The LinkedIn platform has been around for a while and it’s been well-established as a tool for professional networking. But does it do more than just keeping people in touch with their colleagues at work?
As someone who’s used LinkedIn for marketing purposes, I can tell you that it does! It’s genuinely one of the most powerful tools you can have when growing a business or promoting your website. In this article, I will answer whether or not LinkedIn is a valuable tool for B2B marketing and provide you with valuable techniques you can utilize.
So let’s have a look at how to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing, shall we?
What is LinkedIn B2B marketing?
LinkedIn B2B marketing is a marketing strategy that uses LinkedIn to generate leads for B2B companies and sales professionals. It involves developing, deploying, and scaling an integrated sales and marketing strategy. The strategy drives revenue growth by attracting buyers across the entire buyer journey and delivering content via owned, earned, and paid media channels while integrating insights from LinkedIn ads with other CRM data sources.
The relationship marketing approach on LinkedIn is about audience targeting and finding your target audience. It’s like advertising, but it’s through a more personal level of contact. A benefit of this approach is in how it increases the number of leads you generate.
The first step is to create your profile and promote it. Then, you can get recommendations from your colleagues, adding them as connections, and sending messages with effective content to attract the right audience. In this way, you will reach more people and convert them into customers for your products or services.
But why LinkedIn?
Why LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a social networking service with more than 700 million members. A vast majority of these members are active users. LinkedIn has always been fantastic for career development, even before Facebook was around. The increased use of other social media has not diminished the importance of LinkedIn as a tool in job-hunting and for maintaining contacts with someone you meet once but might later need to connect with again.
A few reasons to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing include:
#1 LinkedIn will feature your LinkedIn page in their search engine
This feature is powerful and can significantly increase your company’s website traffic. When people search on LinkedIn, they will see any member’s LinkedIn Business page as part of the “Featured Results.” Thus, if you are active on LinkedIn and have a strong presence there, people will easily find your company’s website and blog posts.
#2 You have the opportunity to connect with potential customers on LinkedIn directly
There is almost no other social media platform that offers this kind of opportunity. Twitter is one, and Facebook is another. But within the context of B2B marketing, LinkedIn is an ideal platform for such activity. You can directly connect with individuals that you want to be in business with, develop a relationship with them, and as a result, make it easier to convert leads into customers or clients later on.
#3 High-value connections are more likely to message you on LinkedIn [to send you a message, they have to be very interested in you]
It’s easy for someone on LinkedIn to message you if they are interested in your company, product, service, or what you do. As a result, more people can contact you with a request or question about your company than other social media channels.
#4 LinkedIn users are more likely to engage with your content than on other platforms
LinkedIn gives better reach for the content you post. Therefore, your LinkedIn updates will reach a much larger audience than if you just posted to Twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus.
#5 LinkedIn users are also more engaged with the platform than on other content-sharing media. Their intent is clear, and their expectations are higher.
With a solid profile and consistent content creation, you’ll find that more LinkedIn members will discover and engage more with your content and are more likely to respond with comments and additional content of their own.
#6 LinkedIn users are more interested in B2B content than other platforms
LinkedIn users are interested in business information, leads for their own business, and connections with other business people. If your goal is to connect with other companies or individuals representing businesses (even if they use LinkedIn for personal purposes), you can find success with LinkedIn.
Simply put, LinkedIn is the most important social platform for B2B marketers. It’s the only social platform that focuses solely on professional contacts.
Is it effective?
Is LinkedIn effective for B2B marketing?
According to a Content Marketing Institute study, over 90% of B2B marketers have LinkedIn as an important way to generate leads. However, some B2B marketers and business owners question if LinkedIn is effective for generating leads in any significant way.
I’ve heard both sides of the argument. But having been a part of hundreds of LinkedIn groups, I’ve concluded that people who don’t get value out of it don’t know how to use it to its full potential. More on how to use Linkedin for B2B marketing later.
Let’s look at some data to determine the effectiveness of the platform for B2B:
- HubSpot reports that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than both Facebook and Twitter.
- More than 90% of business executives rated LinkedIn #1 for professional and relevant content.
- Linkedin states that over 40% of marketers have said that they have found a customer from the platform.
- According to Demand Wave, almost 60% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn generates leads for their business.
- And over 30% of these can confirm that these leads have generated revenue for their business.
The data is clear. LinkedIn is very effective when used correctly. Many people have found success on the platform, and you can experience success too.
B2B marketers who have excellent profiles, those who are active on the platform to speak with others with similar interests, and those who understand how to use the tools available on the LinkedIn platform are doing very well.
Let’s explore some benefits of using the platform for B2B marketing.
