How do you generate leads for your business?
Do you buy them? Let them come to you?
Kidnap them? (Free tip: no!)
Or do you approach lead generation with a thoughtful and proven strategy?
If you have been struggling to generate leads for your business, don’t worry. I have been there. I know the struggle.
I know how hard it can be to build up a list of potential customers who actually want and need your product.
Which is why I am uniquely suited to help you overcome this problem.
While there are a ton of methods you can use to generate leads, one of my favorites is through LinkedIn.
Everyone and their cousin uses email, Facebook, and Google Adwords. But very few entrepreneurs have tapped into the limitless lead generating power that is LinkedIn.
In this article, I am going to show you a simple 5-step process for generating more leads than you can imagine.
Step 1: Optimize your profile
If you are using LinkedIn to connect with people that you do not know, your profile needs to be optimized.
Think about it.
If you have never met someone before and they try and connect with you through LinkedIn, what are you going to be looking for?
If you see an unprofessional selfie and a simple word or two describing what you do, they will be immediately turned off and unlikely to accept your invitation.
However, if they see a professional, high quality picture showcasing a handsome/beautiful businessperson and an intriguing biography, they are going to want to know more.
This means that optimizing your profile is pretty simple.
Completely fill out your profile.
Get a professional picture taken.
Then write an informative description/title, and you are off to the races.
Step 2: Create your own group
Creating your own LinkedIn group is a powerful way to generate new leads and build up your authority within your niche.
Luckily starting a LinkedIn group is easy to do. (Maintaining and growing your group however, is not)
Simply hover over the “interests” menu on LinkedIn, pick “groups”, select “my groups”, and then click “create”.
Follow the remaining steps you will see on screen and you are off to the races.
Once you have created your LinkedIn group, you will want to start adding content, even before you start adding new members.
A great way to do this is to use Buzzsumo to find trending content within your niche and then rewrite that content offering even more value to your audience.
Once this is accomplished, it is time to start targeting leads.
Step 3: Create your “potential customers” list
Now that you have your group started and you have some content rolling in, it’s time to start bringing in the leads.
Your goal should be to create a list of 500-1,000 potential leads.
I know this seems like a lot.
But it really isn’t, especially with LinkedIn’s built-in search function.
If you think about it, LinkedIn has over 400 million users.
This means that you could easily generate tens of thousands of potential leads if you had the time to reach out to them.
Use the filters on LinkedIn’s built-in search to find the best potential leads for your business.
You want to focus on people within your industry who are roughly at the same level as you. (CEOs if you are a CEO, managers if you are manager)
Once you have accomplished this and built up a large enough list of potential leads, it’s time to get the gloves on and start connecting.
Step 4: Start connecting with members on your list
This step is by far the most time consuming aspect of the entire process.
Your list of thousands of potential leads will not be built in a single afternoon.
Make sure that your profile is optimized for the industry that you are reaching out to.
Once you have done this, you need to start reaching out to each member by sending out messages requesting to connect.
Don’t overdo it. Just send a simple message and you will be fine.
Step 5: Engage with your members and then close
The final step in this process is to start engaging with your audience and then close the sale.
You want to make sure that you pace this step.
Spend a couple of months building up rapport with the members of your group.
Become known as an industry leader and influencer by regularly blogging and publishing relevant content.
Offer massive value to every member. Connect anytime that they reach out to you. Try and genuinely solve their problems.
Then, after you have laid the groundwork, host a webinar and invite your entire group.
If you have been able to successfully engage with your audience, you will have a high turnout rate and will be able to easily convert a large portion of your group with little effort.
Once this is done, keep the group going, start another one, and do it all over again.
Conclusion
Generating sales through LinkedIn is a time consuming process. It can take months before you will see results.
But because of the rapport that you can build and the advanced targeting options within LinkedIn, it is well worth it.
By using the above strategy, you will be able to generate more conversions than you can imagine.
If you can execute these steps properly, this is possible the most effective strategy in online marketing for generating leads.
So stop reading this article, and go start your group -- now!
Drop me a line in a couple of months when you are converting leads in numbers you had never thought possible.
What is your favorite strategy for generating leads through LinkedIn?
