LinkedIn is generally considered the number one social media platform for business. Historically, Facebook has been seen as a means to keeping in contact with friends and family, Instagram for posting holiday pictures, and LinkedIn for personal, professional development. However, although we are generally quite successful at promoting ourselves on the platform, we tend to struggle when developing our business.

Instead of considering LinkedIn as a tool for boosting your brand awareness, or as a personal, professional networking site, you should be using it as a critical lead generating tool with other businesses.

However, you can’t merely focus on distributing content to your businesses’ LinkedIn followers; you need to look at the complete picture. You cannot simply focus on the end of the sale process; it is important to begin at the beginning of the buyer’s journey and work through each stage of the sales process.

LinkedIn has near unlimited potential if you commit time to nurture leads right from your first post to the point of sale.

Here are 4 easy tips to boost your lead-generation LinkedIn strategy:

1. Don’t let your page become an extension of your website

If you are purely using your company page to recruit employees and post generic company updates, then you need to take a step back and re-evaluate your strategy. LinkedIn is an ideal platform to publish compelling content and focus on building lasting connections.

Ensure that you stand out from competitors and establish yourself as a market leader by creating engaging content. Similarly, in 2018 there is no excuse for not having optimised images for your content. You wouldn’t hang a picture in your storefront with half the corner hidden. However, people seem to take a less meticulous approach with social media images. The banner image will be the first thing your potential customers see. It creates a lasting impression for your brand. Make sure that it is not only aesthetically pleasing but it also

Establish your company as an industry influencer by making sure that your feed is regularly updated with engaging content to show potential customers that you’re more than a simple profile page. This doesn’t have to be a massive daily update; quantity is more important than quality. However, ensure that you have a content calendar, and you stick to it.

2. Be Personal

One of the most common mistakes to make on LinkedIn is that a company reaches out to contact someone, generally under the guise of a real person, and then allows a marketing automation program to do the rest. All this achieves is that it makes your company look insincere, and makes your potential leads instantly feel undervalued.

Just like you, when people are searching through LinkedIn, they are most often looking to establish a real relationship with a company. That’s why it’s vital that you take the time and build a personal relationship with potential prospects.

Again, you would not ignore someone who came into your store and wanted to interact with you. You would not (I hope) contact someone via email in an impersonal way. However, with LinkedIn, we tend to treat it as par for the course. This has to change.

3. Utilize Groups

You should regularly be searching for groups that fit within your industry and actively participate in the group discussions.

LinkedIn groups are ranked according to their level of activity, so it is preferable that you choose groups with other engaging members who are trying to achieve the same thing. This is a top way to build relationships with similarly like-minded, ambitious individuals within the sector.

After you have begun to establish yourself as an industry influencer, even if only on a small scale, you should consider branching out to create your own group. Having your own group is significant as it will allow others to identify you as a thought leader, while also ensuring that you have a reason to continue to produce engaging content.

4. Build Relationships

Above all, your primary focus needs to be on using LinkedIn to engage with potential buyers, and not simply spam them. As with most aspects of a successful marketing strategy, quality is far more important than quantity.

LinkedIn is the leading professional environment for building relationships between not just like minded companies, but also customers, and experts.

LinkedIn is a breeding ground for brand awareness however it can be so much more. By proactively engaging with potential buyers, and taking advantage of the tools on offer such as the Groups and Advanced Search settings, it is possible to establish yourself as a market leader and achieve measurable results far quicker than using traditional techniques.