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By: Ashley Starr

How to Use LinkedIn Groups For Lead Generation

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Table of contents • Enfusen……………………………………………………………………....3• What is The Problem?.....................................................4• What is LinkedIn?............................................................5• Where to Begin……………………………………………………………6• Interaction Within The Group……………………...……………..8• Reply Rate 44%................................................................9• How to Grow Conversations Into Connections….…………11• Problems……………………………………………………………………..12• You Connected, Now What?............................................13• Message A……………………………………………………………….…..14• Message B……………………………………………………………………15• Analyzing Results From Messages A/B………………….………16• The Process ………………………………………………………....…….17• Tracking the Data……………………………………………………….…18• Observations Throughout the Process………………..…………19• Response Rate by Profile……………………………………………….20• Conversion Rates…………………………………………………….…….21• Final Results………………………………………………………………….22

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EnfusenWe Empower Organizations with Analytics that Lead to Smart Marketing Decisions

• Enfusen is a software development agency aimed at automating marketing for its customers so they can increase revenues while doing less work. They are data driven and use strategy to improve your team, technology, training and tactics. Their goal is to empower the customer to optimize their CRM, MAP, and website so that they can reach their full marketing potential.

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What is the Problem?

• Cold calling is dead. The business development representative who currently uses cold calling as the only means to generate leads explained, “the problem was reaching people who are interested in what Enfusen can do for them. I often got hung up on before I could begin to explain what my company does or couldn’t reach the prospect at all because the lines of contact provided were not reliable.” Enfusen needed a new way to generate interested and qualified leads.

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What is LinkedIn?• LinkedIn is the first business proficient social media

site, its purpose is to facilitate networking among professionals. This site is a great way to expand opportunities within a niche market. LinkedIn is responsible for more than half of the leads generated on social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The ability to join groups relevant to your company or interests is a huge advantage of using the site. Hundreds or thousands of qualified leads interested in your company are now right at your fingertips if you join the correct group and facilitate the correct conversations within the group.

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• This whitepaper is a documenting findings while using LinkedIn to generate B2B leads for Enfusen Corporation.

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Where to Begin

• Starting out as a fresh user on LinkedIn, the first step is to create a LinkedIn account and update all of the account information. Include all of the accomplishments made in the business and academic life of the account holder as well as a couple personal traits that are especially redeeming on the page. Finally, request to connect with around 50 people whom the account holder knows on a personal level. The first step in generating leads is to join a group, Enfusen chose “Digital Marketing” which at the time had 938,201 members.

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Interaction Within the Group

• The first action within the group “Digital Marketing” was to comment on roughly 10 article posts that were relevant to Enfusen. Every comment was similar, it began with a compliment (Awesome post), then specified one thing that was helpful (love the explanation of keyword stuffing being compared to men claiming to be stylish, very funny), then (if applicable) tried to include a blog post from Enfusen’s Blog (Here is a blog post that adds some key points about keywords. Check it out!*link here*).

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Reply Ratio 44%• The success ratio using this type of

comment was 15:34, meaning for every 34 comments posted 15 interactions were received back. An interaction can be a lengthy comment, a short “thanks” comment, or a like. Within one day of commenting on posts 3 new connections had been made with people who became interested through my interaction.

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The conversion rate on LinkedIn is amazing! Using cold calling tactics I was lucky to get a success ratio of 1:75, not to mention I was interrupting the prospect’s work day. LinkedIn changed my conversion rate to 15:34 and has allowed me to reach more people in a more convenient way for them. Their convenience should matter to us! -Ashley Starr

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How to Grow Conversations Into Connections• Begin by writing a complimentary comment on their post (described

in “Interaction with the Group”). After this wait for a signal from them, there are only two signals that would be a cue to send a connection request.

1. A lengthy comment back, anything over a simple “thank you” is considered to be lengthy, then request to connect with them.

2. A short comment back, such as “Thanks Ashley” along with another form of interaction (comment like or profile view)

Out of the 30 requests sent there was a 76% acceptance rate.

