11 Great Tips to Generate Leads on LinkedIn for 2020

by Managing Editor Yoon Cannon | General, Leads, Management-Leadership, Success Mindset

When I launched my first three businesses I did so with a sizable budget to fund my startup costs. But, when I started my consulting business back in 2007 I found myself in a very different situation. For the first time in my life I had no income coming in.

My husband was in the midst of a long season of unemployment after I had already sold my previous businesses. We had three hungry mouths to feed at home, so I was determined to launch my new business leaner than ever before — like as close to zero startup costs as possible.

That’s when I decided to figure out the LinkedIn thing.

LinkedIn is an incredible free tool to market your business. Once I invested the time to figure out how to get better at using it, I was able to track 6 figures of annual new business all came from LinkedIn.

So, if you want to start monetizing LinkedIn here are 9 tips to help you start generating leads for your business:

Lead Gen Tip #1. Have the Right LinkedIn Success Mindset.

Your diamond clients aren’t hiding in mystery marketing land. They’re on LinkedIn. You just need to dig for them Click To Tweet

Thousands of business owners are killing it with LinkedIn, but new clients aren’t going to come flooding in if all you’re doing is logging into LinkedIn to accept connection requests and post a few comments here and there.

LinkedIn will work for you if you put forth the right consistent effort. I love this famous quote:

“Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas. They are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.” ~ Russell Conwell

If you’re not sure whether your target market is on LinkedIn watch this video where I share 5 reason why you should be marketing your business on LinkedIn.

Lead Gen Tip #2. Craft a Stellar LinkedIn Profile for Instant FIND-ability and GET-ability.

Keep in mind the user experience on LinkedIn. People will land on your profile in 2 ways. Direct search and an indirect search. Direct search is easy low hanging fruit because they are typically ‘buy intent’ – ‘hire intent’ searches. Potential clients search LinkedIn for the type of person they are looking to hire. This is why you want your profile to be SEO optimized for the right keyword phrases. Your LinkedIn profile should also have a professional looking photo of you. Most people skip profiles where there is no picture or only a logo.

Indirect search can happen in many ways. For instance, let’s say you post an update on your personal LinkedIn profile and you share a few tips about a frequently asked question you get. Let’s say you currently have 1,200 1st degree connections and 45 of those connections liked or commented on your post. Not only does your post get seen by your 1st degree connections, it also gets eyeballs from the connections of the people who commented on your post. So if your 45 comments each had an average of 1,200 connections then your one post can also reach 54,000 2nd degree connections. You’re bound to get some of those people who saw your content click on your profile to find out what exactly you do. They will skim your profile for all of 3 seconds. If they don’t immediately get what you do, they WILL MOVE ON to find someone else.

So, you don’t want to miss out on this EASY passive lead generation opportunity simply because they don’t get what you do. That’s why it’s so important that your LinkedIn profile captures an immediate GET-ability (and wow factor).

Naturally, you want to have the updates you post on LinkedIn reach more people. So, be sure you develop the habit of sending targeted connection requests to grow your 1st degree connections.

Lead Gen Tip #3: Create Customized Connection Requests

When searching for connections on LinkedIn, you are given numerous filters to choose from. This allows you to get really strategic with your search.

You are able to drill down to where someone lives, where they went to school, what their interests are, and so on. With this information, you can take it and personalize your connection requests.

Lets say, For Example, you search for CEO’s and filter by 2nd degree connections located in Philadelphia. Instead of sending a pre-baked template to someone, study their profile and find a way to insert a question about their city in your request.

You can also ask about things like the weather, their sports teams, and much more.

By creating customized connection requests, you break the ice and open up an easy dialogue with the other person.

Lead Gen Tip #4: Don’t Spam Connections. Talk to Them.

Don’t spam your LinkedIn connections. Talk to them. https://bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

When it comes to messaging your connections on LinkedIn there are two common pitfalls occur. Pitfall #1. You send out tons of requests to connect, but then fail to talk to them after they accept. Pitfall #2. You blast straight into a sales conversion. From its inception LinkedIn was not built to be a marketplace to bombard members with advertisements and solicitations. LinkedIn was designed to foster relationships.

If you use LinkedIn to blast straight into solicitation messages to cold connections, you’re just going to burn through those connections.

Instead, just follow the natural sequence of relationship building when having 1-1 conversations on LinkedIn. For instance:

Customized invitation
Welcome / build rapport message
Engage message
Give value message
Value follow up message
Invitation to call, coffee, interview, etc

If you have a well written profile and tagline often times you can go from step 2 straight to step 6, but it’s good to have a 6 step sequence like this to continue the conversation for people who aren’t ready to be a client of yours.

