how to use linkedin for business as a marketing tool and strategy?

Just in case if you have been wondering how to use linkedin for business as a marketing tool and strategy ? This is the post just for that!...

Just in case if you have been wondering how to use linkedin for business as a marketing tool and strategy? This is the post just for that! LinkedIn is like a mixer for the internet. This is the place to be if you’re wanting to make easy connections and network your way around your industry and beyond. Instead of having to head to stuffy and boring get-togethers designed around networking, all you have to do is find profiles that would fit for your business and beyond, and continue connecting. Accepting connection invitations is easy, and will be coming frequently when you first sign up. The more connections you have, the more you will begin to find and initiate on your own. Try adding your entire address book to your LinkedIn profile and start networking. Once someone has accepted your invitation to connect, send them an e-mail thanking them for connecting and tell them a little bit more about yourself and your company. You can even ask them if they would like to sign up for any newsletter that you may or may not have at this point in time. If you do not have a newsletter for your company it’s best to get one. This can definitely help you inform your clients beyond social media and ties everything together. Some may like to look at your various platforms and pages, but don’t want to go any further. Instead, receiving a newsletter with the most important points laid out easily for them to read or watch is a great way to keep them informed.

Although a great place for employers to check out future or find potential employees, LinkedIn can do more than just find your next great employee. Marketing with LinkedIn is simple and easy to use, benefitting your company greatly. You can even use LinkedIn to generate leads, bringing people back to your website or blog. Use your website and blog posts on your LinkedIn profile, as well as when you are posting in the newsfeed. Also, use your own links when commenting in LinkedIn groups, as well as on any of your showcase pages, which will be discussed on how to use to your potential later on in this post.

All posts should be geared towards business-minded people. Sure, you can share a few office photos on your profile and videos that aren’t completely serious but keep those to the minimum. Motivation, business tips, insider tips, and product information is key to marketing yourself on LinkedIn. Statistical updates, business advice, product numbers, and descriptions rule the newsfeed. For a bolder approach, try targeting your posts to specific audiences. As long as you have 100 or more users, you can target your audience for any posts that you put out there on LinkedIn just like you would with a targeted ad campaign.

Linkedin for business: YOUR LINKEDIN PROFILE SET-UP

Once you’ve made your company profile, make sure that your employees have their own LinkedIn profiles that you can use as connections. Future employees and clients will be able to see who is working with you and your company, and feel like they get to know you a little better. Having a proper LinkedIn profile is like having your entire resumé out in the open for everyone to see your accomplishments. Make sure that your profile is neat, organized and covers everything that anyone would need to know about your company. Complete all fields, even if they seem mundane and useless.

• Start with your professional photo. If you don’t have specific headshots, get someone to re-create a headshot look with you looking clean and professional.
• Make a Headline. Use roughly ten words to make a headline that will stand out amongst the crowd. If you have any specialization, this is where you would put it.
• Summary Field. This is where you can brag about your achievements. Write these down in bullet points in clear and concise wording.
• Add images, videos, and documents. Do you have a video about your company? Here is a great place to add it so people can get to know you and your company a little better.

Add your work history. If you worked at a fast food restaurant when you were 14, but you’re now the CEO of your own company and have worked in many other offices, this is not the place to add in that fast food company. Use your work history to outline why you and your company has gotten this far already.

Link your Website. Do you have a website or multiple websites? Add a link to your website in your profile. Use a call-to-action button to spruce it up and make it more inviting for LinkedIn users to click on.

If you’re making your company page, simply click on Interests and Companies. You can create your company profile here and should use the above format to fill out every single field that you are able to. Filling out everything in your profile, both your personal and your company’s makes it more engaging for those who are looking for new hires, new opportunities and to use your company. People are nosey, and always want to know everything; the more information you have about your professional life that is available to future clients and connections, the better.

Linkedin content marketing: TYPES OF MARKETING CONTENT FOR LINKEDIN

There are many different types of marketing strategies with LinkedIn. You can use any of the notes below for mass targeted audiences, or you can streamline your lead generation into something that may take a little bit more time but can produce winning results. LinkedIn is all about networking and introducing yourself to others in your field and abroad, so why not introduce yourself to those who would be most likely to use your product or services? This is the same kind of idea that door-to-door knocking or cold-calling takes on, but a lot easier to do while at home or in between meetings. Keep in touch with those who have seemed to be intrigued by your company, and not bothering those who aren’t. If people specifically say they do not want to be contacted anymore, this is not an invitation to try again at a later date. This is meant for you to back off and let your web presence and advertising speak for itself. They may not be ready to use you now but they may be down the road. Keep it light if there are any flat-out rejections and move on. Remember: door-to-door knocking doesn’t result in every single person signing up – you have to knock on many doors before you even get one signature.

