LinkedIn is a great way to generate leads, but it can also be difficult. You have to know how to navigate the platform and avoid simple mistakes that can stop your campaign in its tracks. If you’re ready to start generating more leads through LinkedIn, keep reading for four common mistakes I see businesses make—and how you can avoid them!
Focusing more on follower count than connections
You might think that the more followers you have, the better your network will be. But in reality, this is not true.
Connections are what matter the most when it comes to LinkedIn lead generation; quality over quantity is always a good rule of thumb to follow. If you focus too much on increasing your follower count and don’t invest in creating meaningful connections with others, then it’s unlikely that these people will want to do business with you or share your content with their contacts.
Sending generic messages
Don’t send a message that does not address the recipient’s needs. The main purpose of sending messages is to establish a connection with potential leads, but if you do so without considering the target prospect’s business and what they may need, then there is no point in doing it at all! Your message should aim to provide value or deliver information that would be useful for them and help solve their problems. You can achieve this by asking questions related to their work, company and job title etc., which will trigger an appropriate response from them. The advantage of this approach is that you can easily convert these responses into leads because your message has already served its purpose – i.e., helping them solve their problem by providing some useful advice or information related to their industry/business area etc.
Not nurturing relationships
Finally, relationship building. Not only are you trying to get your foot in the door, but you’re also attempting to build a long-term relationship with people who could be integral in helping your business succeed. Sometimes it seems like people forget that this is a two-way street and they take advantage of all the opportunities available on LinkedIn. To keep your prospecting strategy as effective as possible, here are some tips for nurturing relationships:
- When someone sends you a message or adds you as a connection at least respond back with something short and polite. A simple “Thank You” will suffice (no need for anything more).
- If someone doesn’t respond after two attempts at communication then it’s time to move on and find someone else who wants to work with you. Don’t worry about being rude or annoying them because nothing will happen if you do continue contacting them after multiple attempts have been made by both parties involved
Not replying to your messages
It’s not enough to just send messages. You need to reply to them as well. This is important because it shows that you are interested in their business and potential leads, which can help build rapport and make them more likely to respond positively when you reach out with a proposal or offer later on. In addition, not responding means that your message never reaches the inbox of anyone who could potentially be interested in connecting with you—and they’ll likely miss out on all the great content that you have produced!
The good news is there are plenty of ways for you to track both incoming and outgoing messages:
- Reply: Click here if someone has sent a message asking for more information about your company or services; this will put them into an email folder where they can receive responses from others within your organization (you’ll also be able to see how many times each person has been tagged).
- Delete: Click here if someone has sent an unsolicited message (or one which was offensive); this will remove the record from both their account as well as yours so no one else sees it again down line(s).
These four common mistakes can stop a LinkedIn lead generation campaign in its tracks.
These four common mistakes can stop a LinkedIn lead generation campaign in its tracks.
- Focusing more on follower count than connections: Once you have a large number of followers, you may feel like your job is done and that all you need to do is wait for people to come to you. That’s not how it works! You have to take action and reach out to potential clients/customers yourself. Don’t be afraid of reaching out first; if they’re interested, they’ll respond back (and if not, at least you’ve tried).
- Sending generic messages: If someone sends me the same message over and over again without personalizing it at all, I’m going to ignore them every single time because they aren’t showing any interest in learning about me or my business—they’re just sending out blanket emails hoping that something sticks somewhere along their journey through cyberspace. Make sure that each message has some sort of personalised information so recipients know why this particular message is important for them specifically; otherwise, those recipients might delete it before reading past the first sentence!
Conclusion
If you’re looking to connect with new customers on LinkedIn, these four mistakes are easy to make and can be hard to spot if you don’t know what to look for. But once you know what looks good (and bad) in a profile, it’s much easier to avoid these pitfalls and start building connections that will lead directly back into your sales funnel. As always, we here at LeadGenesis are here to help! Our team of experts is ready with advice on how best to use this platform as part of your overall strategy.