Cold emailing can be an effective way to reach out to potential customers or clients and introduce them to your business or services. However, if you’re not careful, your emails may end up being marked as spam, which can make it difficult for you to reach your intended audience.
One of the key things to keep in mind when sending cold emails is to avoid using words and phrases that are often associated with spam. These are known as spam trigger words, and they can cause your emails to be flagged by spam filters and sent straight to the recipient’s junk folder.
Some common spam trigger words to avoid include “free,” “earn money,” “act now,” “click here,” “buy now,” “limited time offer,” “get rich quick,” “earn extra cash,” “make money fast,” “guaranteed,” “winner,” “bonus,” and “urgent.” These words are often used by spam emails to try and entice the recipient into taking some sort of action, such as clicking a link or buying a product.
In addition to avoiding spam trigger words, there are several other things you can do to improve the chances of your cold emails being delivered to the recipient’s inbox. For example, you should always include a clear and concise subject line that accurately reflects the content of your email. This will help to ensure that your email isn’t mistaken for spam by the recipient’s email provider.
Want to learn to cold email like a pro? Check out our in-depth guide.
You should also make sure to include your contact information, such as your name and email address, in the body of your email. This will help to establish your credibility and make it more likely that the recipient will trust your message.
Finally, it’s important to remember that the content of your email should be relevant and valuable to the recipient. Avoid sending generic or impersonal emails, and focus on providing useful information that will be of interest to the recipient.
In conclusion, using spam trigger words in your cold emails can greatly decrease your chances of reaching your intended audience. By avoiding these words and following best practices for cold emailing, you can increase the chances of your emails being delivered to the recipient’s inbox and help to establish trust with your potential customers or clients.
LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional networking platforms, with over 800 million users and 30m companies worldwide. It offers a range of useful data points for talent, sales, marketing, business intelligence and many more. Accessing this data via API (Application Programming Interface) allows companies to integrate this data into their own applications, creating a more seamless user experience and enabling new functionality. The issue is, accessing this data (particularly at scale) can be tricky.
There are currently two ways to extract data from LinkedIn via API:
This blog explains both options, along with the benefits and use cases for a LinkedIn API and the technical capabilities of Lix’s LinkedIn API along with Python examples.
It will also discuss some of the challenges and considerations that businesses should keep in mind when working with the LinkedIn API. Whether you’re a developer looking to integrate LinkedIn into your application, or a business looking to leverage LinkedIn’s data for marketing or recruitment purposes, the LinkedIn API offers a wealth of possibilities.
The LinkedIn Partner Program
LinkedIn offer four official partner programs that grant access to their API:
Approval can be slow and difficult to obtain. LinkedIn removed their API from public access back in 2015 and have (understandably) been picky about who has been granted access, since. Even with official partner status, getting the data you need at scale can still be an issue. For example, if you’re looking to export LinkedIn Profile data, you will either need permission from each individual profile owner or you will need a paid subscription to LinkedIn’s consumer solution platform. Even with a paid subscription, you may still face issues with throttling when calling large numbers of profiles.
Lix LinkedIn API: Overview
Accessing the treasure-trove of LinkedIn data via the Lix API is quick and simple. We handle Proxy rotation, account management and rate limiting for you – so all you need to do, is request the data you need! Currently, we offer LinkedIn Profile exports (Enrichment), Search, Jobs, Posts, Connections and Contact Information; with more endpoints to be released in the coming months.
The API is organized around REST. All requests should be made over SSL. All request and response bodies, including errors, are encoded in JSON.
Please take a look at our documentation, within which we have some specific language code examples to make integration easier. These include Node, Python, Go, Javascript & Java.
LinkedIn Profile API (Profile Enrichment)
Perhaps the most sought-after export, is the complete LinkedIn profile. Some of the most popular use cases include:
Talent sourcing and recruitment: Talent and recruitment firms can use the API to export LinkedIn profiles of potential job candidates to build a candidate pool, assess their skills, experience and professional network.
Market research: Companies can export LinkedIn profiles of industry professionals to analyse their experience, education, skills, and work history. This can help them identify market trends, assess competitors and make informed business decisions.
Sales prospecting: Sales teams can export LinkedIn profiles of potential customers to identify decision-makers, assess their interests, work history, and professional network. This can help them personalize their sales pitch and increase their chances of conversion.
Competitive intelligence: Companies can use the API to export LinkedIn profiles of their competitors to analyse their skills, experience, and professional network. This can help them identify areas where they need to improve and take informed decisions.
1 API credit will return 1 complete profile.
Here is an example of a Profile Enrichment API call in Python:
{"fullName":"Alfie Lambert","headline":"Co-founder at Lix","summary":"Building the cybernetic sales workforce by connecting all software with verified, actionable B2B data. 🤖","location":"London, England, United Kingdom","emails":[""],"socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{"username":"alfie-lambert","url":"<https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfie-lambert"},"twitter":{"username":"AlfieLambert"}},"workExperiences":[{"organisation":{"name":"Lix","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Co-founder","description":"Lix> provides industry-leading contact intelligence technology to sales teams, marketers and business intelligence professionals around the world. Our primary goal is simple: bring Contact Intelligence into the business mainstream. \\n\\nSales teams, especially those in fast-growing b2b SaaS businesses, need an alternative to broad-brush leads lists. They need more information about the people they are selling to. They need to spend less time hunting for leads and inputting contact information. They need to spend more time doing what they do best: selling.","location":"London, England, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2020,"month":11},"endedOn":{}},{"organisation":{"name":"Lambert \\u0026 Bizzle","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Growth Consultant","description":"Our speciality lies at the intersection of performance marketing and immaculate presentation. We understand what powers real growth: marrying our expertise with an intimate knowledge of your business to create tailored solutions to your most pressing problems. \\n\\nWith shared backgrounds in growth hacking, automation, graphic design, video editing and startup \\u0026 scale-up marketing we can provide a full solution for your business - or we can dip in and solve individual problems as needed.","location":"London, England, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2018,"month":3},"endedOn":{"year":2020,"month":11}},{"organisation":{"name":"Strawberries \\u0026 Creem Festival","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Director of Marketing and Communications","description":"Last year saw 10,000 revellers at S\\u0026C - a 10 fold increase from when I started less than 4 years ago. We have struck 6-figure partnerships with household names, been featured in every national newspaper and radio station worth mentioning and become a mainstay of the festival scene. ","location":"Cambridge, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2014,"month":7},"endedOn":{"year":2018,"month":3}},{"organisation":{"name":"Pivigo","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Growth Hacker","description":"Pivigo is passionate about what the data revolution will bring to the commercial and public sectors. Data science can, and will, impact every industry. It is only a matter of time before every company will employ data science in their business, and those that start earlier will have a strategic advantage.\\n\\nAs the data science hub, Pivigo is at the cutting edge of a flourishing industry. We provide all the tools for those looking to a career in data science, from leading training (S2DS) to resources and challenges. For business, we can help you identify what data could do for you and connect you with the skilled practitioners to deliver on that goal.","location":"London, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2017,"month":2},"endedOn":{"year":2017,"month":12}},{"organisation":{"name":"CityMunch","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Chief Marketing Officer","description":"CityMunch is a two-sided marketplace looking to connect savvy consumers with eager restaurateurs. We are putting the power into their hands, helping restaurants fill their seats and customers fill their stomachs. \\n\\nFor consumers, the mobile app allows anyone with time on their hands to explore London's food scene without breaking the bank. CityMunch offers free real-time discount vouchers across 250+ restaurants in London. \\n\\nFor restaurants, a simple web-based platform helps fill spare tables during quiet periods.\\n\\nAs CMO of a new and fledgling company, all processes had to be started from scratch; immediately designing and implementing a full media and communications strategy that has continued to be the foundation of all their b2c communication. \\n\\nDuring my tenure, the user base increased by +48%!a(MISSING)nd the daily covers (our key metric) rocketed 10x: from 5 on the day that I started to 52 on the day that I left. The average daily validations grew from 6 to 40. \\n\\nDAU (Daily Average Users) increased by +315.6%!,(MISSING) Daily Engagement rose by +532%!,(MISSING) Sessions Per User +18%!,(MISSING) Daily Engagement Per User +52%!