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ProblemsAfter hitting send some comments and content appear as “pending”. This is due to a moderation rule set by the owner of the group that requires comments to be reviewed for approval. This is a huge Achilles heel for generating sales using LinkedIn because the user has no control over when or if the content gets posted to the group. This block in communication could be detrimental to a new relationship with a prospective client.

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You Connected, Now What?• Once you connect with a prospect you should send them a message

as soon as possible, timing is key! The message should be thanking them for connecting, then it should tell them a little bit about Enfusen. The goal is to make sure Enfusen comes to mind when and if they ever develop an interest in marketing automation. The message should not be aggressive but rather it should be kind and inviting. Experiment with two different types of messages.

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Message AExperiment with a standard welcome message to all new connections that explains what Enfusen does and how they could reach you. The message will not be personalized or show that you have investigated their company, it is simply a standard message that could go to anyone.

Message A Example:

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Message BPersonalization is key, in today’s sales world the customer not only appreciates but expects personalization in their buying experience. Rework every message to be specific to the new connection. Go onto their company’s website, run it through Enfusen’s free grader, and look for possible improvements. Once an issue is identified reach out to them and provide value by explaining what they are excelling at, then where they could improve and why they need to improve.

Message B Examples:

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Analyzing Results from messages A/BMessage A• 11/22 replies received. • Most replies were a straight forward “No

thanks”.

Message B• 5/15 replies received. • Replies were more lengthy, sometimes unclear whether

they understood my offer to provide them feedback.• Message B is not a constant message, it differs by

situation and by prospect; therefore it is more difficult to make inferences about how successful the message was.

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The process

• Develop a funnel to put prospects through within LinkedIn. • Step one- (comment and connect) Comment on their post in the

group. My hope is that they will comment back or like my comment so I have grounds to connect with them. • Step two- (reach out) Send them a message. • Step three- (care and create value) get to know their business, their

pain points and how we can help them. • Step four- (schedule) schedule an assessment call with Anne

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Tracking the data• Make sure you are tracking

your data to see what works and what doesn’t. If a message isn’t contributing to conversion rates then it doesn’t matter how many people see it, it does no good. Try new messages and keep track of conversion rates at each step in the process. Make sure to record data in SharpSpring as well.

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Observations throughout the process • Prospects that had been a connection seemed to “disconnect” fairly

often after they had been messaged. • The prospects who received Message B (individualized) disconnected

more often than those who received Message A (general).

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Response rate by profile• Three profiles were used to send messages to prospects on linked in:Roger Bryan Founder of EnfusenMessage A:Response ratio: 5:10Response rate: 50%Message B:Response ratio: 0:5Response rate: 0%TotalResponse ratio: 5:15Response rate: 33%

Anne Daily Marketing software solutions specialist Message A:Response ratio: 4:6Response rate: 67%Message B:Response ratio: 5:9Response rate: 55%TotalResponse ratio: 9:15Response rate: 60%

Ashley StarrBusiness Development representative Message A:Response ratio: 2:6Response rate: 33%Message B:Response ratio: 0:2Response rate: 0%TotalResponse ratio: 2:8Response rate: 25%

These statistics are representing all message reply rates with LinkedIn users, including those who requested to connect with Enfusen’s profiles first as well as users who Enfusen’s profiles commented and connected with.

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Conversion ratesPosted comment

68

Received Reply

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Connected & Messaged

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Received reply

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Interested

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(These conversion rates are representing ONLY people that one of the three profiles connected with first through commenting and tracking responses. It does not include prospects that requested to connect with any of Enfusen’s

profiles.)

The issue arises when trying to convert a connection to an interested client: • Possibly inefficient due to the messages sent to the prospect.• Possibly inefficient due to the relevance of the offer. If the prospect is not looking to increase their marketing

efforts, any offer to help (no matter how good) may be ignored.

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Final results • Knowledge of how to successfully comment and connect with

prospects on LinkedIn. • Insight on whether a general or individual message creates more

conversations and replies. • Comprehension of which profile is the most effective with regards to

reply rates. • Data on conversion rates, what areas have great conversions and

what areas are problematic in the process and why they may be problematic.