Sam Fin
The concept of inbound marketing is predicated on others seeking you out.
When other professionals look at your profile, it's an invitation for you to check them out. The trick is to get the right people to look at your profile so you can take it from there.
More info at https://useorca.com/
Sup guys, in this post I’m going to show you how I scraped members from my competition’s Facebook group to engage and connect on Linkedin.
Before we get started, here’s the stack you’ll need:
FB Group Scraper Extension (only works in developer mode)
Phantombuster LI URL
Orca
Let’s get started.
Click on the link above to download the FB Group Scraper Extension and unzip.
Open Chrome extensions and toggle on Developer Mode.
Select Load Unpacked
This will open Finder if you’re on a Mac or […] on Windows. Locate the unzipped fb group scraper extension and upload it. This is what you should see:
Turn the extension on, if its off. You should extension in the toolbar.
Head on over to your competition’s facebook group.
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7. Once you’re in the group, simply click on the extension. It will take a few minutes to scrape the members and will automatically download it to your computer as a csv.
The next step is to create a trial account on Phantombuster and utilize their LinkedIn Profile URL Finder to generate the LI urls for the members you just scraped.
Once you’ve generated the LI urls for the group members, go to your campaign dashboard in Orca and click on Create Campaign in the navbar.
There are four types of campaigns in Orca:
Search on Linkedin
Upload a CSV of Linkedin URLs
Send Linkedin URLs by Zapier
Send Linkedin URLs from Growlabs
For this hack, you can either upload a CSV or pass leads through Zapier.
BLUF: don’t be that idiot that sends a paragraph long pitch in a connect or follow-up.
Dux-soup User Group — winning
Why winning? To give your campaign some positive vibes. :)
Once your campaign is published, the leads will be in pending status while Orca verifies the URLs are valid. Note: make sure that your Linkedin account is connected with Orca, otherwise… all the leads will be invalid because Orca won’t be able to login to your account and verify.
Verification will start within 15–30 minutes, unless that is you’ve already ran Orca all day and it needs to rest. Yes, robots need sleep too.
Orca runs around 200 engagements per day for premium users and half that for basic users. I don’t know the exact number because we randomize it to keep your account safe from being flagged.
Don’t get flagged. Set up a automation schedule under Automation Settings in Preferences
Okay, cool. So what was the result of my scrape? Well, I managed to generate around 300+ Linkedin URLs, 230 are still pending verification. Out of the 91 profiles that I’ve engaged with, I connected with and started conversations with 52.8% …. when was the last time you saw email opens or response that high?
Better get cracking on your Linkedin game before everyone and their mothers start running social selling campaigns on Orca. There’s a shelf life to every growth tactic. Don’t be a damn laggard.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/how-i-scraped-my-competitions-facebook-group
I’m long overdue on this one… it’s been about month since we launched our integrations with Growlabs, a super powerful lead gen and email automation platform, and we still don’t have an announcement post, but hey, better late than never… right?
Originally, when Anson and I first set out on building Orca we envisioned a tool that could do everything from lead generation to prospecting on social and email. We didn’t like the idea of having to string together all these different sales enablement tools.
We were using Dux-soup + Massplanner to automate social engagements on Linkedin and other platforms. For cold outbound emails we were using several different tools from Yet Another Mail Merge to Mailshake. I’ve since stopped running cold email campaigns. Don’t get me wrong, I still run email campaigns, I just do it differently now, but more on that later.
Anson and I still believe in our vision, we’re just approaching it differently now. Rather than going it alone and competing with existing tools in the sales enablement space, we’re instead collaborating with other companies. This enables us to focus on what we do best, which is the social selling aspect, while enabling our partners to do what they do best, relationship management, lead generation, and email outreach.
Why did we integrate with Growlabs?
Simple. Our lead generation tool is shite, and I’ll be the first to admit it’s shite. With lead generation, you need a tool that can help you get more precise. Our tool is basic, but Growlabs’ isn’t… their audience search filters enable you to get more targeted.
Growlabs’ audience filters are broken out into five buckets; most common filters, company lists, financials, technographics and more contact details. I’m not going into details on how to use their filters, but if you’re interested, here’s a really awesome post they’ve put together: Lead Generation Filters Overview.
I just want to quickly show you how you can now automate and sequence LinkedIn profile views, connect requests, and follow ups by pushing leads from Growlabs into Orca before, or in parallel with, sending your email sequences.
We use this integration a lot at Orca. We know this is definitely something that will help your team get noticed faster without them having to manually engage leads on Linkedin.
Alright, without further adieu, here’s the webinar I did with Jeff from Growlabs. Feel free to fast forward to 5:50 for the demo on pushing leads from Growlabs to Orca.
Loving Orca? Learn how you can save up to 100% on your subscription by sharing Orca with your friends and team members. Deets below:
When you open your dashboard you’ll see a link in the navigation bar next to the Create Campaign button with the text Share the love (save $$$).
When you click this link you’ll be taken to the referral section under Preferences. Simply copy your unique referral link from the Share thissection (highlighted in the screenshot below), and share it with the world to start
As soon as one of your friends, colleagues or followers uses your unique referral link to subscribe to Orca, both of you will get $5 off your subscription, for as long as both of you keep your subscriptions to Orca.
How can your friends use the code?
When your friend clicks on the link, they’ll be sent to the signup/login page, where they can sign up for an Orca account. After creating an account and subscribing, the discount will be applied to both of your accounts automatically.
Ta-da! Magic.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/sharing-is-caring
By now, most of us sales guys, marketers, growth hackers, whatever you want to call yourself, have come to terms with the fact that cold emails just aren’t as effective as they used to be 2–3 years ago.
It’s the truth. Open rates and replies are dropping. Sure, you can tighten up your subject line or improve the copy, but it’s still not enough.
The cat is out of the bag. I repeat. Everyone knows about email automation and everyone (and their mothers) is out cold emailing everyone.
That leaves you unnoticed by potential customers who are immune to your email sorcery.
But what if…
What if email isn’t the only way to reach potential customers and get your foot in the door?
Most of you are already using platforms like Linkedin to find leads.
Some of you even know about the “look back” and are actively engaging leads with soft social touches, namely profile visits and invites.
Many of you are doing this manually yourself or hiring interns, possibly even sales development reps, to run these engagements.
A few of you are ahead of the curve using basic tools like Dux-soup to automate some of these soft engagements.
Why it works
The concept of inbound marketing is predicated on others seeking you out. When other professionals look at your profile, it’s an invitation for you to check them out.
The trick is to get the right people to look at your profile so you can take it from there.
When you get a notification that someone looked at your Linkedin profile, you will almost always look back to see who they are. Potential customer? Investor? Competitor?
What do you think happens when you look at profiles of potential customers?
Chances are, they will look back and checkout your profile.
The more profiles you visit, the more people will look back. The more people who look back at your profile, the more likely you’ll get connected. And the more connections you make, the larger your network and opportunities to do business.
How many of you out there are sequencing soft social touches as you would with emails?
I’m willing to bet that number is very small in comparison. Meaning, now is the perfect time to start orchestrating these types of social touches on Linkedin before the word gets out and the tactic is adopted by the rest of the market.
You know what they say, “Early bird catches the worm.”
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Imagine creating a sequence like this:
That’s already pretty cool in and of itself… but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are a few future Linkedin hacks we plan on building:
Auto-skill endorsement
Auto-request recommendation
Auto-withdraw connect requests
Post like and commenting
Direct message sequences
There’s a few more hacks we’re keeping under wraps. Stay tuned.
So here’s the thing. Orca is a team of techies and growth specialists who believe in leveraging technology to help companies scale faster by automating the small, but monotonous and repetitive tasks that we think robots can handle just as well, if not better than humans.
We’re doing this, even if it means breaking the rules, because we know running a business is a ton of work and there’s definitely way more important things you’d rather focus your attention on.
There’s still a bunch of features we need to build to make Orca more powerful, but we’re pretty pumped with what we’ve built so far.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/automated-sequences-on-linkedin
Here are some ways to use Boolean logic and construct your searches:
Quoted searches: For an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks. For example, type “product manager”. You can also use quotation marks if you want to find someone with a multi-word title.
LinkedIn search only supports standard, straight quotation marks (“). Other software or websites may use special symbols that our system does not recognize. Curly quotation marks (“), also known as smart quotes or typographer’s quotes, aren’t supported.
In order to optimize overall site performance, stop words such as “by”, “in”, “with”, etc. aren’t used.
NOT searches: Type the word NOT (capital letters) immediately before a search term to exclude it from your search results. This typically limits your search results. For example, “programmer NOT manager”.
OR searches: Type the word OR (capital letters) to see results that include one or more items in a list. This typically broadens your search results. For example, “sales OR marketing OR advertising”.
AND searches: AND searches: Type the word AND (capital letters) to see results that include all items in a list. This typically limits your search results. For example, “accountant AND finance AND CPA”.
Note: You don’t need to use AND if your search has two or more terms, you’ll automatically see results that include all of them.
Parenthetical searches — To do a complex search, you can combine terms using parentheses. For example, to find people who have “VP” in their profiles, but exclude “assistant to VP” or SVPs, type VP NOT (assistant OR SVP).
When handling searches, the overall order to precedence is:
Quotes [“”]
Parentheses [()]
NOT
AND
OR
Things to keep in mind:
The + and — operators are not officially supported by LinkedIn. Using AND in place of + and NOT in place of — makes a query much easier to read and guarantees that we’ll handle the search correctly.
When using NOT, AND, or OR operators, you must type them in uppercase letters.
Linkedin doesn’t support wildcard “*” searches.
Boolean search will work in the keyword field in Recruiter and Linkedin.com, and will work in the Company, title, and keyword field in Sales Navigator.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/using-boolean-search-on-linkedin
More info at https://useorca.com/
More info at https://useorca.com/
More info at https://useorca.com/
More info at https://useorca.com/
More info at https://useorca.com/
Okay! So this post is a bit of a rant… not a social selling growth hack. But no worries young blood, I’ll work on a hack over this Sunday (today is Saturday) so you can get your fix.
Super steller animated illustration by Anastasia Steshkina, check out her work on Dribbble.
Now, if you’re just getting in bed with social selling and aren’t exactly sure what the right approach is… keep reading.
This post is going to be part of a long series of posts I make on the do’s and don’ts of social selling.
On a serious note though… before we get started, can someone please tell me why the apostrophe on don’ts is between the n and t and not t and s? I’m high af again and cannot stop thinking about it. FML…
Okay, focus Dan… focus! Hooah.
What I am about to share with you has definitely happened to you at some point while using Linkedin.
Somebody sends an invitation to connect. You have no idea who this person is… so you check out his profile and decide, “Hey, this seems like a good connection to have. Possibly a potential buyer done the road…”
Out of the kindness of your heart you accept their request, nothing wrong with that… That’s what Linkedin is for anyways, connecting with other professionals.
But what do they do in return? They do this…
What is dis shizzle? They pitch you… No sweet talk, no foreplay. Nothing.
The dude just straight up tried cold selling some service you probably didn’t need or want.
It’s like inviting someone to your home, just so they can pop a squat and take a 💩 on your newly installed and polished hickory vintage barrel, hand sculpted, solid, hardwood flooring from Home Depot.
The shit ain’t even warm… it’s cold. Colder than cold email. Ice cold.
You begin to question why you even accepted the dude’s invite, thinking to yourself (but really wanting to respond with a 🖕 but since you is a true professional, you let it go…):
“Bro… I literally just accepted your invite. Why turn a warm conversation into a cold pitch? As if I’m ready to buy already… I just met you! At least shake my damn hands (virtually of course)…”
If you’re reading this and your like… “Oh shit, I do that…”
Stop. This is not how sales is done. I don’t where the fuck you learned to do this or who your sales manager is, but you need to stop that shit because you give us good sales guys a bad rep.
Sales is about providing value… it’s not a pitch competition. So stop pitching your shitty service or product.
