Don’t know how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn? It’s essential for finding customers and getting your business off the ground! 🚀
For and before finding customers, you need to take action to generate leads on LinkedIn!
As a reminder, potential leads (or potential customers) are contacts who have shown an interest or match your target, but haven’t yet carried out a conversion action with you (for example, visiting your website without making a purchase). This is the stage they pass through before becoming a customer.
We explain which ones. ➡️ On the program:
- What is LinkedIn Lead Generation?
- Why and how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn?
- How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn? 9 easy steps to success on LinkedIn :
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
- Publish massive amounts of content on a topic.
- Comment on other people’s posts.
- Carefully copywriting your messages.
- Launch events on LinkedIn Live.
- Use tools to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn automatically.
- Distribute sponsored ads.
- Create a sales funnel that converts.
- Get inspired by Robert Cialdini’s 6 methods of influence.
Read all the way through, apply the strategies to use LinkedIn for lead generation and watch the results. 🔥
What is LinkedIn lead generation?
We’re not talking about leads on LinkedIn, but about “unknown” contacts. 💁🏻♀️ To move to another “status” or “state”, this person must take an action towards you in an interested manner.
For example, liking or commenting on a post, replying to a message, taking part in your event… With the aim of finding out more about you.
Before the reveal of How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn…👇🏼 Let’s quickly recap of the process of lead generation on LinkedIn, between the unknown point and the transaction point:
- Discovery (unknown).
- Attention (prospect).
- Interest (prospect).
- Consideration (lead).
- Evaluation (qualified lead).
- Decision phase (qualified lead).
In short, a person becomes a qualified lead when they value your expertise (between the consideration and decision phases of the marketing funnel). 💎
When people interact with you, it means they’ve at least read your name and seen your photo 📷. Or, even better, visited your LinkedIn profile!
At that point, you need to make them aware of their problem and encourage them to take action. How do you do this, how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn? Start your prospecting campaign on LinkedIn.
Let’s take a look at why and how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn!
Why generate B2B leads on LinkedIn?
As B2B marketers, you’ll understand that there are multiple reasons for this 🤯 :
- Access a professional audience of targeted, quality decision-makers.
- Attract more qualified prospects and customers interested in your products.
- Get advanced marketing segmentation tools.
- Reach your targets with messages that hit the bull’s eye.
- Understand marketing automation and automate your digital actions.
- Use the best acquisition levers on LinkedIn.
- Improve your B2B marketing strategy, your marketing campaign, your conversion rates and your ROI through your marketing funnel.
- Generate B2B leads on LinkedIn and acquire qualified leads (lead gen on LinkedIn).
- Develop your reputation and credibility on the professional social network.
There’s a whole host of other benefits we could mention. But, let’s take a look at how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn and get a consistent return on investment.💰
Because, yes, achieving LinkedIn lead generation efforts requires a strategic approach and a clear set of steps, which we’re sharing with you. 📍
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is used by +1 billion people worldwide, so it’s arguably LinkedIn is the best place to generate leads. As a platform for B2B, all professions are represented 💼 :
- Marketing.
- Digital.
- Engineering.
- Finance.
- Training.
- Industries…
👉🏼 But also, more specific professions: SEO strategy, copywriting, Google advertising…
Now, if you don’t know how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn, it’s important to understand that you absolutely must create a persona (your ideal customer profile). 👤
This will help you learn about the demographics of the different professionals you’re targeting, and is also essential for lead segmentation and qualification.
🎯 Because, yes, targeting the right people takes a little time, but it’s a crucial step to take when generating leads through LinkedIn. Here’s how to create a buyer persona:
- From the market research you’ve done beforehand.
- Gathering additional information when the solution is already in place.
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with automation tools?
💡 The solutions you’ve just seen work very well in the face of entrepreneurs’ biggest problems in their LinkedIn prospecting:
- Lack of time in their prospecting activity.
- The fear of not having enough customers ready to buy your offers.
- Lack of efficiency in prospecting approaches.
But you can go even further, by adopting a LinkedIn Automation tool. But not just any tool, of course. 🙄
Have you ever dreamed of having a B2B sales person working all day for free (and even at night)? 💭 It exists, and it’s Waalaxy, the easiest-to-use marketing automation software on the market.
