Setting up a booth at a trade show is a wonderful way to promote your company. You meet new leads or potential partners, you network with folks in your industry, and you get to showcase your company and its achievements.
This is the same opportunity offered by LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is not just for job seekers or recruiters. Businesses can and do benefit from LinkedIn marketing solutions. The platform empowers you to establish yourself in your industry and target your content and advertisements to those who would be most interested.
Creating a LinkedIn marketing strategy might seem confusing for those unfamiliar with the platform.
Here’s the good news:
Anyone can learn how to use LinkedIn for business.
LinkedIn business accounts make it easy to market your company by offering tools and a community ripe for exchange.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why you should market on LinkedIn
- How to use LinkedIn for business
- How to build LinkedIn marketing strategies
- How to create a LinkedIn business page
- What the best content to post on LinkedIn is
- What tools to use for LinkedIn marketing solutions
LinkedIn Marketing and Why You Need It
LinkedIn has more than 722 million members around the world. Statista reports 27% of U.S. adults use LinkedIn. Plus, in its Digital Trust Report, Business Insider found that LinkedIn is the most trusted platform for the third year in a row.
The ranking is based on users’ ratings of:
- Security
- Legitimacy
- Community
- Relevancy
- Experience
- Shareability
Business Insider’s data also suggests users are more receptive to the advertisements on platforms they trust. So it would make sense to create a thorough LinkedIn marketing strategy for your business to capitalize on the platform’s reputation.
LinkedIn marketing solutions can also help cultivate more leads. The company reports that 80% of business-to-business (B2B) leads come from LinkedIn, and LinkedIn drives 46% of social media traffic to company websites.
How To Use LinkedIn for Business
With LinkedIn’s growing audience and trustworthiness, businesses should take advantage of the platform and establish a presence. But you’ll need a different approach for your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
The Linkedin algorithm prioritizes relevancy and engagement. It wants to match users to the content they want to read, and it gives pages the tools to do that.
You can target your content and updates based user’s:
- Skills
- Job title
- Education
- Industry
- Company size
LinkedIn has a different atmosphere than other social media. Instead of trying to reach a big audience, it’s better to appeal to niche communities. Other tactics, such as recency or quantity of posts, don’t matter as much as your content’s relevance and quality.
Learning how to use LinkedIn for business includes finding the balance between promoting your company and spamming your followers.
LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Product Management Pete Davies says the motto at LinkedIn is, “People you know, talking about the things you care about.” Use that philosophy when deciding which LinkedIn marketing solutions will work best for your business.
LinkedIn Marketing Strategy
- Plan your objective
- Identify your target audience
- Create a comprehensive company profile
- Post and create relevant content
- Take advantage of all LinkedIn’s tools
- Build your network and be strategically active
- Get your employees involved
Know Your LinkedIn Marketing Objective
Your objective will inform your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
Ask yourself:
- What do you want LinkedIn to do for your business?
- Do you want to create a professional image that will help with branding?
- Are you hoping to widen your network?
- Is it time to expand your workforce, and you want qualified new employees?
Figure out what you want, then strategize how you’ll get it. If you’re looking for new contacts, then make building connections your priority. If you want to be an influential voice, then write engaging content.
Select Your Target Audience
Finding your target audience is an essential business practice. LinkedIn marketing solutions empower you to speak directly to your target audience. You can narrow your focus on professionals in a certain location or who have a particular job title or skill set.
How to Create a Business Page on LinkedIn
- Log into your LinkedIn account
- Click the Work dropdown menu on the top right
- Select the type of page you want to create based on your business
- Enter your business details
- Click create page
There are some requirements for establishing a Linkedin business account: the person creating the page has to have an email associated with the company domain, and the company has to be at least seven days old.
Make sure to complete your profile. According to LinkedIn, completed pages receive 30% more views. Go the extra mile for your LinkedIn marketing strategy, and don’t leave any tasks lingering.
Choose compelling imagery and optimize your profile with search engine optimization (SEO). Keep your profile current, and don’t forget to add a LinkedIn badge to your website and email.
