How To Generate Leads On LinkedIn: The Ultimate FREE Guide (updated for 2025)

PART 1: Set-up Your LinkedIn Profile To Convert Leads

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Your LinkedIn profile drives conversions.

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When you send connection requests or post on LinkedIn, prospects will click to view your profile.

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If your profile is great, visitors will take action by either replying to your DM or clicking a link you promote inside your profile.

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Your profile viewers are asking themselves two questions:

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Question 1: Are you credible?

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Question 2: What can you help me do?

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The following profile guide will help you work out the answers to these questions and drive action:

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Step 1: Ensure your profile photo is professional

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Make sure your photo isn’t pixelated and has good lighting. A friendly smile goes a long way in building trust.

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Step 2: Write a high-converting tagline

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Use one of the following formulas:

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• Formula: {Title} | {Massive Credibility}
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  • Example: CEO at ACME Capital | 1,300 Multifamily Units and $282M AUM

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• Formula: {Your Niche} Advisor | {Interesting Hobby/Passion}
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  • Example: Logistics Advisor @ Colby Partners | Father of 4 | Ex-Chef

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Step 3: Optimize your banner

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Create a professional banner or upload a photo that shows you working or doing a hobby. To design one easily, use Canva with LinkedIn’s banner dimensions (1584 x 396 pixels).

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To create a professional LinkedIn banner, use Canva using banner dimensions 1584 (w) x 396 (h) pixels.

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Step 4: Use a clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

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Add a CTA under your tagline. This could be as simple as “Helping B2B SaaS founders book more demos 🚀” or “Let’s connect and grow your revenue.”

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LinkedIn also now allows custom CTA buttons on both profiles and company pages (e.g., “Book a Call,” “Visit Website,” “Sign Up”). Use this feature strategically to direct traffic to your calendar, lead magnet, or website.

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Step 5: Create an engaging About section

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Start with a story that resonates with your audience—ideally, a challenge you overcame that your prospects may also face. Then, share your unique selling proposition and wrap up with a clear CTA.

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Example CTA: “Want to scale your outbound without spamming? Book a free consultation today.”

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Step 6: Leverage Creator Mode for more visibility

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Turn on Creator Mode to highlight your expertise, showcase the topics you post about, and get access to additional profile features like “Follow” instead of “Connect.”

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This boosts your visibility in LinkedIn search results and makes your profile look more authoritative.

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Step 7: Strengthen your Company Page

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Your company page should have:

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• A professional banner and logo
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• A clear tagline
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• A site link
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• A CTA button (e.g., “Book a Call”)

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Step 8: Complete all other sections in your profile

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Don’t leave sections blank. Fill in:

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• Featured section: Add case studies, client testimonials, or free resources
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• Education, skills, past experience (highlight only meaningful roles)
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• Awards, certifications, achievements

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👉 The more complete your profile, the higher your LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index) score—improving both visibility and trust.

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If you want extra help on your profile, read our extended LinkedIn profile guide.

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PART 2: Send Connection Requests and Follow-ups That Win Replies

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Direct messaging on LinkedIn is where calls are booked and money is made.

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If you follow these instructions, you’ll start 15–20 sales conversations with your ideal prospects while adding 100+ 1st-degree connections to your network every single month.

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The secret to not looking spammy and getting real results from direct messaging is to target one, specific niche at a time and send a series of short, non-salesy messages to them. We’ll go into detail below.

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Step 1: Use Sales Navigator for precision targeting

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First, buy LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It’s $99/month and the only way to build and save great targeting lists.

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👉 Pro Tip: Use advanced filters (company size, seniority level, industry, posted content keywords) to zero in on your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This helps you avoid random outreach and instead connect with the right people faster.

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Build a targeting list for each persona below:

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• Local prospects (the specific city you live in)
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• Lookalike audience (prospects who resemble your best clients)
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• Perfect-fit prospects (prospects most likely to need your service)
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• Ideal partners (people most likely to refer you business)

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Want a targeting hack we make every client do? Use the filter “2nd-degree connections”—on average, 10% more people will accept your invites. 3rd-degree connections don’t have mutual connections with you.

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Watch this video to learn exactly how to build each list:

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Step 2: Apply an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy

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Instead of sending mass invites, build a list of key decision-makers at your top target accounts. Connect with 3–5 people per company (e.g., CEO, VP of Sales, Marketing Director) to increase brand familiarity.

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This “multi-threading” approach significantly raises your chances of booking meetings.

