The ultimate guide to building an audience on LinkedIn filled with your ideal customers

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Takeaways

In this article, you’ll learn how to:

How to find your perfect LinkedIn prospects with Sales Navigator

The exact filters you need to create a high-quality lead list

How many LinkedIn connection requests you should send per day and week

How to use enrichment tools like Apollo to qualify your leads

Ways to warm your network so people actually respond to your outreach

Reading time: 10 minutes

Why most LinkedIn strategies fail

If you're anything like me, you’ve spent way too much time sending connection requests to anyone who looked half-interested. The result was always disappointing. Your posts got ignored, your messages got ghosted, and building your network felt impossible.

The problem wasn’t LinkedIn. It was targeting the wrong people—or worse, having no clear targeting at all. Building an audience of random connections won’t fill your calendar with sales calls. To make LinkedIn work, you need to be extremely clear about who you're connecting with.

Here's the truth. If your network isn't filled with ideal clients, you'll always struggle to make sales from LinkedIn.

But there is a better way.

How to find your ideal clients on LinkedIn using Sales Navigator

You probably already know Sales Navigator exists, but chances are you’re not using it to its full potential. Sales Navigator lets you find people based on super-specific details without paying for ads.

Here's what makes it different. If you tried targeting 35-year-old moms in London who love roller skating through Facebook Ads, you could do it easily—but it would cost money every single day. Sales Navigator gives you similar targeting power organically.

You can reach extremely specific audiences on LinkedIn, but with one limitation. You’re restricted by how many connection requests you can send per week. Here's how it breaks down.

When you start, you’re limited to 100 connection requests per week.

After consistent activity, it goes up to about 150.

The absolute maximum LinkedIn allows is 200 connections per week.

To get the best results, I recommend sending around 20-30 connection requests per day. That keeps your weekly total safely under LinkedIn’s limits while still giving you a steady stream of new connections.

Building your ideal lead list step by step

The secret to success on LinkedIn is building a high-quality lead list. Here's exactly how you do it.

Step 1. Getting specific about company size and type

First, filter your prospects by company size. For smaller businesses or solo founders, choose companies with 1-10 employees or self-employed. If you're targeting larger businesses, go for 50-200 or even 500+.

I focus on privately held companies, self-employed, or sole proprietors. This weeds out large corporations that probably won’t buy my services.

Step 2. Getting the job titles right

Your ideal clients probably call themselves different things. If you target founders, include these titles.

Founder

Co-founder

Owner

Managing Director

Skip irrelevant titles like Chief Operating Officer unless they're exactly who you need. Stay specific.

Step 3. How many years in business matters

Experience often correlates to budget size. For higher-ticket services, target founders who've run their business between 3 to 10 years. They’re usually stable enough financially to afford your rates.

Step 4. Location and language settings

Focus on one or two key locations where most of your best clients live. Don’t dilute your efforts across multiple geographies. Also, set the profile language filter to English or whatever language your ideal client speaks.

Step 5. Industry targeting

Pick 3-5 industries that match your ideal client profile. If you're targeting marketing agencies, add marketing and advertising services. Keep it tight.

After you've done these steps, your ideal lead list should have between 5,000 and 10,000 prospects. Any fewer means your criteria is too strict. Any more means it's too broad.

Understanding when and how to use other Sales Navigator filters

You might have noticed other filters in Sales Navigator. They're not always necessary, but sometimes they can help narrow your search further. Here’s exactly when and how to use them.

Function filter

I recommend leaving this blank. People can have very different job functions even if their title is similar. For instance, appointment setters might list themselves under business development, marketing, or sales. Using this filter could accidentally exclude your ideal clients.

Seniority level filter

This one gets tricky. A Director in a small company (1-10 employees) is not the same as a Director in a 1,000-person corporation. Generally, leave this filter off to avoid confusion unless you're specifically targeting a certain seniority level in larger organizations.

Past job title filter

You typically won't need this unless you're targeting specific roles people held previously. It's best to leave it blank unless your service directly relates to someone's previous role.

Groups filter

LinkedIn groups aren’t very active. Only use this as a last resort if you specifically want people interested in certain niche topics. Otherwise, leave it empty.

