Find Digital Marketing Clients on LinkedIn in 7 Steps (Lead Gen Solved)

Long before the Wall Street Journal declared LinkedIn “might be the best social media network,” the platform was widely acknowledged as one of the most effective B2B marketing tools ever.  

However, no doubt that LinkedIn has grown in popularity in recent years, with an increasing number of people and businesses joining that vast network.

That huge popularity wave also has raised the question of how to make use of that platform for digital marketing purposes. 

In that blog, we will go over the steps for generating leads & finding clients on LinkedIn while finding out what the platform means for digital marketing agencies. 

Keep reading. 

What’s Inside

Why is LinkedIn Good for B2B Growth and Lead Gen?

With more than 1 billion active users in more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is “a clear choice for B2B lead gen.” 

That’s not simply hype and beyond publishing articles, sharing insights, and engaging in discussions: 80% of B2B leads from social media come through LinkedIn, and four out of five people on the platform make business decisions. 

According to a statement on the official business website, the platform offers a unique combination of professional data, business context, and news feed products that are not found elsewhere.

On the same page, the following statement also supports the idea:

Simply put: LinkedIn is uniquely suited for B2B lead gen, and the results demonstrate it; cost per lead is 28% lower than Google AdWords.

So, if you are running a digital marketing agency (or any B2B business), LinkedIn is where your ideal clients hang out, such as decision-makers, business/brand owners, and marketing leaders. 

Let’s be more specific: For digital marketers, the platform can be accepted as a goldmine for lead generation, client acquisition, and brand authority. 

Unlike other social platforms, the platform offers: 

✅ Access to high-intent decision-makers, including CMOs, managers, and owners,

✅ Advanced search filters allowing pinpoint potential clients,

✅ Recent job change notifications: new executives often seek fresh marketing strategies, 

✅ Algorithm which favors high-value content, 

✅ Soft outreach opportunities with InMail,

✅ Industry-specific groups helping attract inbound inquiries,

✅ Readymade LinkedIn Ads and Lead Generation Forms.

Not convinced? 

Here is more about how LinkedIn can collect quality leads for businesses:

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for Generating Leads

You may think that driving consistent and reliable revenue for your marketing agencies can not depend on a good social media profile; however, the truth is a little different. 

So much so that profiles with an up-to-date photo receive 21 times more views and 36 times more messages, according to LinkedIn data. 

In other words, LinkedIn requires a strong profile to get someone to visit your page. Even though profiles on Facebook or Instagram are highly personal, LinkedIn prioritizes optimized and public profiles for marketing purposes. 

On the other hand, nowadays, LinkedIn works like Google for the business world; not only for jobs, people search for services, solutions, and organizations. In simple English, an optimized and full profile makes you discoverable in that new-age search engine. 

Best part? Optimized LinkedIn profiles rank on Google; when you type your name on the search engine, it is not surprising that you see your profile at the top. That’s not the same for other social networks. 

And finally, the more complete your profile, the higher it appears in LinkedIn searches.

We bet you are convinced that having a strong LinkedIn profile is a great way to find new marketing clients. If you do not have a robust one, here are some suggestions:  

👉 Create a headline beyond a sole job title. It should clearly state the value you provide.  

👉 Generate a client-focused “about” section that covers pain points and a CTA. 

While doing that, use bullet points and data to make it easy to scan.

👉 Upload a high-quality headshot and a cover photo. 

Further recommendations about the profile picture:

Upload directly from your phone, but make sure it’s good quality and includes you only, not your pet or significant other. Being so strongly identified with your dog or your husband might not be appropriate unless you’re a vet or a marriage counselor and that’s part of your professional image.

👉 Add a featured section with lead magnets—case studies, testimonials or a playbook. 

👉 Link your profile to your website or booking page. 

👉 Include recommendations. 

In case your profile is ready to attract people, here are steps to get new clients for your digital marketing agency. 

Find New Clients on LinkedIn: Step-by-Step

Sophisticated marketers structure lead generation around LinkedIn’s three primary strengths: robust professional data, a business context, and news feed products.

That’s the main and most basic rule in the world of B2B for LinkedIn, but it needs some explanation.

In this section, we’ll focus on how to find digital marketing potential clients in just 7 steps. 

Simple but effective. 

1. Define Your Ideal Client with Advanced Search

One of the most effective ways to find high-quality marketing leads – using the platform’s advanced search abilities. Since it allows you to laser-target decision-makers who actually need your services instead of randomly connecting with people. 

But why is it so important to find marketing clients?

✅ It saves time by connecting only with ideal prospects who fit your niche.

✅ Offers higher response rates when your outreach is highly targeted.

✅ Leads better ROI since it allows you to engage only with businesses/brands that actually need your expertise.

In addition to advanced search abilities, LinkedIn also provides you with search filters to find decision-makers. When you type a job title, you can use filters to narrow down results: connections, locations, current company, industry, company size, etc. 

What’s more, by using Sales Navigator, you can also search by revenue, funding, hiring growth, and even people who’ve recently changed jobs. And get notifications when new potential clients match your search criteria.

