Why should I use LinkedIn for marketing my business? What are some of the things I can do using LinkedIn to build my brand? In this article, Cathy Mellett, Director of Auckland digital marketing company Net Branding, shares her tips for making the most of LinkedIn for marketing your business and building your brand online.
With around 500 million LinkedIn users out there, including over 65 million business professionals, LinkedIn is much more than simply a resume-sharing social media platform. Instead, it is, as LinkedIn itself defines itself, “a community of professionals, in a business sense, that’s waiting to hear from you”. In fact, no other social media network comes close to LinkedIn for professional networking – and the potential for generating leads among its professional community – for businesses of any shape or size.
What’s more, LinkedIn is growing at the rate of one new LinkedIn login created every second. So, the question is how can you make use of this powerful yet cost-effective digital marketing tool to grow your business?
Why should I use LinkedIn to market my business?
No matter in what niche market or industry you operate, LinkedIn offers you a great way for making connections with a community of professionals and get exposure for you brand, products or services. A properly optimised LinkedIn business page will also increase your chances of ranking in the search engine results, especially Google.
Furthermore, LinkedIn’s own search features enable LinkedIn users who are looking for what you offer to find you. Also, your LinkedIn connections can provide you with access to people and businesses that you perhaps might not otherwise be able to reach.
Our 10 tips for LinkedIn for business
To help you market and promote your business using the world’s largest business networking site, we’ve put together a series of 10 tips for LinkedIn for business.
How do I optimise my LinkedIn business page for search and lead generation?
As your LinkedIn business page will function as one of the public listings of your company in the search engine results, including Google, it’s important to get your page’s SEO or search engine optimisation right. Here are 5 tips to help you optimise your LinkedIn page for search as well as for lead generation.
1. Ensure your name and contact details are consistent with your details elsewhere online.
2. Use relevant keywords sensibly and appropriately throughout your page to optimise for search.
3. Use your banner image to differentiate your business and provide a headline that conveys a clear and specific value proposition to you audience, for example, “follow us for everything you need to know about vehicle cooling systems”.
4. Use consistent branding features across all your online profiles – same fonts, colour schemes, logo and so on, so your visitors get a consistent experience across all digital touch points.
5. Link to your website and blog. However, in the case of your website, don’t simply link to the home page. Instead, link to a dedicated landing page where you can provide a customised message for your visitors from LinkedIn and capture their details.
What else can I do to build my brand using LinkedIn?
Once you’ve created a LinkedIn login and set up a great LinkedIn business page that will establish your brand presence and build the credibility to get your business noticed, it’s time to start connecting with you audience.
Growing the number of followers of your LinkedIn page basically comes down to promoting your page and providing engaging content for your audience. Here are 5 things you can do to make the most of LinkedIn’s ability to promote your business:
1. Post regular updates that will interest your target audience. Tell them what you’re working on and do it in such a way so as to enable them to see how what you’re doing can help them achieve their goals.
2. Set up or join LinkedIn groups so you can make valuable connections and start building your reputation as an expert in your industry. Just remember that, like all social media, LinkedIn groups are not the place for hard-selling your products or services. Instead, it’s all about being part of a discussion that helps establish you and your business as expert on a specific topic.
3. Use LinkedIn recommendations. Recommendations are like marketing gold, because there is nothing quite as powerful as word-of-mouth marketing. LinkedIn allows you to get recommendations from your customers that will be visible to everyone in your network. Not only do recommendations from LinkedIn users give you more exposure, but they provide credibility that encourages other LinkedIn users to do business with you.
4. Make use of LinkedIn marketing apps. LinkedIn offers a number of advanced applications that you can take advantage of to help you expand your network, boost awareness of your brand and acquire more leads. Make use of them.
5. Try LinkedIn advertising. As in the case of other social media platforms, LinkedIn also offers paid advertising to help you get your business in front of your target market more quickly. It’s a cost-effective option that you would do well to consider.
Could LinkedIn be the marketing game changer you’ve been looking for?
Given the fact that LinkedIn is the world’s largest business networking site, using LinkedIn to make new connections, share your valuable content and attract more customers could make LinkedIn the game-changer that you’ve been looking for in your marketing strategy.
If you would like to make LinkedIn an integral part of your digital marketing strategy, talk to the digital marketing team at Net Branding. We’ve helped many of our clients create professional LinkedIn profiles enabling them to effectively expand their networks, boost their brands, generate leads and secure more sales. We’re just a phone call or click away.
