’s page, and join by clicking the Attend button. Once you do, look at the right side of the screen and search for the Networking option.
Lastly, browse the people who attended the event. When you find the one you wish to add to your network, click the ··· button and then Connect.
And here is how to connect with someone on LinkedIn using the LinkedIn app.
Asking other network members
Last, but not least, you can always ask other members of your network if they know anyone from your line of work or industry or if they can introduce you to someone. This is a nice way to get an introduction and connect with other people you otherwise cannot reach.
Moreover, if you are a recruiter or salesperson, this is a nifty way to get to your lead or find an ideal candidate you’d probably miss.
4 things to do before connecting with someone on LinkedIn
1. Set up your LinkedIn profile
Imagine a scenario where you get a connection request from a user with no profile, LinkedIn headline, or displayed experience to learn more about them and what they do. You wouldn’t accept that request, would you? Thus one of the first things you should do is pump up your LinkedIn profile and allow people you don’t know in real life to get to know you.
2. Craft your message carefully
Remember when we said you need to personalize your message to increase the acceptance rate and build your network more efficiently? Well, by structuring your message carefully, you can.
If you are sending the message to a person you don’t know in real life, firstly look them up and personalize your message accordingly. For example, you can research the content they created, what their occupation is, or what company they work in.
Apart from personalization, here are other things you should consider when creating your invite message:
- Clearly state why you want to connect with them;
- Write a compelling copy to catch their attention;
- Include a hook or call-to-action so you can continue the conversation once you are connected;
- Introduce yourself;
- Be polite and professional.
So, for example, you can try emphasizing your mutual connection:
Hi {{firstName}},
I noticed that {{Mutual Connection Name}} is in your network. We worked together at {{Company}}. Nevertheless, as we both work as {{Occupation}} I would love to have you in my network.
Or you can target their expertise and reach them out like this:
Hello {{firstName}},
Love the work you are doing. I followed your advice regarding {{Topic}} that you shared here, on LinkedIn, and it brought me {{Achieved Results}}. I would love to connect!
We have complete blog posts on connection request message templates and using personalization to scale up your business, so be sure to check them out.
3. Prepare to engage
After connecting with someone, it is essential to maintain and build a relationship. Thus, keep engaging with the people on LinkedIn via post engagements, an endorsement, or an occasional message. This can nourish your relationship and can lead to future opportunities.
4. Connect with someone you know first
As we mentioned previously, once you create your profile, LinkedIn will suggest contacts you might know so you can add them first. Thus, it’s better to strengthen your network with your known contacts rather than trying to add unknown people from the beginning. Try finding your coworkers, classmates, or simply your friends.
Is there a solution to send the connection invites for me?
If you plan to use LinkedIn for sales or recruiting and don’t have time to do the outreach, build your network, and personalize messages on a large scale, then meet Skylead, a LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software that does the outreach for you.
Let’s dive into the tool itself. We previously explained how to contact people who attended certain events. Thus, here is how Skylead can do it instead of you.
Go to the desired event, and attend it. Once you do, click the Attendees option.
Then copy the attendees search result URL.
Next, go to your Skylead Campaign creator, choose the campaign source, give your campaign a name and paste the URL in the LinkedIn URL field. Don’t forget to select the Connection type.
Go to the next step and choose the Collect Contact Info if you wish to. This is a nifty option as Skylead will scrape all publicly available data such as your lead’s email, phone number, or website. Once you finish with setting up additional campaign settings click next.
Now we are at the Smart Sequence page. From here, you can drag and drop desired actions you wish Skylead to perform.
We will start with the steps such as Follow, Find & Verify Business Email and invite them to connect. Next, we will personalize the invite message via Skylead's variables.
Furthermore, you’d be surprised to hear that Skylead not only sends connection invites but continues to outreach your target audience and perform other actions for you. For example, if the person accepted the invite and didn’t respond to your message, you can instruct Skylead to send a follow-up.
On the other hand, if, after a couple of days, the person doesn't accept the invite, you can check if Skylead found their email address and send them an email to multichannel your outreach.
All you need to do on your end is to determine the steps in the Smart Sequence, and Skylead will do it for you.
Once you set all the sequence steps, click Start Campaign, and Skylead will start to outreach your audience.
In conclusion
There are many ways you can add a person to your LinkedIn network. However, there are only 3 ways to maintain and create a strong network: politeness, honesty, and consistency in building relationships. So, to sum up…
And don’t forget about the top things to do before adding someone to your network:
- Set up your LinkedIn profile;
- Craft your message carefully;
- Prepare to engage;
- Connect with someone you know first.
And if you find yourself with no time to build your network, or you simply wish to find a solution that will do it all for you, then try out Skylead, a sales engagement tool that thinks for you.
See Skylead in action! Start your 7-day Free Trial now.
If you are asking yourself "How can I use Buyer Persona to boost sales?" or "What is a B2B Buyer Persona, at all?" then you are in the right place.
Buyer persona became a popular term that got tossed around in marketing teams, but then it landed in the sales lap and made them question their entire existence. Well, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it did make the sales teams think twice about who they should target when doing outreach.
Did you know that 56% of the companies that used buyer personas generated higher-quality leads?
Yes, Buyer Persona is that useful. Therefore, if showing you how to make an ideal customer profile was like taking your blindfold off while playing darts, going through how to create a B2B buyer persona for sales will be like placing the laser on your dart to make sure you hit the bull’s eye.
What is a B2B buyer persona?
Let’s start with the definition. A Buyer Persona is a description of a person who is your ideal customer with all behavioral, demographic, firmographic, and psychographic characteristics. In other words, a buyer persona mirrors who your perfect buyers are, from age, location, their likes and dislikes, goals, and wishes to challenges and motivations.
Buyer Persona is based on existing customer research and other data that might help you define your ideal buyer persona in detail.
There is a common misconception that Buyer Persona and Ideal Customer Profile are the same. However, there is a big difference between them. In short, ICP represents the company profile, and Buyer Persona focuses on the particular type of person’s profile only. Similar to Ideal Customer Profile, Buyer Persona is a perfect representation of the customer who has the shortest buying cycle, highest LTV and is a preacher for your product.
Did you know that 3 to 4 Buyer Personas usually represent 90% of the company’s sales?
If various customers use your product for different aspects of their business, or they simply differ in their position, you might want to think about creating multiple personas. Whatsmore, it is pretty common to have a couple of buyer personas for the sales team.
Example:
Let’s say you have project management software. Your software could be used both by programmers, sales, marketing managers, and alike. Each of these managers presents an individual buyer persona with different wishes, goals, and challenges.
Benefits of having buyer persona for sales
Do not think that Buyer Persona is the document you are going to create, look at it a couple of times and never use it again. Buyer Persona is a powerful document, and it is of great help when you are doing outreach. Why? Because of all the benefits listed below.
Provides details for prospecting and outreach
Buyer Persona provides context for your sales team to zero in on who exactly they should outreach to while outreaching. It will provide you with information such as age, position, industry, education, and consumer patterns to use for prospecting to your fullest.
Personalized approach
Once you have identified Buyer Persona, you will have access to information such as their pain points, challenges, and what type of person they are, so you will know exactly how to personalize your approach and present your product or service in the most alluring way to the prospect. Maybe you can throw in additional personalized images or GIFs according to their liking to improve the response rate.
Improves productivity
Having a Buyer Persona means that the sales team will ultimately ease up their process, improve productivity, results, and lower the time spent on their efforts. In addition, they will attract high-quality leads with more ease, who will ultimately have a higher retention rate.
Addressing customer’s problems
We all know that the core outreach rule is focusing on customers and addressing their problems instead of your own. B2B Buyer Persona will keep you on the right path to doing just that. Whenever you create your outreach message, ask yourself if it addresses the challenges or emphasizes how to reach goals listed in Buyer Persona documents. If it does not, get back to the drawing board.
How to create a B2B buyer persona?
Buyer Persona isn’t hard to create. However, it does take a little bit of time to get it right with all the information you need for the outreach. Luckily, we are here to explain six easy steps to create this useful piece of documentation.
1. Customers breakdown
Before jumping into the details of your B2B Buyer Persona, you need to break down your current customer database into groups. To do this, you need to decide on the broader criteria by which you will break them down and then move on to more narrow criteria.
Example (part 1):
Let's say your broader criteria is the length of the buying cycle. We can agree that some buying cycles are longer than others. Since you are looking for a shorter cycle for your future customers, this is a nifty point to start at.
The following step is to define your second and third criteria to deepen the breakdown.
Example (part 2):
Let’s say from this short-buying-cycle group you have different industries. Naturally, your following criteria would be to break the customers down by industry and then by decision-making role.
If, however, you do not have current customers, you can start with an industry breakdown and proceed to the decision-maker division.
2. Demographic parameters
Now you have a rough draft of B2B Buyer Persona. So, it is time to assign them demographic attributes. The key is to notice the pattern these customers have - their age range, interests, or location. If you are unable to pinpoint these patterns, here is the list that will help you out:
- Age
- Location
- Company type
- Function
- Seniority Level
- Job position
- Industry
- Years of experience
- Education
- Role in Buying process
- Recent life event
In case you do not have your current customers or customer insight, fear not. You can use the combination of Google Analytics and LinkedIn to gather this kind of information. If you are using Google Analytics, simply jump to your existing Audience Insights section (or ask your marketing team to do it for you :).
For LinkedIn, simple filter options will do the trick.
3. Psychographic parameters
To fill in the picture, you would need additional personal information. Psychographic characteristics are a great way to do it, as it will help you perceive your B2B Buyer Persona as more human, which will also humanize your approach.
Dedicate your Buyer Persona a name to start with, and then proceed on with:
- Likes And Dislikes: It is far easier to talk to someone whose general preferences you know, rather than hope that you won’t mess up if you mention something they do not like.
