How to Use LinkedIn for CRM: A Step-By-Step Guide

LinkedIn has a multitude of uses. From networking and building relationships with people within your industry and beyond, to searching for new talent, there’s a lot you can do with it. But there’s no place to store and organize all this information.

Fortunately, folk’s CRM system empowers users to save contact information, notes on interactions, search lists and more. It even comes with a handy Chrome extension called folkX that lets you import LinkedIn profiles with a single click.

In this step-by-step guide, we will explore how to leverage LinkedIn for CRM and maximize its potential for your business success.

What is a CRM?

CRM stands for customer relationship management.

A CRM is a powerful tool that businesses can use to manage customer relationships, streamline sales and marketing efforts, enhance customer service, and make informed business decisions.

By implementing CRM systems and adopting a customer-centric approach, businesses can improve customer satisfaction, increase customer loyalty, and drive business growth.

Naturally, this means that the CRM system you choose is vital. You’ll want something that is easy to set up without taking up too much time, and shareable with your team. That’s where folk comes in handy.

Consider what you want to use your CRM for

Depending on which business function you operate in, you may have different needs. folk happens to be a powerful and flexible CRM system that you can use in multiple ways.

On top of acting as your personal CRM, you can also use folk as a CRM to keep on top of:

You can also sync it to your Gmail, and Outlook accounts, and of course - LinkedIn. We’ll expand on how you can make the most of it for LinkedIn, below and how you can use our handy Chrome extension, folkX so you can save new contact information without leaving the page.

Ways you can use LinkedIn as CRM ft. folk

There are three predominant ways you can use folk on LinkedIn.

As a Sales CRM

If you’re in sales, you’ll want a CRM that will allow you to keep track of all the notes you take on your sales and demo calls and last interaction dates. folk does this, and more.

You can use it to group prospects into different stages of the sales cycle they’re in. Create a deal flow, visualise your sales pipeline and see your inbound leads. You’ll also be able to share these with your team so that you do not end up calling that same person twice.

As a Fundraising Tracker

If you’re a Founder about to raise their next round, you’ll want a CRM that can help you distinguish each contact by the investment round capabilities and interest, your last interaction dates and more.

folk can help you achieve this. What’s more, you’ll be able to bulk send ultra-personalized messages to your prospective investors in moments with the help of our AI feature, Magic Fields.

You’ll also be able to track campaign results so that you can understand what’s working and what needs improving.

For Talent Searches

If you’re a recruiter, you’ll want a CRM that will empower you to save your search lists directly without needing to navigate away from LinkedIn. Our handy Chrome extension folkX allows users to do exactly that.

Our CRM platform can help you visualise what stage your candidates are at, and for what role so that you can keep tabs on their progress, and the action points you need to take to ensure they get a smooth candidate experience.

What’s more, folk will allow you to sync interactions from your LinkedIn messages so that you can keep tabs on all your candidate relationships in one place.

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Now that you have an idea of how you can use folk, it’s time to show you just how easy it is to import LinkedIn profiles, manage your pipelines, follow-up and more all from one platform.

1. Import your LinkedIn contacts

There are three easy ways to download your LinkedIn contacts.

Export them as a CSV file which is useful if you have a large network.
Use our Chrome extension, folkX to save their contact information without leaving the page or;
Export the lists from custom search results.

We cover more on that, and the steps you need to take in this blog here.

Once your contacts are imported, you’ll be able to create groups to categorize your contacts by the industries and disciplines they’re in, the investment rounds they’re for, or whatever you prefer.

You can also use folk’s enrichment capability to keep fill in the gaps in your contact data..

2. Reach out to your contacts in bulk with ultra-personalized emails

If you often send bulk email campaigns, there’s a big chance you frequently find yourself having to sacrifice that personal touch in order to save time and get that task ticked off your to-do list.

This then lowers the chances of people opening your e-mail which in turn impacts your click-through rate.

Fortunately, folk’s Messages tool empowers users to personalize those emails, even if they’re being sent to multiple recipients. We’ve got more on that in this blog here.

3. Build and manage your pipelines

Good news for folks in sales (no pun intended).

You can have all your leads and prospects in one place thanks to folk’s easy-to-set-up and collaborative system. What’s more, our contact enrichment feature can help you fill in any data gaps you have and de-duplicate any contacts that may have doubled up without you noticing.

4. Follow-up like a pro

With folk, you’ll know exactly who you need to follow-up with and have access to valuable insights that you can use to nail your follow-up game.

folk’s mail merge software can help you understand how your email campaigns performed and areas you can improve. With ‘Magic Field’, our AI feature, you’ll be able to follow up and add that personal touch in moments.

Conclusion

You now know how you can unlock the full potential of LinkedIn for CRM and take your business relationships to new heights. More importantly, you know how you can do that using folk, and it’s Chrome extension folkX - so you don’t even have to leave the page to save someone’s contact details.

Start using folk today and watch your business relationships thrive. You’re welcome.

Useful links

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