Get Serious about LinkedIn in 2021
It’s a fact – LinkedIn is the world’s largest social channel for professionals. If you think it’s only for recruiters and job seekers, think again as LinkedIn has come a long way since it first started.
I’ll discuss the benefits of using LinkedIn, share some of my top tips for growing, engaging with and generating qualified leads. And finally, I’ll show you what part LinkedIn has played in my marketing.
I’d been dabbling with LinkedIn for a long time, first as a marketing professional working for a global financial institution, then subsequently, a business owner. It was only in the last 2-4 years that I’d learnt to harness the power of LinkedIn properly
There aren’t always quick fixes to the things I’ll share here, but here’s what I wished I had done when I first started out on LinkedIn.
Why LinkedIn?
Here are 3 reasons why startups and small businesses should learn how to harness the power of LinkedIn:
- Google loves LinkedIn
Your LinkedIn profile can come up first on the first page of Google organically, when you search for your name or your business. LinkedIn is an extremely highly trusted site for Google so if you have an optimised profile, you’ll be more searchable on Google
- Find decision makers from a wide range of Industries
One of the best things about LinkedIn is you can narrow down your search for people you’d like to connect with from specific locations, business sectors, even alumni from your university. And it’s free, which leads us to the next benefit…
- No need to spend advertising ££ to find your Audience
Unlike Google Ads which can require a substantial budget, or your Facebook Business page which requires ad spend to get traffic, the free version of LinkedIn gets you the audience you want. LinkedIn advertising is an option, of course, but until you’ve tested your message organically with your audience, it can be an expensive experiment
Top Tips on Generating Leads
Here are 3 for generating qualified leads on LinkedIn:
Apart from knowing the demographic of the audience you’re building, it’s a good idea to run a search to see if they’re on LinkedIn. Have they updated their profiles and if so, when was the last time they posted anything?
- Quality versus Quantity
What constitutes quality is a matter of testing, creativity and content planning. I used to think posting anything everyday will work but, save for some vanity likes, all I did was adding to the noise on social media.
If you’re under time pressure, 2-3 times a week of relevant, insightful, helpful posts interspersed with promotional content works better than just sticking links to articles you’ve read elsewhere, without sharing your insights on that article.
- How to Engage
Telling your story behind the business, inviting your audience to share their thoughts, discussing a customer pain, posting customer reviews, promoting your own events and collaborations are all good places to start. Comment, like and share in return.
- Start a 1-2-1 Conversation
Here’s where you demonstrate the value you provide to your audience, by offering something free, relevant to your business and of some value to that audience. This can be a download, quiz, video clip or an invitation to your event etc.
Why? At this point, you’d want to take the conversation with a member of your audience who’s responded to your offer and has now become a Lead, out of LinkedIn and onto a call, zoom demo, meeting, landing page, app download and/or email marketing.
When you’ve made the above activities a regular part of your LinkedIn marketing, you’ll start to generate leads. This is the first step towards qualifying and converting leads into customers.
My Business to Business Marketing Funnel
I’m not advocating you do all the marketing activities below and in that linear fashion, this is really to show you where I spend my time on LinkedIn, which is at the Top and Middle of the funnel. These focus on creating awareness and cultivating (and qualifying) your audience.
I would automate or delegate some of the steps in implementing these top and middle funnel activities, where possible. That includes my LinkedIn invitations and LinkedIn campaigns (more on that below)
Bottom of my Funnel is where more sales conversations take place, and unless someone approaches me, I wouldn’t usually initiate 1-to-1 sales on LinkedIn. So I’ve left out LinkedIn here as unless you have a well known brand, are unique in the market or spend money crafting LinkedIn ads, selling your product or service on LinkedIn doesn’t usually work.
If you’d like to get serious about LinkedIn and learn more about running and automating your LinkedIn campaigns, why not join my LinkedIn training and monthly live Zoom demos here https://www.marketingtech.london/join-linkedin-coaching-group
About Joyce
Joyce runs Marketing Tech, a Marketing Consultancy for small and medium sized businesses. Together with technology partners in the UK, they deliver solutions such as App, Web and Search Engine Optimisation services.
Marketing Tech is more than an app developer, web developer, or SEO provider – they work with the business providing 360 degree Marketing Advice to ensure you and your team will generate results from your marketing investment.
Joyce has more than twenty-five years of Corporate and SME marketing experience in Singapore, Zurich and London, a passion for marketing technology and uses her experience and skills to champion SMEs and facilitate digital transformation within organisations.