- Character type: This will give you an insight into how you should approach the person and construct your social selling. You can use 16 Personalities or similar to determine character type.
- Brand and influencers: You can choose the general ones or narrow them down. In addition, choose brands or influencers similar to your business to adjust your sales pitch.
- Work motivation: Information such as what drives them to go to work every day and what they like to do the most.
- Story Behind Buyer Persona: You can write a short description of what led them to a current position, what is their main trait, how many years they’ve been doing business, and so on.
- Preferred means of communication and Social Channel use: It’s also a good idea to find out where the ideal buyer spends time online and how they like to communicate so you know whether you should use multichannel outreach.
How to come by this kind of information?
If you have current customers, the best way to gather this kind of information is by simply talking to them. Here are a few key points to talk about with your customers:
- Means of communication they prefer;
- Social Media they consume the most;
- What is considered to be an achievement in their job role;
- Their motivations;
- What tools do you use as part of your daily routine? Why?
- What they like and dislike most about the job and communication with people;
- How they would describe a product’s purchasing journey;
- How would they describe their working persona;
Through these questions, the idea is to understand your potential customers’ true behavioral patterns and motivations. The more qualitative and quantitative detail you gather from this conversation, the better you will be prepared for these types of B2B Buyer Personas.
If you do not have your customer base or someone from your buyer persona to talk to, you can use LinkedIn to search for this kind of person and see what they write about in their post and gather information from there.
4. Identify buyer personas’ goals and pain points
In most cases, your prospects’ goals will be your own. Keep in mind, you are not just a salesperson, but the helping hand, a friend in need for their business efforts.
That is why you need to identify their goals, priorities, challenges, and pain points. Furthermore, depending on their pain point, you can adjust and personalize your outreach more to pinpoint and present what your prospects are looking for.
This is where conversation with your current customers comes into play once more. What you need to keep an eye out for is what are...
- your challenges?
- long-term and short-term goals?
- technology and tools used to achieve your goals?
- your work priorities?
- the influences of your purchasing decision?
Additional Note: If you do not have current customers, reach out to your leads anyway. You would be surprised how many people on LinkedIn will be willing to help by just telling them that you are doing the research.
5. Common objections and value proposition
Sometimes when you talk with customers, they will speak about your product or service. Let them, because they will reveal much about your product itself, and the problems it solves for them.
Furthermore, ask them about what they dislike about your product. It is important to understand negative viewpoints to bulletproof your outreach message. The message with this information will be a valid and irresistible value proposition for the B2B Buyer Persona.
Now is the time to ask one last tricky question: What do they usually say when they try to decline the offer from a salesperson? This is perhaps the most valuable information since they will list of objection handling situations that you can prepare for when you outreach this type of B2B Buyer Persona.
6. Assemble your B2B buyer personas
Gather your findings in one place and start building your B2B Buyer Persona. Keep in mind that every piece of information we mentioned above is applicable in practice, be it for outreach or prospecting. You can always go into even more details when defining a B2B Buyer Persona, such as marital status and so on, but the information mentioned above should be your core guide.
With this information, you have a specific description of your potential customer. Give your Buyer Persona name and surname, a picture, and you are done - at least with this one 🙂 Remember to repeat the process in the first step to create a couple more Buyer Personas for the outreach.
B2B buyer persona example and template
Here is an example of how it looks when you sift through the information and present them neatly in the document. A sight for sore eyes, isn’t it?
We’ve even created the template for you. You can download this buyer persona by clicking here. Click on the “Make a copy” button, and it shall be done.
How to use B2B buyer persona in lead generation?
Creating a Buyer Persona can be challenging, but now the real fun begins - it is time to put it into practice.
Remember that these are your IDEAL Buyers. However, if the person outside of your Buyer Persona is interested in your product or a service, do not discard them and proceed with the sales process.
Here is how you can use your Buyer Persona to find leads, create personalized messages and outreach them with more ease.
1. Find leads matching buyer persona using LinkedIn
There are two ways to find leads: by LinkedIn basic account search or Sales Navigator Search.
Find leads using LinkedIn basic search
Go to your LinkedIn account and research the position defined in your Buyer Persona document. Once you do, use additional filters available to narrow down the search according to your Buyer Persona, such as location, industry, and so on.
When the search is complete, create a CSV file with every prospects’ first name, last name, profile URL, and email if you can find it. Additionally, you can import variables such as Value proposition from your B2B Buyer Persona document. Save this file for the next step.
Find leads using Sales Navigator
Go to your Sales Navigator account and click on Lead Filters.
You will see the filters list you can use, so insert all the ones from your Buyer Persona document, such as Education, Years of Experience, Job title, etc.
Once you’ve filtered out the search, hit the “Save Search” button to save leads to the lead list.
Another great way to find leads that are a twin picture of your ideal B2B Buyer Persona is to find that exact person, preferably your current customer, in Sales Navigator and hit the “View Similar” button. Sales Navigator will find leads most similar to the lead profile you select, according to position, age, education, and so on.
Save this list by clicking the “Save” button next to their names, and you are done.
2. Create an outreach campaign
You can outreach the leads you found manually, but to make this process easier, you can use a sales engagement tool to do it for you. Let’s take Skylead as an example. To create a campaign, take the CSV file from LinkedIn results or URL from the Sales Navigator lead’s list, and upload or paste it into Skylead.
3. Create a Smart sequence for outreach
The Smart sequence will allow you to define the steps you need to take for your outreach towards the selected leads. Move and connect the elements, such as actions and conditions, will result in a sequence such as:
4. Personalize your approach
Remember when we mentioned the value proposition, motivation, and type character your B2B Buyer Persona is? This is where you are going to use them. When figuring out the message for the outreach, be sure to personalize it according to all these parameters.
Depending on how many steps your sequence has, you might use these pieces of information sporadically. Here is an example of one type of personalized message for outreach.
Hey {{firstName}},
I couldn't help but notice that working as {{occupation}} brings out different challenges such as {{Challenge1}}.
I know that {{Motivation}} is a huge factor in overcoming this challenge. But did you know that {{ValueProposition}} could be a perfect solution for it?
It would be great to hear more about how you operate in this regard and share some of my tips if you’re up for it.
How does Thursday at 1 PM sound?
And you are done! Relax and enjoy the results Skylead brings to you.
Summary
Buyer Persona helps you bring the right prospects to the table. Furthermore, it provides you with the details which you can use for prospecting and outreach, improving productivity and results. Here are the steps to remember:
- Customers’ Break-Down
- Define Demographic Parameters
- Define Psychographic Parameters
- Identify Goals And Pain Points
- Define Common Objections And Value Proposition
- Assemble The Buyer Persona
Now you go! Create your outreach campaign, use the information you gathered and watch leads convert more efficiently and with ease.
Wish to use Skylead to find and outreach your Buyer Persona with ease? We would be happy to meet! Drop us a message via chat on our website. Or, try out Skylead by signing up for a 7-day Free Trial.
Social Selling or Old Sales Approach?
You are standing at the crossroad in the middle of the field. On the left, there is a sign “The old ways of sales” loosely dangling from the barren tree. A trodden path beneath the sign leads to the campfire in the night. Crows are cawing at you like the alarm, as you approach the tree hole they guard.
Towards the other path hangs a neatly hammered sign saying “Social selling”. Sun shines upon it, and you hear laughter echoing in the valley. You notice something else in the distance: the mountain, tall as the sky itself, and people climbing it.
Which way will you go?
The crossroad choice seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Give crows bread crumbs, grab the notebook they were hiding in the tree as your foundation. Let us take your hand as we walk towards the valley and train you for the mountain climb.
What is Social Selling?
Social Selling definition
Let’s start with the basics. Social selling is a lead generation strategy where you should connect with prospects and develop deeper relationships before leading them further down the sales funnel. In general, it can take place online or offline, but due to recent events, it is more of a social media thing now.
A big part of B2B social selling is constantly listening, understanding the prospects’ pain points, educating, and providing tailor-made value. What does this mean for SDRs? Prospects come first - their pain points, worries, and sales reps as company representatives should offer empathy and help in the form of a solution.
Here is how it differs from the old sales ways:
According to LinkedIn, 78% of social sellers outsell their peers who do not use social media.
It is important not to confuse selling on social media with social media marketing and advertising. Social selling means direct and personal interaction with customers via their social media activity to create a sense of credibility and establish a relationship. Social media marketing, on the other hand, means conducting promotional activities using the company's social media accounts and building brand awareness that way.
As social selling is a fairly complex strategy, with a web of possibilities and outcomes, we are creating a two-part blog series so you can easily master your social selling skill to boost sales. Let’s first dive deep into how you can measure the effectiveness of selling on social media.
How to measure Social Selling success
Before sharing social selling tips, we must emphasize how important it is to track and measure social selling activity. With documenting and tracking, you will know where you succeeded or what needs adjusting to improve selling on social media. Here are the top 8 social selling metrics which will help you out.
#1 Social Selling metric: SSI
As one of the most popular selling on social media metrics, LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI) proved to be a great indicator of your social selling status on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn found a way to measure how effective your presence on this platform is by building your brand, connecting with the right people, engaging, and establishing relationships.
The Social Selling Index is free and available anytime, and it is updated daily. If you wish to see your Social Selling Index, click here.
In general, SSI provides insight into where you currently stand within your network and industry. If you wish to check your Social Selling Index out and improve it, head over to our blog post on how you can improve your LinkedIn SSI Score, and we will tell you all about it.
LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index is not the ultimate metric for social selling as a whole, but it does provide an excellent insight to start with and measure the success on LinkedIn. As LinkedIn is the best social network for B2B sales, it makes sense that you would want to take a step up in your efforts to generate more opportunities there.
Naturally, the social selling index only works on LinkedIn, and you cannot use it across all platforms and activities. What you can measure instead are the metrics below.
