LinkedIn has proven to be a great asset for B2B brands. According to a webinar by SuccessFlow’s Mark Donkin, 75% of LinkedIn users use the network for business purposes, and 64% of users use it to develop relationships and grow their business. These statistics added to LinkedIn’s InMail feature offers a great opportunity for brands to make valuable connections and find leads. But, because InMails are a different beast than traditional emails, marketers might need to take a different approach to using them for marketing purposes. If you want to use InMails to expand your email marketing/social media marketing strategy, here’s how to do it.
Target prospects carefully.
Have you joined relevant LinkedIn Groups already? Great. Use them to help build an outreach audience, being sure to target individuals who legitimately would have a need for your product or service. If you build websites and someone in one of your groups has lamented the fact that his business site isn’t up to date, make a note to contact him directly and quickly. Don’t target prospects that you can’t read up on or find a reasonable connection with.
Carefully craft your message.
You’re reaching out to users because you genuinely believe that you have a service or product that they could benefit from, right? Then communicate that to them clearly and concisely. Use your message to introduce yourself (making note of any connections you have with them), describe your service and how it would benefit them, and give them a direct call to action. Make sure you’re asking them to act directly, either by responding to your message or requesting more information through your site. If you don’t include that call to action, they may not feel the need to respond — leaving you hanging without any lead to go on.
Manage your list (and responses) on a regular basis.
Chances are, you’ll reach out to at least a few people that just aren’t interested in your product. That’s to be expected. The important thing is to accurately keep track of your responses from your prospects and respond to them appropriately. You also need to check your messages often and be timely with your response.
Before you start sending out those emails, though, make sure that your profile and your company’s profile are up to snuff. Check out our guide to help you optimize your LinkedIn presence.
