You probably heard that Social Networking is the next great thing (among others), so I’d really be surprised if you never heard of Facebook, but Linkedin is probably one of those hidden-gem online resources you may not be so informed about.
While Facebook started as a students-only networking site which in the last 2 years has become the place to be online for anyone, including businesses – and big businesses as well – Linkedin started as a closely-knit professional networking site, and remains true to its origins to this day.
Today Linkedin has over 36 million users world-wide. That’s a great place to hang around if you’re looking to grow your business: either by finding clients or customers to hire you as a consultant, or buy your products. But Linkedin works for you on another level, too: it can provide contacts to help you grow your practise or business by supplying services and/or products you need to grow.
For example, if you’re a product designer, you can link up with a local speciality print shop owner to supply 3-D decals for your products. The printer can in turn hook you up with engineers she may have in her network to hire you as a consultant – and the circle continues – you get the idea…
I use Linkedin for both of these purposes I outlined above, but also for one more, not so apparent one: to grow my email marketing list! You see, the way Linkedin is structured, you cannot easily send mass emails to your whole list of contacts, so if you have several hundred, or even several thousand connections, it would be close to impossible, and certainly not very practical to send each one a personalized email.
That’s why you need to find a way to selectively “move” your Linkedin connections to your own email list (hosted by your Email Service Provider of choice), so that you can reach out to them with information and special offers targeted to their particular needs.
One way that’s been working for me is: I create events, such as my free tele-seminars, and then use Linkedin’s application called “Events” to create a page where I can describe the event and in effect advertise it. From there I go on to send an invitation to my Linkedin contacts – I can send it to 50 recipients at a time. I only send one invitation and leave it to them to take action: if they are interested they follow up by registering on my web site – outside of Linkedin – in effect adding their name to a special list I create for each event.
Comments
5 responses to “How to Use Linkedin to Grow Your Email Marketing List”
Hi,
I’m an aeronautical engineer by profession and an active volunteer in an NGO that is working for the uplift of students who are from poverty background.
I know the website of this NGO and I want more people to know about this and also contribute for the cause.
Can you please advice me that how would your page hep me on this.
Warm Regards,
Chethan
Hi Chethan,
If you’re referring to Linkedin, one way you can leverage it is by creating a group, then inviting all members of your NGO to join the group. Once they are members, they can engage in discussions, etc. to drive traffic to the Linkedin group, and from there to your NGO’s web site.
Another way to leverage Linkedin is by creating Events on Linkedin, which coincide with real-life event your NGO hosts.
If you’d like to discuss how I can help your NGO, please book a toll-free consultation via my online calendar to discuss you needs. There’s no charge for this consultation.
I hope this helps,
Boris
Hello,
I am interested in growing my list using my contacts of LInkedin , most of which are cold contacts.
Apart from teleseminars and opening a group what template mail can I send to my collegues so that they can promote my freebies to their clients?
Do you have any other ideas?
Thanks for your help!
Patricia,
If I understand you correctly, you’re asking two separate questions: one about growing your list from your Linkedin contacts, and second about affiliate programs (using your colleagues to promote your stuff to their clients).
About building your list: since you’re based in Italy, you will have to follow that country’s anti-spam regulations. Also, since you use Aweber as your Email Service Provider, you also have to abide by the U.S. CAN-SPAM act.
Strictly speaking, you cannot use your Linkedin connections’ email addresses and import them to your Aweber-hosted lists.
What I’ve been doing is sending a monthly newsletter to my Linkedin contacts, where I share a quick tip on how to use Linkedin
After the tip I ask them to either visit my blog to comment on the tip, or send them directly to my sales page for my Linkedin to the Max workshop. One they sign up to the seminar, they are added to my email marketing list.
As for using your colleagues to promote you, I find it they would do it more gladly if you offer them a monetary incentive, so I’ve set up an affiliate program. It was very easy with this affiliate program WP plugin.
Once you’ve set up your affiliate program, you can use that as the reason to contact your Linkedin connections, not just your colleagues.
I hope this helps.
These are some great tips! I exported my contacts from Linked In to use for newsletter on a 3 month basis for real estate. I’m looking to import more contacts over the next year and build my database up.