Sponsored Content

This is where you can send direct messages to a specific targeted audience. Here, you can create messages for specific products to go out to only one audience, while another can go out to a different audience. By building your own custom audiences, you can get your messages as personal as need-be, creating a space for new clients and existing clients. You get to create your own budget and have the option to use either pay-per-click or pay-per-impression, depending on what your marketing needs are.

Sponsored InMail

A great way for networking and finding employees, you can set your target audience, and send out messages that would pertain to them. This is a great tool to use if you are wanting to promote your YouTube video tutorials or presentations.

Dynamic Ads

The biggest payoff when putting out ads on social media is that you can target your audience accordingly. Do you want to target a broad audience? A smaller audience? You can find out the company size that would be likely to be buying your product, as well as honing in on the industry that would be most susceptible to buying your product or services. Using advanced targeting can help you get your business off the ground and growing. Using metrics to track your ads and see how well they’re performing is a no-brainer for any business to be using. You always want to be tracking your ads and information, because how else would you ever know how your business is faring? If one ad isn’t working out, you can simply test out and switch to a new one.

Display Ads

Display ads are placed on high-traffic LinkedIn pages and your budget is worked out by the cost per impression. You can use audience targeting, like normal, even going so far as using third-party data. You can choose from either a 300X250 banner or a 160X600 banner found on the side of the LinkedIn page. These banner sizes are set for those on desktops, only.

Text Ads

Text ads are those smaller ads that you may see popping up with your ‘interests’. You can target your audience, of course, and can either send people to your LinkedIn profile or to your website. I would suggest sending them to your website as that’s where you’re going to want the leads coming from. You should have more information on your website, and more contact information for them to either fill out or call you with. You choose how you pay, either per click or per impression. And, are allowed to add a 50X50 image; if you are going to use a text ad, definitely include with it an image. People are more inclined to click on something if an image is included. Think of it like an online dating profile; people want to see what/whom they are interacting with.

LinkedIn Groups

Joining a group is a great way to meet other like-minded individuals. The same is true when joining a group on LinkedIn. Try and get involved with more than one group, striking off each area that you can benefit from, such as motivation, advice, and information from those in the similar field as yourself; as well, find ones that can be more like your Monday Morning Power Breakfast. There, you will be able to discuss business tips and advice, the same as the other group(s), but you will also be helping each other out with your own product(s) and service(s). Find those groups that would be most likely to use your product(s) or service(s).

Don’t be afraid to make your own group. Creating a group can be a little intimidating; you may have the idea that no one will want to join, or others won’t find it useful and will leave. However, do try to make one. It’s a great way to build your network, your followers, and a great way to find new clients. You’ll look like the one ‘in the know’ in your industry, reaching out to others with similar interests and likes.

BUILDING YOUR CONNECTIONS: Linkedin lead generation

You’ve already invited everyone in your address book and you’ve joined some groups and even made one yourself. However, you still want to build your connections and grow your presence on LinkedIn. Now what? The way to get more noticed on LinkedIn is to be continuously out there, showing off your professional attributes and getting your name across their newsfeed. Post regularly, making sure that you’re posting engaging content that isn’t just filler content. You don’t want to be putting out a status that doesn’t interest anyone, thus defeating the purpose of posting so often. Find out when your connections and most LinkedIn users in your area are online and post during those times, the same as you would with Instagram. If you’re getting more comments, shares and likes at one time than another, then post your status updates and information at those times.

Try commenting on other peoples’ posts, engaging with them and making them aware of yourself and your brand. If you’re not sure what to comment, just share the post, as this will get the same kind of awareness. If you can, and know the actual facts, answer on LinkedIn Answers, starting at once a month and then moving to once or twice a week. If you’re jumping in and trying to start up various social media platforms and get as many followers as possible right away, it will end up a mess. Keep a schedule of things that you should do each week, such as invite one person to connect, comment and/or share posts, figure out how many times you want to post a day/week/month, and how many answers you will give out in LinkedIn Answers.

