LinkedIn Lead Generation: Why It’s Important and Why It Needs to be Outsourced
Marketing activities have found a new frontier in recent years – not television, not radio and definitely not print — Digital, and specifically, social media.
Social media platforms have exploded in popularity, and more often than not, people have at least one account in one of them. It’s rare to meet someone who has zero social media presence at all.
People have a mistaken notion that all social media platforms are created equal – they’re not.
Facebook echoes its history; it’s a casual way to get in touch with friends and family, keeping you connected from anywhere in the world. It’s informal and done outside work hours or when you have time to spare, like during your long commutes. Most companies have a block in place to stop their employees from accessing the page during office hours.
Instagram is a predominantly visual platform. Its initial purpose was to allow users to post photos or videos which show how they see the world with their audience. Now it’s also become a way to share casual content and engage with your audience in an informal way.
Twitter is a text-heavy platform, and its purpose is to start conversations using 280 characters. It initially began as a way to share your thoughts and what you’re doing using short status updates with family and friends. But now, it has evolved into a way of communicating and sparking conversation with a larger audience.
LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals making connections and networking, highlighting work achievements and experiences in hopes of connecting with like-minded individuals. Unlike other social media platforms available, LinkedIn enables you to highlight yourself in a way that can contribute to career advancement.
Just looking at the above descriptions, it’s easy to see that, though LinkedIn is not the most popular social media app available, there’s a reason it’s the platform that actually leads to more conversion and to more income generation. Audience likes and follower counts may indicate a business’s popularity, but it doesn’t necessarily convert to revenue.
Why Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation?
LinkedIn has multiple benefits that any company should take advantage of in order to generate more leads (and thereby more profit). Unlike other social media platforms, which have become popularity contests in recent years, LinkedIn is the place professionals go to up their business. Even the casual working professional goes on LinkedIn to keep up to date with industry news, look for workplace tips, recruit potential candidates, and search for articles that can help improve their workplace processes.
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LinkedIn has a lot of active users.
Of the 500 million users in LinkedIn, 50% of them actively use it every month, and of those 50%, 44% log in daily. That means a lot of chances for engagement.
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LinkedIn lead generation is extremely effective.
Statistics show that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, 92% of B2B marketers prefer LinkedIn, and 94% of them prefer LinkedIn as the platform to share content. This, in itself, is proof enough that there are plenty of untapped opportunities there.
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Professionals with purchasing power are on LinkedIn and actively using it.
20% of LinkedIn users are in a position to make buying decisions on behalf of their companies. It is the platform of choice for Fortune 500 companies, and chances are, your target audience is already there.
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LinkedIn ads can be targeted for granular audiences leading to more B2B lead generation.
At Facebook, ads can be customized according to employer and job title, however, because the platform is not specifically marketed for this purpose, users don’t even mention where they work and what their job titles are in their profiles, which can limit ad reach.
On the other hand, LinkedIn allows specificity of ads by customizing them according to company industry, size, name, and job title, functionality and seniority.
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LinkedIn converts more leads for less.
You can generate leads on LinkedIn for free, but even if you avail of the paid version, you can get more for your buck compared to running ads on search engines or other social media platforms.
Hubspot conducted a study and found that for every 90$ spent, 11 leads are generated via LinkedIn compared to 125$ spent for every 9 leads generated on Google Ads.
Why Outsource Your Lead Generation LinkedIn Activities?
In the dog-eat-dog world of business, companies can’t generate enough leads. After all, more leads equal more chances for conversion. You already know the advantages of conducting lead generations via LinkedIn above, yet, you may ask, why don’t more companies do their lead generation campaigns there?
The answer is, they want to.
However, generating B2B leads on the platform is still costly, challenging and time-consuming, not to mention, it requires specialized knowledge of the platform. This is one of the foremost reasons companies outsource their B2B LinkedIn lead generation.
Benefits of Outsourcing:
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It costs less than training a dedicated team member in-house.
Tapping into the expertise of outsourced B2B lead generators can mean shortening the time needed for sales teams to convert leads into sales. It will mean not needing time to train your in-house team, and enabling them to access new skills, and expertise at a fixed monthly rate, which can only be good for your pocketbook.
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You get qualified leads.
Connected to the first benefit, outsourcing means having a skilled and knowledgeable person who already has the expertise to optimize your B2B lead generation efforts. You won’t need to waste time, money and effort training someone in-house, and these experienced workers already have the ability to foresee industry changes and react to these accordingly. It’s win-win.
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You don’t waste time chasing leads.
Whenever marketing activities are first put in place, it can take time to generate return, and a lot of effort is needed in order to build up your contact base. Hiring someone who’s already skilled in this will mean being able to create a concrete strategy, executing an action plan to make it work, and accomplishing all these in a shorter timeframe.
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Outsourcing will allow you to focus on other tasks.
After ascertaining that your outsourced team gives you all of the above, you can then concentrate your efforts on other endeavors, like creating marketing plans and strategies and implementing them as well.
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You save on costs of infrastructure.
Hiring an outsourced team will mean utilizing not only their expertise and skills, but also the software that’s necessary to perform the job. It can be a little thing, but you won’t need to invest in laptops, phones or software to implement lead generating activities.
What Lead Generation Activities Can You Outsource?
- Sourcing content – discovering snippets from videos, posts and articles and sharing it on your own page.
- Writing captions – Making engaging copy takes a lot of skill. You need to use the correct keywords and phrases as calls to action to transform leads into conversions.
- Filter connections – The more active you are on LinkedIn, the more likes, shares and comments you will receive. Your VA can help you sift through them and follow through on those connections that can be fostered into deeper relationships.
- Sales Navigator Lead Generation – LinkedIn has made it easy by allowing you to specify your target market and inputting the different categories they fit in. Your virtual team can then use this to build a relationship with those who are included.
- Networking – Your outsourced team can help you create emails that are customized depending on the target market you are hoping to talk to. Using the scripts formulated, they can use InMail and strike the right chord with your potential customers.
- Engagement – Allow your VA to comment for you and share posts on your behalf. This will keep the connection alive, build upon it and keep you top of mind.
- Pursue second or third connections – Your virtual team can pursue indirect connections who fit your lead profile. This is easy to do in LinkedIn since you can instantly see who views your profile and connect with them.
- Following up – One of the most time-consuming tasks for any lead generating activity is following up. Staying on top of the numerous messages, requests and connections you’re making can be difficult to do in addition to your other tasks. Having a VA do this for you can free up a lot of your valuable time.
For a company to grow, remain efficient and reach targets, it will mean generating and creating more leads, of which you can never have too many. To convert these leads to sales, outsourcing LinkedIn lead generation may be the best solution for you – it’s the perfect balancing act of quantity, quality and price.
