5 tips on using LinkedIn to generate leads for your B2B startup

Running a sales and marketing department in a B2B startup is totally different from running the same department in a B2C setting. The difference lies in how both acquire paying customers or users. While you probably need 100,000 users to be considered a “good” B2C startup, you may only need 10 to 20 paying businesses for your B2B product or service.

Additionally, while B2C startups can pay for ads in the App Store, on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social platform, the options are very limited for a B2B startup. For the latter, you must do boring things such as hiring sales reps, generating leads from limited channels, and trying to convert the leads to paying customers. You will not get enough customers without generating high-quality leads first, and based on my experience running the sales and marketing department for a digital content agency (Penulis.id), most of our important customers come from LinkedIn. In fact, 60 percent of our leads come from there, including “VVIP” corporate customers such as telco and cigarette companies.

How then do we actually generate high-quality leads and customers from LinkedIn? Here we go. (Spoiler: It does not involve spam.)

LinkedIn is not Facebook

So please don’t use your mega-cute selfie photo or a photo of your beloved cat on your profile. Before using LinkedIn to generate any leads (or using it for any meaningful purpose), you need to make your profile page as professional as possible. Use your best suit or dress and ask your photographer friend to create a professional look. Do not use your passport photo either—it looks stupid. Make sure that your profile photo is professional enough to make your prospective leads trust you.

Not the best photo for LinkedIn. Photo credit: PixelMakerEric.

Consider your profile on LinkedIn as your portfolio and credentials. You can share your client case studies, recommendations, or testimonials. If you have the extra money, you can go premium for US$59 a month. This can help you look more professional in front of your prospective leads and also give you extra features such as unlimited search and InMail.

Do not spam your connections

When someone accepts your connection request, it is very easy to send them your sales pitch and try to sell them something. However, this will only ruin your social value and earn you and your B2B startup a reputation as a spammer. Not a good scenario, right? So what should we do after someone accepts our connection request?

Simply introduce yourself and offer them case studies that may relate to them. Do not try to sell anything. Instead, try to give them case studies similar to their potential problem. Make sure they know that you’re available to talk further if they want to discuss. In the end, the target is not sales, but a coffee meeting with your new LinkedIn buddy.

You must position yourself as someone who wants to help them, not to sell them something.

Share something related to your industry

It can be a case study, a research, PDF content, or other such useful information. You can also use LinkedIn post to share about anything related to your industry. It will build your credentials and if you’re lucky it will generate leads for your startup as well. My department once released a PDF document on a new way to write in social media, and it generated more than 3,000 leads without us paying for any ad services.

However, do make sure you send the actual PDF. Why? Because there are some jerks who offer PDF content to generate leads but don’t actually send them. It is truly bad for business if you are lying to your prospective leads.

Scroll over LinkedIn home and groups

Sometimes, you will find something interesting in LinkedIn home or groups. People share whatever they want and sometimes there is an opportunity.

For example, my startup offers digital content services for companies. When I saw one of my connections post a job ad for a writer position, I tried to reach them and share my expertise on digital content. I know they needed a new writer because they wanted to create content for their business, and they wanted to create content for their business because they needed to generate their own leads. So, I reached out and offered them advice on digital content. More often than not, this technique helps me secure invites for coffee meetings and get leads to try our content services.

Keep the relationship even if they don’t buy