If you have a lot of connections, you are definitely bound to come across work anniversaries and new jobs on LinkedIn. LinkedIn will send you little reminders for you to help your connection celebrate their promotion, anniversary, or new job. Take this opportunity to reconnect and give them a simple and courteous congratulations.

You can also try adding a Company Follow or LinkedIn Share button to your website, blog posts, and emails. This will get more people aware of your LinkedIn brand, bringing new connections your way.

TOOLS AND FEATURES

LinkedIn Premium

LinkedIn Premium can be a pricey upgrade for your profile, however, there are many perks that come with it. You have access to a larger photo and an expanded profile header, allowing your profile to stand out from others. You also have a gallery of images to choose from for your background, which is similar to how Facebook is set up to have your profile photo and your cover photo. With these three changes, your profile will become doubly noticeable when searches pull up results.

Besides making your profile more prominent, you will have access to the full list of those who have viewed your profile (up to the last 90 days since they have viewed). This is a great feature that can allow you to follow up with those who have searched for you and viewed your profile. You can send out a message to those who have viewed and not connected, or do a quick connect with them. LinkedIn Premium also allows for you to see the keywords that people use when finding you and your profile. For example, you’ll be able to see where you rank on searches and where you should be focusing your money. When you see these searches, you can play around with your summary and profile to place these specific keywords throughout, bringing you into more searches by users.

For more targeted audiences and searches, whenever someone matches your criteria, you will also get up to five weekly e-mails. This can help you follow up with more leads and make more connections. You can also send out messages to those that you are not connected with using the open profile network, which is only accessible to LinkedIn Premium users.

Endorsements

Endorsements are found in your profile and let other users know what your particular skill sets are and that others believe in your skill sets. Try getting connections to endorse you for skills by endorsing them first. LinkedIn is all about networking and a ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ mentality. If you endorse your connections for their own skills, a lot will turn around and do the same for you.

Export your LinkedIn Connections

You’ve made connections via LinkedIn and your connections are ready to receive newsletters from you and be kept up to date on your business. However, you have a lot of connections and taking the entire day to write out their information and then transport that information into another platform is no way to be spending your office dollars. You can actually export your connections from LinkedIn to another system by heading to:

• Connects
• Settings
• Advanced Settings
• Export LinkedIn Connections

You can now upload them into your own system and have those newsletters and updates sent to them from your office staff. This is also a great tool to use if you want to set up a schedule to follow up with your connections and see which ones turn into leads and leads into customers.

Keep in Touch: Linkedin email marketing

If you like the simplicity of using LinkedIn to keep up with your connections and stay in touch with them, you can also use this social media platform instead of your own system, which you may be paying for anyways. You can head over to the Keep in Touch button in Connections and make sure you don’t forget to follow up with a connection or a lead again. Here, you can see when you haven’t communicated in awhile, track your communications, get alerts when your connection has a birthday, job change or promotion. Always congratulate your connection on their new job, birthday or promotion as this can open up a fresh wave of conversation, initiating a stronger relationship between you two rather than just a connection on LinkedIn, getting lost in the shuffle.

How to market on linkedin with LinkedIn Showcase Pages?

These are a great way to target audiences and showcase your specific products and services. If you have some that may be of use to a younger generation, or to those in a specific area code, you can make a LinkedIn showcase page to cater to the specific target audience. Those who follow your showcase page don’t necessarily haven’t to be following your company page, so you’re free to make it as specific as possible and use different creative outlets to try out different types of showcase pages. You can make ten showcase pages for your company, allowing you to branch out even further than just your original company page and newsfeed.

LinkedIn Pulse

Here, you can publish articles about the business world and your company, taking a few articles that you have already written on your own blog. This is a great way to get your name out there in the LinkedIn world and to promote your own blog or website. By offering snippets of articles or only the first two in a series out on LinkedIn Pulse, you can end up driving people back to your original blog or website. Make sure that your articles are concisely written with intrigue to pull the reader in and make them think about following you and your voice back to your company’s website page or blog. If the articles that you are putting out there aren’t noteworthy or exciting, you won’t be getting leads back to your website. However, if they’re enjoyable and professional sounding, people will be looking to find more.