People make purchases not because your product or service is superior…
Rabbit hole #1: First off, if what you’re offering is not differentiated… and NO… We’re higher quality is not a differentiator you jack ass… and if you also find yourself in an inundated market like sales enablement (talking to myself here), web development, marketing, seo, etc… what I am about to say applies directly to you, so listen (read) carefully…
People make purchases not because your product or service is superior… they make purchases because they trust and respect you as an individual. That’s how business is done… that’s how it was always done…
Rabbit hole #2: Over last 5 years or more… but 5 years because that’s when I first got my taste in sales… companies have been way too focused on making money over providing value. We spend way too much time thinking how we can optimize the pipeline and speed up the sales cycle… and what it’s created is a generation of jackass sales guys who have no idea what sales is really about. I blame this phenomenon on egoic “rockstar” entrepreneurs and business owners who optimize for profit versus building something valuable.
Sales is not about speed… it’s about listening and providing value when and wherever possible. Sales is about the human experience… a deep compassion for wanting to truly help the person standing opposite of you solve their pain…
Sales is NOT about ABC it’s about APV. I just made that shit up, but it works… here’s what it means:
Always Provide Value.
I am a firm believer in the Golden Rule, from Luke 6:31 NIV… Do unto others what you want done unto you.
If you don’t like getting cold emails and messages in your inbox pitching bullshit products and services, don’t be a goddamn hypocrite and cold pitch your bullshit product and services to others, even if you think your shit don’t stank… because it does. Let me explain…
Rabbit hole #3: The secret of life is to reach a point of peace. Some experts call this Heaven others call it Enlightenment… the state that these experts are all trying to capture with silly buzzwords is a simply a state of internal peace, not external peace because that shit won’t happen. When you do the right thing you feel at ease, because it feels right… when you do bad things, you create conflict. You know this because you feel it within yourself… So the secret of life is to really rid yourself of any internal conflict you have… that is if you want to be happy because happiness is simply just a state of deep internal peace.
Okay, Dan you high as hell again… what does this have to with my shit stankin’?
So you may actually have an amazing product or service, but how you share that product or service with people you don’t really know, determines how it is received.
If you serve cold soup, it will be received cold. Warm soup taste much better.
Bottom line… stop spamming people with pitches. Sales is not about the quick win, it’s about relationship building. Take your time and get to know the other person, their company, their needs… you may not close the deal this week or next, but I guarantee you… if you give value, it will be returned in ways you’ve never imagined.
Think about what I said… and share your thoughts below. We’re in super interesting times right now, especially when it comes to selling.
Cold emailing is out the door. Sales guys need to adapt and take on a social approach.
With automation comes great responsibility. The point isn’t to remove humans from the equation, but to give them more time to meet, learn, collaborate, share, and help others.
If you enjoyed this post give it some claps… If you agree that we need to change the way sales is done today, share this post with those in the force.
If we want to change the way outsiders see us sales guys, which isn’t so positive if you haven’t noticed… we need to start by changing the way we do sales.
Sales is an art, one that should be respected, not looked down upon. Help me and my team at Orca change sales for the better.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/apv-not-abc-sales-done-right
Lead generation. Let’s talk about it.
But before we dive in, let’s set the record straight… What exactly is a lead?
Believe it or not, this term is misused all the time. So let’s take some time to define and understand what the word is actually referring to.
A lead is someone who has indicated interest in your company’s product or service in some way, shape, or form. The keyword to look at here is that they’ve indicated interest.
The term lead is often confused with prospects, and used interchangeably, even though they don’t mean the same thing.
A prospect is a potential customer, someone that has been qualified as fitting certain criteria:
fits your target marketer (sole/seniority, industry, and company size),
has the means (money) to buy, and
is authorized to make buying decisions
Prospects DO NOT have to have indicated interest in your product or service. They just need to meet the criteria above.
Straight? Dope, let’s move on.
What is lead generation?
Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who’s indicated interest in your company’s product or service. There are two types of lead generation: Inbound and Outbound.
Lead magnet. Awesome illustration by Gustavo Zambelli. Check it his amazing illustrations on Dribbble.
We’re going to focus our attention on Outbound Lead Generation, but let’s take a few moments and understand the differences and similarities between the two, so you can determine which approach is best for you.
Fishing or Hunting
I like analogies. So that’s what I’m use here.
Inbound Lead Generation is a lot like fishing. You’re literally putting bait on a line, casting it out, and reeling it back in when you get a bite. Bait, in this context, is any material, information, incentives, etc. (content) that your prospects can follow back towards your company.
Seriously… what are the chances.
It is a process where you, the sales hacker or marketer, find unique ways to attract people to your business. Inbound lead generation is warmer than outbound lead generation, often referred to as cold outreach, because in an inbound scenario, it’s the prospect who chooses the type and timing of the interaction.
That doesn’t mean outbound lead generation sucks. Not at all…
Outbound Lead Generation is all about the hunt, and good hunters not only shoot well, but also track well. Tracking, in this context, is the ability to identify and decide if a target is worth the shot.
The key characteristics you’ll find any skilled huntsman:
Patience. You’ve got one shot… so you’ve gotta take your time, think, and decide when the moment is right.
Empathy. Great huntsmen respect the game, and they respect the kill… oops I meant close. It’s the circle of life baby!
Note: The hunters I’m referring to are the real hunters… you know the ones that actually aim? I’m not talking about shotgun hunters, spraying slugs, and hoping they get a kill.
If you’re a “shotgun” hunter… stop, you dumb fuck. You’re giving us real huntsmen a bad rep in a game that was once highly reputable.
No, I’m not going to apologize for my choice in words. Love it, hate it… I don’t give two 💩 in a bucket. I spit #truth… and you are a dumb fuck when you think it’s a good idea to mass blast people cold… disrupting their day-to-day.
Respect the game, or don’t fucking play.
Outbound marketing has gotten a lot of negative press in the last decade or so. Punch the term into Google and you’ll a million results filled with negative language like “interruption,” “in-your-face,” and “irrelevance.” Some posts even go so far as to proclaim its death.
Outbound is not dead.
If you think it’s dead, you’re dead wrong. Stop blaming the game, and take a real hard look at yourself because the #truth of the matter is… it’s you who’s been doing outbound all wrong.
Let’s correct that… put that dang shotgun down and pick up your big boy rifle. I’m going to show you how to aim and shoot.
Lieutenant Dan here gonna show you the way. Damn straight, U.S. Army veteran reporting in from the illest fighting force known to mankind. Boom boom!
Lead generation using intent signals… let’s talk about it.
Outbound lead gen is typically colder than inbound lead gen, and is often referred to as interruption marketing as opposed to permission marketing. You’re actually more familiar with this than you probably think. You’ve experienced these growth tactics in your daily routine — messages on signs, buses, billboards, and commercials…
Marketing is a contest for people’s attention. Let me show you how to warm up your cold outreach by using intent signals to generate leads.
The majority of lead lists are generated based on your definition of an ideal customer, such as industry, company size, job title, seniority, technology used, etc.
List building using intent signals allows you to generate leads based on what’s actually happening real-time. For example:
Recently funded Internet companies with more than 50 employees in US and with min 50,000 monthly web traffic.
OR
Blockchain companies in New York that are hiring for developers & have less than 100 employees.
OR
Recently launched mobile apps based companies that are hiring for software testers in India and headquartered in the United States.
OR
Companies spending money in digital marketing in London and have more than 100 employees and use Hotjar.
Lead generation with intent signals allows you to take your targeting to the next level, enabling you to go beyond just basic search filters that everyone else is using.
This approach allows you to get hyper targeted in your outreach messages, whether that’s through Linkedin automation with Orca, traditional email prospecting techniques, or both together as one in a multi-dimensional pipeline.
It’s a new day, and sales is changing… better lead gen, better prospecting tools. That said, we’re proud to announce our partnership and integration with EasyLeads.
EasyLeadz + Orca = Growth
Our top priority at Orca is to help you do sales better the right way.
Our direct integration with EasyLeadz allows you to generate leads based on intent signals so you can warm up your cold outreach with companies who are hiring for roles, using software, etc. complementary to your products/services.
Don’t get left behind… level up your skills, huntsman.
Ready? Checkout this guide to get setup and running with EasyLeadz + Orca integration.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/intent-based-lead-generation
What’s up, guys. I hope you enjoyed my last article on how to scrape LI groups.
I really enjoyed putting the last hack together and got a ton of great feedback, so I’ve decided to put double down and put another article together. This isn’t a growth hack, so let’s just call it a workflow hack.
I like coming up with social selling growth hacks, experimenting with different sales enablement and marketing tools, etc… but this week, I want to show you some quick workflow hacks to make your life easier.
That said, we’re going integrate Orca with Hubspot through Zapier. I know… It’s not the most ideal solution, but this is the best we’ve got until we finish up our direct integrations with Salesforce and Hubspot.
In this post, I’m going to show you how you can a trigger a social selling sequence on Linkedin in Orca whenever a lead is added to Hubspot CRM.
Let’s level up your Hubspot game by giving you the power to sequence Linkedin engagements in parallel, before, or after your email sequences.
Here’s are the tools we’ll be using in this workflow hack:
Orca
Zapier
Hubspot
Some enthusiasm as always
First things first…
I will assume you already have a Hubspot account. If not, it’s free, so make one! If you’re using another CRM, as long as it’s integrated with Zapier, you’ll be able to follow along.
If this is your first time using a CRM, check out this article to help you get started using Hubspot.
Next, let’s make sure you have at least one Linkedin URL in Hubspot, so we can test the Zap.
Open up Hubspot and go to Contacts.
Create a contact. I’m going to use Dan and myself as test contacts.
When you create a new contact on Hubspot, you can enter basic information like name, email address, company, etc.
You can also input other data, like Linkedin URL (you’ll need to do this if you want to trigger sequences in Linkedin).
Click on View all Properties. Find Social media information, you’ll see a space for your lead’s LinkedIn bio. Copy and paste the Linkedin url and save.
Awesome, test contacts are set in Hubspot. You’re ready for the next step.
Connect Orca with Zapier
To connect Orca with Zapier, open your dashboard and head on over to Preferences. Under Integrations, you see the Zapier integration.
Click on View integration on Zapier. A new window will open, login to accept the invite. If you don’t have a Zapier account, you’ll be prompted to create one.
Login to accept the invite. Get ready to create your first Zap with Orca.
Let’s head back to Orca and create a Zapier campaign.
Setup your sequence, publish and head back to Zapier.
Create this Zap and select Hubspot from the list.
On the next step, pick trigger. There are several different triggers, for this hack we’ll be using New contact trigger, which can trigger a sequence everytime a new contact is created in Hubspot.
IMPORTANT: Make sure when you create a contact, to always include Linkedin URL.
Next connect your Hubspot account by entering your login credentials. Test. Save and continue.
Test this step by Pulling in the samples (test contacts we created earlier).
On the next screen, you’ll see a list of your contacts, choose a contact you want to test for this setup.
When you’re ready, move on to the next step to connect Orca with Hubspot.
Choose Orca from the app list.
Then select Add Lead to Orca by Linkedin Profile URL. Save + Continue.
Select the account and campaign you’d like to push leads into.
Note: If you haven’t created a Zapier campaign in Orca, do so now. Otherwise, you won’t see anything in the drop-down menu.
Next, tell Orca where can find Linkedin URLs. In Hubspot, that would be LinkedIn bio space.
Set the CRM Record ID to contact email. Press Continue.
On the next screen, test the Zap by clicking on Send Test to Orca. If the test was successful you will see your sample lead in pending verification status in the campaign details.
On the next screen, test the Zap by clicking on Send Test to Orca. If the test was successful you will see your sample lead in pending verification status in the campaign details.
(this wasnt here few seconds ago :D)
Turn on the Zap!
(and its on!)
Once your Zap is live, you can start adding more contacts to Hubspot. Just make sure you enter their Linkedin URL to Linkedin bio section.
Now whenever new leads are added into your CRM, it will automatically push leads to a social sequence in Orca.
By default, leads will be in pending verification status until Orca verifies that the Linkedin profile URLs is formatted properly. Once leads are approved, they’ll be passed into the social selling sequence.
Whooo! There you have it…Connecting triggering a social sequence in Orca through Hubspot.
What are you waiting for? Go! Start building relationships with your leads on Linkedin. Extend your influence… build up your network of potential buyers and followers.
Hope you liked it! :)
You’ve got a killer sales process that keeps reps productive and easy to manage.
But you can’t help but think things could be more efficient. What’s the answer to this?
Sales automation.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to use sales automation to make time-consuming tasks more efficient, generate more leads and close more deals.
