It is a globally known fact that LinkedIn is the cleanest and most powerful professional networking site. With over 500 Million users on its platform who can connect and build professional relationships, it has a huge database of potential customers and resources available for collaboration. Nearly 91% of executives rank LinkedIn to have more relevant contents and it also generates 50% B2B traffic when compared to other social media sites.
But still, many businesses fail to attract clients to their business objectives. Reason?
First, the average time spent by users on LinkedIn in a month is ONLY 17 minutes. Yes, you read it right. It’s just 17 minutes per month.
Second, most of the business houses, marketers and advertisers have low patience to get a response from such a small time frame of a user who only spends 17 minutes in a month.
Third, they only believe in making contacts and pitching their ideas, but they fail to nurture a potential lead and then convert it to offline lead generation.
Let us understand what a B2B marketer should do to get leads by using LinkedIn more than any other platform.
Below are few checklists a marketer should have, follow or understand to generate lead via LinkedIn
- Have Patience – Lead generation is not a quick process where a marketer runs a campaign with Sign-up forms to get leads, and leads are generated. It has to go through multiple phases before running the campaign.
- Lead Nurturing – Converting a prospect to a lead is similar to planting a flowering plant. A marketer is like a gardener who needs to first make contact with the prospect and then feed him/her with contents such as Blogs, Articles, Data, Researches, and E-books, etc. These contents sent directly to the prospect will allow him/her to understand the issue in hand and the prospect should feel the need of finding a solution.
- Take it Offline – When the prospect is ready (which you as a marketer will get to know by the engagements received on those feeds), and when you have earned enough credibility and trust, prospects should be contacted offline.
- Understand the requirement first – Do not directly pitch in your idea, product or service to the prospect. The reason why the prospect has agreed to have an offline conversation with you is that the person wants you to understand his/her problems or issues. Make the person feel that you understand and you are there to solve the issue. This would take you to the last stage of Lead generation.
- Pitch and Sell – Explain what you are offering and how it is going to help the person professionally to meet his/her requirement. Show the value-add and selling propositions unique to your domain and ensure no other service or product is better than yours. This would ensure the Sign-up you desired from the prospect.
It’s a long process and difficult to imagine. But you need to inculcate this process into your marketing strategy. There is no shortcut to having a long term relationship, be it online or offline. Remember, 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn to make buying decisions and LinkedIn is 277% more effective in generating leads than any other social media.
