LinkedIn, with its network of 1 billion people, is a powerhouse for B2B lead generation. Yet, tapping into this potential is challenging without the right tools.
LinkedIn lead generation tools are essential for those who want to turn their LinkedIn profiles into $$$ without spending too much time or money.
These tools help you automate identifying and connecting with potential leads, enhancing both the quantity and quality of new business opportunities.
This article explores the top 11 LinkedIn lead generation tools, their pricing, key features, and how they can boost your sales efforts.
Thanks to its advanced search filters to identify potential customers (like industry, job title, and location), LinkedIn became a crucial platform for lead generation, especially in the B2B sector.
The key to this strategy is creating and sharing engaging content, showing your expertise, and fostering trust within your target audience.
LinkedIn also offers specialized native tools and features like Sales Navigator and targeted ad campaigns to enhance lead-generation efforts. But plenty of other external LinkedIn tools also help you grow your business.
You can use LinkedIn for personalized outreach - tailoring messages to each prospect's specific needs and interests, which significantly boosts engagement.
With its analytics section, you can continuously measure and refine your LinkedIn strategies to build a personal brand and make leads come to you.
To sum up, LinkedIn lead generation combines strategic content, personalized outreach, and the effective use of LinkedIn tools to make new connections and open opportunities.
Here are 7 reasons why LinkedIn stands out as a powerful tool for lead generation:
1. Access to a network of 1 billion people
LinkedIn has one of the most extensive networks of professionals across various industries. Thanks to its advanced filtering, it gives you access to diverse potential leads and makes it easier to target decision-makers and influencers.
2. Precise targeting
The platform's advanced targeting capabilities allow businesses to pinpoint prospects based on job titles, industries, company sizes, and locations, ensuring sales efforts are focused on the most relevant audience.
3. Building credibility and trust
Sharing insightful content and engaging in industry discussions enhances reputation and fosters trust among potential leads.
4. Effective content distribution
LinkedIn is an ideal platform for sharing content that resonates with a professional audience, helping to establish thought leadership, and keeping prospects engaged with your offer.
5. Direct engagement
The platform enables direct and meaningful interactions with prospects through features like InMail, messages, and group discussions, which are crucial for building relationships that lead to conversions.
6. Analytics and insights
LinkedIn provides valuable analytics, allowing businesses to track the effectiveness of their lead-generation efforts and double down on success.
Here's a checklist of 10 things to do when choosing your best LinkedIn lead-generation tool:
1. Define lead generation goals
[ ] Identify specific objectives (brand awareness, sales, types of leads, etc.)
2. Targeting capabilities
[ ] Ensure the tool offers advanced targeting (industry, company size, job title, location)
3. Integration and compatibility
[ ] Check compatibility with existing outreach tools (CRM, email platforms)
[ ] Check out the ease of integration
4. Automation features
[ ] Evaluate automation capabilities (connection requests, follow-ups, post-scheduling)
[ ] Balance automation with personalization options
5. Analytics and reporting
[ ] Look for comprehensive analytics features
[ ] Ensure availability of detailed reporting for campaign tracking
6. User Reviews and Recommendations
[ ] Research user reviews and feedback
[ ] Seek recommendations from industry peers or forums
7. Pricing and ROI
[ ] Analyze the pricing structure of the tool
[ ] Consider the potential return on investment
8. Trial and testing
[ ] Check if a free trial is available
[ ] Test the tool to evaluate its fit with your needs
9. Customer support
[ ] Check out the quality of customer support provided
[ ] Make sure they have enough resources for troubleshooting and assistance
10. Scalability
[ ] Ensure the tool can handle increasing lead volumes and data
Correctly filling out your LinkedIn profile is one of the most crucial steps if you want to engage with potential buyers.
That includes a sharp profile picture and cover photo, a relevant headline, and a detailed about section with previous experience.
You can also use keywords in your descriptions to position your profile higher in LinkedIn searches.
Grab your LinkedIn leads' attention, give a clear vision of who you are to people landing on your profile, and your network will increase with potential clients.
Your company can also have its page on LinkedIn, allowing you to engage with customers, leads, and partners.
You can join conversations, share content in different formats, react to posts that mention your brand, create events, etc.
And all these actions are done under your brand name and logo.
It also lets you know more about your audience by following the trends and understanding your metrics.
Going on a competitor's LinkedIn page can also expose some potential leads.
You can see their followers or the list of people who liked and engaged with a specific post.
Once you've identified your most relevant followers, you can scrap all the profiles with tools like Phantombuster (which we covered later in this article) and convert them into LinkedIn leads.
There are different types of LinkedIn ads that you can choose according to your needs.
This helps your content appear in front of more qualified leads.
LinkedIn ads are not mandatory for your LinkedIn B2B lead generation (we're not spending any $ at lemlist, but we still have millions of views on our posts every month).
However, when you're a beginner, you can boost a post with ads, allowing you to check if you're reaching the right audience.
You can add LinkedIn lead forms to your message ads and sponsored content.
This type of content allows more info about the user - their information from the profile will be filled in automatically when they open the form.
