Using email and LinkedIn for a prospecting double-whammy

How to use both email and LinkedIn to reach out to potential clients, and which tools can help you do it effectively.

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On their own, email and LinkedIn are powerful sales channels. Used together, they’re a dynamic duo that propel your prospecting efforts and set you up for success.  

But it’s easy to come off as pesky and intrusive if you don’t play it right. You need to create a seamless organic experience for your prospects.  

In this blog, we’ll share how you can use LinkedIn in tandem with your sales emails, as well as the smart tools that help you get the best results. 

Using LinkedIn to boost your email outreach

When we talk about using LinkedIn to support your prospecting, we’re not talking about hitting them with the old “Hi! We can offer you this-and-that” 30 seconds after connecting…

… there’s an art to it. 

Prospecting is all about warming up your audience so that when they’re finally ready to buy, you’ll be at the forefront of their mind.

You need to use LinkedIn as a supporting act to your outreach emails. Taking a softer approach such as liking/reacting to your prospects’ posts, sharing valuable content, or starting discussions in groups they’re a member of, all help to build awareness for your business. 

Here’s how you can do it well.

How to use LinkedIn to engage prospects

1. View their profile

This is a really simple and non-invasive way to start getting your prospects familiar with you. You don’t even have to add them as a connection – receiving an email from you along with a profile view will be the first step towards warming them up to a conversation.

2. See what groups they’re a member of

LinkedIn groups can offer a window of insight into what topics and communities your prospects are engaging with. 

Find the groups your prospects are members of and observe the types of conversations members are having. You can then start to become a familiar face in those spaces:

• Share valuable content, tips, and advice that address common pain points
• Discuss relevant industry developments
• Provide helpful answers to group members’ questions
• Start discussions around relevant topics

Doing this will humanise your brand and position you as a knowledgeable and helpful resource to potential prospects.

Use Audience Insights to find the right LinkedIn groups

You can find out the top LinkedIn groups your target audience is following with just a few clicks. In the Audience Insights tab of your Sopro portal you can easily see where your prospects’ interests lie. 

Here’s what Example Ltd’s dashboard looks like. We can see that the most popular groups among this pool of prospects are limousine and luxury transportation groups. So the next logical step for this business would be to join these groups and start engaging. 

They could then use these findings to create content for their website and sales teams – inspired by the different discussions and therefore relevant to their prospects’ current challenges. 

3. Find out what brands they like

Look at the different brands and companies your prospects are following to get a feel for what interests them. You can then position yourself as a business that’s relevant to their needs:

• Comment on or share posts from these brands
• Approach these brands for partnership opportunities
• Create content geared towards these brands, and tag them
• Highlight any common interests in your outreach, if relevant 

Use Audience Insights to find the right brands

In the Audience Insights tab of your Sopro portal, you can get a simple overview of the businesses your prospects follow: 

There are some really big brands at the top here, which isn’t surprising. But it might be a bit difficult for Example Ltd to partner up with Microsoft or Google, or get them to engage with their social posts. 

But scrolling down, there are a few more niche businesses that a number of their prospects are following, and it’s in these more focused spaces that they’ll find the real potential for common ground. 

4. Check who they’re following

The public figures your prospects follow is another great insight. And used right, helps you better engage with your prospects and build relationships that can ultimately lead to business opportunities.

If you know that your prospects follow certain influencers on LinkedIn, consider following them yourself and sharing/commenting on their content. This can help you to stay up-to-date with the topics and conversations that are relevant to your prospects, as well as finding common ground to generate engagement with them.

Using Audience Insights to find who’s influencing your prospects

In the Audience Insights tab of your Sopro portal, you can get a simple overview of the public figures your prospects follow: 

As with the companies tab, there are some really big influencers at the top, but there’s no harm in Example Inc’s sales team following them and keeping on top of developments. 

Scrolling down, there are some more accessible public figures that Example Ltd could look to leverage. Activity such as a paid partnership with these smaller influencers could position them as an attractive and trusted brand to their prospects.

Fully-managed sales engagement with email and LinkedIn touchpoints

So now you know how to use LinkedIn to boost your email prospecting campaigns, and the best tools to help you do it. By understanding the groups, brands, and influencers that your prospects follow, you can make a relevant presence for yourself on the platform and add another touchpoint to your sales process. 

Impressed? There’s much more you can add to your outreach with Sopro’s multi-channel prospecting service. Our fully-managed service delivers hot leads directly to your inbox. We engage potential customers on your behalf with a coordinated, multi-channel outreach across their buying journey.

Your campaign is hyper-customised with exclusive data and specialist outreach copywriters. Messages are personal and include timely follow-ups, leading prospects to feel they’re talking to you one to one.