What Are The Benefits Of B2B Marketing On LinkedIn?
B2B marketing on LinkedIn is a great way to grow your business and reach new customers. Here are some of the benefits:
– Reach professionals in specific sectors that you haven’t reached yet, and deliver the right message to them.
With LinkedIn, you can search for people by industry, function, seniority, and more. It allows you to really hone in on the correct type of audience for your content – and then deliver it to them exactly where they are.
– LinkedIn focuses on business professionals.
Your audience is already there – this tool will help you find them. And because it’s made explicitly for B2B marketing, it’s a great way to reach professionals who you may not have met otherwise.
– Create connections with other companies and gain more leads for your company.
Getting leads on LinkedIn is one of the most remarkable ways to begin your B2B marketing campaign. You’ll find that many professionals are looking to expand their current companies or join a new one, so you can find these people and connect with them on LinkedIn.
– Raise awareness for your business through building up a social enterprise profile (if it’s not already there).
Visibility on LinkedIn is vast, so building up a strong profile will not only make it easier to connect, but it’ll raise your brand’s awareness as well.
LinkedIn is teeming with people, and they are all looking for ways to improve their professional lives. Whenever humans meet one another, there is the potential of networking and sharing information that can help both parties in their careers. LinkedIn has become an excellent source for B2B marketers who want to exploit this opportunity by promoting themselves on the platform.
The benefits of LinkedIn marketing include increased visibility, lead generation, and higher conversion rates. To maximize these benefits, B2B marketers on LinkedIn must do a few things: create content that engages their target audience with relevant content tailored to them and be an active part of the community instead of just being an advertiser or passive participant.
So how should you approach B2B marketing on LinkedIn?
How exactly can you use LinkedIn for B2B marketing?
Is your business already on LinkedIn? Whether you have a company profile or not, it’s essential to cover your basics. Success on LinkedIn starts with having a profile complete with your company’s information.
Start with your company profile.
Focus on your company name, banner image, logo, tagline, location, and employment status.
Take a look at your company profile and determine if it’s persuasive, easy to read, and consistent with your brand. Include relevant keywords that are familiar to your target audience. However, don’t overuse them or just stuff keywords in your profile. Let the message flow naturally. After optimizing your profile, read it aloud to see if it feels natural to you.
Follow the same process for your personal profile and encourage your employees to optimize their personal profiles. When it comes to your professional profile, remember that your profile picture is critical. Find an ideal balance between one that is professional and indicates what you do.
Are your employees active on their profiles? If you have a profile for your company page, encourage employees to join the company page and post information about themselves. Please recommend that they share their expertise and how they’re taking their knowledge and contributing to the team’s overall success. The most engaging posts receive an initial boost from company employees. These posts also increase the chances of being seen by new users in your network or your target audience.
Know and Understand your Target Audience
One of the primary benefits of LinkedIn is how it provides a platform where professionals can connect with those in similar fields. This feature allows for potential B2B leads and opportunities to come your way.
You can’t expect to have success on LinkedIn without understanding who your target audience is. If you want to use the platform as part of marketing plans, then you have to know what sort of content would be most effective for reaching them.
If you’re a big company, then it’s easy to determine who your target audience is because there are so many inside and outside your company on the platform. But if you’re an individual or a smaller business, determining this isn’t as easy. However, one way to figure out which type of content would be best for reaching out to your target audience is by looking at what the most consistent creators in your space are doing successfully.
Post Regularly and Be Consistent with High-Quality Content
Content on LinkedIn has a better chance of performing better than content found on other social media.
Posting content consistently — valuable content — on LinkedIn will help you develop a following and earn more engagement. Engagement is vital for any social media, but it’s essential for LinkedIn. The founders built the platform with business professionals in mind. Your followers are looking for active companies on the platform and not just businesses that never bother to post a conversation or respond to comments.
You also need to tailor your content so that it specifically appeals to your audience on the platform. If most people in your target audience are entrepreneurs, create content geared toward entrepreneurship, such as small business tips.
These are not all the tips you can find on using LinkedIn successfully. However, when you apply them to your profile, you can see great results.
The moral of the story is: use Linkedin for B2B marketing and don’t just expect it to work. Learn how to use it properly, take advantage of all the tools that are at your disposal, and never give up or get discouraged by minor setbacks. Success on LinkedIn has a lot to do with hard work, dedication, and patience – but it’s worth it!
Hopefully, this post has given you some pointers on how to successfully B2B market on LinkedIn. But don’t take our word for it – test the information on your account and track your results! Also, if you found value, please don’t forget to share this article with your followers.
Now get out there and practice B2B marketing on LinkedIn today!
