5 Tips to Steal Competitors’ Audience on LinkedIn
Sasha Bouloudnine●
June 17, 2024
●
14 min read
According to Nielsen, targeting competitors' audiences can boost brand power by up to 34%.
Though you cannot access the list of followers of a LinkedIn company.
What if I told you it's still possible?
In this article, we’ll see 5 methods to steal your competitors’ audience on LinkedIn
- Hack into your competitors’ followers
- Target competitors’ followers with LinkedIn ads
- Reach out competitors’ post commenters & likers
- Reach out to competitors’ events attendees
- Reach out to competitors’ courses students
Why loose time building an audience, when you can simply steal it out?
Method #1: Hack into your Competitors’ Followers
The first method is to use a trick to hack into all the followers of your competitors.
If these people are your competitor's followers, it is highly likely they will love your offer too. Turn your competitors’ audience into active buyers.
Please note you need a Sales Navigator account to achieve this.
The sneaky step-by-step guide:
- Step #1: Create a LinkedIn burn account
- Step #2: Subscribe for Sales Navigator Free Trial
- Step #3: Search Company page followers
- Step #4: Extract followers and get their emails
- Step #5: Followers Outreach
Step #1: Create a LinkedIn burn account
The first step is to create a new LinkedIn account, and say that you currently work at your competitor's company.
We don't recommend doing this trick with your own LinkedIn account. You will add information about the profile that is different from reality.
First, create a new LinkedIn account.
For the email address, we can recommend Proton mail: free up to 1GB of storage, and end-to-end encrypted.
Fill in the information requested from you:
- First name
- Name
- Pays
- Postal code
Are you lacking inspiration? ask ChatGPT to help you create a new identity that seems credible.
Now, this point is critical: in the part Most recent job title, add your competitor’s company.
This is what will allow us to retrieve the list of followers of our competitor on LinkedIn.
End up adding an image, and finish creating your profile.
For profile pictures you can use this website: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/. It's free, diverse, and generated by AI so royalty-free.
Let’s move to the next step.
Step #2: Subscribe for Sales Navigator Free Trial
Don't have a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account?
No problem: Sales Navigator is available for free for 30 days. We will take advantage of this offer.
From your profile page, click Try Premium for $0.
Fill in your banking information, and complete the checkout.
You will of course not be charged to the bank card: this is a bank imprint of no consequence.
And there you go!
Welcome to Sales Navigator, without spending a penny.
Finally, think about immediately cancelling your subscription, to avoid being taken by surprise once the free trial is over. No hidden fees.
Heading to the next step.
Step #3: Search Company page followers
It's time to get down to business.
Go to the Sales Navigator Leads search engine. Once on this page, select Following your company.
And there you have it: the list of 3500+ followers is displayed and publicly accessible.
But how to export these results and find the emails?
Step #4: Extract followers and get their emails
We will extract the list of followers with their professional emails with the Sales Navigator Leads Scraper from lobstr.io.
First, copy the search URL from your browser.
Next, create a Sales Navigator Leads Scraper from the lobstr.io app, add the URL and click Save then Save & Extract.
It's very simple, and you can do this in seconds.
You will export entire Sales Navigator search results in a structured CSV file.
Mails included.
With the free plan, benefit from 300 leads with emails included. It’s free, for real.
Step #5: Followers Outreach
Once you have this list, you can begin a sales prospecting campaign.
You can either send emails from your mailbox, or use a mass prospecting tool with automated marketing campaigns, such as lemlist.
What message should you send to maximize your chances?
Here is a proposed template.
Subject: %competitor% lover? Time to move on
Hi,
I noticed you follow %competitor%.
We offer a similar service with %clear advantage of your solution%.
Wanna have a try?
PS: Use code BEST for a 20% discount.
Best, Sasha
Emphasize:
- The decisive advantage of your solution
- The promotional code to increase value and create a sense of urgency
That's it for the first technique.
We will now look at the second technique, using a LinkedIn built-in advertising solution: LinkedIn Ads.
Method #2: Target competitors’ followers with LinkedIn ads
You have the list of followers of your competing company but you want to avoid intrusive cold mailing?
You can target this audience with advertising with LinkedIn Ads.
- Step #1: Create a LinkedIn Ads Manager Account
- Step #2: Upload your Competitors’ Followers Audience
- Step #3: Publish your Ad
Step #1: Create a LinkedIn Ads Manager Account
Start by creating a LinkedIn Ads account: it’s free.
