Boasting over a billion members around the globe, LinkedIn stands tall as the most effective and influential network for professionals to build connections. It presents value for business growth and allows business owners to identify and pitch to potential customers.
When you market yourself on LinkedIn, you can create meaningful connections and valuable affiliations that will help boost your brand, cultivate leads, and ultimately grow your business. Unlike other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, which are solely for entertainment purposes, the purpose of LinkedIn is to empower professionals from all walks of life and provide them with opportunities to expand their digital footprint.
For personal branding, LinkedIn can be a powerful platform for self-promotion. You can also showcase your talents, experiences, and interests with other professionals in similar or related professions. This proves advantageous for recruiters as they have access to a larger pool of suitable candidates who are perfect for their organization’s needs.
Leveraging LinkedIn as a powerful marketing tool is essential to expand your customer base and to boost business growth. To guide you through this process, we’ve curated 8 actionable tips to help you quickly find high-value customers and partners. Before getting into the details, though, let’s discuss how important it is for companies to create an effective presence on LinkedIn and how to set up their company page properly.
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What is LinkedIn Marketing?
To market on LinkedIn means using LinkedIn to make connections, generate leads, improve brand awareness, foster business relationships and partnerships, share content, and drive traffic to your website.
LinkedIn is far more than just a platform for job seekers. Millions of professionals rely on it daily to strengthen and grow their professional networks. But that’s not all. You can leverage LinkedIn as an effective tool to increase your business’s visibility in the marketplace. This popular social media site allows you to build relationships with individuals and other organizations, enhancing your brand and establishing long-lasting connections.
LinkedIn is the ultimate professional social platform – let it be your go-to destination for career growth, developing connections, engaging in industry conversations, and other business activities. It allows you to easily locate customers, employees, or partners with similar interests and objectives.
Importance of a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy
LinkedIn is not the place to hard-sell or market your products and services, unlike other social platforms. Spamming will be met with disdain from its members. You need to craft a unique marketing strategy for this platform. LinkedIn’s audience is totally different from other social networks, and it calls for an alternate approach to meet your desired goals.
Sprout Social recently found that businesses marketing on LinkedIn generate impressive 277% more leads than those who only market through Facebook. A survey of B2B marketers further demonstrated the overwhelming success of this platform, with 80% citing it as their go-to source for social media leads.
These statistics demonstrate the effectiveness of marketing on LinkedIn. When building a strategy for LinkedIn marketing, you need to focus on one thing: networking. It should be genuine and not forced. The goal should be to create a network of high-value contacts you can use for mutual benefit. The best way to achieve this is to share useful and interesting content.
Make sure to tailor it to your target audience’s needs. This could include blog posts, white papers, case studies, surveys, infographics, etc. You can also use LinkedIn’s Groups feature to interact with professionals in similar fields or industries. It allows you to create a direct line of communication with your customers and prospective customers.
As you make more connections, your company will become more visible on the platform, generating organic leads and improving brand awareness.
LinkedIn Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business
Here are the top 8 tips to help you get the most out of your LinkedIn marketing efforts.
Know when to use a LinkedIn Profile vs. a LinkedIn Page
Much like other social networks, a LinkedIn Profile and a LinkedIn Page each have a specific purpose. Pages are public and used primarily by businesses. Profiles are private and used by individuals. Each works with the LinkedIn algorithm, but you’ll have different tools you can leverage to grow your audience.
LinkedIn Pages can be followed instantly without having to send a connection request. This means that when LinkedIn users share your Page with their contacts, those people can follow it right away. The main advantage of having a LinkedIn company page is that you can use it to build trust, demonstrate your expertise and increase brand awareness.
LinkedIn Profiles, on the other hand, allows you to have direct conversations with anyone in your network. This works especially for consultants, those who are active in direct sales, or those who prefer an individualized business approach, as it allows them to reach out directly to their contacts.
You can also use both of these LinkedIn entities to create the ultimate marketing flow. For example, you can list your business’ LinkedIn Page as your employer on your personal Profile. That way, when visitors land on your Profile, they’ll also see your page.
