If you’re looking to grow your business, attract new talent, and build your brand, LinkedIn marketing can be a game changer. Personally, we are addicted to LinkedIn and love discovering new companies in our industry.

LinkedIn as a fantastic business marketing tool. It has the capacity to generate leads, build brand awareness, establish partnerships, recruit new employees, and develop relationships with your customers. A poor LinkedIn presence leaves tons of opportunity on the table.

If you don’t know where to start with LinkedIn, that’s okay – we’re ready to help! We’re going to walk you through how to get established on LinkedIn, including set up, advertising, analyzing metrics, generating leads, and more. We’ve also thrown in a couple tips and tricks for good measure. Let’s get started!

The Ultimate Guide to Business Marketing on LinkedIn

1. Set Up

Setting up your profile is one of the easiest parts of the whole process. First, make sure you are logged into your own personal profile. Then click on the “Work” dropdown in the top right corner of the page and select “Create a Company Page”. Follow LinkedIn’s prompts and fill in the appropriate information.

Now you are all set to begin filling in the profile. It’s extremely important to add visuals, especially a logo and banner. This makes your page seem official, credible, and trustworthy.

If you have many audience segments, you may want to consider creating LinkedIn Showcase pages which display specific products. Essentially, this feature allows you to customize your messages for different segments of your audience.

2. Stay Active

A “dead” profile gives off the impression of…well…a dead company. This is not only confusing for current customers, but it can also repel any potential new ones.

It’s important to keep your LinkedIn marketing page up to date with what’s happening within your company and industry. Try to post regular company updates that would be relevant and interesting to your audience. Be careful not to overwhelm them – even a monthly update can be sufficient.

When you are not posting or interacting with content, consider taking some time to update your branding. Update your background image and logo (high resolution please!), double check any website links to ensure they still work, and manage your connections.

If you are feeling like your LinkedIn progress is stagnating, there are a ton of “LinkedIn Audits” available via a quick Google search. These audits are usually a checklist that you can use to evaluate your profile. It can include items like “Are the keywords you want to get found for present throughout your profile?” or “Does your summary tell a story?”. This can help you to identify further areas of improvement to really fine-tune your profile.

3. Advertise

LinkedIn is a target marketing beast. You have the option of using LinkedIn Ads or LinkedIn Matched Audiences – either grants you the ability to market your company directly to your target audience. We’re going to elaborate on both so that you can decide which option meshes best with your marketing goals.

Also, both marketing techniques offer you the option of “re-targeting” people who have already visited your website with photo or video ads. Generally, this is a very effective practice, as you are reaching out to people who have already demonstrated that they have some kind of interest in your product or service.

To determine if your ads are hitting the mark, try split-testing (also known as A/B testing) to track how your audience interacts with (or totally ignores) different content. Play around with images, calls to action, colors and more to see what optimizes your results. Here’s a tip: only change one variable at a time so that you can be sure that what you are altering is directly correlated to the effects you are seeing.

LinkedIn Ads

If your goal is to reach small and/or medium-sized businesses, this is likely the option for you. It is very similar to other social media ads, like Facebook ads, except that your target audience is composed of professional members instead of socialites. A perk of LinkedIn Ads is that you can use lead generation forms with your LinkedIn marketing. This means that when someone clicks the call to action button on one of your ads, they are shown a form that has been pre-filled out using information from their LinkedIn profile. This makes it much easier for members to connect with you. Nice.

LinkedIn Matched Audiences

This option boasts three types of targeting: website, contact, and account.
Website Targeting: Allows you to market to people who have already interacted with your website.
Contact Targeting: Allows you to build a custom target audience by using email address lists or connecting to a contact management platform.
Account Targeting: Allows you to run account-based LinkedIn marketing campaigns using LinkedIn data.

You can use LinkedIn Matched Audiences with a variety of ad formats and products, including Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, and more. You’ll have to decide what best suits your goals, possibly even toying around with strategies until you find one that fits.

4. Analyze Metrics

At this point, you’ve set up your profile, you are keeping it current, and you are exploring ad campaigns. That’s awesome! We commend you for your efforts. Now it’s time to develop a system to track your data and determine if all this marketing is actually effective.

First, you’ll want to create an audit spreadsheet. This will help you to discern which techniques get you the best results, and which are not panning out just right. Look at items like shares, clicks, and likes.

Then, track your follower data. Luckily, LinkedIn grants you access to their built-in analytics tool, so a lot of the work is done for you. You can analyze your company page beyond just the number of followers you have. A common first goal is to have at least 500 1st level connections to have a solid foundation of influence.

You’ll also want to examine your engagement data using the analytics tool. Pay attention to the number of impressions, clicks, likes, comments, shares, and more. Narrow your results down to specific time periods to get especially relevant information.

Next, use Google Analytics to measure your referral traffic. This will show you how much of your website traffic is actually coming from LinkedIn. If the numbers are disappointing, you likely need to a) refine your profile, b) adjust your in-platform marketing strategy, or c) all of the above. On the other hand, if you are really impressed with the numbers, I’d like to say, “I told you so!” because LinkedIn marketing works.

5. Generate Leads

Your first step to generating leads is to have a strong LinkedIn summary. This is where you show the customer that you understand their problem and that you are the expert they need to help them solve it. Tell people what you do, your experience, and your accomplishments. This can help potential customers convert to real customers by developing trust. Here’s another pro-tip: end the summary with a call to action. This makes it as easy as possible for the reader to connect with you and become a client.

Next, sell yourself as an absolute expert in your field. Your original content should show that you are the go-to person for your product or service. No other company can do it like you can! If you choose to share outside content, it is always a good idea to add your own two cents, whether it be an opinion or a helpful insight.

If you begin using LinkedIn Conversation Starters when reaching out to potential clients, always customize your initial contact message. A personalized note is much harder for people to ignore, as that would feel rude. It’s also helpful to give context as to why you are reaching out to them. Do not hesitate to follow up after a week or so if you haven’t heard back.

Play around with InMail and Messaging scripts that can get your customers off of LinkedIn and jumpstart them into your sales process. As a rule of thumb, ask their permission before moving the conversation to a new platform. These scripts will take some fiddling around with to perfect, so do not be surprised if this is a continuous improvement type of project.

Finally, do not forget to be kind and thoughtful towards your existing clients and connections. Make it a priority to stay connected with them. You can do this by checking in regularly and using LinkedIn’s prompts to start a conversation.

LinkedIn has made it easy for companies to expand their networks, improve their growth, and excel in their marketing. It’s important for every business, new or old, to have a LinkedIn presence…and if you have a profile, you may as well use it to your advantage. A few targeted ads here, a couple engaging posts there, and boom, you are well on your way to building relationships and gaining customers.

Looking for More Marketing or Branding Insights?

Check out 12 Marketing Hacks That Cost $0 or The Ultimate Guide to Retargeting!

If you need more help, get in touch! Our ninjas are ready and waiting to take your organization to the next level!