8 LinkedIn Strategies for B2B Marketing and Sales + Best Practices

In the business scene, LinkedIn is like a B2B networking event or expo where you can scout for clients and partners. That’s why a whopping 89% of B2B marketers in 2024 are all over it, actively using the platform to reel in leads.

Because when it comes to business deals, it’s all about people, right? You gotta show that your brand’s got a human side. And LinkedIn, unlike those cold emails and outreach tactics, is the friendliest and least pushy way to build up your image and make connections.

Key points: Why to run B2B marketing on LinkedIn in 2024

How to generate B2B leads on LinkedIn: 7 strategies

How to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing & sales

#1 All Starts with LinkedIn Profiles

Populate all text fields with relevant keywords, prioritizing company services to enhance global discoverability. Encourage customer feedback for social proof and incorporate visuals like event photos or video presentations for heightened engagement.

Read the article with 24 bio examples

#2 Utilize Advanced Search and Filtering Techniques for Lead Identification

The efficacy of your outreach campaigns hinges on the quality of lead filtration. Optimal targeting increases invitation acceptance rates and message responses, amplifying the success of your outreach efforts.

Elevate the quality of your filtration process by:

• Utilizing Advanced Filters: Upgrade from basic keyword searches to advanced filters available with Sales Navigator. Exclude irrelevant leads, refine searches by groups, years of experience, and more for precise targeting.
• Pre-Campaign Lead Management: Refine your lead list before launching campaigns with Linked Helper. Automate lead pruning to ensure alignment with your target audience. Apply additional filters such as profiles with open emails, job seekers, or profiles lacking photos to streamline lead quality.

In Sales Navigator, you can get collections of leads with maximum precision.

#3 Experiment with Automation for Faster Growth

Dive into automation tools to simplify and broaden your outreach strategies for generating leads. Think about using Linked Helper for these reasons:

Automate messaging to effectively boost the scale of your lead generation endeavors. Here are some ways Linked Helper automation will simplify your LinkedIn marketing:

1. Manage targeted leads: You’ll efficiently target, collect, review, delete, and organize profiles much faster than manual methods. You can also save lead lists added via Sales Navigator into your internal CRM to avoid losing client bases and correspondence with them.
2. Switch between subscriptions: You can leverage the benefits of different subscriptions within a single campaign — filter and search for leads with Sales Navigator, like posts with a basic profile. Additionally, you can process the Sales Navigator format links without an additional converter if you’ve connected a basic account.
3. Network with various options: Expand your LinkedIn funnel through features not found in other tools. Automatically invite to events, groups, company pages, send messages through shared groups, and boost posts by tagging profiles of your target audience.
4. Build an email database: Sort leads and download their emails from their LinkedIn profiles even if you haven’t established contact and they’re out of your network. You can directly integrate email transfer into your CRM, into Snov.io for mailing, or download a CSV file with the database.
5. Test for free and save: Reduce lead costs by testing Linked Helper for 2 weeks, while you would typically get only 7 days with any other tool. You’ll save money because, according to our comparisons, Linked Helper’s subscription is the most affordable in 2024.

Explore comparison articles:

Linked Helper vs. Zopto 2024

Linked Helper vs. Waalaxy 2024

Become an expert in message automation in 2024.

#4 Build Email Databases for Sales Funnels

LinkedIn serves as a treasure trove of email addresses. Even if emails aren’t explicitly listed on profiles, technologies exist to match individuals’ names and current campaigns to discover their work emails.

Additionally, integrated Snov.io has validation mechanisms that ensure the acquisition of a high-quality email database tailored to your target audience. Subsequently, seamlessly transfer these emails directly into your CRM or via webhooks. Opting for Linked Helper and Snov.io for email outreach facilitates direct integration between the platforms, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.

Refer to the article on email scraping techniques for further insights and strategies.

#5 Utilize Personalized Communication Tactics for Interaction

Create customized messages designed specifically for each lead to cultivate genuine engagement – they want you to read their profiles!

Tailored Messaging

Develop unique messages customized for every lead to kick-start authentic connections and nurture significant relationships. Prior to reaching out, invest time in thoroughly examining your prospects’ profiles.

