LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for career and business professionals. It is an ideal platform to use when trying to build contacts in your industry, a customer base, business partners or just looking for a job. Remember the ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ trend that is often used in the context of LinkedIn, it is now down to 3.5 degrees. Which means that the chances of you having a 3rd-degree connection with someone in Microsoft is much more plausible, now more than ever. With over half a billion users, LinkedIn is one of the most effective places to engage with your target audience and turn them into a prospective buyer. But while using LinkedIn for business marketing, it is never about brand building, it is about providing value and being consistent.

Below are a few ways how you can use LinkedIn as a marketing tool, to drive sales and generate leads:

1. OPTIMIZE YOUR COMPANY PAGE:

Before you start using LinkedIn marketing to drive leads, you need to make sure your company page is up to date. Add a company description to let people know what exactly you do, add a profile picture, cover photo, location, and hashtags. These will help your company rank better in LinkedIn searches.

2. BUILD CONNECTIONS:

Adding prospective customers gives you access to firsthand insight into what they like and their interest. Secondly, with LinkedIn suggested actions, you will be notified when a customer moves to a new company or gets promoted so you can either try to upsell them or see if your product/service is a good fit for their new company.

3. LEVERAGE GROUPS:

Groups are an extremely effective LinkedIn marketing tool when used correctly. LinkedIn groups provide you with a community of professionals from your industry who are trying to build connections and having conversations specific to your niche. As a brand, this gives you a chance to connect with your audience as well and be a part of conversations instead of being the topic of it.

Also read- WHY YOUR BRAND NEEDS A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

4. PUBLISH VALUABLE CONTENT USING LINKEDIN PULSE:

When LinkedIn first introduced Pulse, it was reserved exclusively for well-known influencers on the platform. However, in 2014, LinkedIn decided to let all users on the platform access Pulse. You can share a pulse post by clicking on the pencil icon in the ‘share an update’ box. Creating a post allows you to share text, image, or video at the touch of a button. You can leverage pulse by publishing small bits of content from your website blog, for example, and link to the full blog post at the end of the post. This way, if someone gets hooked to the content by reading the brief you posted, they will click on the link to read the full article. You provide value and drive traffic to your website using only Pulse posts.

5. USE INMAIL:

LinkedIn’s InMail is an effective and credible way of messaging as claimed by LinkedIn. With InMail, you can send a direct message to any member of LinkedIn, regardless of whether they are in your connections. The response rate of InMail’s is higher and LinkedIn offers a response guarantee which means that if you don’t get a response within 7 days, you’ll be issued InMail credit which you can further use to send more InMail messages. Apart from being a paid feature, it’s a really great tool for communication.

CONCLUSION

To give you a summary, start with building your company page and then build your connections. Post valuable, actionable content every single day and leverage groups by being a part of the industry conversations. You can also share your company pulse posts in these groups to direct more attention to the page. Use LinkedIn InMail to direct message prospective customers if you have a genuinely good reason to connect. Do not spam everyone with a sales pitch though, while using LinkedIn for marketing

We’ve been using LinkedIn content marketing on a daily basis to grow our business. To get a first-hand look at our strategy, check out our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sociomark

For any further assistance, you may need, feel free to contact us at business@sociomark.in or DM us on our socials! Psst, you can direct message us on LinkedIn as well.

Author : Nikhil Dhotre (Business Development)

Reviewed By : Heta Baandal , Managing Director - Sociomark