How Should We Be Using LinkedIn For Marketing?

This article will tell you how you should be using LinkedIn for marketing.

LinkedIn Marketing

Understanding LinkedIn Marketing

Notoriously known for being a professional network, some do not recognize that LinkedIn can be an essential tool in marketing your company. 

LinkedIn marketing is the process of using LinkedIn to advertise products/services, expand social networks, and generate sales. The endless amount of media approaches combined with accessible tools are beneficial to any company — regardless of type or size. 

Who Benefits from LinkedIn Marketing?

Generally, small businesses and B2B businesses thrive the most from marketing on LinkedIn.They’re all tied by this very LinkedIn-specific trait: the audience.

Unlike other marketing platforms, LinkedIn is filled with people interested in the world of business. Ranging from employee prospects to established companies, marketing would be garnered to professionals already on the site.

The social media platform is already used by 97% of B2B marketers; not to mention, there are an estimated 121 million users using LinkedIn everyday. 

Seventy-two percent of these users have some college to a full degree’s worth of education. 

With such a large pool of people, you can freely narrow down those to connect and build relationships with. In conjunction with the networking opportunities, LinkedIn also provides integrated advertising tools. 

Understanding LinkedIn Marketing

Using LinkedIn for Businesses 

Small Businesses

For smaller businesses, LinkedIn can be a baby step into the media world.  

A company profile, in itself, is a subtle but smooth way to advertise. It’s even free! But creating these fundamentals should not be overlooked. When people Google your business, the comprehensive intro page establishes legitimacy for newcomers. The stronger the page, the more your business comes off as well-rounded. 

Whether your business is hiring or networking, an established, diverse pool of work experiences are now at your fingertips. These resources won’t have been as widely accessible without an online application as unique as LinkedIn. 

B2B Businesses 

Backed by prominent statistics, B2B businesses have great success with LinkedIn marketing

Of the 92% of B2B marketers who share their content, 80% receive B2B leads. 

Hubspot even reports LinkedIn is 277% more effective than other popular social media platforms like as Facebook and Twitter in marketing. 

The success rates come from similar reasons to why LinkedIn is so useful to small businesses. Your business can come face to face with another business and directly connect. 

In the B2B context, retailers can easily find wholesalers for their products. The social media platform is just another way to create brand awareness. 

LinkedIn For Business

B2C Businesses

While it isn’t as popular, B2C businesses can still use LinkedIn to its advantage. The biggest difference to their B2B business counterpart is in the targeted audience — as given in their business type. 

There are individual professionals on the platform. If we take a look at LinkedIn demographics, we see many users from all types of backgrounds. 27% of LinkedIn users are 26 to 35 years old. In the same article, Hootsuite claims the same age bracket is the “LinkedIn’s advertising audience’s biggest cohort.” 

LinkedIn Marketing Strategies 

While it might seem intimidating, there’s an endless amount of marketing strategies to choose from. The art is in what your business decides to work with. 

Advertising Options 

If you’re starting off from the very beginning with LinkedIn advertising, don’t worry. Here are some advertising options:  

  • Sponsored Content: While the medium can range, content gets promoted onto your target audience’s feed. Based on size alone, the posts are more noticeable. Viewers can be more inclined to further engage with your profile as an after effect. 
  • Text Ads: Subtle word messages can be found on the side of the site. Because they’re smaller, text ads are much quicker to make. In comparison, they’re less intrusive than sponsored content yet still get the job done. 
  • Inmail Ads: Direct messaging sent to the masses. This usually isn’t an option on strictly marketing platforms. However, inmail ads offer a seemingly more private and personal approach in getting someone’s attention
  • Dynamic ads: Whatever you may use it for, these ads are specifically personalized to its target audience. Your profile will be shown side-to-side with the prospect’s profile with an appropriate text. This tool can be adjusted to either focus on building brand awareness, leads, or conversions. 

After considering the ad options, pay accordingly to your budget and liking.

In conjunction with LinkedIn’s provided ad tools, there are even more general marketing tactics!

