As someone who has always made an effort to stay up-to-date with the latest best practices in marketing, it can’t be denied that there is currently a MAJOR buzz around not only LinkedIn, but the site’s role in successful B2B lead generation. Unless you’re an MSP business owner.
In a lot of the conversations that I’ve had recently, I find that many MSP business owners tell me the same thing about LinkedIn. They’ve tried it and it went “fine,” but they’re just not seeing any major success with it. This is surprising, considering 80 percent of B2B leads generated on social media come from LinkedIn.
Whenever I start to dig a little deeper, I usually find that this tepid response comes from the fact that these MSP business owners are lacking what I consider to be the three key components needed to generate leads on LinkedIn.
Strong strategy sets the stage
At its core, your strategy is exactly what it sounds like: it’s your plan for HOW you’re going to generate leads on LinkedIn.
Remember, it’s also something that is unique to your specific organization. There’s no “one size fits all” rule book that is written in stone that you can follow. For success here, you can’t start with a laundry list of various techniques and hope they all manage to add up to something. You need to start with your goals, answering questions like:
- Is your goal to expand your network of ideal customers? If so, how will you target with your “connection requests?”
- Is your goal to nurture your existing network? If so, what type of nurturing content will you post?
- Is your goal to set up introductory phone calls or coffee meetings? If so, how will you ask for those meetings?
Every step you take not only needs to be directly related to the specific goal you’re trying to accomplish, but it also needs to move you farther down the line towards your ideal outcome in a forward-thinking, efficient way.
The above was just one example of an approach you might take. There are many, many different approaches and tactics that can absolutely lead to LinkedIn success. However, none of it will mean ANYTHING if you don’t know where the tactics and the approach you’re using are taking you.
No matter what, you always need to know WHERE you’re trying to go and HOW you need to get there. At that point, the brand-specific LinkedIn strategy you need will slowly begin to reveal itself.
The art of authenticity in the digital era
Thanks to how easy it is for B2B brands to reach out to people, your customers have developed a cynical edge to them that we didn’t necessarily have to deal with a decade ago. This can be a challenge, but it can also quickly become an asset hiding in plain sight if you bring the right, authentic approach to the proceedings.
Authenticity is a simple idea. You need to not only come across as a real and credible person, but also one operating with true intentions, too.
On LinkedIn, building authenticity is less the product of any one major move and is more about a series of smaller ones. Generally speaking, you build authenticity through:
- Your profile, including how it’s designed and the information you choose to share on it.
- Your history, including the types of interactions you’ve had.
- Your recommendations.
- Your general behavior on LinkedIn.
Every piece of content that you share through LinkedIn needs to convey whatever important idea it represents on a surface level. The subtext must also be there that tells people you’re sharing it for the right reasons. People need to feel like you’re trying to do more than just “get your name out there.” They need to feel like you’re always looking out for them.
If you can manage to hit that admittedly very precise target, authenticity will absolutely become one of the most powerful tools you have available to you — particularly when it comes to the real, authentic responses that you’ll start to get in return.
Consistency is king
It’s possible to have those previous two elements and STILL not achieve the results you’re after on LinkedIn if you’re lacking the final key ingredient: consistency.
Consistency is all about not only making sure that you’re actually following through with your strategy, but that you’re also putting in the work required. If you said you were going to connect with 20 prospects and write one new blog post per day, you actually have to sit down and do it.
Not only do you have to do it today, but you need to do it tomorrow and the next day. Even on that day when you “don’t feel like it.” Especially on that day when you feel like you’re “too busy.” If you don’t have consistency, you really don’t have anything at all.
Truth be told, consistency is one of the major keys to success in ANY marketing tactic and LinkedIn is certainly no different. If you put in the time and effort, big things will happen in return. If you don’t, they won’t. It really is that simple.
All told, one of the reasons why LinkedIn sometimes gets the reputation of “the most ignored social network” has less to do with the site itself and more about the site’s users. In my opinion, people have been using LinkedIn “wrong” for far too long.
It’s actually a very precise, far-reaching and inherently powerful opportunity that can EASILY be capitalized on by people who know what they’re doing. Hopefully, you and your MSP brand firmly fall into that category.
Your new, effective LinkedIn strategy starts here
Are you looking to discuss your LinkedIn strategy with an expert that has decades of experience in all things digital marketing? Great — I’m ready for that, too. I recommend reaching out to myself or one of my colleagues at Tech Pro Marketing so that we can start to transform YOUR LinkedIn profile into the MSP lead generation engine it was meant to be.
Photo: dennizn / Shutterstock
