You have a fantastic team, but they only have so many hours in a day. You can't grow this company without resources, but you won't have the resources until you grow. It's times like this that demand efficient LinkedIn lead generation strategies. You don't have time to play around on social media. You must hit pipeline sales goals consistently and see results that matter.
These free LinkedIn marketing strategies consistently generate more high-quality B2B leads that make this possible.
1. Optimize Your Profile
Trying to generate B2B leads before optimizing your business profile is a waste of time or money. Free isn't "free" if you do that.
Start by focusing on what people see first. When people see these, you want them to feel compelled to dig a little deeper into what you do as a business.
- Name
- Picture - choose a professional, on-brand profile picture
- Headline - be clear and concise
Then, apply these Linkedin profile optimization best practices. Once you earn significant B2B traffic through these LinkedIn lead generation strategies, test variations to optimize and select the one that gets the best results.
- Use your banner to communicate your unique value proposition (UVP). Include your brand color, font, logo, short text explaining the UVP, and a call-to-action (CTA).
- Add detail to the value proposition in your About. Look at what a person can see without expanding on mobile devices, etc., to prioritize information.
- Highlight your best posts with impactful hero images that highlight aspects of your UVP. Let them learn about you, why, what, and how you can help them through this more approachable form of media. Get them invested in the solutions you offer.
2. Post Regularly
If we were talking about Twitter, you'd have to post 10 or more times a day to gain a decent share of the voice. And forget about becoming a thought leader if you haven't built that presence somewhere else first. Discouraging, right?
But not so with LinkedIn. The slower pace and focus on quality over quantity make this a place where fewer but strategic posts can make a significant impact.
Potentially thousands of people will see your posts. So, LinkedIn lead generation is much easier than other platforms if you know what to do. Just start a conversation in the community. Then engage the people who commented on your post.
- Links to blog posts with a compelling headline
- Links to resources on your website. e.g., calculators, quizzes, lead magnets
- Your take on industry news with the link
- Celebrate milestones
- Celebrate employees
- Post a quick how-to
- Share an inspirational story
- Ask people to comment
- Don't forget the creative and compelling graphics to accompany posts.
According to LinkedIn's research, posts with images earn 21X profile views and 9X connections.
3. Publish Articles Directly on LinkedIn
It's important to have a blog on your website. Businesses that blog get 55% more high-quality traffic and 67% more leads each month than those that don't.
But publishing on LinkedIn is just as critical to those engaged in B2B lead generation.
Google regularly delivers LinkedIn articles to answer queries. So, leverage the authority of LinkedIn's website to increase your article's visibility in Google search results as well as the platform.
Publishing an article directly on LinkedIn lets you showcase your company in a more relaxed yet comprehensive medium. And if you focus on being helpful over promotional (which you should), it also provides real value to potential B2B leads.
When you create your content calendar for the quarter, designate a certain percentage (maybe 10%-20%) for LinkedIn. Focus on thought leadership here rather than posting content people are seeing everywhere. End each post by telling them the next step to get the value you're discussing.
Remember that this is a B2B lead generation strategy, so align the CTA with where they are in the buyer's journey.
They're probably in awareness or consideration, so...
- Download the case study
- Take the quiz
- Get the newsletter
- View the whitepaper
TIP: To avoid negatively impacting your Linkedin marketing strategies as a whole, remember not to publish the article both on LinkedIn and your website. Google would only allow one to rank in search results. And you'll get the best benefits if you're visible both through Linkedin marketing strategies and search engine optimization (SEO) on your website.
4. Commit to Regular Engagement with People Who Engage with You
Engage people as they interact with your content. Be authentic, and patient, and focus on providing value over meeting goals.
Look for opportunities to help people. And approach them human-to-human, not business-to-lead, at this stage of your LinkedIn lead generation. You'll want to bring them further into the funnel before you can call them B2B leads.
5. Nurture Employee Buy-In
Employees who buy into your brand are motivated to see your company succeed. They feel their success is connected to yours and believe in YOU as a leader.
When they speak highly of the brand, engage with it during their free time, and attract both leads and quality recruits through their interactions. To get the most out of this buy-in, notify employees when you publish or post. Ask them specifically to reshare or engage with posts so that the exposure expands to their networks as well. When employees share their brand's content, posts get 200% more engagement.
You just doubled your reach for FREE!
Highly engaged employees will do this. But you can't fake it. And you can't force it.
Sadly, a 2021 Gallup poll found that only about 36% feel engaged in the workplace. Companies should care about employee buy-in. Companies that do increase profitability by 21%.
This buy-in is vital to LinkedIn lead generation. It increases visibility and builds trust at the same time. It's worth your while to cultivate authentic buy-in actively.
Here are the 5 steps to generating employee buy-in to earn more B2B leads on LinkedIn.