\\(MISSING)n\\nMy communications work led to CityMunch receiving a prominent specialist feature in the Daily Telegraph, as well as coverage in other major news outlets and online channels","location":"London, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2016,"month":10},"endedOn":{"year":2017,"month":1}},{"organisation":{"name":"Freelance Journalism","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Freelance Journalist","description":"In addition to reading for my degree, I currently write articles and submit them on a freelance basis to a number of publications including: BRIC - A high-end glossy political publication focusing on the emerging BRIC nations. Croco - An arts and lifestyle magazine originally based in Spain; I was approached by the editor to assist in targeting UK music artists and scenes in order to help them bridge the gap into a new market. DV8 - A sneaker-based fashion magazine based in London.","location":"London, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2013,"month":10},"endedOn":{"year":2016,"month":7}},{"organisation":{"name":"The Tab","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Music Editor","description":"As editor of the music section for the Cambridge Tab I chase leads, find stories and commission writers to cover all aspects of the music scene in and around the University.\\n\\nDuring my time as editor over the busy May Ball period I successfully negotiated exclusive coverage with the vast majority of Cambridge colleges for their headline act announcements - putting The Tab music way ahead of the pack of student papers in terms of hits, readership and content sharing. I am consistently within the Top 100 journalists Nationwide and often in the Top 20 / Top 10.","location":"Cambridge, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2015,"month":5},"endedOn":{"year":2016,"month":1}},{"organisation":{"name":"Futurecoins","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"CMO","description":"As a new start-up, Future Coins needed a fast and powerful media strategy. I arranged for Joel Moss to be interviewed, along with our product, by: CNN, Al-Jazeera, The Telegraph, Time Out, Vice and a number of industry publications. Our social media presence grew in both quality and quantity, with targeted marketing through Facebook a great success when looking to reach out to tech savvy 20-somethings in the London area. As well as building awareness for our initial installation in London, I also put together a marketing plan based on bitcoin usage data against population and sought out other areas of the UK to install our units. I successful brokered the deal with the host of our unit in Brighton, which was the first in the city attracting attention from the BBC and local press.","location":"London, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2013,"month":4},"endedOn":{"year":2015,"month":1}},{"organisation":{"name":"The Guestlist Network","socialAccounts":{"linkedin":{},"twitter":{}}},"title":"Journalist \\u0026 Section editor","description":"Producing articles for both online \\u0026 a print run of 50k. I also interview artists (both written and on camera), as well as contributing to comedy sketch writing.","location":"London, United Kingdom","startedOn":{"year":2013},"endedOn":{"year":2013}}],"education":[{"schoolName":"University of Cambridge","degree":"Bachelor's degree","startedOn":{"year":2013},"endedOn":{"year":2016},"fieldsOfStudy":["Human, Social \\u0026 Political Sciences"]},{"schoolName":"City and Islington College","degree":"Access Diploma","startedOn":{"year":2012},"endedOn":{"year":2013},"fieldsOfStudy":["Mixed Media"]}]}
LinkedIn Account API
The Account API is the fastest and simplest way to export an individual’s LinkedIn Connections. This method does require the user to be logged in to LinkedIn and have their LinkedIn account connected to Lix, in order to access their connections list.
Exporting LinkedIn connections has a number of potential applications. For individuals, exporting their LinkedIn connections allows them to maintain a backup of their contacts, import that data into their CRM and potentially use that information for networking purposes outside of LinkedIn.
For companies, exporting their employees LinkedIn connections can help to build a database of potential leads or customers. This information can be used to support sales and marketing efforts, or to identify potential candidates for job openings within the organization.
1 API credit will return 10 connections.
Here is an example of an Account API call in Python:
The LinkedIn Search API endpoint allows you to export pages of search results, as you would from within the LinkedIn search. As well as People (standard LinkedIn) and Leads (Sales Navigator) search results, this is where you will find and export Posts and Jobs search data.*
*note: Jobs search results no longer contain the description, “posted by” and other data points. To export this data you will need to use the Jobs Enrichment endpoint.
For all variations of the Lix LinkedIn Search API you will need to provide the search result URL from LinkedIn:
People Search
The data available from People Search results provides less depth than the Profile API, as it will show the search result rather than the profile data. However, each API credit returns 10 results, as opposed to the Profile API which is 1 credit per profile. So if less data is needed for each individual, the People Search is a more cost-effective method.
As search results are tailored to the individual performing the search, you have the option to use the “viewer_id” parameter to view the search results as an individual. This viewer must be connected to Lix. Read more in the documentation.
Here is an example of an LinkedIn People Search API call in Python:
There are some super interesting use cases for tapping into a LinkedIn API to export LinkedIn Jobs search data:
Talent Sourcing: Companies can use the LinkedIn Jobs search data to identify potential candidates who match their job requirements and target them with relevant job postings or recruitment messages.
Competitor Analysis: Companies can use LinkedIn Jobs search data to analyse the job postings of their competitors and identify their hiring trends, skills requirements, and hiring volume.
Job Market Insights: Companies can use LinkedIn Jobs search data to get insights into job market trends, such as job titles, salaries, locations, and industries, to inform their talent acquisition strategies.
Sales Prospecting: Sales teams can use LinkedIn Jobs search data to identify companies that are hiring for specific positions, which could indicate growth or expansion, and target them with relevant sales messages or solutions.
Job Board Aggregation: Job board aggregators can use LinkedIn Jobs search data to aggregate job postings from LinkedIn and other job boards, and provide users with a comprehensive job search platform.
Again, you have the option to use the “viewer_id” parameter to view the search results as an individual. This viewer must be connected to Lix. Read more in the documentation.
Each credit will return 10 results – however the data is now limited. LinkedIn displays very little data in the Jobs search results, the majority is within the job posting itself for which you will need to use the Jobs Enrichment API.
Here is an example of a Job Search API call in Python:
The Lix LinkedIn Posts API endpoint is exciting, because it offers real-time insights into the content that LinkedIn users are posting and sharing; which have a number of applications:
Social Listening: Companies can use the LinkedIn API to monitor what people are saying about their brand on LinkedIn. This can help them to quickly identify any negative feedback and respond to it in a timely manner.
Content Marketing: By analysing posts related to a particular industry or topic, companies can identify trends and create relevant content to engage their audience.
Competitive Intelligence: Companies can use the LinkedIn API to monitor the activity of their competitors on LinkedIn. This can help them to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and develop strategies to compete more effectively.
Sales Prospecting: Sales teams can use the LinkedIn API to identify potential customers by searching for posts related to their industry or pain points. This can help them to engage with potential customers and build relationships that can lead to sales.
Once again, you have the option of using the “viewer_id” parameter & each credit returns 10 results.
Here is an example of a Post Search API call in Python:
The Sales Navigator Leads Search returns more data than the standard LinkedIn ‘People’ Search results, including Past Roles and Education – information otherwise only available from the Profile Enrichment endpoint. Also, as Sales Navigator shows 25 results per page, versus 10 per page from standard LinkedIn, you will receive 25 results per credit.
Once again, you have the option of using the “viewer_id” parameter.
Here is an example of a Sales Navigator Leads Search API call in Python:
Much like the Profile Enrichment endpoint, Jobs Enrichment allows you to export a greater depth of data than the standard search results. Recently, LinkedIn changed the layout of Jobs search results. Whereas previously all Jobs post data was available in the search, now the deeper detail (description, posted by, etc.) is contained within the post:
The information in the green box is Jobs Search data. The information in the red box can now only be extracted via the Jobs Enrichment endpoint.
As with the Search API, the “viewer_id” parameter can be used in order to tailor the results to an individual but this individual must have their LinkedIn account connected to a Lix account.
1 API credit = 1 Enriched Jobs Post
Here is an example of a Jobs Enrichment API call in Python:
Organisation Enrichment allows you to export company data beyond standard search results, from within the full company profile. Much like Jobs (above), LinkedIn stripped back the amount of data available in the search. Now, companies searches only provide a few data points. To really delve into that firmographic data, you will need to enrich.