LinkedIn Marketing Strategies

Lead Generation 

A lead is any person who is interested in your products or services. The term encapsulates any prospects: employees, consumers, B2B businesses. To generate more leads means to increase public interest from outside of your established circle. The reason why leads are so significant is because leads can lead to sales. If a business sway strangers into being interested in their products, they are now in a much better position to acquire them as customers.

Another common way to generate leads leads is to directly contact people. You can start by reconnecting with former clients and building up your connections list. Afterwards, you can create a list of potential clients and reach out to them. Just keep in mind that these interactions should not be random and brief; know the reason why you’re contacting a certain prospect. Otherwise, you’d be doing a cold call, which is a different strategy.

Content Creation

Information that can come in different mediums such as presenting a  blog post, posting a video, sharing other people’s content, holding contests, starting newsletters, opening up advice columns, etc. No matter which content creation route you choose, it has an opportunity to increase click-rate engagement to both your overall page. Entrepreneur reports that for the best results, use shorter videos, maintain lengthier texts, and stimulate audience engagement. The content even has the chance to go viral among different LinkedIn communities. 

Inbound Marketing

Traditionally, ads are pushed out to the general public in hopes that someone is interested. This strategy is called outbound marketing. While it can be effective to a certain extent, inbound marketing is much more used on LinkedIn. Inbound marketing is a strategy where businesses deliberately tailors content and products to the customers. While it is more tedious and timely, customers tend to be more responsive. 

SEO

The logic is simple: the more the search engine is optimized, the more your company will have digital visibility when searched. As a result, more eyes will be on your pages. The previously mentioned marketing strategies contribute to your LinkedIn profile being optimized. Another general tip is to make your profile keyword dense, actively participate in groups, and to also give endorsements.  

Joining LinkedIn Groups

Because of the accessible networking options, you can also join groups of other businesses in the same industry and target audience. The steps are as followed: search up related-keywords or well-known groups in the search bar and request to join. In these mini communities, you can learn what other businesses are talking about and how they adapt to current events. 

Communicating in LinkedIn Groups

There’s also other special advantages in being in a group based on your similar niches. There’s the perk of asking for advice and seeking guidance. Additionally, these connections can lead to endorsements which would help with sales. While endorsements can come in very different forms, businesses can add showcase pages that display affiliated entities or brands. 

Creating LinkedIn Groups

You can also create your own group! Under the LinkedIn groups page, create a new group, enter the required logistics, adjust the settings, and you’re done. Similarly to the benefits in joining LinkedIn groups, creating one is another way to seek clients. In this strategy, you create LinkedIn groups based on consumers who are already interested in your service. From there, new opportunities to market open up. For example, special offers can be released to these prospects for immediate feedback. You can also personalized exclusive content where you see fit within the conversation. 

LinkedIn Marketing Benefits

Final thoughts

At the end of the day, LinkedIn’s versatility and resources will only be as helpful if used correctly. Conjoined with these tips for social media success, LinkedIn will always be here as a powerful tool. 

Whatever your endeavors are with LinkedIn, just in keep in mind this recap:

  • Growing your social network – Go beyond just connecting with colleagues and following companies. Start more in-depth conversations within established groups or someone in the same field. Remember that potential clients, customers, experts, and other businesses — small and large — are one click away on the platform. 
  • Strengthening the “little” things – Creating and publishing content can be taken for granted. Finishing your company’s profile and adding faces to your company can also be overlooked. While the work may be tedious, they will be the foundation that your LinkedIn presence will be built on. So make sure to refine the fundamentals before expanding. 
  • Starting to advertise – Sometimes the hardest step is the first one you take. Despite this initial challenge, LinkedIn offers simple steps in hitting the ground running. Afterwards, you can implement more challenging marketing strategies, as the ones previously mentioned. 

SEO Design Chicago and LinkedIn Ads:

Whether you need a full service agency to show you how to advertise on LinkedIn , or just guidance on placing your own Linkedin Ads, let SEO Design Chicago help! Contact us today.

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