I’m passionate about LinkedIn, and for a good reason. I’ve built my own business from scratch using LinkedIn as the main method of lead generation. One of my favourite statistics is that over 80% of all B2B leads generated by social media come from LinkedIn.
I’ve used my proven, tested approach to lead generation to generate a 5-figure monthly income within 6 months. I love sharing my method to help other individuals grow their own businesses.
In this article, I’ll explain my approach to lead generation using LinkedIn, including the difference between Inbound Lead Generation and Outbound Lead Generation. But before I dive straight in, a quick reminder about the groundwork and foundations that need to be in place.
Groundwork and Foundations
Before you start any lead generation campaign, I want you to take a step back and do the groundwork. Make sure you have worked out your LinkedIn goals, identified your ideal client profile and chosen your powerful keywords. Then lay the foundations by creating a killer profile to impress your ideal clients from the outset, optimised to boost your discoverability.
If you haven’t done this yet, check my article 3 Simple Things You Can Do to Boost Your LinkedIn Profile. Take the time to get it right before you start to build your lead generation campaign.
Inbound vs Outbound Lead Generation – what’s the difference?
Inbound Lead Generation describes people coming to you as a result of your content marketing activities, including posting on LinkedIn, creating articles and leveraging LinkedIn groups.
Outbound Lead Generation, on the other hand, is a means of lead generation through outbound activity or prospecting. I’ve developed my simple 4 step method outlined below to explain how to generate good leads and clients.
Inbound Lead Generation
If your objective is to build professional credibility with your LinkedIn network or to establish yourself as a thought leader in your professional field, then Inbound Lead Generation can be a great way to grow your reputation.
You can do this by regularly posting high-quality content, particularly when it inspires discussion, debate, and conversation. You should also consider developing content around relevant and topical industry news.
Whenever you post content on LinkedIn, ask yourself – ‘How does this add value to my ideal client’? If your connections are encouraged to click on your LinkedIn profile, they may be positively surprised to see you giving away free information, advice, and expert opinion. It immediately shows that you are a valuable resource.
It’s also important to engage with other people’s content strategically – liking, commenting and sharing. A great way to do this is by joining relevant LinkedIn Groups – you can connect with active members, engage with posts, message group members for free, and share content strategically.
This approach can boost your Social Selling credentials, by being seen as a helpful and authoritative contact. This will build your kudos and status as a professional with whom respected individuals want to interact and build a relationship. If you want to monitor how well you’re doing, you can check out your Social Selling Index (SSI) score at:
https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi
Outbound Lead Generation
Inbound Lead Generation can be incredibly powerful. But in my experience, there’s no better way of winning the best, highest-paying and most loyal clients than Outbound Lead Generation. You can pick and choose the cream of the crop when it comes to prospects, and grow your business rapidly.
To do this, I’ve developed and tested my own ‘4C Method’ for Prospecting Like a Pro – a simple 4 step approach that takes you all the way from identifying prospects to your ultimate goal, to CONVERT, as follows:
Step 1. ‘Collect’ – finding and gathering the right people – your targeted prospects – on LinkedIn.
Step 2. ‘Connect’ – sending a personalised connection request, followed by a welcome message.
Step 3 – ‘Converse’ – engaging with prospects and providing value to build the relationship.
Step 4 – ‘Convert’ – adding more value and then moving the conversation offline when the time is right, through a series of relationship-building messages.
This may sound daunting, but in my Complete LinkedIn Mastery Course, I’ll take you through this approach step by step, and you’ll also have a number of valuable resources at your fingertips, including worksheets, checklists, templates and messaging scripts that you can use right away to get instant results on LinkedIn.
Whatever you do, don’t pitch too early as it can burn the relationship. It’s better to wait for weeks or even months and play the long game.
Instead, if you get the messaging right and build a relationship by nurturing your prospects until the time is right to move the conversation offline with a view to converting to a sale, you will have built rapport and trust – a professional relationship, and it will feel natural.
Final Thoughts
For me, although inbound lead generation is really important as a way of building your professional credibility and establishing yourself as a thought leader, the main way that I’ve managed to convert prospects into clients is by using outbound lead generation – by using my ‘4C Method’ for Prospecting like a Pro.
It’s worked for me – and it can work for you too if you follow my simple, proven 4-step approach. I’d be really excited to work with you if you’re keen to learn more. Please feel free to drop me an email at [email protected], or message me directly on LinkedIn for further support.
