The majority of Linkedin users think that LinkedIn is a social media platform for professionals.
The platform is so much more than professional likes and shares.
It’s your virtual networking space. It’s a robust Content Marketing channel.
And it’s your secret weapon to create more leads and revenue.
With tools like Sales Navigator, it can be your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool as well.
Sales Navigator is an excellent B2B tool in the LinkedIn suite of services. But there’s one feature, LinkedIn tags, that’s underused in Sales Navigator.
For the uninitiated, Sales Navigator is one tier of LinkedIn’s premium services. For $79.99/month (tax excluded), you get a robust platform to save and manage connections, get lead recommendations, and sales analytics.
Once used well, Sales Navigator and tags will help you quit the shotgun approach to Sales and Marketing.
Tags will help you develop a sniper-like approach to your potential leads.
If you’re actively creating content, searching for prospects, sparking conversation, and engaging on LinkedIn, chances are your connections will start to increase in short order. You’ll love the excitement of growing your network.
But there’s a critical question you must ask yourself;
A closer look will reveal that many of your connections are past co-workers, friends, and like-minded persons in your niche. However, you may have fewer decision-makers. How can you group these crucial connections so you can nurture these relationships?
With LinkedIn tags.
LinkedIn tags allow you to organize your connections in the category of your choice. By assigning specific categories to contacts and leads, you can be intentional in your sales approach.
In the early days of Linkedin, you were able to categorize your connections using tags and notes on a personal profile.
Then in 2017, LinkedIn moved the feature to its paid Sales Navigator. That’s how valuable they thought it was.
With tags, you can be creative in the way you segment your connections. This makes Sales Navigator just as useful as CRM powerhouses like Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM.
Let’s say you have 1,500 saved leads in Sales Navigator.
You know some are not interested in your services.
Others are passive leads that need nurturing. And there are a few red-hot prospects.
LinkedIn tags can help you categorize each lead.
That way you can be more efficient in your sales efforts. Tags can help you remember where you met a prospect and what information you would like to share. You can send your passive leads more relevant content and focus on closing your hot leads. Or you can get a top-level view of how many potential leads you have and if you need to ramp things up.
Adding tags is a simple process. Of course, you must have the Sales Navigator package.
Once you’ve started to build connections and research potential customers, you can add them to Sales Navigator by clicking on the “Save as Lead” blue button.
Once you click on your new prospect’s profile, there is an “+ Add Tag” option at the bottom.
This will reveal a list of available tags to categorize each lead. These tags are private to you or your team if you have a team account.
You can then create a new tag using the “Create New” option.
Once the tag is created, you can add other leads under that new tag in the “Add Tag” option that will show up on the right of each person. Custom tags even show up in your search results. So you can assign a potential connection to a select group immediately. Tags can be modified or deleted in the “Manage Tag List” option when you click “+Add Tag.”
How about a real-life example? Let’s say you’re selling a SAAS product. Using the Advanced Search option given to Premium members, you can narrow down your search to CEO’s, CTO’s, or other decision-makers in your niche. A simple tag like “Prospect” can categorize all these new connections. As the team continues to engage, some can be moved to a “Lead” tag. Further tags can be used for nurturing the leads, setting up an offline Zoom call, then closing the deal. Landing the next client becomes more effective as you don’t have to rely on memory to follow up.
Regardless of your industry or business size, tags can help you in the following ways:
LinkedIn and Sales Navigator are great tools to find, nurture, and close deals. However, it’s easy to get distracted and focus on the wrong tasks. You want to make the most of the time (and money) you’re putting into the platform. Tags can help you stay organized and laser-focused on the right prospects. It also gives you a general view of the type of connections you need to start building. You also have a bit of a CRM tool, if you’re not willing to invest in a paid tool and Sales Navigator.
Tags are just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking to improve your social selling, content marketing, and sales on Linkedin, let’s connect here.
You can also jump straight into my LinkedIn Course and Membership. Learn more about Sales Navigator, lead generation, conversion, and much more.