Lead generation is critical for almost any business, whether it’s a B2B company or sells products or services to B2C customers, because a company will not be able to convert prospects into customers without leads.
Lead generation can be a time-consuming and complex process, but it doesn’t have to be. There are numerous methods for generating leads and multiple tools that can be used to expedite the process.
Importance Of Lead Generation For Businesses
A company’s ability to generate leads is critical to its success. Without leads, businesses will be unable to grow their sales and customer base. Because customers are fickle, enterprises cannot rely on their instincts. They must employ strategies to attract the customers they desire.
Without such a strategy, a company will be unsure of the type of people it should target, and most businesses will struggle to generate leads. To stay afloat, most companies require a steady stream of potential customers.
The most crucial function that sales and marketing teams perform is generating B2B sales leads. The more leads you generate, the more sales revenue you’re likely to create and grow in any business.
Most B2B sales and marketing teams’ challenge is generating quality leads. Companies are constantly challenged to find new ways to generate quality leads in today’s highly dynamic and competitive business environment. As a result, there has never been a greater need for B2B marketers and salespeople to keep up with emerging trends, technologies, and tactics in lead generation.
More than any other social platform, LinkedIn is dedicated to networking, and B2B networking is among the most effective. Users can connect with other professionals in their field, share ideas, find new leads, find new jobs, and find unique ways to form new partnerships.
Steps To Generate B2B Leads Through LinkedIn
LinkedIn can be an excellent platform for content marketers who want to take a more strategic approach to lead generation. LinkedIn has become the go-to place for brands, companies, and professionals to digitally network, gain insights, and share content thanks to its publishing platform and career-centric approach to social networking.
According to some reports, LinkedIn generates 80 percent of B2B leads, and 94 percent of marketers use the platform to distribute their content. Furthermore, nearly half of all visitors to B2B company websites (46%) come from LinkedIn, making the social networking platform a helpful business resource.
According to several case studies, LinkedIn attracts the highest percentage of customers to your company. The underlying reason is self-evident: LinkedIn users are only interested in connecting with other professionals who share their interests.
With a B2B LinkedIn strategy, the following are a few steps sales and marketing teams can use to supercharge lead generation:
- Give Your Old Content A Makeover
If your content library is limited, now is to refresh your existing assets. Sales and marketing teams can create a more streamlined, cost-effective approach to content development by repurposing older content to highlight current market trends and topical news.
Teams can then share this repurposed content via LinkedIn’s publishing platform to increase exposure, audience engagement, and lead generation. Furthermore, because Google indexes LinkedIn content, sales and marketing teams can direct even more traffic to their respective websites.
- Extend Your Network Past Your Direct Contacts
LinkedIn groups people in your network according to their degree of connection. Those in your immediate network who have accepted an invitation to connect are your first-degree connections.
Your second-degree connections are those directly connected to your first-degree connections, and your third-degree connections are those directly connected to your second-degree connections. Whatever content you share on LinkedIn will be visible to your first-degree connections right away.
But here’s where it gets interesting: once your first-degree network starts liking, commenting on, or sharing your content, it becomes visible to those who aren’t connected to you. When a second or third-degree connection engages with your content, you now have an open invitation to communicate directly. This is referred to as a social selling trigger event, and it allows you to engage with potential customers and nurture relationships.
- Spotlight Your Expertise
White papers, e-books, and podcasts that focus on thought leadership can help you and your company establishes authority in the marketplace. With the help of LinkedIn’s publishing platform, you can now distribute that content to even more people across the web with the click of a button.
LinkedIn also aids in the development of authority by showcasing your most recent published content in the “Featured” section of your profile, which aids in creating name recognition and awareness. This is an essential aspect of inbound marketing because you become a trusted source in prospects’ eyes, rather than just another vendor cold-emailing leads for no reason.
- Get Analytical
Measuring content performance is critical, but it isn’t easy to know how effective a piece of content is unless you have complex data to back it up. Sure, Google can help you assess the quality and performance of your website content, but what about the content you share on LinkedIn? How do you know what’s resonating with your target demographic? And how do members of LinkedIn find your content in the first place?
Fortunately, LinkedIn’s publishing platform includes analytics, so whatever content you publish on the site will provide you with valuable information about who is reading and actively engaging with it. Sales and marketing teams will be able to better identify relevant prospects and optimize content for attentive audiences.
- Join Relevant LinkedIn Groups
You won’t get much out of social networking unless you put yourself out there, which is why LinkedIn Groups are such a valuable resource for sales and marketing professionals. You can broaden your exposure to prospective customers outside your immediate sphere of influence by finding and joining these online hubs explicitly focused on trends and interests within your industry.
Then, by actively participating in these groups (i.e., participating in discussions, initiating conversations, asking questions, etc. ), you increase your chances of earning new business.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is an excellent resource for B2B marketing because it provides many opportunities. However, it simply becomes another time-consuming social network without the proper knowledge. Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals of LinkedIn branding, you’ll be ready to start generating leads on the world’s largest professional network.