What is Sales Automation?
Sales automation is the practice of taking repetitive and timely sales activity and transforms them into automated processes through the use of technology.
These tasks can be executed on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. The benefit of sales automation? Allowing sales reps and managers alike spend more time on the tasks that make more of an impact to the sales pipeline.
The Benefits of Sales Automation
Now you understand what sales automation is, why should you even care?
There’s a lot of time and effort in implementing automation in your sales organization. So you’ve gotta be sure the benefits are worth it.
And they are! With sales automation, you’ll start to reap the following rewards:
Cost reduction: It’s highly likely that your current processes are a huge drain on resources. And it’s harder to acquire new prospects than nurture existing one. With sales automation, both ends of the sales process can be optimized for greater efficiency.
Conversion boost: The follow-up process is an important activity in the art of sales. Yet so many of us drop the ball on it. With sales automation, you’ll never become a forgotten name in your prospect’s inbox.
Time efficiency: Spend time focusing on the leads that are most likely to close. Sales automation means working on the activities and prospects that bring the biggest rewards.
Customer loyalty: A scalable approach to personalization means your customers will feel like they’re getting a truly tailored experience.
Supercharged revenue: Sales activity is scaled up, more leads are being nurtured and reps focus on the juiciest opportunities. The results? More deals closed and more revenue.
Conducting a Sales Activity Audit
Now you understand the benefits of sales automation, it’s time to get planning.
Here’s the thing: sales automation relies on the right technologies.
This means that you need to understand what you’re going to automate before you put in place the tools to do so.
Running regular sales activity audits will shine a light on any processes that can not only be automated, but also optimized or even thrown out altogether.
Part of the day-to-day challenge for sales reps is the need to continuously enter huge amounts of data. This often leads them to take shortcuts, entering only the minimum amount of information necessary.
Which then leads to inaccurate sales data and unenriched contact information. Which is why sales automation is so important.
Here’s a five-step process to running a sales activity audit to identify areas in your sales process for automation:
Evaluate: Map out every activity and process used by your reps. Ask yourself, which of these things are menial tasks that can be automated? What are the highest-impact activities that lead to real sales results? Do the same with the data being collected within each activity, too.
Cut the fat: Sometimes, processes are there simple because “they’re the way we’ve always done it.” Identify any activities that are redundant and discard them immediately. This will require some digging through your CRM to uncover the right data.
Accountability: Who is in charge of managing and executing on these processes? Look at how data is being handled both up and down the sales funnel.
Minimization: Look at your key processes. Identify any steps or data fields that could be stripped down or amalgamated.
Identify automation opportunities: With your key processes and data-points identified, it’s time to see what can be automated.
Creating a Sales Automation Strategy
So, you’ve identified the sales activity that can be automated.
Now it’s time to put a strategy together.
Why is this important?
Without a strategy, you may end up selecting the wrong tools for the job. This mistake can waste you months of work and thousands of dollars.
Sales Journey Mapping
It all starts with an understanding of the sales journey.
How do your customers go from the awareness stage to becoming a won deal?
This is where journey mapping is key. Once you have a map of your sales journey, you’ll know exactly where to put your efforts.
Of course, there’s no “one-size fits all” when it comes to mapping. All customers are different, and the way they consume content and research their challenges will vary.
By breaking each stage of the sales cycle into funnels, you can ensure you cover every eventuality.
Let’s say a lead signs up for a trial of your software. The next step might be to wait 2 days and send an automated customer success email. What happens if the user doesn’t respond? You’ll need two different paths in order to lead the user to your desired outcome.
For this particular journey, the map could look something like this:
There are several ways the journey can go based on the behavior of the user. As you can see from the “Exit” nodes, each journey map can overlap depending on the actions your customer takes.
Your sales process journey maps should illustrate all possible outcomes based on your communications and the behaviors of your prospects, leads and customers.
Let’s check out some example funnels that might apply to your organization:
Lead Qualification: Once a prospect becomes a lead, it’s important to qualify. This can be done with a phone call to learn more about their needs. The first three steps to this sequence, then, would be:
User fills a form
Automated email is sent
Sales rep calls up new lead
Lead Nurturing: These are best for prospects further up the funnel or leads who have not yet purchased or taken another action. These usually involve sending educational material via email e.g. blog posts and lead magnets. Every time a prospect interacts with these education emails, they’re given a lead score.
Presentation: This usually involves a formal presentation, either in-person or via digital communication (e.g. using Zoom). This stage would involve scheduling steps, personalizing the presentation to the prospect’s needs and any post-presentation tasks to get the lead closer to becoming a customer.
Creating Your Sales Journey Maps
As you’ve already evaluated steps in the process, you can quickly begin the process of creating your map.
These maps should resemble flowcharts, and are easy to put together with tools such as SmartDraw and LucidChart.
When creating your journey maps, keep these tips in mind:
Start with all the ways new contacts enter the top of the funnel. How does data enter the system and what processes are used to enter that data?
Identify all triggers that move contacts along the sales funnel.
Include all core products to your map. This should also include how prospects navigate the research process for each.
Remember to map out any manual tasks. This includes the presentation and proposal creation.
Be sure to map non-interactive tasks, especially any prospecting and data enrichment processes.
Once you’ve mapped your sales journey, it’s time to identify which areas can be automated using sales automation software.
To help you, we’ve prepared a list of 14 tools for you to evaluate.
You find the right prospects and accounts, identify the right executive and conduct outreach through email or social channels.
Much of the prospecting process still involved collecting and managing data. Instead of continuously diving through LinkedIn, copy-and-pasting information into spreadsheets, let’s look at how to automate it.
Prospect.io
Prospect.io helps you identify the email addresses of contacts on LinkedIn and websites. It’ll show you contact details by job role and validates email addresses in bulk.
Growbots
Growbots has access to over 200 million contacts. Using their platform, you can enter granular targeting information to find your ideal customers. From job titles to area of interests and seniority, the level of targeting is vast.
Sales outreach based on bad data leads to poor productivity and bad results — both on response rates and your SPAM score.
UpLead
Similar to the tools above, UpLead helps you identify the right contacts at your target accounts. Most importantly, it helps you enrich your data with the most up-to-date information. Every time you access a new contact it will perform real-time email verification.
Datanyze
Datanyze bridges the gap between sales data and CRM. Integrating with all major CRM platforms, Datanyze enriches lead and contact data to provide “actionable insights” on your target accounts.
Email is the biggest communication channel when it comes to sales. It’s how we book meetings, gauge interest and close deals.
But when it comes to outreach at scale, automation can make it far easier.
Mailshake
MailShake is one of those lean and easy-to-use tools that seem too good to be true. With scalable templates, A/B testing and real-time analysis tools, it’ll make sure your outreach emails are ready to generate a healthy response.
Growlabs
Growlabs works in a similar manner to Mailshake, but provides trigger features to create intelligent email sequences based on your prospect’s actions based on machine learning technologies.
Whether it’s LinkedIn, Twitter or even Facebook – your prospects are there to be found. Here’s how you scale the process.
Orca
It only feels right we give our own sales automation tool, Orca, a shoutout. With Orca, you can automate your LinkedIn engagement and outreach. Use powerful targeting features to segment your campaigns and get the right message to the right contacts.
Mention
Keep an eye on the conversation with Mention. Their platform provides social listening tools, allowing you to monitor certain keywords and topics. Whenever your brand is talked about online, you can be there to join the conversation.
The phone is still a highly effective method of communication with leads, prospects and customers alike. But it’s never effectively been done at scale.
Luckily, there are some innovative tools to help you automate your sales calling activities.
Close.io Calling Platform
Close.io’s call platform promises to double your outbound call volume using their powerful automated dialling. Using their “Power Dialler,” Close.io will call through a list of leads automatically and connect you with the first person who picks up.
HubSpot Calling
Using HubSpot’s calling platform, you can prioritize and line up a whole day’s worth of sales calls straight from the HubSpot CRM system. Call logging and call recording features also allow for more effective sales conversations and analysis.
“How about Thursday at the same time?”
Nobody loves to play “calendar ping-pong.” And yet scheduling is a huge part of the sales process. So why does it have to be so long-winded?
In truth, it doesn’t. Here are some of our favourite tools for automating the meeting and scheduling process.
Calendly
Calendly allows you to add available slots in your diary to your emails. This way, prospects and customers can select the time that works for them, and boom — it’s all scheduled.
x.ai
x.ai takes the same principles as Calendly and wraps it in an AI interface. Simply cc in “Amy” or “Andrew” (x.ai’s AI assistants) and they’ll execute on the scheduling tasks you give them.
Which is why sales proposals are key. They outline the individual challenges of the prospect and tailors a solution to them.
Despite it’s personalized nature, it’s still incredibly time-consuming. So let’s look at ways we can intelligently automate the process.
Bidsketch
Bidsketch helps you save time on proposals by creating a drag-and-drop content system, tailoring your proposals with the content most critical to your prospects. It also includes digital signing features and analytics, allowing you to see how your prospects share and interact with the content.
Proposify
Proposify provides salespeople and agencies with powerful, easy-to-manage and beautiful proposal templates. You can embed rich media (such as video) and they respond to any device, meaning your proposals will look slick on desktop and mobile alike.
Let’s Get Automated
With your sales journey mapped out and a list of tools to automate time-consuming tasks, you should have everything you need to boost revenue and create a hyper-productive sales force.
Unlike many manual activity-led organizations, you can run rings around your competition by nurturing more leads and closing more deals in half the time.
How are you currently using sales automation to supercharge your sales efficiency? Share your processes and tools with us in the comments below.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/how-to-build-a-sales-automation-process-to-supercharge-productivity-strategy-tools
You don’t need me to tell you how popular LinkedIn has become over the last 18 months.
With 250 million active monthly users, it’s likely your ideal customers are waiting to be found.
In this in-depth guide, you’ll learn how to create the perfect LinkedIn marketing strategy. Positioning your brand as an authority, creating killer content and getting your teams on-board — it’s all here.
Let’s get stuck in.
Step 1: Defining Your Strategy & Setting Goals
You can’t execute on a strategy until you’ve defined it. And you won’t know where you’re going until you’ve set clear goals.
Which is why this is the first and most crucial step of this process.
Why?
Without setting clear goals, you’ll end up trying a whole host of tricks without any clue what you’re shooting for.
According to LinkedIn themselves, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn:
Furthermore, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. Even more reason to ensure your LinkedIn marketing strategy is locked-in tight.
As a growth, marketing or salesperson, what are you trying to accomplish? Is it:
Increase lead generation?
Get more eyeballs to your content?
Drive more traffic to your website or landing pages?
Build brand awareness?
Attract and recruit the best talent?
Whatever it is, start with that metric, as it will ultimately drive your strategy.
And don’t worry, every step of this guide will include examples that contribute to each of these goals.
Now it’s time for the maths. Let’s say your goal is to generate 100 leads from LinkedIn next quarter. You need to reverse engineer the process that will get you there. Let’s say 50% is 100 new leads next quarter and your current metrics are as follows:
1,400 blog visits from LinkedIn a month
5.2% conversion rate from reader to newsletter subscriber (73 subscribers)
19.5% nurture rate from subscriber to MQL (15 leads)
Which means you’re generating 45 leads each quarter on average. Therefore, you’d need to generate an extra 55 leads next quarter to reach your goal.
Which brings us to the next set of questions:
Which content performs better than others?
Which LinkedIn marketing activity brings in the majority of those leads?
What new activity can you test to generate leads (with a positive ROI)?
The rest of this guide will aim to answer these questions. Each step will show you how to fill your strategy with the activities that will help you to reach your goals.
If you don’t yet have a defined content strategy, or are yet to truly tap into the power of LinkedIn, then there’s even more opportunity for you.
Step 2: Setup & Optimize Your Company Page
Many of the tactics and approaches taught in this guide are best practices.
Optimizing your company page is one of them.
Your company page will be looked upon by potential clients and recruits alike. It’s a chance to showcase your values, content and culture to those who are interested in working with you.
Here’s how you make your company profile as appealing to those people as possible.
Use Killer Imagery
Your profile picture and banner are the first two elements that visitors to your company page will see. Therefore, it’s important to have these as polished as possible.