#2 Social Selling metric: Message response rate
The goal of social selling has always been quality over quantity and to create a more refined path to conversions. Yet the number of responses stays vital as it mirrors your ability to do the prospecting on LinkedIn, and identify an ideal prospect profile who will respond to you. It's best to track the response rate on each social media account, as it can also indicate your social skill to approach the prospect and which platform works better for you.
How to calculate the message response rate:
(Number of messages responded / Number of Total Messages) x 100
#3 Social Selling Metric: The number of warm leads generated
Since social selling emphasizes building and nurturing relationships, it is only logical to measure this process.
The ability to start a conversation, engage and warm up qualified leads is crucial for the sales funnel and can indicate social selling success. Each warm lead equals an opportunity to present your product or service. To achieve this, you need to have a prior honest and genuine conversation with the prospect to figure out how you can help them. This warm-up needs to be kept track of as they indicate your skills to conduct the beginning steps of selling on social media.
Warmed-up leads are a vital element for generating social selling ROI. Acquiring those types of leads and strengthening the relationship between you and the prospect, will help you during the sales process.
But there is one other benefit. When prospects who you build a strong relationship with become clients, the stronger the relationship is, the longer they will stay as a client, which will generate higher customer lifetime value and lower churn rate.
You can measure warm leads generated by counting the conversation in which you established the relationship, figuring out their pain point, or if they showed initial interest in your company.
#4 Social Selling metric: Social network growth rate
Selling on social media is also about growing your network as much as you can so you can have more opportunities to create warm conversations and develop a valuable relationship with the prospect. That's why social network growth rate is an important metric to track.
The more suitable people you have on your network, the more reach you will have to create opportunities and succeed in selling. You will have a greater chance for your content to be seen by a larger number of the target group members for your business and develop a relationship with them.
The size of the social network plays a massive role in the strategy's effectiveness, but you shouldn’t measure it alone. It should be analyzed along with other metrics, such as engagement rate, to see the complete picture. SDRs who center their efforts around growing their network and not providing value, won’t reach the same results like the ones who do both activities.
How to calculate social network growth rate:
Social Network Growth Rate = (Number of new followers / Number of existing followers) x 100
#5 Social Selling metric: Content engagement rate
The content you share is the foundation of selling on social media. Sharing valuable and relevant, and educational content with your network can position you as an expert in their eyes.
The content with the highest engagement rate is usually the one most valuable to your network. These metrics also show how engaging your audience really is. If the engagement rate is low, you need to get back to the drawing board and think twice about the content you are sharing.
Engagement rate shows whether you are providing the right information to your audience. Type of engagement you need to check out is:
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Saves
How to calculate Engagement Rate:
Engagement Rate (%) = ((Likes+Comments+Shares+Saves) / Total Followers) x 100
#6 Social Selling metric: Number of referrals
One of the main benefits of selling on social media is Word of Mouth, aka referrals. As you build up your network, show your expertise, and engage with leads, you are being positioned as the qualified person to be recommended and referred to. Whatsmore, people will bind your company brand to your name, therefore you will become somewhat of a synonym. You will want to position yourself as a valuable source of information for them to share with others.
The number of referrals is an important metric to track since it shows the exact state of your skill to gain somebody’s trust and provide the right value directly and indirectly to the warm leads connections.
#7 Social Selling metric: Number of booked meetings
The second most important metric to track - the number of demos booked - demonstrates the ability to build a relationship and securely set appointments with the prospect. As leads sometimes tend to vanish before the meeting and never appear, this number should be increased after the meeting finishes.
The higher the number of meetings held, the chances are that the higher number of purchases will be.
#8 Social Selling metric: Average time spent until conversion
Have you ever wondered how much time passes before your warm leads finally convert and pay for the product or service? If not, it’s time that you do.
Analyzing the current time you need to guide prospects through a sales funnel using different social selling activities shows the average time you spent engaging and building relationships across platforms, which ultimately led to conversion. You need to keep track of activities such as the average time:
- Between the first cold approach and response
- To warm up the lead
- To accept a meeting
- The average time to nurture leads
- Overall average time up until the conversion
Being able to see how much time has passed between the activities in total up until the conversion and in combination with other metrics points out shortcomings in your approach and where you can improve your approach. Keep in mind that your approach should be timely and balanced so you can have time to build a relationship, but do not take it too long. Time spent until the conversion is best analyzed with other metrics to show what you are doing wrong.
Experts advise: Social Selling tips to boost sales
Now that we’ve talked about metrics let’s talk about tips and tricks of social selling. Selling on social media channels is not only an activity but much more. It is a strategy to find and convert high targeted leads. There are many tips over the internet, but they are all based on these five basic pillars of social selling:
- Finding the right leads for your business
- Establishing your personal, professional brand
- Engaging with others
- Providing valuable content
- Building a relationship with the prospect.
Let’s check the tips and tricks from experts around the globe and the ones that proved useful here at Skylead.
1. Optimize social media profiles for Social Selling
Before building your network and sharing content, you must first fix your social media profiles. If you ignore this step, you will jeopardize your credibility and most likely waste your efforts on social selling activities.
If we take LinkedIn for example, this is what you need to do:
- Add profile and cover image
- Create a catchy LinkedIn headline for LinkedIn lead generation
- Add a summary
2. Extend your LinkedIn network
As a thought leader, you would want your content to be seen and heard by others, right? That is why the first advice is to extend your social media networks as much as possible and add the right ideal customer profiles at that.
As LinkedIn is the No1 B2B social media network, use it as a base and build other socials around it. You can extend your network by adding second or third connections. The more connections you have, the more you will be able to add other people since the base of the second and third connections will be enriched.
When you send out LinkedIn connection message requests, pay close attention to the note you are sending. Take time to personalize it as this is a crucial step in building the relationship. There are a couple of things you can use here:
- Mention mutual contacts
- Refer to their content piece
- Emphasize the post you both commented
- Mention mutual interests, events you attended, or experiences
Overall, try to form a connection by offering genuine conversation starters.
An example would be:
Hey Stephany,
I’ve noticed that we both attended the “How to define lead generation strategy in 2022” webinar. I saw your awesome profile and wanted to connect and share thoughts and experiences.
You can send connection requests by yourself or you can use a LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software such as Skylead to do all the work for you. Here is what a simple, smart sequence for an invite to connect looks like in Skylead:
Be sure to check out the DOs and DON’Ts of LinkedIn networking.
3. Build your credibility
Your company has an established brand and credibility on social media. For social selling, you need to do the same. You can build and develop credibility and personal brand with each post, share, comment, or discussion on Social Media.
This way, you can showcase your involvement in the industry, demonstrate your expertise and offer value to your prospects. Share your insights, case studies, and success stories. The key here is to be consistent and never to forget to stay active. Always be providing value.
Additional tip: A great conversation starter is to see who liked your post, scrape the data, send them a message and ask for their two cents on the matter.
Example:
Hey John,
I’ve noticed you liked my post on objection handling situations. I was wondering what your experience is in that matter. What objection did you come across the most?
You can also build your credibility by asking for recommendations or endorsements from your network, be it your colleagues or people from the same industry.
4. Participating & engaging in groups
Another way to reach a wider audience is mingling in various social media groups, and the ones outside them, for example Slack or web-based groups, such as GrowthHacker and IndieHackers.
All you need to do is research the groups on every social media channel you use and join them. Once accepted, you can share your posts, chat with other members and find your ICP there.
This relationship that you’ve formed with relevant prospects through groups is an important step for nurturing them as prospects and warming them up. You can start with sharing valuable content, and then introduce them with your product or service, product launches.
On LinkedIn and Facebook, you can search groups easily with keyword search and group filter, whilst Slack groups are a bit harder to find, meaning you would need to Google them. LinkedIn has a vast base of groups, but keep in mind that only some groups on LinkedIn are active, and niche ones at that. Other LinkedIn groups are not active at all.
If you have something to contribute to the group, and you see how you can genuinely interest someone in your product, by all means, do so, but do not copy/paste salesy comments that have no context to the post or prospect’s comment alone. It will only irritate other members. Progress in the conversation in a more natural, push-free way.
5. Researching the prospects
When you handpick a prospect to reach out to, and go all social selling on him, stop and prepare. You need to do the research beforehand.
Social media channels alone are a great way to find out more about someone’s interests, work, and hobbies, so use them. See what they are:
- Reading,
- Sharing,
- What they value most,
- What their thoughts and feelings are.
For example, you can use Twitter to find out about their feelings and trending topics they casually talk about, Facebook for their interest, and LinkedIn for their work. Once you find the necessary information, write it down, and create a personalized outreach based on it, to start building a relationship.
Example:
Hey Mike,
I noticed you openly talked about how patience and long-term planning are crucial for employee retention. Cheers for that, I agree completely. What would you say if I told you that both patience and long-term vision could be easily transferred to employees, so they stay in the company longer?
6. Engage to nurture prospects
If creating content is not your virtue, fear not. If we talk about social selling, one of the main activities, besides publishing your posts, is liking, commenting, and sharing other people’s content.
Pay attention to what others are saying. If you have anything to say, comment and engage with your ICP. Be observant - read, listen, and always keep learning since this will give you greater opportunities to approach your leads, build relationships and nurture them. Your daily social selling activity should be liking, sharing, or commenting on your ICP’s post. When you engage like this, the prospect will see that you are interested in them and be more open to continuing the conversation with you.
7. Nurture existing customers
If we talk about social selling, we simply cannot neglect the existing customers. According to European Business Review, acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than keeping the existing one. After all, existing customers are essential for your customer lifetime value.
The happier and more engaged your existing customers are, the more chances you will get to upsell them and retain them, not to mention the higher the average lifetime value is. Even though they are now in the customer success realm, you as a salesperson cannot forget them because of it, so it is important to engage with them every now and then. Since sales folk have a lot on their plate, they still need to choose where to focus their efforts. That’s where individual customer lifetime value comes into play and analyzing whether the extra action is needed.
