Guest post on behalf of Kaspr
LinkedIn is today an essential B2B sales tool. Nearly 93 per cent of B2B marketers consider it to be the most effective social network. It has enabled 77 per cent of the companies that use it to find at least one customer. So you’ll be better off having a presence on LinkedIn if you want to increase your sales.
LinkedIn has more than 500 million profiles from 170 industries and 200 countries. More than 106 million users regularly visit the site. Forty per cent of them connect every day.
In France alone, LinkedIn has some 16 million active profiles. Of these, 45 per cent are in management positions. So it will be inconceivable to bypass LinkedIn if you want to reach decision-makers.
For companies that use social networks to generate leads, 80 per cent of engaged prospects come from LinkedIn, compared to 12 per cent from Twitter. The conversion rate reaches 80 per cent. Ninety-one per cent of decision makers say they use LinkedIn as their primary source of information before making a purchase decision.
Sales Navigator
LinkedIn’s greatest asset is its ease of reaching the precise targeting of your prospects, which is the essence of Sales Navigator.
It is a paid prospecting tool that LinkedIn makes available to you, so you can find out who has consulted your profile within 90 days. It also allows you to quickly identify decision-makers and understand their behavior on the network: new relationships, changes in position, etc.
The Lead Builder tool allows you to sort profiles by job title, company, and other keywords. Therefore, you obtain a list of hot leads that you can save. The Team formula allows you to integrate Sales Navigator with your usual CRM tool. All your actions will be recorded to ensure a better follow-up.
A prospect will rely more on a company that has something in common with him. You will easily find a common point with your leads thanks to the Teamlink function.
Through the Pointdrive tool, you can share your service/product presentations directly with your customers. Transfer all information about the LinkedIn profile of your prospects to your mailbox with the Gmail plugin.
A solid e-reputation
Today’s decision-makers are looking for trustworthy employees. With LinkedIn, you have the opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field.
But beware, this does not mean that you should mislead your prospects. The impact on your brand image will be even more catastrophic if you pretend to be an expert when you are not in reality. Your customers will not fail to talk about their bad experience with you.
According to David Fisher, it is entirely possible to apply all three cognitive biases to lead generation on LinkedIn:
- Anchor bias: when you publish relevant and regular content, your prospects will associate your company’s name with the expertise;
- Availability bias: buyers rely on the information they have in mind to make a decision. The more relevant content you publish, the better they will remember you. They will automatically choose you for their purchases;
- The halo effect: there is a tendency to unconsciously extend a person’s success to other areas. By building an e-reputation on LinkedIn, you extend your credibility beyond the virtual.
Setting up a prospecting strategy on LinkedIn is easy, but it is established in the long run. It takes about a year to build a solid e-reputation. Here are the secrets of an effective lead generation strategy on LinkedIn.
Personal page or company page
The personal page is the best way to build an e-reputation on LinkedIn. Why should you choose it? Your goal is to create a “human” relationship with your prospects. However, only a personal page will allow you to interact, send messages or requests to connect.
Moreover, decision-makers are more likely to rely on another community member, rather than on a company page: this is the law of social selling.
That doesn’t mean you should abandon your company page. It complements the personal page. Being a showcase page, it allows other members to learn more about your brand. Your page also allows you to run advertising campaigns, an option not possible on a personal page.
The Profile: A good profile starts with a good quality photo. While a professional image is required, it must inspire sympathy.
In the news, highlight your various professional experiences. Don’t just list them, show that you are a major player in the operation of the company.
If it is a company page, put all the necessary information on it. Views of pages with complete information are 30 per cent more per week. For the photo, put a sharp image of your logo. Think about using keywords related to your activity, so that members can find you easily.
The Discussions: Having a good LinkedIn profile is not enough to generate leads. It must be active for better visibility. Participating in focus groups is the best way to attract attention. You can showcase your expertise by proposing solutions to members’ problems. Favor groups with only active members who are dedicated to your field of activity.
Relevant Content: Each of your publications must attract attention through news or relevant topics related to your activity. Engage your prospects through interesting quizzes or surveys.
The objective is to get them to comment and share. You will then gain visibility among their connections. Think about investing in sponsored content to boost your notoriety. 65% of buyers find that the quality of content impacts their purchasing decisions.
Easy to get in touch with Kaspr
You don’t necessarily have access to your prospects’ contact information with LinkedIn. But thanks to Kaspr, you will find the email addresses and phone numbers of your leads in a few clicks.
How does this process work? The tool searches and cross-references all the contact information found on the Internet (phone book, press release, etc.) in seconds.
How to use it? Take a small tour on Kaspr.io to register and download the Google Chrome extension. A Kaspr widget will then appear below the photo of each profile. Just click for the coordinates to appear.
It’s an even more promising tool with upcoming features. A new open API will allow all users to integrate it into their platforms. Also on the agenda: automated scenarios such as automatic thank you messages each time a prospect accepts your request to connect.
