Find Prospects in LinkedIn Groups

You are looking to expand your network and generate qualified leads, but the Trade shows and professional events are becoming rare ?

The solution can be found on LinkedIn!

Thanks to the discussion groups, you will be able to identify relevant prospects in your sector and approach them easily.

Ready to turn LinkedIn into a lead machine?

Let's get started.

Why Prospecting via LinkedIn Groups?

Before getting started, let's recall the advantages of this approach:

Target your audience precisely

By joining groups specialized in your field, you are sure to reach profiles in line with your target audience. No more looking for a needle in a haystack!

Establish a climate of trust

Belonging to the same group creates a sense of closeness with other members. Your contact will be perceived as more natural and caring.

Maximize your response rates

With a personalized message that refers to the group, your chances of getting a response will be multiplied compared to a cold approach.

And the icing on the cake, LinkedIn is the social network with the highest conversion rate. A strong argument for fully investing in it!

Step-by-Step Detailed Guide

Step 1: Create your Phantombuster Account

First and foremost, you'll need a Phantombuster account to automate lead extraction.

Here's how to do it:

• Go on phantombuster.com and click on “Start Free Trial”
• Fill out the form with your email and a password
• Confirm your registration by clicking on the link received by email
• Sign in to your new account

Phantombuster offers a 14-day free trial, giving you time to test its potential. Beyond that, you will have to upgrade to a paid version (starting at $30/month).

Step 2: Identify the right groups

Look for relevant and active groups

• Type keywords related to your business in the LinkedIn search bar
• Filter results by”Groups“
• Review the suggestions and check them one by one

In particular, look at:

• Group size: choose those with less than 2500 members to avoid diluting your presence
• The frequency of publications: it must be sufficiently high, a sign of an involved community. But not too much either, otherwise you will drown.
• The quality of the exchanges: make sure that the discussions correspond to your target and bring value. Avoid overly promotional groups.

Join selected groups

• Click “Ask to Join” on the group page
• Wait until an administrator approves your request
• Once a member, explore discussions and find the most active profiles

Note that you will only be able to retrieve group data with Phantombuster once your membership has been approved. So anticipate this step!

Step 3: Extract Profiles with Phantombuster

You are now a member of golden groups. It's time to extract leads! Phantombuster is used for this.

Install the Phantombuster Chrome Extension

• Create an account on phantombuster.com
• Add the Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store

It will allow you to connect to LinkedIn automatically without going through the developer options.

Set up the Phantom

Once connected to your Phantombuster account, it's time to set up the Phantom that will extract members from the targeted LinkedIn group. Here's how to do it step by step:

1. In the menu on the left, click on the icon”Phantoms“then choose”LinkedIn“in the list of social networks.
2. In the search bar at the top left, type”LinkedIn Group Members“and click on”Use this Phantom“on the corresponding sheet

3. You are taken to the Phantom configuration page. In the field”Session Cookie“, paste the session cookie you copied earlier using the Chrome extension. Click on”Verify“then”Save“once the verification is successful.
4. In the field”Group URL“, copy and paste the URL of the LinkedIn group from which you want to extract the members. Make sure you are a member of this group otherwise the Phantom will not be able to work.
5. Scroll down to the” sectionFilename“and give your CSV file an explicit name (for example the name of the target group). If necessary, fill in a file at the same level in”Folder“.
6. Just above, in the zone”Number of members to scrape per group“, indicate the number of profiles to be extracted. The free version is limited to 500, but you can do several extractions in a row.

Copy this URL into the empty field”Groups to Scrape”:

7. Leave all other settings as defaults. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save” to save your configuration.
8. Back on the Phantom page, click on the “Launch” button to start the extraction. The status will change to “Running.”

9. Wait a few minutes while Phantombuster visits members' profiles and retrieves public information. You can follow the progress live on the right side of the screen.
10. Once the extraction is complete, click on”Download CSV“to download the recovered profiles file.

Congratulations, you have your first list of prospects!

With these detailed steps, you should be able to easily set up Phantom LinkedIn Group Members, even if you're new to Phantombuster.

Do not hesitate to repeat the operation on different groups according to your targets, so you will have several pools of qualified prospects to contact!

Get data in Google Sheet

Copy the button in the middle of the image below:

Then now go to Google Sheet to retrieve this data.

