By Zivko Dodovski, Founder & CEO, DoneMaker · Updated September 2026
LinkedIn groups are worth one thing in B2B lead generation, and it isn’t the thing most guides promise. Posting in a group for a month to “build authority” before you message anyone costs more time than it returns, because most groups are quiet and the people you want to reach are not reading them. What a group does give you is two useful facts about a person: they chose to join a room about a specific problem, and you are in the same room. The first is a targeting filter. The second is a true line for a connection request. That is where groups fit in an outreach funnel, at the list and the request, and nothing downstream changes. Here is how we use them, what to skip, and what a group can’t do.
What a group membership tells you
An owner who joined a group for accounting-firm owners has labelled themselves in a way a job title can’t. They told you their firm type, they told you they care about the problems that room discusses, and they did it voluntarily. That is the same kind of signal a job posting gives you, and it is used the same way: not as a list, but as a way to decide which names on the list to send to first.
It also tells you what they don’t want. Someone who joined a peer group for owners did not join it to be sold to by the members. The group is the reason to connect; it is never the place to pitch.
Where groups fit in the funnel
At the front, in the list, and in the first line of the request. Everything else is the standard sequence.
- Finding the right groups. Search for the groups your ideal clients would join, not the ones your industry hangs out in. If you sell to owner-led agencies, you want the agency-owner groups, not the marketing-professionals groups. Open the member list and check it against your ideal customer profile; a group is only useful if the members are your buyers. How the profile is built is in how to find leads on LinkedIn.
- Using membership as a filter. The members who fit the profile go into the same tracker as everyone else and get prioritized, the way a hiring signal would. They don’t get a separate campaign. If you use Sales Navigator, the group filter does this in one step; the method is in the Sales Navigator guide.
- The connection request. One true line, no pitch. “We’re both in the Agency Owners group; thought it made sense to connect” is a request that gets accepted, because it is true and it asks for nothing. “Saw your comment in the group, I help agencies with X” is a pitch with a group name in front of it.
- The messages. Message 1 goes a few days after acceptance with one value proposition and one question. Message 2 is proof, a named client. Message 3 leaves the door open. The reply is answered the same day. Sent by hand, from your own profile, at a pace a person keeps. The group changes none of this; the wording is in personalizing LinkedIn outreach messages.
What to skip
The standard groups playbook says: join a handful of groups, comment for weeks, post short articles, run polls, then connect with the people who engaged. Here is what that costs and what it returns for a B2B service owner.
It costs hours every week that could have been connection requests. It returns engagement from other people who are also in the group to sell, because in most groups those are the only members still posting. The owners you want are members, and they are silent. A poll asking “what’s your biggest outreach challenge” reaches the other outreach vendors and almost nobody else.
So skip the content rhythm, skip the polls, and skip the weeks of listening. Use the group for what it is, a labelled list of people and a true reason to connect, and put the time into the requests and the inbox.
What groups can’t do
- They can’t replace the list. Most of your ideal clients are not in any group, and the ones who are have usually forgotten they joined. The profile builds the list; the group sorts part of it.
- They can’t warm anyone up. A shared group is a fact, not a relationship. The request is still cold, and the first message still has to earn the reply.
- They can’t be run on autopilot. Tools that message every member of a group with the same line are the fastest route to a restricted profile, and the recipients can tell within a sentence. The argument is in manual vs automated LinkedIn outreach.
- They can’t be measured on their own. Track the group-sourced names in the same three numbers as the rest of the campaign: connection rate, deal opportunities, booked calls. If they accept at a better rate than the rest of the list, keep using the filter; if they don’t, drop it. The numbers are explained in measuring ROI from LinkedIn lead generation.
Should you start your own group?
Only if you’ll run it, and only for one purpose: a room where your ideal clients can talk to each other, with you as the host rather than the vendor. A group you own gives you a member list of self-selected buyers, a standing true line for the request, and a place to send prospects who want to see what you’re about before they talk to you. It costs a few minutes a day of moderation and the discipline not to pitch in it.
We run one: Client Acquisition Success Network for Business Owners. It exists for owners of accounting firms, agencies and consultancies to compare notes on getting clients. Nobody sells in it, including us, and that is the reason people stay.
How DoneMaker uses groups
The strategist builds the ideal customer profile from the client’s best clients, then checks which groups those clients belong to and uses membership as one of the filters on the list. The specialist sends the request with the shared group as its one true line, by hand, from the client’s profile, every working day, and runs the standard sequence from there. Nobody on the account posts in the groups or runs polls; the time goes into requests and the inbox. The account manager reads the group-sourced names in the same weekly numbers as everything else and keeps or drops the filter on what they show.
As of September 2026:
- Running manual LinkedIn outreach since 2018
- 58+ active client accounts, US and Canada
- Up to 40 connection requests sent per working day, by hand
- 25–30% average connection rate
- 7–11 deal opportunities per account per month
- 4–5 booked calls per account per month
- Clients: accounting, bookkeeping and CFO firms; digital, marketing and advertising agencies; coaches and consultants; B2B services with relationship-driven sales
A deal opportunity is a prospect who expresses clear interest: asks questions, opens an email exchange, or books a call.
The whole method, list to booked call, is in the LinkedIn outreach playbook.
Frequently asked questions
Do LinkedIn groups still work for B2B lead generation?
As a place to post and build an audience, rarely; most groups are quiet and the active members are other vendors. As a targeting filter and a true reason to connect, yes. Use membership to decide who to message first and what the first line says, then run the normal sequence.
How do I find LinkedIn groups my ideal clients are in?
Search for the groups your buyers would join, not your own industry’s groups, then open the member list and check it against your ideal customer profile. Sales Navigator can filter a search by group membership, which turns this into one step.
Should I post in groups before I message members?
No. Weeks of posting reach the other people posting, who are mostly there to sell. Send the request with the shared group as its one true line and let the messages earn the reply.
Can I message LinkedIn group members without connecting?
Sometimes, depending on the group’s settings, but a message to a stranger who hasn’t accepted anything reads as a pitch and gets treated like one. A request with the group as its reason, then a message after acceptance, works better and keeps the account safe.
Can I automate outreach to a LinkedIn group’s members?
You can, and it is one of the surest ways to get a profile restricted, because a group’s members all receiving the same line at once is a pattern LinkedIn watches for. On our accounts every request is chosen against the profile and sent by hand from the client’s own profile.
Want the list built, the right groups used as filters, and the outreach sent by a person every working day? Book a call; 20 minutes, and we’ll tell you honestly whether LinkedIn outreach fits your business before anything else. If you’d rather read first, here is how the service works.
