LinkedIn is a great place for networking and growing your business. These marketing tips will help you make better use of the social media platform.
- LinkedIn is a social media platform that can be used to build brand awareness and relationships with consumers.
- By posting engaging content and participating in industry discussions, businesses using LinkedIn can market to potential customers and partners.
- Business owners can use LinkedIn to grow their email marketing list with their professional connections and network.
- This article is for business owners who want to use LinkedIn to boost their marketing efforts and connections with consumers.
LinkedIn is a great addition to your digital marketing strategy because it helps you make connections and establish partnerships. It’s also a great platform for generating leads and boosting your brand awareness.
If you want to market your business on LinkedIn, here are 15 hacks to help you find new customers and partners and grow your business. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the importance of LinkedIn marketing and how to set up your company page.
What is LinkedIn marketing?
LinkedIn can help you grow your business by exposing it to millions of connections. You can use these connections to build relationships with individuals and other companies, which in turn can help boost your brand.
At heart, LinkedIn is a professional social network focused on career development, professional connections, and industry discussion. You can find customers, employees, and partners here.
The main point to take away from this is that LinkedIn can be used to expand your professional network and improve your brand visibility.
Importance of a LinkedIn marketing strategy
While LinkedIn is not the best social platform to blatantly sell or market your products and services, a specific marketing strategy tailored to the platform can be very effective. The key is to understand the difference between the LinkedIn audience and those of other social networks.
Sprout Social has stated that businesses who market on LinkedIn generally see 277% more leads than those only marketing on Facebook. In addition, surveyed B2B marketers have reported that LinkedIn is responsible for the majority of their social media leads, at 80%. If utilized correctly, LinkedIn can be a powerful marketing tool that can help propel your business forward.
If you want to be successful on LinkedIn, you need a specific plan for the platform. Sales pitches and aggressive advertising won’t work well. You need to appeal to your connections and other businesses to get the consumer reach and results you want.
How to set up your business LinkedIn page
Creating a LinkedIn business page is just as important as having a website for your company. You can build a LinkedIn business page for free by following the steps below.
Click the Work icon in the top right corner on the LinkedIn homepage.
Select the option to “Create a company page” and select an option from the list of page types that most closely resembles the type of business page needed.
You have these choices for the business type:
- Small business
- Medium to large business
- Showcase page
- Educational institution (school or university)
3. Enter your page’s name, company, and profile information.
After you have provided all the required information, checking the verification box confirms that you are allowed to operate the account on behalf of your business.
To create a company page on LinkedIn, select the “Create page” option. You may receive an error message if your company does not meet the requirements for creating a page, which include having an actual company and a business email address. You may also be denied because you have exceeded the limit for creating pages.
If you are successful in following the previous steps, you will be able to select “Start building your page” and begin customizing it to your liking.
To create a LinkedIn business page, click on the Work icon and then select the “create a company page” section. Fill out all the required fields to create your page, and then add key information to optimize your profile.
LinkedIn marketing tips to grow your business
There are 15 profile features you should check and update for 2022 to give yourself the best LinkedIn profile and personal brand possible. Some of the changes may be quick and easy, while others may take a bit more time, but all of them will be worth it in the end.
1. Choose the right profile picture for LinkedIn.
Your LinkedIn profile picture is important because it’s the first impression people will have of you. Here are some tips to make sure you choose a good one: make sure the picture is recent and you look like yourself, make sure your face takes up around 60% of the picture (long-distance shots aren’t as noticeable), wear something you would typically wear to work, and smile with your eyes!
2. Add a background photo.
The background photo on your profile page is the second most important visual element. It helps your page stand out, engage attention, and be remembered.
Your headline should be more than just your job title. It should be something that reflects your professional brand and tells potential employers what you’re all about.
Your profile headline can be more than just your job title. Use the headline field to say something about your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you motivated. If you have co-workers who are successful with social selling, take a look at their headlines for inspiration.