- Build. Define, refine, and generate an infrastructure that supports employee success, gives employees a voice, and celebrates employees' real contributions to brand success.
- Educate. Help employees see how what they do contributes to the brand's mission. Share how valuable LinkedIn is to the brand. Train employees specifically on how they can use LinkedIn to promote the brand.
- Engage. Make it easy for employees to engage on LinkedIn and provide opportunities for them to do so—even on the clock. Recognize employees who create content for your brand on LinkedIn. Nominate brand advocates who both engage and encourage engagement from other employees.
- Measure. Track engagement levels and how it impacts your LinkedIn lead generation results.
- Adapt. Continually improve your strategies and implementation to enhance buy-in.
Note: Never punish employees for not engaging enough. The various personalities on your team contribute in many ways. Making a lack of engagement punitive generates inauthenticity that will not help your brand. And many slow-starters will come around when they see others enjoying engaging with the brand.
6. Join LinkedIn Groups
Among the Linkedin marketing strategies that often get underutilized, you'll find groups. Groups are essential because they're focused. You're more likely to meet people here who need precisely what you offer.
To find the groups you could join, enter a non-branded industry keyword phrase in the search bar. Sort by groups, and look for ones likely to have your target audience as members. Do this with your professional LinkedIn profile. You can't join as a company.
Once you're in, be careful not to promote. These are communities, not billboards for services. Post content that highlights your expertise and know-how. Share your most recent LinkedIn blog post in groups and on your own feed.
Since you added CTAs to your LinkedIn blog posts, you can generate leads that way. People may also request to connect directly.
You'll engage people who comment on your posts. Add value and show you're part of the community by commenting on the posts of others.
7. Create Your Own LinkedIn Group
This one is still free but obviously more involved. So, join some groups and engage with them for a while before attempting to create one yourself. Often, being a member is enough to drive your Linkedin marketing strategies forward.
But once you feel comfortable with groups, you may want to create one of your own to attract like-minded people who want to learn from you. A percentage of people who just come to learn will want to take that further by becoming your customers.
Having your own group gives you some distinct advantages:
- Group messaging. Send group members messages even if you're not connected (limit of 15 a month)
- More Linkedin exposure. Remember groups are searchable.
- You're the host. You'll have some control over the conversations. Position yourself as the expert in the room and build a reputation.
- Some promotion is okay. They came here for the community you've built. You can directly answer questions and offer services in response to them. Unsolicited promotion should be limited, though. The focus should be on the group's problems and solutions.
- Personalize connection requests. You'll be able to look at group member information to personalize communications with them to generate more leads.
- Build meaningful relationships.
- Complete pre-R&D and pre-launch research. Bounce product ideas off a highly engaged group of your target audience. Find out what excites this group and which ideas would struggle to gain traction. Perfect the messaging for a new product launch.
- Learn about your audience. Groups can be a gold mine of information about who your audiences are. Listen to their conversations. Conduct market research as you learn what kinds of people your current brand message is attracting. Are these viable B2B leads? Identify who your ideal buyer personas should be and learn how to engage them more effectively. This is important for your Linkedin marketing strategies and B2B lead generation.
- Develop a clearer picture of the buyer's journey. Building your own LinkedIn group reveals the big picture. You'll see members in different stages, learn what content they consume, and how you can effectively move them from awareness to consideration to a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) you can hand off to your Sales team, knowing they're ready to sign a contract.
8. Promote Your LinkedIn Group to Grow Membership
In addition to making your group visible in LinkedIn searches, you can actively increase your membership, and yes, it's still free.
- Monthly, celebrate the growing community and encourage members to invite their connections to the group.
- Link to the group in your profile
- Include the group link in your email signature
- Cross-promote the group in your newsletter
- Write a blog post about the group, highlighting relevant conversations and impactful revelations
- Share a relevant conversation with your email subscribers
- Post about your group on your other social media profiles
Bonus: Combine Free LinkedIn Marketing Strategies with a Modest Ad Budget
Of course, we're moving into the realm of "not free", so this one's a bonus strategy. You can amplify LinkedIn lead generation, grow a group, and start seeing ROI faster if you're willing to spend some money. Setting a budget for LinkedIn advertising can help you gain traction. Remember to set clear goals for this spending, and it becomes money well-spent. Do you want...?
- Website visits
- Engagement
- Video views
- B2B leads
- Recruits who will buy into your brand
LinkedIn advertising with these free LinkedIn lead-generation strategies is a great way to lower acquisition costs while increasing customer lifetime value.
Free Linkedin Lead Generation Strategies Work
These B2B lead generation strategies work. We've seen it firsthand as we apply it to our clients daily.
But suppose you want to jumpstart business growth. In that case, our expert team combines custom inbound strategies like these with Paid media marketing to help clients generate positive ROI and grow their businesses.
To learn more about how you can do it too, download our B2B Marketers Guide to LinkedIn Ads:
