LinkedIn is one of the best social media sites for generating high quality leads and new clients because it is like a 24-hour trade show. It may not deliver a flood of business right away, but if you’re selling business-to-business services and plan to invest time on social media, you should put your focus on LinkedIn.

Here are four ways to use LinkedIn to generate new leads and clients:

1. Sponsor LinkedIn Ads. These are a lot like the ads you see on Facebook running down the right column. It is passive advertising, which means prospects aren’t necessarily searching for your services as they do on Google, but the quality of a prospect clicking on your advertisement in LinkedIn is much, much better than the clicks that come from Google searches. To maximize your results:
• Target your ads to your specific prospects. Job title, location, company size, and industry are some of the selections you can use for targeting who your advertisement displays to.
• Test different headlines and offers. Always split-test at least two ads at a time, varying the headline, image and the offer. I change our LinkedIn ads every two weeks, eliminating the lowest-performing ads with a new test. Believe it or not, the headline “Killer IT Sales Videos” has been the top-performing headline for almost a year now, even though our marketing mentor hates this headline. Results and not opinions are what matter.
• Drive visitors to a landing page on your website, not just your business website home page. You should have a specific landing page for LinkedIn visitors so you can track results back to the source. It can be a landing page with the offer from your ad OR a replica of your home page, if that’s appropriate.
  
2. Join LinkedIn groups. Participation in discussion groups is a great way to get involved in a niche. Post when you have something of value to add, not just a sales pitch, focusing on building your credibility with the other members of the group.
3. Get Referrals. Look up your clients on LinkedIn and see who THEY are connected to – then ask them to make an introduction. Make sure to connect with all of your clients, warm prospects and business friends on LinkedIn to increase your 1st- and 2nd-degree connections and give you yet another way to communicate with them.
   
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4. Build and scrub your list. Depending on your LinkedIn member level, you can search within groups, by industry, location, job function, seniority level, company size, interests and more. If you’re not a premium, paid member on LinkedIn, then your search parameters will be somewhat limited, but you can use LinkedIn to better prepare for the telemarketing calls you are already making. Some companies have all their employees listed, giving you a snapshot of other key influencers in the organization who you may want to include in your marketing efforts (like the Information Technology manager, office manager).

Like any other social media, LinkedIn can be a huge distraction if you’re not using it with a goal in mind. Use the above strategies to enhance your social marketing and, when possible, see where you can systematize and delegate these tasks to someone else in your company to better leverage your time as the CEO.

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Written By Mike Tungate

Hello! I am the Web Services Manager @ EnvisionIT Solutions. I create beautiful websites, branding and marketing systems for businesses. Let me know if you have any questions. I am an avid photographer and a lover of musical instruments. 

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