On LinkedIn, B2B marketers like you can find their next business partner, introduce their company to potential customers, and attract star talent to join their companies as employees. Want to get in front of more decision-makers? There are over 46 million of them on LinkedIn. Need to introduce your company and impress someone in the C-Suite? Over 10 million C-level executives are here too. From entry-level professionals to influencers, to experienced decision-makers, everyone you would ever want to target is on LinkedIn.
This is why LinkedIn is a critical channel in our B2B Lead Funnel Framework. After the Planning Phase, when you determine your goals, audience, USP, and topics, is the Activate Audience Phase. During this second phase, the goal is to engage prospects where they spend the most time online. In the B2B world, the most relevant place buyers spend time is on LinkedIn.
There are several ways you can incorporate marketing techniques into your campaigns:
Passive marketing
Passive marketing entails building a reputation on social media so that prospects want to contact you. Keeping your LinkedIn profile active reassures potential clients and customers that you are a credible business. Moreover, it helps build connections in your industry.
Proactive marketing
Proactive marketing entails actively hunting and promoting your business on LinkedIn. Like any other SMM strategy, begin by identifying the demographics of your target audience.
Both can help:
- Build brand exposure and make you discoverable to people searching for products or services.
- Open up opportunities for interactions with potential clients.
Here are simple ways to market your business on LinkedIn:
1. Share professional posts
You want to exhibit your professionalism. Some ways to do that are uploading the latest blogs, product launches, relevant industry news, or anything that offers knowledge that prospects can benefit from and will be of interest to your target customers and clients.
And it doesn’t have to be all your content.
2. Join groups
Participating in groups and discussions helps build rapport and credibility. It’s a great way to make more connections, showcase your expertise, and offer help to others. But you can also find tips and resources for your business. Remember, you’re not here to talk only about yourself.
3. Add LinkedIn buttons
Adding a LinkedIn button to your website or blog is an easy way to expand your network, enhance your professional reputation, and make connections.
4. Make strategic connections
Did you know that if you have more than 500 contacts, the total number is not displayed? That’s because LinkedIn focuses on the quality (not quantity) of your connections. Members of LinkedIn are conscious of who they connect with within this platform and do not link with anyone.
You should start by connecting with users you know. When reaching out to people on LinkedIn, replace the default note with a personalized one, explaining why you want to connect and where you met before. The key to good connections is to focus on how you can help them, not the other way around.
5. Create authentic content that drives interest
Write compelling pieces that you know about. You can voice your opinions and offer a new perspective on common issues. In fact, industry-related research and case studies are great ways of backing up your ideas with evidence.
But it’s always advisable to consider what your target audience is interested in. Analyze what topics are trending. Make sure to look at what your competitors are writing about as well. Identify the gaps and create content about matters that others haven’t discussed.
Remember to optimize your posts with captivating headlines, relevant keywords, and visual content to get the reader’s attention, boost online visibility, and increase engagement. More importantly, respond to comments quickly to keep readers engaged.
6. Display testimonials
Displaying testimonials and recommendations from other LinkedIn users encourages others to consider your business.
7. Analyze your LinkedIn marketing performance
To build a following on LinkedIn, you need to post regularly. The key is to have a steady stream of valuable and relevant content. The digital space has numerous tools that can analyze and enhance your LinkedIn strategy.
Some of the best digital marketing tools include keyword research, content planners, content audits, and much more. They can also help you get the most out of the platform and identify what works and doesn’t.
8. Post at the right time
No matter how good the content is, your efforts will all be for nothing if your target audience isn’t interacting with it. And for that, you need to manage the time the content is posted. Hootsuite’s research claims that ideal times on LinkedIn are 7:45 a.m., 12:45 p.m., and 5:45 p.m. EST.
For B2B brands, the best days are in the middle of the week. However, since every business is different, you can find the time that is best for your audience with the help of analytics tools.
Consider advertising on LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers an advertising platform, Campaign Manager, that helps you place your brand in front of potential customers; the biggest audience is 25-34 year-olds.
With the cost per lead being 28% lower than on Google AdWords, this is the perfect solution for many. Moreover, you have complete control over your campaign, from the budget to the goals and everything else.
So if you are wondering how B2B brands can use LinkedIn advertising, here’s how to go about it:
- Choose an objective for each campaign, whether that’s awareness, consideration, or conversions. Source
- Target the right audience – LinkedIn allows businesses to refine their target audiences based on location, company, industry, age, gender, education, experience, job title, and more. This leads to higher engagement and allows your ads to be more effective, thereby achieving higher conversion rates.
- Choose the right ad format – Options include Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Dynamic Ads, and Text Ads. No matter which one you decide to use, make sure your message is short and to the point. Provide crucial information before the person gets distracted.
- Make your campaigns stand out – Your goal is to capture the attention of the reader. Highlighting noteworthy stats and quotes is a great way to lure people in. You’ll be surprised to learn that quotes outperform stats with a 30% higher CTR, says LinkedIn.
More importantly, offering bite-sized information and visuals makes it easier to remember and link to your business. - Set a budget and timeline – You can set details about the ad campaign, such as the daily budget, start and end date, total ad spend, etc.
- Test variations of the campaign – Typically ad campaigns are analyzed to see whether they are creating the right results. Often they need to be tweaked to generate one that performs better. A/B test various elements such as CTA or visuals and find what your audience interacts with more.
A final thought
Whether you are a big or small B2B business, it’s time to put your marketing effort into LinkedIn. Incredibly, no need for a big budget; you still can succeed in Linkedin marketing. Creative Cronies can help you set your B2B marketing goals and help you create quality content, be engaged in conversation in groups, LinkedIn community, and your follower’s discussion.