Unless you've spent the last two years living on the moon, you probably know that the way LinkedIn is being used for lead generation has evolved.
Admittedly, the daily/weekly limits that were imposed back in 2021 came as a shock to most. However, the benefits they have created for business owners and sales professionals have proved to be game-changing.
Instead of a platform that encouraged users to connect en masse with anyone who would accept an invitation, users have now been forced to adopt a more targeted approach to their outreach campaigns; and a more business-savvy approach to staying top-of-mind.
With over 930 million LinkedIn users, it can be daunting to identify your target audience and manually connect with them.
The good news is that Dux-Soup, world’s leading LinkedIn automation tool, can do all of this for you. By automating the most time-consuming activities, such as visiting profiles, sending connection invitations, and follow-up messages, the tool can significantly improve the results of your LinkedIn outreach efforts.
In this article, I’ll reveal my 5 top tips to help you grow your LinkedIn network organically.
Your LinkedIn profile is your shop window. You've already lost potential connections if this doesn't represent you or your business in its best light.
Make sure you consider who your target audience is and select the right keywords to differentiate yourself from your competition.
Focus on the following areas of your LinkedIn profile to make sure your profile stands out, helping you grow your LinkedIn network.
Banner
Your profile banner needs to attract attention and be clear about what you do. A photo of a beach is only relevant if you are in the photography or travel industry, so avoid personal images.
Include your contact details so you're easy to find, and use your business logo or colored background to generate interest.
Title
You're competing with many other accountants, designers, marketers, etc. So you need to set yourself apart from your peers. Tell your prospects what you do and who you do it for, not the job title on your contract.
Instead of ‘Marketer', perhaps you can write ‘Demand generation expert, specializing in LinkedIn'. Instead of ‘Telecoms Managing Director', you can use ‘Connecting business with business & future proofing B2B connectivity'.
About
Don’t just copy-paste your CV or resume into your ‘About’ section.
This section is your opportunity to highlight why your experience is invaluable to your prospects. This is where you differentiate yourself within your industry and grow your LinkedIn network.
Use your selected keywords in your copy and break up content with line breaks and headers so it's visually easier to read.
Your aim is to draw people in to read more about you and your capabilities, so make sure your profile is engaging.
For more information on creating the perfect LinkedIn profile, look at this recent article from LinkedIn Marketing expert Tracy Enos.
Using the right marketing tools you can improve the results of your LinkedIn marketing initiatives and grow your LinkedIn network.
Make your life easier by using a CRM like HubSpot, an email marketing tool like Woodpecker, or a LinkedIn automation tool like Dux-Soup.
These tools have been developed to help you build and manage your end-to-end marketing strategy. And many of them also offer integrations with other complementary marketing tools that will help you grow your LinkedIn network.
Manually searching LinkedIn for your ideal prospects is a painstaking task, even when you know what you're looking for. Automating aspects of your marketing activity can help you save time, allowing you or your team to generate huge process efficiencies.
A LinkedIn automation tool like Dux-Soup, which allows you to personalize your outreach activity, can help you to manage the more labor-intensive, initial lead generation activities.
Tasks like creating lists, visiting profiles, and sending out connection messages can be automated. This frees your time, so you can focus on more important activities like driving more conversions and growing your business.
Dux-Soup users can automate their workflows to help scale lead-generation activities and reach a broader target audience in a fraction of the time.
Dux-Soup also makes it easy to drive more revenue from LinkedIn by offering integrations with other marketing tools, such as Pipedrive, Zapier, and Make.
With access to so many LinkedIn users, it can be challenging to learn how to start narrowing your search to find your target audience and grow your LinkedIn network.
Most profiles have a connection limit of 250 per week to encourage more targeted prospecting. There are several ways to ‘warm up' profiles before sending a connection invitation, which increases the chance of your request being accepted.
Here are four simple ways to optimize your outreach strategy.
Join groups
There are many different groups on LinkedIn, from university Alumni and companies of employment groups to groups specific to an industry or sector.
The list is endless. Joining a group is a simple way to gain instant access to a huge portfolio of new prospects.
2nd degree connections
Use the power of your existing connections to drive the growth of your network. Each time you connect with someone, you are given access to an entirely new network of 2nd degree connections.
