Top 10 Tips for Marketing Your Business on LinkedIn
Engagement. Networking. Conversions.
How can your business engage with more than 610 million people in over 200 countries worldwide? Market your company on LinkedIn. This powerful professional networking platform can give you the edge you need to succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
But it’s not as simple as creating a company profile and going back to work. To generate leads, drive website traffic or build brand awareness, you need a strategy in place to achieve your marketing goals.
Not sure where to start? Here are some quick-and-dirty tips.
1. Get Personal
You may be marketing your company, but business is all about people. That’s why LinkedIn provides both a personal profile and company page. Your personal LinkedIn profile—and the profiles of each of your employees—come together to form a clear picture of your brand. Start with your personal profile, making sure to optimize it often with new skills and achievements. Encourage your employees and colleagues to do the same.
2. Create Your Company Page
Your business “profile” is known as your company page. This central hub gives prospective customers a glimpse into your business, your people and your insights. Be sure to fill out every section, as companies with complete information get 30 percent more weekly views.
3. Optimize for Search
LinkedIn members can search by keywords, so be sure to include words and phrases they’d be likely to use. You can also boost your search ranking by linking your company page to your corporate website and marketing materials. Finally, be sure your colleagues and employees keep their profiles current with their work experience so that your company links from their pages as well.
4. Add Followers
Followers of your company page receive your updates directly in their LinkedIn feed. The more followers you have, the higher your reach is with each update you publish. Be sure to invite your employees, colleagues and partners to become followers. Also, consider adding a “follow” button on your website to attract visitors to your LinkedIn company page with a single click.
5. Share Relevant Content
People expect vastly different content from LinkedIn than they do from other social media platforms. Most users are looking for insider insights, helpful tips and relevant industry information. You can position yourself as a thought leader by sharing a mix of long-and short-form content on a regular basis.
Do make use of the publishing feature, which allows marketers to build relationships, expectations and trust. Of course, you should publish and promote your own original content, but it’s also smart to share a good amount of your followers’ content. When you create your own posts, hook readers with a great headline, engage them with interesting content and drive them to take action. Always try to include an image with your post, as imagery results in a two times higher comment rate. Clicks, shares and comments are indicators that your content has made an impact.
6. Move Them with Video
LinkedIn loves video—but not a link to some YouTube video or an embedded clip. Native videos, or videos uploaded directly to LinkedIn, have allowed marketers and others to reach 10 times their typical viewing audience. When you use LinkedIn Native Video, your video auto-plays in the feed, which is more likely to grab people’s attention. Another perk? LinkedIn gives your video a bigger push if you upload directly to the platform.
7. Actively Promote Your Content
You know the adage, “if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” In the social world, the answer is no. If you’ve published an amazing LinkedIn post and nobody reads it, what good does that do for you? Take the time to actively promote your content by:
- Promoting it on your other social channels
- Using LinkedIn Groups to garner attention
- Utilizing LinkedIn’s publishing platform, Pulse, for maximum exposure
- Paying to promote your best content
8. Sponsor Your Content
Speaking of paying for promotion, start with sponsored content. If you see that a recent post received high engagement from your target audience, consider sponsoring it. This form of native advertising puts your brand front and center in the LinkedIn feeds of the exact people you’re trying to reach. Get the most out of sponsored content by testing variations of your message with LinkedIn’s Direct Sponsored Content and Comprehensive Targeting options, and track leads with conversion tracking.
9. Advertise
Take sponsored content a step further by utilizing LinkedIn’s self-service ads and managed campaigns. You have plenty of options based on your needs and budget, including text ads, sponsored InMail, display ads, dynamic ads and account-based marketing.
10. Analyze Your Efforts
All the thought, effort and money that goes into your sponsored content and ads will be in vain if you don’t track, analyze and optimize. After all, compelling content is easier to craft when you know what resonates and what doesn’t. Fortunately, LinkedIn makes this easy by providing tools that give you deeper insight. LinkedIn Company Page analytics and LinkedIn Campaign Manager are invaluable. Once you know what’s working and what’s not, you can better shape your marketing content.
Do you have more questions about LinkedIn? Are you wondering which strategy is best for your company? Contact Rapunzel Creative to learn how our social media consulting and strategy sessions can help boost your engagement—and your bottom line.
About Rapunzel Creative
Rapunzel Creative is an award-winning branding, digital marketing, and advertising agency located in Bergen County, New Jersey, within the New York metro market. Services include business branding, website design, digital marketing (such as social media, SEO, and email marketing) and advertising campaigns. The agency also specializes in nonprofit marketing and branding. Rapunzel Creative is certified by the State of New Jersey as a (WBE) Women Business Enterprise, is a WBENC certified organization, and is a certified SBA and WOSB and approved contractor with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