8. Keep it real - Create relationships not pushing sales
If we hadn’t emphasized enough so far, let’s do it again - build relationships instead of solely trying to sell. Not a single soul likes being sold something, as everyone ends up feeling manipulated, to say the least. Check it yourself - wouldn’t you feel this way?
Instead, ask what they do, gain full interest in it, make a conversation, and joke here and there, naturally as a human conversation goes when you first meet someone. Be a real person before pitching. Whether you have the best service or a product out there, your job as a sales rep is to make relationships first.
Social selling experts say that even throughout making a relationship you constantly need to provide value to someone to prove your expertise and that is the key to gaining their trust.
After you establish this, listen carefully to what their pain points are and reply to their exact problem. How? With a tailor-made response to present your product.
In addition, if you are not the best fit, be real with yourself, let it be, and move on to find a better ICP.
9. Personalize with GIFs and images
Even though it still isn’t a popularized approach, it always works. Finding the perfect GIF or image and putting your face on it with a custom message will make the prospects loosen up and make them like you even more.
Here is an example of how you can personalize your GIFs and Images in Skylead.
10. Keep it real, but enjoy the process
Social selling is about mingling with people, hearing their stories, learning about new experiences and trends. Remember, people come to social media to relax and escape boredom. They always want to see nice things or interesting videos. So to stay on top and succeed, you need to follow it. This means sharing witty posts or videos from time to time. Find your unique voice in the sea of posts and develop your personal brand.
The key here is to have fun, enjoy interacting with people and build an audience that will remain loyal to your brand.
Summary
Sales really did go far from the old ways, and social selling was a natural evolution step as opposed to a pushy, one-dimension approach. That means things got a bit complicated, but more fun. Here are all the tips formed in one checklist:
1. Optimize social media profiles for Social Selling
2. Extend your LinkedIn network
3. Build your credibility
4. Participating & engaging in groups
5. Researching the prospects
6. Engage to nurture prospects
7. Nurture existing customers
8. Keep it real - Create relationships not pushing sales
9. Personalize with GIFs and images
10. Keep it real, but enjoy the process
When executed together, these tips can improve your sales. You just need to keep in mind that all of the above won’t help you if you do not change your mindset. Empathy is everything and the key to successful social selling. If you do not genuinely care and do not wish to help others, all the battles are lost.
Prepare - the next step is drawing out a social selling strategy, for which we will create another blog post soon.
Wish to personalize your approach and automate a part of your social selling tasks? Check out Skylead and enjoy the ride.
In today’s crowded Inboxes, the struggle to get a response is real.
Whether you are reaching out via LinkedIn or email, it has never been easier to get in touch with someone. It’s just that now, standing out in the sea of messages has become an art to be mastered.
There are many reasons why your ideal lead is not replying. However, each solution to this problem starts with catching their attention. One of the approaches that might not be as popular (yet!) with sales reps, but that showed itself pretty effective is including personalized GIFs and Images into your outreach routine.
But before you say that personalized GIFs and Images seem unprofessional or that they exceed too much work, let me tell you that I too was skeptical in the beginning. I came across several personalized GIFs our Sales Team uses in their outreach campaigns, and thought to myself - this looks kind of weird.
However, not until I saw their response rates that went up by 63% and experimented with some outreach campaigns of my own, did I realize the power of personalized GIFs and Images.
That’s why I decided to share tips and tricks picked up by talking to sales reps that scaled up Skylead and following top industry professionals on and off LinkedIn.
In this blog, we’ll touch upon:
- How to prepare for outreach to increase your response rates;
- Why personalized GIFs and Images make people reply to your message;
- Dos and Don’ts when including personalized Images & GIFs;
- 10 templates of personalized Images & GIFs that helped level up our Sales Team’s response rates.
Poor targeting equals poor response rates
Yes, we’ve gathered here to talk about how to increase your response rates by implementing personalized GIFs & Images into your outreach routine. However, there is one thing that we cannot stress enough. The absolute prerequisite to skyrocketing the number of your replies, Her Majesty - the Targeting.
You can have the best copy in the world and be the most skilled sales rep that ever walked this Earth, but if you are talking to the wrong person, not much can be done. Yes, there is always a way to ask to be redirected to someone else, but why waste resources? Put some time into LinkedIn prospecting and coming up with a quality outreach plan (messages, channels, segmentation strategy, Images & GIFs), and then just focus on closing the deal.
Good sales reps have a clear understanding of who they want to reach out to and they handpick leads even when using a sales engagement platform to make their lives easier (‘cause, why not? We do live in the 21st century, after all). You would be surprised how many sales reps don’t reach their quotas just because they feel lazy to put some time into quality targeting. It’s quite a shame, especially because LinkedIn offers lots of options to find different profiles for those who think strategically.
- Target leads that attended a LinkedIn event of your interest;
- Use the LinkedIn poll to survey your ideal prospects and then reach out to your target group;
- Connect with LinkedIn members that commented or engaged with a certain LinkedIn post;
- Join a LinkedIn group to make meaningful connections and eventually reach out to other members. Choose a community where your target audience gathers for this approach to work. The more specific the niche, the better the result;
- Sign up for Sales Navigator and take full advantage of its advanced filtering options;
- Apply Sales Navigator hacks that only top-notch industry professionals use when targeting leads.
Why personalized GIFs and images work
They’re eye-catching
GIFs, images, and even vector graphics especially if personalized, are more interesting, dynamic, and eye-catching in comparison to static text. The studies have shown that the average person sees over 5000 marketing messages per day. This number goes up when it comes to decision-makers and top-level managers. Therefore, your message has about 8 seconds to capture your lead’s attention. That’s why, when the lead opens your message, even if initially they didn’t want to reply back, receiving a personalized GIF or Image will stick their minds. Consequently, the chances of getting a response are increasing.
You show extra effort
Some leads that receive a personalized GIF or Image respond just because they recognize the effort you put into your outreach. And we know that in sales, sometimes all you need is that one response to spiral up the conversation in the right direction.
They don’t come off as salesy
Instead of sending a reminder message or trying to sell straight off the bat (which is always a big no-no), going with a personalized GIF or Image seems more low-key, yet far more effective for you lead generation on LinkedIn (or off). It might even make your lead laugh a little bit! And that’s always memorable.
What to pay attention to
- Using humor in your outreach is always a good idea. This applies to personalized GIFs and Images as well. However, before making a joke do your research. Consider each person’s unique cultural background, and avoid anything you even have the smallest doubt might conflict with it.
- Don’t use GIFs or Images that make fun of your or your lead’s competition. It’s just a sign of bad sportsmanship and never comes off well.
- Keep it short and to the point.
- Be prepared that not everyone will appreciate it. Sending personalized GIFs and Images can be a two-edged sword. But - If you don't take risks, you don't drink champagne.
- Know when to stop. If the first doesn’t work and you don’t get a response, don’t send another personalized GIF or Image. Go with a backup plan.
- A/B test different personalized GIFs or Images to get a response that you wish for.
How to make a personalized GIF or image?
There are two ways to personalize a GIF or Image - manually or through a sales engagement platform.
I and our Sales Team use Skylead’s native Image & GIF hyper-personalization feature. However, you can do it manually with any other tool you feel comfortable with.
As far as Images and GIFs are concerned, we simply download them from the internet or from Giphy, for instance. More creative ones take their own photos or mini videos that turn into GIFs on Ezgif (super-easy, btw) and then personalize them to fit their leads (and needs).
If you’re using Skylead for your outreach, this is how including a personalized GIF or Image looks on LinkedIn and in an email.
LinkedIn message
A personalized GIF or Image shows as a link with a preview. That way your lead is more likely to click on it, as people tend not to open these kinds of files otherwise.
Email message
A personalized GIF or Image is fully embedded in the body of the email and it shows as represented below.
10 templates of personalized images & GIFs
Send a personalized Image to your lead to invite them for a zoom chat.
Hello Amie,
Thank you for adding me to your network!
I saw that you’re a Head of Marketing at Edge Project. I help B2B companies generate more leads through deep personalization on LinkedIn.
Let’s jump on a Zoom call sometime this week?
Example #2 Conversation starter
Thank your lead for accepting your Connection Request. This can be an excellent conversation starter. Adding a message copy is optional, as this personalized GIF speaks for itself.
Example #3 Humanize your pitch
People want to talk to real people not company pages anymore. This is the number one concept of social selling. Yes, LinkedIn has account profiles as well, but outreach should always be done by people who work in these companies and should represent the personification of that brand. Showing your face in the outreach improves response rates.
Example #4 Overcome common sales objections in a humorous way
One of the most common objection handling situations is I already have a solution. If you don’t know how to approach it, break the tension with a humorous personalized GIF or Image, and then take it from there.
Example #5 Ask for something
Asking complete strangers to fill out a survey or give your their feedback (or anything for that matter) is a really arduous task, as they don’t owe you anything. The truth is, no one owes you anything. However, feedback and surveys help you and your business grow. Always be listening to your customers, right? Here’s a fun way to get a response.
Hello Iris,
Thank you for attending my webinar “Content Marketing For Niche Markets”.
Quick question - what were the most valuable lectures for you? Is there anything you found redundant for your niche in particular?
Example #6 Make your email invite more casual
There are so many different professional communities and popping a link to your lead to join yours is not enough anymore. You can always lighten up your message with a personalized GIF and make your lead click on the link to at least check it out for a start. It will definitely draw attention among others who just write something like Join my community here {{link}}.
Hello Marie,
I saw that you are Head of Sales at FlyProject. I have this community dedicated to the sales industry that I would love you to join.
We discuss - cold outreach, growth tactics, and anything sales-related.
