4 Ways To Use LinkedIn To Generate More Appointments And Clients

LinkedIn is one of the best social media sites for generating QUALITY leads and new clients. Although it may not deliver a flood of business, if you’re going to spend time on social media, you’ll want to put your focus on LinkedIn, especially if you’re selling business-to-business services.

Here are four ways to use LinkedIn:
1) Linkedin Ads (www.linkedin.com/ads). These are a lot like the ads you see on Facebook running down the right column. It IS passive advertising, which means prospects aren’t necessarily SEARCHING for your services as they do on Google, but the quality of a prospect going there is much, much better. To maximize your results:
√ Target your ads to your specific prospects. Job title, location, company size and industry are some of the selections you can use for targeting WHO your ad displays to.
√ Test different headlines and offers. Always split-test at least two ads at a time, varying the headline, image and the offer. I change our LinkedIn ads every two weeks, eliminating the lowest-performing ads with a new test. Believe it or not, the headline “Killer IT Sales Videos” has been the top-performing headline for almost a year now, even though Robin hates this headline. Results and not opinions are what matter.
√ Drive visitors to a landing page on your web site, not just your home page. You should have a specific landing page for LinkedIn visitors so you can track results back to the source. It can be a landing page with the offer from your ad OR a replica of your home page, if that’s appropriate.
3) Get Referrals. Look up your clients on LinkedIn and see who THEY are connected to – then ask them to make an introduction. Make sure to connect with all of your clients, warm prospects and business friends on LinkedIn to increase your 1st- and 2nd-degree connections and give you yet another way to communicate with them.
4) Build or scrub your list. Depending on your LinkedIn member level, you can search within groups, by industry, location, job function, seniority level, company size, interests and more. If you’re not a premium paid member on LinkedIn, then your search parameters are going to be somewhat limited, but you can use LinkedIn to better prepare for the telemarketing calls you are already making. Some companies have all their employees listed, giving you a snapshot of other key influencers in the organization who you may want to include in your marketing efforts (like the IT manager, office manager, etc.).
Like anything else, LinkedIn can be a huge distraction if you’re not using it with a goal and a focus. Use the above strategies to enhance your marketing and, when possible, see where you can systematize and delegate these tasks to someone else in your company to better leverage your time as the CEO.