1. Focus on starting conversations
First thing to remember is that these LinkedIn campaigns are a form of cold outreach.
The leads you generate as a result of this campaign are NOT to be confused with referrals or inbound leads.
They are outbound leads that require more time and work to nurture into a sale.
Think of it as ‘virtual door-knocking’.
However, as opposed to cold-calling or cold-emailing, you have the opportunity to start conversations and build meaningful relationships with your connections on LinkedIn.
Focus on engaging your audience and starting conversations with them.
Ask them what they are up to in their jobs or business, and in return you’ll get people asking you what you do, who you serve, and how you can help them.
Go into this with the mindset of starting conversations instead of pitching and selling.
2. Your goal is an offline conversation - NOT a sale
It’s common for people to come to us saying they’ve tried LinkedIn and it didn’t work for them.
When we take a look at their efforts, we often see one major mistake.
They try to close deals on LinkedIn.
As soon as a prospect responds with interest, they post a 10-paragraph detailed response about their product or service.
The result?
*Silence*
Never try to close a deal on LinkedIn.
Your goal with LinkedIn should be to generate enough interest with the prospect so they are willing to move to an offline conversation via phone or video call.
That’s where the sale happens.
3. Ask questions
Here’s the deal..
People LOVE talking about themselves.
It’s human nature and we can’t help it.
Use this to your advantage by asking questions about the prospect that get them to open up.
The questions could be about their job, business, goals, etc.
Ideally these questions should tie back to your product/service.
Examples of questions I might ask are..
“As CMO at [company], curious to know what are you focusing on for Q2?”
“How are you currently getting leads? What channels have been most effective for you?”
“Have you tried LinkedIn for reaching out to decision makers at X industry companies?”
Notice how all of these questions are focused on the prospect while at the same time tying back to our service.
By asking questions you open up the conversation.
When you have conversations you increase that “know, like, trust” factor, and it becomes easier when asking for a phone call.
4.Research before responding
When you first launch your campaign and start seeing conversations flood your inbox, don’t be tempted to just respond with copy/pasted text.
Take a minute to click to their profile, check out their company page, and gauge if it’s a good fit.
This also gives you the opportunity to craft a more personal message and spend time only on those who fit your Ideal Customer Profile.
This extra bit of research could ultimately spell the difference between a closed sale and lost lead.
It could also save you hours from talking to unqualified prospects who aren’t a good fit.
5.Be PATIENT
Remember - these are outbound leads.
They have never heard from you before.
They didn’t ask to be contacted.
They didn’t opt-in for any communication from you.
You will have to work a bit harder to nurture, follow up, and manage these leads compared to referrals or inbound leads.
Don’t rush it, especially when dealing with a social platform like LinkedIn.
In the end though, it’s 1000% worth it.
Outbound leads are scalable and predictable in a way that inbound and referrals are not.
When you combine an outbound strategy with inbound and referrals, you give your business that unfair advantage.
Be patient.
After all, we’re talking about adding an extra 6-7 figures to your bottom line every year.