If the idea of messaging people individually feels too daunting, I use a tool called Auto Text Expander to speed my responses to FAQ’s when I’m on desktop.

When I’m messaging people from my mobile I just use the keyboard shortcuts on my iPhone which functions the same way as Auto Text Expander. I can reply 10x faster when all I have to do it type in 2 or 3 letters I set up.

Lead Gen Tip #5: Use Trigger Events to Engage and Re-Engage

Not all of your prospects will be ready to talk about your services immediately. However, they may be ready in 6 or even 12 months from now.

Your goal is to remain in their minds, meaning you’ll need to continue engaging them.

Fortunately, this can be done easily with trigger events. These are situations that will provide a comfortable way for you to re-engage with someone if they’ve shown no interest in your solutions so far.

These situations include:

they engaged on one of your posts (liked, commented, or shared)
they viewed your profile
they’ve published an article on LinkedIn
they’ve posted a status update on LinkedIn
they had a job change
they were promoted
they engaged on one of your posts (liked, commented, or shared)
they or their company were mentioned in the news
they’ve published an article on LinkedIn
they’ve posted a status update on LinkedIn

By re-engaging in this manner, you are more likely to stay on their radar and be top of mind when the time comes that they need the solution you offer.

Lead Gen Tip #6: Use hashtags to get discovered

When you’re posting an update, whether it’s a simple text update, a picture, a video or audio LinkedIn allows users to follow various hashtags. This way, they can get content on a topic in their feed, even if they don’t follow specific influencers for it.

Additionally, when you post an update, LinkedIn will auto-suggest hashtags, which can give you some inspiration for what to include.

You can also do a quick search a topic in LinkedIn and you’ll be able to see the number of followers on that hashtag.

Lead Gen Tip #7: Use Native Videos

@neilpatel 84% of buyers reported that they had been convinced to buy after watching a brand’s video https://bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

Here’s an excerpt from SEO expert Neil Patel where he shares the importance of posting videos on LinkedIn to grow your business.

Advantages of Video

Native videos are videos that are uploaded directly to LinkedIn or created on the platform itself, as opposed to embedding videos from other sites, such as Youtube, Vimeo and more.

There are numerous advantages to using native video. According to Neil Patel, “A staggering 84% of buyers reported that they had been convinced to buy after watching a brand’s video.

And that same study found that 97% of businesses believe that their video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.

That means the right type of video will help you sell and engage more.”

How to Upload Native Videos

To upload a Native Video, go to your feed, and you’ll see a button with a camera icon next to “start a post.

From here, You can directly upload a video between three seconds and ten minutes in length. This will appear directly to your update feed, allowing your audience to start watching your content immediately.

The dimensions of a native video can be from 256×144 to 4096×2304, and the orientation can be Horizontal or vertical, though vertical videos will be cropped into a square in the feed. Native video’s will also loop automatically.

Using Analytics

Another advantage of Native Videos is that, Once you post a video, you are able to see detailed analytics. This includes things such as the number of views, likes, and comments your videos are receiving.

Additionally, you can also see audience insights, including top companies, titles, and locations of your viewers.

You can find these insights in the dashboard section of your LinkedIn profile. This works on both mobile and desktop.

Click the drop-down that says “Me” and scroll down until you see “Posts and Activity.”, which brings you to a feed of every post you’ve ever uploaded to LinkedIn.

At the bottom of each post, you’ll see a breakdown of it’s likes, comments, shares, and views.

With this information, you can begin to understand if you’re reaching the people and companies that matter to your brand.

Lead Gen Tip #8: Get to the Point Quickly in Your Videos

On Social media, attention spans are short, so there’s no time for you to waste. This means that you need to hook your viewers by getting to your point quickly at the beginning of your video.

LinkedIn themselves recommend capturing attention with a hook in the first 0 to 3 seconds.

From there, seconds 3 to 15 should be used to identify the problem or opportunity, and should address one of the biggest pain points of your potential customers, in order to really draw them in and entice them to watch the rest of your video.

After you have successfully hooked your viewers and drawn them in, seconds 15 to 50 should be used to describe the solution. Explain what you’re offering and why it’ll help your viewers.

Lead Gen Tip #9: Use Closed Captions for your videos

Up to 85 percent of social media videos are played with no sound bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

When a video comes up on your feed, it begins playing automatically. However, it is also muted by default.