4. Turn your summary into your story.
The most important thing to keep in mind for your LinkedIn summary is to make sure you have one in the first place. A lot of people still make the mistake of leaving this field blank when creating their profile, which is a shame because it’s an opportunity to tell your own story. Instead of using it simply to list your skills or past job titles, try to give some context for why those skills are important and how they can benefit the people you work with. It’s worth taking the time to invest in a few drafts and getting feedback from others before you finalize it. After all, this is your most personal piece of content marketing.
5. Declare war on buzzwords.
The following are some of the most over-used buzzwords on LinkedIn: specialised, leadership, focused, strategic, experienced, passionate, expert, creative, innovative, and certified. While there’s nothing wrong with using these words to describe yourself, simply using them won’t be enough to convince others that you actually have these qualities. You need to back them up with concrete evidence, such as through the way you describe yourself and the way you use LinkedIn profile features.
6. Grow your network.
You can grow your LinkedIn network by syncing it with your email address book. By doing this, LinkedIn can suggest people you could connect with. This is an effective way of finding relevant people to reach out to. You can follow up meetings and conversations with LinkedIn connection requests in order to keep your network current.
7. List your relevant skills.
Adding skills to your LinkedIn profile is an easy way to back up the information in your headline and summary. It also gives other people a way to endorse you. The important thing is to make sure your skills are relevant. A long list of skills that don’t relate to you or your work can be overwhelming. Clean up your skills list every now and then.
8. Spotlight the services you offer.
The ‘Services’ feature on LinkedIn allows individuals who offer consulting, freelancing, or work for smaller businesses to advertise the range of services they provide. This can be beneficial in boosting their profile’s visibility in search results.
9. Spread the endorsement love.
Build credibility on LinkedIn by endorsements from others. Go through your network and identify connections who deserve your endorsement. Ask for endorsements from these people, starting with those from whom you would really value the endorsement. Remember to be relevant.
10. Manage your endorsements more proactively.
The people who have endorsed you on LinkedIn may not reflect your actual skills and expertise. For example, you may be good at content marketing, but the people who have endorsed you may have endorsed you for your work on events. You can manage your endorsements list by editing the skills section on your profile. This way, you can choose which endorsements to show and which to hide.
11. Take a skills assessment.
An online skills assessment test allows you to prove your skills level and get a Verified Skills badge for your profile. The data shows that the candidates who have verified skills are 30% more likely to be hired for the roles they apply for. Also, displaying the results of your skills assessment strengthens your personal brand. You can retake the test as many times as you want before displaying that you have passed.
12. Request recommendations.
When people look at your profile, endorsements are there to give them a quick visual representation of what you’re good at. Recommendations go one step further by being personal accounts of what it’s like to work with you. If you’re looking to get recommendations from specific contacts, there’s a handy drop-down menu in the Recommendations section of your profile that makes it easy to reach out to them. It’s worth taking the time to personalise your request to get the most value out of it.
13. Use sponsored updates.
LinkedIn offers businesses the option to sponsor updates and have them appear on an individual’s feed. This ‘pay-per-click’ or ‘pay-per-1,000’ impression feature offers demographics similar to other social platforms (location, gender and age), but one key differentiation is the ability to customize based on company name, job title, job function, skills, schools and groups. Users can target interested industries without competing against the noise of irrelevant companies and messages. A sponsored update can be an excellent way to promote thought-leadership content useful primarily to the targeted audience with a strong call to action.
14. Avoid hard sells.
LinkedIn should be treated like any other marketing platform and you should stay up-to-date with the latest trends. People don’t want to be interrupted by ads, so try to be seen organically on LinkedIn. Content marketing and inbound marketing are effective strategies on this platform, so research and apply these methods. There are a lot of people on LinkedIn who use outdated, aggressive selling tactics–avoid becoming one of them.
Use long-form content to start conversations.
If you want to be a thought leader on LinkedIn, start by sharing and commenting on content. See what topics are resonating with your network and expand on those in long-form posts. Be ready for new conversations to start and keep an eye on the comments.
If you want to use LinkedIn for marketing, it’s important to make your brand known on the platform and to build connections. Include information about your business in your profile so that people will understand what your brand is about. Be an active participant on LinkedIn by joining groups, posting quality content, and interacting with your connections.
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