LinkedIn is often misconstrued as a platform exclusive to CEOs and accomplished marketers, creating an image of a space dominated by polished professionals in impeccable attire.
However, let's debunk this notion. At its core, LinkedIn is a celebration of our diverse identities. It's not solely about projecting a polished façade but embracing authenticity and realness.
Beyond the surface of connection requests, shared articles, and engaging posts, lies the human element – stories waiting to be unveiled. Like any social platform, authenticity is the key. On LinkedIn, it's less about sophisticated language and more about expressing your genuine self.
Highlighted below are several noteworthy statistics related to LinkedIn in the year 2023:
Based on research conducted by LinkedIn, it is the #1 platform for B2B marketers
Advertisements on LinkedIn result in a 33% rise in brand purchase intent.
The majority of LinkedIn's desktop traffic originates from the United States.
Every day, over 137 million LinkedIn members from the United States actively utilize the platform.
With these compelling figures, it becomes evident that LinkedIn is a promising platform for effective marketing endeavors. With that being said, in today's article we will provide you with insights on crafting a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy with the aim of generating leads. Ready? Let’s begin!
Guidelines For An Effective LinkedIn Marketing Strategy
Optimize Your Profile
The initial step towards enhancing your LinkedIn business page involves completing all sections with comprehensive and top-notch information. This ensures that visitors have the necessary details about your business, enabling them to decide their interest in your products or services. Profiles that have comprehensive details receive a 30% increase in weekly views.
Consequently, you'll be better positioned to connect with your intended audience, attracting pertinent traffic to your page. This enhances the probability of achieving desired outcomes, such as visitors transitioning into customers by visiting your website and making purchases.
By optimizing your profile, you also cultivate a more professional image. Instead of merely stating your business's activities, emphasize the distinctive attributes that set your company apart within your industry. Moreover, when incorporating visuals like your logo or cover photo, prioritize high-quality images.
Furthermore, contemplate tailoring your business page for search engine optimization (SEO). Recognize relevant keywords tied to your business, such as "New York car rental." Integrating these keywords into various sections, including the company description, aligns with common SEO practices.
Learn about your target audience
LinkedIn stands out as a distinct social network that is particularly well-suited for reaching professionals and B2B (business-to-business) audiences. However, it's crucial to refine this extensive category to focus on businesses and professionals that are directly relevant to your objectives. Otherwise, you might experience visitors coming to your page but swiftly leaving because your business doesn't match their interests.
Predefining your specific target audience empowers you to customize your company page accordingly. For instance, suppose your business is centered around providing eco-friendly household products. In that case, you might want to target environmentally conscious consumers and homeowners who are looking to make sustainable choices for their homes and lifestyles. This could involve tailoring your outreach to individuals who have shown an interest in eco-friendly living, renewable energy, or sustainable home improvement solutions.
LinkedIn simplifies the process of targeting. Consider the various details you provided while setting up your profile. Other LinkedIn members have likely done the same! This means you can strategically target connections and engagements based on factors like location, company size, industry, and more.
Utilize a content calendar
Merely establishing a LinkedIn page isn't enough; it's essential to remain active. Consistently sharing content can enhance your reputation as a respected authority on the platform. Planning out a content calendar in advance can be beneficial in achieving this.
This approach ensures a steady stream of posts and enables you to capitalize on significant occasions for crafting content. Imagine you're managing a travel agency. On a travel-related observance day, like World Tourism Day, you could design a post that highlights lesser-known travel destinations, along with unique cultural experiences and travel tips to inspire your audience to explore new horizons.
Additionally, aligning your posts with broader events or holidays proves advantageous in terms of using hashtags to gain visibility. It also serves as an effective method for engaging with others.
PRO TIP: Remember to not only share your own content but also engage by commenting on others' posts.
Regularly publish content that is relevant
Developing a content calendar simplifies the task of consistent posting. It grants you clear guidance on what to share, when to share it, and which hashtags to incorporate. If creating a calendar is a challenge, consider enlisting a social media management professional to handle this task.
