Reality check: LinkedIn lead generation works, whether it’s outbound or inbound.
But when it’s outbound, it’s very important to adapt with changing times.
There was a time when volume sending on LinkedIn worked. You could send 2,000 connection requests per month, a generalized pitch in the first message, get replies, and close some deals.
Volume doesn’t work anymore if you want to get more replies on LinkedIn.
Let’s dive in to what DOES work:
1. Don’t Pitch, Start Conversations
Now it’s all about quantity over quantity.
Reaching out to accounts that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP), and sending personalized outreach that actually provides value or starts a conversation.
Here’s a great way to execute LinkedIn outreach in 2022:
- Optimize your LinkedIn profile
- Send a blank or super simple connection request
Example: “Hi Joe – I ran across your LinkedIn profile this morning going through my network. I must say that you have a very impressive profile! It would be interesting to connect.” - First message should be simple and to the point, using personalization wherever possible.
Use Lyne or buy lists from ListKit to get your researched personalized lines that show you’re not spamming and you did your research. You can also keep it simple and mention that they’re in the same industry, or mention that you’re impressed with their company, no need to overcomplicate, but the more personalized the better.
Example: “Hi { to_first_name:there }, I’d love to speak about a couple ways I noticed YOUR-COMPANY can potentially 2-3x your traffic and conversions. Already done it a dozen times over. I’m sure I can do it for you as well. Thanks, MY-NAME” - (Optional) Second message (10 minutes later): Ask a question that connects with the end result your product or service provides, like “Just wondering, are you {qualifying_question}?”
- (Optional) Follow up with simple valuable follow up messages.
Example: “Hello Joe, I know you must be very busy, but did you get a chance to look over the message I sent you a couple of days ago? Let me know if you’d be interested in a 5-minute chat.” - Break up after a few messages with no reply. This, strangely, can get them to reply.
Example: “Hello Joe, This will be my last message to you as I really don’t want to come across as a salesperson. If you are interested in briefly discussing, but just didn’t have the time to reply yet, let me know.”
P.S. We have all of these templates in the LinkedRich app, ready to send
If they don’t reply, follow up and bump the conversation up to the top of their messages. If they REALLY don’t reply, drop it and move on.
You can make a huge impact on your pipeline with this strategy sending to only 500 contacts per month.
2. Engage on LinkedIn
Connection requests and messages work well, but if you want to increase the chances of a reply, engage more with your prospect.
LinkedIn gives you the benefits of a social media network, like reactions and comments – use them!
Before you send your connection requests, “follow” your prospect, like a few of their posts, and leave some valuable comments. Show them you exist.
That familiarity of seeing you genuinely interact with them goes a long way once they connect and get messages from you.
3. Try Display Ads
This is an advanced technique that we’ve seen lift reply rates by more than 30%.
Familiarity and awareness goes a long way, as we said in #2. Let’s take that up a notch.
- Take your prospect list with emails and LinkedIn profile URLs
- Upload it to AdRoll as a CRM Audience
- Set up your ad campaign with creatives
- Run ads to your exact prospects for 5-7 days before you start your outreach
AdRoll targets around 98% of the internet, so this gives your prospects a chance to see your company before you reach out on LinkedIn, when they see your connection request and check your profile, they’ll think “where have I seen this before?”.
This type of awareness goes a long way – try it out!
4. Personalize Your Messages
As we mentioned before, personalizing your messages makes you stand out among the hundreds of spam messages your prospects are getting every month/week/day.
Just adding a quick “thanks for connecting {name}! {personalized_line}”, can get replies from the right prospect (especially since they’ve already seen your optimized profile).
You can do research the old fashioned way, or use Lyne or ListKit to make your job easier.
5. Align Your Offer
All of the outbound tactics in the world won’t make up for a boring offer.
You need to be ready to speak to your prospect and present an offer that is:
- Zero-risk (via a money-back guarantee or performance guarantee)
- Time sensitive (“I will deliver X in X days or…”)
- Makes them at least $1 – or shows you are an expert and can be trusted (the more ROI $$ focused, the better)
Your introductory offer is there to help you get your foot in the door, build trust, then give your customer the opportunity to upgrade to working with you on a deeper level, long-term.
You’ll need to get creative – but don’t work for free. Charge upfront for a specific result in a specific time period. If you don’t deliver, there’s no risk.
Don’t skip this. This will change your business overnight if you can make your offer resonate with your ideal customer!
Bonus: Scrape LinkedIn Post Likes
This is a great one and has yielded great results for us.
Basically, you’re scraping the people who liked a popular post in your niche, then outreaching to all of them with a connection request and follow ups.
The coolest part: you can do it all in LinkedRich software.
In your targeting settings you can enter a LinkedIn Profile URL, LinkedIn Event URL, LinkedIn Post URL (what we’re talking about now), a LinkedIn Group URL or a CSV file upload.
Super powerful and super simple to set up.
Conclusion
Getting more replies to your LinkedIn outreach isn’t easy, but it can be simple if you let it be simple!
Above all, focus on:
- Providing value
- Being genuine
- Building trust/awareness
- Making a great first impression
- Starting a conversation
If you keep these in mind, LinkedIn should get a lot more profitable for you!
