How To Turn LinkedIn Into A Lead Generation Machine (…In 3 Simple Steps)

by John McIntyre

This is a guest post by Mirna Bacun. Mirna is the founder of Creative Office, a company that helps business owners and coaches get free, high-quality leads with LinkedIn.


If you are a business owner working in B2B, then you know that your relationship with Facebook Ads, Instagram and Twitter is somewhat complicated.

Maybe you’ve been running Facebook ads for some time, trying to get to high-quality leads for your business, but you’ve never been quite satisfied with the results.

You may have gotten leads, but they seemed uninterested, cold as ice or at the end of the day – unwilling to buy your stuff.

To be honest, if you are in B2B space, whether you are in IT, run a coaching business or work as a marketer – you are looking for that CEO that you can talk to and sign a $10,000 deal with.

And there seems to be a lack of those on Facebook, or you just can’t seem to find them.

After a while, you start to doubt yourself and your competency to use Facebook Ads (while everyone else appears to be rocking at it) and find those decision-makers, so you decide to pour more money and hire someone that can do the job.

You get a Facebook Ads person, explain the situation and tell him to target the decision makers – CEO’s, CTO’s, Senior management people, Founders, Partners or anybody that you can close that $10,000 deal.

It seems cool now – you have a guy working on these Ads. They know what they’re doing and you should be able to get an impressive ROI.

A week passes.

Two weeks.

You hear crickets.

You had sign-ups and did a couple of sales calls, but the target market never seems to be quite the people you were looking for.

It now appears to you that you are wasting time, as well as money.

It seems that everybody uses Facebook Ads and you start to wonder…

“Is it possible that Facebook Ads SUCK for my business?”

Welcome to the real world of working in B2B, my young padawan.

You are not crazy, and Master Yoda knows it.

You just haven’t been told the truth yet – that Facebook Ads DON’T work for every business on the planet, and they might not fit yours.

If you have already spent hundreds of dollars on Facebook Ads and found yourself tweeting 56 times a day or using 48 different hashtags on Instagram without getting desired results, I can tell you – you are NOT the only one.

The good news is that you can finally take that long-awaited vacation and fire your Facebook Ads guy, your Instagram student, and your Twitter VA.

Just do it.

Okay, now that you’ve done that – we can start from the beginning.

Now, your question probably is – if I am not using all of these lead generation platforms, where am I supposed to find leads and clients?

Let me let you on a little secret some freelancer copywriters, coaches and biz owners already know for some time.

There is this “super-boring,” “un-engaging” site called LinkedIn that had already made people hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.

“Whaaat? That boring resume site?” – you might ask me.

“Exactly. Let me show you.”

What LinkedIn is NOT…

What I can tell you is – forget what you ever thought or read about LinkedIn.

Just do some lobotomy on your business brain and keep reading.

Okay, so let’s firstly talk about what LinkedIn is NOT.

LinkedIn is NOT Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter.

I know you know this.

But then I ask you – why do you expect LinkedIn to behave like those other platforms or to get leads in the same way you’d get them on, for example, Facebook?

Let’s go further.

LinkedIn is not a sales platform, and you probably won’t SELL anything on LinkedIn.

What you will be able to do on LinkedIn is to find super-quality leads you won’t find anywhere else, build trust with them, position yourself as an expert – and move those LinkedIn leads to your sales funnels where you’ll convert them into clients more quickly.

Now, let’s talk about what LinkedIn IS.

LinkedIn is the ONLY business social media network on the planet with over 450 million users – CEO’s CTO’s, managers and other decision makers that are ready to do business and find partners.

Because it’s unlike any other social media platform, LinkedIn has its own rules of engagement and lead generation principles.

So if you are looking to use the same strategies you used on other social media platforms and expect them to work on LinkedIn – just save yourself the trouble.

It won’t work.

Why?

Because (I’ll repeat) – LinkedIn is a first and foremost – a BUSINESS network.

Here are some stats to give you an idea of what that means:

  • [FACT #1] Unlike what most people think, people don’t go on LinkedIn to just to find a job, people go there to DO business. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, LinkedIn is a BUSINESS social media network, and anybody that cares about their business is on LinkedIn
  • [FACT #2] LinkedIn is the biggest business online social media with over 450 million people that are ready to talk about business, do business or find work
  • [FACT #3] 25% of adult Internet users in the US are on LinkedIn
  • [FACT #4] 40% of LinkedIn users check LinkedIn every day
  • [FACT #5] 76% of those users are executives
  • [FACT #6] LinkedIn has the most affluent demographic (and that is a fact!)
  • [FACT #7] LinkedIn has 2x faster active user growth than FB or Twitter
  • [FACT #8] Only on LinkedIn a big CEO hotshot, for example, will give you the time of day

So why the hell does nobody talk about these amazing lead generation opportunities on LinkedIn?

