LinkedIn Lead Generation For 2024: Best Strategies

More than 1 billion professionals across 200 countries use LinkedIn. With that many people in one place, it's prime real estate for finding new customers. 

You may have heard LinkedIn is only suitable for finding a job or that LinkedIn marketing is just for B2B companies. That's simply not true. With the right strategies, any business can generate quality leads on LinkedIn. 

As a benchmarking and data provider, Varos works closely with businesses to help them achieve their goals on LinkedIn. This article will outline the best practices to generate leads on LinkedIn in 2024.

Why LinkedIn is the Best Platform for Lead Generation

We get it. Modern marketing is complex. Every platform seems like a viable option. Yet you likely have a limited budget and can't spread yourself too thin. So why choose LinkedIn over other social platforms?

Targeted Audience of Professionals and Decision-Makers 

At least half of LinkedIn's members come from households earning over $75,000. These are professionals in their fields who have buying power. They're on LinkedIn for work, making them more receptive to solutions that can improve their lives. 

Compare that to someone scrolling through Facebook looking at pictures of their neighbor's cat. They aren't necessarily ready to purchase at that moment.

LinkedIn has a different, more professional vibe. The people there mean business.

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Accurate Targeting Options

Just because LinkedIn users are willing and able buyers doesn't mean all 1 billion+ of them want your product in particular. Effective targeting then becomes vital. 

Luckily, LinkedIn targeting is spot on. You can target by job title, company, industry, seniority level, and more. This allows you to reach the users most likely to convert to customers.

Higher Conversion Rates Than Other Platforms 

At the end of the day, marketing has to fit within your budget. Because of accurate targeting and professional audiences, LinkedIn delivers higher conversion rates, up to 2 times more than other social platforms.

That means a better return on ad spend and return on investment. And every good business owner knows how crucial those metrics are.  

Wide Variety of Sales Tools

Finally, LinkedIn edges out other platforms due to its variety of sales tools. These allow you to generate leads from LinkedIn and connect with potential clients far more efficiently. Having all these tools in one place makes managing your sales efforts much easier. Specific tools include Sales Navigator, Lead Gen Forms, Sponsored InMail, and more.

There's even LinkedIn Learning, where you'll find valuable resources on the latest topics like AI, marketing automation, and beyond.

How to Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation 

Every platform is unique, so marketers approach lead generation differently on each. For example, Instagram marketing is all about visuals and hashtags. TikTok is about trends and short videos. And Twitter is about quantity and thought leadership.

LinkedIn is a mix of all these techniques. Here's what using LinkedIn to generate leads looks like:

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Company Page

Before spending time or money on LinkedIn marketing, you must optimize your company page. It's the first place people visit to learn about you. With a poorly optimized page, you risk losing them before even making your pitch.

Critical elements of an optimized LinkedIn company page include:

• A professional profile picture: Use a high-quality, friendly headshot. One that builds credibility and trust with visitors. Make sure it's well-lit and that you're dressed professionally.  
• A clear, concise description of your business: Explain what your company does, who it serves, and what makes it unique. All in a few concise sentences.  
• Use of relevant keywords for better searchability: Conduct keyword research to determine terms and phrases your target customers use when searching for your products/services. Organically incorporate these into your profile description and content.
• Showcasing your products and services: Feature visuals of your products in use along with testimonials and benefits. Use videos or an image carousel to highlight your services and offerings.  

Leveraging LinkedIn Ads 

Content marketing is one way to go, which we'll explore later. But many companies choose to use paid ads on LinkedIn. We could write a whole guide just on LinkedIn ads, but here's a quick overview of the main types:

• Sponsored Content Ads: Appear in the LinkedIn feed alongside organic posts. Can take the form of a single image, carousel, document, or video. 
• Sponsored InMail Ads: Allow you to contact LinkedIn members via personalized emails directly
• Text Ads: Display text-based ads optimized for mobile
• Dynamic Ads: Hyper-personalized ads based on each user's data. 

Understanding LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Another helpful LinkedIn tool is Sales Navigator. With it, you can identify decision-makers using advanced filters and lead scoring.

You can then personalize outreach to nurture promising leads. Sales Navigator also integrates with CRMs to streamline the process. Focusing your efforts on warmer leads is crucial, so make sure to tailor your message to their specific needs and pain points.

Effective LinkedIn Lead Generation Strategies

You now understand the basics of LinkedIn marketing. Next, we'll explore strategies to guide your efforts.

