11 Expert Strategies to Increase LinkedIn Leads with Automation

Lead generation is one of the most efficient means of generating extra revenue for businesses. It's a process of guiding potential customers through your business's sales funnel, right down to where they make the final purchase.

Lead generation is important for businesses because it provides a structure for growth and revenue—leaving nothing to chance. Think of a business without lead generation as a ship sailing without a captain; it's left to the ocean's whims. That's not a great experience.

While there are many platforms where you can grow your business, LinkedIn tends to be the most effective, especially as 96% of B2B marketers use the platform for content distribution.

In this article, we'll dive into LinkedIn lead generation, and expert strategies to increase LinkedIn leads with automation for your business. Read on if you'd love to learn more.

What is LinkedIn lead generation?

As the name suggests, LinkedIn lead generation refers to attracting prospects or potential customers for your business's funnel using the LinkedIn social media platform. It is typically achieved using the following ways:

• Using LinkedIn ads for promotion
• Creating and publishing relevant content
• Fostering communication and engagement with prospects using communities and groups

Some lead generation techniques are more effective than others for LinkedIn, and some approaches are industry-specific or peculiar to your target audience. 

For example, free and fast techniques like regularly updating your page with industry news or keeping up interactions in LinkedIn Groups may help you attract new prospects. However, paid techniques like sponsored content and lead gen forms are more specific and get you your target audience.

Similarly, there are rules to follow that will help create strategies in LinkedIn lead generation effectively for your business.

The main objective is to create a relationship between your business and people who would be interested in what it offers, otherwise known as potential customers. 

Once you can establish that connection, the next step is to nourish the relationship and guide them into paying for your products and services. We refer to this as your prospects entering your sales funnel and lead nurturing.

Why LinkedIn?

With all the social media options available today, you might be wondering why LinkedIn should take precedent on your lead generation list. One major reason is that the global advertising industry highly recommends LinkedIn as a trusted medium, with over 58 million companies worldwide having created communities for their brand on the platform.

LinkedIn is a thriving environment for leads in over 200 countries, with 2.9 million groups, over 55 million companies, and more than 774 million users.

All that sounds like a wealth of prospective customers for any business to tap into, and missing out on the opportunity to attract high-value customers is something you don't want to do.

What is LinkedIn automation?

First off, LinkedIn automation covers a large assortment of practices. They all, however, have one common attribute; making the rather mechanical tasks of lead generation simpler through automation. In other words, some tools take over the operations instead of running the processes yourself.

‍LinkedIn automation tools could either be designed as low-tech solutions, such as templates, or high-tech AI solutions. 

They could also be browser-based or cloud-based. Whatever the case, these tools help you maintain an active presence on the LinkedIn platform without so much manual effort.

Automated processes are time-savers and they generate much more leads. It all adds up to the final point; creating a sustainable customer acquisition and conversion sales funnel. Such a funnel would be a crucial supporting structure for business growth.

Other benefits of automation tools include:

• Personalizing mass outreach strategies makes your messaging natural and less robotic to its recipients, no matter how many of them your business communicates with.
• Integration with other lead generation software, meaning all marketing campaigns can be aligned in one place.
• Simplifying A/B testing processes helps identify and narrow down the best options.
• Automatic report generation on the performance of your outreach campaigns.

11 expert strategies to increase LinkedIn leads with automation

Now that we've decided to run LinkedIn lead generation on 'autopilot,' here are the best strategies for optimal results.

1. Build and maintain a strong LinkedIn presence

This ties in with creating awareness about your brand and what you offer. Your brand is your business's reputation and very often the first thing any prospective leads notice. You should make sure that it attracts them.

There are many tips to make sure your brand has that pull. The most important one is that your profile is complete, with professional-grade high-res logos and photographs. You also want to make sure leads can find you if they choose to reach out, so your contact info should be easily accessible. And when they contact you, it’s important to always be available to answer promptly.

LinkedIn automation tools like Inlytics can help optimize your efforts with search engine optimization (SEO) keyword research, use branding concepts, and place key digital content (how-to guides, FAQ pages, videos, and website links) strategically on your page to achieve an elevated look.

2. Automate your research processes

Lead generation is  all about your data, how you interpret and use it to make improvements. For instance, you can  identify market segments and develop customer profiles.

A good example is using behavioral lead data to personalize your campaigns and channels. You can get an idea of your prospects' typical behavior, and use this to align your campaigns with it.

Collecting this data manually, however, can be tedious. Imagine having to sift through hundreds of businesses on the LinkedIn platform to identify potential targets. With LinkedIn automation tools, research is simplified greatly. In a matter of moments, you can carry out tasks like scraping for CRM data, sourcing contact information, or lead identification without anyone breaking a sweat.

3. Double down on targeted advertising

One of the most effective strategies for lead generation is targeted advertising. With targeted advertising, your marketing efforts are focused on a specific audience, increasing your chances of leading more prospects into your funnel because they best align with your brand and its products and services.

There are already several LinkedIn tools you can use for targeting prospects. These automated tools help you pinpoint which companies or communities fit youraudience.

They offer analytical insight into your ads, from which you can create a better messaging matrix (email communications, website copy, newsletters) that suits your audience. Some tools also enable retargeting, which is essential in nurturing leads.

4. Create marketing campaigns based on LinkedIn

There are two forms of lead generation; outbound and inbound. The first involves engaging with a vast audience, hoping to create interest in your products and services and draw in potential customers. Inbound lead generation, however, is more effective in getting qualified leads. Instead of a broad audience, inbound lead generation uses targeted content to attract the perfect user.

