How Can LinkedIn Marketing Help My Business?

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What Exactly Is LinkedIn Marketing?

LinkedIn is a social platform where you can connect to other users and build relationships. You can use it to find potential business partners, employees, and even customers. You can also expose your brand to the public and possible leads on the platform.

LinkedIn marketing is very similar to traditional digital marketing and social media marketing. The only difference is that this platform specifically focuses on business-related topics. Unlike Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, LinkedIn is more professional and offers more opportunities for businesses.

Why Should I Utilize LinkedIn Marketing?

Again, selling, connecting with professionals, and marketing your products and services are the main functions of LinkedIn. However, it’s important to be specific in your approach to marketing your brand since LinkedIn consists of different audiences.

According to HubSpot, businesses that integrate their social media strategies with LinkedIn have the highest visitor-to-conversion rate. While Facebook and Twitter have .77 percent and .69 percent, LinkedIn conversions come in at 2.74 percent — 277 percent higher than the other two combined. B2B marketers also said that a whopping 80 percent of their social media leads are from LinkedIn.

Setting Up Your Business LinkedIn Page

Moving forward, let's talk about how you can start using LinkedIn to market your business. First, you need to set up a business page on LinkedIn and complete all the required information such as name, logo, description, website URL, and other details about your organization.

The first step is to go to the homepage and click “Create a Company Page.” There are several choices for the type of business page you can create, such as:

• Company (Small, medium, or large business)
• Showcase page
• Educational institution

After choosing the page type, enter all the necessary details about your business. You can also choose whether it’s a public or private page. Check the verification box and click “Create.” As long as you don’t have any errors, you can start building your page and customize it based on your preferences.

Start Engaging With Your Audience

Now that you have a LinkedIn business page, it’s time to start engaging with your potential customers. Creating a well-structured strategy will improve your chances of success.

Search for Your Targeted Customers and Connection

The first thing you want to do is to identify and search for your target audience. The goal is to establish relationships with them in the long run. You can use the advanced search feature on LinkedIn or the listed industry-specific groups that you can join to meet like-minded professionals. Filters such as location, industry, and job title are also available to help you sort through results and narrow down your search.

Share Valuable Content

The key to creating successful LinkedIn marketing campaigns is providing quality content that resonates with your target audience. This way, you can keep potential customers on your radar and eventually nurture them into leads.

Content such as blog posts, videos, infographics, slideshows, quizzes, articles, and tutorials are all effective ways to engage your audience. You can also repurpose content from your other social media sites or create original content that is unique to your brand on LinkedIn.

Grow Your Email List

Another way to make your LinkedIn marketing strategy more effective is by growing your email list. You can do this by directing users to a sign-up page or offering an incentive such as a free e-book in exchange for their contact information. 

You can also directly contact your prospective customers by sending them personalized messages. The good thing about LinkedIn is that it has a direct messaging feature like other social media platforms. Email addresses are also available in the profiles of your contacts, making it easier to reach out to them.

Take Advantage of Sponsored Updates

If this is your first time utilizing LinkedIn for your business, you may want to consider sponsored updates. These are paid posts that will appear on the news feed and be visible to a larger audience. You can target your sponsored updates to potential customers based on their industry, job title, age, and other criteria. This works like any pay-per-click ad campaign and is seen as one of the most effective ways to promote your business on LinkedIn.

The good thing about sponsored updates is that you separate yourself from any irrelevant topics or news that is shared on LinkedIn. That means your feed will target those professionals that are already interested in your company and services. However, this is where the power of CTAs (calls-to-action) comes in.

Include a CTA in each update to make sure your message is clear and concise. Remember, people are less likely to click unless you tell them to do it. Without a clear and strong CTA, you won't be able to maximize the potential of your sponsored updates. So make sure to come up with something that encourages people to take action.

Post Relevant and High-quality Content

Aside from sharing content regularly, it’s important that you also post relevant and high-quality content. Yes, you want a larger audience to see your feeds, but the quality of your content is also important. 

One thing you can do is write content that answers your audience’s frequently asked questions. For example, your business is in the software development niche. You can post an article about best coding practices or a tutorial about how to create a website from scratch. The same thing goes for videos, podcasts, and infographics. The more that people feel they are getting something valuable from your update, the more likely they are to engage with it — resulting in more leads and conversions for your business.

Engage With Your Followers

It’s also important to not just post updates, but also engage with your followers. This means responding to comments, replying to messages, and taking part in discussions. LinkedIn is a great platform for finding potential customers but it can also be a great platform to form relationships. If you don't have the luxury of time to do all the above, you can also hire a social media management team or an individual who can handle your LinkedIn marketing. This way, you will have more time to focus on the other aspects of running your business.

Encourage Your Employees To Create LinkedIn Profiles

To give your business a boost when it comes to verifiability, you can also encourage your employees to create their own LinkedIn profiles. They can connect with you and put your company's logo as their profile photo or update their status to show that they’re currently working for your company. This way, once a member of your target audience searches for your company's name, your employees' profiles will also appear. This can create more trust and credibility for your business. The more credible you appear on LinkedIn, the more likely it is that you will get more customers and clients.

Join Groups

You don't have to use your business page to join groups. Using your personal profile, you can join relevant groups and engage with the members. This is a great way to reach out to your target audience without having to do much. There are also groups where small business owners and entrepreneurs can find advice, support, and even business opportunities. 

It is also important to remember that if you are part of a group, you have to abide by the guidelines set by the moderator. This means that when posting updates or responding to comments, be respectful and professional at all times.

If you have the initiative, you can create a group yourself. You can do this by navigating to your Groups homepage and clicking Create Group on the upper right corner of the page. Depending on your goals, come up with a name that indicates the purpose or theme of your group. You also have to type in a brief description so that members landing on your page can clearly understand what the group is all about. This way, they won't be confused as to why they joined a random group and will know what to expect from it.

The Bottom Line

When utilized properly, LinkedIn can be a powerhouse to help your business grow. You just have to be patient, consistent, and creative when it comes to using LinkedIn for your business. With the right strategies, you can make a name for yourself and start generating leads in no time.