Every piece of content you create should fulfill three key criteria. Firstly, it should be pertinent to your industry. Secondly, it should resonate with your brand's identity. Lastly, it should offer enhanced value to its viewers. However, don't hesitate to think creatively and explore unconventional angles when appropriate.
By adopting an unexpected approach, you impart valuable insights to your audience, showcasing your expertise.
Harness the power of hashtags
Utilizing hashtags effectively on LinkedIn can significantly enhance the visibility and reach of your posts. Hashtags serve as keywords or labels that categorize your content and make it easier for users to find when searching for specific topics or trends.
To leverage hashtags successfully:
Relevance is Key: Choose hashtags that are relevant to your content and your target audience. Research and identify trending hashtags within your industry that align with the subject matter of your post.
Strategic Placement: Integrate hashtags naturally within your post. They can be included within the post itself or at the end. Avoid overusing hashtags, as this can dilute the impact of your message.
Industry-Specific Hashtags: Incorporate industry-specific hashtags that are commonly used and recognized within your niche. This increases the chances of your content being discovered by individuals interested in those topics.
Trending Hashtags: Stay updated with trending hashtags related to your industry or current events. Capitalize on these trends to enhance the visibility of your content within broader conversations.
Branded Hashtags: Consider creating a unique branded hashtag for your company or specific campaigns. This helps users associate your content with your brand and encourages engagement.
Engagement and Community: Click on hashtags relevant to your content to explore related posts and engage with other users. Liking, commenting, or sharing posts using these hashtags can expand your reach and foster connections.
Hashtag Analytics: Regularly review the performance of your posts with different hashtags. Analyze which ones generate higher engagement and adjust your hashtag strategy accordingly.
Consistency: Use hashtags consistently across your posts to build recognition and strengthen your association with specific topics.
Leverage data-driven content to drive engagement
Facts and figures are highly appealing to individuals. Statistics and percentages offer quick, easily understandable, and persuasive information that can be grasped at a glance. This is particularly advantageous in the fast-paced world of social media, where people often scroll rapidly, making it an effective way to catch someone's eye.
When feasible, incorporate your content with factual data, statistics, survey findings, research outcomes, and other substantiated information. Furthermore, you can maximize the utility of such data by transforming it into infographics or images, which can also serve as teasers for your more comprehensive long-form content.
Respond promptly
Responding promptly to comments and messages on your LinkedIn posts and messages shows your dedication to fostering meaningful connections and delivering value to your network. When you engage with comments in a timely manner, it conveys that you value the opinions and contributions of your audience. It also encourages further interaction and discussion, leading to deeper engagement and a more vibrant online community around your profile or company page.
Similarly, responding promptly to messages, whether they are inquiries, feedback, or collaboration opportunities, portrays your professionalism and approachability. It indicates that you are actively interested in connecting and communicating with others in a meaningful way.
Engage with industry leaders and relevant companies proactively
LinkedIn is a hub for numerous influential business figures and well-known companies, offering a unique opportunity that's hard to replicate elsewhere. The platform allows you to connect with these individuals in ways that are respectful and not intrusive.
When you share a connection or belong to a mutual group, you can leverage this commonality to introduce yourself through InMail, avoiding the appearance of unsolicited communication. Moreover, if you're a premium member, you gain access to the open profile network, enabling interactions with other premium users.
When reaching out to busy leaders, it's crucial to be concise and direct. Time is valuable. For instance, you could invite them to a webinar or propose contributing a guest post to your company blog. Enhance the appeal by highlighting your reach, such as the blog's monthly readership statistics.
Craft posts using videos or images
Your LinkedIn marketing material doesn't need to be limited to text alone. In fact, incorporating visual elements such as videos or images can enhance the appeal and intrigue of your content.
Did you know that videos receive 5 times more engagement on LinkedIn? Users tend to spend almost three times longer engaging with video ads compared to other types.
PRO TIP: It's important to showcase your main content within the first 10 seconds to capture and keep viewers' attention.
Visual content can encompass various forms, including photographs and infographics that convey valuable information. Similarly, video content could involve an FAQ session, an interview featuring your company's CEO, or a step-by-step guide showcasing one of your products. The choice of format should align with the nature of your industry.