Step #2: Upload your Competitors’ Followers Audience
Once connected to the LinkedIn Ads Campaign Manager, create a campaign on Advanced mode.
In Audiences, choose: List upload > Contact List.
Your list should be structured with the following columns:
- First name
- Last name
- Job Title
- Employee Company
You can modify the file retrieved previously, and upload it directly to the LinkedIn Ads Manager.
This is what the file you are going to upload looks like.
Please note, your list must contain at least 300 contacts.
Upload your file, and launch your campaign.
And there you go!
You will broadcast your ads to all of your competitors’ followers.
Furthermore, by checking the parameter Enable Audience Expansion, LinkedIn will automatically target profiles similar to your initial competitor’s audience.
This method is illustrated with the LinkedIn Ads tool, but you can do exactly the same with Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
From this first set of chosen followers, you will reach a large and relevant audience.
Step #3: Publish your Ad
Choose your promotional advertising format.
You have the following choices:
- Single image
- Carousel image
- Video: use AI-powered tools like FlexClip to make professional-quality ads fast and easily
- Text
- Spotlight: a product showcase
- Message: deliver message to your target audiences’ inbox
- Conversation
- Event
- Document
Once you have chosen the format, generate your visual advertising, for example with Canvas or with an AI image generation tool like Midjourney. And launch your campaign.
You lack inspiration?
You can also steal your competitors’ LinkedIn ads.
Visit the LinkedIn page of your competitor and click on "Posts" → "Ads.". You can see the ad type, ad links, design, and copy.
Your competitors’ audience is yours.
Steal your competitors’ customers.
So much for the second method.
We will now discuss the third method: leverage competitors’ social media activity.
Method #3: Reach out competitors’ post commenters & likers
If someone likes or comments on a post, it is because they are interested in the discussed topic.
It is relevant to target people who have liked or commented on your competitors' posts.
- Step #1: Build Competitors’ Influencers List
- Step #2: Collect User Posts
- Step #3: Extract Posts’ Commenters & Likers
- Step #4: Post Commenters & Likers Outreach
Step #1: Build Competitors’ Influencers List
First, start with building a list of influencers in your niche.
You don't know how to start?
Ask ChatGPT to generate a list for you, specifying your industry and your country.
The GPT prompt to find relevant LinkedIn influencers:
best linkedin influencers for %industry% in %country% on linkedin
The list is a bit broad, but it's a good start.
For example, in the scraping/growth SaaS USA niche, we have on LinkedIn:
fhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/dharmesh https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitenshah https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbalfour https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickccampbell https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin https://www.linkedin.com/in/steliefti https://www.linkedin.com/in/lincolnmurphy
Alternatively, to get a more targeted audience, you can:
- Search for posts by keywords with the LinkedIn search engine
- Collect your competitors from an aggregator like Capterra
A large audience has the advantage of being… large. But the acquisition cost is higher.
It's up to you to choose what suits you most based on your growth objectives and your budget.
Step #2: Collect User Posts
We have the influencers, great.
We will now fetch their LinkedIn posts with the LinkedIn User Activity Scraper from lobstr.io.
In Tasks, add the list of influencer URLs retrieved previously, and launch the scraper.
You will quickly export all influencers posts into a structured CSV, with for each post:
- Author
- Publication date
- Post URL
- Likes count
- Comments count
- Content
The post URL is critical here. We will use it now.
Step #3: Extract Posts’ Commenters & Likers
We will extract now what interests us: the list of commentators & likers of LinkedIn posts.
lobstr.io provides 2 scrapers to achieve this:
Choose one or the other depending on what you want to achieve.
Usually posts get more likers than commenters, but commenters are more committed and are possibly more promising leads. Quantity over quality. Test both to build conviction.
Add the URLs of the posts retrieved before, and launch the scraper. You can even directly upload the file previously found.
Extract the list of all profiles.
Then use the LinkedIn Profile Scraper to fetch additional information, including professional email address.
Step #4: Post Commenters & Likers Outreach
With email, you can launch a cold mailing campaign.
Be careful though, if you collect the reactions too early you won't have enough volume. On the contrary, if you extract profiles too late, your audience will have forgotten what you're talking about.
Timing is everything:
- h+0 the post is published
- h+24 you collect the commenters & likers
- h+48 you send a message
In other words, it takes 48 hours between the publication of the post and the first email sending.
Here is an idea for an outreach template.
Subject: Interested in %topic%? We get more ✨
Hi,
I noticed you did react on a %competitor post% about this %topic%.
We have a %piece of content% that might bring additional precious insights. Wanna check it out?
