Begin Your Digital Marketing on LinkedIn Today

Table of contents

• Introduction
• What is LinkedIn?
• How can LinkedIn be used for digital marketing?
• Is LinkedIn effective for marketing?
• How do I find customers on LinkedIn?
• LinkedIn as a Digital Marketing Tool
• Conclusion

Introduction

Begin your digital marketing on LinkedIn today.

First let’s look at statistics.

Currently there are, at present, more than 400 million LinkedIn users across 200 countries and territories. It’s a social network with amazing reach; just like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. So what are those things that different LinkedIn from its competitors? And why should you incorporate it into your digital marketing strategy?

Since the inception of LinkedIn, is not a platform when one shares innumerable pictures of meals and viral videos of baby monkeys. LinkedIn has been a distinctly professional platform. Used as a tool for recruitment, brand promotion, business networking, and increasingly, a powerful platform for digital marketing.

By following a few simple strategies and easy to adopt steps. You will be able to use the most of your LinkedIn account and harness your social presence to generate leads. Drive sales and equally achieve ultimate digital marketing on LinkedIn.

Let’s consider those factors that will help you begin your digital marketing on LinkedIn.

What is Linkedin?

LinkedIn is an American business and employment oriented online service that works through websites and mobile apps. It was launched on 5 May, 2003. Majorly used for professional networking. This includes employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs. As of 2015, major part of the company’s revenue came from selling access to information about its members to recruiters and sales professionals. Since December 2016 it has been an owned subsidiary of Microsoft.

As of May, this year (2020), LinkedIn has upto 706 million registered members in 150 countries. LinkedIn is the largest professional network online in the world. It is used to find the right job or internship, connect and strengthen professional relationships. Also used to learn the skills you need to succeed in your career.

A complete LinkedIn profile will help you connect with opportunities by highlighting your unique story through experience, skills, and education.

You might equally use LinkedIn to organize offline events, join groups, write contents, post photos and videos.

Who should you join LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a platform for anyone who wants to advance in their career. This may include people from different professional backgrounds, such as small business owners, students, and job seekers. LinkedIn members use the platform to tap into a network of professionals, companies, and groups within and beyond their industry.

How do I get started on LinkedIn?

Here are things to do to get started on LinkedIn:

Create your profile

Sign up and create your profile is the best way to begin using LinkedIn. A complete LinkedIn profile will help to summarize your professional experience to your connections, current and future employers, and recruiters.

Build your network

Your network plays an important part in unlocking the power of LinkedIn. It’ll aid you understand what is happening in your industry and professional circle. You may start by adding your family, friends, past or current classmates, and coworkers to your network. You will equally follow people, companies. Or topics by navigating directly to the follow fresh perspectives page, which will display recommended sources to follow.

Find a job

If you’re looking for a new professional opportunity, you may get started on your job search on LinkedIn. You will use LinkedIn to research companies and reach out to their hiring community.

Post content

Millions of its members come to the platform every day to connect, learn, and share. You may empower and educate your professional circle with the content you post. You may equally share your thoughts and ideas with LinkedIn members usiing the share box.

LinkedIn’s free service vs. paid subscriptions

LinkedIn offers a free, basic membership to anyone who needs to create and maintain a professional profile online.

When you upgrade to a Premium subscription, you’ll get more access to LinkedIn’s products and features. The paid subscriptions include the following:

• Marketing
• Recruitment
• Sales
• And learning products.

You may be able to use LinkedIn Premium for free for a month.

How can LinkedIn be used for digital marketing?

How can I use LinkedIn for digital marketing? Or how can I begin digital marketing on LinkedIn?

Let’s consider what business leaders and expert marketers has to say concerning the above question.

Find highly targeted customers and connections

Targeting on LinkedIn is very unparalleled in the realm of digital advertising. Small businesses may zero in on the exact industry, company size and job role (of the people). That you know basically would buy your product or service. For instance, you sell customer support software to small businesses in the United States. You will set up your advertising campaigns to only show to businesses that have under 100 employees, based in America.

Stay on customers’ radars

Some agencies help small businesses generate leads on LinkedIn. Some clients do need a particular kind of people that will make high quality customers for them. We do it in such a way that it looks like the client is introducing themselves. But we do all the work for for them. Then we keep in touch with the people who have showed interest, again using LinkedIn.

Grow your email marketing list

We highly recommend everyone on LinkedIn to write a crafted letter to each connection. Saying thank you for being a connection to me on LinkedIn. And that’s how you invite them to be part of your email marketing list. Always apologize for the lack of personalization in the email.

