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

by MGB2B

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.