5 min read
LinkedIn and email marketing landing pages are two of the most popular platforms for organic lead generation.
However, not a lot of people use them in tandem to create multidimensional campaigns that resonate better with their prospects.
The great thing about these two platforms is that they complement each other. Although LinkedIn is considered more casual than a typical email marketing landing page, they’re both used for professional correspondence.
Today’s guide will explore how both platforms can be leveraged to create supercharged campaigns to promote lead growth.
Multichannel Campaigns Work
The multidimensional or omnipresent strategy is one of the best things that organizations can adapt because it allows them to guide their leads properly from the moment they enter a funnel to the point that they convert.
It shows prospects that the extent of a brand’s visibility reinforces branding, and it subtly pushes leads forward through the pipeline.
However, there are issues with multichannel campaigns. This stems from the fact that some organizations take them too far.
The trick is to saturate the prospect lightly
Another useful benefit with multichannel campaigns is that they provide a potential customer with multiple touch points. It removes barriers of communication because a prospect can communicate directly with a marketer in whatever platform they’re more comfortable with.
Say they like LinkedIn more than email or vice versa, by opening up conversations on both platforms it becomes easier for them to move through the funnel.
Other marketers opt to use one platform for messaging, one for lead generation and one for nurturing, and this makes a lot of sense. It shows prospects that a company is innovating and is willing to make the effort to get to know them.
Why Use LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is the most widely used professional social media platform in the world, with more than a quarter of a billion active users.
It’s big, and there’s no doubt about it. Everyone from current colleagues to potential prospects are on the platform, and over the past couple of years lead generation experts have been using LinkedIn to reach out or nurture their leads.
LinkedIn represents a gold mine of opportunities for growth marketers.
However, to make LinkedIn work, there are still a couple of optimizations that have to be done. A LinkedIn profile is a landing page, prospects that are interested in what a person is offering usually do a quick profile check.
Marketers need to check if:
- Headlines are formatted well
- Sufficient CTA is present
- Experiences are structured in a way to promote expertise in a given field
This is the reason why a lot of people try to achieve LinkedIn influencer status or use their header images as visual real estate to draw a prospect in.
Creating Email Lists Using LinkedIn
For marketers that are looking for an inventive way to build new email lists, LinkedIn could be their solution.
There are several ways to build email lists on LinkedIn and here are some of the following that organizations can easily integrate and layer into their existing lead generation.
Using LinkedIn Posts as Lead Magnets
A great way to harness the power of LinkedIn is through the use of posts.
Posts that perform well on LinkedIn rely on two main strategies:
1. They need to provide value for the prospect
2. The initial engagement rate has to be high
By integrating gated content on a post, say a lead magnet freebie such as email templates, marketers can use the post to build an email list.
Prospects won’t be able to access the value if they don’t sign up and the added benefit is that people who “pass the gate” are automatically filtered out and qualified.
These links can be landing pages that one can create using a software like SendX or, alternatively, prospects can be asked to comment on the gated post so that they can be sent an email.
Here’s a good example of a gated lead magnet in action:
Emails Directly from Profiles
A lot of professionals on LinkedIn leave their email address on their profile, and it’s a good way to build a database of leads especially for hyper-targeted lead generation.
Marketers can take this to the next level by using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to prospect and define their ideal customer profiles, plus remove the current limitations of a normal LinkedIn account.
Some will even go as far as use third-party tools for email discovery and combine that with the LinkedIn URLs of their connections. However, be warned, there are limits to using third-party tools. LinkedIn has strict guidelines with regard to their fair usage policy.
Marketers don’t want to be on the other end of LinkedIn’s ire.
LinkedIn and Email Campaign Strategies You Can Use
Here’s a quick example list of the types of combinations that a marketer can use with their email marketing.
This is in no means a complete list.
There are plenty more combinations out there. There are Facebook + Email + LinkedIn combinations, there are some that even combine other forms of ads, and there are even a couple that throw in discovery sales calls.
What’s critical is that a multi touch campaign is used in every piece of outreach.
It’s not only great for image, but it helps reinforce the idea that the marketer is a professional.
LinkedIn Connection + Optional: Message + Email
Starting with the opposite is a great option as well since some prospects are more willing to have a conversation with a brand through LinkedIn than on email. This is because LinkedIn is still a more casual platform to do business on.
However, marketers shouldn’t be tempted to sell right away.
The hard sell rarely works in B2B lead generation, prospects still need to be slowly guided and informed into making a buying decision.
Targeted Ads + LinkedIn Connection + Optional: Message + Email
Another similar strategy that is highly recommended is to add targeted ads before a connection is made on LinkedIn.
This can be in the form of custom audiences on Facebook or ads on LinkedIn itself.
This uses a technique proposed by negotiation expert Robert Cialdini called “pre-suasion”. The trick is to start the persuasion process before a prospect even receives the first point of contact.
By the time a marketer actually reaches out to them they’re already familiar with the brand and they’re more susceptible to the messaging being used.
One can connect with them first on LinkedIn, asking for help on a particular project or using a question, then slowly get posts in front of the prospects organically. It’s advised that at least three posts are made weekly.
Once the lead has been warmed up for about a month or so, they can then be hit with an email pitch, while LinkedIn conversations are being used.
Just like the previous example, using a combination of two professional mediums can slowly guide the prospect to conversion.
Email + LinkedIn Messaging for Lead Nurturing and Follow-Ups
An email is usually followed up with another email, but everyone does that.
A campaign that we’ve had a lot of success with in the past, especially with DMUs (decision-making units) that are inclined to have a ton of email is using LinkedIn as a follow-up platform.
When prospects receive a ton of email every day, it is highly likely that they skip over promotional emails in favor of the volume of internal emails that they have to deal with.
Taking the conversation over to LinkedIn adds a layer of casual conversation and helps put the prospect at ease.
If a marketer has already connected with the prospect, then they’ll naturally see posts from the marketer on their feed.
Depending on what types of posts are being pushed out, a marketer can establish themselves as a thought leader or someone with high social proof.
Takeaways
Marketers shouldn’t settle for just a singular campaign.
If an email or LinkedIn campaign is already successful, it won’t hurt conversions if a multichannel approach is adapted.
It even has the chance of making it easier for a client to onboard since there are multiple touch points being used.
The goal of every marketer is to make a client’s journey from awareness to conversion as smooth as possible, and this can be easily achieved through combinations of mediums or adding another platform to their existing strategy.
In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, there seems to be no other choice than to adapt to methods like these.