It solves all your problems with automated campaigns that let you launch multiple actions simultaneously, to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn (and multichannel). 🤩
With Waalaxy, you’ll save time, gain efficiency, and get leads ready to buy your offers en masse.
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with Waalaxy?
LinkedIn automation‘s Waalaxy tool is the key to boosting your business. 👽 Our mission is simple:
- To save you time.
- Allow you to generate unlimited new opportunities.
🔥 With all Waalaxy’s multichannel features (LinkedIn & Email), you’ll be able to :
- 🟣 Be accompanied by ultra-reactive support and concrete resources.
- 🟣 Develop your network to generate opportunities (visits, invitations or connection requests, comments and messages and automatic follow-ups).
- 🟣 Search, import, find leads on LinkedIn, then re-sort and filter your lead lists and prospect lists.
- 🟣 Launch automated multichannel prospecting campaigns and fully customizable scenarios (LinkedIn + Email) to automatically contact or get in touch with your customers and candidates.
- 🟣 Its exclusive features for unlimited lead generation:
- LinkedIn 2.0 messaging or Inbox Waalaxy (with export, pre-recorded replies, ergonomic interface, lead tagging, automatic follow-ups…)
- But also the Email Finder, the AI Prospect Finder, the Waami message AI assistant, the Cloud with sequence templates, integration with third-party solutions…
- 🟣 Find qualified leads via LinkedIn in record time, effortlessly and even without technical skills.
- 🟣 Access advanced analytics on an easy-to-master dashboard.
Trust me, you don’t want to miss this. Try it now. 👇🏼
⚙️ Finally, to launch a campaign on LinkedIn with Waalaxy follow this step-by-step tutorial:
- Download the Waalaxy extension from the Chrome Store.
- Open Waalaxy in your browser.
- Import dozens or hundreds of prospects into your pre-built CRM.
- Create a campaign and name it.
- Choose the sequence “invitation to a visit with personalized note”.
- Write your message.
- Launch the campaign.
You don’t have to do a thing! Waalaxy works for you. 🔥
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn? 8 easy keys to success
As you’ll have gathered, using LinkedIn (professional social media platform) to generate high-quality leads (or high-quality prospects) and expand your network is a goldmine. 👑
Whether you’re a seasoned salesperson, entrepreneur or marketing enthusiast, harnessing the potential of technology to generate leads on LinkedIn can significantly boost your business growth. 📈
1. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with optimized profile
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile should be your top priority. ✨ It’s your shop window and you’ll never have a 2ᵉ opportunity to make a good impression.
If you don’t make a good impression on your prospect, they won’t trust you and you won’t stand a chance of selling them anything. 🍀
Here’s an example to identify the qualities to use and highlight on your LinkedIn profile (friendliness, integrity, competence, notoriety, persuasiveness).
To make things clearer, we’ll explain them in detail. 👇🏼
A) How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with Friendliness
You have 7 seconds to elicit sympathy when someone scans your LinkedIn profile. 🥶 If the person isn’t touched or doesn’t feel concerned, they’ll leave.
As a reminder, first impressions can’t change and definitely control the 5% of your relationship with a person. And, that 5% even conditions the other 95%. 😱
But, how do you create that good impression and look friendly?
- Smile on your LinkedIn profile picture.
- Use emojis.
- Be positive in your messages and comments on LinkedIn.
Taking care of your LinkedIn profile is a must if you want to boost the feeling of trust towards you, and if you’re looking to generate more leads on LinkedIn.
B) How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with Integrity
Building trust with your network requires transparency, integrity and honesty. 💎 These qualities determine the potential you’ll have for generating leads on LinkedIn.
The problem with some people on LinkedIn (as in life) is that they seem like nice people. ⚠️ But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that they’re not transparent with their community or potential customers.
- Fake diplomas.
- Pompous LinkedIn titles.
- Exaggerated volunteer experience.
But, fortunately, if you’re concerned, there are solutions to restore your image ✅ :
- Be authentic in your LinkedIn resume (experience and training).
- Put your ego aside and don’t try to please everyone.
- Don’t be afraid to talk about your weaknesses and problems.
- Learn to say no when you can’t/won’t do something.
C) How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with your professional skills
Caring and integrity are excellent soft skills to highlight. But they’re not enough. You need to prove that you’re an expert in your field. 🤝
On LinkedIn, we’re increasingly looking for experts in highly specialized fields (specialization is the best way to make a living).
The problem with most entrepreneurs on LinkedIn is that they don’t know how to sell themselves or their skills. 😬
To prove your professional abilities and build your prospects’ confidence with them, here are a few solutions 👇🏼 :
- Display your customer references in your LinkedIn banner.
- Be visible alongside other experts in your field.
- Give the impression of being inaccessible to your prospects.
By doing this, you play on several very powerful cognitive biases to influence your potential customers 🗣️ : the principles of authority and scarcity. You can also :
- Convince your most distrustful prospects through logic.
- Persuade through the authority of others.
- Generate more leads on LinkedIn.
D) How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with Notoriety: your banner and summary
- Create a LinkedIn banner in the colors of your brand image.
- On it, explain in one sentence the value proposition (USP) of your product or service at the center of your banner.
- Add your logo and, if possible, social proof (which will help you to convince). 🌟
- Finally, explain more precisely your value proposition, your added value, your mission, your offer etc…. In the “About your profile” summary.
- You can also customize or modify them to promote an offer or event (e.g. Black Friday). ⚫️
The aim of your banner and summary is to publicize your offer and generate LinkedIn leads by attracting the attention of your network. 🧲
E) How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with Persuasion: your headline
Optimizing your LinkedIn headline (or LinkedIn profile title) is very important for creating a good profile and generating leads on LinkedIn. 🏆 Here are some tips on how to achieve this:
- Keep it short and punchy. A title that’s too long can give the impression that you’re trying too hard, or be boring.
- Next, write your mission in one sentence (to continue in the example: “Helping 100,000 companies improve their SEO”).
- Then enter the name of your position and the LinkedIn company you work for.
🫵🏼 The purpose of your title is to reflect exactly who you are (and contrary to popular belief, the job title doesn’t have to come first).
As you’ve seen, optimizing your LinkedIn profile means reinforcing your image, integrity and professional capabilities as perceived by others. 👀
But, that was only the first step to generating leads on LinkedIn!
2. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn by publishing content?
✍🏼 Creating, publishing, distributing and sharing relevant content is the key to being visible on LinkedIn, and thus generating leads.
How to generate B2B leads with different types of content?
Publishing content on LinkedIn is part of the inbound marketing strategy, with this, LinkedIn allows you to create a stronger link with your LinkedIn audience. 📣
Implementing such a strategy enables you to engage in lead nurturing and thus attract new leads and customers.
Not all content created on LinkedIn is created equal. Some work, some don’t. ❌ The truth is, you’ll only know if you implement a content marketing strategy .
✅ But, we can tell you that some types of content work better than others (generate more engagement and trust):
- High added value: Provide high-quality content with applicable advice to your audience through list articles (e.g. 7 tips to find more customers), or explanations of concepts related to your business.
- Authority: Prove your credibility and legitimacy in your field (results with curves and figures, customer success stories, certifications and diplomas…).
- Inspiration: Use storytelling to convey emotions (talk about your problems and successes).
- Negative/Buzz.
These types of posts are of course to be used/varied, while staying within your main theme 😉
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn by publishing massively?
Reading other people’s LinkedIn posts is good. Creating your own content is better! Especially for expanding your customer base and generating leads on LinkedIn.💥
If you really want to be considered an authority figure in your field, then you need to create your personal brand by publishing content around a topic on LinkedIn that speaks to your target audience (thanks to your persona).
Then establish a LinkedIn content strategy to generate leads on LinkedIn, alternating different types of posts ♟️ :
- Rant.
- Added value.
- Storytelling (where you tell your story).
- Articles (to show your results).
Start with one post a week when you’re first starting out, then move up to 2-4 posts a week, improving their quality over time. 🗓️
3. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with comments on other posts?
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn? You’ve got it, you need to work on your image. ✨
And, commenting on other people’s posts (in a positive and constructive way) can help you build a generous, open and professional image.
If you’re negative, even if it’s to help others, it won’t be seen as constructive, but destructive. 👿
There are many people on LinkedIn who don’t dare comment and don’t develop their marketing reputation. Often, they’re afraid of how others will view them.
On the other hand, if you’re an entrepreneur, there are more advantages to commenting on other people’s posts than not. But, how can this help you generate leads on LinkedIn? 🤔
The reason is simple: by commenting, you :
- 🟢 Bring your tips into your theme
- 🔵 Encourage content creators.