Here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/sales.tribe.community
Example #7 Make them ask you for more information
Experiment. Play with your outreach. You will only know if you try. Yes, some might say that this message should maybe give more information about the event itself. However, have in mind that nowadays everyone checks out you and your company on LinkedIn before replying to any sort of message either way.
Hey Helen,
Wanna join my…
Example #8 Pinpoint a problem that you offer a solution to
You can make an industry-related joke and strengthen it with a personalized GIF so that your offer doesn’t seem too salesy.
Hey Jeremy,
What does the SEO professional see when they see twins?
Duplicated content.
Jokes aside, every business needs an SEO touch-up, and I just might be your girl!
Example #9 Illustrate your end-goal in a non-salesy manner
As mentioned above, GIFs and Images in outreach can be an excellent alternative to a salesy message. Or, at least, then can soften it a bit.
Hello James,
I don’t know if you’ve heard the news, but JKL Transportation & Logistics has a truck shipment that currently offers the highest number of destinations around the world.
Since you expressed some concerns regarding truck shipment in David Jones’ post, I just wanted to offer help and clarification regarding some issues. I truly believe that E-jewel can benefit from it!
Let me know what you think!
Example #10 Pump up your lead’s enthusiasm
Booking a call or scheduling an appointment should not be taken for granted! Not only did you work hard for it, but it is equally important to keep your lead pumped for it as well! Replying simply with Ok, it’s a deal can be substituted with something like this. It will keep your lead excited as well and eager to hear what you have to say!
Alright, Danny!
It’s a date! Monday, at 3 pm.
To sum up
Yes, the struggle to get a response is real but pretty overcomeable with the willingness to think outside the box.
‘Cause, what would you rather - work hard and book less or work smart and book more?
The way you do your outreach directly mirrors the way you do your business. People recognize that. Putting extra effort into addressing your leads communicates that you are the person who always strives to deliver more than expected. And who wouldn’t want to work with someone like that?
Speaking of, you know who also strives to deliver more than expected? Skylead. Sign up for a 7-day free trial, and see it for yourself!
If you are doing LinkedIn outreach, how you write your Summary is of vital importance. Do not believe us? Then let’s demonstrate with one of the most common scenario examples, which starts like a bad joke.
An SDR sends a LinkedIn connection invite.
Person on the other end of the ’’line’’:
My, my... Who do we have here? Who are you?
*Sees a profile picture and a name*
What do you want?
*Sees a message* *Goes to profile*
Ahh... An SDR.
*Goes to profile and scrolls down to Summary*
Empty. No valuable information or expertise.
If they didn’t take the time to properly introduce themselves and show who they are, I won’t have time for this connection either.
*Clicks Ignore*
See what they did there? They tried to make indirect connections and confirm the validity, but you denied them the opportunity, even though you are the one who reached out.
At the end of this article, you will learn:
- How to write a LinkedIn summary;
- Best practices;
- Mistakes to avoid;
- Tips and tricks;
- Examples that will inspire you.
All this, so you can improve the connection requests acceptance rate, which leads to sales.
So what is the magic formula for the scenarios at the beginning of the article to disappear? Let’s start with a Good Quality Summary + Optimized LinkedIn profile.
Benefits of optimized LinkedIn profile and a summary
Now, when it comes to attracting new visitors and leads, apart from the optimized LinkedIn profile, the key element on your profile is the Summary, aka About section.
With the well-optimized account and the Summary, your profile will be shown in search results more often. This means you’re directly increasing your chances to connect with your target audience, thus reaching your goals.
Flipping the other side of the coin. When doing cold outreach, prospects will see your About section, and they will indirectly feel more connected to you.
They will know who exactly contacted them, the value you provide, your expertise, and that you know what they are talking about. They will know you are legit - and not as you are trying to catfish them on some level.
Key elements of a well-optimized LinkedIn profile
Let’s first talk briefly about your LinkedIn profile optimization. This is for all the users out there: Whatever your current job description or a company are, you need to be aware of the fact that, as an individual, you represent yourself as well as the company. Therefore, your LinkedIn profile should be as optimized as possible.
If you are an SDR, then this is that much more important. You need to make sure to optimize your profile for LinkedIn lead generation, as well.
In short, a well-optimized LinkedIn profile should include:
- A representative profile and cover photo (preferably company branded with a taste);
- A catchy LinkedIn headline with keywords;
- An interesting, unique, and keyword-rich summary;
- Your job position, accomplishments, and work history.
After you complete the headline and photos setups, the next thing that you should take care of is creating a compelling summary.
LinkedIn summary: Definition and purpose
LinkedIn Summary, also known as the LinkedIn About section or Bio, is the part on a user's profile right above the Featured, Activity, and Work experience sections. It is usually a few-paragraphs-long-text and one of the first things the visitors notice on your profile.
According to Rain Group’s “Top Performance in Sales Prospecting” Research, 82% of buyers research providers on LinkedIn before responding to a cold outreach message.
While the headline is there to appeal to somebody to visit your profile, the LinkedIn About section for SDRs is a place that lets people learn more about who you truly are, and encourages them to take certain actions (connect, schedule a Demo or work with you).
In other words, it is a place where you’re able to introduce yourself, give visitors a clear message of who you are, what your career story and goals are, what you are professionally known for, what drives you, and what value you can bring to them.
This section of 2600 characters is the only place where you can express your personality and connect with your prospects on a deeper level. Plus, this is the place where you can trigger the leads to take the kind of action you want them to.
Common mistakes whilst writing the LinkedIn summary
Before we present you with LinkedIn Summary examples, let first go over the most common mistakes that we noticed sales reps made.
1. Writing your profile for recruiters, not prospects
As basic as it is, this mistake does happen in the sales world. It usually happens due to a previous job search or completely forgetting the importance of the About section as is. When reaching out, be sure to update your summary so it doesn't address the wrong audience, such as recruiters and hiring managers, rather prospects and customers.
2. Non-existent LinkedIn summary
The biggest mistake the users make is leaving the summary completely blank or just repeating the work history. When you do that, other users won’t perceive you as professional, rather as plain jane/john who, as a salesperson, has no value to offer. Consequently, they will leave your profile quickly.
3. Dull looking one-paragraph LinkedIn summary
Another mistake we see often is for sales reps to write the entire summary in one long paragraph. As much as you think the content itself is interesting, unstructured and unorganized paragraphs will repel your prospects, and you will look sloppy in return.
Therefore, you need to break the summary into a few smaller paragraphs, to allow the lighter read and to get your point across.
To help you understand the examples and how they work, let's go over how to best write a LinkedIn summary as well as a few tips on what to include in it to maximize your connection acceptance rate, number of leads, and sales.
How to write a great LinkedIn summary
There is no one-size-fits-all when writing a LinkedIn summary. However, there are some guidelines SDRs should follow.
Remember: Sales is all about building genuine connections, so for the beginning, keep in mind to humanize your overall approach. Furthermore, one glance at your profile allows users to read only the first 300 characters of your summary. So at this starting point, you’ll have to get your readers hooked enough for them to read your full summary.
Example:
Once you attract their attention, you have to give them a reason to engage with you. To stand out from other LinkedIn profiles and connect with your ideal prospects, answer the following “the big four” questions:
Who are you, and what are your main work goals?
If you wish to reach new clients, answering this question will state your purpose. You will know what to focus on in order to introduce yourself to prospects.
Example:
What are you passionate about and why (customer-wise)?
To build a relationship and be more trustworthy, show your prospects what inspires you and why you love your job. Make sure to include why the prospects should choose your company. Do it indirectly.
Example:
What is your job experience, and what have you accomplished?
By providing info on your accomplishments, you’ll establish expertise and show your prospects that they can count on you. Ideally, include the proven metrics of your success.
Example:
How can your product/service help prospects reach their goals?
As a salesperson, do what you know to do best - show your prospects the benefits of working with you and using the product/service and how it can help them. However, don’t get too salesly.
Example:
After you answer these questions and get done with the main part, you’re ready to go further through the process.
Tips and tricks to make your summary more attractive and interesting to prospects
To enrich the four previous questions, here are some useful tips that will help you write an eye-catching Summary:
- Write your summary in the first person;
- Don’t be afraid to add some personality;
- Include some key search terms that your prospects will likely search (it will appear higher in LinkedIn search results);
- Add a context to your career;
- Let your summary be about the prospects and their goals also;
- Write common problems that you solved while focusing on the prospects greatest pain points;
- Speak about your biggest accomplishments;
- Share real metrics, awards, and figures about your accomplishments;
- Break up the content into short paragraphs and bullet points;
- Include a CTA message at the end;
- Bold or italicize parts of the text;
- Use emojis but do not overload;
- Include your contact information - make it easy for prospects to reach back to you;
- Use brief sentences.
5 best LinkedIn summary examples perfect for sales
Without further ado, here are the five best LinkedIn summary examples for sales reps or SDRs that you can use as an inspiration for creating your description.
We’ll present different summaries types and emphasize what dominant tips they used from the checklist above.
#1 LinkedIn summary example – Show your personality
The great thing about this example is the author’s expression, perky personality. Right off of the bat you can feel the author’s uplifting energy. Furthermore, the author’s willingness to help and inspire others comes across effortlessly.
This example also shows how collaboration and building trustworthy relationships are important to the author, which makes the reader feel more connected to them.
On the technical side - there is a strong hook statement that is promising and instantly attracts new readers. They also included a few searchable keywords, which are great for getting more visits.
To strengthen their expertise, they expressed their accomplishments, and to make their summary earn more conversions of any kind there are CTAs included.
Tips applied:
- Added personality;
- Hook statement;
- Keywords included;
- The value offered to the prospect as well;
- Metrics about accomplishments included;
- CTA and website included.
#2 LinkedIn summary example – Show accomplishments and win credibility
This example starts with the most alluring intros of them all - questions his target audience wishes to know. This is an excellent example as it is pretty result-oriented and a great conversation starter. If you are aiming to signify the benefits of using your services or products, this is the way to go.