The difference between Organisation Enrichment and the other kind of enrichment, is that it’s a different kind of credit. Org Credits also work on a 1 call, 1 credit basis but credits are much cheaper in order to reflect the lower density of data available.
Here is an example of a Jobs Enrichment API call in Python:
{
"liOrganisation": {
"name": "LinkedIn",
"link": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin",
"industry": "Computer Software",
"website": "https://careers.linkedin.com",
"description": "Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 850 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network. The company has a diversified business model with revenue coming from Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Sales Solutions and Premium Subscriptions products. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, LinkedIn has offices across the globe.",
"headquarters": "Sunnyvale, US",
"companyType": "Public Company",
"liEmployeeCount": "26383",
"size": "10001+",
"specialities": "Online Professional Network, Jobs, People Search, Company Search, Address Book, Advertising, Professional Identity, Group Collaboration, Recruiting",
"numberOfInvestmentRounds": "7",
"followers": "25072627",
"crunchbaseId": "linkedin",
"salesNavLink": "https://www.linkedin.com/sales/accounts/insights?companyId=1337&trk=li_comp_page",
"logoUrl": "https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C560BAQHaVYd13rRz3A/company-logo_",
}
}
LinkedIn Contact Information API
Looking to find the email address for anyone on LinkedIn, in real-time, connected directly to your internal applications? Look no further. The Lix LinkedIn Contact Information API endpoint allows you to find validated email addresses from LinkedIn.
This endpoint is a lead generation supercharger for any sales, marketing or talent / recruitment team. You can integrate this with your CRM to generate a valid email address for any potential lead, or find and validate emails for large leads lists. The possibilities are huge.
The command requires you to enter a LinkedIn profile URL, to return an email. These can be exported either using the Lix It tool or the LinkedIn Search API.
Unlike the other endpoints, the LinkedIn Contact Information API requires email credits as opposed to API credits. These can be added to your account in the same way as API credits.
1 Valid email credit = 1 valid email. We only charge when a valid email is found.
Here is an example of a LinkedIn Contact Information API call in Python:
The Lix LinkedIn API provides a powerful solution for talent sourcing and recruitment, market research, sales prospecting, and competitive intelligence teams to access high-quality employment and firmographic data. With its real-time API, businesses can easily gather LinkedIn data and use it to their advantage. Whether it’s exporting LinkedIn profiles, job search data, company search data, or posts, the Lix LinkedIn API provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses to improve their operations and make data-driven decisions. So if you’re looking for a reliable and efficient way to access LinkedIn data, give Lix LinkedIn API a try and see how it can transform your business.
Talent intelligence and analysis is increasingly becoming a critical role in ensuring the success of any business. The importance of efficient and accurate talent intelligence data gathering cannot be overstated.
When it comes to gathering data for talent intelligence, there are several methods available, but they vary greatly in terms of accuracy, speed, and cost. Manual web scraping is one of the most common methods, but it can be time-consuming and may result in incomplete or inaccurate data. On the other hand, purchasing data from third-party providers can be expensive and may not always be tailored to specific needs.
When it comes to gathering secondary data, there is now a faster and more reliable way to achieve this. With Lix’s LinkedIn API, users can access real-time data on job postings, companies, industries, and individuals with the ability to extract contact details, full LinkedIn profiles, and more. This means faster data collection and a higher level of accuracy, as the data is updated by the user and can be extracted in real time.
Using the Lix API for Talent Intelligence Data Gathering
The Lix B2B API has a wide range of use cases in talent intelligence. Companies can use the API to gather candidate data and company information for market analysis, job posting in real time, competitive intelligence gathering, and more. Here are some examples of how the API has been successfully used by other companies in the talent space:
Candidate Sourcing: Companies can use the API to gather candidate data from various sources, including complete LinkedIn profiles, to create a comprehensive database of potential hires. This can help companies save time and money by automating the process of candidate data sourcing and reducing the need for manual searches.
Market Analysis: The Lix LinkedIn API can provide companies with valuable insights into the job market by collecting and analysing data on job postings and candidate profiles. Companies can use this data to identify trends and patterns in the market, such as the most in-demand skills or the average salaries for certain roles.
Competitive Intelligence: Companies can use the API to gather data on competitors, including company size, job postings, and employee profiles. This data can be used to gain a better understanding of the competition and inform strategic decisions, such as hiring and marketing initiatives.
Overall, the Lix B2B API provides companies with a powerful tool for talent intelligence data gathering. By automating data collection processes and providing accurate and up-to-date information, the API can help companies stay competitive and make informed decisions.
The API allows for seamless integration with existing data management systems, making it easy to incorporate this valuable data into your talent intelligence strategy. This allows for a seamless data flow between the API and your company’s internal systems, enabling real-time data updates and automatic data syncing if required.
When it comes to security and compliance, the Lix B2B API adheres to strict data protection policies and protocols, including GDPR and CCPA regulations. We only help you to access public data, as approved by the user within their LinkedIn privacy settings.
Overall, the Lix B2B API offers a powerful, efficient and flexible solution for accessing valuable talent intelligence data, while maintaining strict security and compliance standards.
LinkedIn marketing is a topic that has been done to death. The platform itself was launched in 2003 and by early 2004 there were a tranche of blogs and articles detailing just how to market on this new and exciting platform. Back then, professional social networking was box fresh. Nobody had done it before and, as we all know, marketers love something new and shiny.
Over the 17 years & 740m users that followed, LinkedIn marketing guides haven’t really changed much. There have been thousands of blogs, videos and courses passing on and on the received wisdom from those early pioneers. Sure, features have changed and updated and some new channels within LinkedIn have opened up, but read any current guide on this topic (even from the big players, I’m looking at you Hubspot & Neil Patel) and the basics remain: make a company page, join some groups, start a group, run some ads…
I’m here to tell you that much of this ‘wisdom’ is, in 2022, baloney.
Anyone that uses LinkedIn on a regular basis, either in a marketing capacity or otherwise, will know that LinkedIn groups, for example, have been stone dead for years. This is due to a combination of algorithm changes (that prioritise high-engagement posts from individuals) and an over-saturation of promotional posts, spam and irrelevant content. Chasing engagement in LinkedIn groups in 2022 is flogging a long-dead horse.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that you can disregard any blog written post-2017 that instructs you to put time and energy into LinkedIn groups. If a writer is recommending this as a strategy in 2022, it shows they’re either not a regular LinkedIn user or marketer (in which case, they don’t know what they’re talking about), or they are reworking those same old LinkedIn marketing blogs from years past in a lazy attempt to earn your precious clicks.
You deserve better.
Say it with me now: “I deserve better!”
If you’re marketing on LinkedIn 2022 you need a guide that is honest, robust and accurate. A guide written by someone who actually markets on LinkedIn and uses the platform day in and day out.
You need this guide.
LinkedIn Marketing Part 1: The Basics
I will start this section off by saying that some of the old school methods are still useful, but these are the absolute basics. For example, having a company page is a bare minimum requirement for marketing on LinkedIn. It is not a LinkedIn marketing tool, or goal, in itself.
As a marketer in 2022 you already know that “if you build it, they will come” does not work anymore. It is not enough to simply build this page and make it pretty. In fact, it’s not even enough to build a company page and post articles on it. There are 55m+ companies on LinkedIn at the time of writing and millions of them are already doing this. Millions. If you want to cut through the noise, you need to work harder and smarter.
With all that said, lets cover those basics and give you a solid foundation from which to build.
Company Pages
Having a polished LinkedIn company page is the minimum requirement for marketing on LinkedIn. In fact, I included LinkedIn company pages in my How to use LinkedIn walkthrough earlier this year, designed for absolute beginners. You can check out the video for a more in-depth guide to company pages and the best practices therein.
Let’s take a look at the example I give in the video, to show you what a great LinkedIn company page looks like. I use the Teleperformance page as an example because it was voted best Company Page of 2019 by LinkedIn users.
As a marketer, you probably already know the ground rules for setting up a website or landing page and those rules ring true for LinkedIn company pages, too: proper branding, concise copy (in line with your brand tone) and clear calls to action.
