LinkedIn for Lead Generation – B2B Marketing and Sales Tip #253
Filed under B2B Lead Generation, Sales and Marketing Tips, Social Media
MarketingSherpa just came out with a very interesting how-to on using LinkedIn for lead generation. While most of us have a profile, many marketers are unsure on how to use this new channel as a lead source. MarketingSherpa interviewed Jason Rushin, Director, Marketing at Quantivo on his process and found 6 lessons that all B2B marketers can learn from.
Here are some of highlights from the article:
Lesson #1. Target groups by activity level, not just size
For each group, Rushin spent 15 or 20 minutes reading through recent posts to assess group members’ interest areas, and how much activity each post generated. In the end, he identified 17 groups that matched his needs.
Lesson #2. Join groups under an individual name, not a company identity
Social media is a two-way channel, which makes it especially important to assign a point-person to oversee your social media initiatives, establish themselves as a community member, and respond to feedback.
Lesson #3. Place collateral in the context of a conversation
Every time the team had a new piece of collateral to promote — such as a webinar or a white paper — Rushin looked for opportunities to share that information with the team’s LinkedIn groups.
- For example, when promoting a white paper, he would write a message to the group announcing the new title, sharing a link, and asking group members to provide feedback on the white paper itself.
Lesson #4. Response rate is highly variable
By participating in several groups, Rushin quickly saw that response to his lead-generation offers (in the form of landing page registrations) was highly variable. Each group has its own characteristics and dynamics, which make some white paper or webinar offers highly successful and others relative duds.
Testing content offerings among different groups is essential. Beyond that, Rushin also saw two factors that affected response rate:
- Placement in the weekly or daily update newsletters
- White paper or webinar topic
Lesson #5. Create social media-specific landing pages
Rather than taking LinkedIn members to a standard landing page, Rushin created landing pages that specifically addressed the LinkedIn audience.
The tactic did not require a complete landing page redesign. Instead, the team modified the landing page text to create continuity for visitors arriving from LinkedIn, using phrases such as: “Thank you for your interest in this discussion”
Lesson #6. Quality can be an issue with leads from LinkedIn
To discourage job-seekers, the team changed its registration form to require prospects to use an email address from a company domain — forbidding the use of free email accounts such as Yahoo! or Gmail. The technique backfired, though, when LinkedIn members began complaining to Rushin (and sometimes to their Twitter followers) that the company was preventing unemployed people or independent consultants from viewing their thought-leadership content.
Rather than risk alienating LinkedIn members, you may have to rely on inside sales follow-up or further nurturing to eliminate non-qualified leads from your marketing funnel.
Ultimately lead generation on LinkedIn is the same as any other lead gen channel. Be targeted, stay relevant to your audience, measure everything you can and always go for quality over quantity of leads.
The entire article is open to non-MarketingSherpa members until August 5th, be sure to check it out.