It’s estimated that up to 85 percent of social media videos are played with no sound.

This makes adding closed captions/subtitles to your videos essential.

Even if your video isn’t heavy on speech, doing so will make them more accessible. LinkedIn even has a closed captioning feature, making it easy to implement.

To add captions:

Click the video icon near “start a post” and select the video you’d like to upload.
When the preview shows up, click the edit icon on the top right to see the video settings and then click select file to attach the associated SubRip Subtitle file.”

Lead Gen Tip #10: Make Use of LinkedIn Showcase Pages

@SpielCreative If you have multiple target audiences or brand personas, you need Showcase pages. https://bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

What are LinkedIn Showcase pages?

Let’s ask Darren Travers, who shares, “Showcase pages are add-ons to your LinkedIn company page for highlighting a specific business unit, initiative, product, service, or for targeting unique demographics. They are standalone pages, meaning people can follow them without following your main page.

If you have multiple target audiences or brand personas, you need Showcase pages. With them, you can avoid over complicating your main page and creating confusion for your audience by spreading out your offers and messages across multiple pages.

To create one, simply click ‘Admin tools’ on the right of your company homepage and select ‘Create Showcase Page’ to get started.”

Lead Gen Tip #11: Make Use of Sponsored vs Targeted Updates

If you have a LinkedIn company page, you are able to take advantage of Targeted Updates and Sponsored Updates bit.ly/2NfUfxB Click To Tweet

If you have a LinkedIn page for your company, then you are able to take advantage of two powerful features. Targeted Updates and Sponsored Updates.

With Targeted Updates, you can target your content to a specific audience. This is useful for many reasons, such as if you want to show specific content to your investors, and other content to your consumers. However, the segment you are targeting must have at least 300 followers for you to use this feature.

Sponsored Updates: Sponsored updates are paid posts that allow you to reach a broader network. If you would like some content to get even more visibility, or if you want to get your content in front of people who aren’t following your Company Page (or your employees) you can pay to sponsor it.

To use targeted updates:

Click on start a post from your Company Page
Click on “Anyone” and you’ll be taken to “Who can see Your Post?”
Click on Targeted Audience and you’ll be able to customize what audience you want the post

While Targeted Updates can be used to build an organic following, Sponsored Updates allow you to pay to get your posts in front of a larger audience to further build your following.

These will appear in the your audience’s feed and look like a normal post, the only difference being a “sponsored” label next to your company name.

You are also able to target specific audiences just like you can with Targeted Updates.

To use Sponsored Updates:

Post an update to your company page and click the “Sponsor Update” button.
Within the Campaign Manager, name your new campaign.
Target your campaign by choosing Location, Company, Skills, etc.
Choose Your payment option. You can select either Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Cost per 1000 impressions (CPM).

Conclusion

So, there you have it. I just shared 11 tips to help you start generating more leads on LinkedIn. If you’re starting at zero, don’t be overwhelmed by trying to implement all 11 by tomorrow! Bookmark this page to review it each day and decide to implement one at a time until you add all 11.

If you’d like to nail down your LinkedIn profile faster check out our free and paid LinkedIn Profile Makeover services for you here:

QUESTION: What’s one thing that’s been working well for you on LinkedIn? Share With us in the Comments below!

Margin

6 Ways to Build a More Successful Brand Website

by Yoon Cannon | Business Growth Tips Blog, Leads, Success Mindset

Build a More Successful Brand Website

The Internet is a pretty crowded place. Getting noticed among all the other websites vying for your customers’ attention may not seem easy.

That said, it can be easier than you assume. You simply need to apply the right tactics. If you’re looking for a way to optimize your site so it draws in more leads (and yields more sales), keep the following tips in mind:

#1 Track Visitor Behavior

There are numerous heat map tools available which let users know where visitors are scrolling and clicking on their websites. Using one of these tools to monitor how guests behave on your site can help you better determine where certain offers and CTAs should be positioned for maximum effect.

#2 Track Conversions

Google Analytics offers site owners many ways to monitor traffic. Although it’s worth your time to experiment with its various features, it’s particularly smart to track conversion sources. This process essentially tells you which traffic sources are driving the most (and least) sales.

For instance, you might learn people who visit your site via social media channels aren’t making purchases. Depending on your strategy, you could work on improving your social media campaigns or using more of your budget to optimize channels which are already delivering strong results.

#3 Include a Video

Did you know 64% of online shoppers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it? Video content may cost more money to generate than simple text-based content, but it can also deliver a strong return on investment. Consider adding an explainer video to your site to boost sales.