Target these 2nd degree connections in your network to convert them into 1st degree connections and repeat the process.
Visit profiles
As a free LinkedIn user, your daily ‘visit' limit is restricted to 500 profile views. If you have a Recruiter or Sales Navigator account, this limit is increased to 2,500 per day.
A prospect is notified when a profile visit happens and is notified who has visited their page. This can often result in a reciprocal visit, where the user sends you a connection message.
With a Dux-Soup account, this activity can be automated. Dux-Soup opens the target prospects one-by-one, warming up your profile, so when you choose to send a connection request, the user is more likely to accept it.
If you use Dux-Soup Pro or Dux-Soup Turbo you can also download the data for the profiles you have visited. This means you can store it for future marketing campaigns as well.
Scan profiles
Scanning LinkedIn profiles using Dux-Soup is a quick way of accessing account information without viewing a user's page. It does not impact your LinkedIn limits and the account holder is not notified of the visit.
Working through hundreds of profiles in minutes, the data recorded is less detailed than the data obtained during a profile visit (omitting company and contact data for example).
You can import visit and scan data from Dux-Soup into Excel for continued re-use. You can even use Dux-Soup to revisit this data to check for accuracy before using it in any subsequent campaigns.
It's the perfect tool to help you optimize your lead generation strategy by creating huge efficiencies in your LinkedIn lead generation process. This will help you grow your LinkedIn network organically.
The art of successfully connecting with a prospect relies on the right targeting and your ability to send a compelling connection message.
The ultimate goal is a sale, but there's a way to go before you get to that step in the process. You need to be connected, which means you need a prospect to engage with you.
Here are some great tips about how to reach your prospects and personalize your messaging for successful engagement:
Use these to effectively grow your LinkedIn network.
As a result of visiting and scanning profiles, joining groups, and targeting 2nd-degree connections, you will now have access to a vast amount of profile data. This is the perfect starting point for a campaign.
Campaigns are a great way to boost your brand awareness. With Dux-Soup you can run multiple campaigns, for different audiences, concurrently.
To start a campaign, simply select the required parameters, add your content messaging, choose your timing schedule, and automate your campaign sequence to send up to 11 messages at different intervals.
Better still, Dux-Soup’s Funnel Flow facility provides end-to-end visibility of your campaigns so that you can monitor progress in real-time.
To access Dux-Soup campaigns (we call them drip campaigns), you'll need to run a free trial or have a Dux-Soup Turbo license.
Q1. How can I get more connections on LinkedIn?
A. Here are some tips to get more connections and grow your LinkedIn network:
Q2. How do I grow my LinkedIn followers organically?
A. Here are some tips to grow your LinkedIn network organically:
Q3. Can I buy LinkedIn followers?
A. While there are options available to buy LinkedIn followers, it’s not recommended. Buying followers might seem beneficial in the short term, but it’s not good for long-term growth.
After all, the followers you buy are not relevant and do not help you achieve your LinkedIn marketing goals. And don’t forget, if you get caught, you might face penalties and may even get your account banned.
So, it’s not a good idea to buy followers to grow your LinkedIn network. Instead, try to grow your LinkedIn network organically and acquire genuine followers.
Q4. How frequently should I post on LinkedIn?
A. You should post two to five times a week to stay top-of-mind of your LinkedIn audience. If you want to grow your LinkedIn network, you need to share useful and relevant content, instead of just focusing on quantity over quality.
Q5. Should I use hashtags on LinkedIn?
A. Yes, using hashtags can help you reach a relevant audience and get more views on your posts. By broadening your content’s reach you can gain more followers, which helps grow your LinkedIn network.
While it’s important to grow your LinkedIn network, it’s equally important to nurture your existing relationships. While your product or service may not be something your prospect needs right now; with the right engagement, you'll be top-of-mind when they do.
Continue to engage with your prospects by endorsing their skills, posting relevant value-add content, and commenting on their posts. These are simple ways to introduce yourself and the business you represent, and grow your LinkedIn network.
For more tips and techniques on engaging with your prospects check out this article on LinkedIn lead generation strategies that will help you grow your LinkedIn network.
If you’d like to try Dux-Soup then why not register for our free trial — we won’t even ask for your payment details. We walk you through the entire process using our Easy Tutorials or you can take a look at our blog.
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