How Manufacturing Companies Can Use Salesforce-LinkedIn Integration to Build Targeted Account Lists
When Lawrence, a digital marketing manager, joined his company's marketing team, he faced a common challenge: their LinkedIn advertising was focused purely on awareness, but they needed to shift towards targeted lead generation. During a consultation about integrating Salesforce with LinkedIn, he asked a question that many manufacturing marketers struggle with: "Say we've got a load of leads, and we just want to get the leads that are from the manufacturing industry... How do we create that list in LinkedIn ads?"
The answer revealed a powerful automation strategy that manufacturing companies can use to transform their B2B marketing efforts.
The Manufacturing Marketer's Challenge
Manufacturing companies often serve multiple industries, making it crucial to segment and target their marketing efforts effectively. The traditional approach involves manually exporting leads from Salesforce, sorting them by industry, and then uploading these lists to LinkedIn - a time-consuming process that can delay campaign launches and reduce marketing agility.
Automating Industry-Specific Audience Building
The solution lies in creating an automated bridge between your CRM and advertising platform. As the integration expert explained to Lawrence, "When the lead comes in, then we use a filter and say, 'Hey, if this lead contains manufacturing, then send this to LinkedIn, if it doesn't, then don't do anything.'"
This automated approach offers several key advantages:
- Real-Time Audience Updates: New manufacturing leads are automatically added to your LinkedIn audience as soon as they enter Salesforce
- Reduced Manual Work: No more spreadsheet exports and manual uploads
- Improved Targeting Accuracy: Automated filtering ensures consistent industry categorization
- Better Campaign Timing: Launch industry-specific campaigns faster with pre-populated audiences
Setting Up Your Integration
To implement this system, you'll need:
- A clear industry classification system in Salesforce
- An automation tool like Zapier to connect your systems
- LinkedIn Conversion API access
- Defined conversion tracking rules
The workflow typically follows this pattern:
- New lead enters Salesforce
- Automation checks the industry field
- If tagged as manufacturing, the lead is automatically sent to LinkedIn
- Lead is added to your target account list
- LinkedIn campaigns can immediately begin targeting this contact
Best Practices for Manufacturing Companies
- Standardize Industry Classifications
- Use consistent industry tags in Salesforce
- Create clear hierarchies for sub-industries
- Regular audit of industry classifications
- Optimize Your Automation
- Set up proper error handling
- Monitor automation tasks usage
- Regular verification of data flow
- Campaign Structure
- Create industry-specific campaign templates
- Develop targeted content for manufacturing segments
- Set up proper conversion tracking
Measuring Success
Track these key metrics to ensure your integration is delivering value:
- Time saved vs. manual list building
- Audience growth rate by industry
- Campaign performance by industry segment
- Lead quality metrics
Looking Ahead
As one integration expert noted during Lawrence's consultation, "It works both ways... if we get a lead through LinkedIn, it will push it into Salesforce." This bi-directional sync ensures your sales team always has the most current information about your manufacturing prospects.
By automating your audience building process, manufacturing companies can focus more on creating compelling campaigns and less on manual data management. The result? More efficient lead generation and better-targeted advertising campaigns for your manufacturing audience.
