Discover how to growth hack LinkedIn events to amass a long list of prospects and clients.
In this book, you will learn how to:
For every company always searching for new clients, LinkedIn can be an excellent resource for gaining prospects. As for using LinkedIn tools for selling, you likely think about searching for prospects and reaching out to them through LinkedIn automated messages.
But your ability to find prospects isn’t limited to your network or searches. LinkedIn events are a surprisingly useful way to find prospects. With the right tips and strategies, you can growth hack LinkedIn events to amass a long list of prospects and clients.
Best of all, you can growth hack any LinkedIn event—whether you create and run it or someone else did. This means that your company doesn’t have to put in the time and effort to make an event just to generate prospects. But of course, you can see even better results if you do so.
The following tips will let you harness the power of LinkedIn events, whether you use manual methods or LinkedIn social selling automation.
Before you can start to growth hack LinkedIn events, you need to understand what they are. The concept is pretty straightforward and similar to events on other social media platforms like Facebook.
You create an event on LinkedIn to promote a real-world event. You share the information about the event on LinkedIn and use the platform to invite people. There’s no need to automate LinkedIn messaging to tell all your contacts about the event. You just invite them all. LinkedIn events can also promote virtual events like webinars or online workshops.
There are ways you can get creative with LinkedIn events. As long as you fill in the proper fields, you can technically create a LinkedIn event for anything. For example, you could make an event called “Sign up for our newsletter to get a free eBook!” This would be a direct way of promoting your marketing campaign to get email signups.
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It is worth noting that LinkedIn events are completely free to create and run. You can invite connections for free as well. That said, there are paid promotions for LinkedIn events available. So, it is possible to spend money on them.
The most important way to hack growth with LinkedIn events is by using them to find new connections and prospects. Think of this as a digital version of attending networking events and talking to people there. The right tools let you turn LinkedIn events into a LinkedIn lead generation service. You just need a LinkedIn scraper to automate it for you, or to do so manually.
Remember that you can use any LinkedIn event to get prospects. It doesn’t have to be one that you created. This is great news for companies that don’t have the time or resources to run their own events.
The process of finding potential connections from LinkedIn events is fairly straightforward if a bit time-consuming.
Start by finding an event that is relevant to your target audience. LinkedIn conveniently lets you search by keywords. Do this in the main search bar, then filter the results so it only shows events (as opposed to people, posts, companies, etc.).
Once you see all the relevant events, find one that makes the most sense for your needs and select it. Then, click on “Attend event.” This button will be in blue near the top of the event page, right underneath a brief list of attendees and the most important details.
Importantly, you can see every single other attendee once you attend. This is the part that demonstrates the power of LinkedIn tools for business. Save yourself some time and save the URL you are currently at.
At this point, you could manually go through the list of attendees and message all of them. Or you could use filters to narrow them down a little bit. Some of the potential filters include:
Given how many people attend events, it could take you a long time to manually send messages to all of them. That’s even the case if you just copy and paste the same message. Consider a tool to automate LinkedIn messages like Outbound Pro. This can automate the process for you.
In addition to scraping connections from LinkedIn events, Outbound Pro also lets you scrape profiles from groups and posts! Learn how to use our LinkedIn email scraper during a demo.
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Whether you automate LinkedIn connections or send LinkedIn auto messages after an event, you want to follow all the best practices related to a personalized LinkedIn connection request and messages. This includes mentioning something that you have in common with the message recipient. The events on offer provide the perfect subject to mention.
You can simply point out that you both attended a specific LinkedIn event. It’s even better if you both interacted in the live chat during the event. Or, if you hosted the event, you can start the message as a thank-you for attending and highlight your hopes that it provided value.
One of the great things about LinkedIn is that as soon as an event is created, you can start using it to your advantage. And you can keep using the event after it is done, whether manually or with LinkedIn automation tools.
In other words, you can engage with or promote the event before, during, or after. This includes the ability to get information about the attendees or invitees.