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Step 3: Write a 4-touch connection + follow-up sequence

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LinkedIn outreach is outbound, meaning prospects aren’t necessarily looking for your service and might be happy with what they have. So, start with a conversation before introducing your solution.

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Critical writing tips:

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• Customize the messaging for each list.
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• Keep it short, clear, and value-driven.
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• Avoid being pushy—be conversational.
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• Use social proof and be helpful.
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• Always end with a soft CTA (not “Book a demo” on the first touch).

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Messaging Sequence for 2025 tone:

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• Connection Note: “{firstname}, noticed we share a lot of mutuals in SaaS growth. I’d love to connect and swap insights.”
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• Touch 2: Compliment or reference something they’ve shared → “Loved your post on outbound strategies—curious, how’s LinkedIn working for you right now?”
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• Touch 3: Soft pitch → “We help SaaS teams book more demos with less outbound volume. Would it be worth sharing a quick idea?”
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• Touch 4: Offer value → “I’ve got a free playbook on boosting LinkedIn reply rates by 30%. Want me to send it over?”

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Expect a 15%–40% connect rate and reply rate with this value-first approach.

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For more in-depth directions on how to write great LinkedIn messages, check out this video:

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Step 4: Learn what works, then automate

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Test copy until you find what resonates. Once you’ve proven you can earn positive replies manually, use a trusted LinkedIn automation tool to scale outreach.

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✅ Do’s & ❌ Don’ts for LinkedIn DMs

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Do's:

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Personalize with 1–2 details

Keep messages under 4–5 lines

Start with curiosity & value

Use social proof (clients, results)

Offer resources/free value

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Don'ts:

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Copy-paste generic templates

Send long, “pitch-heavy” paragraphs

Open with a hard sell

Exaggerate or make false claims

Ask for a call in the first message

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PART 3: Write LinkedIn Posts That Get Engagement

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Personal brands are overtaking company brands.

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Every CEO needs to be posting on LinkedIn.

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The other day I had a simple post go viral. Here are the results:

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• 122 people messaged me
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• 7,300+ new followers
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• 3.3M+ impressions
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• 29,000+ profile views
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• 2,000+ inbound connection requests
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• Estimated 10-20 booked sales calls for Cleverly

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The post:

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All you have to do is consistently post once a week and follow the best practices below.

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7 tenants of writing LinkedIn posts:

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1. Base every post off one idea
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2. Your hook is extremely important
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3. Write short and choppy
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4. Use real examples to back-up claims
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5. Mimic other influencers in your space (LinkedIn influencer list)
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6. Use emotional power-words and numbers
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7. End each post with a key takeaway

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Now that you know the tenants, you need to understand LinkedIn’s algorithm so your content gets boosted in the newsfeed. The algorithm juices posts that follow the rules below consistently.

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Here are our LinkedIn engagement secrets:

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• Ask 3-5 people to comment on every post (AKA a pod)
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• Get comments in the first hour of posting
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• Reply to every comment ASAP
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• Leave a thoughtful comment on other people’s posts (1x/day)
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• Tag people in some of your posts
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• Post anytime Mon.-Thurs.
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• Use popular hashtags

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LinkedIn post types that you can vary for endless post ideas

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Type 1: Controversial posts

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Do not post about what is commonly known or obvious. You’ll get more engagement as a contrarian, so take a side.

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To start, write a post for every industry myth you disagree with and for every sales objection you get.

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Formula:

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Most {your persona} don’t {need/understand common myth}.

{prove they’re wrong}:

{breakdown of exactly how they’re wrong}

{example of exactly how they’re wrong}

{better alternative to the industry myth}

{why it’s a better alternative}

{serious consequence of this industry myth}

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Example:

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Type 2: Story posts

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People love stories about overcoming hardship and about good/bad work culture.

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Here’s a secret very few people understand: most people on LinkedIn are not business owners/executives – most are everyday employees.

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So, stories about treating employees good/bad, or going from fired and lost to A-player, tend to resonate and get a ton of engagement.

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Formula:

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{uncommon HR belief or policy}

{why you believe it to be true}

{example/story of how it was effective}

Do you agree or disagree?

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Example:

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Type 3: Educational posts

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In order to prove you’re an industry expert and actually drive sales, you need to teach people about your space.

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Most educational posts take the form of “How Tos” written in list form.

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Formula:

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I’ve {gotten huge accomplishment with these hard numbers to prove it}.

