Ready to grow your business with LinkedIn? Well the time is now. LinkedIn is the most actively used B2B social media site out there. We’ve put together a concise guide to help you get started today. When used adequately, LinkedIn can fit perfectly into every company’s digital marketing strategy.

Estimates show that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn and 43% marketers say they have sourced a customer on this platform. About 92% of marketers leverage LinkedIn over other social media websites while 79% of them confirm that LinkedIn is an effective source for generating leads.

In addition, 46% of social media traffic on your company’s website comes from this network. Intrigued? This guide brings you everything you should know about marketing on LinkedIn.

StrategiesMarketing opportunities for B2B on LinkedIn are numerous, but to get the maximum exposure it is necessary to employ effective strategies. Below, we’ve compiled the top useful strategies to utilize today:

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

2

Make the business profile a lead generation page

LinkedIn differs in many ways from other platforms. While it is a great marketing tool, it’s not always obvious how to utilize. When it comes to the website, leads don’t just show up out of the blue, you have to make effort to attract them. One of the easiest ways to do so is by making the business profile a lead generation page by structuring it to lead up to conversion action through Recent updates or company description. Basically, creating an adequate profile is mandatory.

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

3

Create a pitch in description box

The description of the company shouldn’t be generic. You know those dry, plain descriptions about the company and its growth that you can find on most business profiles? Blah, Blah, Blah… Instead of using descriptions of that type, it is more practical to speak directly to the target audience and use a call-to-action.

The most important part of the company description is the beginning (of course) or first two-three sentences. These sentences catch the reader’s attention and make him/her want to click see more. This simple description tweak ensures reader’s interest in the company and increases the likelihood of conversion from leads to customers

Post updates regularly

Regardless of the social media website, in order to get more traffic, reach more people, and turn more leads into customers you have to post updates regularly. The trick is to post updates that are directly aimed at the target audience. Options are endless here; post blogs, links to infographics, share helpful content and other valuable information.

Create a Showcase Page

Showcase Pages are designed to promote individual brands which are extensions of the company. What’s more, the Showcase Pages were specifically designed for B2B to help them generate more leads. To get the most out of one such page, it should target one specific customer segment and provide information relevant to them. To do this, click Edit on the company profile and select Create a Showcase Page.

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

4

Advanced search

RUse the LinkedIn’s advanced search to identify and find a target audience. What’s amazing about LinkedIn is that even if you don’t opt for the upgrade, you’ll still get plenty of options to narrow down your search. You can filter parameters such as location, industry, current company, school, past company, interests, profile language, to get the list of your target audience.

Join or create groups

Facebook isn’t the only social media website that allows joining or creating groups, one can do the same on LinkedIn. Search for groups that fit your interests or groups that are associated with your industry. Don’t be one of those members who just observe, try participating in discussions actively. Joining or creating groups on LinkedIn is a great way to connect and build a great relationship with like-minded individuals, target demographics, and potential partners.

Advertising opportunities

Including LinkedIn into digital marketing strategy can be highly beneficial primarily because the platform offers a number of opportunities. Here are some amazing advertising opportunities you should consider:

» Self-service advertising on LinkedIn – you can set your budget, stop ads any time you want, choose clicks or impressions etc.

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

5

» Managed campaigns – partner up with LinkedIn’s team to design exclusively placed ads for premium audience

» SlideShare content ads – promote your content via presentations. This is particularly useful if you bear in mind that presentations are an excellent way to engage your audience

» Sponsored InMail – use LinkedIn InMail to deliver relevant messages to the targeted audience. Sponsored messages are personalized and contain a call-to-action

» Social ads – they use the same targeting like other LinkedIn advertising options, but they do allow users to leverage social proof throughout the community on LinkedIn. This feature makes it easy for members to endorse your company and insights, information, ideas

Follow company ads – they are display ads that use a user’s profile data in order to deliver personalized, customized messages to ensure the company page increases engagement rate

» Featured company ads – associated with the company page and allows users to display links to the Jobs and Product Showcase pages. Basically, this tool seems organic but it increases awareness of the business and its products/services

» LinkedIn group ads – personalized and targeted ads that drive and promote membership to custom group communities

Spotlight ads – they don’t use traditional ad formats, but look like content on the page

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

6

What businesses do well on LinkedIn?

With well-crafted marketing strategy and optimized profile, just about any business can do well on this platform. Here are some examples of businesses that do well on LinkedIn:

» Sales

» Marketing, SEO

» Information technology

» Real estate

» Business insurance

» Staffing

» Business banking

» Retail

» Finance

Third-party tools

Numerous third-party tools are available now to enhance the experience and get the most out of LinkedIn. For example:

» Elink.Club – visits as many as 800 targeted profiles a day for you

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

7

» Rapportive – a Gmail plug-in that displays LinkedIn profiles of those you are interacting with

» Crystal – helps you learn about your contacts and profiles of LinkedIn users so you can get to know their personalities. As a result, you’ll communicate better with target audience

» Followers Guide – although buying followers is something that you don’t really want to do, it can come handy in certain situations and this tool helps do just that

» SalesTools.io – allows you to download lead lists from LinkedIn to Excel. Another purpose of the tool is to monitor a newsfeed for certain keyword

» Devumi – LinkedIn connections and endorsements for sale

» Email Hunter – helps users find email addresses of prospects by analyzing and storing addresses that are publicly available on the internet

Ways to brand your business

The key behind every successful marketing strategy is branding. It seems logical, you have to build a brand and make it stronger in order to give a reason to current and potential customers/clients to trust you more than the competition. LinkedIn allows you to brand your business in numerous ways, such as:

» Engage entire team on LinkedIn i.e. get your team involved in company’s page » Demonstrate value to followers

» Have the same company profile photo on LinkedIn and other social media platforms you use

» Comment on posts of other LinkedIn users, try to be helpful to create a positive reaction in one’s mind to your brand

» Implement keywords into the company profile wisely

» Publish SlideShare presentations

» Showcase company’s culture and core values

» Solve problems for your audience

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

8

» Demonstrate leadership

» Create the above-mentioned Showcase Pages

» Add images

Conclusion

LinkedIn offers a wide array of marketing opportunities to help you grow your business, you just have to know how to use them properly. To turn your company’s profile into powerful marketing tool you have to structure it properly. It is also helpful to join groups, look for the target audience and connect with them instead of waiting for them to stumble upon your profile. Third-party tools can enhance the overall experience and help you with branding.

We wish you luck with your LinkedIn marketing.

If you’d like a free LinkedIn Audit please email us at linkedinaudit@emarketed.com.

References

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/linkedin-numbers-2017-statistics-meenakshi-chaudhary/

https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/linkedin-b2b-marketing/2017/10-surprising-stats-you-didnt-know-about-marketing-on-linkedin

https://blog.kissmetrics.com/linkedin-strategies-b2b-marketing/

https://www.emarketed.com/linkedin-marketing

https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/company-pages/showcase-pages#

https://elink-pro.com/https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator/feature-list/sales-navigator-for-gmail

https://www.crystalknows.com/

http://buyfollowersguide.com/linkedin-followers-reviews/

https://salestools.io/

https://devumi.com/services/linkedin-connections/

https://hunter.io/chrome

LINKEDIN MARKETING GUIDE FOR B2B

9