- 🟡 Be visible to your close network (who see your name, photo and comment appear in their news feed).
All this can generate views on your profile. And, if you contribute your expertise, you increase your notoriety. But there are a few rules to follow:
- 🔴 Don’t disparage the work of others (even if they’re your competitors).
- 🟠 Avoid unsubtle comments like “great article”.
- 🟣 Add value to the post, not the other way around.
4. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn by copywriting your marketing messages?
You’ve seen, how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn : optimize your profile, publish content, comment on others’…
But you can also interact directly with your network via LinkedIn messages. And, to encourage your interlocutors to take action, you need to master the copywriting of your messages. 💬
What is copywriting? 🤔 The science of selling through words with the aim of triggering a reaction, conversion or transaction.
The best content creators get it – it’s essential for grabbing readers’ attention and ensuring they read to the end, as well as for generating leads on LinkedIn.
👉🏼 In short, a well-copied marketing message should use the AIDA method:
- Attract potential leads with a strong hook that appeals to the reader (your target) at the start of the message.
- Arouse the interest of the person (who must have the impression of recognizing himself).
- Attract desire with your offer’s features, benefits and clear call to action. 🕹️
You create a good impression with your message(s): enthusiastic, energetic, human-centered.
🪶 To improve or get started in copywriting, you can follow these 3 aces of the pen who will help you write better and have more impact :
- Jasmin Alić.
- Richard Moore.
- Matt Barker.
Copywriting is super powerful for generating leads on LinkedIn, and more generally for finding the right customers. Get trained and use it.
5. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn Live?
What can scare people off is buying something from someone they’ve never seen or heard of. Live events can be a great way to remove that brake. 🥳
We’re seeing more and more of these on LinkedIn live 📽️: live conferences, lives, webinars, masterclasses… These are a great way to build trust and convey emotion (much more than just messages).
By doing live’s on LinkedIn, you’ll also be generating trust by responding to the qualities seen above:
- Kindness.
- Friendliness.
- Integrity.
- Professional competence.
- Notoriety.
- Persuasiveness.
But, still the same question, how do you successfully find customers and generate B2B leads on LinkedIn Live? 🤔
First of all, you need to choose a topic within your theme, then turn it around a problem or desire. 👇🏼 Here’s an example of what you could do:
1️⃣ Do a survey on the topic of the article “3 tips for creating a landing page that converts” (desire topic, for a community that knows you) or “3 mistakes to avoid that prevent your landing page from selling” (“problem” topic for cold prospecting).
2️⃣ Observe the survey results and the dozens of responses you receive. ☑️
3️⃣ Choose from these responses the different axes to cover in a LinkedIn event (something impossible to explain, with other types of content).
4️⃣ Schedule your LinkedIn Event well in advance, so you have time to broadcast the event to respondents and your entire network. And, therefore, maximize the number of participants who might be convinced by your offer.
6. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn Ads?
To increase the number of prospects and generate B2B leads on LinkedIn, you can run LinkedIn ads (on LinkedIn also known as announcements, sponsored or promoted posts). 🚨
This can be a powerful strategy when executed effectively and with a solid budget. But, the cost per lead is very high and can challenge your marketing strategy. 😬
Here’s a step-by-step guide to using LinkedIn ads to optimize their effectiveness (& therefore cost) 🚀 :
- Define your SMART goals.
- Create a LinkedIn campaign manager account.
- Create a campaign.
- Define your target audience (persona).
- Choose ad format.
- Create a compelling ad.
- Define your budget.
- Bidding strategy.
- Design a B2B lead generation form.
- Start your campaign.
7. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn by creating a sales funnel?
To increase your sales, you need to set up a sales funnel. This is a succession of steps that turns a stranger into a customer (or even an ambassador 💓).
📍 It will enable you to visualize the customer (or visitor) journey and effectively organize your marketing strategy, placing the customer experience at the heart of your concerns.
For greater clarity, here’s what it looks like.
You’ll take a stranger on LinkedIn through several phases:
- Your prospect has heard of you. He knows you exist.
- He’s interested in you, so he starts looking at what you have to offer.
- They decide to buy from you.
- Finally, he’ll be converted into a customer.
But think again because it doesn’t stop there ❌ because after that, you’re going to have to maintain the bond you have with your leads and customers.
