How to Use LinkedIn in Marketing

When it comes to B2B lead generation, LinkedIn for business is as good as it gets. According to Sprout Social, LinkedIn has connected 45% of marketers to customers, generates 277% more leads than Facebook, and accounts for over 50% of traffic that B2B sites receive.

Just about everybody in the corporate world can be found on LinkedIn. That includes B2B decision-makers for your products and services. Although many C-suite executives have quietly stepped aside from LinkedIn over the past few years, others are adamant about using the platform.

The key to getting real ROI is learning how to find clients on LinkedIn.

Many of the people you’ll find out there arguing why LinkedIn is bad have never mastered using it to grow marketing. Marketing on LinkedIn takes some time and dedication. But once you learn how to use LinkedIn for marketing, it can become your single biggest source of leads.

Pros and Cons of LinkedIn

Like any social media network, you need to verify LinkedIn can really add business value for you.

If you are doing B2B sales or B2B marketing in any industry, LinkedIn is probably a good fit.

The Advantages of LinkedIn

• Decision-makers at director level and above are abundant for almost any industry.
• Specialized tools such as LinkedIn Recruiter provide extended search capabilities.
• LinkedIn can help you bolster your company’s brand and even get search traffic.
• You can extend your network by participating in Groups or publishing content.

The Disadvantages of LinkedIn

• Like any social media, you can find yourself spending a lot more time than results warrant.
• CEOs are generally making themselves more scarce and are less likely to discuss your offer.
• Everything you say and do is permanent, so it’s important to maintain your professionalism.
• If you wind up using them, LinkedIn Recruiter and other subscription options can be pricey.

Here are a few more pros and cons of LinkedIn:

The biggest disadvantage to LinkedIn is that when you decide to start entertaining job offers in the future, your pattern of activity on the network could make it obvious to your current employer. But that may be many years away, and you can take steps to minimize the risk when that day finally comes. Meanwhile, the top advantage to LinkedIn is leads and plenty of them.

LinkedIn Marketing Strategy

When using LinkedIn for business, step one is to set up your profile. Done? Good! LinkedIn profile optimization advice has been drawn out a thousand times. Let’s move on to the big question: How to find clients on LinkedIn?

There are six basics to marketing on LinkedIn you can’t do without:

1. Have clear goals

Every content your company publishes should push you closer to your end goal. It’s for this reason that you should know what you intend to achieve. Usually, using LinkedIn for Business should help you:

• Create awareness
• Sell your product
• Generate sales and market to qualified leads
• Boost engagement

2. Identify your audience

Determine who to target. Knowing your audience, it would be wise to understand what your audience needs. For this, you’ll have to visit your company’s analytics page on LinkedIn. This page will display the people that visit your site and their preferred content type.

There are two questions to ask yourself to help you find clients;

• Who is your ideal client?
• Which clients require the service/product your company provides?

Answering these questions provides sufficient details to create buyer personas.

3. Post Relevant Content

This is the heart of using LinkedIn for business. You want people to know you, follow you, and tune in to what you have to say. To get there, posting helpful, informative content is a must. Your leads need to know that when they want help with their business problems, you’ll be there.

To this end, you can publish articles on LinkedIn or link articles from your website or blog in your LinkedIn feed. Users you aren’t connected to can follow you from your articles, so consider using this to build your audience. Later, start linking out to get warm leads to visit your website directly.

4. Use LinkedIn Live Video

The first rule of LinkedIn Live Video is we don’t talk about LinkedIn Live Video.

At least, that’s how it seems when you look at LinkedIn’s Live Video access criteria, which bars most of the platform from providing the most memorable and shareable content. Individuals with 1,000 followers and Pages with more than 500 can be evaluated to post video on LinkedIn.

Once you have it, it stands out as one of the most powerful tools when using LinkedIn for business. Combined with marketing automation for other aspects of your campaign, like email drip campaigns, it can be very valuable in getting leads off LinkedIn and onto your in-house list.

5. Participate in Groups

You’ll find Groups for almost any subject imaginable, including industry networking, local business meet-ups, and much more. The traditional way of using LinkedIn for business is to post valuable content to these Groups, then start conversations with the promising leads you meet.

Once you’ve mastered juggling a few Groups, you can easily niche down by creating your own. This should still be value-based, of course, but it gives you the opportunity to spotlight your own branded content and build deeper relationships along the buyer’s journey.

6. Use Digital Marketing Tools

Your LinkedIn strategy should be just one prong of a total strategy that includes blogging on your website, sending newsletters and using other social media to engage your target audience.

Using digital marketing tools makes it easier for you to achieve your marketing objectives. You get accurate, timely data on what's working so you can tailor your content to get real results. Here are several digital marketing tools:

• MeetAlfred is an advanced social selling and lead generation software for LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Octopus is a powerful yet simple autopilot for LinkedIn that automates your work.
• SEMrush Content Marketing Platform let you develop a powerful content strategy with data-driven solutions
• Altcraft Marketing allows you to send personalized letters to customers across all channels.

Use LinkedIn Lead Generation to Grow Marketing in Just One Quarter

LinkedIn for business won’t change your life overnight: It takes time and consistent effort. Across a few months, however, you’ll discover that you’re consistently getting more results for less. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see the difference.

Have a question about LinkedIn for business? Let us know – or keep reading our blog to learn about how you can automate other areas of your marketing so you have more time for LinkedIn.