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B2B Monday Myth: You Can’t Get New Clients on LinkedIn

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linkedin for lead generation

The Myth: You can’t get new clients on LinkedIn.

The Truth: If you play your cards right, LinkedIn can be lucrative for your brand.

LinkedIn has become somewhat of a playground for spam and unsolicited sales pitches, an approach that you should undoubtedly avoid when trying to make connections and reach prospects. You might wonder: If I can’t pitch on LinkedIn, how do I use it to drum up business? One of the best ways to form lucrative and lasting connections is by using LinkedIn’s group discussion feature. So how does your business turn something as simple as a LinkedIn group into new business?

Try this simple and effective strategy to use LinkedIn for lead generation:

  1. Join Other Groups Before Establishing Your Own. The best way to understand how groups operate is to see how other people are using them. Join groups that are relevant to your company and your industry. And make sure you participate. Becoming a part of the discussion gives you the opportunity to establish yourself, and your brand, as a thought leader. Once you’ve got the hang of it, its time to start your own group.
  2. Narrow the Target. Find Your Niche. This step is crucial when it comes to using LinkedIn for lead generation. The execution of your new group must be specific in order to attract the right target markets. For starters, be sure the category of your group highlights what your company is/should be known for. Again, here’s where other LinkedIn groups might come in handy. Browse other LinkedIn Groups started by established businesses in your industry. Are they much different? The same? How do their ideal clients compare with yours? See what resonates, what doesn’t work, and most importantly – what you can do differently to set yourself apart from the pack.
  3. Use Accurate Words in Your Title and Description. While optimizing your descriptions with keywords will no longer get you anywhere in terms of search, the words you use are still important. Choose words that accurately describe what your discussion group will bring to the table, you’ll increase the chances that your targets will understand who you are and what you wish to accomplish. Your mission should be very clear and impactful. Groups with ambiguous descriptions are deemed to lack focus and value. Often times, poorly described groups are a disguise for marketers who want to dump buckets of spam and unsolicited pitches all over the newsfeed. Don’t let anyone get the wrong idea. Leave a positive impression on your members – any of them could easily evolve into a new client.
  4. Keep Your Group Open. This allows anyone to join and can gain you more visibility than a closed group. You needn’t worry about widening your net; LinkedIn requires vetting of members for all groups, open or closed. Be very clear as to who should be accepted into your group by setting your “Group Rules.” You can encourage your members to share the group and specific group discussions in order to grow your member base.
  5. Invite People to Join. You have clients and colleagues, new and old, who can benefit from your discussion group. Make sure you invite them to join your group, so you can grow your base with those who already support your mission and have interesting things to contribute.
  6. Be a Leader. Closely manage and lead your group to make them feel empowered and engaged. Ask them provocative questions and contribute content that will get the conversation going. It only takes a little friction to ignite a spark. In addition, don’t be afraid to praise members who are most involved. They are the ones most likely to become customers if they aren’t already.
  7. Promote. Subtly. In order to reach new prospects on other LinkedIn discussion groups, you can politely mention you have started your own interesting group that members should consider joining. This cannot be shameless self-promotion. Carefully craft your message once you’ve been participating in a conversation, and only push them to your group if what you are discussing is relevant. People will be disappointed if they are sent to a group that has nothing to do with the current conversation.

LinkedIn has taken steps to keep spammers out and good content in. This means the conversations you start in your group need to be authentic and engaging. It requires time and is a slow burn in terms of lead generation, but it’s a great way to generate quality leads.

Think of a discussion group as just one way to use LinkedIn for lead generation. If you navigate it correctly, you’ll have a forum to cultivate successful business relationships for years to come.

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B2B Monday Myth: Social Media Does Not Generate Quality Leads

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generate b2b leads on social media

The Myth: Social media does not generate quality B2B leads.

The Truth: B2B companies are finding (and converting) leads on social.

Contrary to popular belief, social media is not limited to social interaction alone. It serves as a useful marketing tool for managing and enhancing lead acquisition. B2B businesses can use social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Facebook to interact with potential customers and generate leads. And once B2B leads have been acquired on social media, they are 13% more likely to convert than leads found by other tactics. In order to generate B2B leads on social media, follow these three tips:

  1. Create compelling content. Keeping your audience engaged (and growing) is crucial to generating new leads. Create and curate content for your social media channels that your audience will find useful, interesting, and/or entertaining. Running low on content ideas? Here are 5 simple ways to make your content more effective on social.
  2. Track what content is the most effective. While keeping a steady stream of content flowing on your social channels is important, simply publishing without analyzing could lead you to repeat mistakes. Track what content is working by looking at clicks through to your website and interactions on each channel. If long-form articles are not generating much attention, consider adapting to a form that is easier to digest, like video content, and vice versa.
  3. Commit to social media and be reliable.  If you are connecting with potential leads one day, you cannot abandon the effort the next day. The worst thing a B2B marketer can do is go radio silent on social media. Effective social media use requires commitment and constant diligence. Make sure you respond to leads in a timely manner and post new content regularly.

With these tips in mind, you can launch into your week focused on generating new, quality leads on social media. Good luck, and Happy Monday!

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