One glance at the Teleperformance page shows that they are ticking all of those boxes. The Teleperformance logo is clear and their colours are mirrored into their cover image, a great shot of an employee in their offices. The use of a young, tattooed employee isn’t accidental either – Teleperformance a firmly planting their flag as a young, cool and modern company.
They’ve changed the standard CTA that comes with company page from ‘Learn more’ (my least favourite of all CTAs) to ‘Contact us’, a link that leads directly to their contact page.
Their ‘about’ section is maybe a little wordy, but they spell out exactly what they do. Even if “omnichannel customer experience management” means nothing to you, the more complete description that follows makes sense to anyone in or out of the industry.
Teleperformance also make use of all the additional Company Page tabs that are available today, including the ‘life’ tab – a chance for employers to sound off about how great their employees work life is.
For Teleperformance, this makes total sense. They’re a big company with lots of seats to fill. Their emphasis on ‘life’ and ‘jobs’ shows that this page is really there to attract the best talent, while fulfilling a secondary function of promoting the brand. As an industry leader in a recognised space, they don’t need to use this space to sell what they do, so much as how they do it.
If you’re not quite in that industry leading position just yet, adjust your page to wax lyrical about the benefits you bring to clients / users and maybe use some of this space for testimonials, or whitepapers or whatever it is your company uses to demonstrate their skill and expertise.
Take your time to ensure that this page is up to the same standard you would expect from a landing page. Whatever tactics you employ from the rest of this blog (content, lead gen, cold outreach, ads) people will be clicking through to your company page and looking for more information. Don’t let them leave without getting what they want.
If you’d like a guide to the mechanics of setting up a company page, LinkedIn’s own article is probably best.
They also have a handy guide for designing and sizing your banners and images
Content
Now you have the page, it’s a good idea to publish some content. This is also covered in more depth in my How to use LinkedIn blog ,with an accompanying video.
Publishing content on LinkedIn used to be sure-fire way of getting attention, but the market is becoming increasingly saturated. In fact, the amount of content produced on LinkedIn increased by 60% in 2020 (partially fuelled by the lockdown and corollary rise in LinkedIn usage).
That doesn’t mean you should skip this step, it just means you need to work a little harder to cut through the noise and produce the very best content that you can. LinkedIn content allows you to really demonstrate the breadth of your knowledge in your chosen subject or industry, it also allows potential clients to connect with you and your brand. Remember the old adage ‘people buy from people’? Creating content gives you the opportunity to show who you are and why you’re the kind of people they should be buying from.
If you’re a regular LinkedIn user, you will have experienced (and perhaps created) almost all forms of LinkedIn content. They are:
LinkedIn Posts
The most common type of content on LinkedIn. There are a bunch of options available when you choose to post, including the options to link to a document, create a poll, share that you’re hiring, celebrate an occasion… There are more features added fairly regularly and it doesn’t hurt to take a look at what’s available from time to time.
Posts with images tend to do better than simple text posts, for a number of reasons. Some people respond better to the written word, some prefer visuals – a text post with an image, contains both. Also, from a technical standpoint it’s important to remember that LinkedIn collapses long posts to only show the first few lines of text. If you add in an image, you get the same text allowance but with a big chunk of visual digital real estate along with it. This will stand out more in the feed and attract more views and engagements.
Here’s one from my feed today:
Without the image, the text would have perhaps been too bland to make me stop in my tracks and read the post.
Articles
LinkedIn native articles (also known as LinkedIn Pulse) are the most common long-form medium on the site.
I cannot teach you how to write long form blogs and articles, and as an experienced marketer, you probably don’t need to me to; but there are a few nuggets of wisdom that I would like to impart here.
Firstly, do not neglect the header image, Again, images will give you more digital real estate in the feed and they are a great chance to demonstrate your brand and capture imagination. There are plenty of free tools you can use to create these header images, including Canva and Adobe Spark. Here’s an article I wrote, with a header I created in Adobe Spark:
The image is fun, the colours really stand out (whilst staying on-brand) and as you can see, it attracted some good engagement.
If you want to learn more about b2b blog writing, here’s a great guide: https://altitudemarketing.com/blog/how-to-write-b2b-blog-post/
Video
Video is king. One more time for the people that aren’t paying full attention: video is king!
There are a plethora of reasons why video is so powerful. Firstly, LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a video than a written post. That 20x boost in shares will make a huge difference to your engagement. Not just because more people will see the shared post, but also because a ‘share’ is thought to be a powerful indicator to the LinkedIn algorithm that this post deserves to be pushed to the top of the feed (more on the algorithm later…).
If you’re not comfortable making videos, get comfortable. The best way is with practice. For those of you struggling with nerves, why not create a video that you narrate rather than being in front of the camera? From experience, it won’t receive quite as much engagement (people like to see a face!) but it can ease you in to producing more videos.
Another great tip for video engagement is transcription. People use LinkedIn primarily at work and perhaps don’t use speakers or headphones, so if you can include some subtitles, you’re going to get many more engagements. Try something like Trint.
LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn live streaming increased by 437% in 2020. Live streaming is on the rise on all social platforms and professional-social is no different. Part of the reason for its meteoric rise on LinkedIn is that it’s a new feature and as such, it is prioritised in the feed. The logic is that the more people that see live videos, the more people that will produce live videos.
Live streaming is a little riskier, as there’s nowhere to hide when you make a mistake, but sometimes that helps. We’re all human and showing your fallible side in a live stream can be endearing (depending on the gaffe!).
Q&As can be a popular format for LinkedIn live, but of course this also carries some risk depending on how friendly your audience are…
Algorithm & Engagement
Much like Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn’s feed runs on an engagement-based algorithm. The more engagement that you get, the more people that will see your post. Which means you’ll get more engagement. Which means more people will see it… This means it’s important to capture attention and soak up as much early engagement as you can.
Having lots of (relevant) connections can help. If they’re interested in your industry and your post is relevant to that industry, the likelihood is that they’ll at least watch – even if they don’t engage.
Use hashtags on posts, but don’t go crazy. I find that three is enough, maybe five at a push. I’ve seen posts go viral (LinkedIn viral, which is a few thousand likes) with 10 or more but that’s a rarity. Keep the hashtags relevant and try hashtag terms that correlate with the broad topics your audience follows. For example, if you’re aiming a video at marketers, you can hashtag #marketing and #digitalmarketing, don’t hashtag #marketingvideo. This will feel counter-intuitive to those of you who have used hashtags for this purpose on Instagram, where it’s best to blend broad and niche terms to game your way onto the explore page. Just remember that people on LinkedIn aren’t regularly searching for niche terms
My top tip for gaming the algorithm is to think about the times of day that people use LinkedIn. Posting at 8.30am just before people start, or at 1pm for the lunchtime crowd, will probably bring in more engagements than posting during the working day or late in the evening. If your primary audience are in a different time zone, factor this in too.
Groups
I touched upon this topic early on but I’m coming back to really hammer the point home. LinkedIn groups are dead. LinkedIn groups are so dead that the body isn’t even warm anymore. Following 12 full years of groups being spammed with promotional posts, algorithm changes in 2017 deprioritised group posts (they used to feature very high in the feed).
Another contributing factor is probably the fact that there are thousands of ‘How to Market on LinkedIn’ blogs all telling people to start their own groups. This was in order to ‘control the narrative’ and ‘build a community’ all useful things for marketers, but when everyone is trying to do the same thing it all falls apart. The explosion of groups meant that many became havens for spam and self-promotion, with lots of groups being abandoned by their owners – with no one left around to administrate and regulate them.
We’ve taken over this here group you yellow-belled varmint
Now, there are 20m+ groups on LinkedIn. Think about that for a second, twenty million groups. According to this blog they’re “not dead, only 99% of them are dead” – so enjoy sifting through the 1,980,000 dead ones to find the 20k that still have a pulse.
Sure, if you find relevant groups that you want to share your posts into then by all means do so. You might get a few views and clicks. However, I strongly advise that you do not waste time building strategy and content around LinkedIn groups. It’s like recording an album for an 8 track. That day is done.
