How to grow your audience and email list on Linkedin
1,258 new connections in 3 months
1,777 new connections in 4 months
2,852 new connections in 6 months
Those are real numbers from many of the campaigns we have run for our clients at my Linkedin Lead Generation company.
Those are thousands of new connections that will now see their content in their newsfeed, and we have set up funnels to drive many of those new connections to email list subscriptions.
But how do you do it?
How do you actually grow your audience on Linkedin?
And how do you drive those people to sign up for your email list?
In this post, I will give you the exact frameworks and scripts we use to do this for our clients at Lead Cookie.
The Approach at a High Level
Post updates on Linkedin multiple times per week
Send ~100 connection requests per day to your target market
When those contacts accept, pre-sell them on why they should consume your content
Capture their email address when they show interest in your content
That’s it. Pretty simple right?
Well let’s dive into the details.
REQUIRED: Linkedin Sales Navigator
You must have upgraded your account to Linkedin Sales Navigator in order to use these tactics. The subscription costs $79.99 per month and comes with a free 30-day trial.
If you try these tactics on free, Linkedin premium, there is a very good chance your account will get flagged or temporarily restricted. When you use Sales Navigator, you are able to work at a significantly higher volume than with other Linkedin accounts.
Step 1 - Post updates on Linkedin multiple times per week
Simply put, the more you post in your news feed, the more likely you are to pop up in your prospective customers feed and be top of mind when they need a product or service that you offer.
So what do you post? How do you come up with content ideas?
Well there are tons of articles out there on how to create content and the specifics around this, but I will share my specific process.
Everyday I do the following:
Discover: I read from a business book, a blog post, watch a video or consume something related to business on a daily basis so that I am constantly learning.
Declare: I take a key insight from what I am studying and I teach that in the form of a text post on Linkedin. By teaching it to others, it reinforces the idea in my own head. (You could also do this via video if that is easier for you than writing)
Now building this habit has several benefits…
You have an endless supply of content ideas. You simply teach what you learn
You will be consistently learning on a daily basis which will help you level up in business
You will become a thought leader as others look to you as an influential and thought provoking person
What is amazing about this habit, is that I get email signups and new leads for my business from people who say “I like your Linkedin posts”. But the truth is, the posts are honestly meant to serve me and my own personal learning, but by sharing those learnings with others it creates lead generation and value in the market.
Want to see some examples of daily updates: Go ahead and add me as a connection on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakejorgovan
Step 2 - Send ~100 connection requests per day to your target market
This sounds pretty simple, but the question is: How do you actually find your target market on Linkedin?
The answer to this lies within Linkedin’s Lead Search feature inside of Sales Navigator. This is an extremely powerful tool that lets you filter your prospects in many different ways.
To best explain how you can find your target prospects, watch the video below where I give you an overview of Linkedin Sales Navigator.
Using Linkedin’s Boolean Search Feature
If you want to take your targeting even further, then you may want to consider using Boolean search logic. This is essentially a way that you can pair up certain keywords to get your search criteria even more specific.
For example, let’s say that I wanted to target decision makers in the marketing department who are Director level or above.
I would create a Boolean search queue that went like the following:
(“VP” OR “Vice President” OR “Director” OR “Chief”) AND (“Marketing”)
What that is doing is basically parting up all of the seniority titles along with the department. So to simplify that what I just did is:
(“Seniority indicator”) AND (“Marketing”)
This lets me get all senior-level marketers in one single Linkedin search.
To explore this concept deeper, I recommend reading my other article on How to get more out of Linkedin Sales Navigator.
How to send the connection requests
Once you have your search queue of target prospects together, it is time to start sending your outbound connection requests. This is the straightforward rather monotonous part.
You will send ~100 connection requests per day. You don’t want to go too much higher than that or you risk your account being flagged.
Also, there are several software tools on the market that can help automate this, but many have been shut down as they are against Linkedin’s terms of service.
So the safest route is to actually send these by hand yourself or with the support of a virtual assistant or LinkedIn lead generation service like Lead Cookie.
Want to see our recommended scripts for sending connection requests? Enter your email below to access our exact scripts and frameworks for growing your audience and converting leads to your email list.
Step 3 - When leads accept your connection, offer them valuable content
One mistake that many people make with Linkedin audience growth is that they just blast an article out there to tons of people and hope that they find it useful.
When you receive a link to something from a random stranger, your mind immediately thinks “Well, what are they trying to sell me”
As a result, you may ignore the message and turn your nose without even taking a look at the content.
The problem is that you were not “pre-sold” on the content.
If you have ever read a best selling non-fiction book, you will notice a trend across almost every book. The book starts off by trying to sell you on the value and importance of the book.
Sure, they could jump right into core ideas and concepts right out of the gate, but if they did you may not accept them or believe them to be true.
So the first chapter or two of any non-fiction book is all about setting the tone, establishing authority of the author, and pre-selling what is to come.
You must do the same thing with your content on Linkedin.
Instead of just sending them to a landing page for your eBook, you want to pre-sell them on the idea of your content ask them if they want to receive it.