Beauty brands, for example, might include videos of customers applying their products. If you run a coworking space, including a virtual tour could highlight what sets you apart from other shared offices in the area. One coworking space leveraged this strategy on their homepage to attract new members and improve their average time on site. These dynamic videos are a great way to give viewers a more accurate feel for your brand and your products.

#4 Include Testimonials

Savvy customers know they can’t simply trust you to represent your business honestly. However, surveys also indicate 85% of people trust online reviews to the same degree they trust recommendations from friends and family members. Thus, simply featuring reviews and testimonials on your site can help you turn new leads into paying customers.

#5: Test Landing Pages

Creating a website that maximizes your revenue is much easier when you experiment with different tactics to learn what does and does not work. That’s why you shouldn’t rely on one landing page for a particular service or product at first. Instead, A/B test different versions to see which one drives more sales.

#6: Audit Your Site

It never hurts to examine your current site in close detail to determine where you can make improvements to generate more conversions. Performing a conversion audit is often a smart first step to take during this process. Taking this step early ensures you know where you should focus most of your efforts when making changes to your site.

Again, there is a lot of distracting content on the internet. Keeping your visitors’ attention long enough to turn leads into customers requires designing a website that converts. These points will help you achieve this goal.

QUESTION: What is your #1 biggest challenge in your business when it comes to generating quality leads from your website? Shae your comments and questions below.

Are Pop-Up Opt-Ins Affecting Your Site Traffic?

by Yoon Cannon | General, Leads, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts

About two years ago, Google started penalizing websites that are not friendly to mobile visitors, since mobile traffic now comprises the vast majority of all internet traffic.

In August of 2016, Google announced that it would begin penalizing websites that have what Google considers “intrusive” pop-ups. Here’s the official Google Webmasters post that sparked controversy across the web.

According to some recent articles, websites are seeing the effects of this change.

What are the rules?

In order to be considered mobile-friendly by Google and to show up in the search results of those using their cell phones, your website cannot have what Google considers “intrusive” pop-ups on your site.

The most important things to know are:

This only affects the mobile version of your website, and
There are a few quick fixes if your site is in fact being penalized.

These are intrusive pop-ups, as Google has defined them:

Source: Google

How does this affect you?

Any popups you’re using to collect email addresses or opt people into your email list or other offer could be affecting traffic to the mobile version of your website, resulting in drastically reduced traffic.

If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on at least 60% of internet traffic, and that number is growing every day.

It’s important to understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable pop-ups to make sure that Google doesn’t penalize your site.

Here’s what’s okay to have on your mobile site, according to Google:

Push notifications
Pop-ups about cookie usage and age verifications
Small app banners
Exit popups
Popups that only appear when someone clicks a button

Find out whether your website traffic is impacted

In order to take action (or determine if you even have to take action), you have to check out whether or not this is actually affecting your website’s traffic.

Step 1: Select a custom date range in Google Analytics.

Sign into your Google Analytics account. In the left-hand sidebar, click Audience → Overview, and then select the option to define a custom date range.

Select the date range of Jan 9, 2017 – Jan 13, 2017 and compare it to the previous week. We choose this date range because this was when the changes first went to effect.

Step 2: Check the mobile traffic specifically.

Under “Audience” on the left hand side, click Mobile > Overview. If you that your site experienced a significant drop (over 20%) in mobile traffic during this period in time, your site is likely being penalized for popups.

Step 3: If you have pop-ups on the mobile version of your site, disable them.

If you did experience a huge drop in traffic during this time, you can’t regain the traffic that you’ve lost, but you can make sure that the mobile version of your site is Google-friendly moving forward.

Remember that you can still have pop-ups on the desktop version of your site, but you should disable them on mobile. You’ll have to find the settings in your specific plugin (if you’re using WordPress) to disable them on mobile.

Or only use exit pop-ups. If you’re using ClickFunnels, your site should be fine. By default, the pop-ups only appear if people ask for them by clicking a button.

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Are you seeing the effects of this penalty on your site?

4 Most Important Things You Must Do to Convert Leads into Sales

by Yoon Cannon | General, Leads, Marketing and Sales Blog Posts

Getting new customer leads is exciting, but that enthusiasm can quickly wither when you don’t know how to best convert leads into new clients.

When this becomes the trend for your small business, you immediately ask, “why?” before seeking out solutions to combat your lack of sales from leads, you should be aware of some important sales conversion facts:

Online leads do not automatically translate into sales.