Here are the dimensions and specs you should use for both:
Profile picture: 300 x 300 in .PNG format
Banner image: 1536 x 768 pixels in .PNG format
Both images should not exceed 8 MB.
For example, Drift use a simple yet high-quality version of their logo as their profile picture. They also use their banner space as an opportunity to promote their Hypergrowth conference:
Twitter, on the other hand, use their banner space to highlight their work space and celebrate their culture:
Finally, ServiceNow put their people first while making sure their signature brand colors are prominent where possible:
Your banner image is the perfect spot to put your end-goal forward. Use this space to generate leads or include a call-to-action for an eBook or other collateral.
Is recruitment your goal? Use this space to celebrate your culture and give potential hires a peek at day-to-day life at your organization.
Write an Engaging “About us”
Once you’ve hooked people in with your image, it’s time to share your story.
Your “About us” section should put your values, culture and most important value proposition front-and-center.
Here, Drift use their About section as a way to simply say who they are, how they help and a few social proof points (e.g. “venture-backed company”):
In this next example, HubSpot drop as many social proof points as possible – including the number of customers they serve and offices they have located around the world:
Here are some elements to consider including in your About us section:
Number of customers/clients you serve
Name of big companies you work with
Your core value proposition
How you help your clients solve their challenges
The services you specialize in
Any awards (including any workplace-related awards)
Calls-to-action
Including a compelling call-to-action (CTA) can compel visitors to take the next step. Looking again at HubSpot, they use a simple CTA to drive potential customers to their website. Then, they offer a secondary CTA for any potential recruits.
You can also link to a free eBook download, webinar or events. It all depends on what your end goals are.
Create a Robust Profile
There are many areas of your company profile to fill out. These include:
Website
Year founded
Specialties (an opportunity to be found for keywords in LinkedIn search)
Featured Groups
As well as these things, you can also expand your company profile with the “Life” tab. This is the perfect opportunity to lift up the hood on what goes on in your company.
With the Life tab, you can showcase elements such as:
Company photos
Company leaders
Culture insights
Custom modules
Drift have executed this tab perfectly. Each section highlights exactly what it’s like to work with and at their company, attracting new hires and investors alike:
Use this section to highlight your core values. Show prospects and new hires alike what you’re up to and the new, innovative solutions you’re working on.
Step 3: Getting Employees On Board
The term “pod” has been thrown about recently. These are groups of professionals with similar audiences who share each other’s content on LinkedIn to mutually extend their reach.
Your current employees are your greatest advocates on LinkedIn.
The problem is that many don’t see how it benefits both the company and themselves.
So, how do you enable your teams to create and distribute your content or messaging? Just follow this process.
Promote it Internally
Encouraging your teams to get involved is a continuous job. Which is why it’s important to appoint someone to lead the charge.
Ideally, this should be someone from your marketing team who believes in the importance of LinkedIn as a marketing channel.
This might even be you!
Then, find some internal advocates who are enthusiastic about getting involved. Again, these might be in your marketing department. But look outside to your sales or even customer support teams.
And don’t forget to search through your company LinkedIn page for those already active on the platform!
Share Your Vision & Benefits
Now you have people on board. It’s time to share why you’re doing what you’re doing.
This is where having a documented strategy comes in handy. But the other important factor is sharing what’s in it for them.
Why should they adopt your LinkedIn marketing strategy? Why should they care?
There are two possible ways to do this:
Tie company benefits to employee outcome, e.g. more customers equals more profit, which leads to bigger employee bonuses.
Educate them on how this may benefit their careers. By positioning themselves as a reliable figure in their field, they’re more likely to get attention from upper management within the organization.
Of course, your employees will get attention from outside the organization as well. But this validation will just serve as proof that the process works.
Don’t choke their potential for fear they’ll jump ship.
Employee & Sales Enablement
With your employees all on the same page, it’s time to get them to work.
Of course, not everything outlined in this guide will apply to every employee within your organization. So here’s a checklist of basic activities you can encourage your teams to take on a daily, weekly and monthly basis:
Optimize Profiles: Show employees how to create rock solid positioning through their LinkedIn profile. Our guide to social selling will show you how to do this step-by-step.
Claim their URL: A shorter “vanity” URL will make it easier for them to share their profile.
Link Current Position: This will expand the network of the entire company and increase the company’s page rank.
Update contact information: Especially important for sales executives.
Endorsements are a huge social proof point and authority booster on LinkedIn. Encouraging staff to endorse each other will help everyone exponentially increase their credibility on the platform:
Furthermore, encourage team members to recommend each other. These act as “professional testimonials that shows other team members vouch for them:
Employees should also expand their own network by connecting with their teammates and peers in other organizations and industries. When the time comes to share content, this will expand its reach.
Speaking of which, keep your teams in the loop whenever new content is published. Show them how to share company posts. Encourage them to create their own posts by repurposing blog posts (see our social selling guide for more on how to do this).
Step 4: Building Your Audience
You now have a strong foundation for your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
It’s time to expand your audience.
Here, you’ll learn how to give your audience something worth following and how to attract them in the first place.
Give Them Something to Follow
On LinkedIn, creating great content is key.
When building an audience, you need to give them content that’s worth following. At time of writing, there are two forms of content that perform best on LinkedIn:
Native posts
LinkedIn video
Let’s look at examples of each and dissect them. First, here’s an example of a “native” LinkedIn post created by Josh Fechter:
Here, he recounts a conversation he had with the founder of a German startup. As you can see, he includes takeaways on this discussion to add as much value to his audience as possible.
There are dozens of other ways to structure this kind of content, including:
Lessons from your own experiences (both wins and failures)
Lessons learned from mentors
Stories from your day-to-day life (and how they apply to your business)
Lessons learned from other brands you’ve observed
Here, Aaron Orendorff talks about a recent failure and what he learned from it:
This post ended up generating over 400 engagements, extending the reach of his content and expanding his audience in the process.
Then there’s video content. This is doing extremely well on LinkedIn right now. We’re visual creatures, and video helps build a more personal connection with your audience.
There are several different ways to go about LinkedIn video. Allen Gannett, CEO of TrackMaven and author of The Creative Curve, simply shoots on his iPhone when in the company of interesting people to share nugget of wisdom:
Or, you could go a similar route to Neil Patel. He follows a similar direct-to-camera format, but does so with high-quality production:
Is there a wrong or right way? Absolutely not. It all depends on your budget and personal style.
If you’re just starting out, it doesn’t hurt to use a simple iPhone set up. It works well for Allen — his videos generate between 300 and 1,500 engagements!
The lesson here: it’s all about the content.
Finding Your Audience
Now you’ve got something to offer your ideal audience.
It’s time to find them and build connections.
First, it’s important to understand who you’re aiming to attract. This all depends on your goals.
For example, if you’re aiming to generate new customers, users or clients, it’s important to connect with your ideal buyer personas.
If, however, you want to expand the reach of your content, you can be a little more liberal with your targeting. Again, it all depends on your goals.
There are several ways to build your audience — both manual and automatic. For example, you can use LinkedIn’s search function to find those with certain job titles in specific locations and find those you want to connect with:
Then there are Boolean search strings, which gives you more flexibility on your targeting. These look a little something like this:
How do they work? Here’s a quick-start guide to using Boolean logic in your LinkedIn searches:
Quoted searches: You can use quotation marks if you want to find someone with a multi-word title or exact phrases. For example: “senior product manager.”
NOT searches: If you want to exclude a particular term, you can use an uppercase NOT immediately before the term. For example: programmer NOT manager.
OR searches: To see results that include one or more terms, separate the terms with an uppercase OR. For example: ceo OR “chief executive officer” OR founder OR cofounder.
AND searches: To get results that include two or more terms in a list, you can use the uppercase word AND as a separator. For example: manager AND director.
Parenthetical searches: To do a complex search, you can combine terms using parentheses. For example, if you want to find people who have “VP” in their profiles, but you want to exclude “assistant to VP” or SVPs, you can type: VP NOT(assistant OR SVP).
Check out our full guide to Boolean searches in our Medium article here.
Finally, there are automated solutions (like our very own Orca platform). Using the same principles above, you can hyper-target your audience without having to manually connect with them one at a time:
It also allows you to automate the connection process. Simply write a personalized connection request (we recommend creating new searches for specific job roles/geos) and away you go.
Building a Relationship
Automating the LinkedIn marketing process is great. But LinkedIn is all about building relationships.
So, how do you go about building these relationships effectively?
While automation technology will give you a platform to scale, the most important missing piece is what you say and how you reach out.
Here are a handful of tips to help you execute effective LinkedIn outreach:
Do your research: Be on the pulse of the pains, challenges and desires of your target audience. For high-volume outreach, focus on job titles. However, if you’re looking to build connections with potential clients (ABM style), it’s important to personalize it to the individual.
State your purpose: LinkedIn is getting noisier, so it’s important to ease skeptical minds. Why are you connecting with them? Whatever the reason, it should always be to give value upfront in some way.
Don’t start cold: You don’t have to start with strangers you don’t know yet. Why not test your messaging on your existing connections? This way, you can validate whether or not your message will resonate.
Target second-degree connections: It’s easier to find common ground with second-degree connections than third-degree connections. Focus on the things you have in common — both the people you’re connected to and brands/events you’re affiliated with.
Third-degree outreach: Yes, this is a little tougher. But the potential rewards are still high. Focus on personalization through the challenges and desires of the persona.
From here, you’ll have a content and audience-building sequence.
As you and your team generates more connections, the more eyeballs there are on your content. And the more content you create the deeper the relationship you build.
Not to mention: the more connections you generate, the further the reach of your content. As people engage and share with your content, their connections will see that content, too.
You may even find you get an influx of connection requests as a result.
Step 5: Tapping Into LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups has got a bad rep in recent years.
But they’re making a comeback – and for good reason.
By creating and engaging with Groups on LinkedIn, you’re tapping into an audience of marketers interested in the topics and solutions you have to offer.
This step will be segmented into two sections:
Creating your own LinkedIn Group
Engaging with existing Groups
Let’s get stuck in.
How to Create an Awesome LinkedIn Group
First, let’s address the obvious question:
Why bother creating a LinkedIn Group at all?
There are several benefits, including:
Credibility boosting: Build authority among your peers by sharing your thoughts, opinions and expertise on relevant topics.
New content ideas: LinkedIn Groups are a treasure trove of insights for your content, sales and marketing messaging.
Customer insights: Get a broader picture of your target audience. Map pains to job roles/personas by listening to conversations happening within your Group.
Distribute content: Share your owned content to an already active audience.
On top of all this, LinkedIn recently announced they were investing more time and resources in improving the Group experience.
Which is why now is the time to jump on them.
Start by choosing a topic that your audience cares about. There are thousands of groups already dedicated to high-level topics (e.g. “Social Media Marketing”). So, focus on narrow topics instead.
Using our brand as an example, we might focus on creating a Group on social selling – or better, social selling through LinkedIn.
Don’t create a Group around your product. It’s more likely our audience would be more interested in discussing new social selling techniques rather than their thoughts on the Orca platform.
Here’s a Group dedicated to bringing CRM experts together. It has over 110,000 members:
This is a great example of just how niche you can go.
Once you’ve chosen your topic, it’s time to create the Group itself. To create your group, head here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/create
You’ll need to complete each field as thoroughly as possible:
Group title: What’s your group called? Make it relevant to the topic you’ve chosen.
Group logo: Create something that stands out.
Description: What’s your group about? What’s your mission? Talk about who the group is for and what you’ll be discussing.
Group rules: What content and discussion is allowed? Are members allowed to share content? Make them clear to understand.
Group membership: Do you want to be found or is this a private, unlisted Group?
Here’s the description for the “Inbound Marketers” Group:
It’s simple and to-the-point, but quickly describes what they’re about and who the Group is for.
And here’s a quick look at their Group rules:
As you can see, the expectations on each member is clear.
The next step is to create message templates. These include automated welcome messages your members will see once they’ve been approved to join your Group (if approval is required).
Here’s an example from the Wired Advisor Group:
Once you’ve got everything set up, it’s time to invite members to join. Start with your first-degree connections by sending them a message. Again, you can use automation technology to do this.
You should also promote it through other channels. For example, a short email to your list or a pinned tweet.
Finally, make sure you have some discussions started for your new members. Create two or three discussions and get your teams to chime in. This will ensure your Group appears to be bustling when they investigate and, eventually, join.