Content is another important way to enhance your profile by lending credibility. LinkedIn reports that it takes ten pieces of content before consumers make buying decisions.
The Best Content for LinkedIn
- The business of your business
- Projects you’re working on
- Resources, books, tips, Q&A
- Customer testimonials
- Awards and achievements
- Industry trends and analysis
- Information about your team
- Big announcements
When crafting a LinkedIn content strategy, you want to decide what will appeal most to your audience. Do you want to keep up with the latest trending content? Or will your audience be better served with a detailed blog post about industry updates?
Hashtags can be a great way to get your LinkedIn audience invested in your company. Nike employees make good use of #swooshlife to share updates and promote job openings.
Videos and photos also go a long way, with images delivering a doubled comment rate. Consider looking at the top pages for inspiration. Many won for their well-crafted content.
Use this opportunity to become an expert in your industry. Provide value to your network by learning how to use LinkedIn for your business in ways your network will appreciate.
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: Tools to Use
LinkedIn provides many tools for businesses to promote their companies.
Here are some tools that will come in handy when learning how to use LinkedIn for your business.
- LinkedIn stories and live
- InMail
- Groups
- Showcase Pages
- Premium account
LinkedIn Stories and Live
Like most other social media platforms, LinkedIn offers stories and live as content options — and they’ve been successful. Live video gets 24 times more engagement.
InMail
InMail allows you to send messages to people who aren’t in your network. It’s a LinkedIn marketing solution for targeting a specific person you don’t have a connection with but want to reach.
While it’s tempting, don’t use InMail to spam users. You only get a certain amount to use per month, and personal messages go a long way when using the tool.
LinkedIn Groups
Just like networking at a trade show, groups help you find like-minded professionals or people in your industry with common goals. They can be a great way to connect with people in your location or key demographic. Be an active member, and consider starting your own group.
Showcase Pages
If you want to give more detail about a particular business unit or branch of your company, LinkedIn’s showcase pages allow you to do just that. For example, Adobe has a main page as well as showcase pages for its creative, document, and experience clouds.
Showcase pages work as a LinkedIn marketing solution for explaining the scope of your company.
LinkedIn Premium Business Account
A premium LinkedIn account isn’t necessary when you’re figuring out how to use LinkedIn for business — but it does come in handy. A LinkedIn premium business account offers extra features like information about who’s viewed your profile, more InMail opportunities, and detailed insights.
Get Social with Your LinkedIn Business Profile
Don’t get lost in LinkedIn’s business side — it’s still a social media platform. Focus on people, whether inside or outside your company.
Get Your Employees Involved
Employee advocacy is an underused resource. LinkedIn found that employees drive 30% of the engagement that a company sees. Personal LinkedIn pages can be a vital source of traffic for your company’s LinkedIn page.
Encourage your employees to complete their profiles and be active on LinkedIn. The more people linked to your company page, the more traffic and interest you’ll cultivate for your company. You can also share employee stories on your main company page.
Consider implementing a brand ambassador program among employees or incentivize people to complete their profiles with prizes or gift cards.
Keep Up With Your Network
LinkedIn helps you stay connected to the people in your network. Make sure you’re keeping tabs on leads or customers. If you’re active, you might see when a potential asset is looking for a job or a potential customer with a problem your company can solve.
When you’re marketing on LinkedIn a hard sell mentality isn’t as effective. Focus on building relationships and strengthening connections.
LinkedIn is the most trusted platform on social media. That trust translates into a more receptive audience. If you learn how to use LinkedIn for your business, you can build a following that will become converted customers, fans, partners, and recruits for your company.
Create a specific LinkedIn marketing strategy that differs from other social media. Focus on providing value and targeting content to a particular audience.
Craft a comprehensive company profile and be an active participant on the platform. Take advantage of LinkedIn marketing solutions by utilizing the tools provided.
Has LinkedIn helped your business succeed? Tell us in the comments below!