Demonstrating your business results and collaborations in your summary is a great way to increase conversions and get a lot of sales, especially if you include real proof. In other words, to get new sales, show what influence your product or service may have on other people’s lives or businesses.
Tips applied:
- Hook statement in the questions form;
- The value offered to the prospect;
- Contact information included;
- CTA included;
- Emojis as bullet points used;
- Text broken into small paragraphs for easier read and accomplishments;
- Summary about the reader.
#3 Example LinkedIn summary – Sincere, short and niche-focused
A lot of decision-makers on LinkedIn don’t have much time to read your summary, so if you need to reach them only, you can apply this example. The short version of the summary can do a great job of growing your conversions, especially if your business is narrowly focused.
This kind of self-presentation, in summary, can be very memorable as it contains personal history, the reason behind the company, and it goes straight to the point without wasting a lot of the reader’s time.
Tips applied:
- Value offered to the prospect;
- Added personality;
- Context to the career added;
- Metrics about accomplishments included;
- CTA included;
- Contact information included;
- Minimal use of Emojis and bullet points;
- Text broken into small paragraphs for easier reading.
#4 LinkedIn summary example – Value everywhere you turn
This is another example with the great hook in the intro, which uses questions, but this time, it demonstrates the pain points as well.
Text is broken into paragraphs, and each one is emphasized with either value, pain point, or empathetic statement. This combination brings great results in practice, so you can use it as an inspiration in your creative process.
Tips applied:
- Hook statement in the questions form;
- Keyword included;
- Summary written in the first person;
- Value offered to the prospects;
- CTA included;
- Emojis as bullet points used;
- Text broken into small paragraphs for easier read;
- Common problems solutions demonstrated while focusing on the prospects biggest pain points.
#5 LinkedIn summary example – The ”big four” answers
This is another straight-to-the-point example. It is well organized as it follows the structure:
- What I do
- How I can Help
- How I do it differently
- CTA
In addition, the author included many verbs and guided the prospects’ eyes by capitalizing them, which creates a sense of action.
Another great point is that he uses plain language and gives you the feeling he’s already part of the team.
Tips applied:
- Follows the structure;
- Keywords included;
- Summary written in the first person;
- Value offered to the prospects;
- Contact information included;
- CTA included;
- Text broken into small paragraphs.
Summary about the LinkedIn summary
A well-crafted LinkedIn summary needs to compel your prospects to accept your invite and later on convert. Using any of these Linkedin Summary examples for sales will do just that, so we hope it will spark a bunch of new ideas for your own description.
First, think about how you want to present yourself on LinkedIn because the summary shows your personal brand. But do not forget, as a salesperson representing your company is that much more important.
To write the perfect LinkedIn summary, start with answering:
- Who are you, and what are your main work goals?
- What are you passionate about and why (customer-wise)?
- What is your job experience, and what have you accomplished?
- How can your product/service help prospects reach their goals?
After that, unleash yourself onto the Tips and Tricks checklist and decide if you wish to include all or some of them.
- Write your summary in the first person;
- Don’t be afraid to add some personality;
- Include some key search terms that your prospects will likely search (it will appear higher in LinkedIn search results);
- Add a context to your career;
- Let your summary be about the prospects and their goals also;
- Write common problems that you solved while focusing on the prospects greatest pain points;
- Speak about your biggest accomplishments;
- Share real metrics, awards, and figures about your accomplishments;
- Break up the content into short paragraphs and bullet points;
- Include a CTA message at the end;
- Bold or italicize parts of the text;
- Use emojis but do not overload;
- Include your contact information - make it easy for prospects to reach back to you;
- Use brief sentences.
Let the questions we mentioned be your guide, tips merely your way, and the examples your map to build a better LinkedIn summary.
Happy writing!
Are you using LinkedIn for prospecting and reaching out to your leads? Skylead is here to help you personalize, improve and maximize your outreach. See it in action - Try out Skylead for free.
Despite the countless platform options, finding leads on LinkedIn sometimes might seem like the Wild Wild West.
And yet, everyone is there. Networking, self-branding, promoting services, and searching for leads for their businesses.
However, in the sea of professionals and decision-makers, it is a quality lead that is hard to find. And if you make it, that’s already a job half done right there.
With the premise that your LinkedIn profile is already optimized, something that we cannot stress enough though, let’s move on to 5 hacks for finding leads easier (and smarter).
Therefore, whether you are running out of ideas for prospecting on LinkedIn or you are just sailing into these waters, we’ll show you:
- 5 hacks to find leads on LinkedIn easier (and why they work);
- A concrete example for each hack (so you know how to put it into practice);
- How to use each hack for personalization once you find leads (aka templates).
Let’s get down to business.
Approach attendees of a specific LinkedIn Event
The first hack to find leads is to target members who attended a specific LinkedIn event.
However, you need to be smart about it. As a professional in a certain industry, you are most likely to attend LinkedIn events that enhance your knowledge and skills or simply benefit the industry you are in.
Now you need to start thinking the other way around. Take some time to attend a LinkedIn event dedicated to your target clientele. Not only is this the perfect place to find leads, but it also gives you valuable insight into their needs, doubts, and opinions. The knowledge you gain from attending a LinkedIn event of this kind can help you grow your business in the right direction. It can also serve as an excellent way to personalize your outreach and give an impression to the leads you found that you’ve done your research. Because you most certainly did.
How to find leads who attended a specific LinkedIn event
Open your LinkedIn profile. Search for the event which attendees you would like to target.
There are two ways of searching LinkedIn events:
- Type in the name of the specific event in the LinkedIn search engine (in case you already attended one, and you know where to find your leads).
- Run a blank search. It leads you to the “Events” button option. You will get a full list of all future LinkedIn events. Do a little research on an event that you think might work out for finding qualified leads. Use keywords to narrow down your search.
Step #1 Attend the event.
You won’t be able to see LinkedIn members who joined a specific event unless you sign up for it as well. Know that you can approach attendees before and after the event. However, as mentioned above, it is beneficial to your outreach to attend it for real and then do the outreach.
Step #2 Filter the attendees
In case there are too many attendees, or you simply want to put in an extra criterion, go ahead and narrow them down by using LinkedIn filters.
Step #3 Copy - paste the URL to Skylead
Unless you want to reach out to each lead you found manually, copy-paste the URL into Skylead’s Campaign Creator.
Click “Next” and create your outreach campaign according to your business needs.
Template
This template is dedicated to personalized Invites to Connect on LinkedIn. However, you can reference a certain LinkedIn event both you and your leads attended in any type of outreach (LinkedIn, Email, or a multichannel one).
Hello {{Name}},
I saw that you also attended Influential storytelling for Sales Leaders. I find inspiring prospects through storytelling a true superpower. Have you ever used this skill for sales purposes?
Anyways, I would love to connect!
Find leads via LinkedIn Poll
LinkedIn Polls are the new content on the rise that is undoubtedly taking over our feeds. As such, it became convenient for finding leads, as well as gaining valuable insight into industry tendencies, needs, and expectations. Additionally, LinkedIn is encouraging this type of content, and therefore, it awards LinkedIn Survey with high organic reach and visibility.
If you approach LinkedIn Polls with the goal of generating leads from it afterward, define well what questions can make your target audience engage. Also, for a clearer insight, have in mind that you can conduct different polls for different groups of potential clientele (segmentation) or examine the same aspect through several different polls.
How to use LinkedIn Poll to find leads
Step #1 Create a LinkedIn Poll
- Go to your LinkedIn home page.
- Click on “Start a Post”.
- Then on the graphics icon.
- Type in the question.
Offer a minimum of two and a maximum of four answers. Set up the timeframe. It can last for a day, three days, a week, or a maximum of three weeks.
- After you’ve done setting up the LinkedIn poll, the “Done” button takes you to create an accompanying LinkedIn post.
- Make a brief appealing introduction to your survey or give an extra explanation, if necessary. This is optional. If you wish, you can post the Poll as it is.
- In the bottom right corner, there is the option of allowing comments or customizing who can post on your Survey.
- Click on “Anyone” and then choose one of the following options.
Wait until the poll is over to find leads.
Step #2 Choose the leads you want to target
As mentioned above, this type of content can be quite a gold mine. Once the survey is done, choose if you want to scrape all participants or just those who answered a certain way.
If you’ve never used Data Miner, here is a complete guide (section 3 in the Table of Contents) on how to use it to scrape data from a LinkedIn poll (in this case). Once you’ve downloaded all data in a CSV file, you can go ahead and reach those leads.
Step #3 Upload the CSV file containing the leads’ URLs in Skylead
Unless you want to reach each of your leads manually, which we believe is a pretty arduous task, use the CSV file with the leads you found to make a campaign in Skylead.
Go ahead and proceed with Skylead’s Smart Sequences for a quality outreach.
Template
Using reference to a LinkedIn Poll in the Invite to Connect (or any other type of message) is exclusively available to the creator of the LinkedIn Survey. They are the only ones who can find leads who attended and scrape their profile URLs. That’s why your template can go something like this:
Hello {{Name}},
Thank you for participating in my poll. It is so interesting that you never personalize your Invites to Connect. Does this affect your acceptance rate? I am curious to know more.
Anyways, I would love to connect!
Find leads through yours or other people’s content
Driving leads through articles and posts on LinkedIn, whether yours or somebody else’s might be the next best thing about the platform.
When we talk about LinkedIn content, it includes anything from articles, and posts, to LinkedIn Polls (see above). If we put articles aside, that are subject to the laws of B2B SEO and importance, the second best thing to find leads on LinkedIn is through posts.
Even though the character limit went from 1300 to 3000, the most beneficial advice we can give you is that quality matters. And from the very start. When writing a LinkedIn post, bear in mind that you only have 210 characters at your disposal to make someone click “See more”. The best tactic is to write content that brings value from the beginning to the end. It is the most proven way that your leads will engage with it.