How to Engage With LinkedIn Groups
If creating a LinkedIn Group seems like to much work, you can always tap into someone else.
Bear in mind, you lose several benefits (such as getting your own posts into your members’ email inboxes). But it can still work wonders when tapping into a wider audience.
Here’s a process to follow when engaging with other LinkedIn Groups:
Identify the right Groups: This goes back to your defined strategy. Who are you trying to attract and for what purpose? For sales generation, I’d recommend Groups that bring relevant job roles together. For content distribution and audience building, aim for Groups gathered around specific topics.
Engage in discussion: Like any online community, start by engaging with the community first. Reply to discussions and comment on content shared by other members. Do this a few times before sharing your own content.
Follow the rules: Similarly, make sure it’s okay to share content. If it’s not, then focus on creating discussions that attract your target audience.
Be relevant: Don’t use Groups as a dumping ground for your content. Make sure the discussions and content you share are relevant to the Group.
Message members: You’re likely to attract the most engaged members over time. Use this as an opportunity to make new connections and get them into your lead nurturing sequence. You can browse members by clicking the “X members” link in the right-hand pane:
LinkedIn Groups can quickly get ruined by members sharing useless content and spamming the group with whitepapers and self-serving calls-to-action.
Don’t be one of these people!
Instead, add value to the group whenever possible. This is how you build credibility and establish intimate relationships.
Step 6: Testing the LinkedIn Ads Platform
As you can see, the organic capabilities of LinkedIn are vast and full of benefits.
But there’s an entire paid media platform waiting to be tapped into.
Using LinkedIn ads, you can get your content and offers in front of your ideal prospects with a thick, profitable ROI.
Here’s a quick beginners guide on how to get started.
Setting Up Your LinkedIn Ad Campaigns
First things first – head to LinkedIn’s “Advertise on LinkedIn” page and click “Create ad:”
Then, create a new account and associate it with your LinkedIn page (where possible). You’ll then be taken to the Campaign Group section:
Click “Create campaign” to begin the wizard. First, select which ad product you want to use. This will depend on your goals. For example, if you’re driving traffic to a landing page or piece of owned content, choose “Text Ads:”
For this example, we’ll choose “Sponsored Content.” This will serve our ad within the LinkedIn newsfeed and is more likely to generate more eyeballs. They’ll look something like this:
Choose what you want to accomplish with this campaign (in this case we’re looking to drive traffic):
Next, you’ll want to select an “Ad format.” These come in three formats:
Article, image or link
Carousel
Video
Experiment with different ad creative. Article, image or link formats are easiest to set up, as they require only static images and compelling copy. Start here, and test with video once you start seeing results.
Next, you’ll need to create your sponsored content. Here’s what you’ll need:
Name your sponsored content (for internal use)
A relevant, engaging image (1200 x 627 pixels in size)
Introductory text
Landing page URL
Ad headline
Ad description
Serving Your Ads to The Right Audience
So, you’ve got your campaign set up. This next step is where the power of LinkedIn’s advertising platform truly comes into play.
Let’s go through each targeting variable step-by-step. First, you have the ability to select a previously created targeting template or create one from scratch:
If this is your first time using the platform, stick with “the audience below.” Next, select the location you wish to target e.g. “San Francisco:”
Then, you can select specific criteria — which is where your targeting starts getting super specific:
For example, let’s say I wanted to target senior marketers within specific industries and had a specific company size. My targeting might look something like this:
Select whether you’d like to include the LinkedIn Audience Network and Audience Expansions, then save your audience as a template for later use.
Finally, set your goals and budget. Website visits is a bare-bones-basic metric to measure effectiveness, while conversions will optimize billing for CPA.
Choose a daily budget by calculating your monthly budget by the number of days you’ll be runnin each ad. For example, if your monthly budget is $500 and you intend to run your ads on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, your daily budget will be $40.
Enter your billing details, and away you go!
Creating Effective LinkedIn Ad Creative
Of course, you’ll want to maximize your results as much as possible.
Whether your job is to promote content or generate more leads, your ad copy and creative is what will make or break success.
To show you what makes great LinkedIn advertising, here are two examples and what they did well for you to takeaway and apply to your own efforts.
For example, this promoted post from IBM Analytics shares stats around hybrid data warehouses in an infographic-style video:
They use value-driven copy to demonstrate what the viewer will learn, and the video itself uses sleek, flat design elements.
This example from Bizible shows you don’t need fancy graphics to get results. In fact, this simple ad generated a 600% ROI for their efforts:
The reason it worked so well? They targeted a super-specific audience of 2,000 LinkedIn users, ensuring they were reaching those who were most likely to need what Bizible had to offer.
Success with LinkedIn ads is similar to Facebook Ads: it’s all about using the right copy, imagery and targeting to get results. Get a perfect storm with all three and you’ll generate a positive ROI with ease.
Step 7: Measuring Effectiveness with LinkedIn Analytics
With all this activity going on, it’s important to measure the effects your LinkedIn marketing strategy is having towards your goals.
Luckily, LinkedIn comes out of the box with some powerful analytics features.
Here’s how to measure your LinkedIn marketing effectiveness.
Measuring Awareness
Let’s start at the top of the funnel with connection and content engagement metrics.
Here are the metrics all LinkedIn marketers should be measuring:
Number of connections: Make this part of your team-wide LinkedIn marketing programme. Encourage your employees to share their connection growth on a monthly basis.
Content Engagement: Measure how much engagement your content generates. As a company administrator, you have a top-level view of which posts generate the majority of your engagements:
Follower Metrics: What is your month-on-month follower growth? How many followers engage with and share your content? Keep an eye on these key metrics to see how well your content is resonating with your audience.
Consideration Metrics
Moving down the funnel, it’s time to see what impact your LinkedIn marketing strategy is having on your goals:
Referral Traffic: How much traffic is coming from LinkedIn, and from which areas? For example, are you generating more traffic from LinkedIn Group engagement, or organic posts on LinkedIn ads? To segment these data out, use UTM codes.
Content Engagement: Using the “User Flow” feature in Google Analytics, you can measure how your LinkedIn audience is moving through your customer experience. Furthermore, segment content by channel and monitor engagement metrics such as avg. time on page and bounce rate.
Conversion Data
Finally, how is this all contributing to your business-critical metrics?
Connections to Leads: How many connections turn into real sales opportunities? It’s likely your sales reps will be generating the majority of LinkedIn leads, but ensure you have systems in place to track opportunities coming from all employees.
Subscriber & Lead Conversions: How many visitors to your website are turning into leads? Are they converting higher up or lower down the funnel? Measure how many LinkedIn visitors are converting into leads at all stages of the cycle.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to generate new B2B leads, setting up a LinkedIn marketing strategy is an absolute most.
Unlike Facebook, your target audience are there looking for content and advice that you have to offer them. Provide them with the information they need, add value wherever possible, and you’re bound to turn LinkedIn connections into loyal customers.
How are you currently using LinkedIn to generate new business? Share with us in the comments below!
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/how-to-build-a-linkedin-marketing-strategy
What up, fam. I hope you guys enjoyed the last article on how I scraped my competitors FB group, found their Linkedin profile urls, and pushed those leads into Orca to engage and connect with, if not… well, I just don’t know wh-what to…
Oh hey, you’re still reading. Thank you. I love you. You just gave my ego the boost it needed to survive.
Okay then, moving right along. In this post I’m going to show you how you can set up a Zapier trigger with Google Forms to automatically engage prospects who want to access to a guide, e-book, or just pretty much anything you can share that you think will lure them into your funnel.
Warning: This little tactic is super useful when posting in highly engaged groups… that said, whatever you decide to share in life, make sure it’s something of value. Last thing you want to do is waste someone’s time for bullshit, while damaging your own brand or image.
Btw, I’m NOT talking about how and it’s perceived by the general public. I’m saying, as long as you genuinely believe it’s adding value, share it. Deep down, we all know when we’re doing something good or bad. That feeling is called conflict. Resolve it and whatever you do will prove fruitful.
I’m a firm believer that we should only do the things that make us feel good when we do it. This hack can be used or abused. It is in my hope that you do not abuse it and instead, use it to create value.
What you need for this hack:
Orca
Zapier
Google Forms and
Something you want to share
But before we get started. A story on How this hack come about:
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about Facebook and how to use it effectively to engage members in groups I think could be potential buyers. Now, my thought on Facebook is that it feels more personal, kind of like email, as opposed to Linkedin where by design it feels more public facing.
In practice, Facebook isn’t really personal, but it is perceived as such and that’s the important thing to keep in mind here. Perception trumps all, and that’s why your personal brand and company’s is super duper important. It’s hard to earn, so don’t fuck it up by doing stupid shit. Just sayin’
That said, outbound engagements on Facebook are not super effective because it feels just as cold as email. Facebook is excellent for observing potential buyers in a social environment to learn about their culture and psychology. Take notes and learn how to interact like them.
Anyways... Back to the story.
So there I was, leaning back on my chair with my legs kicked propped on my desk, deep in thought and high as a mf.
It’s high noon. The sun pierces through the skylight into my eyes, the same eyes I Lasik’ed a few years back.
I squint my already squinty eyes, and that’s when the idea hits me.
“Eureka!” I exclaim losing balance in the process and falling backwards off the chair and onto the floor. Thank God, it’s carpet...
As I lay there, my mind is racing… what if I could share something of value in a Facebook group, but instead of giving them immediate access to the doc, grab their email, then trigger an automated follow-up via email with a link to the guide.
“Good idea!” I shout. Shooting up from the ground, making a one-step dash back to my desk, then carefully pulling out my 5-year old mac I think is about to die on me and slowly type in my password (I’m high gotta do shit super slow sometimes, passwords are one of them things…)
In a matter of hours, I put together a guide on how I scraped DS group members, which at the time was just a google doc, then went ahead and made a post in the Dux-soup user group with a link to Google Forms, where I captured their email triggering a follow up with the link to the doc.
I’m sitting at the same desk right now, and it occurs to me that I should have instead captured their Linkedin url so that I could set a social sequence to build up my network of potential buyers, followers, readers on Linkedin.
So that’s what we’re going to do here.
First, things first…
Make sure that whatever it is you plan on sharing can be shared. For example, if you’re sharing a Google doc, make sure it’s available to the public for anyone who has the link. I’m not going to insult your intelligence by showing you how to do this… you’ve gotten this far in this particular article, I am led to believe you are smart enough to figure the sharing piece on your own.
Next, let’s setup the Google Form
Open up Google Drive and click on the big +New button on the side menu and select Google Forms from the drop down. You may need to first select More to expand.
Give the form a name, like Bill or George! Anything but Sue! Then give it a nice description.
Add a question and change the question type to Short Answer so you can ask for Linkedin profile URL. Make sure the question is Required.
If you know about regular expressions, click on the show more button indicated by the three vertical dots and select Response validation.
Make sure Regular Expression is selected and type the expression into the form… then send the expression over to me because I literally just tried setting that up for 45 minutes and got no where. FML
Once the content of the form is set up, go to settings by clicking on the gear icon in the navigation bar. You can opt to grab user’s emails and limit to 1 response. Most importantly, don’t forget to uncheck the Restrict to {{your_org}} user if its checked.
Don’t to save your settings. When the form is ready, click Send and grab a shareable link.
Next, we’ll need to create a Send Linkedin Profile URLs by Zapier campaign in Orca. I’ve already got a few pieces showing you how to set up sequences in Orca, so I’m not going to dive into detail here, but if you need a refresher, feel free to check my previous articles to learn how or here’s a link to recording of a Live Webinar I did on Social Selling with Orca.
The last thing we need to do is set up a trigger in Zapier to push leads into the campaign you created in the previous step.
Create a new Zap and select Google Forms from the list of apps. Then choose the option to trigger an action when a new response row is added to the bottom of a spreadsheet… which reminds me, we totally forgot to set up the form to accept responses and to push those responses to Google sheets.
So let’s do that now. Open the form you we’re working on and go to the responses section and Toggle on Accepting Responses.
Then click on the show more button indicated by the three vertical dots and choose Select response destination from the drop down. Create the new spreadsheet. I just use the suggested name.
Back in Zapier, go to the next step and select the Google account you want to use. This is the account where your form is saved.
