Why LinkedIn Marketing? Why marketing on LinkedIn when there is Instagram? Because your competitor’s business is marketing on LinkedIn, should you make room for LinkedIn in your social media marketing? If yes, how to have successful marketing on LinkedIn?
We live and work in a world where social media has become an important part of the life and work of most of the inhabitants of this earth. For many people, social networks are a place where they share their good and bad moments. People find like-minded people and friends on social networks. Those who have common words and concerns find each other and become a community.
What could businesses want better than this for advertising? Does digital marketing have a purpose other than to deliver the business message to the specific audience of that business in cyberspace? It is precisely for this reason that social media marketing has become an independent branch of digital marketing. Because social networks, especially social networks with a large number of users around the world, are very, very powerful and efficient marketing tools. LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks in the world. Therefore, the digital marketer cannot and should not neglect marketing on LinkedIn.
In this article, I will briefly answer the questions that were raised at the beginning and discuss in detail the tips and methods that can be used for successful and professional LinkedIn marketing.
Table of Contents
What is LinkedIn Marketing?
When a social network is used to achieve specific goals for marketing and increasing sales, marketing has been done through that social network. So, LinkedIn marketing has happened when a business uses LinkedIn to achieve the following:
- Communicate with existing customers, potential customers, and other businesses.
- Building relationships and business partnerships.
- raising brand awareness,
- Community and networking for the brand,
- Publishing and republishing content, and
- Attracting traffic to the site.
Businesses and their digital marketing team are marketing on social media based on specific strategies. Turning to a social network and investing and planning to operate in it is a calculated choice. In that choice, as mentioned, social media marketing strategies are one of the most determining factors. When a social network can be a suitable platform for implementing strategies, it is chosen – even if there is very heavy competition in those networks between competing businesses.
Why is LinkedIn marketing important for businesses?
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the 3 main social media for marketing in the world. The question that needs to be answered is why should LinkedIn be added to that list. Is LinkedIn a suitable platform for implementing business social media marketing strategies? Yes! Why?
- Because LinkedIn has 830 million users in 200 countries!
- Because LinkedIn is a social network that connects the workforce in the world. This network is a place for professionals and workers in different industries.
- Because statistics show that lead generation through LinkedIn is 3 times that of Facebook and Twitter.
- Because it is on LinkedIn that businesses can find professional and skilled people who are looking for work and attract them to their business.
- Because it is possible to hit several marks on LinkedIn with one arrow: he found and connected with people and groups in the profession or job that is the goal of the business, and he got to know the owners of big and smart businesses and ideas, and the business in such a way LinkedIn introduced to gain credibility and a special place among professionals.
What methods and tips should be considered for successful LinkedIn marketing?
Well, we understand that LinkedIn is good and you should not miss the opportunity to market on it. The important question is how to market in this network. How to have successful marketing on LinkedIn? Is it possible to operate on LinkedIn with the same methods of Instagram marketing or marketing on Facebook? Not!
Each social network has its world and its users. So, marketing in any social network is successful when it is based on the rules and methods specific to that social media.
To be successful in LinkedIn Marketing, follow the checklist below:
1. Marketing on LinkedIn is suitable and effective for business
If you have a small business that is in the early stages of growth and you can’t spend enough time and capital on LinkedIn marketing, marketing on LinkedIn may not be the right choice for you right now. If your business is not very specialized (for example, baking homemade cookies or selling scarves), you have many more marketing opportunities on Instagram.
2. The objectives, audience, and strategy of LinkedIn Marketing are defined
First of all, you should know for what purposes you want to use LinkedIn and also what is the role of LinkedIn in your social media strategy and what is it supposed to do. When LinkedIn marketing is a part of the digital marketing strategy of the business, it is necessary to define the marketing strategy in LinkedIn clearly and appropriately so that it is clear.
- Do you want to advertise on LinkedIn? How much budget do you spend on LinkedIn advertising?
- Is the business page on LinkedIn only going to recruit talent or is it only going to be reposted to drive traffic to the business website? Or …
- Who will be the audience of the page?
- How will the content strategy on LinkedIn be based on goals and audiences?
- Have you decided that you want to have a LinkedIn Profile in addition to a LinkedIn Page for business?
3. The business page on LinkedIn is completely optimized and built on principles
The greatest care should be taken in creating a business page on LinkedIn. Everything in the profile should be optimized (for search engines and users) and written according to the business marketing goals on LinkedIn. Enter all business information very accurately. It is better to use business keywords in the Company Description section and introduce that business very briefly and usefully. (I recommend that you follow the tips that LinkedIn has suggested about creating a page and proceed based on them.)
Don’t forget to change the URL and delete the numbers in the URL. In the right corner of the profile, there is the Edit public profile & URL option. Using this option, you can change the page address at will.
Businesses can even optimize the button next to the Follow button and turn it into a great CTA. In the button settings section, there are these options: Contact Us, learn more, Register, Sing up & Visit the Website. Businesses choose one of them based on their strategy and goals in LinkedIn Marketing. Pay attention to the two examples below.
The difference between the LinkedIn profile and the LinkedIn page is that the profile is more personal and the user can follow the people he wants and they can follow him. Also, the profile owner can chat with others. LinkedIn Page doesn’t have those two possibilities and is more suitable for businesses and companies that just want followers and publish content. But maybe for some reason, the business wants both.
4. A content program has been prepared for LinkedIn to publish all kinds of interesting, effective, and targeted content in a completely regular manner
Producing content suitable for LinkedIn and regularly publishing content in LinkedIn marketing is vital. No business will succeed on LinkedIn unless it produces content on LinkedIn and for LinkedIn with a very professional plan. You should pay attention to the differences in content production for different social networks, for example, the text content of LinkedIn has a more formal language compared to Instagram.
Pay attention to the following points when producing content and publishing content on LinkedIn:
- Use hashtags. Hashtags are what bring enthusiastic users to you and you to users who are the audience and target of your business marketing. Not only should you use hashtags smartly and consistently, but you should try a variety of hashtags. Start with the main keywords for your business, but don’t neglect the less popular hashtags.
- Don’t forget content variety and publication of attractive and useful content. Even in the type and size of the text content, it is necessary to be diverse. You should not always publish the same text content, for example, in the post format. Long articles should also have a place on your LinkedIn.
- On LinkedIn, you can easily link to other sites or content (external link). Make the most of this opportunity. In addition to linking to the site or blog contents of the business site, link to the sites, contents, and posts, and articles of the reference persons and even hashtag their names.
5. Finding target people and businesses and networking is done on LinkedIn
Everything in LinkedIn Marketing revolves around communication. Businesses want followers, followers who can convert them into customers. So, the business should go looking for potential customers on LinkedIn. Discussions about LinkedIn networking training are mostly applicable to LinkedIn profiles.
Therefore, businesses that have a page and cannot connect to users directly, must use other means to convince users to follow them on LinkedIn. The best opportunity for the business page to show itself to the target audience is to get help from
- LinkedIn groups (you can ask business employees to share page posts in related groups, and you can create a LinkedIn group for your business).
- Newsletters (the business can have its newsletter on LinkedIn and republish the content of that newsletter in virtual networks.),
- Sponsored Posts (This is similar to influencer marketing on LinkedIn.),
- Producing high-quality and viral content for LinkedIn.
- And the promotion of the LinkedIn page is in other virtual networks.
Businesses may use social media management tools for their social media marketing, including LinkedIn Marketing. Most of these tools are not free, but you can find limited and free programs in some tools. Of course, LinkedIn itself has features for LinkedIn marketing that are not free (such as InMail Message).