Find Highly Targeted Customers and Connections
LinkedIn provides the most targeted and effective digital advertising experience available. You can use LinkedIn Ads to target individuals based on their job title, function, seniority, company size, industry, and other factors. LinkedIn Ads are an extremely effective way to reach out to new customers who are likely to be interested in your products or services.
If, for instance, you are attempting to market customer support software to smaller businesses, your campaigns can be tailored specifically towards those organizations with less than 100 employees in the US; even further refining it so that only executives within those companies who are in customer service roles will see these advertisements.
Stay on Your Customers’ Radars
Use LinkedIn to create content that customers will find useful and share with them. This could include blog posts, case studies, infographics, industry news, or updates on your product. This sharing shows customers that you care about their needs and are committed to providing the best solutions.
Take advantage of LinkedIn Groups to help promote your products and services. Join groups related to your industry and actively participate in discussions by offering helpful advice or sharing worthwhile content that will allow you to develop connections with possible customers.
Create Posts of Varying Lengths
On LinkedIn, short, impactful posts can leave a lasting impression, and just as compelling are long-form stories that draw readers in and make them linger on the app longer. For successful content strategies, you must include both types of material in your content plan.
If you’re only sharing monologues and long essays on your LinkedIn posts, not all your followers have the time to read them. Meanwhile, numerous short posts might give the impression of a lack of depth and authority in your content which can damage your reputation as an authoritative thinker.
To keep your content both engaging and pertinent to your audience, experiment with different writing lengths and include videos or images. Doing so will ensure that your readers look forward to what new goodies you have in store for them next.
Keep Your Publishing Schedule Consistent
LinkedIn is the go-to platform for having a persistent and reliable content lifespan. You don’t have to post around the clock, but you do need to stay consistent in your posting schedule. Find whatever works best for your business – whether it be daily posts or weekly ones – and stick with it for at least 30 days to determine what times are getting the most engagement from followers. Repeat this pattern as often as necessary until your network trusts your publishing habits.
Grow Your Email Marketing List
Once you’ve established yourself as a reliable source of information, you can use LinkedIn to grow your email marketing list. As we’ve mentioned, helpful, relevant content is key to success on this platform. Start by publishing insightful blog posts and open discussions, and then use the opportunity to capture emails by requesting updates or offering ebooks, whitepapers, etc.
LinkedIn is also an excellent platform for hosting webinars. You can use this platform to invite customers and prospects to your webinar, increasing the chances of more people signing up for the event.
Use Sponsored Updates and Sponsored InMail Ads
LinkedIn’s sponsored updates and sponsored InMail ads provide businesses a cost-effective way to reach an even more significant, targeted audience. These marketing tools allow you to customize your message and target specific individuals or groups. This ensures that your message is tailored specifically towards the individual’s needs, increasing their chances of engaging with your content or taking further action.
LinkedIn sponsored updates work by advertising your message in the LinkedIn news feed, allowing you to increase visibility for your brand. The sponsored InMail feature allows you to directly send an email-like message to a specific user or group of users.
By leveraging these and other LinkedIn marketing tips, you can ensure that your business gets the most out of its social media presence.
Make it Personal
People naturally desire meaningful engagements with others they can identify with and trust. Therefore, when initiating connection requests to others, make sure your message is personalized! Cut out any generic content and strive to create a highly individualized experience instead.
Make your profile stand out! Instead of crafting a mundane resume filled with bullet point accomplishments, infuse it with personality by expressing who you are and how you help people. Your headline, summary, and all other sections should reflect this sentiment to draw people in rather than lulling them into sleep with yet another dull resume.
In a Nutshell
LinkedIn is an effective platform for businesses to connect with customers, prospects, and the general public. To get the most out of it, businesses should post thoughtful content regularly and experiment with different lengths. They should also grow their email marketing list by offering ebooks and whitepapers, hosting webinars, and using sponsored updates and InMail ads to reach targeted audiences. Finally when marketing yourself on LinkedIn you should personalize connection requests and profile descriptions to create meaningful engagements with other users. By following these tips, businesses can ensure that their presence on LinkedIn is successful and impactful.
At Public Advertising Agency, we focus on helping businesses take advantage of social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Holler at us, and let’s take your social media marketing to the next level!
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