So, maybe your company ran a virtual webinar and collected contact information during it, but only a few people showed. But you know that there was a lot more interest on LinkedIn. You could go to the event page after the webinar and check the profiles of those who said they were coming. Then, use that information to send LinkedIn auto connect requests or send a private message on LinkedIn to those who said they were coming.
You could get creative with this and send a “sorry we missed you” message. Promote a future event or an alternative way to get engaged.
On the other end of the spectrum, harness the ability to use the information before the event. Maybe use the best LinkedIn tools to send messages to future attendees to highlight the benefits of attending the event. Or use your favorite software to send a message on LinkedIn to those who declined, explaining why they should reconsider.
Every event also has its own feed, which is similar to the regular LinkedIn newsfeed. You can start interacting with attendees there as soon as you create the event.
The fact that LinkedIn keeps event pages active after the fact is also useful if you are getting prospects from someone else’s event. Just search for past events like you would for any current event. Then, navigate to the attendee list and send messages just like you would with future or current ones.
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As mentioned, you can find prospects from any LinkedIn event, whether or not you created it. You just have to RSVP to get access to the information. But if you have the time and resources to create your own LinkedIn event, it can be smart to do so.
One of the best things you can do as part of your marketing efforts is to position your company or yourself as an expert in your industry. Running an event is the perfect way to do this. After all, you will be sharing your knowledge with others.
Remember that if prospects see you as an industry authority or expert, they are more likely to interact with you or consider your brand. This will also make them more receptive to a LinkedIn direct message as they will trust your knowledge.
LinkedIn events are also a great way to hype up your product or service. You don’t necessarily want to be overly salesy, but you can still subtly highlight your product while running a related event.
Part of that hype comes from other attendees. As with any other type of social selling automation, people will see you are popular, and that will make them more likely to consider you. Think of it as a type of social proof. If an event or brand is popular, people assume that there is a good reason for this and want to see what the fuss is about.
Depending on how you use LinkedIn events, you can easily turn them into scalable product demos. Or they can just be a scalable way to share information with an audience and highlight your expertise.
Perhaps the most important benefit of hosting a LinkedIn event is the ability to connect with attendees. Even if you don’t directly interact with all the attendees, they will recognize your name. This means that when you send a LinkedIn auto message to them or a LinkedIn auto connect request, they will be more likely to accept.
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If you decide to create your own LinkedIn event to take advantage of the best LinkedIn tools and gain prospects, you want to make sure to set it up properly. The process of creating an event on LinkedIn is pretty straightforward.
On your LinkedIn homepage, look at the “Events” section on the lower left of the page. Select the plus sign. Alternatively, you can go from your admin view on your company page. Select “Admin tools” on the top right corner and choose “Create an event.”
You will now be able to fill in all the information about your event. As you do, you will want to make sure to optimize it to stand out and be representative of your brand. Some of the information to fill out includes:
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As you set up your event, you will have the option to create a registration form. You can use LinkedIn’s form or create your own. You can also opt out of requiring registration. If you don’t require registration, anyone on LinkedIn can attend the event. If you do require registration, they will have to fill out a short form to attend.
There is an obvious benefit of registration—it lets you gather contact information with ease. This makes it a good choice for targeted audience and lead generation events, which is the type of event that this guide focuses on.
But there is also a very important caveat about registration. It can discourage some people from attending, as they may not want to enter their information or may even not want to spend a few seconds filling out the form. Because of that, you need to carefully consider whether to do this and gather information. If your primary goal with the event is brand awareness instead of lead generation, you may want to skip the registration form.
Remember that even if you don’t have a registration form for your event, you can still use it for network growth. Just follow the already mentioned method to send a private message on LinkedIn or connection request to the attendees. The best LinkedIn automation software will make this easy to do.
You will have to weigh the pros and cons of including registration and decide what makes the most sense for your target audience and goals.
If you use Outbound Pro, you can send LinkedIn automated messages to event attendees. If you opt not to have attendees fill out the registration, using the LinkedIn software to auto connect LinkedIn profiles or send messages will somewhat make up for this.
Your primary goal with most LinkedIn events will be gathering new prospects. But when you create your own event, you will need to start by inviting the connections you already have as well.
