The easy way to triple your LinkedIn leads.
Is lead generation new to you, or are you looking to revisit your existing LinkedIn strategy? In this blog, we unlock the incredible potential of LinkedIn and look at some simple lead generation strategies guaranteed to triple your results.
If you want to know how to find the right prospects, how to scale your outreach and how to save time automating your LinkedIn activities with Dux-Soup, read on.
What is Dux-Soup?
Dux-Soup is a Chrome extension that helps automate your lead generation activities on LinkedIn. It works by mimicking human behavior, giving you the ability to harness the power of LinkedIn by automating activities such as auto-visiting profiles, sending connection requests, sending InMails and endorsing skills. There are even more possibilities with Dux-Soup Turbo, which allows you to track campaigns, enroll prospects into campaigns and integrate with other platforms.
LinkedIn 101
Let’s start with some LinkedIn essentials…
Your profile - it’s essential your profile is up to date and relevant!
Why? What’s the first thing we all do when someone invites us to their network? We visit their profile!
And we’re all far more likely to react to the request if the information is professional, up to date, appropriate and relevant. Your profile is your advert.
Be active and present - everything you do on LinkedIn increases your visibility. When you’ve done something on LinkedIn, the first 64 characters of your profile are what people see of you.
Think beyond your job title to a tagline, one that’s relevant to the people you’re targeting. Don’t forget to make use of the background space behind your photo too!
Check out our article on 5 LinkedIn profile tips.
Quality over Quantity
Once upon a time, LinkedIn prospecting was a numbers game. You’d send 1000 connection requests a week and if you had an 8-10% acceptance rate, you’d be nice and busy with 80-100 new connections every week. Times have changed…
These days we’ve got to be more efficient with our lead generation.
LinkedIn controls are tighter than they used to be and connection requests are limited.
An 8-10% acceptance rate just isn’t enough if you can only send 250 connection requests.
With better targeting, a higher acceptance rate can be achieved. Take the time to find quality relevant leads. While it might be nice to chat to new connections, if they’re not a lead that results in a sale, they are not time well spent.
Quality leads means less wasted time for you.
Recommended LinkedIn automation daily limits
How do you find quality leads on LinkedIn?
Here are our top tips:
- Use your Boolean search terms (AND, OR and NOT) in your LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and Recruiter searches.
To see an example of how to do a Boolean search and use the filters, go to 22:08 mins of the webinar recording of The Easy way to Triple your LinkedIn leads.
- Target specific LinkedIn groups to find the right prospects. You can then run Dux-Soup against a list in a group membership. If you join a group, be an active and visible member! (NOTE: If you have Sales Navigator you don’t have to be a member of a group to see the population.)
To find out more about how to use the Groups in LinkedIn, go to 28:45 mins of the webinar recording.
- Use as many of the filters as you can to find the right people.
- Target by Location
- Target by Industry
- Target by company type/size
NOTE: There are different filters in LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and Recruiter
To learn more about some of the different lists available to you in LinkedIn, start watching the webinar recording at 26:24 mins. Examples include:
- People who have reacted to a post
- A University, College or anywhere with an alumni page
- A company page
- Different cultures have different accepted behaviors. Think about breaking down your results into manageable groups and customizing the approach you take with each.
- Use the LinkedIn functions to save your searches.
The more work you do to refine your filters and searches the more success you will have!
LinkedIn search and filter masterclass
How to find quality leads using Dux-Soup
Dux-Soup will also help you target the right people by skipping profiles you don’t want to include in your outreach.
- Skip profiles that aren’t relevant - If you’re looking to target people with vast networks, you can specify the minimum number of connections the profiles should have and anything less will be excluded.
- Skip profiles that mention certain roles or companies - To get even more targeted, there is a skipping function in Dux-Soup which allows you to exclude certain words from your search. This is great if you want to exclude competitors. For example, if you don’t want the search to pick up people with the title Financial Planner, specify this role in your search…
- Skip profiles you have previously visited - you may not want to view the same profiles again, that you’ve already. Dux-Soup enables you to select a period of time profiles should be skipped for, since their last visit.
- Skip profiles you have tagged - If you’ve used Dux-Soup to tag profiles, you can skip them too using the Skipping tool.
How to skip LinkedIn profiles with Dux-Soup LinkedIn automation.
