Consistency is key when it comes to building relationships on LinkedIn.

Posting at least once a week and reaching out to interesting people in your industry will get you far in this game.

But how do you leverage LinkedIn for lead generation? There are two strategies you can consider: outbound and inbound.

LinkedIn Outbound: Outreach the Right Way

Something I like to do on a daily basis is to try to get to know new people with interesting job experiences in my industry.

I start by simply sending over a connection request presenting myself and asking what keeps them busy these days.

Truly listening to other people and trying to discover what they wish to accomplish before arranging a meeting in real life or over Skype, will truly help you move forward and grasp LinkedIn’s potential.

If you run a platform, LinkedIn can hand you feedback or new users. If you run a service-based organization, LinkedIn can provide you with new clients and referrals.

How to Create an Effective LinkedIn Outbound Strategy in 2019

Most people only send an initial connection request and a follow-up message. But the sales professionals who reap the benefits of LinkedIn are doing something different: They are implementing an outbound strategy with multiple touchpoints.

The strategy I’ve recently used for a B2B SaaS client looked like this:

Step 1: Like, comment, endorse them, or share one of their posts.

Like, comment, endorse them, or share one of their posts. Step 2: Send a connection request with a humorous message.

Send a connection request with a humorous message. Step 3: Send a follow-up message. (If they reply, try to hop on a call with the lead.)

Send a follow-up message. (If they reply, try to hop on a call with the lead.) Step 4: (if they do not reply to the follow-up message) Repeat Step 1.

(if they do not reply to the follow-up message) Repeat Step 1. Step 5: Send a short email sequence with software like Salesflare‘s email workflows (here’s some videos of their customers using it).

Aside from creating multiple touchpoints with individual connections, broaden your outreach beyond senior-level executives.

Why? Buying decisions are no longer tied to senior executives. An article published by Google pointed out that 81% of non-C-suiters actually have some influence over purchase decisions.

Added to that, B2B buyers are made up of a team of decision-makers, not individuals. This makes it a must for you to nurture awareness and trust, and address the pain points of employees across a company’s structure.

Here is a good template for doing outbound on LinkedIn we’ve been using for one of our clients:

Hey [NAME],

I’m Sal, Director of Ad Copy Central, we specialize in writing Facebook Ads copy that doesn’t suck so that you can stop losing money on your campaigns.

Click accept if you’re interested 🙂

Or not, and never hear from me again (gasp! :()

Up to you,

Sal

Follow up message:

Hey NAME,

Thanks for accepting!

I’m sure [COMPANY] has outstanding copywriters in your team however- I do still have a few techniques that I can implement in your copy to make your campaigns convert more.

Need any help to get results? I can offer you a free call this week to discuss ideas.

Sal

Here are some results I’ve had using a similar template: