This post is written by one of our partners, Joe Brown, Marketing Executive at StraightIn, who create non-automated B2B LinkedIn lead generation campaigns to deliver leads for businesses. In this post, Alex looks at why B2B businesses should be using LinkedIn to generate sales and how they can do so, as well as introducing their services.
So what are you waiting for, lets dive in…
Earlier this month, LinkedIn celebrated its 20th anniversary, having launched all the way back on May 5th, 2003. Back then, it was purely a platform where people could share their CVs, plan their next career moves, and connect with others who shared their interests. From the very beginning, it displayed remarkable potential.
Microsoft was among the first to notice LinkedIn’s potential, officially acquiring LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion in what was, at the time, one of the largest social media deals in history. Since then, LinkedIn has gone from strength to strength.
Whilst Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been grabbing headlines – often for the wrong reasons – LinkedIn has been quietly working away, expanding its user base to over 930 million in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
During that time, LinkedIn has expanded its range of services. While it remains a valuable platform for networking and job searching, its offerings have gone well beyond that, making it an attractive platform for B2B businesses looking to do business.
But how can businesses use it to generate sales? Let’s take a look…
Up Your Sales Game with Sales Navigator
First, there is Sales Navigator, LinkedIn’s flagship product for sales teams, which empowers representatives, managers, and operations leaders to enhance their approaches and strategies by harnessing the extensive data, insights, and relationship-building tools available on LinkedIn.
Sales Navigator seamlessly integrates with other sales technologies, such as CRM systems, providing a foundation of trusted, reliable, real-time data. But that’s just the beginning. Sales Navigator offers a range of impressive features that make it an essential tool for sales teams.
With its powerful search capabilities, Sales Navigator allows you to navigate the sales landscape efficiently. You can uncover hidden opportunities, target your ideal prospects, and open doors to new possibilities. It also expands your network visibility, giving you a broader reach and deeper insights into potential connections. It enables you to tap into a vast pool of valuable contacts that can drive your sales forward.
We cannot forget about the personalised algorithms that work behind the scenes. These intelligent tools make it easier for you to connect with decision-makers at the right time. It ensures that you reach out to them precisely when it matters most. And we’re just scratching the surface here. There is so much more to Sales Navigator than this. It is a comprehensive solution with tremendous potential for sales teams trying to elevate their prospecting efforts, expand their networks, and achieve impressive sales results.
Sales teams have seen impressive results from using LinkedIn Sales Navigator. According to LinkedIn, on average, modern selling leaders are seeing:
- +17% higher win rates when saving leads on Sales Navigator
- +42% larger deals when using Sales Navigator to connect with decision-makers
- +15% more pipeline when using Sales Navigator to find customers
These statistics highlight the real value that Sales Navigator brings to sales teams. With its powerful features and capabilities, Sales Navigator equips sales teams with the resources they need to excel, exceed targets, and achieve remarkable success throughout their sales journey.
Content is King on LinkedIn
It is not just sales teams who can benefit from using LinkedIn, but marketing teams as well. LinkedIn is a versatile platform that allows marketers and B2B businesses to share various forms of content, whether it be amusing gifs and entertaining videos, or PDFs and documents such as thought-provoking white papers or promotional one-pagers.
LinkedIn also offers the opportunity to publish articles, whether on personal profiles or Company Pages, allowing users to showcase their expertise and interests.
For personal users, publishing articles on LinkedIn allows them to position themselves as thought leaders. By sharing their knowledge and insights through well-written and thought-provoking content, individuals can build credibility and gain recognition among their professional network. This establishes a strong personal brand and enhances their professional reputation, attracting new connections and opening doors to potential career opportunities.
On the other hand, businesses can leverage LinkedIn’s article publishing feature to establish their brand as knowledgeable, reliable, and trustworthy. By crafting articles that showcase their industry expertise, provide valuable insights, or offer solutions to common challenges, companies can position themselves as thought leaders within their target market. This boosts brand credibility, and fosters trust among potential clients and partners, increasing the likelihood of business opportunities and conversions.
This can also bolster your sales outreach efforts. As your sales team engages in prospecting on LinkedIn, the users they contact will often visit their profiles to learn more about them. If the content published on your profile is engaging, informative, and relevant to them, it significantly increases the likelihood of a positive response to your sales message. Compelling content not only captures their attention but also encourages them to follow your LinkedIn page, actively engage with your content, and ultimately establish a fruitful business relationship with your company.
LinkedIn also provides the capability to send newsletters to your followers and connections on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. These newsletters serve as valuable opportunities to nurture relationships with your connections, keeping them informed about the latest industry news and updates while positioning your brand as a leader in your industry. By consistently delivering insightful content through newsletters, you can strengthen connections, establish thought leadership, and foster a trusted reputation with your connections.
