The majority of my leads right now are coming through LinkedIn. And while I do pay for a premium account, (can you say Sales Navigator!), this is my least expensive, and most productive lead source. And “How to Get Free Leads on LinkedIn” sounds so much cooler than “How to Get Low Cost Leads on LinkedIn”. Don’t worry, every strategy I use can be done without the premium account. It will just take you a little bit longer.
Why LinkedIn vs other platforms? LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional database. And people are not on LinkedIn to post food selfies (unless food is their business), political rants, or pics of their kid’s birthday party. They are on LinkedIn to do business. The response rates in private messages, visibility on your content posts, and overall engagement on LinkedIn are higher than the free counterparts on other platforms.
*** Here’s my disclaimer. I am a B2B consultant. So if your ideal client is Sally Stay at Home Mom, you might not do as well using LinkedIn. Your client is on Instagram, FB and Pinterest. So make sure you have a client that will likely be on LinkedIn.
Strategy 1: Online Demos. I got this idea from a brilliant marketer Tom Polland. It’s a better, newer version of the webinar. I think we are a little tired of watching long webinars where we are halfway listening, and half way managing tasks. The online demo allows you to bring together a small group of people for a content rich, 30 minute live demonstration of how you can make their life easier. Could you do this on other platforms? YES! But the reason I used LinkedIn as my platform of choice is for the ability to search for the individuals. On Facebook, when I run an ad, I put in the specifications of who I am looking for, and I do not get an entire list of individuals who fit the bill. When I used Sales Navigator on LinkedIn, it does just that. I get a targeted list of individuals who fit the client profile. And, it allows me to reach out to them directly.
BUT AMY, you promised free and Sales Navigator has a cost! Yep, it does, and the data will come back so much more organized and pretty if you use it. BUT, you can also search for free. Type in Attorney and your city and you’ll get a huge list of people! It doesn’t organize them as well, but it’s still workable.
Strategy 2: Interviews. It’s much easier to get a conversation with someone to interview them than it is to pitch them. If you’ve got a hard to reach ideal client, consider starting a podcast, vlog, or blog where you feature stories of your ideal client. I recently interviewed Don Barden about how he grew his company from 11 million to over 33 million by starting an online technology show. They would interview the clients they wanted to do business with and it would start the relationship that would open the door for deals. Can you do this on other platforms? OF COURSE Why LinkedIn, again because of the ninja search abilities and higher response rates!
Strategy 3: Securing Speaking Gigs. Never underestimate the power of presenting to the right group of people. Being able to speak to a room full of your ideal client is a significantly faster way to open doors than trying to get through each of those doors individually. If you do some google research for events in your area that are full of your ideal client, you’ll come up with a list of meetups, conferences, associations and chamber meetings. Find out who runs the meetings. And then… you guessed it. Reach out and connect with them on LinkedIn. Send a personal message and start a conversation. Don’t just connect and say, I want to come speak for your group. It’s bad manners. Connect, engage, support and show up for the individual. Form a relationship, and THEN you can pitch yourself to speak to their group.
Strategy 4: PR. Guess who else is on LinkedIn? Your local producers, editors, reporters and writers. Sometimes when you send in a pitch to your local media, it ends up in a pitch pile with all the other info from all the other folks. But, if you connect first on LinkedIn, and start engaging, when you send that pitch, you can also send a message letting them know you sent the pitch. I still 100% recommend submitting your pitches through the appropriate channels. If you don’t, again, it’s bad manners. The value that LinkedIn brings to the table is to bring name recognition to the table. If you know the person you are sending the pitch to, and they know you are sending it, don’t you think that would help?
The tool: As I mentioned at the beginning, I have a premium account. Specifically Sales Navigator. I’ve looked into the others, but none of them gave me that giddy feel of Sales Navigator. It allows you to do very detailed searches to find your ideal clients. You can search by industry, title, size of company, years in business, and geographic location. You can tag people according to what type of prospect they are. You can keep track of the communication history and work your lead list. If you haven’t gotten it yet, I highly recommend it.
The bottom line is, lack of funds isn’t an excuse for poor marketing. Get a creative idea, find your ideal client, and then reach out to them. LinkedIn will help you significantly with those last 2!