This month’s special edition of our Demand Generation series, takes a deep dive into all the strategies and latest tactics you need to know, to supercharge your networking, grow your reach and get more leads from LinkedIn. Katie Street, Founder of Street Agency and Host of the series, is joined by three LinkedIn Gurus – LinkedIn Influencer & Founder of Klowt, Amelia Sordell, Lead Client Solutions Manager at LinkedIn, Rachel Mason, and Georgie Power, Enterprise Account Director at LinkedIn. Together, they walked us through the art and science of creating a magnetic LinkedIn presence that attracts and retains the right audience.
“It’s not B2B, it’s B2H” – Rachel Mason, LinkedIn
LinkedIn is about selling to people. It’s about creating a personal, emotional connection. And so LinkedIn strategies should start, end and revolve around being B2H – Business to Human.
As Katie says in the episode: “This is where conversations happen. It’s where your network comes together. Rather than thinking about your go-to-market strategy, think about your ‘Go to Network’ strategy, which is about building community.
So, what’s the best way of doing that?
Start by working out your main objective in using LinkedIn – what Amelia calls your “North Star Goal”. Then figure out the audience you need to attract to make that goal happen; Ask yourself, in six months, which rooms do you want to be in? And then ask yourself, what content do you need to put out there to ensure you’re in them? AKA Define what would be useful and relevant to that room of people.
Doing that essential, upfront research and planning means that when they’re ready to buy you’ll be the first person they come to.
“People don’t want to be sold to. They want to be understood. And they want to understand.” – Amelia Sordell, Klowt
As part of your North Star research and planning, make it a priority to partner up with, and work closely with your sales team on your LinkedIn marketing strategies. They’re a fountain of invaluable knowledge about customer pain points and business challenges that can be addressed in a relevant, useful content strategy. Approaching a sales lead with a piece of LinkedIn marketing outreach will ultimately supercharge both of your efforts.
“Businesses that are aligned from sales and marketing perspective, do better. Your lead generation will be better, your marketing content will be better, your customers will be happier.” – Georgie Power, LinkedIn
LinkedIn audiences are pretty savvy. They can sense instantly if a post has been created by copywriters or an AI tool. People need to understand what you’re bringing to the table and who you are: it’s about B2H, remember? And so, the key is to be authentic. Be true to your values and what you stand for – whether as an individual or as an organisation. Then mirror those values in your LinkedIn voice. It might take time to get the tone right; Test and learn to understand what’s right for you – and which approach gains the most followers and leads.
“Follow the Share, Opinion, Advice framework. Share information, give your opinion on it, then ask for advice and prompt conversation about it as well. That’s what’s going to scale your posts.” – Rachel Mason, LinkedIn
And when it comes to hashtags, use the ones that underpin your niche and what you’re posting about. Try to go for the same three or four that are always synonymous with the content you create – because LinkedIn will reward you for amplifying to the right people, not necessarily just the number of people.
At any given time, 95% of your potential customers aren’t ready to buy when you’re ready to sell. That means you need to play a long, useful game with them, and make sure you’re front of mind when they are in that 5% in-market space. LinkedIn is not about making a connection and immediately trying to sell, it’s about engaging and connecting with people and building a relationship which will eventually feed your long-term greed.
The key is an always-on approach – continually showing up, expertly, reliably and usefully – where your audience is, whether via an organic or paid approach, so they see you and grow to trust you.
We live in an age of personalisation. So it’s not surprising that LinkedIn users value that individual approach – connection requests or notes that tap into who they are, and what you’ve seen them follow and engage with. Georgie’s golden rule here is:
“Keep it short and sweet. Personalisation is king. But don’t overdo it because it can come across as a little bit creepy.”
When connecting, lean into what others say about you to drive credibility; what they say about you will carry even more weight. “Tell a customer or success story when you’ve helped someone, that could inspire a potential lead. Because people buy from people.”
And remember, it’s crucial to keep an eye on who engages with your posts. Engage with your audience, and send connection requests to potential relevant leads. And get creative with your outreach, voice notes could be considered, to help stand out.