In case you missed it, LinkedIn now accounts for 64 percent of all corporate website traffic that comes via social media channels. (Read the story here.)
Think about that for a minute: 64 percent of ALL the traffic coming to your corporate or business website from social media channels is coming from LinkedIn!
This is one of the main reasons I was able to do $ 135,000 in revenue in just 90 days on LinkedIn. Even though I was operating inside a tiny B2B niche (selling marketing services to debt collection agencies), a TON of my ideal prospects (debt collection agency Owners, CEOs, etc.) were already on the site looking for what I had to offer! More important, I realized I had everything I needed to instantly locate, engage and close these prospects without ever leaving my laptop!
Regardless of your niche, here are 3 Simple Tips to help you create nonstop LinkedIn Lead Generation in the B2B Marketplace!
Tip 1: Create Your Own LinkedIn Group – With a Twist!
I refer to LinkedIn Groups as ATMs, because once you understand how powerful they are, you will literally be withdrawing money from them on a regular basis!
The first thing you need to do is create your own LinkedIn Group. It is extremely important that you make sure your Group name is something that displays value to your sales prospects and gives them incentive/reason to want to join. For instance, I named my LinkedIn Group “Debt Collection Agency Marketing: More Revenue. More Clients.”
That tells my ideal prospects (Debt Collection Agency CEOs and Owners) that if they join this Group they’re going to get tips on how to market their agency and land new clients. Notice my company name is nowhere in the title! (Instead, I have my company name displayed via the Group logo and other image areas.) Instead, the title is all about the specific benefit and value someone will get from joining the Group!
REMEMBER: Your sales leads don’t care about you! They only care about themselves and solving their work problems/challenges. Your Group name needs to reflect that fact and catch their eye!
Tip 2: Pick a Group + Refine Your Prospect Search
Here’s the secret sauce to finding your ideal, ready-to-buy prospects right away! After you have your LinkedIn Group set up, go out and join as many Groups (LinkedIn allows you to be in 50 total) where your prospects are hanging out. In my case, I joined as many “Debt Collector” Groups as I could find.
The next step is to pick ONE of those new Groups you’ve joined and start working the “Members” page to find prospects. Once you’re inside the Group and approved as a member, click on “Members,” then filter the list of members further by searching for certain job titles or something else to winnow down the list to your IDEAL prospects. In my case, I joined a Debt Collection Industry Group that had 5,000 or so members. I clicked on “Members,” then filtered the search by “CEOs”, and instantly had a list of ALL my ideal prospects – Debt Collection Agency CEOs.
Tip 3: The Art of the (Personalized) Invite!
Once you’ve found your list of ideal customers, reach out to each person on your new prospect list with a PERSONALIZED invitation! Do NOT just bang through as many generic invites as you can – this is a HUGE mistake! Instead, take the time to look at each’s person’s profile for insights into how you can personalize your invite. Where are they from? What are their passions/hobbies/interests? Where did they go to school? This is the exact approach I used to get a $ 10,000 project from a debt collection agency executive who’d never met me before I reached out on LinkedIn. I spent all of 14 seconds looking over his profile, saw where he went to college and ended up leveraging that fact into an unforgettable LinkedIn invite that led to the $ 10,000 contract.
Your LinkedIn invite needs to do three things:
- Explain HOW you found them (choose the option saying you share the same LinkedIn Group).
- Explain WHY they should connect with you (i.e. what VALUE you are going to bring to them as part of the relationship).
- ASK them after connecting if they’d join your LinkedIn Group.
As an example, here’s the type of personalized invite I’d send to Joe Smith, Debt Collection Agency CEO – located in Green Bay, Wisconsin:
“Joe – As a Minnesota Vikings fan I have to admit I’m not sad to see Aaron Rodgers out of action for a while! Meantime I’d love to connect and also invite you to my new LinkedIn Group on Debt Collection Agency Marketing Tips. I think you’d find the posts/discussions valuable to helping grow your agency, and I’d love your insight/input as well!
Thanks!
– John Nemo”
Then I copy and paste the “Meantime I’d love to connect…” sentence into the next invite, and just top it off with a personalized sentence for the next prospect. So say the next person is Jane Smith, a Collection Agency owner who attended the University of Michigan and is a member of several UM alumni Groups that display on her public page. My invite to her would look like this:
“Jane – I have to ask, is the campus atmosphere for Michigan football REALLY as good as it looks on TV? Always been curious about life inside the Big House! Meantime, I’d love to connect and also invite you to my new LinkedIn Group on Debt Collection Agency Marketing Tips. I think you’d find the posts/discussions valuable to helping grow your agency, and I’d love your insight/input as well!
Thanks!
-John Nemo”
Then I’m onto the next person on my list. See how it works? Within 10 or 20 minutes I can crank through a dozen or more personalized invites! And people LOVE getting invites like these, because I’m starting off the connection by getting them talking about what they love: Where they went to college, where they live, a favorite sports team or hobby, etc. Invites like these also make me much more memorable and personable to my new connections. Then, once these sales leads connect with me, I follow through and invite them to my LinkedIn Group.
Why Does Your LinkedIn Group Matter So Much?
Here’s why: Once these folks join my LinkedIn Group, I have all my proverbial fish in the same barrel – all my best prospects in one place! I can control this LinkedIn Group so that no competitors get in, and I can share great/valuable content within the Group that my prospects will love. I also get to demonstrate my value/expertise for them while avoiding overt sales pitches or spam. Plus I also have a built-in email list, focus group of my core prospects/clients, and so on … all thanks to my personal LinkedIn Group!
See how easy this is? There’s a reason LinkedIn is taking over the B2B marketplace when it comes to social media. Make sure you capitalize on the tips above so you can take advantage of the opportunity!
YOUR TURN: What do you think? Have you tried this approach yet on LinkedIn in your niche? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments!
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