Next, we need set up your Google Forms Response by selecting the spreadsheet where your responses are being sent to.
Make sure you have at least one response in the form so that Orca can test the push. I usually just throw my Linkedin URL in there. Then Fetch+Continue.
Next, add an action step and select Orca from the list of apps. By default, whenever a response is added to the spreadsheet, the Linkedin URL will be pushed over to an existing campaign of your choosing in Orca.
But first, select the Orca account you want to use. Then once the account is connected, select the campaign you created in Orca to engage respondents. Don’t forget to set the column storing Linkedin URLs (or responses).
Hey guys, Sanja here, checking in for the first time with my first ever social selling growth hack through Orca. It’s taken me a minute, but you know what they say…
Good things take time.
I didn’t want to share anything until I had something really valuable to share. There’s justway too much garbage and noise out there already, right?
That said, I’m super excited and a bit nervous at the same time to share this little social selling hack with you. Fingers crossed that you get something out of it.
Let’s splash in (see what I just did hehe 😂)
In this article, I am going to show you how to scrape and engage members of LinkedIn groups with automated social selling sequences in Orca, but first let me share some thoughts on this hack.
Why scrape LinkedIn groups
“Is this hack even worth my time?” you’re asking.
I’ve been running this hack for the past week, and have been making some mental notes that I am now going to share with you into writing.
Here are two reasons why scraping members from Linkedin groups rock my socks…
#1 Build ginormous lead lists in under 5 minutes
You can build a lead list of 500,000+ leads in under 5 minutes unless of course, you have really slow internet speed, type slow, or just do things slow…that I cannot help you with dear sir or madam.
Plus, you can literally find a Linkedin group for any niche, vertical, market, segment, etc. There are teeny tiny groups to supersized groups. Take your pick.
#2 More data = better segmentation = improved messaging in your campaigns
The lead data you get back from this scrape is for a lack of words: “Woaaah”
You’re not only going to get the basics like name, position, LinkedIn URLs, but also top 3 skills, current companies they’re working at, previous companies, the industry, titles and the different groups they’re in, which btw you can probably run a follow up scrape on. 🤔
Why is having more data better? Well, when you have a list of a few hundred thousand leads, you’ll want to segment and bucket them into smaller categories. So with all this data in your CSV, you’ll be able to narrow your lead list into more precise segments… I highly recommend playing around with different combinations of interests and professions.
Once you’ve narrowed down your groups, you will be able to do a much better job personalizing messages in your social selling campaigns. Write engaging copy and use the data to generate real conversations to help you start building relationships with potential buyers and followers on Linkedin.
Convinced yet? Keep reading…
So, to run this social selling hack, you will need the following tools:
Phantombuster
Orca and, of course…
Positive vibes and some creativity 🤘
Okay, let’s not wait any longer and get going with the hack!
Step 1
Create a Phantombuster account on. You’ll get a 14-day free trial — trust me that’s plenty of time to scrape a few Linkedin groups. After that, you’ll need to upgrade. If you got some value from this hack… it might make sense to take the leap,
If you don’t subscribe, you can still scrape one Linkedin group per day with some heavy call limits. So… keep that in mind.
Step 2
Once your account is created, go to the Phantombuster’s Linkedin Group Members API. Read through the API if you must, but if you’re ready, simply click on the bright orange button to Use this API.
Clickity-click.
Step 3
Next, you’ll be redirected to your dashboard (aka My APIs) where you can configure the Linkedin Group Members API.
Click on Show More designated by the three dots next to the Launch button.
Step 4
Next, we’ll need to insert your Linkedin session cookie and the group URL into the configuration.
But Sanja… “How do I get the session cookie?”
No worries homey, I got your back… just follow these steps:
Open LinkedIn, right-click anywhere on the screen. A drop-down menu will show up.
Select Inspect from the list. A side window will open.
Under the Applications tab, click on Cookies from the left panel and select “https://www.linkedin.com”.
Locate the li_at cookie from the table and copy the alphanumeric string under the Values column.
Go back to Phantombuster and paste the string into the Season cookiefield.
Tada! And there you have it… on to the next.
Step 5
Next, copy and paste the LinkedIn group URL into Group URL field into configuration form.
Note: You need to be a member of the group in order to scrape it.
Step 6
Give your list a name.
Step 7
When ready, Launch the extractor and watch growth hacking magic happen right before your eyes.
Step 8
Once it’s done scraping, you can download your CSV by clicking on the Download button.
Step 9
Once you’ve got your lead list, head on over to your dashboard in Orca and create a campaign.
I recommend choosing the Upload CSV campaign because that’s the one I’m going to use for this hack. Alternatively, you can also use Zapier, though I’d like to reserve those campaigns for lists that are generating leads dynamically through on-going hacks.
Note: Make sure your CSV has a column of Linkedin profile URLs.
Once you’ve uploaded the CSV and set up your social sequence in Orca, Publish the campaign.
Uploaded leads will be in pending approval status, during which Orca will be working in the background to verify the profile URLs. Once verified, leads will move from pending status to approved status, which basically means they’ve been passed into the sequence.
This can take anywhere between to 30–60 minutes depending on the number of engagements scheduled ahead of this campaign.
***** Update *****
I’m currently running two campaigns with this social selling hack, I’ll be updating this post at the end of my campaigns with the results and after action review.
If you enjoyed this post, give it a little 👏
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/how-to-scrape-and-connect-with-members-from-linkedin-groups
Sup guys, in this post I’m going to show you how I scraped members from my competition’s Facebook group to engage and connect on Linkedin.
Before we get started, here’s the stack you’ll need:
FB Group Scraper Extension (only works in developer mode)
Phantombuster LI URL
Orca
Let’s get started.
Click on the link above to download the FB Group Scraper Extension and unzip.
Open Chrome extensions and toggle on Developer Mode.
Select Load Unpacked
This will open Finder if you’re on a Mac or […] on Windows. Locate the unzipped fb group scraper extension and upload it. This is what you should see:
Turn the extension on, if its off. You should extension in the toolbar.
Head on over to your competition’s facebook group.
Once you’re in the group, simply click on the extension. It will take a few minutes to scrape the members and will automatically download it to your computer as a csv.
The next step is to create a trial account on Phantombuster and utilize their LinkedIn Profile URL Finder to generate the LI urls for the members you just scraped.
Once you’ve generated the LI urls for the group members, go to your campaign dashboard in Orca and click on Create Campaign in the navbar.
There are four types of campaigns in Orca:
Search on Linkedin
Upload a CSV of Linkedin URLs
Send Linkedin URLs by Zapier
Send Linkedin URLs from Growlabs
For this hack, you can either upload a CSV or pass leads through Zapier.
BLUF: don’t be that idiot that sends a paragraph long pitch in a connect or follow-up.
Dux-soup User Group — winning
Why winning? To give your campaign some positive vibes. :)
Once your campaign is published, the leads will be in pending status while Orca verifies the URLs are valid. Note: make sure that your Linkedin account is connected with Orca, otherwise… all the leads will be invalid because Orca won’t be able to login to your account and verify.
Verification will start within 15–30 minutes, unless that is you’ve already ran Orca all day and it needs to rest. Yes, robots need sleep too.
Orca runs around 200 engagements per day for premium users and half that for basic users. I don’t know the exact number because we randomize it to keep your account safe from being flagged.
Don’t get flagged. Set up a automation schedule under Automation Settings in Preferences
Okay, cool. So what was the result of my scrape? Well, I managed to generate around 300+ Linkedin URLs, 230 are still pending verification. Out of the 91 profiles that I’ve engaged with, I connected with and started conversations with 52.8% …. when was the last time you saw email opens or response that high?
Better get cracking on your Linkedin game before everyone and their mothers start running social selling campaigns on Orca. There’s a shelf life to every growth tactic. Don’t be a damn laggard.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/how-i-scraped-my-competitions-facebook-group
What’s up, guys. I hope you enjoyed my last article on Triggering a social selling sequence when leads are added to your CRM.
This week, I am back with another social selling hack. And I promise you will love this one!
As you already know, I like coming up with these social selling growth hacks, experimenting with different sales enablement and marketing tools, etc… so this week I will be working with one of my all-time-favourites, Typeform.
Typeform helps you make super cool forms and surveys that you can share.
Here’s what I’m thinking? What if I could trigger a social selling sequence on Linkedin through Typeform in exchange for something valuable?
In this post, I’m going to show you how to do exactly that. We’re going to set up a Zapier trigger with Typeform to automatically engage prospects who want to access to a guide, e-book, or just pretty much anything you can share that you think will attract them into your funnel.
Warning: Make sure you are sharing something of value and not scamming them into your funnel because that’s just f’ed up and just really bad for your personal brand. If you want this to work, you’ve gotta give value to get value. If people can’t trust you, what makes you think they’ll trust your product or service?
The best sales tactic? Always Provide Value. It’s not ABC… it’s all about APV. That said, if you’re going to try this hack out, do it the right way or don’t do it at all.
Let’s get started. Here’s are the tools we’ll be using in this social selling hack:
Orca
Zapier
Typeform
Let the madness begin.
I will assume you already have a Typeforms account. If not, it’s free, so make one!
Make sure you have at least one form set up according to your needs and make sure that there is at least one Linkedin URL in your Typeform responses, so we can test the Zap.
Open up Typeform and go create your first form by clicking on New Typeform.
Now go ahead and pick the form that suits you the best. There are quite a lot of different forms, so I am sure everybody can find something. I will go ahead and choose Sign up Sheet.
Click Use this template and it will appear on your Dashboard. Open up new window automatically to help start editing it.
Now comes the fun part. Form building is hella fun, I can spend hours here on the look and feel!
An important note here while you create your form… Make sure you ask for the LinkedIn URL and make it a required field. Take a look at my super stellar form below:
When you are done editing and beautifying the form. Go ahead and click View. It will show you a preview of the form where you can spend 10 plus or minus 2 minutes admiring your masterpiece.
Test the form out by adding in your own information into the form — we need at least one Linkedin URL as a form response to test out the Zap.
Next, click on Share. You will find a link to your form that you can copy and share. Again, don’t forget to fill your form first so we have that Linkedin URL to test later.
Awesome, let’s move on to the next step and Connect Orca with Zapier.
To connect Orca with Zapier, open your dashboard and head on over to Preferences. Under Integrations, you see the Zapier integration.
Click on View integration on Zapier. A new window will open, login to accept the invite. If you don’t have a Zapier account, you’ll be prompted to create one.
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Login to accept the invite. Get ready to create your first Zap with Orca.
Let’s head back to Orca and create a Zapier campaign.
Setup your sequence, publish and Click set up your Orca Zap.
Create this Zap and select Typeform from the list.
You have one option for a trigger here: social selling sequence will be triggered every time a new form is created. Save + Continue.
Next, connect your Typeforms account by entering your login credentials. Test. Save and continue.
On the next screen, you’ll see a list of forms, choose the one you want to use and Continue.
On the next screen, you’ll see a list of your completed forms, choose the form you want to test and Continue.
When you’re ready, move on to the next step to connect Orca with Typeform.
Choose Orca from the app list.
Then select Add Lead to Orca by Linkedin Profile URL. Save + Continue.
Select the account and campaign you’d like to push leads into.
Note: If you haven’t created a Zapier campaign in Orca, do so now. Otherwise, you won’t see anything in the drop-down menu.
Next, tell Orca where it can pull Linkedin URLs from the form.
On the next screen, test the Zap by clicking on Send Test to Orca. If the test was successful you will see your sample lead in pending verification status in the campaign details.
Click Finish and then turn on your Zap!
Once your Zap is live, you can start sharing your form.
Now whenever a new response is submitted through your form, it will automatically push leads into a social sequence in Orca.
By default, leads will be in pending verification status until Orca verifies that the Linkedin profile URLs is formatted properly. Once they are approved, they’ll be passed into the social selling sequence.
Whooo! Congrats, you’ve successfully set up a Zap to trigger social sequences in Orca through Typeform! Again, let me reiterate… make sure you are adding value.
Sales is about relationships. So if you’re going to do this hack, do it the right way.
As my pop would always say to me, “if you’re going to do something, do it right and do it well… or don’t do it all.”