To be honest – you’ve been probably playing in the wrong sandbox because most B2B companies spend their time on LinkedIn to find REALLY high quality leads and clients.

And this is what you should be doing, too – especially if you are in B2B space.

So, what about the “horror” stories you’ve heard about LinkedIn or the fact that you maybe have a LinkedIn Profile but have never got a single client from LinkedIn?

Well, if you’ve been pouring diesel into a car that runs on gas – it won’t start.

(It’s no wonder you haven’t been successful on LinkedIn so far.)

And now the million dollar question – how the hell are you supposed to find targeted leads on LinkedIn?

Is there the “right” way?

Of course there is, and let me walk you step-by-step through what you need to do.

STEP #1 – Find your LinkedIn target market

Even though this step seems pretty self-explanatory, most people make the mistake of:

  1. Not understanding their target market completely
  2. Not understanding who their LINKEDIN target market is

And this is absolutely crucial.

I would even say that defining your LINKEDIN target market is STEP ZERO.

It’s the base of everything you do on LinkedIn because if you don’t address the right target market – nothing else will work on LinkedIn and you’ll be wasting your time.

So, what is the difference between LinkedIn target market and the target market on other social media platforms?

First of all – other social media focus on interests and demographics, and this information doesn’t mean much when you are looking for your target market over LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn, you need to focus on things like job title, company size, industry, and specific keywords – and these are the filters you need to use to define your target market.

There are two ways to go about it – the good and the bad.

What most people do is – they just put a job title they are looking for into LinkedIn’s search bar, like this:

 

lin1

 

They hit search, get gazillion search results and think they’ll just get clients.

WRONG.

The reason I don’t suggest you use LinkedIn search bar is that you’ll get a LOT of search results, but they probably won’t be targeted enough.

A better way to start finding those target leads is by using LinkedIn’s Advanced People Search and put as many filters as possible to define your target market, like this:

 

lin2

 

The Advanced Search will help you to define your LinkedIn target market in greater detail.

That also means you’ll find a smaller number of people in your search results, but that’s okay.

You want to define your target market VERY narrow, so you don’t spend time talking to the wrong people.

Also – a little trick you can use is to write in the keyword tab a particular keyword you’ll like to see in the profile of your LinkedIn target market.

 

linkedin lead generation

 

 

For example, if you want to work with business coaches that already have an online course, you might put in the Job Title tab the word “business coach” and in the keyword tab word “course”.

Then click search.

This will tell LinkedIn to find all the business coaches that mention the word “course” in their LinkedIn Profile and enable you to qualify your LinkedIn leads even more.

The purpose of the Advanced People Search is not to find A LOT of people (like on Facebook), but very narrow, targeted sales leads that fit the description of your ideal client.

You can play with different filters within the Advanced People Search until you find the perfect ones and start from there.

Remember, don’t shoot for quantity. Shoot for QUALITY.

STEP #2 – Define your LinkedIn lead generation goal

What the hell is a LinkedIn lead generation goal?

This is the second most crucial thing you need if you want to have success with generating high-quality leads with LinkedIn.

Think about it.

When you do lead generation on any other platform – you know exactly what is the end goal you want to achieve – to get more opt-ins, to get those leads to schedule a call with you, or get them on a webinar.

It’s the same with LinkedIn, but most LinkedIn marketers never mention how important it is to know what you want or expect your leads to do once they see your LinkedIn profile or read your blog post.

Most people I’ve worked with were taught that if they just connect with their target market on LinkedIn – the sales will just come pouring in.

Then reality hit hard.

Without setting a clear GOAL about what they wanted their LinkedIn prospects to do or pushing them into doing a specific action to meet that goal – those leads just did nothing.

So, before you start connecting with your target market like crazy, define your LinkedIn lead generation goal first.

What do you want your LinkedIn leads to do?

Send you a LinkedIn message?

Click on a link on your LinkedIn profile and schedule a free 15-minute call with you?

