Your LinkedIn lead generation platform is only as successful as your prospect research. Conducting research can help you create a more optimized profile, a more targeted Advanced Search and a more engaging messaging strategy. In turn, you can take what you learned from your LinkedIn lead generation to fine tune your prospect profile and create a better understanding of customer behavior.
Refining your LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategy
If you are looking to make sure you are targeting the right people on LinkedIn, there are many different tools that you can use to help:
- Keyword research tool such as Google Keyword Planner
- Buzzsumo
- Facebook’s Lookalike Audience
- A keyword question research tool like AnswerThePublic.com
Keyword Research
Conducting keyword research helps you to better understand the terms your prospects are using to search for products and services like yours. Including keywords in your LinkedIn profile, Company page and LinkedIn articles will help you attract your key prospects and encourage them to become first degree connections.
Buzzsumo
A tool like Buzzsumo can help you see how your competitors have used keyword topics in their own social media posts. This will help you learn what people are talking about, what posts are successful and what posts were quickly buried in the newsfeed.
Facebook’s Lookalike Audience
Facebook’s Lookalike Audience tool allows you to see key information about your prospects. As you learn what type of ads will perform the best on Facebook, you gain key information that you can transfer to other social media sites, such as LinkedIn.
Keyword Question Tool
Due to the advancements in search engine analytics, most people conduct research by asking questions. When you learn the types of questions people ask around specific keywords, you learn about the type of problems they are trying to solve. This information helps you learn more about your prospect that you can leverage in your LinkedIn profile, direct messages and posts you share to engage with your network.
How LinkedIn Helps Prospect Research
Your LinkedIn lead generation efforts can also help you gain more insight about your prospect that can help other aspects of your company. Key areas that can help your research include:
- Who viewed your profile
- Your Followers
- People click on your articles
- LinkedIn Groups
Who Viewed Your Profile
LinkedIn offers you insights into the people who have viewed your profile but didn’t decide to send you a connection request. Most people use this information to determine if they want to send out a connection request to those who viewed their profile.
But you can also use this another way. This section on LinkedIn lets you see:
- The titles these people hold
- The companies they work for
- How they found you
That information helps you to understand whether the individuals who are looking for you are a good fit for your ideal prospect and are key decision makers. If they aren’t a good fit, you may want to consider reviewing your prospect profile and lead generation strategy to make the necessary adjustments.
Your Followers
When you are on LinkedIn people can decide to Follow you. Following a person is a way to see their LinkedIn activity without needing to become a first degree connection. Your followers on LinkedIn are comprised of your first degree connections and people who follow you without becoming a first degree connection.
That sounds a little complicated, but there is a benefit. Because if you have followers who aren’t connected with you then there is a potential opportunity. These people may be ideal prospects who haven’t decided they want to connect with you yet. Reaching out to them can help you gain more connections and learn more about the type of ideal prospect you may not be reaching with your prospect profile.
People who click on your articles
When you publish an article on LinkedIn you gain access to analytics that help you learn more about the people who clicked on your article. This information is similar to what you see for people who view your profile, but it does give you some insight into viewers who were interested in your article. You can also see everyone who liked and commented on your article.
This helps you to make sure that the content you publish on LinkedIn is reaching and engaging with ideal prospects. It also provides you with key insights into content you can create for your company blog.
LinkedIn Groups
“Where does my prospect hang out?” is a pivotal question of prospect research that isn’t always easy to answer. But answering this question helps you understand more about the problems they are trying to solve and where you need to be to reach them.
LinkedIn Groups are great for prospect research. Take a look at some of your connections to determine common groups they are a part of. If you join these groups you can see the types of questions they ask while providing information in the group to help them solve their problems.
Prospect research and LinkedIn lead generation are an evolving process. You start with what you know, but as you engage with the people in your network you uncover more information about them that allows you to shape a more targeted marketing strategy. Use tools like Keyword Research and Question Research to shape your LinkedIn strategy. Take what you learn from conversations with your prospects to guide how you refine your definition of your ideal prospect. This research and knowledge can help you shape the services you offer and the marketing you create as well.
At RevGrow, our LinkedIn lead generation platform isn’t one-size fits all. We tailor our strategies to meet our clients’ needs and to evolve as company goals change. Learn more by scheduling a call with us today.