LinkedIn is simply a professional social media platform. One easy way to think of it is Facebook, with everything official. Currently, there are over 30 million companies with corporate social accounts on the platform. Although it had a humble beginning, LinkedIn has become one of the largest centers that link top talent to job opportunities and marketers to potential B2B clients. If you are wondering how to get started on this platform, this article will give you a guide to LinkedIn marketing.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with about 800 million members. The platform also provides marketing opportunities for B2B companies. That is why LinkedIn Marketing has become a trend in recent times.
LinkedIn is structured in a way that allows for perfect social interactions. Its marketing tools are also universal, which means it can accommodate any business size from small to big and business models from B2B and B2C.
In this beginner guide to LinkedIn marketing, I will show you how to use a LinkedIn profile for a business and which tools you should be using if you hope to get the most out of it.
Let’s do a quick background of the platform so you understand how it works better.
Brief Overview About LinkedIn
LinkedIn was launched in 2003 with a mission to create a platform that provides a conducive environment to find networking opportunities, build your career, and share ideas.
Upon signing up to use the platform, you should connect and share your content with other professionals especially those that share similar interests.
It could be your colleagues, potential employers, competitors, business partners, and their customers. Now you can see why LinkedIn is so important.
So, you’re about to learn to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool to grow your business. If you pay close attention to every strategy shared in this guide to LinkedIn marketing, you may get the results you’re hoping for as a brand or an individual.
Do you know that LinkedIn is older than Facebook? The fact that the emergence of Facebook couldn’t bring down LinkedIn is enough to convince you that it’s indeed the best professional social media network.
Whether you are an established brand, a startup, or a solopreneur, this article will guide you on how to leverage LinkedIn for your business growth.
A recent survey revealed that four out of every five B2B marketers use LinkedIn. This puts LinkedIn ahead of Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube which are used by 67 percent, 66 percent, and 54 percent of B2B marketers respectively.
Using LinkedIn to Market Your Brand
With LinkedIn marketing, you can establish new connections, improve your brand awareness, create business partnerships, generate leads, and drive traffic to your website.
Interestingly, LinkedIn has solidified its place in many marketing strategies today because of how effective it has proven to be in expanding or creating professional networks.
Using LinkedIn to market your business exposes you to the features you will need in connections, analytics, and brand building.
When it comes to social media marketing, every brand should start with LinkedIn, and I say this for a good reason.
Typically, you have three main targets when it comes to social media marketing: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
With these platforms, you’ve basically covered a good portion of social media marketing. However, failing to include LinkedIn means you’ve stopped your business from reaching over 800 million professionals.
Now that is unwise. And while Facebook is the social platform with the highest number of users, well over 2 billion, users on LinkedIn are business-oriented.
Facebook users just want to have fun. I know that I don’t go on Facebook for business advice. On LinkedIn, everyone is looking for a business connection and a link. I hope you now understand why this guide to LinkedIn marketing is important.
How to Use LinkedIn for Business?
If you want to use LinkedIn for Business, here are a few things you need to do;
Create a LinkedIn page
Before you can start marketing anything on LinkedIn, you need to become a registered member of the platform. You need to have a LinkedIn page. Let me show you how you can set up one now.
Step 1: Visit the LinkedIn page section of the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions website and click “create your page.”
Step 2: Choose the appropriate category for your business.
Step 3: Fill in the company details. This is a page preview, so you want to be exact and professional with what you fill in.
There should be a page preview showing you how your page looks with every change you make. It is important that you’re careful and you choose a good URL for your brand.
Try a URL that is the same as your username on other social platforms. This often makes things easier, and you look more professional in the long run.
Step 4: upload the company logo and add a tagline. While some people decide not to do this part, it actually helps add credibility to your brand.
Statistics show that companies with logos get six times more visits than websites without.
Having a logo shows you are professional. You should have a logo that represents the brand and gives people a positive view of the business.
Step 5: create a page.
Finalize your Page
Let me take more time to explain how you should design your page. There are already dozens of brands on LinkedIn that offer what you’re offering.
