As the days pass, LinkedIn becomes the winning social media tool for business networking and lead generation. Whether you want to find ideal prospects, find business content, explore new opportunities, find talent, or generate leads, this platform is, for many, the first and last source of leads. Many successful B2B marketers and businesses use LinkedIn to create and manage a powerful network of prospects and generate the best leads. However, that doesn’t mean lead generation on LinkedIn is a free ride for LinkedIn outreach. It involves many strategies, LinkedIn automation tools, and some tactics to fully leverage the potential of this platform like a pro.
Why is LinkedIn So Useful?
If you’re a B2B marketer, you’d already know that this platform has become crucial to marketing and lead generation strategies. Compared to other traditional methods, LinkedIn offers a warmer approach than LinkedIn ads and cold calling. It offers a huge database for marketers and businesses always searching for qualified business leads.
- According to B2B marketing surveys, LinkedIn is the most preferred platform for B2B Marketing
- 90% of the B2B have acknowledged that they get most of their leads from LinkedIn
- There are 830 million+ prospects, and 1 out of 3 is a decision-maker.
- There are millions of small and large companies
- Users get 80% of their B2B traffic only from LinkedIn
Keeping all this in view, LinkedIn is the ultimate B2B lead generation platform. But is it like creating an account on LinkedIn, and leads would start falling in your lap? No, B2B lead generation on LinkedIn is not a free ride.
The best way businesses generate leads on LinkedIn these days is by using the best LinkedIn automation tools.
Why Are Businesses Using LinkedIn Automation Tools?
B2B marketers’ biggest challenge is finding where their leads reside. According to the latest statistics, there are 830 million+ prospects on LinkedIn. If you keep finding them manually, it will take weeks and even months, and still, you’d get limited outcomes.
LinkedIn automation has been designed to take off the burden of doing early-stage activities manually. Most often, the marketing and sales team fail to perform because they spend most of their time on basic and repetitive tasks that consume all of their energy, and in the end, they are left with no time to focus on actual lead generation tasks.
With the latest LinkedIn automation tools, you can find the most relevant leads in a short time. You can automate searching, profile visiting, sending messages, follow-ups, collecting data, saving leads data in one place, scheduling messages & campaigns, and much more.
Now, you’d be thinking, why not do these tasks manually?
No doubt these tasks can be performed manually, but it is a way too slow process that gives insignificant results.
Let’s consider a scenario to help you understand this better.
You are looking for ‘B2B growth hackers and analysts in New York. You put the relevant keywords in the search section, and LinkedIn will give your thousands of results.
Of course, all of these people are not suitable for your business. It would be best to filter out those who’d benefit you. Would you go through thousands of profiles, see if they are relevant, collect data, send them connection requests, send messages, keep track of what they do, etc.?
It will consume all your time & energy, and still, you’d get limited results.
You might hire some resources to do the job, but that, too, would require investment. Why not invest a small amount of money in a LinkedIn automation tool that can perform all these tasks much more efficiently and quickly?
However, despite being one of the most useful tools for LinkedIn outreach and lead generation, they can be confusing sometimes. Many users are taking advantage of them, while others complain that these tools caused spam and blocked their accounts.
Is LinkedIn Automation Spammy?
If we have to answer one word, it would be “NO”
Advanced LinkedIn automation is not spammy, but it all depends on your practices. Many users fail to grasp the concept of using LinkedIn automation for lead generation. They think of them as magic tools that would help them hit jackpots at night.
They overdo things using these tools, which LinkedIn can easily detect. But this is not how it works. It would be best if you had a very smart approach and well-thought strategy to leverage the potential of the automation tools.
This blog has compiled a list of things you should and should not follow while using the latest LinkedIn automation tool to make the most of these tools.
The Do(s):
- Automate Repetitive Tasks
Lead generation on LinkedIn involves a lot of basic repetitive activities. These tasks are unproductive and don’t even require human assistance. Performing them consumes a lot of time and energy. These tasks include searching, visiting profiles, sending connect requests, messages, follow-ups, collecting data, etc.
No doubt these tasks are different, but one thing is common: they are time-consuming and don’t need a human to perform them. By automating these tasks, you can save up a lot of time which you can use to perform core lead generation tasks such as lead nurturing. This is what requires humans and put their efforts on.
Not only do they save you a lot of time, but they speed up things and make your life much easier. You can quickly find your leads and streamline workflows by automating lead generation tasks. Instead of working hundreds of hours, you can find many more leads with 5x faster speed.
Moreover, instead of investing a lot of human force and infrastructure to do the tasks manually, you can invest a small amount of money in these tools and reduce your operational costs.