Here’s {exactly how I did it}:

Step 1:

{additional context}

Step 2:

{additional context}

Step 3:

{additional context}

{Key takeaway}

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Example:

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Once you have significant traction from posting valuable content, you need to convert that traffic. The best way to do that is by optimizing your LinkedIn profile (see section 1), and by creating a free offer to link to in your own comment section.

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See how Jake Ward does this here:

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What Works Best on LinkedIn in 2025

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LinkedIn is no longer just text-heavy. The algorithm now boosts rich formats that keep people engaged:

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• Video → 20× more shareable than text posts
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• Polls → Excellent for sparking engagement and quick feedback
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• Document/Carousel posts → Showcase expertise, case studies, or step-by-step breakdowns

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👉 Pro Tip: Mix content types weekly to build reach and authority.

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Posting Frequency & Timing Benchmarks (2025)

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• Frequency: 2–3 posts per week (sweet spot for consistent reach)
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• Timing: Tuesday–Thursday mornings (8–11 AM local time) still outperform other slots
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• Avoid weekends unless you’re testing personal/relatable story posts.

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Personal Branding > Just Sales Content

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People follow people, not logos. Share:

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• Behind-the-scenes stories of building your business
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• Lessons learned from wins and failures
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• Opinions on industry trends (without being generic)
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• Personal milestones that connect with your audience

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This mix keeps your content authentic, not just promotional.

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📝 Mini Framework for Writing LinkedIn Posts in 2025

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• Hook: Grab attention in the first 2 lines (question, stat, or bold statement).
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• Value: Share insights, examples, or lessons. Keep it practical.
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• CTA: End with a prompt (ask for opinions, offer a resource, or invite engagement).

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PART 4: Create A LinkedIn Sales Process That’s Easy To Maintain

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Here’s a good and bad news sandwich to chew on:

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Good news: Parts 1-3 above are the holy trinity of getting leads on LinkedIn.

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Bad news: If you don’t have a scalable system for executing the above and following up with leads, you’ll burn out and fail to nurture leads into closed revenue.

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Good news: We’ve spent five years perfecting scalable LinkedIn systems and are giving it away below…

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Process 1) Block off 20 min. in your calendar every day for LinkedIn. Do that now. Some tasks to do in that slot:

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• Monitor/tweak campaigns
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• Reply to and nurture leads
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• Write LinkedIn posts
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• Engage with other people’s posts

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Process 2) You need to send 10-15 connection requests a day and follow-up with those who accept. To do this at scale, you’ll need an automation tool.

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Important - if you automate bad messaging to a bad list, you’ll spam and piss off your audience. To connect with someone on LinkedIn, I suggest manually sending personalized copy to 50-60 prospects until you find messaging that works.

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This is defined by 20%+ of people actually accepting your connection requests and replying somewhat positively to your messages. To avoid hitting LinkedIn’s invite limit, we recommend you send under 100 requests a week.

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Process 3) Reply to leads ASAP and nurture them.

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I promise you leads will slip through the crack if you don’t follow the instructions below.

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A few golden pieces to note on response handling:

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• Outbound leads are not inbound leads — we’ve interrupted them, so they don’t have the same level of intent and trust. You need to work to get calls by being interesting, offering value, and following up.
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• Reply to everyone – even if they don’t seem too interested.
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• Reply fast or deals will disappear.
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• Follow-up
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• Write like you talk
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• Keep your replies short (1-4 sentences)
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• Have natural 1:1 conversations with people
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• Personalize your replies off a prospect’s LinkedIn profile
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• Store every positive reply in a CRM (if you lack a CRM, use a Google Sheet)

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“Companies that try to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly 7 times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers as firms that try to contact prospects even an hour later.

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Yet only 37% of companies respond to queries within an hour.” - HubSpot

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There are four general buckets for what prospects will say to you. Here’s how to handle each type:

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A) The prospect is interested

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• Go straight for their email, phone number, and/or propose a meeting time, so you can schedule the call and make it easy for the prospect.

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B) The prospect is semi-interested or asks you a question

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• Answer their question and acknowledge their reply. Ask another question or two about their current situation or potential pain points – similar to what you may ask in the opening discovery of a sales call.

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C) Basic, templated replies like “thanks for connecting” 

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• Offer free value or ask discovery questions to uncover pain.

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D) Not interested or sales objections

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• Apply this advice from Josh Braun.

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Create a list of your responses to common replies, so you can copy and paste to save time.

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Process 4) Follow-up over email.

• Most of the time you should ask interested prospects for their email.
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• Use Apollo.io or Mixmax to put people in follow-up drip email sequences.
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• If a lead doesn’t give you their email, use Apollo to find it (they have a Chrome extension that attaches to Sales Navigator).
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• Write a 4-touch follow-up email sequence.