You don’t want to be generic. Try to make your page unique and professional. Thankfully, this guide to LinkedIn marketing explains how you should design your page.
Adding more details to your page provides visitors with more information about your business. And this also improves your SEO on Google and LinkedIn.
When you add more details to your LinkedIn page, you tend to answer some of the frequently asked questions your audience asks. And this will make the LinkedIn algorithm rank your page higher and give your brand more exposure on the platform.
Complete pages enjoy 30% more views. That is something you should try to achieve. Getting 30% more views could get you more conversion.
You can add more information to your page by clicking on the pencil icon on your profile. You should be able to see it under the company name.
Company Description
In this section, you should describe your company, its mission, vision, and values and offer a description of your products or services.
This should be short; three to four paragraphs at most. Detailed enough to spark interest but basic enough so users find it necessary to respond to your CTA. I’ll discuss CTAs later on.
The content should be naturally written in your brand’s voice. Remember, Google crawls LinkedIn, and Google’s results will preview up to 156 characters of your page’s text.
So ensure you think of SEO when creating this part of your content.
Location
Being SEO friendly also means being available offline. It’s important to include your office’s physical address. When you have multiple offices, you simply click the +Add Location sign, and you can add the new address.
Hashtags
You can add up to three hashtags to make your profile more discoverable. People use hashtags in searches. So, having up to three improves your chances of getting discovered for each hashtag.
Because you get only three of these, you should use them wisely. A safe bet will be the hashtags that are common in your industry and areas where you specialize.
Cover photo
Choosing the right picture can also help your prospects on LinkedIn. A background photo is another way to get a visual message out there. Your cover photo should be an image that showcases your business. You should use clear HD images and avoid busy photos with too many elements clustered together. The recommended size for a cover photo is 1584 (width) X 396 (height) pixels.
Custom Button
Have a CTA on your profile. As any good marketer will say, your audience needs to know what you want. Think of why you’re creating a LinkedIn page; what do you hope to achieve from doing this?
The answer to these questions is what you should have as your CTA. Your CTA should tell your audience what you hope they do after reviewing your page.
If they visit your website, sign up, follow, contact you, learn more, etc., there are so many options you could choose from.
Ensure you add the corresponding links, so people click on the button and land on the right page. You should also add UTM parameters for tracking.
Manage Language
If you’re dealing with international marketing or have a multilingual audience, LinkedIn also has a package to help you satisfy all your visitors.
On LinkedIn, you can add your tagline, name, and description in over 20 languages. This gives profile owners the opportunity to communicate with their audience in at least one language they understand.
Share Your Page
LinkedIn is all about marketing, and you must be a good marketer to stand a chance. You have to create a profile so good you can’t wait to tell people about it. Spread the word and let people know that you have a functional LinkedIn page.
In this guide to LinkedIn marketing, you will understand that having a LinkedIn profile also helps you keep your employees updated in real-time.
You can design a page to pass out general emails directing them to News on your LinkedIn profile. You can also connect with visitors and share the pride in the people that make your business better.
Think of your LinkedIn page as a way to show potential hires and customers what your company has to offer.
Don’t forget your customers. You also want your customers to know you’re active on LinkedIn. You can share your page link in all your newsletters, websites, and social channels.
While at that, you can ask your audience for a follow. Explain the benefits that come with clicking that follow button. Tell them how they become the primary recipients of company news and job opportunities.
If you already have an account, you can invite your connections to follow. To do this, click on the admin tool and select Invite Connections.
Do you have a LinkedIn button?
Add social media icons to the header or footer of your e-mails, website, and links from your other social media accounts. This way, it’s easier for users to find your LinkedIn Page. You can also share with LinkedIn Plugins.
Creating a LinkedIn Marketing Strategy
Now that you’ve created a complete Company Page, you should think about a LinkedIn marketing strategy.
Here you discuss what goals your company can accomplish on LinkedIn. Are you designing a LinkedIn profile to hire, for social sales, connect with your customers, or any of the above?
You should remember to budget for ads. It might be helpful later on.
The most important thing about selling is knowing your audience. You need to know your LinkedIn demographics.
