If you are on LinkedIn, you are probably the recipient of dozens or even hundreds of messages on LinkedIn. From connection requests, questions about employment opportunities and yes, B2B messages from companies trying to sell you a service or a product. Why wouldn’t they send you solicitation? 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, as opposed to other social media networks. For all I know, you or your sales team might be sending messages to prospects every day, whether they are sponsored or not. Yet, not all messages to prospects are created equal. I for one don’t believe there are “right” or “wrong” social media networks; what there is, however, a right and a wrong way to use them effectively in order to attract new business. Are you satisfied with your LinkedIn messaging efforts? If you are not, here are the five golden rules for effective LinkedIn messaging to prospects that will improve your engagement rates.
1. Keep Messages Short
You’ve heard of the phrase “A New York Minute”. Well, in terms of reading LinkedIn messages that is much shorter. The average time spent reading a new LinkedIn message is just 11.1 seconds. That is not a lot of time at all, especially if your message would take your prospect up to an actual minute to read through. Therefore your messages need to be short and sweet. You really need to get to your point fast. Within the first sentence or two, you have to address a pain point, whether it is latent or obvious, and what can be done to set the record straight.
2. Don’t Ask For A Decision Upfront
Anyone in B2B sales knows this but never ask for your prospect to commit to any decisions – whether that is asking them for a meeting, or asking them to book a demo – upfront. The majority of your quality prospects will reject that request right off the bat. Decision makers receive many messages like yours every single day, and it is more than likely your prospects haven’t heard of your business prior to receiving your LinkedIn message. You need to earn the right for a discussion by building a trusting relationship first. Have them trust you first, before asking for a meeting or demonstration.
3. Ask For An Introduction
A good salesperson is above all a good collector of information. So you need to ask yourself what do you know about the person or the organization you are about to message? Do you have any mutual connections? Perhaps you and your prospect belong to the same LinkedIn discussion group. Whether you have a mutual contact or some other type of connection, ask for that introduction and have someone introduce you that way. This will help you build that relationship with the prospect with someone they trust first, in order to get them responding to you.
4. Personalize The Message
I am sure that if you have ever received a message on LinkedIn where you were not addressed by your name first, that message feels impersonal. You feel that the message was probably just copied and pasted into multiple messages, and that didn’t compel you to respond. Make sure you address your prospects by their name first and make sure you spell it right. Another way to get personal is to use interest words. A great way to do this is by asking a question. Here’s a copy of something I send out to prospects regularly to some degree of success:
I have been speaking with a number of IR professionals recently and I keep running across three issues they are facing right now: Unified view of marketing data, a consistent cross-channel strategy, and organic growth from social media. Have you and your team ever dealt with these issues?
Try coming up with something along those lines in order to trigger some sort of response from whom you are messaging.
5. Stay Top Of Mind, Without Overdoing It
It is just reality that not everyone will respond to your first, second, or maybe even your third message. Sometimes people get too busy to respond to your messages or maybe your offer is not of interest to them right now. But if you send them quality messages, they will at least have your name in mind in an honourable fashion, so if they ever need something you have are offering, you will be top of mind. This doesn’t mean you should like or comment on everything they post – that’s likely to give the impression of you coming off as spammy. If you find a piece of content that might relate to them really well send that over to them. You can also follow the company the prospect works for. Did they launch a new product? Have they on-boarded a new client? When they do, post a meaningful comment.
Final Thoughts
If you aren’t engaging prospects with LinkedIn messaging yet, now is the time to get started. With over 61 Million LinkedIn users at the senior level executive level, and 40 Million in decision making positions, but with the right kind of quality message, you can really add another powerful channel to your prospect engagement with LinkedIn messaging. That’s all from me. Now over to you. What is your go-to opener when you message your prospects? Does it usually work for you? How often do you hear back from them? Do you get a thumbs up? Are people engaging with you, responding to you? I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
Originally Posted on https://www.andreasmarouchos.com/