Part 2: Smarketing
Smarketing is a term that is being used increasingly to describe the synergy between marketing and sales, especially in the world of b2b (which I assume you are in, otherwise why are you reading a guide to LinkedIn marketing?).
For many of us, a big part of our job is bringing in leads for our sales team to close. If you’re marketing for a startup, you might be the marketer and the salesperson all rolled into one. If either of these apply to you, congratulations – you’re a smarketer.
Marketing on LinkedIn puts you right at the coal face for smarketing, because you are interacting one on one with the very individuals that you and your sales team wish to close. This section covers the best in current techniques for bringing in leads, setting up meetings and turning your professional network into viable pipeline.
Lead Generation
Using the powerful LinkedIn search function (yes, I’ve written a guide for that too: LinkedIn Search) you can find thousands of potential leads. Filtering for location, language, job title, industry, current organisation etc. allows you to hone-in on your ideal prospects. This is great, but how do you turn this list of search results into a pipeline?
“How can I get the email addresses for all these John Smiths?” I hear you cry. Read on and find out.
With LIX! LIX is an industry-leading contact intelligence company. People use our tools and services in a number of ways, but one of the most popular is for LinkedIn lead generation. Using the LIX tool, you can turn a list of LinkedIn search results into a spreadsheet full of email addresses.
The best thing is, doing so is totally GDPR and CCPA compliant. Our clever algorithm matches company email formats with domain names, using publicly available information. A human could do what the LIX tool does, it would just take them much, much longer! This allows you to feed your sales team an almost never-ending supply of clean, verified email address for potential targets, filtered and sorted along your own parameters.
Cold messaging on LinkedIn can get a bad rap, but that’s mainly due to bad practitioners rather than bad practice. This is another one of those issues started and propagated by lazy marketing advice from cookie cutter blogs, telling everyone to do the exact same (wrong!) thing. If you use LinkedIn regularly, this will have definitely happened to you and it will have almost definitely annoyed you.
Step 1: They send a connection request, explaining why you should connect with them: you’re in the same industry, there’s some synergy, they looked at your profile and liked it, they want to share information. It doesn’t matter what they say here, because it isn’t true. They just want to get to….
Step 2: As soon as you accept their connection request, their adoration for you evaporates and it’s straight into the cold pitch. There was no information exchanged, there is no synergy – they’ve got something to peddle, and you’re next on the list.
I want to pause here for a second and point out that I have no problem with people trying to sell me things, pitch ideas, invite me to webinars, whatever it is. I do it too. In fact, if you’re marketing on LinkedIn then in some capacity, you’re always pushing people towards one of these goals.
The problem I have with this method, is the same problem you have with this method if you really think about it: it’s insincere.
The second they hit you with that follow up pitch, you know that the first message was total rubbish. They didn’t look at your profile and decide they wanted to know more. They don’t want to share information with you. They wanted to sell you something and they used a barefaced fib to get their foot in the door. Not a great way to start a working relationship, is it?
Here’s one I received today. At the very least, the sender isn’t gushing – but one quick look at his profile shows that his job is to sell video production services to software companies (like mine). So, I accepted his request, and this is what immediately followed:
This a case study in what not to do. This bait and switch intro left a sour taste in my mouth and I will not be using his company for my upcoming video production work (which I do have a genuine need for).
How to do it properly
You have two options here – be honest, upfront and pitch (politely) right off the bat, or actually build a relationship with this connection over time and then naturally move towards a pitch. Of course, which of these you choose will probably hinge on the size of the potential deal. If your company closes big 6-figure deals, the long and slow approach is possibly best – although I have started then closed such deals with short and sweet cold pitches on LinkedIn, too.
When I send out personalised connection requests with cold pitches (of which I have sent around 4,000 over the years), I say something like this:
“Hi, I see that you work in X and I have Y product that could help with that. If you’d like to know more, let’s connect and I’ll be happy to explain in more detail.”
This way you are not being disingenuous and any connections that accept your request are now warm leads. They’ve seen the pitch and decided they’re happy to learn more – or perhaps they don’t want your product right now, but they’re happy to connect anyway because one day they might.
Yes, lots of people will choose not to connect with you, but let’s remember what you’re actually here for. This isn’t a game of ‘collect the most connections’ we’re here to nurture leads, close deals, sell subscriptions, gain webinar attendees – whatever it might be.
InMail
Some individuals on LinkedIn, especially those in positions of power (CEOs of big firms, influencers and so on) who get lots of sales pitches and messages, require you to know their email address in order to connect with them on LinkedIn. When this is the case, you can’t send a personalised connection request as you would normally.
In these instances, you can opt to send an InMail – these either come included as part of a LinkedIn Premium or Sales Navigator package, or you can ‘pay as you go’ with InMail credits.
If you’re going to pay for InMail, I wouldn’t advise using the short and sweet pitch example in the section above. Chances are, anyone that you need to InMail is a primary target for your business and as such, they deserve something of a special touch.
I like to use a technique that I stole from Hubspot (thanks Hubspot!). Sometimes a Hubspot rep will record a video of themselves on your homepage, using their own version of Loom, then email you a link to the video saying “hey, I made you a short video”.
This really stood out to me as a great cold outreach method and I have employed it since with great success. If you’re going to spend the time and money chasing a LinkedIn big hitter with InMails, go the extra mile and do something like this. If they’re not worth the extra time, they’re probably not worth the InMail credits.
Part 3: Advertising
Historically marketers have shied away from LinkedIn ads because… well, they weren’t very good. In truth, they’re still not great but they have improved a lot. The UI is better, the targeting is miles ahead of where it was… The problem for me is ROI. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by using Facebook ads in former b2c roles, but LinkedIn ads tend to be quite expensive for small returns.
Think about it – how many ads have you clicked on LinkedIn? I can tell you that in the 12 years I’ve had a profile, I’ve clicked on a grand total of ZERO ads.
The positioning and prominence of LinkedIn ads used to be terrible. That horrid little text bar above a search, or those little display ads on the side…
Has anyone ever clicked one of these?
Now that ads are appearing in the feed, without being too regular and overbearing, things are getting better and ROI is gradually improving.
If you’re a marketer at a big firm with lots of budget, the lower ROI isn’t too huge an issue for you and perhaps the branding benefits are worth it. If you’re at a startup, or running your own business I would still probably advise that you spend your money elsewhere.
If you are keen to run some LinkedIn ads, there is a great guide here.
There you have it. My unreserved guide to marketing on LinkedIn. If you’ve read every single of these four thousand words, then I commend you. Remember to bookmark this blog to refer back to whenever you need some inspiration or a little guidance and definitely check out our other blogs.
Competitive intelligence is a vital part of any business strategy. By gathering and analysing data about competitors, companies can gain insights into market trends, potential threats, and opportunities for growth. However, gathering this data can be a complex and time-consuming process, particularly in today’s fast-paced business environment where new information is constantly emerging.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the various methods and tools that businesses can use to gather data for competitive intelligence from modern sources like social media and web scraping. We’ll also share tips and best practices for organizing and analysing the data you gather, to ensure that you’re able to extract meaningful insights that can inform your business strategy.
Whether you’re just getting started with competitive intelligence or you’re looking to refine your existing processes, this post is for you. Let’s dive in!
When it comes to gathering data for competitive intelligence, there are two main types to consider: primary and secondary data. Primary data is information that is collected directly from the source, often through surveys, interviews, or focus groups. Secondary data, on the other hand, is information that has already been collected by others and is readily available through various sources such as databases, reports, and articles.
While both primary and secondary data can be valuable for competitive intelligence, it’s important to understand the benefits and limitations of each type. Primary data is often considered to be more reliable and specific to the research objectives, as it’s collected directly from the source. This can provide a deeper understanding of the target market, competitors, and industry trends. However, primary data can be time-consuming and expensive to collect, especially when it requires extensive resources such as surveys or focus groups.
Secondary data, on the other hand, is often more readily available and cost-effective. It can provide a broader understanding of the industry and market trends, as well as information on competitors and their strategies. However, secondary data can also be less specific and potentially outdated, as it’s not collected specifically for the research objectives. It’s important to verify the accuracy and relevance of secondary data before using it for competitive intelligence purposes.
