With over 830 million members worldwide, LinkedIn, launched in May 2003, has become the most trusted and successful social media platform for B2B marketing. There was a time when LinkedIn was considered a platform only for job seekers where they could connect with potential employers or for working professionals looking for career development opportunities. However, today it stands as a major network that is part of the broader social media strategy of almost every business. Generating leads, networking with other businesses and building brand awareness are just a few of its many benefits. Read on to learn more about the key factors of effective LinkedIn marketing.
Should You Use LinkedIn to Market Your Business?
LinkedIn marketing is basically a term coined for the process of using this platform to promote a business or individual by creating a page or profile. Since LinkedIn is not only the most desirable B2B social media platform but also one of the major players in content marketing, it helps to make people aware of your brand, drive traffic to your website and create new business connections. Going by business statistics, here are three interesting facts to know about this platform:
- LinkedIn is 277% more effective in lead generation than Twitter and Facebook.
- Every week 50 million people use LinkedIn to find jobs, and 6 people are hired through it every minute.
- LinkedIn drives over 46% of social traffic to B2B sites. LinkedIn is recognized as the most trusted source of content, with 98% of content marketers using the platform, specifically for B2B marketing and lead generation.
LinkedIn, if used wisely, can open up many opportunities for businesses, individuals, and marketers. Let us now look at the factors that need to be considered to get the most out of this device.
LinkedIn Marketing: 6 Factors to Consider to Make the Best Use of LinkedIn.
1. Profile optimization is the key to successful marketing.
Now, this may sound completely basic, but in reality, it is a necessary step. Bland profiles can be a pet peeve for many people. Even if it's as trivial as a good-quality profile picture, everything matters when it comes to your LinkedIn profile. It should speak for itself. So what are you waiting for?
Go and beautify your profile - if you're a business, showcase your employee's achievements or celebrate that new recruit, give your followers good coverage of how you're giving back to the community, or Highlight how your business is unique and different from others. And well, if you are an individual, then market yourself by adding your experience, relevant skills, and expertise. Also, try to make your page SEO-friendly by including important keywords and hashtags in your profile.
2. Take advantage of all LinkedIn features.
Like other platforms, LinkedIn also offers free as well as premium memberships. However, with the help of unique features like Premium Career (simplifies the job search process), Sales Navigator (useful for generating leads and clients), Recruiter Lite (for finding and hiring talent), and Premium Experience Promise One The latter is better. Business (helpful in finding business insights that will ensure business expansion) and LinkedIn learning (for honing skills and developing new ones), even the former can prove to be great marketing tools.
Through the Basic account, one can connect and interact with other users, receive unlimited Inmail messages, request and provide recommendations, save up to three searches weekly, and Similarly. like. , can receive alerts. Therefore, making the most of all these features is the roadmap to influencing marketing on LinkedIn.
3. Publish content that adds value.
LinkedIn marketing is not only about posting promotional material to boost a company's sales, but it is also about publishing content that creates awareness, and guides, inspires, or entertains audiences. Since Connections has the option to share more of your content, it serves a larger purpose which is expanding your reach.
Such engaging content will ensure that your audience is engaged and sees you as the source of all relevant information related to the industry. This will also increase the visibility of your brand and allow you to evaluate what works and what doesn't – these metrics can be easily analyzed by the amount of likes/comments/shares your post receives.
4. Involve your stakeholders.
Involving your stakeholders, such as your employees or customers, can also rev up your marketing game. Ask your employees to add the company's website to their profiles, inspire them to create and share content, and highlight their achievements. Similarly, customers may also be encouraged to share their reviews or experiences about staying connected with you. This will automatically expand the reach of your business again.
In addition, there are a lot of LinkedIn groups (designated pages allow like-minded people with shared interests or in the same industry to exchange ideas and interact with each other) where active participation is also a win-win situation for both the corporates and their employees.
5. Consistency is important.
Being consistent when posting content is just as important as publishing it in the first place. It doesn't need to happen on a daily basis, but you do need to be consistent enough for the audience to really anticipate your posts, whether it's once a week or multiple times. On top of this, it will show your connections that you are active and practically 'one email away' as many customers may prefer to reach through social media. Thus, make sure you post regularly to gently remind the audience of your active presence. And here's a tip - post at least once per day, if not more, especially during working days, preferably in the morning.
6. Try different methods.
Use LinkedIn Boosting to enhance your content which will further expand your reach. You can promote a post if you are launching a new product or if a big corporate event is in line. It can certainly increase engagement. Another approach could be through LinkedIn ads - this targets the audience directly, and you don't actually need to wait for them to reach you; In fact, you go to them. This is a great way to generate leads.
Similarly, showcase pages on your main page are more like subpages, where you can highlight a specific event, product, or service. Plus, becoming familiar with LinkedIn reporting tools can help you measure conversions, analyze performance, understand audiences, and track large opportunities. If that's not your cup of tea, hire an expert to do it for you. Try to make the most of this world's largest professional network.
Ground level
It is clear that LinkedIn marketing should be a strategic priority for all businesses, and it would be a very important thing to miss out on the opportunities it offers due to the unavailability of time or resources. Considering the above factors, this work can be easily outsourced to take advantage of this platform.