- Comply with LinkedIn Rules & Regulations
LinkedIn is very strict regarding keeping the platform transparent and free of spam. It’s introduced a very smart algorithm that detects if someone is using a bot or a LinkedIn automation tool.
LinkedIn has mentioned in its terms and conditions,
“LinkedIn is committed to keeping its members’ data safe and its website free from fraud and abuse. In order to protect our members’ data and our website, we don’t permit the use of any third-party software, including “crawlers,” bots, browser plug-ins, or browser extensions (also called “add-ons”), that scrapes, modifies the appearance of, or automates activity on LinkedIn’s website.”
This shows that LinkedIn is not amused when using automation tools. In the past, many users got warnings and blocked accounts due to using such tools. Thus, ensure your tool complies with LinkedIn’s terms and services. A LinkedIn automation tool should have ‘Inbuilt Safety Limits’ so you can set the limits per LinkedIn’s criteria. You can set daily limits for profile visits, connect requests, messages, and InMails. Once your account starts establishing, the tool will automatically increase the number without LinkedIn noticing it.
Make sure you also consider ‘Time Zones’ because LinkedIn also checks who’s working at what time. Oddly, someone is sending connect requests and messages at Christmas. Thus, you need to take these factors into account.
- Connect With the Right Audience
If you want to do successful outreach on LinkedIn, you must connect with the right audience.
You must use the right filters and keyword combinations to reach the best prospects. Connecting with an irrelevant and random audience won’t give you many benefits. They will only increase the number of your connections and nothing else.
Successful LinkedIn networking is all about preferring quality over quantity. Finding 50 relevant prospects with 2 conversions worth $10000 is much better than finding 1000 irrelevant prospects with 0 conversions. So, make sure you connect wisely.
Use the best LinkedIn automation tools with advanced filters to help find those you have been looking for.
- Use Personalized Content
A very cliché thing to say, but some people still need to hear it: ‘content is the king’ or, let me say, ‘personalized content is the king. With personalized and relevant content, all your outreach and lead-generation efforts will succeed. By content, we mean everything you send to your ideal prospects and post in the News Feed and LinkedIn groups.
LinkedIn has been a haven for those using the right content marketing strategy. From your profile headline to your summary, skills, LinkedIn posts, connect invitations, and messages you send to prospects, every activity is an opportunity you can use to your benefit with the help of great content.
How you approach people with your content is how people will perceive your brand. Thus, before you craft any posts or messages, ensure it revolves around your audience, interests, and problems.
A thumb rule is to provide value through your content. If you don’t want to get spammed, make sure your content sounds like there’s a human behind it. The right LinkedIn tools come with features to take personalization to the next level. You can use them to send personalized text and customized images, and GIFs that will immediately grab users’ attention.
What these tools do is that they create avatars based on the profile picture of prospects which most people find very interesting. They surely respond to such messages when they see you have put a great effort into connecting with them. This technique is proven to bring maximum acceptance and response rate to B2B marketers and businesses.
- Schedule Your Messages
An average user gets a lot of connect requests in a day. Even when you put a lot of effort into creating a long-lasting first impression, they sometimes forget it if you stop putting in any effort.
When you send them personalized messages, they’d remember you for some time but not too long. That’s why you must keep reminding them of your messages and follow-ups. You don’t have enough time to send follow-ups to everyone. This is where the best LinkedIn automation tools outstand. You can use LinkedIn automation tools to schedule your campaigns, messages, follow-ups, and posts.
With these tools, all you need to do is to set up your posts and campaigns, and it will publish and run them at a specific time. Not just that, you can also schedule messages and follow-ups, and the tools will send them to a selected list of prospects at a specific time. This way, you won’t miss any messages, and you can also keep your brand fresh in the prospects’ minds from time to time.
- A Human Touch is a Must
A lot of people have some false misconceptions in their minds. They have rejected automation tools because they think such tools will replace humans. However, the truth is the opposite.
Like other technologies that have been used to make human life easier, LinkedIn automation tools are here to make things easier and smooth for B2B marketers, salespersons, and all other businesses. That’s why it’s highly recommended that you never lose the human touch when you use automation tools because, without them, things lead to spamming and dead ends.
So, to keep things natural and genuine, you must maintain a human touch with your prospects while automating your searches, invites, messages, and other tasks. No humans like to get in touch with a bot. They’d immediately reject you if they sensed a bot talking to them on the other end. Thus, while automating certain activities, maintain a human touch.
The best way to do this is to take over the conversations. The latest LinkedIn automation tools notify you when a prospect responds. So, it’s a good practice to start a human-to-human conversation with them to avoid any troubles in the future.