Competitor Analysis  

As a benchmarking solution, LinkedIn competitor analysis is our specialty here at Varos. Take time to study what your competitors are doing well on LinkedIn regarding content marketing and lead generation. 

Analyze the types of posts and content they publish, their engagement levels, their follower counts, and growth over time. You can use free tools or invest in software to track competitors' LinkedIn activity and performance.

Once you understand what's working for competing brands, you can model their best practices while improving upon their efforts. Outperform them by offering even more valuable content that better resonates with your target audience. Competitor analysis should be an ongoing process.

Offer Valuable Content

Remember when we said we'd talk more about organic marketing? Here is where it comes into play. You can organically attract and engage leads on LinkedIn by distributing valuable content. Remember to be consistent and quality-oriented. 

Popular content types to experiment with include:

• Image carousels to showcase products/services or tell a visual story
• Short videos that educate or entertain target customers 
• Industry reports, ebooks, whitepapers, and presentations with valuable data or insights 
• Webinars, virtual summits, and other online events that provide value 
• Client case studies showing how you solved real problems  

Test different formats and analyze engagement data to determine what resonates most with your audience. Cover topics and questions your ideal customers care about. Promote your content across LinkedIn Groups, Pages, ads, and through employee networks. 

Nurture Leads Across Multiple Channels 

LinkedIn delivers excellent conversion rates from cold audiences; we've established this. However, some promising leads need more nurturing before becoming sales-ready. That's why you'll likely want to develop sequenced, personalized campaigns. The goal is to continue engaging these warm leads. 

For example, you can target LinkedIn leads with customized email nurturing tracks when they leave the platform. Send a series of helpful, relevant messages that provide added value and build trust over time. Work towards introducing your services and offering demos.

You can also nurture LinkedIn leads by directing them to a microsite with more content. Retarget them on Facebook or Google ads to increase brand familiarity. Long story short: you want to keep your brand top-of-mind while positioning your company as a trusted expert resource.

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Best Practices For LinkedIn Lead Gen in 2024

By now, you must have some understanding of the fundamentals. Perhaps you're even ready to begin your campaign. In any case, here are a few essential tips to implement as you launch your LinkedIn efforts:

Align Sales and Marketing Teams

In many industries, there's a constant tug-of-war between sales and marketing teams. Sales is mad at marketing for not bringing in quality leads. Marketing is mad at sales for not converting the leads they provide. Sound familiar?

In 2024, alignment between teams matters more than ever. Adopt an account-based marketing approach with common goals. Ways to achieve this include:

• Weekly meetings to discuss challenges and strategize together
• Using shared CRM software to view lead progress
• Agreeing on lead definitions, expectations, and processes  
• Create content and campaigns together

Focus on Top to Mid-Funnel Offers

For some products, targeting bottom-of-funnel leads works well. Think of an Instagram ad that goes straight to a product page for clothes or makeup. However, for complex B2B offers, top to mid-funnel content performs better on LinkedIn. 

You want to hook leads with valuable content first. Then, gradually introduce them to your product or service. In other words, don't go for the hard sell right away. You might scare them off. Warm them up first.

Use A/B Testing 

A/B testing allows you to test different campaign elements, such as headlines, images, and CTAs, to determine what works best.  

Tips for effective A/B testing include:

• Only changing one variable at a time
• Allowing enough time for meaningful data
• Testing on a small scale first before expanding

Optimize Your Bidding Strategy

For LinkedIn ads, be sure to select "Leads" as your optimization goal. Begin with manual bidding to find your sweet spot, then use automation to scale. Gradually increase bids and analyze conversion data. 

Once you have enough data, you can use automation to take a more hands-off approach. It does take some trial and error, but optimizing your bidding strategy can have a significant impact on your LinkedIn ROI.

Measure and Analyze Results   

The final critical step is tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and optimizing based on the insights you find. Metrics to monitor include:

• Click-through rate: The percentage of people who click on your LinkedIn ads after the ads are shown. 
• Cost per lead: The average amount you spend on LinkedIn ads to acquire each lead. Benchmark competitor CPLs to aim for.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of leads generated on LinkedIn that end up converting into paying customers. 

How Varos Can Help

Ultimately, it all comes down to data to make the right decisions. You must measure results and then optimize accordingly. As a benchmarking platform, Varos allows you to compare your LinkedIn lead generation ads performance against competitors. Our LinkedIn lead generation services enable you to gauge opportunities for improvement.

We invite you to schedule a free demo of Varos to see how we can help analyze your LinkedIn efforts.