How to find leads who engaged with a certain LinkedIn post
Step #1 Find the post with the right leads
Just like with LinkedIn Polls, find or create LinkedIn posts that first and foremost make qualified leads engage. To do that, you need to adopt your target audiences’ perspective. Here are three ways to find leads through LinkedIn content and turn them into prospects:
- Check if any of your connections have published posts that could benefit your LinkedIn lead generation;
- Inquire which LinkedIn influencers could take you to a qualified target audience. Check their posts to find leads;
- Create a LinkedIn post yourself.
Step #2 Opt for Post Engagement Campaign in Skylead
In all the above cases, the process of collecting data is the same. In the top right corner of the post, click “Copy link to post”.
Paste it in the Skylead’s Campaign Creator.
This type of campaign is called “Post Engagement”. It will be automatically selected after you’ve pasted the link.
From here on, create a campaign that works for your business goals.
Template
If using automated outreach, have in mind that Skylead can scrape up to 2500 members who reacted (not commented) to a certain LinkedIn post. As mentioned before, it could be yours or other member’s content. Making a reference to the post or the part of it that impacted you most can be a great way to your lead’s Inbox. It can be something as simple as:
Hello {{Name}},
I saw that you are also a fan of Robert Rose from The Content Advisory, and just wanted to connect.
OR
Hello {{Name}},
I saw that you also liked Robert Rose’s post on personalized advertising. It is a thin line indeed between using customers’ data for relevant advertising and its misuse, don’t you think so?
Anyways, I would love to connect.
Target LinkedIn group members
LinkedIn Groups are the perfect place to find leads. They indicate in the most direct way the area of interest of your potential prospects. Rumor has it that LinkedIn groups are dead. However, the truth is that it can be a bit challenging to find those with relevant content and engaging community within. Either way, many industry professionals find LinkedIn groups an invaluable source for finding qualified leads.
Anyways, the “Groups” filter is available for Sales Navigator users only.
How to use LinkedIn Groups to find leads
Open Sales Navigator’s “All filters” option. Choose “Lead Filters”.
Scroll all the way down. Click on “Groups”.
Type in the name of the group. Sales Navigator will automatically suggest other groups with the same or similar topic.
In the top right corner, you immediately have an insight into the number of leads you found. Go ahead and narrow them further down. Use any of the other available Sales Navigator filters until you find leads that you consider most qualified.
For a step-by-step guide on how to target members of a LinkedIn group, click here.
Copy-paste the URL of your final lead search to Skylead’s Campaign Creator.
Make a campaign according to your business needs.
Template
Whether you decide to reach out to all members of a LinkedIn group, or to filter them additionally, referencing a LinkedIn group you are all part of is a good way to get your acceptance rates up.
Hello {{Name}},
I am also a member of the LinkedIn Social Selling group on LinkedIn. I often post about sales and prospecting, so I saw the value in us connecting. Hopefully, you’ll see it as well.
Have a great day!
Original Sales Navigator filters to find leads
Sales Navigator filters give you so many options to find exactly who you are looking for. With 24 “Lead filters” at your disposal, the sheer quality of your leads improves instantly.
However, there are 7 Sales Navigator hacks that lead generations expert use for finding leads that most likely convert to prospects.
Hack #1 Spotlights filter
Not only are these members more active on LinkedIn, but the 5 Spotlight filters are excellent for personalizing your Invites to Connect.
You can:
- Congratulate a lead on changing their job in the past 90 days;
- Being mentioned in the news;
- Reference a post they made on LinkedIn;
- Point out an experience you share;
- In case they follow your company on LinkedIn, but are not your clients, they might be in the research phase of their buyer's journey and are interested in what you have to offer. Reaching out first might work to your advantage.
Hack #2 Boolean Search
Boolean Search is available for both LinkedIn Premium and Sales Navigator.
It implies combining keywords with modifiers such as AND, NOT, and OR to produce more relevant results. The three operators (AND, NOT, OR) must be written in uppercase. You can use it for Keyword, Company, and Title filters. It is mostly being used for Keyword filters.
- AND - it shows leads that meet both criteria. For example: if you put Manager AND Sales, it will find leads that meet both criteria on their LinkedIn profile.
- OR - it shows leads that meet one of the criteria. For example: if you put CEO OR CFO, it will find leads that hold one position or the other.
- NOT - put it before the keyword to exclude this criteria from search.
Combine these for advanced search.
(Copywriter OR “Content Writer”) AND “Content manager” AND Writer
The results will show one of the criteria from the parentheses (or both) and the other two.
If you have more than one word, make sure you use quotes.
Hack #3 Exclude leads
When generating leads on LinkedIn, have in mind that you can exclude some of them from search results.
Not all the filters support this option, but the majority do.
Hack #4 Create a Leads List
After you’ve narrowed down your search by using the necessary filters, go ahead and handpick leads. As you may see, the Leads List option assures the major quality of leads. Not only are they being selected through the Sales Navigator advanced filtering, but are also manually added.
Once you find leads, click the “Add to list” option in the top right corner of each of the lead’s profiles.
Or, select the leads you want to add by checking the box on the left, by the lead’s profile picture and then click on “Add to list” at the top of your search.
You can add your lead to the existing list or “Create a Leads List”.
Use a Leads List in your automated outreach with Skylead.
Click on the Leads List option in Sales Navigator to see your lists.
Choose the Leads List. Copy-paste the URL to Skylead’s Campaign Creator.
Go ahead and create a campaign according to your business needs.
Hack #5 Use alerts
In the top left corner, click on the “Sales Navigator” or the “Home” option.
You have insight into all updates regarding the leads you saved in your list.
This is information that you can use to manually personalize the outreach. You will always get real-time updates regarding the leads you found that are valuable for your business.
Hack #6 View similar
Find leads that match your Buyer Persona criteria best. Once you’ve found them, pick one and click on the three dots in the top right corner. Choose “View Similar”. Sales Navigator will find up to 100 LinkedIn members as similar to your Buyer Persona as possible.
Once Sales Navigator has done the research for you, go ahead and save it in a leads list following the instructions mentioned above. This way, you are able to use the leads you’ve found in Skylead.
Hack #7 Custom lists
Here is a hack that not many people know.
First, use Account Filters to find companies that are your qualified potential customers.
Manually pick and choose the companies you want to be part of your Accounts List. The process is the same as with the Leads List.
Then, use this Account List in the Lead filter “Custom Lists”. It will take into consideration all people who work in those companies. You can narrow them down additionally by using, for example, the “Title” filter and target only the companies’ decision-makers.
Additionally, this filter supports the “exclusion” option.
By choosing to exclude a certain list, we are able to find leads according to the other filtering option while excluding those that are already part of a list or previously reached out. Or if for any reason you want to exclude reaching out to your competition, this is kind of a Sales Navigator’s blacklist.
Summary
Yes, these are the 5 hacks that the industry leaders use to find leads on LinkedIn.
- Approaching attendees of certain LinkedIn Events;
- Creating LinkedIn Polls with the goal of finding leads;
- Using other member’s or your lead generation aimed content to find leads;
- Targeting LinkedIn group members;
- Applying Sales Navigator top filtering hacks to find highly qualified leads.
But at the end of the day, all is fair in war, love, and well ... in lead generation.
That's why you should get as creative and fearless as possible when finding leads for your business. All you need to have is to know the value of your product, a clear vision of whom you need to target, and of course, Skylead as your faithful companion.
We cannot guarantee the value and the vision, but Skylead we can. So, try Skylead for free and see all the options at your disposal to find leads faster and easier.
White Label refers to fully supported products or services made by one company but sold by another.
The seller then customizes it with their brand, logo, and identity. This way, it makes the customers associate the product with the seller instead of with the company that originally made it.
It is a win-win situation for both parties. Companies from which the product originates earn quite a sum from their white label partners, whereas the sellers offer the same products for more money with fewer expenses of production and maintenance.
Already by hearing this, it is clear that white labeling a product has more pros than cons for both sides.
However, let’s go ahead and go in-depth about the advantages for those who choose to white label.
You Get The Luxury of Choice
Whatever the product or service you want to white label, there are for sure plenty of options out there. Yours is only to do the thorough research and decide which one will suit your and your client’s needs best, and therefore sell well. Instead of wasting time creating a single product that, at the end of the day, might not even be as developed and successful as some of the ones on the market, just pick the one that has all the right features for you.
However, choose smart. You want the third-party product to make your brand look even better. If something is not working, your clients will associate poor service with you, not with the company of origin.
It Saves You Time & Money
Anyone who has ever developed something from scratch knows how much effort is required to create a quality, functional product. It takes time, investment, knowledge, and later on the constant support and improvement to keep the product at a certain level. Of course, on the condition that it works! You have no guarantee of ROI.
If you white label a product, all of these are already taken care of. And as the product develops, so does your version.
This directly implies our third benefit.
White Labeling Allows You To Take Advantage of Expert Work
It might sound awful, but it’s true. You will not be the one paying high-end developers who need to envision it, realize it, and then fix all the bugs. Yes, in a way you will be contributing through the price you agreed upon with the company of origin, but for sure you will not be having as many headaches as they do. They are the ones who need to take care of all the aspects that make one product unique and fully functional. Not only. It is on them to make the product go through beta tests, revisions, troubleshooting, and other fine-tuning processes.
You just need to sit back and enjoy their quality work under your name.
It Takes The Pressure Off
If something goes wrong, in the majority of cases, the third-party tool owners will most likely be the ones solving the problem. Not only do they usually offer the service of Customer Support even for the white labeled version, but are fixing actual bugs and malfunctions in the product itself. Your job is only to handle the clients.
However, when mistakes do happen, take into account that there is always room for a genuine human error. It is easier to blame someone else when something similar could have happened to you too, if you were the company of origin. Don’t let it become a bad partnership.