Ultimately, the choice between primary and secondary data will depend on the specific research objectives and available resources. A combination of both types may provide the most comprehensive understanding of the target market, competitors, and industry trends.
Social Media as a Source of Competitive Intelligence Data
Social media platforms have rapidly become one of the most valuable sources of data for competitive intelligence professionals in recent. With over 3.8 billion active social media users, there is an abundance of publicly available information that can provide insights into a company’s strategy, customers, and competition.
One of the main benefits of social media as a source of competitive intelligence data is the real-time and unfiltered nature of the content. Companies and individuals often share their opinions, experiences, and reactions on social media platforms in real-time, which can provide valuable insights into their preferences and behaviors. This type of data can be particularly useful for monitoring trends and identifying emerging issues and opportunities.
Another advantage of social media as a source of competitive intelligence data is the ability to conduct sentiment analysis. By analysing the language used in social media posts, comments, and reviews, competitive intelligence professionals can gauge the sentiment around a particular brand, product, or issue. This information can be used to identify potential risks or opportunities and inform strategic decision-making.
However, social media data comes with its own set of challenges. The sheer volume of data can be overwhelming, and it can be difficult to separate relevant information from noise. Additionally, social media data may not always be accurate or reliable, as individuals may not always provide truthful information or may have biases that affect their views.
Overall, social media can be a valuable source of competitive intelligence data if used effectively. It can provide real-time insights into consumer behavior, sentiment, and emerging trends. However, it’s important to use the right tools and techniques to manage and analyze the data, and to validate the information gathered from social media with other sources.
LinkedIn for Competitive Intelligence Data Gathering
LinkedIn has become a crucial platform for gathering competitive intelligence data. With over 800 million active users, it is a treasure trove of information about companies, industries, and individuals. Companies use LinkedIn to promote their brand, products, and services, and to engage with customers and partners. Competitive intelligence professionals can leverage LinkedIn’s features and powerful search to access a wealth of information about their competitors.
One of the primary benefits of using LinkedIn for competitive intelligence is the ability to gather information about a company’s employees, such as their job titles, work history, education, and skills. By analysing the profiles of key employees, competitive intelligence professionals can gain insights into a company’s organisational structure, its strategic goals, and its competitive positioning. LinkedIn also provides a way to track changes in a company’s leadership or workforce, which can signal shifts in strategy or focus.
LinkedIn Groups are also valuable resources for competitive intelligence professionals. Groups are online communities focused on specific topics or industries, where members can share information, ask questions, and engage in discussions. By joining relevant groups, competitive intelligence professionals can gain access to a wealth of insights and opinions from industry experts, customers, and competitors. They can also use groups to monitor trends and news in their industry, and to identify emerging topics or issues.
In addition to employee and group data, LinkedIn provides a wealth of information about companies themselves. This includes company profiles, which contain detailed information about a company’s products, services, industry, and size. Competitive intelligence professionals can also monitor a company’s activity on LinkedIn, such as updates, job postings, and engagement with other users. By analysing this data, they can gain insights into a company’s marketing and communication strategies, and track its competitive positioning over time.
Lix B2B API
Web scraping is an essential tool for any professional wanting to collect competitive intelligence data on competitors and market trends. It involves using software to automatically extract data from websites and other online sources. There are many different tools and techniques available for web scraping, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Lix’s API provides a reliable and efficient way to scrape and gather high-quality data competitive intelligence data from LinkedIn.
One the pain points of competitive intelligence is the challenge of finding accurate and up-to-date information about your competitors. With Lix’s API, users can easily access contact data, extract full LinkedIn profiles, company data, jobs (and more!) from LinkedIn, ensuring that they have the most relevant and timely information available.
Lix’s API also streamlines the data gathering process, enabling users to gather data much more efficiently than manual methods. This saves time and resources, allowing you to focus on analysis and insights, rather than data collection.
If you want to learn more about how you could utilise the Lix API for your competitive intelligence strategy – talk to us! We’re always happy to share our knowledge and guide you towards the best solution for you. Either click on the purple live chat icon in the corner, or send us an email.
Gathering competitive intelligence data is a critical component of any successful business strategy. The information collected from various sources can provide invaluable insights into market trends, customer behavior, and competitor activities.
While there are many methods for collecting this data, using web scraping tools and techniques to extract secondary can seriously streamline the process. Lix’s B2B data API is an excellent example of such a tool, offering a vast array of data points, including contact data, LinkedIn profiles, company data, jobs, and more.
By utilizing these tools and techniques, competitive intelligence professionals can stay ahead of the curve, making informed business decisions that can propel their organisation to the top of their industry. Whether it’s through web scraping, primary research, or secondary data analysis, the key to success lies in gathering and analysing the most comprehensive and accurate information possible.
If becoming a LinkedIn Influencer is one of your goals for 2023 then you have come to the right place. Before we get started, it’s important to note that this is not a quick-fix guide to turn you into an influencer overnight. It can happen: a ultra-viral video, a huge investment in your company or a popular article about in the press can all catapult you to ‘influencer’ status rapidly; but that’s not something we can optimise or plan for!
This guide is all about putting in the work to build a community and become a leader in your space. This brings me to another important point – consider your motivations for becoming a LinkedIn influencer. If this is a vanity project, the hunt for likes and comments, it’s likely that you won’t stick at it. In a game where consistency is key, that simply won’t get you where you want to go. With that said, you can still take plenty of advice from this article that will make your LinkedIn more popular and with it, those all-important engagements.
There are two kinds of LinkedIn influencers – the “I can post about anything and everybody listens” kind, and the “I’m an expert in my field, so listen to me!” kind. For 99% of influencers, you have to start as the latter before you’re trusted enough to become the former. Even the megastar influencers (Branson, Huffington etc.) got to those lofty positions by conquering their respective fields first.
Now, being an expert is easier said than done. It takes years of work and experience. Perhaps you already are an expert in your field – if so, you can skip this next part and head straight to building your community!
Not an expert just yet? Read on.
Some influencer guides, courses and coaches will tell you that you can shortcut this by reading and regurgitating a few key books in your chosen subject. However, this is not a school project. The aim isn’t to ingest just enough information to pass a test – your goal is to build a community who trust you and what you have to stay. Starting that process by being disingenuous is, I would argue, not the right way to do that.
Instead, read those books and ingest that knowledge – and yes, post about your learnings! – but include your community in that process. The chances are that when you get started, you don’t have a huge following anyway; so who exactly are you putting a on performance for? You’ll connect with your audience better by including them in the journey. Read the books, listen to the podcasts, post about what you’re learning and ask questions of the people reading your posts. Engage with them and learn together. That way, you’re learning how to become the expert your community needs, whilst also building the foundations of your follower base.
Not an expert yet? Time to get reading!
Step 2: Build your community
With any luck, you’ve been doing this already – whether you meant to or not! Connecting with people, engaging with their content and posting are all ways to build your community and if you’ve used LinkedIn at all then you should already have some experience with this.
Groups
When it’s time to get serious with community-building there are a number of ways to go about this. One of the more popular routes is to find an already established community and become a fixture within that group: sharing, engaging, forging relationships.
This method works well because the audience has been gathered for you! If you want to be an influencer in web3 and you find a great and active web3 group on LinkedIn then you’ve got a ready-formed group of people interested in your particular subject, ready to speak to.
The drawback to doing things this way is that you can become limited by the size of the group and the willingness of the group owners to let you take centre-stage.
If you’re in a niche that has a number of groups, my advice is to become active in a few – don’t spread yourself too thin and definitely don’t just copy and paste the same posts in each group. People will notice this and earmark you as a spammer! Tailor posts to groups, reply to people’s questions and provide value where you can.
Networking
Never underestimate the power of networking – both in-person and via LinkedIn itself. Send connection requests to people that would benefit from your content, and get to know them. Especially in the early days while you’re building a base, forging these relationships is crucial.
These people may go on to be your advocates, sharing your posts, commenting, engaging – all important stuff for improving your reach and overall growth. Having a team of individuals that have spoken to you and connected with you that are likely to support your content is a real boon in the early days.