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Watch this video for a complete training on how to follow-up over email using MixMax.

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Process 5) Hire VA and add sales reps

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*Only scale and apply process five after you master everything with your personal profile.

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• Hire a VA to reply to people and set meetings.
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• Get your employees to run campaigns (split your targeting lists up by geography or specific accounts so you don’t overlap).

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🔥 Bonus: Scale with LinkedIn Ads (2025 Strategy)

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Organic + outbound works best when paired with paid campaigns.

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Use the funnel approach

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• Top/Mid-Funnel CTAs: Instead of jumping straight to “Book a Demo,” run ads that promote free resources, webinars, or industry guides. This builds trust and warms up cold audiences.
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• Remarketing campaigns: Retarget people who engaged with your posts, company page, or website visitors. These audiences convert at a much higher rate.

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Trending ad formats (2025)

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• Document Ads → great for ebooks, playbooks, or case studies (high engagement).
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• Conversation Ads → interactive and personalized; works well for mid-funnel nurturing.
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• Video Ads → best for storytelling and brand awareness.

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Tracking & Measurement

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Use LinkedIn’s built-in analytics tools to measure performance at both the profile and company page level. Key KPIs to track:

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• Follower growth
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• Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares)
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• Conversion rate from lead gen forms
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• Cost per qualified lead (if running ads)

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📅 Set a monthly review process: Evaluate campaign performance, test new creative, and optimize targeting to keep results compounding.

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PART 5: Track & Measure LinkedIn Results

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What gets measured gets improved. If you’re putting time into LinkedIn lead generation, you need to know which activities are working—and which ones aren’t. Tracking results ensures you can double down on the best-performing tactics and cut what’s wasting time.

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Key Metrics to Track

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• Profile Metrics: Profile views, connection acceptance rate, reply rate on messages
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• Content Metrics: Impressions, engagement rate (likes, comments, shares), saves
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• Lead Metrics: Inbound connection requests, replies, calls booked, deals sourced
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• Ad Metrics (if running campaigns): CTR, conversion rate from forms, cost per qualified lead

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Tools to Use

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• LinkedIn Analytics (for posts, company page growth, audience insights)
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• CRM or Google Sheets (to log conversations and positive replies)
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• Third-party tools like Shield or Taplio (for deeper content analytics and trend reports)

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Benchmarks (2025)

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• Connection Acceptance Rate: 20–40% is strong
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• Reply Rate: 15–30% (for personalized outreach)
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• Content Engagement Rate: 2–5% per post
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• Ad CTR: 0.5–1% (average on LinkedIn ads)

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Monthly Review Process

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Block time at the end of each month to:

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1. Review performance across profile, content, outreach, and ads
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2. Identify 1–2 posts that performed best → repurpose them
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3. Check outreach sequences → optimize messaging based on reply quality
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4. Reallocate budget/ad spend toward top-performing campaigns
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5. Set next month’s content & outreach goals

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👉 Pro Tip: Treat LinkedIn like any other sales channel—track pipeline contribution, not just vanity metrics. The goal isn’t likes, it’s booked calls and closed revenue.

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Conclusion

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To sum up this entire guide, the best way to sell on LinkedIn in 2025 is by:

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1. Turning your LinkedIn profile into a landing page.
   
   
2. Automating daily connection requests and follow-ups to persona-based lists with short, non-salelsy messaging personalized to each niche.
   
   
3. Writing one LinkedIn post per week that’s educational, contrarian, or story-based, while replying to your comments quickly to boost engagement.
   
   
4. Calendaring 20-min. a day to execute simple processes for writing posts, tweaking outreach, nurturing leads, replying to people, and commenting.
   
   

If you consistently execute on the above, you’ll create a flywheel in under a year that spits out 30+ leads every month. These leads will book calls with you off your website, download offers in your profile, and message you in your LinkedIn inbox.

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And remember that results on LinkedIn compound every month…

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So start now and don’t stop.

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And, if you need professional help with LinkedIn lead generation, we're here for you!

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At Cleverly, Wee've helped 10,000+ clients generate leads with companies like -Amazon, Google, UBER, PayPal, Slack, Spotify & more...

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That resulted in $312 Million in Pipeline Revenue, $51.2 Million in Closed Revenue through LinkedIn Outreach.

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Interested in filling your lead pipeline in a similar way? Let's talk!

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Frequently Asked Questions

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