Outbound Marketing on LinkedIn – Tips from Dafna Rolls Ish of D|Rolls Associates

Last week, you may have read about my adventures in Israel without a tour bus. One of the events I highlighted was my presentation to a standing-room-only audience at Google Campus Tel Aviv. The event included an enlightening talk by Dafna Rolls Ish-Shalom, CEO at D|Rolls Associates, about how to conduct outbound marketing on LinkedIn.

What is Outbound Marketing?

Outbound marketing on LinkedIn differs from inbound marketing. Inbound includes “making noise in a good way,” like publishing articles and participating actively in groups. In contrast, outbound marketing on LinkedIn entails understanding your target market and what types of people or companies you want to approach, and then creating a campaign to reach them.

Dafna focused on B2B strategies, but many of her tips apply to job seekers as well. Regardless of your business or career situation, LinkedIn is an extremely strong tool for creating an initial connection – and you can use it to forge ongoing connections as well.

As Dafna pointed out, while not everyone will connect, and not everyone who does will continue the conversation, either way you’re creating awareness. You’re starting a conversation—and that has value.

Dafna’s Top Tips on How to Succeed with Your Outbound Marketing on LinkedIn

1. Identify and research your target market. Who are they? If they are investors, what type of investor? If they are CTOs, what type of companies do they work for? Once you know who they are, find out what projects they’ve been involved with in the past. Read their profiles and find out who you know in common, including any mutual connections you have at their company.

2. Personalize and customize your connection requests. Tips on how to do that are in my book, How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile. How you approach a person depends on the audience. You’d write a different message to a client than you would to a potential investor or partner. With anyone, the initial contact should be short and sweet. Don’t overwhelm with detail. Provide additional information as the relationship develops.For your first message, you might say something like, “I see you are involved with XYZ company. I’d like to speak with you about x venture.” Perhaps mention a common connection or an article the person published. Show the person you know who they are and that you care. If they respond, don’t leave them hanging. Keep the conversation going. Even a day’s delay can lose the connection.

3. Practice! Start your campaign with your B-level list first, and use the response you receive to understand the mind of the decision-makers who are your target. Don’t make beginners’ mistakes with your A-list!

4. Use a CRM (Dafna recommended Hubspot). Track which campaigns are effective and which audiences respond best to your message. And to state the obvious, create and maintain a database and ensure it’s accurate and up-to-date. You’re only as good as your leads.

5. Connect with your colleagues throughout your career. You never know when you will benefit from those connections! Also don’t be shy about asking for and providing introductions – and recommendations.

6. Move the conversation from LinkedIn to the phone or even a video call. Whenever you talk to someone in a business context, call from a quiet place – professionalism is more important than calling back fast when there is noise around (this one I learned the hard way). Always smile – it changes the tone of your voice. And be prepared for small talk. Check the weather, sports, events wherever your client is. Those details truly make a difference.

7. Look professional. If you’re calling from home in your pajamas, put on a scarf so no one knows you just got out of bed! My favorite trick is putting on a suit jacket over my yoga clothes.

8. Be on the lookout for how you can meet someone’s needs. Even if someone calls to sell you something, you never know when you might turn that into business for you!

9. Use trade shows and conferences as an opportunity to connect with your LinkedIn network. If you’re attending something, post on LinkedIn saying “I’ll be in Paris for the xx event, and would like to meet xx people…“ Also join any specific LinkedIn groups that might exist for the trade show or conference.

10. Optimize your profile and your company page. Your leads will check them! How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile will teach you how to do that. Remember that optimizing your LinkedIn profile requires ongoing activity – publishing articles, posting to groups, and sharing updates and photos about your professional activities. Use hashtags to tag people and companies in images so that they are more likely to read your posts. And if you have a company page, use it! Share recommendations you receive from clients, as well as posting open positions in your company.

While all of this might seem overwhelming, it’s essential that you set aside time every day to check your profile and work on lead generation. If that is not possible, don’t hesitate to use an experienced ghost writer who will do this for you with approved scripts and target lists.

D|Rolls, based in Israel, has proven these strategies work. She has gotten meetings for top US food retailers for an Israeli company, set up meetings for CEOs during their travels, and landed qualified meetings with VCs in New York City for an investment round – all by starting a conversation on LinkedIn.

What are your goals for outbound marketing on LinkedIn? If you’re looking for support on meeting them, please reach out!