For online marketers, the question is always, “how do we reach the target audience that we’re looking for with a message that is compelling to them?”

The numbers speak for themselves. LinkedIn has over 260 million users with their professional profiles on the site; among them are all Fortune 500 Executives. This goes to show you the caliber of the professionals on LinkedIn.

Let’s dissertate on how LinkedIn marketing can be powerful and important for your lead generation efforts. So, I’ll just consider that you all know how cool LinkedIn is.

Benefits Of LinkedIn Marketing For Targeted Leads

– For Business: On Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, it could be said that in a sense you’re required to “mask” your true marketing intentions. But LinkedIn is a business site with all business people – so you can feel at home with your business dealings.

– For Marketing: While other social sites are more about friends and followers, LinkedIn is about business and professionals. It offers opportunities galore.

– Source of Research: Market research is an essential part of marketing and LinkedIn makes it easy. You can join different groups and observe what people have to say and understand their problems and requirements. You can also keep yourself updated with the happenings get to know the problems people are having and you can keep up-to-date on the latest happenings with professionals and companies in your niche. You can even conduct polls to understand your audience.

With my experience, I can confidently say that it’s possible to generate hot leads using LinkedIn marketing using the following ways, whatever your business.

As an example of the power of LinkedIn marketing, my current site stats show that LinkedIn is the second most popular site that visitors to this site visit before they come here. In fact, it surprisingly beats Facebook hands down and that is despite the fact I have almost 10,000 fans on Facebook, post several times a day there and don’t do that on LinkedIn and have no where near that many connections on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Marketing Tip #1: Create a LinkedIn Group

This is where the maximum action is on LinkedIn. Unfortunately, this is also the most underutilized by marketers. A LinkedIn group can help you generate highly targeted leads.

All you’ve to do is create a group in a topic that fits in perfectly with your product or service. For example, if you’re trying to generate leads for your network marketing business, you’d create a group called “Networking Marketing Success” or “Network Marketing 101.”

How is creating a Group advantageous?

You get to choose who you invite; based on who you consider could be quality leads for your business.

You get the opportunity to send emails to the group once every week, using LinkedIn Announcements.

In addition, you also get to invite some power players within your industry or new connections who may well joint venture with you in the future.

While creating a LinkedIn Group is easy, you’ve to spend time in proper planning before you start.

Do you want a closed group?

Do you prefer an open group?

Closed groups need approval to join and the discussions within the groups are invisible to the public. These groups are easier to manage but you may experience slow growth. You’re the boss here and you can choose members, set the ground rules for group discussions etc. For example, I never allow my group members to pitch their own products and services within the group.

A successful LinkedIn group is one where the group members respect the knowledge of the creator of the group. You’ll have to demonstrate your knowledge in your niche. It’s only then that people will take notice of you and follow you outside the group – leading to a number of hot leads, willing to take action on your web page.

This is a wonderful lead generation strategy because you’re exposed to highly qualified leads.

LinkedIn Marketing Tip #2: Join A LinkedIn Group

After identification of LinkedIn Groups with your kind of prospects, you can tap into it by joining them. You can use the groups to showcase your expertise on a subject, because most people join groups to ask questions and learn something. Spend 15 minutes each day to provide helpful answers and suggestions. But as usual, avoid being spammy.

LinkedIn Marketing Tip #3: Use LinkedIn Status Updates

Use your status updates to post helpful tips and articles. Don’t go down the route of continual self promotion on LinkedIn though. The most effective way is to share a mix of your own content and content belonging to other experts in your niche. By doing this, you’re earning the trust and respect of your LinkedIn contacts.

Status updates are meant to remind your contacts that you exist and you’re an expert in your field.

Always seek opportunities to answer questions, whether it’s by monitoring the comments on your posts or in the groups you’ve chosen.

Linkedin Marketing Tip #4: LinkedIn Applications

This is a wonderful place to find the most interesting apps that improve your LinkedIn page. Amazon’s ReadingList app allows you to let people know what business books you’re reading. You can set up polls for prospective customers and understand their needs better. You can  create a portfolio of content which is great for lead generation.

LinkedIn Marketing Tip #5: Direct Ads

While most methods are free, LinkedIn’s advertising program comes at a price; albeit small and affordable. It works just like Google paid search. Create your ad and bid on the amount you’re willing to pay for each click on your LinkedIn ad. This is a wonderful Linkedin marketing method to drive potential leads to your web page where you can turn them into leads by offering something. Most ads are displayed on the right hand side in a similar way as Facebook as seen in the screenshot on the left. They can also appear at the top of the page in a different format.

LinkedIn Marketing 

The first thing to do on any social networking platform is to observe the insights people are putting out. Every day, people reveal their fears, ambitions, frustrations, hopes and goals on these social networks. Use these insights to figure out what matters to them. Thousands of businesses and individuals discuss their needs and wants on LinkedIn each day – observe them, respect them and use them to your benefit.

Consistency is the key to successful lead generation with LinkedIn marketing. Don’t give up, as you can’t expect results overnight. Build your network slowly and steadily and you’ll eventually reach your goal. Please get in touch if you have any questions on adding LinkedIn marketing to your overall strategy.

I would love to learn about any additional LinkedIn marketing lead generation strategies that have helped you. Leave your comments on LinkedIn Marketing below.