Prospecting for New Local SEO Clients with LinkedIn

[Linda Buquet]

One of our members, Randy Kirk, just wrote a good piece about prospecting with LinkedIn.

How to Optimize Google Places & Google+ Local: Advanced Linkedin Tutorial - How to Prospect Using Linkedin

All that has changed with Linkedin. Say that I decide to expand my marketing consulting business to include a new vertical. I have been very successful with my one and only mortgage broker, so I decide to get more mortgage broker clients. I could still call Info USA and get a national or regional list. I could go online and search for mortgage brokers and start looking at websites. I could look for mortgage broker lists online. Or I could go to the advanced search option on Linkedin.

You can send anyone an inmail to start the conversation rolling. You are limited to 10 per month on the free service. Inmail is a Linkedin mail service that doesn't disclose your prospects email. The open rate for these kinds of emails is a staggering 40%. I bet cold calling doesn't get you that kind of result. Of course, the prospect can still ignore your email, but the response rate is also amazingly high on Inmail.

Keep your first email very casual like a first meeting at a party. Save the selling for later. Keep in mind that almost all of the prospects that receive this inmail are likely to check out your profile. Therefore you need to make sure that the profile is a "selling machine." See our earlier posts on how to create a great LinkedIn profile...

Read the rest at the link above.

I have to admit, out of necessity I've been ignoring LinkedIn lately. Just don't have time for another social network. However if I was in need of new clients or was newer and trying to build up industry rep, this is one of the places I would be focusing more energy on.

Anyone here use LinkedIn much for new client acquisition? Or networking?
Any tips or success stories to share?