School filter

Recruiters sometimes use this. For most sales and marketing purposes, it's irrelevant. Unless your service specifically targets alumni from certain universities, skip this filter.

Connections of filter

This helps you find people connected to someone influential. If you're targeting connections of a well-known industry figure, this is valuable. Otherwise, it's usually unnecessary.

Past colleague and shared experiences filters

These filters find people who worked at the same companies or went to the same schools as you. Unless your strategy specifically involves tapping into shared experiences, skip these filters. They rarely produce strong leads.

Mentioned in news filter

This significantly reduces your lead list. Only useful if your service is directly tied to media coverage or recent news. Otherwise, it’s best to leave it unused.

Workflow options

Sales Navigator has several workflow-related filters like "People you interacted with," "Account lists," or "Persona." These require setup beforehand and typically overlap with existing filters. Unless you already have these built out, don't use them. They're usually unnecessary complexity.

Naming and saving your searches clearly

When you save your searches, label them clearly so you can easily remember and manage them later. For example, something specific like "US | Marketing Leads | Tech" works perfectly. As you build multiple lead lists, clear naming helps you stay organized.

Always save your searches with clear names. This makes it easy to come back and track your connections.

How to enrich your LinkedIn prospects using Apollo (other tools)

Sales Navigator is fantastic, but combining it with Apollo can take your targeting to a whole new level.

Apollo helps you verify email addresses, phone numbers, job roles, and even recent job changes. This helps you warm up your prospects more effectively.

Here’s how I combine Apollo with LinkedIn.

Export your LinkedIn lead list and import it into Apollo.

Apollo will enrich your data, giving you verified emails, company sizes, recent job changes, and more detailed contact info.

You can then sort your list further, focusing your outreach efforts only on prospects who match your ideal client profile closely.

This extra step ensures you’re not wasting valuable LinkedIn connection requests. It boosts your success rate dramatically because your outreach becomes highly targeted and personalized.

Turning your connections into warm leads through strategic outreach

Once your network is growing with ideal clients, don’t just send connection requests and hope for the best. You need to warm up your audience strategically.

Here’s what I recommend.

Send 20-30 personalized connection requests per day, 5 days a week.

Spend about 20-30 minutes daily engaging with your ideal client's LinkedIn posts. This could be liking, commenting, or sharing their content.

Send a personalized thank-you message within 24 hours of accepting your request. Keep it short, natural, and conversational.

Consistently post relevant content at least three times per week. The goal is to build trust and visibility, not to sell directly.

By being genuinely helpful and visible, your connections start recognizing you. So when you finally message them to schedule a call, they already know who you are. They trust you. This is the key to converting LinkedIn connections into paying clients.

The exact numbers you should follow for consistent results

Here’s a realistic daily LinkedIn workflow that works.

20-30 new connection requests every weekday

20-30 personalized follow-up messages every day (from previous connections)

15-20 minutes commenting on relevant posts

3 valuable content posts each week

Consistently following these numbers will rapidly build a LinkedIn audience of ideal prospects who know you, trust you, and eventually buy from you.

Common mistakes to avoid

Sending random connection requests with no clear targeting

Exceeding LinkedIn’s daily or weekly connection limits (this can restrict your account)

Neglecting engagement—don’t just connect and ghost. Engage daily.

Ignoring data enrichment—tools like Apollo are essential for effective follow-ups

Final thoughts on building your ideal LinkedIn audience

If you follow everything in this guide, you’ll create a LinkedIn network filled exclusively with potential buyers who genuinely need your product or service.

Remember, the ultimate goal is not just a large network. It’s a valuable, responsive audience. Every connection you make should move you closer to your business goals.

If you’ve struggled with LinkedIn in the past, try this targeted, structured approach. It’s how I turned my LinkedIn profile into my strongest sales channel—and I know it can do the same for you.

Whenever you’re ready, here are two ways I can help you:

I can handle your LinkedIn for you: You’re busy. I get it. That’s why we take LinkedIn off your plate entirely. From creating content to managing outreach, we drive visibility, build authority, and fill your pipeline with qualified opportunities, so you can focus on growing your business. Here’s my Calendly.

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