Sure, such a process sounds like it would require much more work, especially for LinkedIn, but thanks to automated tools, it is so much easier to create targeted marketing campaigns. 

What’s the connection between LinkedIn and marketing campaigns? LinkedIn’s enterprise products are highly effective, evident in the fact that about 97% of the companies on the Fortune 500 list are active customers of the platform. 

The LinkedIn environment is also a great space for pushing your brand to prospects. If ever there was a place you needed to advertise your brand and see results, it would be on LinkedIn.

You can use your personal network and LinkedIn connections to boost your campaign. You may not exactly find your target audience in your connections, but you can encourage engagements and interactions. 

Solutions like Phantombuster can also automate email sending on LinkedIn for connections or events and communities.

5. Automate your content planning processes

Still, in creating a positive image for your business, the type of content you publish can often determine how customers view your brand. Content on thought leadership is one of the most viable types to consider for a LinkedIn lead generation strategy.  

For one, it creates the impression that your business is thoughtful, credible, and innovative. People like to associate with brands with value, and there's no better way to ensure that's how they see your brand even after long elapsed campaigns. To buttress, 65% of customers  have a better perception of a company thanks to it publishing thought leadership content.

Luckily, creating extensive and linking content plans can be done by pushing a button. LinkedIn automation tools like SocialPilot are designed especially for this purpose with features in content curation and post scheduling. You can also use software like HubSpot’s Blog Ideas Generator to generate topics perfect for target audience engagement while implementing keywords.

6. Automate your lead filtering and qualification

We talked about the importance of identifying high-value customers.  A common tactic is to screen and score your leads as you execute outreach sequences, and this is done by defining the criteria that best determines what your brand considers to be the most high-quality accounts engaging you.

This is crucial in helping you determine where your sales efforts will be optimized. While you can do this manually, it makes more sense to automate the process.

With automated tools, like LinkedIn Sales Navigator the process of gathering data from your clients is made much easier and faster. This data can then be used to identify the best criteria for high-quality leads. So, if you're looking to pick out the characteristics that would identify a prospect with higher potential, automation is the way to go.

7. Automate your engagements

Automating all of your interactions on LinkedIn isn't a really great idea because you want your communication to have a personal touch to it.

It is possible, however, to use automated engagement to your advantage. For example, these tools can help you filter and identify which profiles, communities, and groups are relevant to your business. They can also incorporate engagements as an active part of your business's workflows.

It's also a good way to boost your social selling index (SSI)  which is a score that shows how well you have established your brand, your engagements, and if you are networking with the right connections. 

8. Improve your content creation process with automation

The process of content creation may seem daunting for your team, but you can simplify it through automation. Some content creation processes already have software available to aid creative teams:

• Graphic design
• Copywriting
• Editing (involves readability checks and SEO)

Some AI solutions like SurferSEO provide edits in real-time, optimizing content to the best practices. Others automatically create alternate texts for images and meta tags. There are also even solutions that notify you of broken links in your content.

If you're worried about delivering quality in your content creation processes, automating them is the way to go.

You can also diversify your content by adding more video-related material. Examples include how-to videos, tutorials, webinars, and demos.

9. Automate your messaging

Your messages can be flagged as spam if they appear disruptive and don’t have a personalized tone. Since you want to ensure that you have faster response rates or not wanting to miss out on conversations, you can hire a 24/7 virtual receptionist service.

To use automated messaging acceptably, you must ensure that whatever communication takes place is based on a well-thought-out template. Place emphasis on what your audience can gain from the messages, not just what you feel is right. 

Ensure that all copy is personalized and well-designed, by studying your audience’s interactions and knowing what they’re interested in, and drawing templates that are relevant to their situations.

10. Improve your SEO practices

Proper SEO is necessary for improving your content’s visibility.  

LinkedIn uses algorithms like most search engines to rank search results. Each LinkedIn profile page has a relevance score, which is calculated on metrics (that LinkedIn is very secretive about). Fortunately, LinkedIn ranking works with most of the same search engine techniques experts recommend as factors to boost rankings.

Some of the metrics for ensuring your profile is of high-relevance are keywords, user activity, content relevance, number of existing connections, and endorsements and recommendations.

On the bright side, meeting all of those requirements is easier these days, thanks to automation tools. Some of the functions SEO solutions can accomplish include:

• Analyzing search engine result pages and identifying relevant, high-value keywords
• Suggesting specific keywords for campaigns
• Evaluating keyword competition
• Recommending effective options for keyword implementation

Automated SEO practices help build effective campaigns.

11. Simplify and improve your lead nurturing

Nurturing leads is a term used to describe guiding prospects through your sales funnel, one stage at a time. As essential as this process is, it can be slow. Thankfully, automation can speed it up.

Seeing as it helps cultivate and manage business-customer relationships, automation is a more effective means to lead prospects through your funnel.

A great example of automation tools with lead nurturing capabilities is WeConnect.

Conclusion

You shouldn't have to struggle with lead generation. Or any other process when it comes to LinkedIn. With the number of automation tools available, there is a solution for every professional networking need you may have.

Before we wrap up completely, let's go over some of the most frequently asked questions about LinkedIn automation tools and lead generation.

Why do you need LinkedIn lead generation?

LinkedIn ranks  at the top of the list when it comes to lead generation.

How to get more leads with Linkedin automation tools?

Tools like Expandi help you automate your marketing outreaches on LinkedIn, optimizing them so they can convert leads into clients.

What problems can be solved using LinkedIn automation tools?

Most businesses (and people) find it difficult to manage all of their LinkedIn functions at the same time, such as managing multiple accounts and roles, results from outreaches, or privacy settings.