LinkedIn has become increasingly popular in recent years. The social network from the USA is particularly interesting for companies and entrepreneurs in the B2B sector. But how do you successfully do LinkedIn marketing and reach your target audience?
In this comprehensive article, you’ll learn how to use LinkedIn to successfully market your business and build customers or business relationships through the platform.
Why LinkedIn?
Many wonder in advance why LinkedIn is currently so popular with entrepreneurs. In terms of user numbers, Facebook is still far ahead of Instagram, Snapchat and Co. Here are the top two reasons LinkedIn makes more sense.
Demographics
The first point concerns demographics. LinkedIn may not have the highest user numbers, but almost all of its users are professionally ambitious. Thus, mainly entrepreneurs, self-employed and employees with upward potential can be found on LinkedIn.
Range
The second point concerns the range. Just as with all other social networks, the reach is extremely high in the first few years. Fewer users means less content and correspondingly less censorship / filtering on the part of the platform.
With LinkedIn, it is currently still possible to achieve a very high reach with organic posts over several days. While the half-life of Facebook posts is usually only a few hours or 1-2 days at most, high-quality LinkedIn posts can appear in the contact’s feed for weeks afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwApc6lkqE
LinkedIn Marketing: TOP 10 Tips
Here is an overview of the best LinkedIn marketing methods or tips to attract new business leads or customers.
1. create company profile
After creating your own profile, be sure to create a company profile. Thus, the company can be found in organic search and added in the profile as an employer.
In addition, it is necessary to be able to place advertisements at all. More about that later.
When you create the profile, you should make sure that you add all the necessary and relevant information. The goal is that new users immediately recognize what it is all about. This also includes a meaningful banner and profile photo or logo.
2. network with target group
Since LinkedIn is a social network, you should also build and maintain your own. The more (relevant) contacts you have, the more impressions you get on your posts.
Especially in the beginning, it is recommended to make new contacts and network on a daily basis. Ideally also with a small welcome message, in which one introduces oneself and justifies the networking request. However, this process can also be automated. More on this below.
LinkedIn at least already offers very good filters here to make the search easier.
3. create & share content
Once you’re set up, it’s time to start sharing content. Content marketing is absolutely essential on any platform, and LinkedIn is no exception.
More than two-thirds of LinkedIn users describe themselves as “news junkies.” You’ll be hard pressed to find an audience so willing to consume your content. You should incorporate LinkedIn into your daily posting habits.
Multiple posts spread throughout the day will help you reach and connect with your audience. I also recommend using all the different post types available on LinkedIn. As you can see, you can write an article, share a picture or even upload a video. If you want to write a post, you will be directed to a simple publishing tool that looks like this:
You can then create a catchy headline, upload an eye-catching image, and share your knowledge on a topic. I like to recommend sharing short pieces of content with a link to a full blog post.That way, someone who reads your content and is excited will click through to find more of your helpful advice.
Or you can share something inspirational like a picture and a quote to connect with your network.Regardless of the type of content you post, Linked to Authority recommends having 5-10 published posts on your LinkedIn page to build credibility.
However, don’t post just any old content. There are more than three million long-form articles on LinkedIn. In addition, more than 100,000 articles are published on LinkedIn every week. You need to create content that stands out from the crowd and addresses the needs of your target audience. LinkedIn itself claims that it takes at least ten pieces of content to achieve a conversion. This means that you have a lot of work ahead of you.
The last thing you need to keep in mind is that your viewers need to click before they convert. So you need to remember to include action words and also create curiosity in your content. It offers basic, helpful questions that someone should have answers to for their marketing strategy. All the while telling them to read more in the blog post linked below.
You’re more likely to click on a post that piques your curiosity or makes you think.
4. interact organically
After you’ve networked and started sharing your first content, you need to interact with others. On the one hand, of course, on their own contributions. You should respond to each comment, ideally with a text response or at least react to it.
Furthermore, giving equals taking. The more you interact with others and their posts, the more you usually get back. However, it is important that this is done in an honest and authentic way. Spam or generic responses should be avoided in any case.
5. collaborations
LinkedIn has created showcase pages
created for companies to promote individual brands that are extensions of the company.
Showcase pages are the perfect way to segment your inbound LinkedIn traffic. If you can create a business section that is directly connected to a specific audience, then you are able to create a showcase page.
On your company page, click “Edit” and “Create a Showcase Page”. (Full instructions can be found here).
Showcase pages were basically designed specifically for B2Bs to better generate leads. LinkedIn writes, “It makes sense to create a Showcase page if you want to represent a brand, business unit, or corporate initiative. These sites are designed to build long-term relationships with a specific audience.”
Represent? Relationship? Audience? Sounds a lot like B2B marketing to me.
A showcase page should target a customer segment and provide information that is relevant to that segment. Your Showcase page gets a larger header image, more above-the-fold updates, and places to link to your business. In this way, it differs from corporate sites in some important ways.
This is what Microsoft’s Showcase page for Office looks like.A large company like Salesforce has multiple Showcase pages.Here are some tips on how to make your Showcase pages as powerful as possible.