When you're using LinkedIn for lead generation, there are some tools you can use to be more efficient.
They'll help you find the right LinkedIn leads, scrap info, and redirect them to your campaigns.
Product Hunt - 4.5 (16 users)
Taplio is a tool that allows you to leverage AI to generate leads on LinkedIn.
Aside from creating content with AI, with Taplio, you can also find your LinkedIn leads, expand your network, and export data.
it helps you create content lists, engage automatically with people in your industry, send DMs to the right people at the right time, and integrate fully with your CRM and outreach tools.
Taplio offers free 7-day free trial, and includes paying plans: Starter for $49/mo, Standard for $49/mo (with discount), and Pro for $149/mo.
Taplio also includes a 30-day money-back guarantee in all their plans!
Capterra - 4.6 (136 reviews) | G2 - 4.3 (1825 reviews)
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an advanced sales tool that allows users to create more personalized and targeted outreach on LinkedIn.
It's a premium version of LinkedIn with additional features for sales professionals to generate leads.
It allows you to perform more advanced searches to filter your results precisely, quickly discover the right people, and take them down the sales funnel.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator offers free trial, and has paid plans Core (Professional) for $79.99/month, Advanced (Team) for $108.33/month, Advanced Plus (Enterprise) for starts at $1600/month.
Capterra - 4.6 (59 users) | Chrome Stats - 4.1 (35 users)
Phantombuster is a tool that helps you generate leads by automating LinkedIn engagement and reaching out to your prospects.
For example, this tool can scrape people who commented on or liked your posts.
Since they already know you, reaching out to them will make more sense and bring more replies.
Phantombuster offers a free trial, and paid plans: Starter for $56/month, Pro for $128/month, and Team for $352/month.
Product Hunt - 4.9/5 (432 reviews) | Capterra - 4.6/5 (370 reviews)
With lemlist and its Chrome extension, you can add anyone to your outreach campaign while visiting their profile and automate LinkedIn profile visits, connection requests, and messages.
You can add details in the extension so you never miss an opportunity to add personalization for your LinkedIn lead (latest post published, type of topics shared, previous experiences, etc.).
And when you conduct a larger search, you can also add a list of leads from a LinkedIn search directly into your outreach campaign.
This extension is a time saver for your LinkedIn lead gen strategy.
No need to copy/paste from one app to the other; everything is done with a few clicks on the same screen!
Once you add your new leads to the outreach campaign, you can use lemlist's AI to generate personalized multichannel sequences, including LinkedIn steps!
You can perform LinkedIn steps such as invite, profile visit, text or audio message - 100% on auto-pilot.
lemlist offers 14-days free trial, and paying plans Email Starter ($32/mo/user/1 sending email), Email Pro ($55/mo/user/3 sending emails), Multichannel Expert ($79/mo/user/5 sending emails), Outreach Scale ($129/mo/user/15 sending emails).
Capterra - 4.6 (21 reviews) | Dropcontact - 4.7 (34 reviews)
Dropcontact is a SaaS solution that enriches, cleans, and corrects data directly in CRMs without human intervention.
It helps you scrap leads' LinkedIn profiles to find their details and everything you need for personalized outreach.
You just have to type the person's name and company; these tools will search for the info you need so you can generate LinkedIn leads.
For example, here I just typed "Lucille" and "lemlist.com" ⬇️
Dropcontact offers free trial and paying plans: Email search and enrichment for $24/month and CRM integration with a price on request.
You can check out our blog article for more ways to find someone's email address.
G2 - 4 (76 reviews) | Capterra - 4.4 (32 reviews)
Explandi.io is a LinkedIn automation tool designed to enhance LinkedIn outreach and engagement.
It offers hyper-personalized cold outreach campaigns and allows users to send up to 300 LinkedIn connection requests per week.
By building your LinkedIn network you can showcase your personal brand to your leads, build trust and credibility, and generate more leads.
Expandi.io offers free trial and paid plans: Business for $79 per month and Agency with custom pricing for 10+ seats).
Capterra - 4.1 (6 reviews)
lempod is an AI-powered LinkedIn automation tool designed to significantly increase user engagement on LinkedIn posts. It does this by automating likes and comments from a user's pod aka network.
lempod offer a free trial and paid plans: Marketplace for $9.99 per pod and Private Business Pod for $3.99 per user in a pod.
G2 - 4.8 (17 reviews)
Demand is a comprehensive lead generation platform that integrates AI to enhance LinkedIn outreach and engagement.
It's designed to help companies identify and connect with their ideal customers on LinkedIn more efficiently.
Demand offers a free trial and paid plans: All-In-One for $99/user/month, Sales Acceleration for $59/user/month, and Social Selling (required Sales Navigator) for $59/user/month.
Capterra - 4.6 (270 reviews) | G2 - 4.4 (115 reviews)
Octopus CRM aims to simplify prospecting efforts on LinkedIn, allowing users to automate various tasks such as sending connection requests, messaging, profile viewing, and skill endorsing.
Octopus CRM offers a free trial and paid plans Starter for $6.99 per month, Pro for $9.99 per month, Advanced for $14.99 per month, and Unlimited for $24.99 per month.