Know your areas of strength, and this can be what’s best for your brand. Learning your demographics is a perfect starting point for beginners on the platform.
Since you lack experience, look at who your audience is and what they like. You can then use that information to design a strategy that satisfies their needs better than anyone.
Take an audit of your competitors on LinkedIn to see what they’ve been up to. Learn their strategies and see ways to avoid their mistakes.
See how they use their pages and how they help their brand mission.
Map out a content calendar for your LinkedIn page. Plan your posts, make sure you’re prepared and create your content in advance.
With a content calendar, you can source images, write well-thought-out leadership articles, and prepare content accordingly, so you never miss a beat.
Preparing in advance also allows you to cover all your LinkedIn marketing goals. Visual tools like Hootsuite Planner provide a clear picture of your content plan; with a visualizing tool like this, you can easily find gaps and strategize properly.
Marketing Tips You Should Have in Mind (Guide to LinkedIn Marketing)
Share Posts with Rich Media
Try to mix up your marketing strategy. While the text is important, you should also try and have as many visual aids as you can. Videos and photos play a critical role in your posts on social media platforms, including LinkedIn.
According to LinkedIn, posts with images receive 98% more engagements than posts without. LinkedIn also reports that having a collage of 3-4 images on your post performs well for pages.
I should warn you, though, to try and avoid stock imagery. Try and create something of your own; you stand a better chance at dragging more engagements.
Rich media can also include PDFs, PowerPoint, or SlideShare presentations to create a rich page.
Videos enjoy more engagement on LinkedIn than any other content time. So you should use as many videos as you can. The LinkedIn Autoplay feature plays these videos automatically when a user scrolls by.
As a result, you catch the users’ attention instantly. Videos on the platform are prioritized by the LinkedIn algorithm.
Remember to add closed captions so you can communicate with users who are hearing impaired or have their sound off.
Optimized Posts for Reach and Impact
When it comes to posting on LinkedIn, you must create a post that targets and reaches your audience. These few best practices will help your posts stand out just how you want them to.
LinkedIn’s algorithm ranks posts based on these signals: personal connections, engagement probability, and interest relevance.
With that in mind, all you need to do is create amazing content because LinkedIn is already helping your posts find people that are most likely to be interested and engage with them.
Sending e-mails to your employees is also a way to alert them to new posts. As company advocates, they can engage with the post to kick start post engagement. It will also boost visibility, and they can share it to bring in more attention.
Keep Your Posts Short
LinkedIn is designed for people with jobs, which means you need to keep your messages short. If you have a lot to say, break the content down into short paragraphs or bullet points.
Optimizing your content for SEO involves cutting down your content, so it looks easier to read.
All of this makes it easier for busy users to decide whether or not you’re what they are looking for. If you are, they can pause to read through thoroughly, and if you are not, they will move ahead.
Write Strong Headlines
On LinkedIn, it’s all about stealing attention. The biggest font on any post is the headline, and this is for a good reason.
Having a strong headline passes a bold message that users should take a look at what you have to say.
The headlines for your article should have your keywords and connect with your audience. Its length, the words you use, and how you design your headlines are important. Getting all of this done right, makes your content stand out.
Your headline should show what your content does to its readers. It should make your audience see your post as an answer even before they read it.
Post at The Right Time
Timing plays a role. It is important to post regularly to build a strong and dedicated audience on LinkedIn. Posting at least once a month helps you gain followers six times faster than pages that don’t, according to LinkedIn.
Posting weekly also gets you two times the engagement and more if you post on a daily basis. Remember that the quality of your posts matters. And no matter how often you post, you should always wait for when you get high impact. The perfect time!
Hootsuite research suggests that brands should post around 7:45 am, 10:45 am, 12:45 pm, and 5:45 pm EST because they believe these are the best times to make posts on LinkedIn.
For B2B brands, try and time your posts to fall on Wednesdays, and B2C brands should post more on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Remember, your audience type will affect your timing, so know them first. Hootsuite and LinkedIn can help you learn more about what time will be best for your brand.
Keeping up with regular posts can be challenging because you will need fresh ideas regularly. There are several tools that can help suggest content topics right there on your LinkedIn page dashboard.