This is the loyalty and lead nurturing phase, so that they :
- Remember you more easily.
- Talk about you and recommend you.
- Become brand ambassadors.
To get a customer to the end of the tunnel, don’t hesitate to use all the tools at your disposal and all the acquisition channels to achieve your goals. 🎯
And, you can also automate all this with prospecting automation software (like Waalaxy).
8. How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with Robert Cialdini’s six methods of influence?
This is one of the most important points of the article 👀 there are 6 levers of influence to use in your content, campaigns and messages to generate leads with LinkedIn.
📚 They’re explained in the book Influence and Manipulation by Robert Cialdini (professor of social psychology at the University of Arizona in the USA).
Here are the ones you should definitely use 💯 :
- Principle of reciprocity: the more you offer your prospects/customers, the more they feel indebted in return (pretty simple to understand). Be generous by sharing your knowledge, comments, etc.
- Principle of authority: Associate your image with that of an expert recognized as trustworthy. Example: Use a celebrity in an advertisement. The aim: to transfer the popularity of these people to the brand. In the collective unconscious, it’s a sign of trust.
- Principle of scarcity : This is one of the most powerful principles. It involves making your offer irresistible by playing on exclusivity, urgency and loss aversion to encourage people to buy and act quickly. For example: a promotion for the first 5 customers, or a limited-time offer.
Use these levers of influence in your marketing messages to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn. They’ll help you convert more prospects into leads, and then into customers.
Now that you know more about how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn and how to use it to prospect on LinkedIn effectively, you’re ready to build your own strategy! ✅
If you apply the advice in this article:
- You’ll create irresistible marketing on LinkedIn around your personal or professional brand.
- You’ll generate B2B leads on LinkedIn in droves.
Conclusion: LinkedIn for B2B Lead Generation Recap
As you can see, generating leads is important, and always possible on LinkedIn. But increasingly tough competition is forcing you to be even more strategic. ♟️
💥 You’ll need to use the 13 techniques in this article to stand out from the crowd and generate leads from LinkedIn :
- Identify your target audience.
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile.
- Build a network.
- Create and publish valuable content.
- Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups.
- How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn Live.
- Comment on others’ posts.
- Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator and LinkedIn lead generation software.
- Publish lead generation ads on LinkedIn.
- How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with a sales funnel.
- Use copywriting in your marketing messages.
- Robert Cialdini’s six methods of influence.
- Analyze and adjust strategy.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
🏁 To conclude, here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions on “How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn”. 👇🏼
What is the LinkedIn campaign manager?
LinkedIn Campaign Manager is LinkedIn’s advertising management tool. It helps you create, launch, manage, optimize, evaluate…”LinkedIn Ads” advertising campaigns.
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn Ads? It lets you define campaign objectives and target specific audiences based on targeting criteria and filters.
📊 You’ll be able to track and analyze the performance/effectiveness of your ads and campaigns in real time, and adjust their strategies on LinkedIn to generate leads and maximize ROI.
This tool is essential for any company looking for effective ways to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn and increase your LinkedIn presence & visibility! ⚡️
What is a lead generation form on LinkedIn?
📄 A lead generation form on LinkedIn is a tool integrated into the platform that collects information and valuable LinkedIn data (data scraping) on B2B prospects.
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn with gen forms? You can create and download one for your LinkedIn page (or company page). These forms are mainly used in LinkedIn Ads (as sponsored content or lead gen forms).
🖱️ When LinkedIn users click on an ad, a form pre-filled with their information (name, e-mail address, job title…) is displayed, facilitating database enrichment, engagement and lead conversion.
The process is fast, reduces friction and improves conversion rates compared with other information-gathering methods.
This type of form (also known as an opt-in form) is very useful for prospecting campaigns, event registrations, or for offering resources (white papers or free trials 🆓).
How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn to +500%?
🦾 While it takes time and consistent effort to achieve such a significant increase, here are some advanced LinkedIn lead generation strategies that can help you achieve this goal:
- Target audience segmentation.
- Leverage audience segmentation.
- A/B testing.
- Content marketing strategy.
- LinkedIn lead gen forms.
- Remarketing and retargeting campaigns.
- Engaging in LinkedIn groups and communities.
- LinkedIn events and webinars.
- Collaboration with influencers.
- Integrating email marketing.
- Sales and marketing alignment.
Now you know how to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn! 🚀