The Definitive Guide For Agencies To Land More Leads Through LinkedIn

Jun 30

Lead gen. Crucial to keep your agency thriving, but can be time-consuming, not to mention a shot in the dark when it comes to identifying which outlets are best for your agency.

As the CEO of The Campfire Circle, I have a job because agencies sometimes struggle with lead gen. For the agencies that are not my clients (yet), I like to distribute my tried-and-true experience growing agencies. So I crafted this post.

I don’t know about your agency, but I definitely get the most qualified leads from LinkedIn. And with the platform being so robust, there are many tactics you can experiment with and analyze the data to create a data-driven approach to your lead gen strategy on LinkedIn.

Let’s dive in so I can show you all the fantastic opportunities for your agency to generate leads on LinkedIn!

LinkedIn In 2023

To start, let’s look at LinkedIn today. Since I’m a data nerd, I always collect the facts when making a marketing decision. Not to mention, LinkedIn data helps you understand the type of behavior on the platform exercised by your target audience.

When someone sees a brand message on LinkedIn, they are 6x more likely to convert than on other platforms as there is just something about thought leadership
LinkedIn is the most profitable platform for all B2B businesses
89% of B2B marketers leverage LinkedIn for lead gen
65% of the decision makers at brands you want to land as clients have a LinkedIn profile

There is a lot more data but these 4 facts point to LinkedIn being a strong source of lead gen for B2B businesses and agencies.

You Need to Set Up The Basics

Before putting time and money into LinkedIn lead gen tactics, you need to have the basics first. Think of the following components of LinkedIn as the infrastructure of a house, and the actual lead gen strategies on the platform are the walls and siding that make it a complete structure.

Your Personal Profile Page: Potential clients want to feel like they have a humanized connection with your agency, so you must have a solid profile page. Use a professional profile photo, fill out your past roles and accomplishments, grow your connections, post regularly, and ask connections to endorse your skills.

Your Agency’s Page: When a brand is vetting your agency, they’re going to check out your agency’s LinkedIn page, so don’t drop the ball when it comes to your first impression. Use a sleek logo and cover image, fill out all of the information about your agency, share your best work, and actively post.

Identify Your Target Client: To be smart about generating leads, you need a firm grip on the types of clients that you are targeting. If you have buyer personas, that’s amazing. But a lot of agencies don’t, so here is a free template to craft them. LinkedIn just has so many filters that you can take advantage of but if you don’t know who you’re targeting, you’re wasting your time.

Grow Your Network: What is more credible? An agency’s LinkedIn page that has a lot of followers or one that only has 10? Take a moment to put yourself in the shoes of your target clients. You’ll realize that, albeit unintentionally, we all look at the size of a company’s network to determine credibility.

Leveraging The Network You Already Have

One of the free and effective ways to generate leads from LinkedIn is to tap into your current network. Here are a few ways to accomplish this:

Connect with decision-makers at brands that you have identified as being your target clients
Comment on your target client’s posts
Endorse your connections for visibility
Post lead magnets that your target client would find useful to lead them to something that will capture their information
After you’ve engaged with someone a few times, send them a LinkedIn message about what your agency can do for them
Post testimonials from your happy clients

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups are the equivalent of networking at an in-person conference, but you get to do it in your sweatpants.

Again, you’ll need to tap into your buyer personas, and once you’ve done this, you can start identifying LinkedIn Groups to join.

After you’ve joined the right groups, it’s best to post thought leadership posts and lead magnets to capture information and grow your email list.

Promoting Thought Leadership

In an interview, LinkedIn’s own VP said that thought leadership is the number one performing type of content that generates leads on the platform.

It makes sense if you think about it. Agencies are a dime a dozen, and brands want to work with an agency that has expertise in their space. Demonstrate your expertise with thought leadership, and the leads will organically come in.

LinkedIn Ads

So far I’ve gone over all the ways to distribute thought leadership on LinkedIn and solidify your agency’s presence on this mighty platform. These strategies are also the free options which can be a slow build.

If you really want to put some power behind your lead gen strategy on LinkedIn, consider taking advantage of LinkedIn ads. I will tell you that these have worked out really well for my agency and will for yours too.

Be strategic with what your ad is offering. Your agency will succeed more if you lead with something like a report, webinar, eBook, etc. Or you can leverage a client testimonial in your ads.

When you’re ready to set up your first LinkedIn ad, head over to LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager where you will be guided through setting up your ad account. Once your account is set up, you can monitor your campaigns and make any changes.

I LOVE LinkedIn ads because you can get super targeted with who sees your ads. And LinkedIn has a functionality called lead gen forms that pre-fill a member’s information which increases the number of leads that your ads bring in because, let’s face it, many people are lazy, and smart agency promotion is rooted in convenience.

Still not convinced? The beauty of ads on LinkedIn is that you can experiment with different budgets and ads to get your feet wet. There is no commitment that requires you to be a big spender, so test out a few things. If you need help or ideas, I do free consult calls, so you can email me at kristen@thecampfirecircle.com to discuss your ad strategy.

Leverage Lead Magnets

Lead magnets will be the most important content you ever publish on behalf of your agency. If you don’t know much about lead magnets, you should pause and read this post.

Speaking of important content, boost your lead magnets. Remember that they will come to your website and fill in the download or register form, so make the customer journey as seamless as possible.

Nurturing the Leads You Get From LinkedIn

You’ve generated leads from LinkedIn? That’s great! But I must tell you, the lead gen part of growing your agency is just a part of what you must do to make the most of LinkedIn for your agency.

Once a lead is put in front of you, you need to be ready with a nurturing sequence to convert the leads you worked so hard to get into clients.

I recommend a series of 4 emails over the course of the week after they fill out your lead capture form. The fifth email, now that you’ve established credibility, can be a light sales email offering something like a free consultation call.

Final Thoughts: Start Growing Your Agency With Leads From LinkedIn Today!

It’s my hope that this guide makes it more apparent just how important LinkedIn is for lead gen and credibility for your agency.

Sure, setting up these strategies can be done by anyone. However, I started my agency for agencies because so many agency owners don’t have time for lead gen, and if that resonates with you, you can contact me here, and we can talk about how I can help.

If you’re ready to embrace LinkedIn for lead gen, ensure you’ve got all the basics set up, like the profile page filled out strategically for your agency. From there, put a little budget behind LinkedIn ads. When setting up your audience for these ads, consult your buyer personas and get as specific as possible.

Have you leveraged LinkedIn ads for your agency? I’d love to read all about your insights in the comments below!

Kristen Matthews