Other Platforms
LinkedIn users, for the most part, are not confined to LinkedIn alone. They will often use Twitter, or Facebook / Instagram / TikTok (depending on the demographics of your target audience). My advice is not to chase all of these platforms at once, you’ll burn out and waste a lot of time. Pick one, or perhaps two others that have the audience you want and post, network and engage on those too. Make sure you link to one platform from the other (put your LinkedIn profile link on your Insta bio, for example) and allow one to help you build the other.
Step 3: Create value-driven content
So you’re an expert in your field, or you’re learning to become one, and you’re building your community – what do you share with them? My advice here is to begin with a value-driven mindset. Think about information that you can share that will provide real value to those consuming it. Here are three high-level bullet points to consider when creating content:
Relevant: The first question you need to ask yourself is “what does my audience want?”. You should be on the right path here already, as you’ve already chosen your niche, but dig a little deeper. What problems are your audience facing? Is anything changing in your industry? How can you provide them with content that improves their day? If you provide genuine, relevant value they will return.
Unique: There are a ton of other people out there vying for your audience’s attention, so be unique. That doesn’t mean you can’t cover the same topics and stories as others (but if you can find totally unique content, great) but give your unique perspective on it, or find the angle nobody else is covering. Find a way to stand out from the crowd.
Engaging: Hopefully if you’ve got points 1 and 2 covered you’re already halfway to engaging your audience, but the work doesn’t stop there. Great content engages, enthralls and keeps the reader or viewer on the page. This includes using effective storytelling techniques such as using anecdotes, metaphors, similes and personification when describing concepts or ideas rather than just stating facts without context or meaning behind them. In other words – entertain while you inform!
Give your audience a ‘lightbulb moment’ and they’ll come back!
Step 4: Dedication & Consistency
As I said at the start, there is no magic formula or quick fix. Even a viral sensation can be lost to the background if they never hit those heights again. Becoming a LinkedIn Influencer is going to take hard work and dedication. It’ll be hard not to give up at times but if you stick with it, I promise that you will see results.
Don’t be disheartened if your early content doesn’t get much engagement, or your group posts fall flat. You need to persevere, keep posting and always analyse your content to see where you can improve. It will take time, so keep at it!
These steps above tell you how to become a LinkedIn influencer – it’s now up to you to head out there and put in there work. You’ll need to be passionate about your topic, willing to work hard at it, and have some promotional skills. You’ll also have to be willing to build a community of connections and followers who will share and promote your content for you. And lastly, you’ll have to create a lot of value in content that people want to read.
Catering yourself toward the needs of others will only further establish your credibility as an Influencer on LinkedIn.
I hope this article has encouraged you to take the plunge into becoming a LinkedIn influencer. It’s not an easy process, but it can be done with dedication and hard work. If you follow these four steps, we guarantee that your content will get noticed by other users on the platform, which will help boost your brand and authority as well!
Sales data serves as the foundational intelligence that helps drive targeted customer engagement and efficient decision-making. It’s the fuel that optimises your sales pipeline, ensuring that your sales professionals can quickly zero in on high-potential leads while also customising their outreach strategies for maximum impact. In essence, the right data sets the stage for predictable, efficient sales outcomes.
In this blog, we’ll delve into finding and leveraging B2B data for better sales, explain the different types of sales data, and provide information on how you can tap into LinkedIn’s treasure-trove of sales data and even pipe it directly to your own apps and tools via the Lix LinkedIn API.
Types of Sales Data
As salespeople, we’re already use data to inform our decisions, even if we’re not aware of it. SDRs and BDRs understand who their prospects are, what roles they perform and at which kinds of companies. Sales leaders make decisions based on market changes and customer preferences. Data underpins all of these decisions.
Demographic Sales Data
Demos means “the people,” and graphy means “writing about or recording something” — so demography literally means “writing about the people.” Demographic data then, is anything related directly to prospects. The actual human beings at the other end of your outreach! For sales, this mainly consists of geographical data, names, email addresses, locations, employment histories, and skills. This data helps to adapt offers and messaging to specific target groups, making it the basis for B2B prospecting. You can usually find and extract the most up-to-date records of demographic data via a prospect’s LinkedIn profile.
Firmographic Sales Data
Firmographic data refers to the ‘demographics of organisations’; it allows companies to be segmented into defined groups for your SDRs to target. This type of data includes company name, location, industry, number of employees and so on. Key data for figuring out messaging, price points and much more.
Chronographic Sales Data
Another interesting type of sales data, is Chronographic data. This also known as sales trigger data, and it refers to events and changes that occur over time. These changes can lead to an opening to engage with a new prospect or to revisit a prospect that went cold. Chronographic sales data includes company location moves, prospects leaving or joining a job, company acquisition, company funding, hiring trends, and company IPOs. A good source for this information is a company’s social media activity – for B2B, LinkedIn posts are a great option.
How to Find Sales Data?
If your sales team has adopted a data-driven approach, collecting reliable, high quality data in real-time is a must. Data can be collected manually from public sources such as social media profiles, websites, and online articles such as blogs. However, for efficient and reliable data, it’s best to invest in a reputable B2B data provider.
Lix’s LinkedIn API allows you to tap into LinkedIn’s unparalleled store of business data, integrating real-time LinkedIn data into your CRM systems, internal and external apps or other sales tools. Say farewell to old spreadsheets and manual updates. Instantly pull accurate data on potential leads, keeping your sales team one step ahead of the competition.
Why LinkedIn Data?
In short, because LinkedIn is the best store of up-to-date B2B data anywhere on the web. The difference between LinkedIn and any other source of data is not only its scale (over 800 million users & 30m companies) but the fact that it is updated so regularly by the users themselves. Rather than relying on company websites, that are updated as and when marketing or management teams decide, LinkedIn rewards users for providing data about themselves and their companies as events happen. Other providers of B2B data source their information from places like job boards or data lists from brokers. This information goes stale, fast. We use LinkedIn, because it has the cleanest and freshest data and that is exactly what you need to make better decisions.
High-Volume Data Export
Need a lot of data? No problem. The Lix API‘s robust high-volume data export capabilities mean you can retrieve enormous sets of valuable information from LinkedIn profiles. Send up to 10,000 requests per day with no loss of performance. Integrate this data directly into your tools to better understand your target market, tweak your sales tactics, and drive results at scale.
Laser-focused outreach with “Nearest Decision Maker”
One of our most powerful features is the “Nearest Decision Maker” tool. This enables you to identify who holds the purchasing power within a target organisation. It answers the pivotal question: who is the key decision-maker that you need to engage? By targeting your outreach towards individuals who have the authority to make purchases, you enhance efficiency and increase the chances of closing deals.
Seamless Software Integration
Whether you want to integrate with your CRM software, specialised sales analytics platforms, or even your own internal and external apps, the Lix LinkedIn API ensures smooth and straightforward incorporation. The result is a unified, efficient, and tremendously powerful sales operation that capitalises on real-time data and insights.
Benefits That Transform Sales Operations
Here’s a rundown of the game-changing advantages you’ll gain with Lix’s LinkedIn API:
Time-Efficiency: Automate data retrieval tasks that previously required manual labor, allowing your sales team to focus on what they do best: selling.
Precision Targeting: Use accurate, real-time data to identify the best leads and decision-makers, significantly improving your targeting accuracy.
Enhanced Analytics: Import large volumes of data seamlessly into your analytics tools, providing a richer, more accurate view of market trends and customer behaviors.
Direct Access to Decision-Makers: Utilise the “Nearest Decision Maker” feature to bypass gatekeepers and speak directly to those who have the authority to seal the deal.
The Lix LinkedIn API offers more than just features; it provides a comprehensive solution aimed at propelling your sales processes into the future. By employing real-time data, high-volume export capabilities, seamless integration options, and transformative tools like “Nearest Decision Maker,” you’ll be well-equipped to tackle the modern challenges of sales with a data-driven approach.
TLDR: We can integrate with your Bullhorn CRM to update all your contacts and eliminate stale data! Interested? Get in touch.
Recruitment is all about relationships. Forging good relationships with clients and candidates alike is what sets apart good and great recruiters. In order to maintain those relationships, it’s important to have accurate and up-to-date customer information at your fingertips.
