LinkedIn Expands its Marketing Solutions Portfolio; Launches Lead Accelerator

B2B marketing has become more complicated with the introduction of new platforms and communication systems. As a result, capturing leads—as well as nurturing and converting them into customers—has become more challenging.

LinkedIn understands this challenge, and recently expanded its Marketing Solutions portfolio and launched the LinkedIn Lead Accelerator to help “marketers reach, nurture and acquire professional customers on and off the LinkedIn platform.” Russell Glass (@glassruss), Head of Products at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, made the announcement on the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog on February 19, 2015.

To illustrate how difficult it has become to convert leads into clients, LinkedIn quoted recent statistics from Forrester Research, which indicated that 90% of the typical buyer’s path to purchase is completed before a salesperson comes into the picture.

An astonishing 95% of website visitors never provide email addresses to marketers (making lead capture extremely difficult), and of the 5% that do, only about 20% open prospecting emails they receive afterwards. “Bottom line: most marketers are converting less than 1% of all possible leads,” stated Glass.

LinkedIn Lead Accelerator

LinkedIn’s Lead Accelerator promises to “drive more quality leads blazingly fast” by driving more conversions, engaging prospects beyond their inbox, and measuring the impact of B2B marketers’ programs. LinkedIn’s Lead Accelerator promises to convert the 95% of website visitors who remain anonymous with targeted display and social ads as well as content. LinkedIn Lead Accelerator also promises to engage the 80% of known prospects who don’t open their emails through other marketing channels.

Glass described the expanded LinkedIn Marketing Solutions platform as a “full-funnel, end-to-end product suite.” Glass further stated that he believed the new offerings will drive more high quality leads down the sales funnels of B2B marketers, “which in turn will translate into more business for their sales teams.” [See Figure 1]

Figure 1 (Source: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog)

LinkedIn Network Display

Glass also announced LinkedIn’s expansion beyond its own platform through the LinkedIn Network Display. The LinkedIn Network Display allows brands to engage professional audiences with display advertising both inside and outside the platform across thousands of publisher sites.

The aim of this newly expanded portfolio is to “[tie] new and existing products together to deliver an integrated set of full-funnel marketing solutions.” These full-funnel marketing solutions, in turn, will enhance the marketer-prospect relationship and drive results.

As of February 19, 2015, LinkedIn Lead Accelerator will be available in most markets, and will be sold by LinkedIn sales representatives via annual or quarterly subscriptions. LinkedIn Lead Accelerator also boasts AutoFill, which auto fills forms to accelerate conversions. Another useful new feature is an analytics tool that will help marketers design campaigns, as well as track, measure, and improve impact across relevant metrics.

Will you use LinkedIn’s new Lead Accelerator to drive conversion rates?

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