Along with the popularization of social media, they have become a natural environment for making business contacts. LinkedIn fits in with it – a social platform dedicated to building this type of relationship. Although some people associate it mainly with where you can apply for a job, it is more than a virtual CV. It is also a database of potential contractors and customers and a space for promoting business activities. However, how to effectively acquire, maintain and use these contacts? Below are some tips to help you get the most out of LinkedIn.
1. Get attention
The first step in successfully generating leads is to differentiate yourself from the competition. The header and photos – profile and background – are extremely helpful in this regard. The former should be catchy, engaging, and at the same time providing information about the value that the entrepreneur offers his potential contractors or clients. Keywords appropriately selected for the industry will work great in this regard.
Just like the headline, photos are also elements that build the first impression in contact with the person running the business. Those made professionally create certain ideas about the quality of the services or goods offered. What’s more, the possibility of placing a photo in the background provides additional space for including information about your company and offer.
2. Engage
Building engagement is another extremely important step on the way to acquiring leads. To achieve this, it is necessary to get to know your target group well and monitor the content that may be of interest to them. This is where the topic of keywords appears once again, which can be used to generate visible and attractive content.
LinkedIn groups and LinkedIn responses are extremely useful for engaging the audience, in which you can enter into direct discussions with recipients, offer substantive help and demonstrate your knowledge of the industry. More information about them can be found in point 5 of the article.
3. Provide valuable content
The more attractive your content is, the more value it is for your audience. Therefore, it is necessary to answer the question of what problems, challenges or needs the potential contractors or customers identify and provide them with adequate solutions.
This will allow you to present your skills, but also create foundations for building a long-term relationship with a group of recipients, based on trust in the competences of a given entrepreneur.
The use of the so-called language of benefits. If you want to effectively engage your recipients, it is worth offering them valuable content at the beginning, which will encourage them to take the next steps on the way to cooperation.
In the context of the above, an important role is played by the option of placing selected content in attachments to the profile. They can take the form of articles, links to publications or projects implemented so far. This will allow you to create a positive image about the owner of the enterprise but also become an opportunity to share knowledge and experiences useful from the point of view of recipients. This, in turn, will translate into gaining trust and potential conversions.
4. Build trust
Acquiring customers will become much easier when they gain confidence in the entrepreneur. They can be created by providing the above-mentioned valuable, substantive content, but also thanks to the system of recommendations, or by indicating your own qualifications, competencies and experience.
Recommendations make it very easy to generate customers. For those who, so far, have not been able to verify the quality of cooperation with those running a given business, rely to a large extent on the experiences of others. The so-called “Word of mouth”, which can be considered a command system, is also a more trusted source of information about services or goods than direct advertising.
It is equally important to be able to demonstrate documentation confirming that you have appropriate qualifications or skills. It is worth including all kinds of certificates, licenses, certificates of completed courses or the greatest achievements. Activities that go beyond strictly professional activities, undertaken in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and volunteers, as well as other activities in the field of CSR – corporate social responsibility are also appreciated.
In addition to the above, it is extremely important to be able to share the scope of your skills and experiences, which paint a certain picture of the entrepreneur “in practice”. Therefore, it is worth indicating the industries in which it has operated so far, business partners, completed projects, etc.
5. Be active
A businessman present on LinkedIn should not limit his actions only to those undertaken within his own profile. LinkedIn is a social networking site and interaction is an integral part of it.
In order to increase your visibility, create the image of a professional, engage the audience around you, and ultimately acquire customers, it is worth entering into industry discussions with other users of the platform. At this point, it is worth highlighting two functionalities of the platform: LinkedIn groups and LinkedIn responses.
The former enable users to communicate and exchange content that is valuable from the point of view of a given discussion. When deciding to act within them, however, it is worth remembering a few basic issues.
First, the presence of a user in a group does not mean that they will see the message. The number of its active members is important for the range.
Secondly, the most effective are activities undertaken in the forum of groups focused on a specific industry. Groups that are too broad thematically generate a risk that the content will disappear in the thicket of others.
After all, strictly advertising activities are not welcome in groups. Therefore, it is worth taking up activities in response to the formulated problems or threads in a substantive and useful way in a specific situation.
Another form of interactive communication on LinkedIn are responses in which you can demonstrate knowledge of the subject, willingness to help, but also encourage you to use your own services in the future. This allows you to build trust, maintain relationships, strengthen ties between the entrepreneur and other users of the platform while creating his image as an expert in a given field.
6. Watch the best
As in any other field, also in the field of lead generation, you can find those who can be inspired. Benchmarking as part of LinkedIn is possible using a review of the profiles of opinion leaders in a given industry.
Among the effective communication practices, the following can certainly be mentioned:
- using keywords that increase the visibility of messages,
- exhausting the topic within substantive, longer statements, using phrases related to specific keywords,
- adapting the method of communication to the group of recipients – without unnecessary, hermetic vocabulary,
- highlighting the value offered – services/goods, respectively,
- conducting coherent, consistent communication, creating the image of a given entrepreneur,
- raising topics relevant to a given industry in the messages, engaging the recipients,
- conducting interactive communication,
- using the so-called language of benefits.
7. Update information
Over time, the offer, competencies, skills and values offered to the client also change. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically update the information contained in the profile.
This will allow you to show the continuous development of the company, familiarize recipients with any changes in the scope of conducted activity, but also show the brand itself as a constantly changing organism that is worth observing in order to be up to date.
8. Post a professional summary
Assuming that it would be a waste not to use the space available for promotion, it is also worth using the option of the professional summary field. It allows you to collect in one place the most important information available on a given profile. The messages presented there should therefore consist of a consistent condensation of the content available on it.
First of all, it is worth referring to the previously formulated header, indicating why it is worth using the services of a given entity. Subsequently, it is recommended to summarize the professional activities undertaken so far by the service provider or producer – so that a potential contractor or client can find out what he can expect by starting cooperation with him. Finally, it is extremely important to include the so-called “Call to action” – calls to action that directly contribute to customer acquisition.
9. Provide contact details
All the above-mentioned activities would not translate to the slightest extent into acquiring leads if effective contact was not possible. Contact details can be included in the “contact information” tab, which includes not only basic data, such as a contact number, postal address or e-mail address, but also redirects to your website, blog or portfolio.
As you can see, this space can also be developed in a way that will show the entrepreneur’s profile and offer to the greatest possible extent.
In summary, LinkedIn is a platform that is extremely helpful in generating leads. In order to successfully acquire them, one must become part of a community – this time an industry one – within which the synergy of knowledge and skills of individual members is achieved. Reliable, up-to-date information, interactivity, building trust and long-term relationships are the foundations of modern business activities. It is thanks to them that you gain credibility in the eyes of potential customers and contractors, and ultimately acquire them for your company.