LinkedIn released guidelines for social media users with regards to how their platform can provide increase in advertising and promotions of brands. According to the published guide last year “Engagement on LinkedIn is booming. Members are engaging with all forms of content on LinkedIn at record rates, and that engagement is accelerating. Consider that mobile LinkedIn sessions are growing 57% year over year!” Here are some statistics from the study:
40% of LinkedIn users visit the everyday
45% of traffic to websites come from LinkedIn
60% engagement from users increase every year
There are 675,000,000 plus members in 200 countries for the LinkedIn platform.
Revenue statistics for LinkedIn:
Annual revenue is about 6.8 Million USD
LinkedIn generates $ 454,000 per employee
In Quarter 3 2019, LinkedIn revenue increased by 27%
It does not take a rocket scientist to do the math and get numbers on how LinkedIn reaches consumers at any one time.
From such robust facts, companies should allocate an amount, time and effort to include LinkedIn to the marketing strategy. Although not all businesses sit well with some platforms, LinkedIn can be an effective line of communication with consumers if done properly.
Incorporating LinkedIn to Marketing Strategy
Given the enticing statistics of LinkedIn use and potential, the next step is to know how to use the platform to drive traffic and leads to the website.
- Start with establishing a strong and attractive company page
Create a company profile that is eye-catching. The page is the first line of impressing consumers. This page should highlight details of the product or service. Initial content should induce interest and curiosity for more information.
The LinkedIn business page can be easily created within minutes. This page does not only attract new prospects but returning clients as well. Posting of new products, new offers, updates and other information should be made through this business page.
Details for asked by LinkedIn are:
- Company name
- Company size
- Industry
- Website URL
- Product or service offerings
- Company logo (if any)
- Profile pictures
- Cover photo that is indicative of the business
- Be sure to include relevant keywords when making the company description. Mention the benefits of the product or service.
- Search for niche-specific groups and join
LinkedIn is very popular for professionals and business groups. There are many groups that are related to a business. For example, if the company is selling pet products, searching for “pet products” can generate prospects and business groups. The members of such niche are interested or engage in the pet products industry. Be sure to participate and promote the brand in such groups.
- Post valuable content on the LinkedIn publishing platform
LinkedIn allows the publication of relevant industry articles and the marketer should take advantage of this. A lot of articles with effective headlines and unique, informative content have high ranks from Google SERP. This is a good strategy for SEO purposes.
One other advantage is that every time content is published, all contacts for the business page are notified automatically. There is already a captured market for the article with current LinkedIn contacts.
- Use LinkedIn Ads
A marketer can avail of LinkedIn ads for more visibility on the platform. LinkedIn has a very good targeting system because members must provide business and other interests. This is a valuable service to marketers.
These are the various advertising methods used by LinkedIn:
- Sponsored InMail
This is the same as email blasting but only within the LinkedIn network. With sponsored InMail, a marketer can send out message ads to contacts only when the contact is active. The InMail will be shown on top of the Inbox.
- Text Ads
These are pay-per-click (PPC) ads that are generated during LinkedIn searches using keywords, group pages or profiles. Many companies are benefitting from these types of ads.
- Sponsored Content
Using this method can garner a wider scope of audience and marketer can explain or present the product or services thoroughly, as well.
All the methods above involve cost. Marketer should study and decide the best option to use.
- Get to know the LinkedIn audience
LinkedIn users are a different breed from Facebook or Twitter users. The audience that other social media platforms have are mostly with an entertainment mindset. With LinkedIn, the audience is composed of professionals and businesspeople who value information. Therefore, it is very important that content should be aligned with the mindset of the audience.
To find out more about the business page audience, LinkedIn has an analytics function which can show the marketer who, where and what the users are looking at on the page.
Tips on How to Market on LinkedIn
Implementation of a weekly schedule for LinkedIn posts should be part of the marketing strategy. Best practices are:
- Send LinkedIn invites from 3pm to 4pm from Mondays to Fridays to build a network of contacts.
- 8:00 to 8:30AM is the best time to post or reply to other LinkedIn contacts
- Content is best posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
LinkedIn is one of the best tools available to a marketer. This platform can generate leads and traffic to the main website and revenue as well for B2B businesses. This is a way to represent the business to target audiences in a professional and engaging manner. If a LinkedIn marketing strategy is implemented for the product or service, there is going to be positive and profitable results soon.