Do this by scrolling down on the event management page and finding the option to invite your connections. As tempting as it is to invite everyone in your connection list to the event, only do so if it is relevant. Remember that part of nurturing a relationship with your prospects and LinkedIn connections is avoiding overwhelming them. Luckily, you can filter your connections by location and industry here. This way, you only send the LinkedIn automatic invitation message to those who are likely to be interested.
You can also automate LinkedIn outreach tasks like this with a LinkedIn InMail automation program like Outbound Pro.
As mentioned, your ultimate goal in running LinkedIn events is to get more attendees and therefore increase your connections. Inviting your connections is a good start, even if you have already connected with them. After all, the more of them who say they are attending, the more popular the event will look. This will encourage others to consider doing so as well.
As you create your event, keep in mind that there are several different ways that other potential attendees will discover it. These are in addition to you or another attendee directly sending them invitations.
You can also use targeted outreach to invite more people to your event. For example, you could invite relevant connections to your event if you scraped posts or groups for LinkedIn connections.
Don’t forget to consider scheduling a LinkedIn post about the event. Do the same on other platforms with a social media post scheduler that lets you customize social media post templates to announce your LinkedIn event. This way, you will have a multi channel marketing approach. Multichannel marketing improves the chances that prospects will see your event and participate in your LinkedIn campaigns.
As mentioned, you can start engaging in the event’s feed as soon as you create it. Do this to keep engagement high and keep people interested. In addition to regular LinkedIn posts, you can also create polls or share thought leadership.
After you set yourself up for success, continue it during the event. Remember that people are more likely to respond favorably to a LinkedIn direct message if they have already interacted with the LinkedIn message sender. The fact that you hosted the event is one of these interactions.
But you can get even more interactions and move further along in the relationship-building if you also use the live chat during the event. This feature is open to all event attendees. You can even post in the event’s newsfeed to remind people to participate.
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Don’t just end the event and let everyone forget about it. This is your chance to reach out and make LinkedIn automatic connections while the event is still fresh in people’s minds.
But you don’t even have to use separate LinkedIn tools or manually send messages to engage with people after the event. You can still use the built-in event functionality in LinkedIn. Ask for feedback on the event feed or post a poll. Think of the event page and feed as a continued engagement hub for people who attended.
Even if you follow up with attendees on the event page, it is also smart to use Outbound Pro to send a text message from LinkedIn to attendees to continue the engagement. Thank them for attending and give them a “what’s next.” Do you have another event coming up? Or should they sign up for your newsletter to stay informed?
Interactions with attendees shouldn’t be your only action after the event. It is also smart to look at the analytic data LinkedIn gives you about events. You can see information such as:
Use those analytics to see if you reached your target audience with the event. Remember that the demographics of attendees can also give you an overview of the demographics of the connections you scraped from event attendees.
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If you are running a LinkedIn event to hack growth and gain prospects, you want to maximize the number of attendees. The following tips can help you do that. You can also easily adapt many of them for LinkedIn group management, a nifty solution on how to grow LinkedIn groups.
You are more likely to get attendees if people feel a personal connection to this. So, highlight why it matters and the value it will deliver to attendees. Further add personalization by answering questions from attendees and engaging with them on the event’s feed.
You also want to include personalization in all your LinkedIn automated messaging. Outbound Pro makes it easy to personalize messages, increasing your response rate.
As you create the event description, take care to make it as appealing as possible. You want the description to tell people about the event and give them an idea of why to attend. You also want to include relevant keywords. This makes the event easier to find.
Don’t just promote your event on LinkedIn. Share a link to it on your Twitter or Facebook page. And on LinkedIn, promote it in a post or group.
LinkedIn events offer an excellent opportunity to find new prospects. Look for events that are relevant to your target audience, then send messages or connection requests to attendees. You can maximize these results by hosting your own event, as this will also help position you as an industry leader.
Outbound Pro can help you automate the connection requests and messages with ease. You can use templates and personalization to easily boost engagement rates. Contact us for a demo or sign up for a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