Get them to download your lead magnet?

So, what is your LinkedIn lead generation goal?

After you clearly define your LinkedIn goal, focus all your LinkedIn lead generation efforts towards getting your LinkedIn target market to fulfill that goal.

Whatever it is that you do on LinkedIn – don’t forget about that goal.

It is the only way to get clients.

STEP #3 – Optimise your LinkedIn Profile (NOT with keywords)

Many LinkedIn strategies will surely give you new, high-quality leads, but the one thing you have to start with is – optimizing your LinkedIn Profile.

While listening to other LinkedIn marketing “Gurus” that focus on putting a bunch of keywords in your LinkedIn Profile – many people did this step completely wrong.

The result?

They either didn’t get quality leads looking at their profile or they get new clients, but – with pure luck.

So, if you are a kind of business person that wants to get clients just by chance, and that satisfies you – then by all means – put a bunch of keywords in your LinkedIn Profile, and you might get lucky now and then.

But, if you are a SERIOUS business person, then you know that building your lead generation off pure luck is almost like signing a death warrant on your business.

(And I guess you are in it for the long term, and that you want your business to grow and not die.)

If that sounds like you – then read on very carefully.

Keywords are not the most important thing you should focus on if you want people to start contacting you about your services on LinkedIn.

What is important is to optimize your LinkedIn profile towards (in this order):

  1. Your target market
  2. The end goal

Why is this super-important?

Because you can optimize your LinkedIn Profile with keywords and drive traffic to that Profile – but if you don’t communicate to your target market that they are in the right place, that you understand them and are the person that can help them – then they’ll just leave.

And you won’t have a second chance.

When I work with clients, I ask them to optimize their LinkedIn profile by telling a story first.

No hard-core sales copy or any other bullshit.

Just talk as you would if you were talking to your best friend.

Tell a story and address your target market’s pains, wants, fears and desires.

Use “You” sentences instead of “I” sentences.

To be honest -nobody cares about you, your company, your brand, your product or your service – people only care about themselves.

And the only job you have while optimizing your LinkedIn profile is to answer a simple question that your LinkedIn Profile visitors will ask themselves:

“What’s in it for me and why should I care?”

Answering that question throughout your LinkedIn Profile should be your MAIN focus.

Don’t sell your services and don’t pitch your products.

Remember one thing:

The purpose of your LinkedIn profile is to get your target market to like and trust you, not to sell them your stuff.

The selling will happen on in your sales funnel, the one that you need to have “outside” LinkedIn – and if you do a good job with LinkedIn – they’ll buy from you.

The next thing you need to keep in mind is you end goal and what you want them to do.

After you optimize your LinkedIn Profile towards your target market and start talking about them – be sure to put have small calls to action throughout the Profile to nudge them to do the action that you want.

This action needs to be in sync with your LinkedIn goal.

For example, if you want them to get on a free 15-minute call with you, put a link in the “Contacts” part of your LinkedIn Profile that they can click and get directly to your Calendly page.

 

linedinleadgeneration2

Or use this part to offer them your lead magnet.

Keep telling their story throughout your LinkedIn profile and give them the same call to action in different parts of the Profile.

For example – in the “Contact” sections, the “Summary” section, and the “how to contact ____” section of your LinkedIn Profile.

Your job with your LinkedIn profile is to make your target market like and trust you and to make it easy for them to fulfill the goal.

THEN, and maybe THEN you can think about putting in a couple of keywords so your target market can find you more easily on LinkedIn.

Are you serious?

Absolutely.

Dead serious.

If you just follow these steps in the order I’ve explained – you’ll see results.

How do I know that?

Because this is the same thing I’ve been hammering to my e-mail subscribers and some of them have been able to get clients just by doing these three simple steps in this exact order.

These steps will get you better results than you’ve had so far with LinkedIn, and you’ll be surprised on the feedback you’ll receive from your target market.

Or as the Master Yoda says:

“If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are… a different game you should play.”


This is a guest post by Mirna Bacun. Mirna is the founder of Creative Office, a company that helps business owners and coaches get free, high-quality leads with LinkedIn.

If you want to a step-by-step guide how to use LinkedIn to get free, high-quality leads for your business – download Mirna’s LinkedIn Case Study: “How I made $47,070.46 of recurring revenue and got over 10,000 high-quality leads by using LinkedIn, without paying a dollar for ads”. It will blow your mind. I promise 🙂

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