Get Noticed with LinkedIn Advertising
LinkedIn also boasts an impressive range of advertising features. Since the first advertisements ran on LinkedIn in 2005, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions — the division that enables marketers to reach their audiences with targeted messaging at scale — has undergone remarkable changes. It has introduced an impressive range of ad formats, including single-image ads, video ads, carousel ads, document ads, and much more. Each of these formats serves distinct purposes and offers unique advantages, allowing advertisers to leverage the platform’s diverse range of options for their specific goals.
While LinkedIn Ads offer numerous advantages, it’s worth noting that advertising tends to be pricier compared to some other platforms on the market. As with any paid social platform, LinkedIn allows businesses to have control over their budget and expenditure; however, when comparing the average cost-per-click (CPC) with other platforms, LinkedIn typically has a higher CPC.
There is a reason for this: LinkedIn Ads deliver exceptional results.
In fact, ads on LinkedIn have been shown to generate a significant 33% increase in purchase intent for brands. When brands advertise on LinkedIn, they can experience a notable 2-3x boost in their brand attributes. Marketers also enjoy a conversion rate up to 2x higher on LinkedIn compared to other platforms. Moreover, audiences exposed to brand and acquisition messages on the platform are an impressive 6x more likely to convert.
LinkedIn’s audience is also different to other social networks. LinkedIn is built for business professionals, unlike other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which are designed more for B2C businesses. LinkedIn’s users are typically business professionals looking to do business. LinkedIn provides a substantial reach in the business world, with 58 million registered companies and 930 million working professionals using the platform. More importantly, these users hold significant sway in their respective industries and actively seek out business opportunities. 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions for their business. Moreover, audiences on LinkedIn boast double the buying power of the average web audience and are six times more likely to convert. These compelling reasons make LinkedIn Ads an obvious choice for B2B businesses.
With all this in mind, LinkedIn Ads are a no-brainer for B2B businesses.
LinkedIn has evolved into a powerhouse platform for B2B businesses, offering considerable opportunities to drive success. Whether leveraging Sales Navigator to empower your sales teams, harnessing the versatility of content marketing to establish thought leadership, or unlocking the potential of LinkedIn advertising to reach a highly engaged professional audience, the possibilities are endless.
At this point, you may think that this sounds like a lot of hard work and involves a significant amount of effort – and you would be right; it certainly does.
As a business owner, or marketer, you’ll have numerous responsibilities that demand your attention, leaving little time for extensive research and to send hundreds of InMails to prospects on LinkedIn. The idea of sitting down to write an article for publication on LinkedIn may seem impossible, given the dozen other tasks awaiting completion. While you would love to share captivating images, infographics, and other engaging content on LinkedIn, you may lack the necessary resources and skills to do so. Moreover, LinkedIn Advertising can be overwhelming, as numerous intricate steps are involved, making it a daunting endeavor to embark upon. On top of all that, LinkedIn is consistently improving, and introducing new features and updates makes it challenging to stay up to date.
This is precisely where StraightIn can help.
Why B2B Businesses Should Choose StraightIn for Maximising LinkedIn’s Potential
As a LinkedIn lead generation and marketing agency based in Manchester, with offices in Portsmouth and Chicago, we possess a unique specialisation in LinkedIn marketing that sets us apart from other digital and social media marketing agencies. While others attempt to cover multiple platforms, our singular focus on LinkedIn has made us true experts in maximising its potential for B2B businesses – all without using any automation, making us the only agency of our kind to do so.
Over the past four years, we have worked with countless B2B companies, connecting them with key decision-makers and implementing bespoke lead-generation strategies. Through our comprehensive range of services, including profile optimisation, conversion management, content marketing, and LinkedIn advertising, we help our clients stand out on LinkedIn and achieve their goals.
We take great pride in our recent nominations for two prestigious awards at the Prolific North Champions Awards, which highlights our commitment to delivering exceptional outcomes for our clients.
So, if you’re ready to unlock the full potential of LinkedIn and drive your B2B business forward, trust StraightIn as your trusted partner. Let us navigate the ever-evolving LinkedIn landscape on your behalf while you reap the rewards of increased visibility, valuable connections, and remarkable business growth.
We are pleased to have partnered with SiteVisibility. If you are interested in our services or would like to learn more about what we do, please contact the SiteVisibility team, and they will put us in touch, or feel free to contact us directly.
For direct assistance, please feel free to reach out to one of our Business Development Managers, Alex, at a.wain@straight-in.co.uk or call 07403618516.