How To Use LinkedIn Automation Safely for Lead Generation – 2023

In this post, we will be discussing the best practices and tips on how to use LinkedIn automation to generate leads safely and effectively.

We’ll provide a general overview of how to use LinkedIn automation, and its benefits, share a high-level strategy you can implement today, and then go deep into the weeds on the steps you need to take to get started now. Finally, we’ll take a look at some of the best tools – including the tool we use daily.

As a small business owner or a marketer, you might be aware of the benefits of automation tools, and how they can be used to expand your reach and boost lead generation on LinkedIn – but most people aren’t quite sure how to use LinkedIn automation tools effectively, or safely, for lead generation.

Linkedin Automation is something I’ve been using for a long time, and couldn’t live without it at this point. At first, I used it to rapidly expand my network, but over time it became my primary source of lead generation – something that would’ve drained tens of hours a month from my time. If you’re a solopreneur or a small business struggling to find efficiency, Linkedin automation is a great way to leverage what little time you have available.

So, let’s dive in and learn how to use LinkedIn automation for lead generation in 2023.

How to use LinkedIn automation – Tactics

There are several creative ways you can use LinkedIn automation tools to improve your overall LinkedIn presence and reach more leads. Some examples include:

1. Automating your LinkedIn connection requests: Automation tools can help you reach out to people in your target audience and connect with them automatically. This can help you expand your network and reach more people in your industry.
2. Automating your LinkedIn messages: Automation tools can also help you send personalized messages to your connections. This can be a great way to introduce yourself, promote your business, or share valuable content with your network.
3. LinkedIn engagement: Automation tools can also help you engage with your target audience by automatically liking and commenting on their posts. This can help you build relationships and increase your visibility on LinkedIn.
4. Automating your LinkedIn lead generation: Automation tools can also be used to help you generate leads by automatically sending personalized messages to potential customers and prospects.
5. LinkedIn Sales Navigator activities: You can use an automation tool to automate your Sales Navigator activities such as sending InMails, Saving leads, viewing profiles, and many more.

It’s important to note that LinkedIn has some rules against automating certain activities on their platform, so be sure to check their policies and use the tools responsibly.

How do I get started with Linkedin Automation?

If you’re new to this, it can be intimidating, so we simplified things down into a three-step process that will result in a highly targeted list of prospects for you to call on.

A strategy we suggest: first, get your Linkedin profile in order, and then use LI automation to steadily build your network with your ideal targets or “buying persona”. Once you have the list, begin to gently add value by consistently delivering helpful content that positions your expertise favorably. As you grow your network, your candidates will visit your profile and read your content.

And since you’re connected they will see your posts that you’re dripping out a couple of times each week! You can quickly establish yourself as a likable expert if you do this properly!

Now, let’s dig a little deeper into the three steps above, and help you make sense of how to use LinkedIn automation and get your first campaign started.

Step 1: Optimize your Linkedin Profile (11 Tips)

Before we can tackle “How To Use Linkedin Automation”, there is one key topic to cover that may be even more important: Linkedin Profiles. This could be a post in and of itself, but we’ll start below with the cliff notes.

There are several ways that someone in sales can optimize their LinkedIn profile to make it more effective at attracting potential customers and generating leads. But here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Use a professional headshot: A professional headshot is a great way to make a positive first impression on potential customers. Make sure that the photo is well-lit, in focus, and shows you in professional attire. A smile doesn’t hurt either.
2. Use a compelling headline: Your headline is the first thing that people will see when they visit your profile, so make sure it’s compelling and accurately reflects what you do. Use keywords that will help people find you when they’re searching for someone in your industry.
3. Upload a high-quality and relevant banner photo for your profile’s header. Most people won’t do this! Don’t go overboard – keep it high quality and relevant.
4. Use bullet points: Bullet points make your profile easier to read and make it easier for people to quickly understand what you do and what you’re good at. Use bullet points to highlight your key skills, experiences, and achievements.
5. Highlight your accomplishments: Use your profile to showcase your accomplishments and the results you’ve achieved for your customers. Use specific numbers and statistics to demonstrate the impact you’ve had.
6. Use a custom link: Make sure to include a custom link in your profile so that people can easily click through to your website or other online presence.
7. Use a professional summary: A professional summary is a great way to provide an overview of your background, skills, and experience. Use it to tell your story and explain why you’re passionate about your work.
8. Use rich media: Including videos, images, and other forms of rich media will make your profile more engaging and help you stand out from the competition.
9. Be Humanistic: Be as humanistic as possible. Use natural language, be honest and share your interests and personality traits. This will make you more relatable and build trust with your potential customers.
10. Use keywords: Use relevant keywords throughout your profile to make it easier for people to find you when they’re searching for someone in your industry.
11. Endorsements and Recommendations: Seek endorsements and recommendations from your clients, colleagues, and supervisors. It will help you to build credibility and trust.

Check out this video, which I thought was quite helpful for my own purposes.

By following these tips, you can optimize your LinkedIn profile to make it more effective at attracting potential customers and generating leads, build credibility fast, and have them clicking “accept” at much higher rates.

Step 2: How to Search Linkedin & build a prospect list

LinkedIn automation tools use the search function in LinkedIn to build prospect lists by automating the process of finding and connecting with potential customers. Here is how it works:

1. Using Linkedin’s built-in search function, you build your list by filtering down to your target prospect. Anyone familiar with Linkedin has done this before, and this should be quite natural.
2. Once you’re happy with the results coming back, your tool will take the data a build a list that it will use for whatever actions you

Here is a video from our friends at Waalaxy, the french-made Linkedin Automation tool, on using Linkedin’s search functions, one of my all-time favorite LinkedIn tools!

