So... How are you really generating leads on LinkedIn?

Let me start by saying that I love data. I appear to have developed a bit of a reputation for the excitement I display when sharing stats on LinkedIn as demonstrated in this convenient comment below.

I think it's really important, in a space when people are genuinely looking to us (as in Jamie and myself) as well as a number of other LinkedIn-ers for support, advice and direction, to back up what we say to get business results, with real information and real insight.

There is a lot of conflicting info on how to use LinkedIn to generate leads...

• Don't direct message people, it's spammy
• Do direct message people. If you don't you are leaving relationships and money on the table
• Relevant, insightful and engaging content is all you need to generate those leads
• You need a whole approach to LinkedIn, that means both inbound and outbound marketing

You see...

No wonder people are confused and conflicted in what approach to take for their strategy! I mean just look at us in this pic :-)

And whilst I know what approach works for us, what we wanted to know was what other people were doing to generate leads on LinkedIn; how they were doing it, how long it had taken and how consistent their strategy was. 2 posts and 105 responses later and we have some simple yet informative stats which have given us some brilliant insight into what business owners and the sales crews out there are actually doing to generate those all important, business sustaining leads.

Stat Fact 1

68% of people actively using LinkedIn to build their business, have actually secured new business from LinkedIn.

Stat Fact 2

There is a huge variation in the number of leads people are getting on a consistent basis. We asked respondents how many leads they were averaging over a 3 month period and this is what they said...

??31% are getting no leads at all

??23% get between 1-2 leads

??13% get between 3-4 leads

??10% get between 5-6 leads

??1% get between 7-8 leads

??6% get between 9-10 leads

??16% are getting over 10 leads and this ranges hugely from 11 to 100!!

Huh. OK. So from the 68% of people that are getting leads, the range in quantity is massive. That made us want to look at the correlation (proper data word right there taking me back to my Sociology degree completed in 2004) between number of leads and LinkedIn strategy.

So to start with we looked at what the percentage of people not generating leads are doing day to day. In our mind there must have been something or several things missing from their strategy.

You can see what we found out in this short video...

You can see from the video that some people have only been using LinkedIn for lead generation for a short time. We view this as 3 months or less which, when you are starting out with a new strategy, especially one which which relies on inbound enquiries only, takes time and is often unpredictable.

The survey results also told us that for the most part, people who are not generating leads from LinkedIn are relying purely on inbound enquiries through posting content and engaging with the content of others.

This is a worthy and important strategy for business growth on LinkedIn but it's not the whole picture. So then we took a look at the group that are generating leads from LinkedIn.

Stat Fact 3

The number of leads over a 3 month period varied hugely. Some had got just 1-2. Others a handful but 16% were getting 10 leads or more over a 3 month period. This is the data we wanted to delve into a little further...

What are the people who are getting the most results, consistently, actually doing on LinkedIn?

You can watch what we discovered here...

Some interesting findings I hope you agree (if you're reading this far and have watched the videos I guess you do!)

As you can see, those that are generating the consistent leads are taking both an inbound and outbound approach to LinkedIn. We like to think of this as a whole approach to LinkedIn.

This means not only posting content and engaging publicly on the content of others, but connecting with new people (with your perfect client in mind of course) and messaging them directly to build relationships and create opportunities.

We know this is where people have the biggest struggles; creating a compelling message that makes people want to know more about how you can help them, when your own inbox is likely full of a load of salesy nonsense, but that's something left for another day.

The fact is, when people get their outbound strategy right, it works and it works quicker and more consistently than a purely inbound LinkedIn approach.

Stat Fact 4

On average it took LinkedIn lead generators between 3-6 months to generate their first lead. We think this is important to know because so often, people give up to easily and too soon.

Please don't...

So what can we conclude (again in true BA Sociology style) here?

• Having a whole strategy on LinkedIn, using both inbound and outbound approaches is what gets quicker and greater results
• Typically it takes between 3-6 months to get the ball rolling a LinkedIn lead generation startegy

One final point... we wish that we could fully understand the ins and outs of everyone who responded.

What is the value of their product or service? What is their conversion from lead to client ratio? Are there any industry differences in terms of success and approach?

But we don't know that right now.

What we do know is that success on LinkedIn is a result of consistent action over time, which takes a whole approach to building relationships with your perfect clients and customers. And that for the people who are finding this difficult, there is clearly an element missing or misaligned in their approach.

If you are familiar with Jamie and I you know that LinkedIn lead generation is our working world.

We coach and consult individual business owners, train sales teams and offer a Done for You service to build your brand and generate leads from LinkedIn. If you get a sense that we could help you and you want to chat, just send us a message on LinkedIn.