Capterra - 4.1 (359 reviews) | G2 - 4.2 (1,412 reviews)
Lusha is a B2B database and sales intelligence platform that provides high-quality company and contact data to generate more qualified leads.
The main goal of Lusha is to facilitate more effective sales and marketing outreach by providing reliable data for prospecting, including phone numbers and email addresses.
Lusha offers free plan and paid plans: Pro for $29/user/month, Premium for $51/user/month, and Scale with pricing on request.
Capterra - 4.6 (54 reviews) | G2 - 3.9 (11 reviews)
Skrapp is an email lookup tool that specializes in extracting leads from LinkedIn. It allows users to find verified professional email addresses quickly.
The main goal of Skrapp is to facilitate email prospecting and outreach campaigns by providing an efficient way to gather email addresses from LinkedIn and Sales Navigator.
Skrapp offers free plan and paid plans: Starter for 42 eu per month, Seeker for 84 eu per month, Enterprise for 169 eu per month, Global for 254 eu per month.
Navigating through LinkedIn's native features for lead generation can be daunting, but the right tools can turn this challenge into a strategic advantage.
As we've explored, each LinkedIn lead generation tool offers unique features and capabilities, catering to different aspects of the lead generation process.
From automating outreach to providing insightful analytics, these tools are designed to enhance your sales efforts and drive business revenue.
G2 Rating | Price | Best for | Standout feature | Con | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.9 star star star star star | $30/mo $75/mo $2,999/mo | Large, distributed sales teams | AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs | Lack of tracking system | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Sales operations and finance teams | Powerful configurability | Limited training resources and complex to navigate | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Mid-market and enterprise businesses | Comprehensive incentive management | Potentially high cost and steep learning curve | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $15/user/mo $40/user/mo Enterprise: custom price | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Collaborative teams | Connected planning | Complexity and steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with complex sales structures | Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy | Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts | Simplicity and ease of use | Lack of features like redirection | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $30/user/mo $35/user/mo Custom: upon request | Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software | Ease of use and adoption | Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs | |
4.8 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights | A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility | Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow | |
4.9 star star star star star | $30/user/mo $50/user/mo | Smaller sales teams | Powerful automation | Lesser user base and average user interface | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with scalable needs | Automated Commission Calculations | Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app |
PRM Tool | Rating | Feature | Pro | Con | Mobile App | Integrations | Free Plan | Pricing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.65 star star star star star-half | Org-wide alignment | User-friendly layout and database | Suboptimal as a personal CRM | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-check | Team: $20/month Business: $45/month | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Social Media Integration | Easy contact data collection | No marketing/sales features | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-xmark 7-day trial | $12/month | |
4.75 star star star star star-half | Block Functions | High customization capability | Not a dedicated CRM | square-check | Limited | square-check | Plus: €7.50/month Business: €14/month | |
N/A | Open-source | Open-source flexibility | Requires extensive manual input | square-xmark | Limited | square-check Self-hosted | $9/month or $90/year | |
3.1 star star star | Simple iOS app | Ideal for non-tech-savvy users | iPhone only | square-check iOS only | Limited | square-xmark 1-month trial | $1.49/month or $14.99/month | |
3.6 star star star star-half | Smart Contact Management | Feature-rich and flexible | Reported bugs | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 7-day trial | Premium: $13.99/month Teams: $17.99/month | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Customizable Interface | Customizable for teamwork | Pricey for personal use | square-check | Rich | square-xmark | Standard: $24/member Premium: $39/member | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Integrated Calling | Integrated Calling | Too sales-oriented & pricey | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | Startup: $59/user/month Professional: $329/user/month | |
4.8 star star star star star | Business Card Scanning | Business Card Scanning | Mobile only | square-check | Limited | square-check | $9.99/month | |
4.45 star star star star star-half | 160+ app integrations | Comprehensive integrations | No free app version | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | $29.90/month or $24.90/month (billed annually) |
Capterra Rating | Free Trial | Free Plan | Starting Price (excluding the free plan) | Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan) | Best for | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-check | €15/month/seat billed annually | €792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat | Versatility and free plan | |
4.2 star star star star | square-check 30-day | square-xmark But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations | €25/user/month | €500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI) | Best overall operational CRM | |
4.3 star star star star star-half | square-xmark | square-check Limited to 3 users | Comprehensive incentive management | €52/user/month billed annually | Small-medium businesses and automation | |
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-xmark | €14/seat/month billed annually | €99/seat/month billed annually | Sales teams and ease of use | |
4.1 star star star star | square-xmark | square-check Limited 10 users | $9.99/user/month billed annually | $64.99/user/month billed annually | Free plan for very small teams up to 10 |
CRM goal | Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months. | ||||
SMART Breakdown | 1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation). | 2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking. | 3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements. | 4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives. | 5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date. |
Actions | Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation. | Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior. | Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads. | Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up. | Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization. |
Outcomes | Increased sales and revenue | Improved marketing automation ROI | Marketing and sales alignment | Data-driven marketing optimization |