Use sponsored updates

With sponsored updates, businesses will pay to push their post onto an individual’s LinkedIn feed. This is called ‘pay-per-click’ or ‘pay-per-1,000.’ But one key difference is the ability to customize based on the name of company, job title, job function, skills, schools and groups. Users can target interested

Post high-quality content

Good content will be highly targeted and should be able to accomplish two goals. First, it should be able to teach others how to solve a problem or how to do their job better. Then establishes you as a thought leader in that space. Each aspect will naturally lead to more business when you offer them real value.

… and go viral

To post directly on LinkedIn is the most powerful tool available on LinkedIn today. When a post starts to gain some momentum, LinkedIn will put a spotlight behind it in one of their categories. This only will get tens of thousands of readers or more for you. This is a perfect way to improve your visibility while reaching your readers. In a way that would not have been possible on your own website or blog.

Give a face to your employees

Get many of your employees as possible to create and complete their profiles on LinkedIn. These should include appropriate photos. Relevant job history that will include a description of how they will help your business.

Join groups – and stay active

One tip, Urbizboost always share to our small business owners’ clients, is for them to join LinkedIn groups. That will be relevant to their target demographic. Not only will it be a great way to listen in on what your audience is talking about. There may equally be times for small business owners to interact or offer their advice.

Create your own LinkedIn group

Create your own LinkedIn group to begin with. After you must have had your LinkedIn group set up, go out and join as many groups. The next step is to select one of those new groups you must have joined and start working the members page to find prospects. Once you’re now inside the group and approved as a member, click on members. Then filter the list of members further and select for certain job titles or something else to narrow down the list to your ideal prospects. Now invite them to join your group.

Is LinkedIn effective for marketing?

The question here; is LinkedIn effective for marketing?

The answer is YES! Let’s consider those things that will prove the answer.

LinkedIn demographics statistics

LinkedIn has it that the site has more than 500 million members, 61 million senior level influencers, and 40 million decision makers on the platform. This proves that the network does not just boast large amounts of users. But a lot of high level executives that most businesses are targeting in their digital marketing campaigns. Therefore, LinkedIn is a clear place to reach these decision-makers when promoting a product or service.

Its users are educated and earn high incomes. Research has it that 49% of U.S. adults using LinkedIn are college graduates and 45% of them earn over $75,000 a year.

Furthermore, the site has it that LinkedIn is the most used social media platform among Fortune 500 companies. It is a serious website used for business, unlike other platforms which have a familial element to them as well.

Statistics on B2B marketers using linkedIn

Research has it that 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing purposes. B2B marketers know how not to skip this platform when they organize a digital marketing strategy.

However, 78% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is a powerful tool for content marketing. It’s not just that they feel they must use the site. Actually is a powerful tool in any B2B marketing campaign.

LinkedIn study states it’s worth to note that LinkedIn makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B sites and blogs. While this statistic does not necessarily connotes that the traffic is relevant traffic. But LinkedIn does bring users to a company website hopefully to be nurtured in the sales funnel.

LinkedIn lead generation statistics

So, the question is: how well does LinkedIn perform for lead generation? The answer is better than all other networks. HubSpot states that LinkedIn is 277% more effective at lead generation than Twitter and Facebook.

The reason for this is might be because LinkedIn users are high-level decision makers in their various industries. And 91% of executives rated LinkedIn as their first choice for professionally relevant content. They went ahead to say that 49% of B2B buyers carry out research on vendors by looking at their LinkedIn profiles. And 44% of them have actually found potential vendors by looking at shared connections on LinkedIn.

From every indications, LinkedIn is undoubtedly an excellent lead generator for companies that invest time and effort. To create a dynamic and relevant LinkedIn strategy. What digital marketers and digital marketing employees must know is that LinkedIn is for networking and connecting. Not for spam or to send out too many emails. Take time and develop a strategy on how to start digital marketing on LinkedIn. If properly done, LinkedIn will produce great results for your business.

How do I find customers on LinkedIn

Here are some steps that will help you start attracting more clients on LinkedIn today.

Professional profile

Before you start any activities that will make you stand before key decision makers. You must ensure that you have a profile that is professional. And search-optimized and most importantly is client-focused.

Identify prospects

Lead generation on LinkedIn requires you must have a clear picture of your target market. So start by thinking of known titles your market would use to describe themselves. This will be an important part to find prospects to connect with online.