The Don’t(s)
- Don’t Send Templated Messages That Create Spam
Sending messages to thousands of prospects automatically is one of the most useful features of LinkedIn automation tools. However, that doesn’t mean you start abusing the platform by sending spam messages to thousands of prospects.
Abusing the platform is the most common reason behind spamming. When you send sales-y and templated messages to too many people quickly, they flag your messages as spam, and you’d eventually end up in a LinkedIn jail.
What is a LinkedIn Jail?
When you create spam on LinkedIn, LinkedIn puts you in jail. It means:
- You’ll face certain restrictions for a long time
- Your account will get a very limited visibility
- You might get your account get blocked permanently
Which activities can put you in LinkedIn jail?
- Sending too many connect requests and having a low acceptance rate
- Sending too many messages to irrelevant prospects
- Posting spammy or low-quality content
- Too many ‘I don’t know this person reports
Spamming is the last thing you want to do if you want to run a successful outreach campaign on LinkedIn and build strong business relationships. If your messages become annoying and confusing for the prospects, they will reject you, ultimately hurting your brand.
Thus, it’s better to go in with the right strategy and personalize your messages to target your audience the right way. We have mentioned how you send highly personalized messages to prospects using the best LinkedIn automation tools.
- Don’t Send Sales-y Messages
Another mistake many users make is sending sales-y messages on their first go.
Cold outreach doesn’t work anymore, especially on LinkedIn. People get annoyed easily when you send a promotional message and don’t even answer such messages.
Imagine you’re at a dinner party, and some unknown person comes to you and starts praising himself. Awkward, right? The same happens when you send promotional stuff to random people on LinkedIn.
This ultimately affects your acceptance and response rate. People think your products could be better quality, and you sell them in inboxes.
- Don’t Use Low-Quality Tools
You have created a well-thought strategy, but sometimes, it’s not you but the tool that fails you. LinkedIn automation tools are becoming popular, and thousands are out there. However, not all the tools are of high quality, and not all have been designed to suit your business model. Thus, when you are getting one for your business, carefully analyze the type of tools and the features they offer.
There are two types of LinkedIn automation tools that you’d find in the market.
- Chrome-based LinkedIn automation tools
- Cloud-based LinkedIn automation tools
There are several chrome-based extensions in the market, and they have worked great. However, not all of them are safe to use.
These tools don’t have advanced safety features to help you run successful campaigns. Many users have already got their accounts blocked, so be careful while choosing one for your campaigns.
Another option that we have is a cloud based LinkedIn automation tool. Unlike chrome extensions, they run from the cloud and keep running the campaigns even if you’re not there. They provide IP addresses that keep your login details safe, and you can run 100% safe campaigns with these tools. Thus, make your decision wisely.
- Don’t Overdo Activities
Even if you use the best and safest tools, they can’t do magic if you try to cross the line. Users often make a mistake by trying to prospect every profile that comes their way. When you do this, LinkedIn can easily detect that a bot or tool is working on the other end.
You surely don’t want to lose your well-established LinkedIn account, so make sure you start small, use the right tools and strategies, and you will reach your goals in a short time.
- Don’t Take Things Outside LinkedIn
While it’s a good practice to gather as much information about your prospects as possible, it’s very creepy reaching them out on different platforms. It leaves a very bad impression. If you have found your ideal prospects on LinkedIn, it doesn’t mean you start approaching them through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
If your prospects are being nice to you by accepting your connection requests and responding to your messages, don’t rush to take things outside LinkedIn. It looks so unprofessional and can badly damage the reputation of your brand.
Your prospects will get annoyed, and they will block you ultimately. You can lose your potential clients due to your unprofessional behaviour. A good practice would be to seek their permission before initiating conversations outside this platform.
Conclusion
Hope this article was helpful to you. LinkedIn is undoubtedly the best platform for B2B leads generation, but you must have the right tools and tactics to take full advantage of it.
Relationship building on LinkedIn has become the most important social selling practice, and you need to use LinkedIn automation the right way to be successful. A simple mistake can get you in LinkedIn jail, and you might lose your well-established account quickly.
To recap, here are a few things you should keep in mind before running campaigns:
- Make connections with the right audience
- Create relevant content and provide value as much as you can
- Make sure your practices comply with LinkedIn rules
- Don’t automate your conversations, and keep the human touch
- Be more genuine and more personalized while approaching your prospects
- Don’t send templated or sales-y messages that create spam
[…] after putting in the effort, are you still struggling to maximize your LinkedIn outreach? Chances are content is the problem. Take a […]
[…] after placing within the effort, are you continue to struggling to maximise your LinkedIn outreach? Chances are high content material is the issue. Have a […]