White Labeling Increases The Customer Loyalty
Introducing a new service that is already well-developed (by someone else, even better!) and functioning will offer your existing customers something to become even more attached to you. You will now be most likely handling several aspects of their business.
Yours it’s only to make sure that the product you white label is reliable.
It Attracts New Customers
Once you start offering a new product or service, it will for sure attract new customers. It actually might not even be a bad idea to provide the service to clients who are interested only in that product, just to test it out without risking losing any of the existing clients due to poor satisfaction. In a way, it’s a win-win situation. If they like it, the new clients might expand their demand to other aspects of your business. If not, you will still have your old customers and know how to do things better for them.
White Labeling Skylead
If you've ever thought of incorporating outreach into your Lead Generation Agency, or you are doing lead generation on LinkedIn we might have the right tool for you.
Skylead is an all-in-one LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software that provides you with everything you need without having to involve any third-party tools.
What does that mean?
To begin with, Skylead does LinkedIn automation from a LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and Recruiter search, by importing leads through a CSV file, or it can target leads who reacted to a certain LinkedIn post ("Post-Engagement Campaign"). In other words, Skylead automates LinkedIn prospecting.
Furthermore, Skylead has an Email Discovery & Verification feature that finds your leads’ business emails even without being connected on LinkedIn. This allows you to do a cold email campaign or to combine an Email with a LinkedIn Outreach.
The third option at your disposal is reaching out to your leads’ via their publicly available emails on LinkedIn, collected by Skylead.
As you may see, Skylead is at the same time an Automation Tool, Email Finder, and Scraping Tool for as low as $100 per month per account.
This is not all.
Currently, Skylead is the only tool on the market that has Smart Sequences, groundbreaking algorithms that allow you to use multichannel outreach and personalization to their maximum potential.
You can create scenarios based on your leads’ behavior and combine LinkedIn Messages, LinkedIn InMails, and Emails, with other LinkedIn features such as View, Follow, Invite to Connect, and in this way create the highest number of paths to your prospects.
Whatcha waiting for?
Find out more about all the benefits of white labeling Skylead by scheduling a demo call with our specialist.
We look forward to explaining all the perks you’ll get by partnering up with us!
The rules of selling have changed.
A formal product presentation days where Sales Representatives would meet face to face with their potential customers are far behind us.
Nowadays, around two-thirds of the B2B buyers make their decision via online content.
And as you're not the only one with an online presence, you need to find a way to stand out in the era of information overflow.
Nowadays, LinkedIn is the platform that provides salespeople with valuable tools for prospecting on LinkedIn, and researching ideal customers. It allows them to get in touch with their perfect leads and send product or service offers directly in their Inbox.
However, just like salespeople put in less time to reach their potential customers, it takes only a few seconds for customers to decide if they have any further interest in what you are presenting.
The age of the customer
The ability to quickly access information about any product or service changed how business is being done.
Furthermore, customers openly talking about their experience with your company and sharing it for everyone to see has had a considerable impact when opting for a product or service.
Customers are tired of random products and services being pushed into their faces.
They want to hear from salespeople who know how to adapt the qualities and properties of what they have to offer to their customers’ needs and expectations.
They want you to know what they lack better than they do.
The salesy lingo doesn’t work anymore. Moreover, it is highly unwelcome.
So, for all of you that use this platform for LinkedIn Lead Generation and other sales activities, here are 5 tips on how to sell without sounding too salesy.
A pitch should never be your first conversation
When you are connecting with someone on LinkedIn, it is highly frowned upon to start a conversation with a pitch.
Moreover, when approaching a potential lead, the Invite to Connect is what in real life is the first impression. You only get a couple of seconds to catch your prospect’s attention or be dismissed for any reason.
That’s why the best way to approach a potential customer is to make a reference to something that you have in common.
It could be a shared interest, you might be members of the same LinkedIn group, work in a similar or adjacent industry, or have attended a specific LinkedIn event, etc.
This type of well-thought approach brings high acceptance and response rates.
Here’s an idea for your Invite to Connect.
[template]
Hello {{firstName}},
I see that you attended the “5 Marketing Strategies for a Post-Covid World” event.
As someone with {{totalYearsInCareer}} experience in the industry, I would love to hear your thoughts on a multi-channel approach to engagement.
After you’ve been accepted, you can proceed following the same “hook”.
[template]
Multi-channel outreach implies so many online and offline channels of communication!
When speaking of LinkedIn, Skylead is an online platform that combines messages, InMails, and Emails with LinkedIn features such as View, Follow, Invite to Connect, etc., to create the highest number of touchpoints with your perfect leads.
It is a very effective way to do multichannel outreach and, with the right targeting, you will be able to generate and get through to leads who are most likely interested in whatever you have to offer.
I would love to tell you more about it. Would you like to join our group Demo Call? By clicking on the link, you will see several dates and times available.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Joshua
Avoid hyperbolic words & phrases
Avoid hyperbolic words such as “cheap”, “one-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, “incredible”, “amazing”, “promotion”, etc.
Clients take these statements with skepticism.
Instead, show them that you’ve done your research and that you are messaging just because you genuinely believe that what you have to offer will significantly improve the quality of their business.
Be precise where exactly you’ve seen room for improvement and how you can help.
Use words that imply the same.
There is no better selling proposal than the one that is supported with well-researched facts.
[template]
Hello {{firstName}},
I have been following the work of {{currentCompany}} for quite some time now.
Due to your vast experience in the role of {{occupation}} at {{currentCompany}}, I am sure you know the struggle with the timely and accurate flow of critical information during international transport.
I am here to offer a solution.
“OnTheWay” is an application developed in collaboration with over 100 customs worldwide. It provides the most precise, reliable, and real-time information on any type of international shipment. You will be able to give even your biggest customers the exact day and time of their long-awaited purchase.
I would love to schedule a call and further discuss the benefits it could bring to your company.
Best regards,
Evan
Turn your sales into a conversation, not a rehearsed monologue
A genuine back-and-forth conversation will work more to your advantage than just blurting out a rehearsed monologue.
By asking thoughtful and well-aimed questions not only will you keep your leads interested but you will also gain a more thorough understanding of what they exactly need.
This will allow you to position your product or service better in comparison to your competitors that “haven’t done their homework”.
Of course, all of this is on the condition that you have previously targeted your audience well enough to know that most likely there is room for your product or service to help.
Start with something like this.
[template]
Hello {{firstName}},
I can see that you’ve been working in the Manufacturing Industry for quite some time now.
As someone who has been holding the position of {{occupation}}, what is your experience regarding the problem of forecasting demand for products?
Thank you so much for sharing!
Best,
Robert
Once your lead answers back, you can go ahead and investigate further on what they need.
[template]
Thank you {{firstName}} for sharing your insight!
I hear you.
Forecasting demand for products is for sure one of the main challenges of any Manufacturing business.
If you fail the customer demand, your sale will significantly drop. On the other hand, the cost of producing too many items that don’t sell weighs hard on your budget.
Do you mind sharing how you have been handling it so far?
And then, once you’ve come to the root of the problem, try selling your service by showing them how it can apply directly to their particular situation.
[template]
That is quite an interesting way of dealing with it.
What if I told you there was a management system that helps manufacturers analyze consumer behavior, which products they are interested in, when they usually make purchases, how many products they buy at certain times, etc?
Would you be interested in hearing more about it?
If the answer is yes, go ahead and explain why doing business with your company will save them time and money.
Make it all about them
At the end of the day, customers don’t care about the product or service itself. They care about what it can do for them.
And with that being said, it means that they don’t even care about how that product or service worked for YOU. People want to know how it can change THEIR lives and the way THEY have been doing business.
So, when you are reaching out to your potential customers, never start with “Here is how {{product}} helped ME”.
[template]
Hello {{firstName}},
Thank you for taking your time to hear me out!
I am reaching out because I would like to show you how our software could save up to 6 hours a day to your Sales Team while producing 10 times more leads.
- Email Discovery & Verification works perfectly for your cold emailing campaigns. You will be able to discover verified business emails of your LinkedIn leads and expand your prospects list.
- Real-time insights offer detailed analytics so that you can evaluate which campaigns produce the best results.
- Smart Sequences combine LinkedIn with Email Outreach. Would you consider adding LinkedIn outreach to your sales and marketing efforts?
Let’s hop on a Demo Call and discuss how your company can further benefit from it!
Best regards,
Mary J. Luis
It’s OK not to sell
Last but not least, you don’t need to sell at all costs!
Learn how to take no for an answer while still ending on a high note.
Being pushy will not turn a no into a yes. It could just refrain people from ever doing business with you in the future.
You would be surprised how often a genuine interest in customers and in selling them what they really need might result in them coming back or recommending your services to someone else. Even if they have never worked with you before.
Know when to stop, but also how to leave the ending open to a potential collaboration in the future.
[template]
Hello {{firstName}},
It was nice talking to you.
Thank you once again for taking the time to hear about my services.
I appreciate your feedback.
Should you have any questions in the future or simply want to exchange experiences regarding Event Planning, feel free to reach out!
Have a great day and good luck with all your future projects!
Best,
Michelle
Summary
Nowadays customers have access to enough information to make a purchase without ever talking to you.
However, it is usually a personal touch that gives them that extra push.
They want to feel heard and taken care of and not just some random target of the act of selling.
That’s why make sure to narrow down your audience as much as possible, research their needs and room for improvements, and then get through to them with a well-defined offer.
For more effective outreach, consider using a Sales Automation Platform.
Skylead is an excellent choice for those who want to combine LinkedIn with Email Outreach for their sales process. Not only will you have a higher number of available paths to your prospects, but you will also, as seen in the above examples, be able to use their publicly available information on Linkedin to hyper-personalize your outreach.
Long story short - be smart and let Skylead think for you.