Step 3: Design and launch your Outreach campaign

There are a few (maybe a million…) reasons why you’d want to design and launch campaigns using a LinkedIn automation tool. We’ll cover a couple because you need to think about why you’re doing it to properly design the campaign.

1. Grow your network: if you’re trying to simply build your network, these tools do a great job at that! Linkedin has made some rules limiting the number of connections you can make in a given period of time, but it’s simply not that efficient to do it all yourself. If you break the rules, you’ll get suspended! So don’t.
2. Business development: whether you’re a recruiter, B2B salesperson, or a fundraiser – you need to connect with your target market to grow your business, and help your customers achieve their own objectives.

Some campaign examples might include:

• Visit the profile, and send invites. Once accepted, delay for 1 day, then send a message (“hey, thanks for connecting!”).
• Send a connection request w/message
• Visit profile
• Within a group send a message request
• Once accepted endorse them for a skill
• Once accepted add to CRM, and send an email.
• Once accepted send a series of emails.

Start to think about your target market, buying personas, and how they may receive your prospecting attempts. Linkedin is home to mostly white-collar, corporate, achievement-oriented people. How can you help them? How can you resonate with the way they perceive the world and their unique aspirations?

Once you’ve done that, ask yourself – even better, ask one of them – how they would like to be engaged with on Linkedin. How not? Then design your campaign. And then design another campaign that’s similar with some key tweaks to the messaging. Take a small sample and try them both out (most tools will help you with this – a/b testing). Figure out what works in a small group and then implement it for the whole list (from step 2).

Did I mention how important step one was? Remember, the kiss of death for your efforts will be a campaign that’s launched with a lazy profile. So take a look around at some of your favorite Linkedin voices and see how they’re doing it in your space before you assume you’re “all set”.

So that’s it – all you have to do is create a beautiful profile, with a professional photo, meticulously lay out your about me section in a way that speaks to the target market you’ve nailed, then build a list, and launch a well thought-out campaign!

It’s worth doing it the right way, and many people have – resulting in flourishing business growth and security they never imagined! Now, all we have to do is figure out which tool works best for you.

What are some of the best Linkedin Outreach Automation tools?

There really are quite a few out there, and I will not recommend most of them! Even after that, it’s really up to you to understand Linkedin’s policies, follow them, and make sure the tool you’re using stays current as LinkedIn updates its user policies.

I’ve tried out many, and some work better than others for different things – but I can highly recommend just two: Waalaxy & Dripify.

Factors to consider when choosing which LinkedIn automation tool:

• Cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool that uses local proxies for your login
• Allows you to run multiple/different campaigns at once
• Highly engaged support and founding team (that stays on top of Linkedin Policies!)
• Your chosen tool works with all plans (free, sales navigator, LinkedIn premium, Recruiter, etc)
• Sends connection requests, and manages unanswered connection requests
• The tool includes some level of Linkedin CRM built-in and allows you to export data
• Your budget

How to Nurture and Warm your Network

So now you’ve done quite a bit to figure out how to use linkedin automation:

1. You’ve perfected your Linkedin profile with a professional photo, a nice header banner, relevant details that your audience will find of value, and formatted it neatly.
2. You took the time to research your market, segment it down into a highly targeted list.
3. You chose a tool – hopefully Waalaxy or Dripify – and imported the data from that list and started your first campaign.

Assuming you did those three steps correctly, you should start seeing a return on your initial invites (target 30-40% at first – if below that, your profile or list may be off!). Your network is growing, and you’ve sent out initial messages of thanks for the connections. Now what?

Now is the time to start nurturing that new audience, always keeping in mind that your messaging should be tailored to a combination of two things: your expertise & what your audience needs that you can help them with.

Some ideas, and strategies that work well to deliver that messaging:

1. Engage with your audience by regularly posting updates, articles, and industry insights that are relevant to them.
2. Connect with other professionals in your industry and actively participate in online discussions and groups.
3. Utilize LinkedIn’s paid advertising options (if necessary only…) to target specific demographics and reach a larger audience. This can be an effective way to promote your business, products, or services to a highly-qualified audience.
4. Leverage the power of video by creating video content such as live streams, webinars, and recorded videos. You can even integrate tools like Sendspark directly into Linkedin messenger! Video content is highly engaging and can help to establish a personal connection with your audience.
5. Create and participate in events, webinars, and meetups. This can help you expand your professional network and showcase your expertise.
6. Share user-generated content that highlights the success of your clients or customers.
7. Optimize your LinkedIn profile and company page by including keywords relevant to your industry, adding a professional headshot, and listing your relevant experience and skills.
8. Encourage your employees, partners and clients to connect with you and promote your page to their networks, this will give you more visibility and credibility.
9. Use the analytics feature to track the performance of your content and understand the engagement of your audience.

Now, depending on your industry, you can expect it to take 3-6 months before these efforts really start to bear fruit, so hang in there! Linkedin is but one medium to build your brand on, but it’s a highly rewarding one!

Conclusion

In conclusion, LinkedIn automation can be a powerful tool for building and nurturing your professional network. By automating repetitive tasks such as sending connection requests and messages, you can save time and focus on more important aspects of growing your business. And while it’s a lot of work to figure out how to use linkedin automation, the juice is clearly worth the squeeze.

However, it’s important to use automation responsibly, following the LinkedIn terms of service and being mindful of how you interact with your network. By doing so, you can leverage automation to enhance your LinkedIn presence, increase your visibility, and ultimately drive more business and opportunities your way.

Remember that LinkedIn is a platform to connect and engage with people, so it’s important to use it in a way that is respectful, relevant and adds value. If you’re looking to take your LinkedIn game to the next level, consider incorporating automation into your strategy and see the positive results it can bring.