While initially popular as a portal where people could display their skills and find better job opportunities, over time LinkedIn has become much more. Today, LinkedIn has more than 830 million users across over 200 countries, and is the largest professional networking platform of its kind. Job seekers aren’t the only people using LinkedIn anymore. This makes LinkedIn an absolutely essential platform for your brand when it comes to marketing to professionals.
LinkedIn marketing involves using the platform to grow your brand awareness and build long- lasting business partnerships. The platform manages to generate leads 277% more effectively than either Twitter or Facebook. LinkedIn marketing has now become an integral part of many digital marketing services and has proven very effective in growing your professional network.
In LinkedIn, the primary difference between a Page and a Profile is the amount of privacy afforded. Pages are public and generally used by businesses. Users can follow LinkedIn Pages without having to send a connection request and then wait for approval. A page will let you promote your brand as a unique entity, separated from your personal profile. When a user shares content you have posted, it will introduce their own connections to your page and all its content as well. This means LinkedIn Pages have genuine potential for a high reach and engagement.
On the other hand, the purpose of LinkedIn Profiles is different. They are primarily used by individuals, and while they can be followed too, what makes them different is the ability to have private one-on-one conversations with connections. Anyone on LinkedIn can request to connect with you, making them a valuable addition to your professional network. If you work in direct sales, or are a consultant, or simply like to take a personalized approach to your business, then this tactic can be very useful for you.
Today, content marketing is an important part of any digital marketing strategy. LinkedIn’s content platform is effectively allowing businesses to engage with each other and share data in a professional context. It can be a great way to grab your followers’ attention as well keeps them engaged in your brand.
A number of businesses with great content lose out on exposure simply because they forget to post on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has become well-known as a platform with one of the longest content lifespan. If you have a company blog, remember to either share the links on LinkedIn, or repurpose the content for posting on LinkedIn. This can be applicable for any type of content, whether it’s a press release, an overview of new services, or even longer story-like posts.
Quick, short, and bold posts manage to grab attention and are effective on LinkedIn. At the same time, long form stories from life are also popular here, capturing the attention of a lot of readers, and might even lead to them researching more about you, your company, and your services. You should make sure you incorporate both these kinds of posts into your content for best effect. Now that LinkedIn also has native video support, make sure you also share your own videos directly to the platform for maximum views and brand exposure.
LinkedIn is an up-and-coming force in the world of social media advertising and marketing for B2Bs. This means there is now enormous potential for conversions through LinkedIn Ads. With the help of LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences Tool, you can now retarget visitors who have previously been to your website. Like on Facebook, you can also pay to reach wider audiences. In the B2B arena particularly, leads generated through LinkedIn have much better chances of fitting your sales funnel. LinkedIn Ads also provides you the option of adding emails to target ads. With the help of LinkedIn Ads and the Matched Audiences Tool, you can always be sure of whom exactly you are advertising to.
InMail messages is a premium LinkedIn feature that you can use to directly message other users that you aren’t connected to. While not free, it is a must have tool when it comes to LinkedIn marketing. Not only can you directly reach any user on LinkedIn at any time, you’re not limited to how many people you can connect with within a time-frame either. The average InMail has a 10-25% response rate, which is significantly greater than your average emails. They also include analytics, which you can use to make ad spend decisions and tactics.
What LinkedIn primarily tries to provide you is a professional network. As such, make sure you engage and participate in the network rather than just try to sell. Research on your potential customers’ wants and needs. Make sure you can provide some sort of value to them before actually reaching out and trying to build a relationship. If you can’t personally answer someone’s queries, guide them in the right direction and connect them to someone else within your network who can help.
LinkedIn groups are an often overlooked feature. Not only are specific groups in various industries and niches great places to research about clients, they are also excellent places to actually engage with a number of people. As you actively participate in the conversation, your recognition and credibility as a brand grows among potential employees, clients, leads, business partners, and more.
LinkedIn is often underutilized as a platform for marketing. However, what makes it so useful is that it doubles up as a social networking platform and a job listing portal. This means you have lots of different kinds of prospective audiences waiting on LinkedIn to help you grow your business.
LinkedIn marketing is very nuanced and multi-faceted. Keeping up with the latest trends on LinkedIn is an absolute must for relevant content and successful marketing on the platform, and the LinkedIn Marketing Blog is a great place to start. Here, you can find quality posts on a large curated range of topics which can help you market much more effectively. The blog will also always keep you up-to-date on the latest updates and features, and help you understand the platform and its nuances much better. Another great resource that LinkedIn themselves offer is the Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn, which provides all the knowledge a marketer needs to get started on LinkedIn and get the best value for their brand. With these points in mind, you should be able to easily create an effective LinkedIn marketing campaign that will easily boost leads as well as conversions.