Best, Sasha
Rather than a commercial offer that is too direct, offer additional content less intrusive and more effective.
That's it for the third method! We will now see the 4th method: contact events lovers.
Method #4: Reach out to competitors’ events attendees
One of your (prestigious) competitors organized a LinkedIn event?
Good news, he surely spent a lot of money to build the event, spread the word, and convince participants to come...
However, on LinkedIn, the list of participants is public.
We will take advantage of it to steal the results of all this work.
- Step #1: Find Relevant LinkedIn Events
- Step #2: Scrap LinkedIn Event Attendees
- Step #3: LinkedIn Event Attendees Outreach
- Step #4: Automate Event Attendees Lead Generation Pipeline
Step #1: Find Relevant LinkedIn Events
First, let’s find events on LinkedIn.
For this you can simply use the LinkedIn search engine as following:
- Type a keyword
- Use filter Events
- Retrieve interesting events
Step #2: Scrap LinkedIn Event Attendees
First, go to the event page, and click on Attend.
Then click Networking you... tada!
The public list of all participants is available.
How to extract it?
Go to lobstr.io, and select the LinkedIn Event Attendees Scraper.
You will automatically extract all the participants from the event, with for each:
- Name
- First name
- LinkedIn URL
- Job
- Business
Step #3: LinkedIn Event Attendees Outreach
It’s time to contact the participants of this event! But how to convince them to switch in your favor?
You have two options: send them an email before or after the event.
Here's one outreach proposal before the event has taken place.
Subject: Are you also going to the %competitor% event? 👀
Hello,
I saw you were going to %event name%. Me too! 😄
How did you come across it?
Best, Sasha
Here, the goal is to send a friendly message to improve your brand awareness. People need to know you exist.
No need to force sell too soon. Build trust with potential customers first.
And a second proposal for a message sent after the event.
Subject: %event% how was it? 👀
Hello,
I saw you went to the %competitor% event.
So how was it? I was attending, but I completely forgot to go there...
Best, Sasha
And if the attendee tells you that they found the event bad?
This is a gold mine for you. Start a sales sequence.
Step #4: Automate Event Attendees Lead Generation Pipeline
Your first test is positive?
Let’s go further and completely automate the entire acquisition pipeline.
First, retrieve the URL(s) from your browser that match your LinkedIn search, for example:
fhttps://www.linkedin.com/search/results/events/?keywords=%22growth%22
Then use our LinkedIn Search Scraper:
- Extract events every 24 hours
- Newt events only
- Auto-export to a Googlesheet
Each time a new event is detected, extract the attendees, get the emails.
Finally, launch a commercial prospecting campaign by email, or directly via LinkedIn depending on whether you have the prospect's email address.
This is what @hanseflats suggests in this tweet on 01/15/2024:
Build. Automate. Scale up.
Deploy a fully automated digital marketing strategy.
Method #5: Reach out to Competitors’ Courses Students
Your competitors have created a dedicated course on LinkedIn and students love this content?
It is a clear mark of interest for your offer.
We will contact these serious students right now:
- Step #1: Find Relevant Competitors’ Courses
- Step #2: Extract Students Likers + Commenters
- Step #3: Competitors’ Course Students Outreach
Step #1: Find Relevant Competitors’ Courses
Same as before: use the LinkedIn search tool to find relevant courses.
Choose:
- A keyword e.g. "growth"
- Courses filter
- Advanced filters — Level, Subjects & Topics…
Choose the course with a name that matches your company offer.
I'm going to pick this one: Designing Growth Strategies. 2643+ likers, that’s big!
We will now see how to extract the participants from this course.
Step #2: Extract Students Likers + Commenters
Use our LinkedIn Courses Reviewers + Likers Scraper, to automatically extract all likers and reviewers frome this course
You will extract all the likers and all the reviewers of each course.
And for each profile:
- Name
- Job
- Localisation
- Email (!)
Step #3: Competitors’ Course Students Outreach
We will now send a message to introduce the student to our product.
This is an outreach proposal.
Subject: Is %course% worth it? 🧑🎓
Hello,
I saw that you took part in %course%.
How was it? I want to participate but it’s a significant time investment...
Best, Sasha
As before, we do not immediately sell our product. First, we try to create a genuine contact, before promoting our interests.
Did the student like the course?
It’s perfect: introduce him to another complementary tool, yours. And maximize your sales.
Sasha Bouloudnine Co-founder @ lobstr.io since 2019. Genuine data avid and lowercase aesthetic observer. Ensure you get the hot data you need.
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