That said, don’t half-ass this hack with garbage.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/triggering-social-selling-sequence-with-typeform
Have you ever been blocked–or even locked out of LinkedIn and do not know why? About 4-5 times a week I get this email:“Help! I have been locked out ofLinkedIn! What can I do about it?” If your business is serviced by yourconnections and activity on LinkedIn, this can be a huge headache – costing youa bit time and money.
While there are a couple ofthings that can get you limited on LinkedIn (something other than your name inthe last name field, specific content, duplicate accounts), it has been myexperience that most people have their accounts blocked because they automatedtoo many processes on LinkedIn.
Now do not get me wrong, Ido automate some of my activities – and even recommend it. But you must work on LinkedIn’s End UserAgreement, and you must be conservative in your activities!
Here are some LinkedIn automation DO NOTs and what to DO instead!
Do not automate SPAM.
By this I mean:
Do not use 3rd party appsto automate profile viewing extremely.
Do not use 3rd party appsto automate inviting people to connect extremely.
Do not use 3rd party appsto automate sending messages to your connections extremely.
LinkedIn does not want youto use any 3rd party automation tools at all – and has been actively using both the software tools and the users ofmany of these tools, coming down particularly hard on what it thinks “datascraping tools.” I do automate some of my LinkedIn activity, at the very least,if you overuse these automation tools, your account can be blocked or shut downcompletely!
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Do automate repeated activities.
I do utilize a tool toautomatically send messages to particular LinkedIn connections (Linked HelperChrome Extension). But I delicately curate these connections, I delicatelycurate the content I post them, (I never “sell” them anything in thesemessages) and I never do more than 100 private messages a day. My practice ofthumb is: I make sure every message Isend utilizing this automated process, Iwould have sent manually. I usually onlysend my delicately curated list:
A post I wrote exactly forpeople like them;
Or a tool I found that willsupport them in their LinkedIn marketing and lead gen practices;
Or a free webinar I mightbe doing;
Or a book I have read thatI think they might like.
I utilize the tool becauseit saves my assistant's time and my money!
Do repetitive delegate activities.
I have my partner do someof the more repeated daily activities on LinkedIn for me. Since I get tons of invitations a week, shegoes through and manually messages each would-be connection. Since I'm at my 35K connection limit, I haveto choose who I accept into my network delicately.
My partner goes throughevery connection request, sends a different message to each person, and leavesthe material and/or personalized invitations for me to respond to. He also manages my inbox alerting me tourgent posts and messages my contact as updates and (when needed) to Publisherfor me.
This is a process I couldfully automate, but choose not to because I think it is essential that humaneyes are laid on each and every person who invited me to connect.
Do not automatically add everyone to whom you connect toyour email automation list.
One method (that drives meinsane) is when people connect with me on LinkedIn and then attach me to theiremail lists. Just because I approve toconnect with you doesn't give you permission to spam me with your newsletterthat I did not sign up for! I'm already signed up to all the newsletters I canhandle. If you automatically add me toyour newsletter I won't only unsubscribe from it – I'll also report you! (And disconnect from you on LinkedIn –another issue my assistant does for me.) If you want to use LinkedIn to drivetraffic to your automated email marketing process, then ask me to opt in! Whichbrings me to.
Do respond to every invite with a free lead/offer magnet.
When I respond to requestsand new connections, I always give them a variation of free resources. I assume that people are connecting with mebecause they want to learn more about LinkedIn. So, I'm happy to provide them with information! I would highly recommend building a “leadmagnet,” a piece of content that your connections would find highly valuableand offering it to them for free.
I add about 60 people aweek to my email list- because they OPT IN to get my information! Yes, I would be adding tons if I just shovedevery unsuspecting contact into my email list – but not only is that a badpractice, it is illegal in some countries (like Canada). So I would rather have fewer people whowanted to hear from me, rather than a bigger list that could get me to shutdown on LinkedIn, get my website blacklisted or get me sued!
Conclusion.
LinkedIn automation can behelpful but only done in moderation with highly curated content andconnections. LinkedIn can be a greatsite for driving people to your automated marketing list, but only when yougive them the option of opting in – otherwise you risk getting your accountblocked and possibly sued! So carefully consider what, and how you'll automateon LinkedIn!
There are tons of softwaretools for LinkedIn, which help to automate even more accurate and prompt. As anexample, you can use Orca to automate email sequences with LinkedIn profilevisits, which will increase leads amount.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/how-to-automate-your-work-on-linkedin-2
As the world’slargest professional media marketing platforms, it’s the go-to service foranyone who wants to connect with recruits under a range of job titles fromco-workers to customers, among others.
In the past, wehave discussed the many ways to use LinkedIn advertisements to generate salesand social selling. While this is a solid approach that can generate big-timeresults, there is no reason to stop there.
In this blog, we'regoing to review 4 of the best LinkedIn automating tools that can help youbecome a wisdom media marketing expert.
We will touch onthe finer details of each tool, including how and when to use them. Soonenough, you will find that each one could fit nicely with your current andfuture media marketing and content marketing methods.
By the end of thisblog, I hope that you better understand how to use LinkedIn to boost sales andsocial selling, along with building trust in your marketing team and yourmarketing plan.
Let’s explore thefour tools to help you nail life as a media marketing pro.
Here is howLinkedIn describes its approach to small business:
“LinkedIn is muchmore than a social website. It is a community of professionals – in a businessmindset – that is waiting to hear from you.”
Through the use ofLinkedIn Small Business tool and its three-step approach to social selling andbeing an excellent lead builder, your small business will find itself on trackto increase sales, build trust, and reach a different of related purposes. Thethree steps include:
Build your brandpresence
Connect with yourtarget audience
Engage them withcontent marketing
Step number threeis my fav because this is where you establish and share valuable contentmarketing skills with your target audience. By doing so, you're in a positionto not only attract recruits and motivate them to be decision-makers but to“turn followers into brand advocates.”
There is a lot tolearn upon visiting the LinkedIn Small Business center, so make sure that youtake enough time to review each feature that is available to you. From text adsto sponsored content, there is sure to be a strategy that fits in with yoursales goals.
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Sometimes a mediamarketing tool gets around that is different than anything else in its area.This is unquestionably what you get when you turn to Crystal, known as the“world’s largest personality platform.”
The companyexplains its service as follows:
“Crystal gives youinstant access to millions of personality profiles and free communicationadvice for anyone you meet.”
So, what does thismean for those who use LinkedIn as a social selling tool? In short, Crystal canexamine a LinkedIn profile or premium account and provide feedback and insightinto a person’s personality.
With thisinformation, you will find out it easier to interact with the person in theproper manner rather than just making a cold call. From the words you apply tothe way you approach the prospect, this tool will give you a high level ofguidance.
When you contrasttwo LinkedIn profiles, you may see the same thing (for the most part). But,when you use Crystal, you will soon find that many subtleties can be picked upon and used to your benefit to avoid the dreaded cold call.
If you want todevelop your LinkedIn social selling, it is imperative to become a bettercommunicator. With this tool, you do not have to do much, to make thisfundamental change and swap out your cold call for stronger lead builderpotential.
One of the biggestadvantages of LinkedIn is also a primary challenge for many salesprofessionals. What is it, you ask? It is the more than 440M members.
Without the help ofa prospecting tool, you could soon find yourself sinking in data with no realconcept as to which direction to take.
And, this is whyLeadFuze is so attractive. It lets you to quickly create a list of leads andtarget accounts through a simple search.
While the leadgroup process is a big deal, it does not stop there, after you need to be alead builder actively. Users of this tool also have access to contactinformation, including phone number and email, making it simple to begin thesales process.
If that is notenough, LeadFuze also helps you automatically send personalized emails andfollow-ups.
At this time, youcan dig up contact information for more than 210 million B2B professionals andpremium accounts. And, with customers adding roughly 360,000 prospects eachmonth, it is easy to see that you will always have an endless supply of leads.
LeadFuze is knownas one of the head all-in-one LinkedIn lead generation tools. With thecapability to automatically uncover all of the essential information, this onetool can give your media marketing strategy a big increase.
The title of thistool alone should give you an idea of what it has to offer. However, if youreally want to experience its power, you need to give it a chance.
For those whopractice multiple sales tools to reach their goals, SalesLoft should not beoverlooked.
The basic conceptis that you can integrate all of your most important sales tools, ensuring thatthey work together in perfect harmony.
On its officialwebsite, SalesLoft Prospector discusses the integration of the following tools:
DiscoverOrg;
Owler;
Crystal;
RingLead;
InsideView;
Datanyze;
Orca;
Sigstr.
Do you currentlyuse any of the above sales tools? If so, you can join them all together throughthe use of this platform.
Conclusion
Twitter andFacebook are top notches social media platforms, but they do not offer the samelevel of B2B networking opportunities that LinkedIn does.
With the guidanceof these tools on top of your social media platforms, you can take benefit ofeverything LinkedIn has to offer. From better organize your contacts tomanaging the sales funnel, there is something out there that will work for youand help you to become a better decision maker in the world of media marketing.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/which-are-the-best-software-for-automating-linkedin-activity
Do you know thatLinkedIn has already become the most powerful and valuable lead generationplatform for the majority of growing companies, startups, and small businesses?And that’s not without reason.
Linkedin provides each and every user to connect with theirtarget audience and start engaging. The whole process seems to be quite easy:you send a connection request and then, once accepted, you send follow-ups tostart a conversation and turn prospects into customers.
LinkedIn automationtools: What do they do?
There're different types of LinkedIn automation software: someof them are designed to scrape contract information from everyone who visits onLinkedIn, while others are built to automate all your LinkedIn work completely.
Let’s have a look at the six most powerful and valuable LinkedIntools in 2018:
LinkedIn SalesNavigator
If you're using LinkedIn for lead generation and salesprospecting, Sales Navigator is worth trying.
Here's why Sales Navigator is a good fit for tons of users:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is quite expensive; however, if you usethis LinkedIn’s feature daily, the results should be hopeful.
Pricing: $80 / month, 30-day free trial.
Website:https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator
LinMonster
LinMonster is a topmost google chrome extension, published inDecember 2017.
The software enables you to:
GetProspect
GetProspect is one of the most powerful LinkedIn prospectingtools that gives you an opportunity to download the list of leads with all therelevant information (company name, full name, phone number, email, ) to beused in email marketing or cold-calling.
The main advantage is that there's no demand to have a LinkedInprofile to use this service. Just login your account on GetProspect, usefilters to search for possibilities and import your leads to XLS file.
GetProspect uses LinkedIn’s API to access the required data andhas an excellent pricing structure.
The only problem is that most of the LinkedIn users don't havetheir phone number on their profile. Therefore this software isn't the best fitfor those who are planning to use the tool for cold calling.
Pricing: $100 for 10,000 leads & $300 for 50,000 leads.
Website: https://getprospect.io/
e-Link Pro
If you want to have other profile views on LinkedIn, thisautomation tool is what you need.
Here's how it works: you open the LinkedIn search, filter usersas you wish, copy & paste the URL to e-Link Pro, click “Start,” and thesoftware will start visiting users one by one. These users will get informationon LinkedIn that you've visited their profile and some of them (around 7-10%)will view your profile in return.
The software doesn't promise to deliver excellent results andsky-rocket your business. However, you can try and add this tool in yourLinkedIn marketing arsenal.
Pricing: $50 for the 1st month, after that $90 per month, 5-dayfree trial.
Website: https://elink-pro.com/
Orca
As an alternative to e-Link, you can use another usefulautomation tool for LinkedIn, Orca.
Orca complements your email sequences with Linkedin profilevisits and connects to get you noticed faster by your leads.
Turn cold leads to conversations in less time and effort.
Pricing: $50 / month, 7-day free trial.
Website: https://useorca.com
LinkedIn plugins
If you're in a B2B industry, there is an excellent way to boostyour website engagement and conversion rates by using LinkedIn plugins.