Repurpose content
Your company probably produces various types of content beyond what you share on LinkedIn, including articles by your team members and press releases. It's important to utilize this content by sharing it on LinkedIn as well.
By doing so, you maximize the value of each piece of content and can also boost engagement on other content platforms. For instance, if your company is mentioned in an article on a news website, you can prompt individuals to read and engage with it through your LinkedIn posts.
Leverage LinkedIn ads
For a direct approach to promoting your company on LinkedIn, consider utilizing LinkedIn advertising. This method is effective as it enables you to proactively target and engage with other users on the platform. Your advertisements will be directly displayed to relevant individuals, eliminating the need for them to stumble upon your company page. Instead, you bring your content to them.
This strategy allows you to connect with a wider audience beyond your immediate network, offering them insights into your business and broadening your connections. The ultimate goal is to generate leads and achieve conversions.
LinkedIn offers various ad types, including dynamic ads, sponsored content, message ads, and text ads. To leverage LinkedIn ads, initiate your campaign through the campaign manager. Within this interface, you can set a budget, define your marketing objectives (such as impressions or clicks), and establish a campaign timeline, which brings us to our next point.
Analyze your LinkedIn analytics
An advantageous aspect of LinkedIn marketing lies in its quantifiability. Familiarize yourself with LinkedIn's reporting tools and comprehensive page analytics. This data empowers you to gain insights into your audience, followers, and their interactions.
For instance, consider running a LinkedIn advertisement. You can assess its effectiveness by examining essential metrics like clicks, impressions, and social interactions. This analysis helps you identify successful ads and those that aren't performing well, providing valuable insights to shape your future ad strategies.
It's vital to predefine the key performance indicators (KPIs) you intend to track. Neglecting to establish KPIs before embarking on your social media marketing efforts is a common mistake. Having clear KPIs in place ensures accurate and consistent measurement of your campaign's impact.
Engage in LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn Live is a dynamic feature that enables you to connect with your audience in real-time through live video broadcasts.
Whether hosting live sessions, webinars, Q&A sessions, or virtual events, LinkedIn Live offers a platform for direct engagement and interaction. It's an opportunity to share industry insights, conduct presentations, answer audience questions, and even launch products or workshops.
By encouraging real-time comments and discussions, LinkedIn Live fosters networking among viewers, creating a sense of community. The feature also allows you to gather instant feedback and tailor your content to your audience's interests.
Adapt and develop your content and marketing strategies
To get started, ensure you have access to LinkedIn Live, plan your content thoughtfully, promote the event in advance, actively engage with viewers during the live session, and save the video for later sharing. This tool can greatly humanize your brand, showcase expertise, and establish a more immediate and authentic connection with your LinkedIn audience.
Your content and LinkedIn marketing approach are dynamic, evolving alongside your business and shifting trends. Given the rapid pace of the marketing landscape, staying current can be challenging, especially if it's not your primary focus.
To remain well-informed, start by observing the strategies of peers in your industry. Additionally, subscribing to marketing newsletters and tracking insights from experts online can prove beneficial. Lastly, enlisting the support of a digital marketing agency can help you stay up-to-date with the ever-changing trends in LinkedIn marketing.
Final Words
To sum this article up, LinkedIn stands as an invaluable platform that holds the potential to significantly enhance your business's presence and forge meaningful industry connections. It's important not to be dissuaded by constraints in time or resources, as seeking guidance from proficient experts can help you unlock the full spectrum of opportunities that LinkedIn offers.
By embracing these strategies, you are well-equipped to cultivate a more robust brand image, expand the horizons of your professional network, and ultimately thrive amidst the demands of the competitive business arena. LinkedIn, with its multifaceted capabilities, serves as a dynamic catalyst for growth, propelling your business towards greater success and prominence.
SO, WHERE DO YOU FIND THIS PARTNER?
Well, aren’t we glad you asked! We at DigiCom are obsessive data-driven marketers pulling from multi-disciplinary strategies to unlock scale. We buy media across all platforms and placements and provide creative solutions alongside content creation, and conversion rate optimizations. We pride ourselves on your successes and will stop at nothing to help you grow.
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