How To Target Your Ideal Leads On LinkedIn

Welcome to the LinkedIn Made Simple Newsletter, where we talk about LinkedIn best practices in an easy, yet actionable way. If you want even MORE tips and tricks be sure to check out our YouTube channel where our Co-Founder/CEO, Chris, puts out multiple videos a week.

Everyone is on LinkedIn now, and it's and not just to show off their resume or find work. Folks are here to network, buy, and - yes, sell.

Selling isn't what it used to be. It’s not the one-to-many approach where you spray a message with vanity metrics and rhetorical questions to a target audience that may or may not be a fit. This was a sound strategy that did work at a time, but with more of the world living and working online there has been a recalibration.

In this newsletter, we’ll talk about what the nature of Sales is now, and more specifically, how it can be done most effectively on LinkedIn.

In this first iteration, you’ll get to know me (I’ll keep it brief, I promise), and we’ll talk about the first of what are essentially the ONLY two things you need to know to get started with effective Direct Outreach yourself. Today we’ll talk about targeting.

First, a little bit about me. I’m Bryan and I’m the Head of Strategy at Uptown Creation We’re an agency that does direct outreach by hand for small businesses, sales teams, entrepreneurs, and really anyone who finds their target market predominantly on LinkedIn. I used to work in restaurants, I’m a beast in the DMs, and shmooze with the very best of them.

See? I told you it’d be brief.

Now, to the meat and potatoes.

Let’s start with targeting--you always should. In the world of DO (shorthand for “direct outreach”, which will catch on), targeting will do 75% of the heavy lifting. If you know exactly who you want to talk to and how to find them on LinkedIn, you’re sitting pretty. This will set you up for success because you can always adjust your outreach/content strategy if you're connected with the right people on LinkedIn.

The most important thing to note about targeting is that if you think you can help everyone, you’ll end up helping no one. If you’ve been in business for a while, try to identify with hyper-specificity the following:

1. What kind of business is your ideal client in?
2. What title do they hold and what function do they serve at their organization?
3. Where are they located and does that matter?
4. What size is the company they work at?

These 4 questions should give you a jumping off point. The more specific the answers the better, and always keep in mind that this is a place to start and iterate from - not your end all be all. Be OK with being wrong the first time. The importing thing is to just get started.

Let’s do one together. You’re a consultant that’s found your niche helping large organizations develop their emerging talent that are fit for management positions. You worked in Healthcare and can speak their corporate language.

1. What kind of business is your ideal client in? - Healthcare organizations
2. What title do they hold and what function do they serve at their organization? - HR leader, Director Level, VP Level, CXO level
3. Where are they located and does that matter? - United States, not California or New York
4. What size is the company they work at? - 500+ employees

Great start. Since we’re on LinkedIn, let’s use our answers to these basic questions to build out a targeting list using Sales Navigator. Sales Nav is like Google, but for finding people to sell to. I’ll drop some pictures below to add some color to this newsletter.

See how easy? Simply find the filters that match up with the questions you’ve asked yourself (Industry, Company Size, Job Title/Function, Seniority Level, etc.). Voila! You have a serviceable targeting list.

Note: I’m withholding a lot of targeting goodies and strategies for targeting on LinkedIn. This is white belt stuff, you’ll have to keep coming back to learn the black belt stuff. Or schedule a call with me, I’ve got time.

Takeaways:

1. Targeting and messaging are really the only two variables you need at your disposal to conduct good outreach on LinkedIn.
2. If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one.
3. Create a targeting list and start sending 25-50 connection requests daily
4. Come back for more newsletters, we’re just getting started here.
5. Learn more from our CEO on our company YouTube Channel

‍Action Item: If you have Sales Navigator, try to answer the 4 targeting questions and create a saved search.

Pro Tip: There is a filter on Sales Navigator called “posted on LinkedIn in the last 30 days”. There are 330 million people on LinkedIn, and you’re going to want to focus your efforts on the people that actually use it and check it regularly. Posted in the last 30 days is a surefire way to find those people.

Till next time!