The Hack - Increase B2B Referrals Using LinkedIn

AARRR stage - Referral

Growth Problem - How to Grow Referrals for a B2B Startup

Haxplanation:

Ah, LinkedIn. The marketing achilles heel of most growth hackers. So much so that most don't even know the first thing about growing their own professional network on the platform. Let alone, using it effectively for the benefit of their startup.

LinkedIn must not be underestimated as it is a fantastic tool when it comes to getting referrals for your B2B startup. However, you have to take an active stance in increasing your customer base via the network. That means you have to actually ask prospects for referrals and it's much more labor-intensive than with other SaaS referral tactics.

However, the time expended can help you to grow your referral base quickly. Another benefit is that you'll establish a much more personal connection with your prospects and users than on other networks.

Just Hack It:

• With B2B startups, your marketing tactics are often a new-school rendition of time-tested B2B marketing approaches
• This hack is definitely a modern twist on an old networking classic. Namely: starting a professional group
• The more relevant your group topic is to your app's core purpose and your prospects' professional interests, the easier it will be for you to get referrals
• Once you've created the group, invite all of your existing customers to join
• Then go prospecting for potential customers whom you share a connection with and invite them to join the group also. Because you're the moderator, you can invite people without actually being connected to them
• As soon as a prospect joins your group, you can send them a 'warm' connection invite saying something along the lines of:
• 1. "I notice that you're connected to my client who has been using our app to help solve problem X. As you operate in a similar space, I wanted to reach out as our product could potentially help you solve this problem too."
• Because you already have a connection in common and you're the group moderator, this automatically turns a 'cold call' into a warm one and gives you added credibility
• There, you just hacked LinkedIn referral marketing! That wasn't so scary, was it? No go and learn what else you can do on this network.

Source or Inspiration: http://www.slideshare.net/tcleenewerck/growth-hacking-presentatie-ii-social-media-linked-in-only