For more tips on skipping, take a look at our recent blog - Blacklisting and Skipping profiles when automating campaigns with Dux-Soup.
Connecting with prospects: a 6-step strategy
- Once you’ve narrowed down your list and found your targets, use the information from the searches you carried out to build your messaging, and your campaigns if you have Dux-Soup Turbo. Let the prospects know how you found them, for example through a shared interest group, or a mutual contact.
- Always send a message. If you send a connection request without a message, a response comes down to luck! With a message your prospect is far more likely to consider your connection.
- Make the message(s) sound natural, and be empathetic. If you received the message would you respond to it? Before you send it, read it out loud, does it sound like you?
- Be patient! If you’re using Turbo with campaigns, resist the urge to send messages every couple of days. A lot of people don’t go onto LinkedIn everyday, and when they do log on, the last thing they want to see is a pile of messages from one person in their inbox. Leave plenty of time between your messages, give the prospect a chance to visit your profile and digest what you have to say.
- Test different messaging and monitor responses to see what works best. Divide your list of prospects into groups and send each group a different message. Which one is more effective?
6. Always make use of personalization and add the recipient’s name.
Customized connection messages
Dux-Soup helps you build customized messages, here’s how…
With Dux-Soup Pro, find your list of connections you want to connect with. Click on the Dux-Soup extension and click 'Connect'.
This will open up a box to allow you to personalize your connection message. Use the placeholders shows to add fields including name, company etc. to your connection message.
In the ‘Actions’ tab you can build your personalized customized message. The options available to you, follow the rules of LinkedIn.
With Dux-Soup Turbo, you create your connection message as a step in your drip campaign. You can either leave your campaign as just a connection request, or add further actions e.g. Visit, Follow, InMail, Endorse or Message.
See how to create drip campaigns with Dux-Soup.
There are many guides and tips about effective messaging. If you’re looking for a place to start, read the blog ‘The LinkedIn nurture sequence that achieves an 85% success rate’, in which Tyron Giuliani, the founder of Selling Made Social shares his personal strategies with Dux-Soup.
Lead Generation Strategies
Sending connection requests (or enrolling into a campaign if you have Turbo) is often the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about lead generation. However, there are other activities you can be doing that will improve your visibility. Participating on the platform is important too.
- Visiting profiles - Visiting a profile is a bonafide activity! Make sure your privacy settings are correct and your visit is visible to prospects. Then, create your list using your searches and use Dux-Soup to auto-visit profiles. Prospects will receive a notification of your visit, and they may even choose to visit you back and engage with you directly. Many Dux-Soup users visit a profile before sending a connection request, and find that this increased their connection acceptance rates.
- Be active on LinkedIn and participate in groups, comment on, and like posts.
- Use Dux-Soup to follow or endorse profiles. These actions can be automated as part of the drip campaigns available with a Dux-Soup Turbo license.
Using the 'Profile Visit' feature
Profile visits can be set-up as an action within your drip campaign with Dux-Soup Turbo. In this campaign, it is set as the action before sending a connection request, but it can be moved to after the connection request, or any point in your sequence (which can have up to 12 actions).
We find that the sequence of 'Visit' and then 'Connect' works best to maximize your connection acceptance rates and grow your network faster.
Turbo-charge your lead gen, by combining activities
LinkedIn has limitations and there are restrictions on the number of people you can invite into a campaign per day. This could be between 30-50 per day and will depend on your profile and whether you have a paid account. You can check this in Dux-Soup Options, on the Throttling tab.
Once you’ve done all your invite activities for the day, spend a little time visiting people on a different list. Visiting and opening profiles is a low risk activity that works really well for anyone that wants to increase their visibility in a low key way. If you’d rather not send out direct connection requests, doing visits is a valid alternative.
There you have it, the EASY way to triple your LinkedIn Leads! You really can Turbo charge your outreach by combining all of these activities.
- Decide on your strategy or strategies. Will you visit, visit and connect or enrol?
- To ensure you’re looking at the right target make sure you search, filter, filter and filter!
- As you build your messaging, test and measure it. Refine it. Then test and measure again.
- Be active and participate on LinkedIn. Use Dux-Soup to help automate these activities.
If you want to try Dux-Soup, before you buy, then register today for our 14-day FREE trial. No credit card, no commitment, no hassle!