Make it conversion-boosting, just like your business page.
It is important to keep the page name short so that it is not cut off in the display sidebar.
In the name of the showcase page, use a word that your target audience understands and can identify with.
Showcase pages are simply another way to cast the net a little wider and attract even more targeted leads interested in your product or service.
6. organize events
Events are great to create and market through LinkedIn. Webinars are particularly popular with companies in the B2B sector. Here one should consider value-creating topics and offer a free information webinar for this purpose.
Below is an example from our agency. We offer services in web design, web development as well as online marketing. But instead of us pitching the service directly, in our webinar we clarify what options are available in the first place and what benefits each offers. At the end of the webinar, we then link to our agency page and offer the appropriate services, with a free 1:1 upfront initial consultation.
This is advertised with ads and a special tool. More about that later.
7. LinkedIn Ads
Ads are another way to successfully market yourself on LinkedIn. Just as with Google and Facebook, new posts can be created and advertised in a similarly structured ad manger.
Again, the same structure of campaign, ad group and ad applies during creation.
In practice, advertising costs vary greatly depending on the ad format and target. For example, the CPM (Cost Per Mille / cost per thousand impressions) is relatively high. At the same time, however, the ultimate lead costs (sign up, call, purchase, download, etc…) can be much lower, as the conversion rate is in turn higher in relation to this.
A short and clear message is important here, in which a relevant problem and its solution are clearly formulated and provided with a clear CTA. The image or video should have a certain quality level and support the message convincingly visually and auditorily. The following is an example.
8. use groups
Another way you can make connections on LinkedIn is by searching for groups in your niche.
LinkedIn groups are one way you can connect and interact with like-minded professionals in your industry. It’s a place where you can go to have conversations about what’s happening in your world with the people who will appreciate it most.
And these groups have come a long way from being a jumbled mess in LinkedIn’s search results.
When you go to the group page today, you’ll be greeted by curated highlights. This is a quick look at how active your group is. You can then see which conversations have been most active in your groups and join them.
You can also discover new groups in your industry and request to join them. Once you join a group, you can have conversations with specific professionals in that circle. You can share ideas and insights or ask questions of others in your industry.
In short, you get a group of professionals with whom you can build relationships.
And free of charge.
And it’s not even hard.
It’s as simple as talking about a big project with a friend over lunch.
Start your own groups
Another cool way to generate on LinkedIn is to create groups.
If you can’t find a community for your industry, or if you want to provide a curated window for your audience to communicate about what you do, this is a good option for you.
Participating in a group helps you stand out as a leader in your industry.
And it gives you a constant pulse on what others think about your innovations.
To get started, you need to click the “Create Group” button on the “My Groups” tab.
Then you will be redirected to a fairly simple page where you will need to enter a title, logo and description for your new community.
Similar to your company page, make sure your description is short, concise, and interesting enough to generate interest.
You also need to set some rules for your group.
You need to decide if you want to set your group as the default group that will be displayed in the search results.
Or, if you want to be a little more exclusive, you can unlist your group and have an invite-only community.
Sometimes a little exclusivity can be good to give your voice that extra bit of authority.
The key in all your decisions is to position yourself as an authority.
Don’t be sales-oriented.
And also remember that this is not a competition.
You don’t want people to think you’re going to get mad and “take your toys somewhere else.”
9. LinkedIn Marketing Blog
I mentioned earlier that LinkedIn currently has half a billion users. But if you doubt the longevity of the platform, I have some advice for you.
Don’t.
LinkedIn has proven that they are not done yet. They want to reach a maximum of 3 billion users. And while that may take a while, they are building the resources to accomplish that right on their own website.
For example, the LinkedIn Marketing Blog. It is a specially curated selection of articles designed to help you improve your LinkedIn marketing.
You can get advice there on how to leverage LinkedIn’s existing toolkit. You will also be kept informed when the tools are updated and new features are released.
With a little daily reading, you’ll be able to implement new ideas that will boost your lead generation and make you look like a rock star.
10. keep at it!
One of the most important points in marketing, but especially in online marketing, is staying tuned. The more you learn about a platform and a method, the better and more successful you become over time. The same is true for LinkedIn.
In addition, it always takes time with social networks until you have achieved a corresponding reach or authority with a certain target group.
Product recommendation
One of the best ways to efficiently network with others on LinkedIn and subsequently gain customers or build business relationships is to
we-connect.io
.
It enables automated outreach to new customers and sending of messages. This can save tremendous time and money in the long run. Of course, the further course of conversation should be organic, but the first contact with we-connect.io has proven to be very successful for us.
Summary
LinkedIn is a platform which still holds a lot of potential when it comes to B2B marketing of companies. The reach you get through organic posts here is on average many times higher than on comparatively other platforms.
Thus, those who want to successfully market themselves on LinkedIn should especially focus on sharing high-quality content and organically network with others from the target group or industry. It may be a lot of manual work at first, but it pays off in the long run.
In addition, you can promote posts in a targeted manner to increase reach.
