Lead Generation, a topic top of mind for every business professional.

To grow your business, you need more clients, and more clients mean more leads!

There are various methods to generate leads online.

I remember the first time I attempted to setup a landing page. Daunting task, to say the least!

I was faced with the challenge of technical integrations and the time invested to try and figure it all out.

I gave up and outsourced it. A better option, I thought at the time, being a small business. My return on investment was a huge disappointment, a very expensive lesson not to be repeated.

Back to LinkedIn was the only option for me and my preferred choice to generate leads for my business to date.

As a lead generator, LinkedIn is so much easier and by far more cost effective. To setup a Lead Generation campaign on LinkedIn can be done in no time without spending a dime. All done without advertising, only relying on organic efforts. The real gem to me is once you generated a marketing qualified lead the actual sale is a mere nudge.

The key to successful LinkedIn Lead Generation is fostering relationships!

Simply put, LinkedIn Lead Generation is just relationship marketing.

Want more leads using LinkedIn?

The focus is on building relationships, with the right people – your ideal client!

Fostering any relationship has 3 key steps:

1.     Curiosity

2.     Inform

3.     Commitment

Follow these 3 steps in LinkedIn to build meaningful relationships and you will generate leads successfully.

Curiosity

Creating curiosity on LinkedIn isn’t as difficult as you think it is.

You just need to be yourself!

You might find the image a bit odd, but there is a story behind it. Creating curiosity is like the image. You need to talk about the star and the fish without mentioning the starfish. Your readers are meant to put two and two together themselves through your content.

The challenge lies in translating complex concepts into actionable steps that can drive real-world engagement.

One way of doing this is through Cognitive Fluency. Humans prefer to consume simplistic content and unconsciously avoid information that appears complicated.

Therefore:

• If your product is complex, explain it in basic terms not using business jargon.
• Make your social posts as short as possible.
• Create clear and concise calls to action.
• Focus on one topic per blog post, video, or web page.
• Use eye-catching graphics that quickly communicate your message.
• Use keywords in branded links so people know at a glance what the link will address.
• Use infographics and videos to communicate complex ideas quickly and simply.
• Use emojis if they suit your brand voice.
• Use hashtags on social media to highlight the topic of your content.

Another way is using Social Proof.

Just think about your personal shopping patterns. Do you rely strictly on a retailer’s website for information? Or do you ask friends and family for recommendations? Or read a bunch of reviews before making a purchase? Do you check social media for opinions or ratings?

Off course you do and therefore you need to:

• Establish trust so customers are comfortable talking about your brand.
• Use real-life case studies in your content.
• Gather and promote testimonials.
• Encourage your customers to leave reviews.
• Display views and share numbers – if your content marketing is successful.
• Collaborate with authentic influencers.

Also, make use of Perceptual Theory. Keep in mind when creating content how the mind perceives situations. While it can be tempting to try something new and going above and beyond, it may be avoided due to our natural resistance to change.

And you want your prospect to be guided to the next step when they reach the end of your content to avoid confusion.

Therefore, you need to:

• Create a logical flow through your profile to drive curiosity and fulfil expectations.
• Include an obvious call to action every time asking a question
• Don’t overexplain. People intuitively know what a CTA is.

Lastly you need to keep the Psychology of color in mind, because certain colors grab people’s attention more than others and the same goes for your graphics. Do not use the ordinary graphics everyone can get from Unsplash or Canva, but rather use something extraordinary to create a surprise element.

Inform

Once we have the attention needed to foster the relationship we seek, to introduce ourselves and inform others of who we are is the natural next step.

But this is where most lose the plot.

In a business relationship we all want to immediately explain our products, our services, and what we have to offer.

Don’t!

People buy from people, and they buy for their reasons not yours! Find that reason.

It is not just about creating content. Content should be interesting, entertaining, and most of all – You! It should inform others who you are, your values, your believes, your knowledge, your experience and expertise, and your opinions.

Most of the informing should happen in engaging with other people’s posts – your ideal clients, influencers in your industry!

You need to leave comments. Focus on building conversations, stay on topic, and add value.

The objective of engagement is to create a conversation and conversations need questions.

Ask!

Ask for more information, ask to understand better but never to come across as being opinionated. It is important to adopt an attitude to learn more about them, your ideal client, and offer less of yourself.

Become interested and avoid trying to be interesting.

Commitment

Finally, the relationship now is ready to move forward. The next and last step is to obtain commitment to move the relationship to a mutually agreed engagement.

There are three aspects to commitment

1. Integrity
2. Openness
3. Honesty

Now is not the time beat around the bush!

Be open and honest in your attention. Obtain permission to reveal, with complete integrity, what you have in mind.

Remember, integrity and honesty go hand in hand. You need to be true to yourself and your potential prospect.

Best will be to have a pre-defined process in place mapped out to create a secure environment to meet. Show them that you have a plan that works and that you can solve their problems or challenges.

On LinkedIn we always include in our commitment step, an invitation to meet, to take the relationship off LinkedIn. In this invitation we include the reason for the invitation, the agenda and most importantly what they will gain.

It is always about them, what they need and never what you want to give…

Final Word

LinkedIn lead generation is the easiest, most cost effective way to get new clients consistently and grow your business.

It is based and focused on building meaningful relationships, following these 3 easy steps.

Focus on building relationships and lead generation becomes a natural next step. Sometimes the relationships that you are working on, will add more value for you in that they could also become referrals or collaborators for your brand.

Best advice – focus less on lead generation and more on relationship building.

Relationship building always start with a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy built into your Profile. I would like to gift you with a free 3 Video series guiding you to implement a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy that does work.

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