Now there are two ways to do this.
Option A - Share with them your content hub (good if you don’t have a rock solid lead magnet)
If you don’t have a lead magnet that is actually valuable, then your goal is simply to make them aware of your website and sell them on why they should care. You need to let them know why they should even bother clicking through and subscribing to your content.
What value will your content bring them?
Why is it relevant for them specifically?
Option B - Offer to send them a free valuable resource (think lead magnet)
You don’t just send it to them, but instead, explain the value in the eBook and then ask if they want to receive it.
Your goal is to get a simple small “Yes” that they want to see your resource. That gives you permission to then send it over and increases the chances that they will actually engage.
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So what exactly do you say in these messages? We have a few different frameworks that have worked well. Some are for situations where you have a great lead magnet, others are for situations where you don’t.
You can download the exact scripts we use and examples through the link below.
4. Capture their email address for ongoing marketing
The next step is to capture their email so you can grow your email list and continue to market to them over time. There are two ways to do this based on which tactic you used.
Option A - If you just sent them to your content hub
First, make sure you send them to engaging content that is relevant to them.
Second, make sure you have your website optimized for email capture. This includes relevant opt-in forms, and pop-ups that offer value to help increase your chance of them converting and providing their email to you.
With this approach, you are really driving people to your content but your website and the content itself must provide enough value to get them to subscribe.
Option B - If you offered them a free resource or lead magnet
At this point, you have added a contact as a new connection request.
Then you have offered them for your free resource or sent them to your content hub.
The prospect has said “Yes” they want to see it.
Next you want to send over the resource… but how you do that is quite important.
There are 3 ways you could send them you r
Resource Option 1 - Send them the full resource
You could just send them straight to a PDF of your eBook or White Paper. That would provide them value and may stimulate a conversation but it does not capture their email or get them in your ongoing marketing. This is not recommended as you are not fully maximizing value.
Resource Option 2 - Send them to a landing page for your resources
You could send them to a landing page for your eBook which ”pre-sells” your free resource and the value that it will bring to them. This landing page will describe the benefits they will receive from reading your eBook as well as specific case studies, testimonials or data that sells your free resource like it were a product.
Option 2 is better than Option 1, but still not as strong as Option 3.
Resource Option 3 - Send them to an article with a content upgrade
If you are not familiar with the idea of a “content upgrade” then let me first explain.
A content upgrade is basically when you put up a blog post on your website. You give away a ton of value, but you withhold a small but valuable amount of information and require someone to enter their email address to receive the upgrade.
As an example, you will notice that there have already been two opt-in’s on this blog post to receive the actual scripts, frameworks, and examples that we use for these audience growth campaigns.
The blog post gives away 95% of the process, but if you want the scripts, you have to provide your email.
This is the best way you can deliver a resource to someone who shows interest on Linkedin.
The reason is that you provide massive value up front, but then give them a strong incentive to opt-in to your email list.
This tactic is powerful beyond just Linkedin outreach but for content marketing in general. One of the best growth tactics we have had at Lead Cookie was when we wrote A How to Guide on Linkedin Lead Generation. The guide gives away 95% of our lead generation process, and then we require an opt-in for our scripts and examples. This guide has incredible conversion and is one of the largest sources of clients and email opt-ins for our business.
Want to see Linkedin scripts you can use to to grow your email list? Sign up through the box below.
Why this process works
Targeted Awareness
With Linkedin, you can target the exact kind of people who would be your ideal audience. You aren’t trying to sell them anything right away but simply making them aware that you exist. Not everyone you reach out to will convert to your email list, but many will.
Real Conversations
Another added benefit to this approach is that these email subscribers are not just people who are on your email list who you have never really engaged with. You have an open chat communication with them on Linkedin which enables a higher quality relationship and the ability to personally upsell them to products or services as you nurture that relationship over time.
Value first
If you take the approach of the article with the content upgrade, then you are providing massive value up front before you ever ask for their email or contact information. This is the exact same approach that all bloggers and content marketers take. As Seth Godin would say, this is “Permission Marketing”
A small ask
You aren’t trying to sell them something. You are not trying to get them on a call. You are simply saying “Here is this free content, would you like to see it?” It’s a small first step to start that relationship and build trust in a non-salesy way.
Volume
With Linkedin, you can send out roughly 2,000 new connections requests every single month. While not all of those will convert to your email list, a decent portion will. And when those contacts join, those will be highly targeted prospects who fit your exact target persona.
Monetize with a backend funnel
Getting people on your email list is great, but where the real value of this tactic will come from is the monetization that you put together on the backend. Your email drip sequences and funnels are key to helping you convert these subscribers into paying customers.
Next Steps
Go ahead and put these tactics into action so you can see the results for yourself.
If you find yourself overwhelmed or don’t have the time to do this yourself, then feel free to reach out to us at Lead Cookie as we are a done-for-you Linkedin Lead Generation service. We can manage and handle this entire process for you. Looking for alternatives? Here is a list of top Linkedin Lead Generation companies.