Digital relationships still count!
That’s why we use CRMs – Customer Relationship Management! But even the best CRM system can fall short if the data it contains is stale or out-of-date. It is common for data in a CRM system to become outdated or “stale” over time, especially if the system is not being actively maintained and updated. According to the ONS, every 3 years, 27% of the workforce change jobs – whether via promotion, location or career change. That’s a big chunk on your relationships to lose touch with. Therefore it is important for businesses to regularly review and update their CRM data to ensure that it remains accurate and useful. This can help them to maintain effective communication with their clients and stay up-to-date on important changes within their organization or industry.
This is where our product comes in. Lix‘s real-time data extraction from LinkedIn integrates with you Bullhorn CRM, meaning you can avoid data decay and keep your CRM system current and relevant. This can be done periodically, updating your CRM at regular intervals, to ensure that you are not losing those valuable relationships.
Lix seamlessly integrates with your existing Bullhorn CRM system and the update process is done for you. This means that you can get your CRM to full health with minimal setup or configuration required.
If you’re interested in refreshing your CRM and bringing those stale contacts back to life – please get in touch. We’d be happy to discuss and provide you with a quote.
Looking for a cold email sequence template you can start using right away? We’ve got you covered!
Are you looking for ways to effectively reach out to potential clients or partners through cold emailing? A well-crafted sequence of emails can be a powerful tool for generating leads and closing deals, but it can be difficult to know where to start. In this blog post, we will provide a template for a sequence of cold emails, including follow-up emails and the length of time between them.
The first email in your sequence should introduce yourself and your company, and explain how your products/services can benefit the recipient’s business. Be specific and provide proof points to support your claims.
After waiting 3-5 days, send a first follow-up email. This email should remind the recipient of your initial message and offer to answer any questions they may have.
If you don’t receive a response after another 7-10 days, send a second and final follow-up email. This email should reiterate the potential benefits of working together, but also let the recipient know that you will respect their decision if they are not interested and will not contact them again.
By following this template, you can ensure that your cold emails are professional, courteous, and effective. Good luck!
Cold Email Sequence Template:
1. First email
Subject: [Name], let’s discuss how we can work together
Body:
Hello [Name],
I hope this email finds you well. I am reaching out to you because I believe my company’s [Product/Service] could greatly benefit your business.
[Insert specific details or benefits about how your product/service can help their business]
I would love the opportunity to discuss this further and see if a partnership makes sense. Could we schedule a call to discuss?
Best,
[Your Name]
2. First follow-up (sent after 3-5 days)
Subject: [Name], following up on my previous email
Body:
Hi [Name],
I wanted to follow up on the email I sent a few days ago about how our [Product/Service] could benefit your business.
I understand that you may be busy and may not have had a chance to read my previous email. I just wanted to remind you of the potential benefits of working together and offer to answer any questions you may have.
Please let me know if you would be interested in discussing further.
Best regards,
[Your Name]
3. Second follow-up (sent after 7-10 days):
Subject: [Name], one last follow-up before I move on
Body:
Hello [Name],
I wanted to reach out one last time to see if you would be interested in discussing how our [Product/Service] could benefit your business.
I understand that you may be considering other options, but I just wanted to remind you of the potential benefits of working together and offer to answer any questions you may have.
If you are not interested, no problem. I will respect your decision and won’t contact you again.
Best, [Your Name]
Feel free to play around with the email content – please check out our Cold Emailing Complete Guide for more opening email templates and a the low-down on how to write them from scratch!
If you’re about to start a cold email campaign, give Lix a try: we offer 50 free valid B2B emails every single month.
Sales teams are, by their nature, lead-hungry. They want more, high-quality leads and they want them now. They need to keep their pipeline full, but with so many different sources of leads, it’s important to know which ones are worth pursuing and to keep them organised. That’s where lead management comes in. Lead management is the process of identifying, prioritising and distributing sales leads to increase your sales. An effective lead management system can help you prioritise, allocate and track a lead – from a marketing campaign to close.
Lead management is the process of prioritising, distributing and tracking leads to increase your sales.
If your company receives inbound or marketing-qualified leads, you will know that before anyone can contact this lead and begin the sales journey there is work to be done. Someone must decide which leads are worth pursuing, divide the leads up between the sales team (whether this is done by industry, geography, size etc.). Once the lead has been distributed to a salesperson, the journey of this lead through your sales funnel must be tracked, to ensure no good lead slips through the net. This is an important, but time-consuming process.
But this is 2023! Important, but time-consuming processes are on the path to become important, but automated processes. Sales intelligence and salestech in general is advancing a rapid pace and steadily, these problems are being solved.
Isn’t this my CRM’s job?
Some CRM’s handle a portion of the lead management journey, but not all. CRMs such as Hubspot and Salesflare are great at tracking a lead from the moment it has been assigned and added to the CRM, but as we know – there is work to be done before we reach that stage!
Ideally, you want to use as few tools as possible to get the job done. The fewer tools, the less of your budget they take up and the less training you have to do to get your staff up to speed. So, if you have a great CRM that handles most of this for you – excellent. The only gap you need to fill is the pre-CRM steps of prioritising and distributing those leads efficiently.
Strike while the iron is hot: Prioritise leads in real-time
Inbound leads are much beloved by salespeople, because they show intent. If someone has responded to a marketing campaign, signed up for your mailing or entered their details into a ‘contact us’ form on your website, it’s a clear sign that they are interested in your product. We all get way too many emails and interruptions on daily basis, so to have a potential lead actively request contact from a company is very valuable thing.
The last thing you want to do, is wait for that buying intent to wane. The sooner you can prioritise and allocate that lead to the right person, the better. That’s where a tool like LookC Ping steps in.
LookC Ping works with your web forms and office communications (eg. Slack, Teams) to ‘ping’ you with a notification packed with important identifying information every time a new lead comes in. This includes information for the individual’s company such as founding date, industry, company size, location and estimated revenue. All important indicators of a lead’s importance, as well as providing all the information you need to correctly allocate that lead.
For example, if a Mr William Gates asked to be contacted via the form on your site, LookC Ping would notify you via Slack or Teams, letting you know that: William Gates (bill@microsoft.com) the Founder of Microsoft, a Tech company founded in 1975, based in Washington, with 233k employees and an estimated revenue of $203b; was interested in hearing from you.
Were this to come true – I’m sure you’d like to know about it within seconds, rather than waiting for the marketing team to discover it later and then pass it over!
Ping allows you to act on hot leads instantly, to prioritise leads at a glance and is super easy to install and get up-and-running. If your company receives inbound leads, mail-list sign ups or any other kind of web form interactions from customers – get Ping!
Tracking the lead journey
Once your lead has been prioritised and allocated to the correct salesperson, what happens next? In many organisations, things get a little cloudy at this point. Usually, the salesperson adds the lead to their CRM. At the very least, there is now a record of the individual containing their contact details (which will go stale over time!) and the nature of their enquiry. If you’re not using a tool like Ping, the information that you enter here may be scant, depending on the way the lead came in and how much data was collected during this process.
A good CRM will allow a manager, founder or even a whole team to monitor the progress of that lead and to ensure that they are being guided towards a deal. Let’s think back to our enquiry from a certain Mr. Gates – you wouldn’t want this lead’s journey to go dark and slip through the net.
If your CRM doesn’t do this, my recommendations are Salesflare and Hubspot. Both perform particularly well in user ratings and reviews for this particular area of CRM and have a pedigree within the industry. If you’re not looking to change CRM (understandably it is a quite a task to undertake) then think about ways to shine a light on the on the lead journey after it enters the CRM. This may involve more detailed reporting from your sales team, for example.
Lead management software is designed to make it easier for sales teams to nurture leads and convert them into customers
It’s important to keep track of the lead’s journey from marketing campaign to close. There are many steps in this process, and it can get confusing if you’re not using a tool that helps you manage your leads effectively. Lead management software allows you to capture prospects’ contact information, convert them into leads, track their progress through your sales funnel, and measure their engagement with your brand throughout this journey.
