Imagine how your business would look if you received an ongoing flood of highly-targeted, industry-specific leads on a daily basis.
It would feel pretty amazing, wouldn’t it?
You may even feel like an All-Star or a champion with all of those leads.
What if I told you there is a place on the internet that you could spend some dedicated time each week, and those highly-targeted leads would show up and it would no longer be part of your imagination?
It would be even sweeter, wouldn’t it?
Luckily for you, there is such a place and it’s called LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is the most powerful business networking site on the planet. With the highest average household income over any other major social networking site, and nearly 45% of users being business decision makers, it’s the number one place you should be spending your time when wanting to attract the best leads for your business.
Although there are many more ways to attract leads on LinkedIn, here are 10 things you can implement today to start seeing results:
1. Be Specific
Specificity is a key ingredient to getting more leads on LinkedIn. If you don’t tell people who you are, who you help, and how you help them in the most basic of terms, then you will confuse those who land on your profile. Be specific with the principle features first: your headline, current and past work experiences, summary, and specialties. This will ensure others know exactly what you do and how you can help them.
2. Add Websites
I see people who have been on LinkedIn for more than three years that still have not customized their website section. You can add three links to your LinkedIn profile (that are hyper linked anyways) but you want to make sure you customize what they links say. Instead of “My Website”, rename it “Best Marketing Tips” or “Download My Marketing Guide” as this will increase the viewers’ curiosity and make them want to learn more about how they can get what you are offering.
3. Be Creative
Here’s a hint: Almost every LinkedIn profile sucks or is extremely bland. If you want to separate yours from the other 80 million boring profiles, it won’t be that hard. The best way to stand out it to add a video that automatically plays when people land on your profile. You can add a “Welcome to My Profile” video, or even add a video of one of your clients who praises your business and gives you a great testimony.
4. Ask to Connect
Want more leads? Believe it or not, you can just ask for them. That’s right, when someone lands on your profile you don’t want them to leave because you haven’t given them a call to action and they got bored. Let them know in your summary or in your video that you would love to connect on LinkedIn. You should also reach out and connect with everyone. Here are six reasons why you should connect with everyone on LinkedIn.
5. Add Contact Info
It’s great to connect on LinkedIn, especially being that it is the only major social networking site that actually allows you to export your connections (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Myspace and others don’t). It’s even better to connect via email or over the phone. In your summary, make sure to direct people to the contact page on your website, or add your direct phone line to have them reach you in real time. Offer up a free 15-minute phone consultation and you will be amazed from the boost in leads that will start flooding in.
6. Answer Questions
One of my connections is so busy working on his own business that he doesn’t have time to manage all of his social media marketing efforts. He started spending about 15 minutes a day a few times a week simply answering questions on LinkedIn that were related to his niche. He told me that he would give the most informative answer he could, add a lot of value, and try to be a resource for the person asking the question. Then he would send a private follow-up message letting them know he would be happy to get on the phone to give them some brief help and see if he could be of assistance for anything else. This strategy got him around three new clients per month, bringing an extra $5,000 a month to his business. Answer questions, and you will see what I mean. If you have any questions about LinkedIn, ask them here.
7. Discuss in Groups
If you haven’t figured it out by now, you can build a business around Groups on LinkedIn. Some groups have hundreds of thousands of highly-targeted business decision makers for your industry. The more you add compelling topics, and offer your expertise in the various conversations, the more people will become aware of who you are, who you help, and what you have to offer. Another (amazing) thing you could do would be to start your own group. Here are ten reason to start your own LinkedIn group.
8. Create an Event on LinkedIn
Want to take the conversation offline and meet more people face to face? Create a business networking event in your local area and use the Events application to promote it. You can partner with group owners who have large groups in your area or niche, and make it a free event or charge a small entry fee. Being the host and organizer of an event gives you more power and opportunities to meet others than just simply attending. Just make sure you shake everyone’s hand when they enter the event, collect their business cards, and connect as many people together as possible. This is a great way to get face-to-face leads!
9. Introduce Others
Referrals are a great way to get quality leads. Frank Agin talks about this in The Champion, and John Jantsch does as well in The Referral Engine (both great reads on increasing your business through referrals). As you build your 1st degree connections on LinkedIn, start sending introductions to those you are connected with who you see could mutually benefit each others businesses now or in the future. Reciprocity is an amazing thing. The more you help and give to others, the more they will want to help you get leads in return.
10. Recommend Others
When someone has a great product or service and you get a lot of results from it, make sure to write a nice recommendation. The more recommendations that a person has on his profile, the more likely others will be interested in buying from him as well. This goes back to the reciprocity factor; the more recommendations you give, the more you will receive as well. By helping others get leads, you are helping yourself get more leads as well, and quality recommendations on your profile could be the decision someone makes to contact you or not.
Increasing Leads On LinkedIn
It doesn’t matter what your business is, LinkedIn is the best way to attract leads when it comes to customers, investors, business partners, sponsors, affiliates, and more. Spend twenty minutes implementing at least three of these points above, and you will be amazed with the results in no time.
Have you had success getting leads or customers from LinkedIn? If so, please type in the specific thing you did to get those leads or new customers as your success story will be helping others that read this post.
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