For valuable leads, such as decision-makers or high-level executives, conduct manual research to extract relevant facts from their bios. Incorporate these insights into your messages to demonstrate a sincere understanding of their background and interests. This can be done via custom variables – strings in messages that you can tailor to each recipient.

Refer to examples in the article for practical guidance.

Custom Graphics

Improve the attractiveness and personal touch of your messages by adding custom elements and images. Take advantage of Linked Helper’s built-in Hyperize integration to create banners that automatically fill in with personalized text, like the recipient’s name, position, or other relevant bio information.

Implement Follow-Up Sequences

Introduce follow-up sequences to maintain engagement and prompt responses from your leads. After the initial outreach, schedule follow-up messages to be sent at strategic intervals, such as one week later.

This approach ensures that your message remains visible and increases the chances of a response. Follow-up sequences are particularly valuable in addressing the tendency for individuals to overlook or forget to respond amidst the noise of social media platforms.

#6 Leverage LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Recruiter

Utilize LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Recruiter tools to elevate your search capabilities. Take advantage of the free trial month offered for lead collection, allowing you to explore the filtering options of premium packages. During this trial period, you can gather contacts without limitations and download them in CSV format.

Premium subscriptions also allow you to send all connection requests with personalized text, instead of the limited 5-10 per month on a free account. So, throughout the trial month, you can send out personalized invitations to expand your network.

Subsequently, even after reverting to a free profile in the following month, you can continue with outreach efforts if you prefer not to invest in premium LinkedIn subscriptions.

#7 Export leads to your CRM

You can utilize your primary CRM for lead management with Sales Navigator. However, for lead generation on LinkedIn, it’s beneficial to use another tool that sends information from LinkedIn to your CRM. Not all tools have integrations for this purpose, but Linked Helper has made significant strides in this area.

You can choose one of the suggested CRMs for direct lead transmission, messaging, and custom variables.

For example, it offers direct integration with HubSpot, PipeDrive, Close, and soon, it will integrate with Zoho CRM and others. Additionally, you can connect it to any CRM using Zapier webhooks. This versatility ensures seamless lead generation and management processes between LinkedIn and your CRM, regardless of the CRM platform you use.

#8 Connect with top niche influencers

In B2B marketing, there are many individuals who can draw attention to your company, event, or research.

You can organize mass outreach to reach such individuals on LinkedIn through automation tools. For example, Linked Helper can be highly beneficial.

• Send them free InMails – if they have open profiles, as is often the case, you can propose collaboration through a message without an invitation. How to Send Free InMails to Open Profiles
• Collect their email addresses – you can either draft a professional email to send them separately or follow up after connecting with them on LinkedIn. Find profile emails
• Connect through events – you can send messages through a shared event where top voices on LinkedIn that may be interesting to you are likely to be present.

Learn more about B2B influencers on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn B2B marketing: 5 best practices

B2B companies that use LinkedIn marketing

Although commercial-to-commercial marketing has often been seen as less imaginative, these instances demonstrate how to infuse energy into your strategies and profile, even if your target audience consists of other businesses rather than individual consumers.

#1 Order.co

You can take this example for designing a header where your mission is clearly visible.

Order.co’s mission is clearly reflected in its profile banner. Upon visiting the profile, it’s evident that the company facilitates businesses in simplifying purchases, payments, tracking, and more. Commercial service providers should aim for concise mission reflection in their banners and headlines, immediately conveying their purpose.

#2 Toast

You can take this example if you want to include a career link in candidate searches.

Toast is open to hiring new talent, as indicated by the inclusion of a link in the company description. Interested candidates can easily submit resumes, enhancing recruitment efforts. Additionally, the company’s description articulates a clear unique selling proposition (USP) and mission: “we pair our deep understanding of the industry with software and hardware united in one platform.” Business-to-business enterprises can follow a similar approach to articulate their offerings.

#3 BigCommerce

You can take this example for organizing events and using video on other platforms.

BigCommerce actively engages its audience through online events. For instance, previous LinkedIn events feature videos where viewers can gain insights from top executives such as vice presidents and directors.