2. Personalize Invitations

A home truth: Using LinkedIn for agencies, personalized connection requests or invitations can increase acceptance rates compared to generic invites.

In other words, sending a generic invitation is the fastest way to get ignored on LinkedIn since it destroys the chances of starting a conversation. 

Who really cares if the invitation looks the same as others? What’s more, there is a worse scenario: Too many ignored invites can limit your ability to send new requests.

Here are some suggestions that can help you create highly personalized invitations:

✅ Before sending an invitation or message, engage with them via their content. 

✅ Show interest in their work and make it about the receiver. 

✅ Keep it short and avoid promoting yourself. 

✅ Reference a common area, interest, or connection. 

I saw your post on [X]—great insights! I work with businesses in [X] to improve [X] and would love to connect. Always happy to exchange ideas!

I just read your case study on [X]—impressive results! I’d love to connect and hear more about your approach to [specific strategy, business, or project]. Looking forward to staying in touch!

I came across [X] and love what you’re doing in [X]. I specialize in helping businesses like yours get more [leads/sales/visibility]. Would love to connect and exchange insights!

3. Engage with Influencers & Thought Leaders (LinkedIn Top Voice)

If you were thinking that teaming up with LinkedIn influencers and Top Voices is just about networking, you may have missed something. 

Given that a large number of prospective buyers choose which vendor to include on their shortlist with the assistance of influencers and thought leaders, it is a good call to invest in  LinkedIn’s top voices for marketers. 

In other words, many business owners and decision-makers follow these influencers, so connecting with them puts you in front of your ideal customers. So, tag them in your posts, repost their content with your take, and invite them to the discussion. 

And… What about thought leadership? 

According to LinkedIn’s marketing solutions page, thought leadership content “can directly impact lead generation because of its considerable importance to those varied decision makers.”  

Thought leadership does not mean sharing hours-long videos, long informative content, or giving speeches; sharing your own insights, commenting, and adding value with thoughtful responses also work.

The following rule also applies to LinkedIn: People connect with stories, not sales pitches. 

So, instead of highly prepared sales pitches, it is best to share real-life experiences, daily struggles, and behind-the-scenes insight to stand out. 

You may think that industry-inside stories attract just marketing peers, however, opening up about your challenges, experiences, lessons, or wins is a great way to build trust. 

At that point, we kindly remind you that posts that feel human spark conversations. And faceless marketing agencies are not my favorite ones. 

5. Use Effective InMail Strategies

As marketers already know, InMail is a great tool with its 10-25% response rate, which is approximately 300% higher than the typical email response rate.

That communication way, which is more effective than cold emails, allows you to reach digital marketing prospects without needing a connection first. 

Similar to the creation process of personalized invitations, we recommend you focus on being sincere, embracing the value-first approach, and avoiding pushing your services or promoting what you do. Keeping it short, direct, and related is a good call, as well.  

In addition to that, keeping your content under 100 words and not using a hard-sell CTA works well. If you do not want to prepare your own message content, you can use ready InMail templates for lead generation.  

6. Explore Paid LinkedIn Ads & Sponsored Content

No need to say; in the world of social media, creating organic content is not for everyone. Especially those looking for high-quality leads. 

In case you are seeking digital marketing clients, investing in LinkedIn ads and sponsored content is a wise move when considering the benefits of these instruments:

✅ Precise & advanced targeting with filters like company size, industry, job title, etc. 

✅ Ability to test different ad types—dynamic ads, message ads, etc. 

✅ Buttons for booking discovery calls or demos.

✅ Individually tailored offers for each user. 

✅ Auto-fill data from user profiles. 

At that point, we need to mention that LinkedIn ads are more cost-effective for B2B marketers, even though they may have a higher CPC. HubSpot reports that the average conversion rate for LinkedIn Ads is 6.1%, compared to 2.58% for B2B advertisers on Google Search. 

What’s more, you can retarget website visitors, email lists, or previous ad engagers with LinkedIn’s account-based marketing abilities. 

7. Use Third-Party Tools

Not a popular opinion, however, integrating third-party tools into your LinkedIn strategy can transform your lead generation process. It simply automates repetitive tasks, offers deeper insights, and enables highly personalized outreach. 

Tools like Dux-Soup, Octopus CRM, Expandi, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Wiza, Crystal Knows, Hunter.io, and LinkedHelper are built to interact with LinkedIn profiles, automate connection requests, manage messaging sequences, and extract valuable data.

No doubt that they’re not a magic bullet but rather powerful enablers that, combined with strong content and personalized outreach, can significantly boost your client acquisition efforts.

At that point, we would like to remind you that while these tools offer powerful automation and data extraction features, LinkedIn has strict guidelines regarding automation. So, it is best to use them responsibly and within LinkedIn’s terms of service to avoid any potential account issues.

In addition to making use of third-party tools, it is possible to integrate your internal automation systems with LinkedIn’s campaign managers and navigators: 

By combining the powers of Campaign Manager and your own systems, you can augment and extend the value of LinkedIn’s rich first-party data. On the lead gen front, marketers are able to run engagement programs with automated customer outreach, monitor and manage social media, apply specialized Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics, further personalize their content, and more.