You obviously shouldn't use all of them. However, some of thesebuttons might be quite useful for your website visitors:
Around the distantprospect which you usually aren't using LinkedIn for LinkedIn Guide Era, atthat time you are passing up an excellent opportunity. LinkedIn is a standoutamong essentially the most extreme levels to work with for enterprise andmeasurements reveal that 80% of the client that utilization the procedure forprospecting surpass peers who really do not employ on the web networking facts.LinkedIn they likewise share lovely social presenting insights: Socialproviding pioneers make 43% far more openings and Social supplying pioneers are50% more liable to accomplish quantity. Orca LinkedIn email automation tool maybe the greatest breakthrough in increasing the business, the email advertisingmarketing campaign to target the experts’ one-way links from considered one ofthe largest business enterprise networking website LinkedIn. The data out thereon LinkedIn is rather leveraging and improves the digital marketing andadvertising. To maintain the speed of electronic promoting and transforming eventualitiesof B2B, B2C and other means one has to take advantage of LinkedIn MessageAutomation Tools.
Presently, theseassume that you choose to can not disregard, yet what precisely will it acquireto end up a 'Social Advertising Leader'? You uncertainty have several things tojuggle the moment each day and an often creating rundown of assignments to tryand do, as well as the probability of reliably remaining dynamic on LinkedIn isusually screening.
This is the putLinkedIn Message Automation Tools can assist. They might permit you spare timeon dreary undertakings, giving you the flexibleness to chip away at differentthings and may likewise prompt some certainly great results.
What We Look For to Avail the ideal LinkedIn AutomationResources:
It is on the otherhand basic that you simply choose the proper concept automation tool, as wellas the critical factors to take into account when buying a LinkedIn MessageAutomation Tools instrument, are:
Will it Perform?
This one runs withno declaring. Locating beautiful equipment is incredible. However, it is verygood for absolutely nothing about the off chance that it neglects to performout the confirmed capacities. Before specializing in a membership, verify ifthe equipment is ideal together with the most recent LinkedIn interface.
Could The Instrument Conduct Multiple Practical Jobs?
Regardless of thetruth that it would be just about anything but hard to generate a considerablemeasure of engagement and enthusiasm all around your item or administration onLinkedIn in essence by bodily informing prospective clients, it is a huge deal.Over the distant prospect that you ought to scale, an information automationtool with a variety of capacities is important to progress. Soon after everyone of the additional, the unit can do, the much less you have to do.
Is it Cloud Centered?
Cloud-basedinstruments will work all day and all night time so that you will not.Regardless of whether or not your gadget is on or off, irrespective of whetheryou have got an online association or not, cloud-based programming implies thatyou could get occupied with different things and go away the machine to operateits enchantment. The LinkedIn Messaging Automation Tools has eased thecumbersome job of email details base creation, as you can have the greatest andlegit LinkedIn contacts knowledge without much hassle.
When you choose toautomate your LinkedIn marketing, you have a lot of options to choose from.There're a lot of software and solutions in the market. Everyone has their prosand cons, and it can be quite challenging for a newbie to decide which one isthe best.
Well, it overalldepends on your purposes. If you require to keep the quality and only automatea specific part of your work than you might need a different software tool. Sofirst determine what you can compromise and which portion you would like tokeep for yourself.
Today we're goingto discuss best tools that can help you to accelerate your growth in Linkedin.
So let's getstarted:-
1) Linkedin Sales Navigator is apaid account of LinkedIn. You can receive access to advance lead and companysearch. You can get discover most targeted people using what is related to yourindustry through sales navigator.
There're a lot ofother features of Sales Navigator included but not limited to CRM integration,real-time sales updates, tags, and notes, who is viewed your profile and lot ofother key insights.
2) Linkedin Dominator is aperfect LinkedIn automation tool that can help you in a range of differenttasks on LinkedIn.
You can add linkbased on keywords automatically, endorse the skills of your links and so manyother tasks.
3) eGrabber is a software whichhelps you to find out lost information about your prospects. For instance, youhave a list of leads, and you want to find the company name, email address, andphone number. You can use this easy tool to capture all this information withjust one Tap.
This tool isincredible when you have leads coming in from a variety of different sources.You can mix them in eGrabber and find the most relevant information for yoursales team.
4) InboardPro is a cloud-basedLinkedIn marketing software. You can automate all your LinkedIn marketing usingInboardPro.
The software isquite acceptable if you just want to get started. It cost just $15.00.
5) Orca supplements your emailsequences with Linkedin connects and profile visits, which allow you to benoticed faster by your leads.
Turn coldleads to conversations in less effort and time.
There are hundredsof other tools that can help you to automate and transfer your tasks. You mustkeep in mind that using these types of software can be quite critical for yourprofile.
If you get yourprofile banned, you lose all connections and trust.
So make sure youalways use third party accounts with this software. So you do not need to worryabout getting banned all the time.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/best-linkedin-automation-tools-that-will-surprise-you
When we talk about LinkedIn marketing, its a lot of work and we all love to do VA’s and outsource the work and to most extent, automate the business so we can concentrate on most important stuff. But a lot of people are undecided to use automation and especially Linkedin Automation software in their market.
I understand you do not want to risk your LinkedIn Account. But what if you test and pinch and come up with a strategy that is either semi-automated or fully automated that can bring you leads 247 366 without doing anything at all? Taking this risk is worth taking sometimes.
Who would not like to do that?
Off course everyone. But there're pros and cons of using automation tools on your Linkedin Account. Today, we're going to study this in details.
So let's get started.
Pros
1) Automation is great for scaling. If you want to get your LinkedIn account to the next level. You can use different software tools to automate your Linkedin Connections, advertisements and even customizing your intro message. Now I assume you are a one-person army and imagine once you set up software that can send invites in your behalf initiate chats, liking other people status and even comment your friends status. How much can more leads you close?
2) Consistency and Quality. We all informed that in manual work we always lack consistency. As a human being its quite tough to work on the specific task, especially repetitive work consistently. As long as you have a pure mindset going forward with your Linkedin prospecting. You can pretty much automate lead prospecting to a good level. And automation software isn't going to get bored with work; you are going to get your job done 24/7 366!
For automating your lead prospecting, you can try the
3) Automation will be an enormous time Saver. Time isn't infinite, and once you have a tactic that is bringing a good amount of leads, you can use a software piece and almost set and forget. Your most constant task will be handled by the automation software which is going to keep you a ton of time.
And we all experienced that Time is MONEY.
4) Reduce turnaround time in testing new methods. If you have to work manually and test different approaches. You need a lot of time and sources. But if you use a software, you have a tremendous competitive advantage because you can test tactics on the scale. For instance, you want to test, how much connection requests per day is safe? Manually, you have to do everything by yourself. Which is a slow task? Using software, you can exponentially increase connection request and find out how much requests per day are safe.
Cons
As we discussed a few advantages of Linkedin Marketing automation. There're some risks as well, once you use the software on these type of social networks you're always at risk getting your account banned. So let's discuss the disadvantages of using automated software for your Linkedin Lead Generation.
1) You can get your account banned. This is the highest risk associated when you decide to use Linkedin automation software. After all, you're spamming and once LinkedIn found that this is a bot operation. They're going to take seconds to either limit your account or ban it.
2) Quality vs. Quantity. When you practice automation in a Linkedin lead generation, you always compromise on quality. But your quantity gets through the roof. In Automation, you trade off between quality and quantity. But some people want to scale up things very fast, so you have to keep in mind that one needs to compromise on quality if in automation.
3) You cannot depend on automation. You must get regular updates. No matter how powerful your software is, you're playing with one of the world largest social media platforms. So you need to have a regular upgrading system that helps you to stay ahead of the game. If you're using software, it works great for you, and the company shut down and stop to update the software. You're in trouble.
Conclusion
We discussed the pros and cons. Now it's up to you how much risk you want to take and how much safe you want to play. In my opinion, use both automation and manual and at them in parallel. And see which one plays well for you. If you do not have time yourself, write your approach to steps, and you can hire cheap VA’s on Upwork and Fiverr.
Let's brainstorm it; you can semi-automate your Linkedin Automation as well.
Use software for Sending connection requests, beginning chat manually. And then use chatbots always to get them back to your website/lead funnel and whatever you want to send them. This is probably the best approach for everyone out there.
Now, this is up to you, and what task that you think are the least essential and time sucker, you can automate it. This is a huge conclusion, and you must do your due diligence on your own. Once you do that and take steps to semi-automate your Linkedin Lead Prospecting. You can double or even triple your profits and revenue.
Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/best-ways-to-automate-your-activity-on-linkedin-pros-amp-cons
There is a potential goldmine on LinkedIn, just waiting for you to tap into its ability to locate and connect with your ideal users. This goldmine has only become more even helpful as LinkedIn has improved and updated its free search feature, making it easier to find possibilities using the LinkedIn Advanced Search function.
So just what makes LinkedIn such valuable for you to find out and connect with your potential possibilities?
Think about that at the time of writing this that LinkedIn has over half a billion global members in 230 countries. That is a huge pool for you to search for potential possibilities (this is where the updated Advanced Search comes helpful).
Today we'll learn how to search for candidates who themselves are in search for a candidate like you.
Searching for a job or the motivated people by using traditional methods can take you a lifetime, and you will be still sitting at home with that newspaper and pen in your hand. Times have changed and so have the process of finding jobs. LinkedIn is now considered the best method of searching for a job. It has around 348 million users, and we're sure that your future employer is one of them. So how do your search for them?
LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is a unique feature that will help you in finding the vacancies or the suitable people in the right places, all you need to know is how to use it to your advantage.
How to use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search Option?
When you sign in to your LinkedIn account, you'll find an Advanced option next to the search bar, tap on that option, and you will see a dialog box appear on your screen. Advanced search option on LinkedIn gives you two options :
• Searching for whose who might help you to get a vacancy.
• Searching for the vacancies directly.
Advanced People Search on LinkedIn
Searching for Recruiters
Through LinkedIn’s people search characteristic, you can search for the reps of your dream company without knowing their any details and can connect with them.
For instance, if you have a company in mind and want to connect to its HR team, you can do it through this option. Just specify the name of the company under the option of Company, and in Title, you can specify the designation (HR executive or HR manager or just HR).
Searching for people who share the same experience and education as yours.
Not sure about which company to join? Do not know which companies provide the job that you are looking for? This method will help you in connecting with people in the similar field. As an advice, take into account that by using Orca you can increase your email sequences rate. That will allow to be noticed by your leads even more faster.
Through LinkedIn, you can discover which companies hire people who have the same experience or education as yours. In the keyword field mention your experience or your degree and in location field select the location of your choice and tap on search. So if you've searched for marketing skills, you will receive a list of experts who have listed marketing as their experience. You can go through their profile and get info about the employer and can also check for a job through their company page.
Advanced Job Search on LinkedIn
The LinkedIn job search function will tell you about the jobs in a particular field. Through this function, you can exactly know if there're any vacancies in the companies that you're interested in. For example, if you want to know that about the job at Ogilvy & Mather in the Digital Marketing Department in the US, you exactly must search for the same thing. In the keywords section type Digital Marketing, in company type Ogilvy & Mather, and in location section US. You can also type the postal code if you're looking for an exact location.
You'll see the list of vacancies when you tap on search, go through them and apply for the one which you think is relevant. If you do not have any particular company in mind, then you can leave the Company field empty, and you will see the vacancies in Digital Marketing at your location.
Boolean Search on LinkedIn
If you want to search for several keywords at the same time, you can use Boolean functions which will demonstrate relevant results for all your keywords. You can use AND, OR, and NOT functions to enhance/filter your results.
AND function
When you want to search for job/people with more than one keyword, you can use the AND operator or Boolean search. For instance, if you're going to search for people with SEM, SEO, and Social Media skills listed so that you can use SEM AND SEO AND Social Media in the keywords field, and you'll see the results show the list of specialists who have all these three skills listed.
OR Function
When you want to find the job or people that consist of at least one of your diversity of keywords, then you can use the OR operator. For instance, if you want to find people that are either good at Social Media OR SEO, then you can type Social Media OR SEO in the keyword section.
NOT Function
When you want to remove something from your search, you can use NOT function. For instance, if you're searching for only SEO specialists, then you can type SEO NOT Social Media NOT SEM NOT Digital Marketing in the keyword field and you search results will show you only SEO specialists.
The best part about the Advanced Search Option on LinkedIn is that your search can be as broad as possible or as narrow as possible. If used correctly, you definitely can find your dream job via LinkedIn.
So if you haven't yet started using this advanced search feature then start today and if you've been using this then share with us how it has helped you by commenting below.
Source https://useorca.com/blog/blog/benefits-of-using-advanced-search-on-linkedin
