LinkedIn is a great tool for business networking, but the site offers potential to market your business as well. Aside from the content and networking strategies you may be familiar with, LinkedIn marketing opportunities include advertising campaigns and sponsored updates.
With this in mind, you might wonder how should you integrate LinkedIn into your marketing strategy. First, begin with a content plan. Then explore paid options to build new business.
Define your objective ✍️
As with any other form of marketing, it’s important to have a plan. To reach members of your target audience, do your homework to identify who they are. Consider the following:
- Who is in your target audience?
- What do you hope to gain?
- What actions do you want your potential clients to take?
Whatever your objective, start by making it clear on your LinkedIn company page. Moving forward, keep your objective focused and integrated into your efforts.
Use content ?
Once you understand your audience, you’ll want to craft relevant content for them. You can do this in two ways.
- Status updates — Short, digestible content pieces and links to additional information
- Articles — Long-form articles utilizing the LinkedIn publishing platform
To use content successfully, define a strategy and focus on the following topics:
- Branded company content
- Expert content from thought leaders
- User-generated content from your audience
Share content ?
Once you have content, you need to disseminate it in successful ways. To maximize your exposure, be consistent with content creation. Here are some tips:
- Publish often and on schedule.
- Build your network and publicize your posts.
- Connect your LinkedIn profile to your Facebook and Twitter accounts to extend your reach.
- Optimize headlines and images.
- Put your content into LinkedIn channels.
Advertise to your target audience ?
Paying for advertisements in hopes of getting a bigger audience may seem like a no-brainer. On LinkedIn, however, not every company can reap benefits from paid ads. Because LinkedIn does not have the targeting parameters other social media sites offer, it’s worth doing your research before making an investment in LinkedIn ads. Three verticals that do well are higher education, recruiters, and high-value business-to-business (B2B) products and services.
Sponsored content and paid ads ?
Sponsored content is a good way to get more traffic. Hubspot is one company that has found great success with lead generation campaigns. Used alongside regular posts, they note that sponsored updates give marketers the ability to reach targets wherever they are on affordable budgets.
For the right company leaders with compelling content for their target audiences, LinkedIn can be a viable option for a marketing campaign strategy and one that you should consider as part of your larger marketing plan.
[cta]Ready to market your business via LinkedIn — but don’t know where to start? We can help find groups, build relevant content, and create specific strategies and tactics to help build your LinkedIn relationships. Contact me, Mark McIntosh, at 972-998-5132 or schedule a meeting with me at www.ScheduleACallWithMark.com.[/cta]
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