Repurposing event recordings for other platforms, known as content recycling, is a strategy to consider. By repackaging event videos for reels, TikTok, text articles, blogs, or podcasts, business-to-business enterprises can expand their reach beyond LinkedIn.

#4 Justworks

Justworks exemplifies effective branding on its LinkedIn business profile. The company’s header features a slogan that succinctly communicates its value and mission, immediately conveying its solution’s purpose.

You can take this example for excellent branding on LinkedIn and wordplay.

Furthermore, their business page showcases appealing photos depicting snippets of work life. This tactic attracts potential new employees and clients conducting research on LinkedIn.

You can take this example for using live photos of employees and their pets on LinkedIn.

#5 Podium

You can take this example for using personal stories behind brand creation.

When we look at Podium, we see a remarkable approach to managing and cultivating corporate accounts on LinkedIn. With a focus on B2B marketing in the realm of review acquisition, the team crafts a creative and personal portrayal of the company in its description.

By sharing the story of its inception, including the founder and CEO, whose father faced negative reviews despite running a commendable business. Podium effectively humanizes the inter-business interactions through its narrative.

Furthermore, the company’s mission is conveyed in a manner that resonates well after the authentic backstory.

Storytelling and customization in B2B marketing are essential when using LinkedIn since they infuse humanity into the brand.

LinkedIn B2B marketing statistics 2024

According to the chart below from ViB research, email marketing still holds significance in inter-business sales, ranking at 83% in importance. However, social networks, including LinkedIn, come in fourth place at a compelling 74%. Content is also crucial – you can leverage it as posts, articles, roundtable discussions, podcasts, and videos.

Research conducted by VIB is based on 323 respondents in the B2B marketing sphere.

It’s worth noting that in 2024, AI tools are widely available and can assist you in brainstorming and creating impactful content. According to Capgemini research, 75% trust content generated by AI. Therefore, you can utilize AI for creating visuals, text posts, and ideation.

The research indicates that the majority of consumers trust AI-generated content.

Having an active LinkedIn Page for your business can really boost your online presence. Compared to those without one, businesses with an active page get five times more people checking out their page, see their content seven times more often, and get eleven times more clicks from their followers.

Did you know there are over 10,000 pages on LinkedIn dedicated to business-to-business software products? That’s a lot of options to explore if you’re in the market for software solutions.

If you’re considering reaching out to potential clients or partners on LinkedIn, you might want to consider using InMail. It’s got a way higher response rate compared to regular email – 300% higher, to be exact. Plus, there’s a decent chance of getting a response, with a hit rate between 10% to 25%.

Curious about more B2B stats? Check out the link in the article for further insights and data.

All in all: LinkedIn B2B marketing trends

Based on research involving 300 B2B marketing professionals, ViB uncovered the latest trends:

• Marketers strive to improve lead quality and boost conversions, with 54% prioritizing this, followed closely by 41% aiming to get more prospects.
• Despite widespread recognition of AI’s potential benefits in inter-business marketing, there’s a notable gap between perception and action. While 85% of marketers acknowledge AI’s positive impact, only 41% plan to incorporate AI into their LinkedIn marketing strategies on LinkedIn in the upcoming year.

Drawing insights from our exploration of LinkedIn company pages, we unearthed compelling trends reshaping vendor-to-vendor engagements:

• Storytelling as a Connection Tool: Leveraging the company’s origin story in the bio humanizes the brand, bridging the gap between the impersonal B2B sphere and real human experiences. By sharing the journey behind the business, clients perceive authenticity and are more inclined to engage.
• Visual Storytelling for Trust: Incorporating an array of real-life photos featuring people and events on the company page instills trust in clients. These visuals paint a vivid picture of the company’s culture, values, and credibility, fostering deeper connections and loyalty.
• Crafting a Compelling Mission Statement: Infusing creativity into a motto encapsulates the essence of your mission. This succinct phrase, placed in the header and description of the LinkedIn business page, communicates the brand’s purpose and resonates with the audience on a deeper level.

Find more trends in our article about McKinsey report.