We're going to use a very useful Google Sheet import function to “connect” the Phantombuster CSV data to our Google Sheet.

Once completed, Google Sheet will automatically import data into your sheet like this:

Step 4: Qualify Prospects

Now the sorting can begin!

Here are the criteria to look for in order to identify the cream of prospects:

• 🏢 Business : Does the prospect work in a company that corresponds to your target audience? Are its size and business sector consistent with your ideal persona?
• 💼 Post : Is his role in the company in line with your offer? Is he a decision-maker on your subject?
• 🗣️ Activity : Is he active in the group? Do his interventions indicate an interest in your field?
• 🔗 Connection : Do you have any contacts in common? Similar experiences or training? It's a plus for creating a link!

Focus on the nuggets that tick all the boxes and move on to the next step!

Step 5: Start the conversation

Now that you have a list of qualified prospects, it's time to contact them.

But there's no question of spamming! To maximize your chances, focus on personalization.

Send a custom connection request

• Refer to the group you have in common
• Explain why their profile caught your attention
• Invite them to discuss a topic that interests them

Hey {first_name}.
I saw that you were also a member of the Growth-Hacking France group.
I would love to connect with someone who is like-minded to see if it is possible to collaborate 🙂.

With this personal and caring approach, you can start a relationship of trust.

Restart after a few days

If you don't get a response after 3-4 days or if the person agreed without saying a word, follow up with a short and friendly message.

• Remind yourself of the first message
• Reiterate your interest in talking with the lead
• Ask an open-ended question to encourage them to respond

Here is an example:

{first_name}.
Thanks for the connection 🙂!
It's great to meet other growth hacking enthusiasts.
What are your biggest successes in growth hacking recently?
Looking forward to reading you,
Stephen

You can even prepare a series of messages to be sent automatically via Phantombuster for easy follow-up!

Make the relationship grow

Once contact is established, maintain the relationship by checking in regularly or sharing content that may be of interest to them.

Gradually, focus the discussion on your offer by showing how it can meet their needs. But always keep a targeted approach when it comes to help and advice.

This is how you will transform your prospects into customers!

Step 6: Retrieve members' emails (Optional)

If you want to go even further in your prospecting, you can use a Flow to not only extract the profiles of members of a group as we have seen, but also find their professional email addresses.

The “LinkedIn Group Members to Emails” Flow automates the whole process in a few steps:

1. Log in to your LinkedIn account by providing your session cookie.
2. Enter the URLs of the targeted LinkedIn groups.
3. Start Flow and let it run automatically to retrieve emails.
4. Get the complete list of profiles and emails in a spreadsheet file.

The advantage of a Flow is that it works entirely in the cloud.

You can launch it and get the results later, without having to leave your computer on. A real gain in time and efficiency!

To get the most out of this LinkedIn email extractor, be sure to:

• 🎯 Target your leads well by choosing groups that are really relevant to your business. Your recipients will thus be more receptive to your messages.
• 📩 Know your audience to create content that will catch their attention. Keep in mind the groups where they come from to be as relevant as possible.

With a base of highly qualified prospects and their professional emails, you put all the chances on your side for successful prospecting. All you have to do is prepare a personalized emailing campaign and that's it!

FAQs

Do you absolutely have to use a tool like Phantombuster?

No, you can do the work manually very well if you have the time. But automating the process will save you precious hours and allow you to multiply your actions.

Is this prospecting technique considered spam?

It all depends on your approach! If your messages are personalized, provide value, and seek to establish a real dialogue, there is nothing intrusive about it. The key is to be authentic and relevant.

How long does it take to prospect on LinkedIn groups?

The initial setup time is pretty fast, especially with Phantombuster. Then, allow a few hours per week to analyze profiles, personalize your messages and follow up with your prospects. But the benefits are worth it!

Conclusion

LinkedIn is full of prospects relevant to your business, and discussion groups are by far the best way to find them!

By targeting active and qualified communities in your field, you are laying the foundations for highly effective prospecting. And with a tool like Phantombuster, you can easily industrialize the process.

More than engaging in a personalized conversation to bring out the best opportunities. With a bit of follow-up and commercial know-how, you will transform this pool into customers.

So get started, join groups and start prospecting!