Per Marketo, only 25% of leads ready to buy from you.
79% will never convert if they aren’t nurtured after the fact.
1/4 of leads are qualified, meaning approximately 75% aren’t your ideal customer.

Now, don’t let these numbers frighten you. In addition to this, you must understand the psychology behind the lack of leads turning into sales.

The Real Reason Why People Won’t Buy from You

There are four primary reasons why small businesses fail to convert leads online. These sales barriers are as follows:

Trust: People don’t trust themselves, so how do you expect them to trust you immediately upon connecting with your business for the first time? Traffic to your website may not always translate into sales if your leads are reluctant to buy from you. The absence of trust can stem from a lack of proof showing you do what you claim, lack of contact information, a poorly designed website, or non-targeted content.
Authority: If you don’t establish yourself as the authority in your field, through quality content, you will find it quite hard to gain customers, because they may see you as untrustworthy.
Money: If your price doesn’t match the perceived value of your products or services, you are likely to miss out on sales.
Time: If the customers feel that the time is not right, they are likely not to purchase.

Turning Leads into Sales: 4 Key Strategies

There are four solutions for converting online leads, which when used together, can increase your sales conversion rates:

Social Proof
Content Marketing
Sales Qualification Process
Email Marketing Solutions

#1. Develop Trust with Social Proof (Testimonials and Reviews)

Building a reliable brand will ultimately make it easier for you to market your product or services.

One of the best and easiest ways to build trust is through social proof, specifically reviews, and testimonials from your current or previous clients. Social proof will not only confirm that you’re talking the talk, but that you’re walking the walk.

When someone encounters your brand for the first time through your website, you need to:
1) show that you’re an authority, and
2) provide social proof.

Let your current customers sing your praises by encouraging them to write a review or testimonial through email, on Yelp, Facebook, or any other relevant review site. For those “special” reviews, showcase them on your website. Do not worry about getting one or two negative reviews.

This might work to your advantage, in that, they persuade leads to believe that your reviews are reputable. If people see that others are buying your products and enjoying them, they can be persuaded to follow suit.

#2. Help Your Prospects Before the Sale

Helping your prospects means providing answers to their problems through content. This content marketing strategy revolves around blog posts as well as free offers.

Invest your time in writing well-researched and helpful blog content and eBooks. If your leads find that you are knowledgeable in your industry and in the various products that you’re selling, then they will believe in your ability to provide quality products.

You can hire marketing agencies to write blog posts for you. Or, you can learn simple shortcuts and time saving templates to train you and/or your marketing assistant to turn your knowledge into written blog articles for your business website.

#3. Utilize a Sales Qualification Process

One of the most crucial strategies for converting leads into sales is to have a qualification process. Lead qualification is the evaluation of the ability of a lead to purchase from you.

The qualification process involves gathering the necessary information about your leads to move them through the sales process. There are three types of leads: Information Qualified Leads (IQL), Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL), Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). How each is determined varies from business to business. Once your qualification metrics are defined, only then will you be able to take appropriate action that will convert your leads into sales.

Using a sales qualification process prevents you from coming on too strong and putting off potential clients. It also helps your sales team save valuable time and instead focus it on customers who are ready to buy.

For those leads who have not been identified as “ready to buy” or an SQL, you can nurture them through your sales funnel using email marketing solutions.

#4. Leverage Email Nurturing Solutions

Email nurturing is one of the greatest tools that you can use to convert leads into sales.

It’s all about leveraging marketing automation to follow up and remain in contact with any leads that come through your sales funnel. If you follow up with leads within 5 minutes, you are 9 times more likely to get a sale.

Strategically sending your clients or customer regular emails will drill information about your business and your services or products into their minds. The more they hear from you, the more they are likely to buy. You want to send targeted emails, to targeted email lists, based on where they are in your sales funnel and how they interact with your emails.

These emails can be anything from newsletters to content offers. The purpose of this strategy is to guarantee the right lead is receiving the right email at the right time.

The Bottom Line

Today, even though most marketing efforts are online, customers still need to feel that personal touch. By incorporating these few lead conversion ideas into your business strategy will help to ensure that you not only have thousands of people stopping by your website, but you will have them laying down their money!

QUESTION: What is your favorite strategy that’s been working for you in your business when it comes to converting leads into sales? Share your comments and questions below.

Author Bio: ShaDrena Simon is a digital strategist and inbound marketer for Yokel Local Internet Marketing Inc. You can reach her at: shadrena@yokellocalmarketing.com