Click on Content Suggestions under the content tab on your dashboard. Click on the filter to sort through thousands of content ideas. You can see what’s trending by filtering your audience, location, and industry.
LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn Live is one of the techniques discussed in this guide to LinkedIn Marketing.
Imagine something better than a video. Imagine content so engaging that you get to interact with your audience live and respond to any and all questions directly.
Live broadcasts see 24 times more audiences than pre-tapped videos. Live video is a good opportunity for brands.
These can be used for fireside chats, interviews, and webinars, just to name a few. Some have taken virtual communication to a new level by hosting virtual events.
This method of communication allows for instant connection with your audience. Imagine how interesting it would be if you were answering questions or explaining the concept or passion behind your business.
Before you go live, make sure you are prepared and that you promote your live feed on all your other platforms. With more people watching, passersby will be intrigued as to what is going on.
Launch a Showcase Page
Here you advertise your bestsellers. Creating a LinkedIn showcase page gives you the stage to advertise special initiatives or attract a particular audience community.
Creating these pages gives your LinkedIn audience another way to stay updated on your actions if they do not want to follow you.
For example, I have seen brands with a number of showcase pages. It’s good to keep the number small, let’s say 5-10, depending on the nature of your business. In each of these pages, you speak about a product to its audience.
Read Also: 5 Ways to Boost Your Social Media Engagement
Learn from LinkedIn Analytics
One way to always stay updated on what’s going on around LinkedIn is by checking LinkedIn Analytics regularly. With the insights you gather from this tool, you can improve your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
You can track your post metrics to see what kinds of posts your audience engages with the most. What kinds of posts attract the most action, and what kinds of posts don’t resonate with your audience?
With this information, you can adjust your content calendar, so you remain the point of focus for your audience.
From the analytics dashboard, you also learn how people get to your page and what sections they engage with the most. You can compare how many page views your tabs get and see how much traction you’re getting.
Analyzing your visitor demographics gives you insider information on who is interested in your company.
You can compare how your page is performing against your competition. This feature will allow you to track who ranks better. You see when you rise and when you fall. You can see your overall engagement rate.
Pro tip: from the tab of your target customers’ LinkedIn page, you can learn all you need to know about them. You get to see their job titles, skills, where they studied, and the employees themselves.
Target the Right Audience
You need to know who you want to target. Not everyone is interested in what you have to offer, and if you don’t target the right group, you will waste a lot of time and resources on leads that hold no prospect.
LinkedIn organic targeting option for posts is an amazing feature.
With this tool, page admins can target posts based on their follower profile data, industry, organization size, language preference, job, seniority, and geography.
When you have enough budget, you can set up your LinkedIn marketing strategy with LinkedIn ads. These ads are available in a range of formats, which allows brands to target and reach members outside their established following.
Read Also: 5 Graphic Design Elements for Paid Campaign
LinkedIn Marketing Tools
On LinkedIn, you can add more tools to improve your business page and compete with the big dogs. Even as a beginner, this guide to LinkedIn marketing will give you a fighting chance.
Adobe Creative Cloud Express (fka Adobe Spark)
Adobe Creative Cloud Express is a tool that helps LinkedIn admins create custom images for free (there is also an option for in-app purchases).
Because it’s a good idea to have images on your LinkedIn posts, a free tool that helps you create these images is very handy.
Adobe Spark offers an extensive library of photos with branding and customization options that lets you add that personal touch to your images. This tool can also be used to create graphic pull quotes and data visualizations and share branded hashtags as images.
Other uses of this tool include creating branded stock footage, graphics, GIFs, and videos with your own recordings. The free-to-use music library gives you access to audio and songs, so you don’t have to bother about licensing tunes.
SlideShare
Slideshare is another strategic area this guide to LinkedIn marketing talks about.
Have you ever thought of presenting a slideshow on your LinkedIn page? I once saw an amazing presentation on LinkedIn, and I was surprised. I decided to look into it and figured out how it’s done.
