How to Use LinkedIn For Effective Sales Outreach
Times are a-changin’ — B2B sales in 2023 looks almost nothing like it did just 5 years ago. Gone are the days where you could build a business off of cold emails and phone calls alone. In the age of social media and digital communities, sales teams and entrepreneurs who invest in smart social selling strategies can leverage these networks to scale their outreach and drive more leads for their businesses. While those that fail to adapt to the new era will quickly fall behind.
Of all the digital platforms for sales professionals and entrepreneurs to practice social selling, LinkedIn is priority number one. With over 700 million users, LinkedIn provides a wealth of opportunities for sales outreach, allowing you to reach a large and diverse audience of decision-makers and influencers. However, with so many users and so much competition, it's important to have a strategy in place to ensure your outreach efforts are effective. In this blog post, we'll explore the key elements of a successful LinkedIn sales outreach strategy and provide tips and best practices for maximizing your results on the platform. Whether you're new to LinkedIn or a seasoned user, this post will help you take your sales outreach to the next level and drive growth for your business.
Develop a LinkedIn Connection Strategy
Building a strong audience of ideal customers on LinkedIn can be a game-changer for your business. If you believe in the power of a strong network (and the high conversion rate of a referral), then LinkedIn is an obvious path toward scaled lead generation.
One of the unique benefits of LinkedIn is the ability to target your connections with precision, handpicking the individuals who you want to be a part of your community and see your content. Other social platforms require you to post content and hope that the right people follow along. But LinkedIn is different. Because of its “connection” model, sales professionals and executives can target the exact decision-makers who fit their ideal customer profile.
Pro Tip: LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a super valuable tool for identifying these connection targets using demographics, firmographics, and other parameters.
It's important to remember that audience building is not just about attracting new audiences, but also keeping your current sales and marketing contacts, as well as clients, engaged with your content. By leveraging LinkedIn's features and using a targeted approach, sales professionals and entrepreneurs can build a strong community of ideal customers on the platform and drive business growth.
When you partner with an outreach agency like Influent, we help you build a targeted contact list and send automated connection requests to build your audience while you sleep.
Start Producing Value-Driven LinkedIn Content
It’s not enough just to build a targeted audience. Sales professionals and entrepreneurs need a scroll-stopping content strategy that nurtures relationships with ideal customers. Your LinkedIn content should provide value and be custom-tailored to your target audience in order to create maximum impact. For example, if you are targeting executives on LinkedIn, then share content that speaks directly to their interests, needs, and pain points. This might include industry news and updates, tips for success in their field, or advice from successful leaders in their industry.
Here are some other ideas for types of content that you may want to create:
Thought Leadership Posts: Share your insights and opinions on industry trends, challenges, and solutions. Offer valuable perspectives that help position you as a thought leader in your field.
Company Updates: Share news and updates about your company, such as product launches, company milestones, and company culture initiatives.
Behind-the-Scenes Content: Give your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your company, including employee profiles, office tours, and company events.
Industry News and Trends: Keep your audience up-to-date on the latest industry news and trends by sharing articles, research studies, and reports.
Case Studies and Success Stories: Share real-life examples of how your company has helped customers achieve their goals, highlighting the value and impact of your products or services.
Customer Testimonials: Share customer testimonials/success stories that highlight the impact of your products or services.
Q&A Sessions: Host a Q&A session on LinkedIn to answer questions from your audience and provide valuable insights into your industry and business.
Webinars and Events: Promote upcoming webinars and events that you are hosting or participating in, and share insights and highlights from past events.
At Influent, we help our clients build out content that strategically speaks to those they’re connecting with. The more value you provide through your content, the more likely your target audience will be to engage with it and remember it when they need the service or product you offer.
Optimize Your LinkedIn Content
It’s not just what you post, but HOW you post that can impact your reach and engagement. Optimizing your LinkedIn posts can help you reach a larger audience, increase engagement, and ultimately drive inbound leads for your business. Here are some tips for optimizing your LinkedIn posts:
Use keywords: When writing your post, include relevant keywords that describe your topic and industry. This will make it easier for people to find your post when they're searching for topics of interest on LinkedIn.
Use eye-catching visuals: Posts with visuals, such as images or videos, tend to perform better on LinkedIn than those without. Make sure your visuals are high-quality and relevant to your post.
Keep your post concise: Attention spans are short, so keep your post concise and to the point. Aim for a post length of around 250-300 words, and use bullet points and headings to break up the text and make it easier to read.
Engage with your audience: Encourage your audience to engage with your post by asking questions or starting a discussion. This will help you build a relationship with your followers and increase the visibility of your post.
Timing is everything: The timing of your post can have a big impact on its success. Experiment with posting at different times of day to see when your audience is most active and responsive.
Utilize hashtags: Hashtags can help your post reach a larger audience on LinkedIn. Use relevant hashtags to make your post discoverable to those outside of your immediate network.
Track and analyze your results: Finally, it's important to track and analyze the results of your LinkedIn posts to see what's working and what's not. Use LinkedIn Insights to get a better understanding of your post's reach and engagement.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to master the LinkedIn algorithm, download our new eBook: 15 Tips to Increase Engagement on Your Personal LinkedIn Profile.
Start “Socially Selling” by Building Relationships
Outside of just connecting and creating meaningful content, it’s also important to create strategic relationships with others in your space. Take the time to interact with your audience’s content - like, comment, and share anything that sparks your interest. Reach out via message to congratulate and celebrate birthdays, promotions, and other accomplishments. This kind of relationship building is invaluable when it comes to increasing visibility for your product or service among the right audience - which will ultimately lead to increased sales over time.
Most sales professionals forget that LinkedIn is, in fact, a social networking platform. So network!
BONUS: LinkedIn Outreach Messaging Campaigns
Programmatic LinkedIn messaging is an efficient and effective way to reach a large audience of professionals on the platform all at once. This type of messaging involves using automation to send messages to a targeted list of LinkedIn users, making it possible to reach a large number of individuals in a short amount of time. When creating a programmatic LinkedIn messaging strategy, it's important to consider the audience you're targeting, the message you want to send, and the frequency of the messages. A well-executed programmatic messaging strategy can help to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and improve engagement with your target audience. Additionally, programmatic messaging can be customized to fit the specific needs of your business and can be scaled up or down as needed.
That being said, LinkedIn messaging campaigns can also devolve into spam and shady cold outreach tactics that can damage your brand image. It’s important to put a lot of intentionality behind your approach or to partner with a LinkedIn outreach agency like Influent to ensure that your messaging campaigns are both effective and ethical.
Conclusion
Using an effective outreach strategy on LinkedIn can be a great way to drive sales for your business and ensure long-term success in today's competitive marketplace. Partnering with an agency like Influent will enable you to connect and build relationships with strategic partners and potential clients. With access to the right connections and contacts on LinkedIn, there are limitless opportunities available to you with the right strategy and execution. Start leveraging the power of LinkedIn today so you can start seeing results quickly!
For more information on how to become a client of Influent, click here to schedule a call.