Once you have the titles that you need to specifically target you new prospects. You will easily find them using these two separate methods:

• LinkedIn Advanced Search
• LinkedIn Groups

Send a thank you message

Anytime you receive a notification that someone has accepted your connection request on LinkedIn. Reach out to the person with a personalized “thank you” message. Please don’t pitch your services or self-promote in any way. Instead add the URL to your website in your signature.

If possible, you should find some commonality in their profile that will be used to engage in a conversation. Just like in a cocktail party. The only thing that should be your target is getting to know that person and leave a positive impression on them.

Send relationship building messages

Set a reminder to always reach out to your new connection in a week with a relationship building message. The sole purpose of this message will be to provide valuable something to that person with no ulterior motive. Just give and don’t expect anything in return. It is a very critical part of building authentic relationships with people.

Here are some examples of content you can share:

• Checklists
• Reports
• Articles/Blog Posts
• Videos
• Case studies
• eBooks

Make sure to use LinkedIn’s Relationship Tab to keep the person organized when sending your relationship building messages.

Engage with them on shared LinkedIn groups

Take a look at the groups your prospects have joined. If you aren’t a member of groups that your prospects are part of. Then start to join the most important ones that fit the target audience you are looking for.

Remember not everyone is active on LinkedIn groups but when you find a prospect that is. It will provide you an excellent opportunity to step on their radar. In a way that will demonstrate your expertise and credibility.

Move relationships offline

Here is the most critical step where many people fall short. Without this final step, there’s many social without any selling. Once you are able to build enough rapport and have established your credibility. You need to make the transition to an offline conversation.

Remember it is offline that you will be able convert a prospect to a client. Don’t try to sell or pitch anything when there’s no conversation. Get to know the problems your prospect is dealing with. Only then will you offer a solution.

When you’ve followed steps 1-6 accurately. Your prospect will be open to the idea of speaking offline with you since you’ve demonstrated:

• Credibility
• Expertise
• Your ability to provide value

LinkedIn as a Digital Marketing Tool

Update your LinkedIn profile

To be able to use LinkedIn as an effective marketing tool. Your profile need to be relevant and up to date. You must be a follower of relevant people, and you need to understand all the tools to use on LinkedIn.

Bolster your LinkedIn profile with the following:

• Update your status regularly
• Add blog posts
• Share presentations
• Post events
• Tweet more
• Upload portfolio: Post your portfolio to LinkedIn to highlight your accomplishments. LinkedIn is a great platform to keep a master portfolio and resume.

Don’t sound like a pushy marketer. Be honest and genuine when you talk about yourself and your company. People will respond positively to you.

Utilize community features to increase visibility

LinkedIn is a platform that has a lot of community features that allow people interact with specific connections. These will lead to interactions, which are very valuable in creating new connections and building relationships. Through participating in these community features. You will build yourself as an industry expert and give your brand more visibility.

Let’s look at some of the community features that are great options to take advantage of.

• Groups
• Answers: Always share your business knowledge. Ask questions that will attract feedback. Answer other people’s questions or start interaction with others in your niche. Connections often appreciate the help.
• Company Pages

Use LinkedIn to market your business

Now that your profile is good to go and you have involved yourself in the LinkedIn community. Start to use LinkedIn as a tool to market your business.

• Reach out to prospective customers. With a network of connections, to reach out to them is much easier. When you don’t have connections with these prospects. Find out if you have any connections in common with them. LinkedIn is a platform that has an introduction feature. Meaning that one of your connections can introduce you to one of their connections.
• Find employees. As a platform, LinkedIn is an easy way to source out talented individuals that fit into what you are looking for. Additionally they should already have a resume or portfolio posted to their own LinkedIn. That you will take a look at before you interact with them.
• Run advertisements. LinkedIn equally has paid ads. If your company has all it takes to spend on advertising. It is an effective way to reach your target market.
• Analyze analytics. LinkedIn also has its own analytics that is capable to show the impact of your content.

So, don’t let LinkedIn be an underutilized resource at your company. Use it effectively as a digital marketing tool to establish your company as an industry expert. And gain more followers.

Follow these steps as you begin your digital marketing on LinkedIn today.

Conclusion

Consistency Is the key

Finally your success of digital marketing on LinkedIn will depend on your dedication each day to follow the process. You have from this article. With the consistent addition of targeted connections to your network. And to build your reputation as an authority in your industry. You will begin to attract a steady stream of your ideal customers through your proactive efforts.