It turns out LinkedIn has a built-in professional content sharing tool called SlideShare. With this tool, users can upload any form of content which includes PDF, PowerPoint, Word, or OpenDocument files, to their followers.
With presentations like these, you keep your audience on their toes. In the professional world, people love these things. If it looks professional, try it.
You don’t know who’s passing by? It might just be what your target audience has been waiting to see.
With SlideShare, you can also monitor the activities of these presentations. You learn which ones get the most clicks, likes, and shares. You can then focus on the attention-grabbing posts and break them into multiple posts.
If people see these presentations and like what they see, they might click the follow button, or have you in their mind, which is a good thing. Keep this in mind when designing your CTA.
LinkedIn Groups
Remember that you’re here to build connections. Unlike other tools on this list, this isn’t a tool.
Joining a number of LinkedIn groups can be helpful to your development on the platform.
Being on any LinkedIn group puts you in close proximity to other LinkedIn users. This community can help you navigate this landscape.
As a brand, you get to be part of the conversation. Make meaningful connections to potential clients, and remember that your contributions should flow with your brand image and goals.
Search and join groups in your business niche to stay aware of what’s trending, and connect with other members of your industry.
Open for Business
If you’re a solo practitioner, I can almost guarantee that LinkedIn’s Open for Business will help you through your journey on LinkedIn.
This free LinkedIn feature is specially designed for personal accounts. To sign up, go on your profile page and click the Showcase services you offer. Fill out the form describing your service.
Since this is still a relatively new feature, it may not be on your profile. To have it added, you can request to join the waitlist.
Once this is done, other LinkedIn members will be able to find you through the service provider search filter. If they are impressed with your profile, they can message you for free.
Benefits of LinkedIn Marketing
Every social media network has something unique about them. That is why we have several social media accounts. In this section, I will show you why LinkedIn is special.
Reach a More Professional Audience
One of LinkedIn’s most distinguishable features is its clear audience type. Unlike many other social media platforms, LinkedIn has streamlined its users to professional.
The audience demographic of LinkedIn almost always involves a Business class, Industry, or Job. Either way, it usually helps its users locate employers, employees, or business partners and people of similar interest.
Here it’s all about business. If your core target audience includes educated, opportunity-seeking individuals, then you should focus on LinkedIn.
It Helps Nurture Your Leads.
Have you ever wondered what happens when a client clicks on your social media profile? How much can they learn in the first two clicks?
In my experience, a client would rather go back to the SERP than go further to learn about a business. There are, frankly, too many options.
LinkedIn makes sure you can hook your visitors once they visit your page. On your profile, you feature all the information you need to convince them you’re the one or at least spark up enough interest that they are eager to click whatever you have on your CTA.
Without thorough nurturing, it becomes more difficult, if not impossible, for clicks to flow down the customer funnel and become customers and clients. Show them that your brand favors their needs.
Traditionally I’d nurture a LinkedIn client using emails, but with LinkedIn, I can do a lot more. Have you ever noticed the Lead Accelerator Feature?
It is one hidden gem, and LinkedIn pro marketers love it. The Lead Accelerator feature allows you to track your most valuable prospects.
It also gives you a way to target more ads towards these individuals, and your chances of converting them increase.
Increases Your Conversion Rates
With LinkedIn, it’s a lot easier to increase your conversion rate. All these benefits lead to this moment. This is when you know if you’re doing it right.
I must say it isn’t every time it goes as we hope, but you can try again. I always learn something new. All you have to do is look.
LinkedIn converts users to leads in one out of six users almost every time. This is by far one of the most heartwarming things a marketer can hear. In this case, you know that it’s only a matter of time for you to get that customer.
Conclusion
This guide to LinkedIn marketing has talked about all you need to know about growing your business on LinkedIn.
I’ve said a lot, and this should lead you to impactful LinkedIn marketing. A recap of what was written in the content is that you can attract some of the best talent on LinkedIn.
You can create connections to customers and show the world that your business has something to offer. You can show them how special you are.
If you need help with LinkedIn Marketing, Tycoono can help you run a successful LinkedIn marketing campaign for your business. We assure you outstanding results and great value for every dollar you spend.
