How LinkedIn Became a Marketing Tool

At launch, LinkedIn was for professionals to connect with industry experts, network with like-minded individuals, and advance their careers. It was an online CV for hopeful professionals to find their next challenge. 

It had one simple goal: to help their users build a network to advance their careers and find new job opportunities. Today, and with 1 billion  users on the platform, LinkedIn has developed into an advanced marketing and sales tool for companies all over the world. 

The Ideal Platform for B2B Professionals

Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn’s user base consists of business professionals, decision-makers, and industry leaders. It’s an ideal environment for B2B marketing and offers a unique opportunity. 

LinkedIn has introduced features that specifically meet marketing needs, such as LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content. These tools enable businesses to create targeted campaigns, measure their performance, and refine strategies for better results. LinkedIn’s ability to combine professional networking with marketing capabilities has made it a key platform for businesses looking to grow their brand and reach new audiences.

Read on further for how to master this platform with tips and tricks from the experts:

Build a Strong Personal Brand

A key strategy to leverage LinkedIn for marketing is to build a strong personal brand via your own personal profile page. The beauty of LinkedIn is that we can see the personalities behind the organisations we know and love, and when we delve deeper into them, we find out about their hobbies and achievements. It gives us a personal connection to the brand and allows us to build our network with like-minded people to learn from. 

To create a strong personal brand, here’s our checklist to ensure your profile is up to scratch:

  • Professional Headshot Profile Picture: Statistics show that LinkedIn members with a professional profile picture receive far more engagement with 21 times more profile views and 9 times more connection requests. 
  • Optimised Headline: Your headline should expand beyond your job title. Use it to showcase your expertise and how you can help others. Include any keywords relating to your industry or company to grab attention and increase visibility.
  • Detailed About Section: People are connecting with you, not the company. Show some personal details about yourself, like hobbies. However, make sure to include professional achievements to ensure people know you are the right person to speak to when looking into your company. 
  • Post Often and Interact with your Network: We recommend liking and commenting on around 5 posts a day. This builds your Social Selling Index (SSI score) to ensure you get the most out of the LinkedIn features and to get noticed by other users to generate more organic leads. Insider tip: The better your SSI score, the more connections you can send! 

Create and Share Content

Creating and sharing content on LinkedIn is important for building your professional presence on LinkedIn, increasing your engagement, and positioning yourself as an expert in your industry. With this in mind, for you to really make an impact and stand out from the crowd, you need to go beyond connecting with others and actively share valuable content on LinkedIn that resonates with your audience. 

Why is it important?

  • LinkedIn is a major player in content marketing channels for B2B marketers, with 96% of them using it for this purpose according to Content Marketing Institute’s 2023 research.
  • LinkedIn is the most popular platform for paid social media in B2B marketing, with 89% of respondents describing these efforts as extremely, very, or somewhat effective. 
  • Recent data from CMI reveals that 84% of B2B marketers class LinkedIn as the platform that provides the most value to their organisation.
  • Companies that post on LinkedIn at least once a week see a 2x increase in engagement. 

However, it can be hard for organisations and individuals to create innovative and engaging ideas on what to post next and to reach new levels of engagement. Here are a few ideas: 

  • Showcase Achievements: You can share your professional achievements, career milestones, and industry insights with your network from either a personal or professional standpoint. 
  • Become a Thought Leader: You can publish blog posts, articles, or videos to establish yourself as an expert in your field amongst your network and beyond. 
  • Create Polls: Increase engagement and get to know the thoughts of your connections to spark conversations. 

LinkedIn audiences are 20x more likely to share videos than any other type of content on the platform. So if you create engaging and thoughtful video content consistently that is relevant to your audience’s interests, your engagements will soar. 

Other content ideas can be found here if you’re stuck on what to add to your content calendar next. 

Direct Outreach to Target Audience

Direct outreach is done through connection requests, InMails, personalised messaging, and ads. This is a powerful tool that both individuals and companies utilise to target their audience in a personalised way. However, consistency is key. We recommend daily outreach to achieve the best results – that’s where we come in.

Unlike other marketing methods, LinkedIn outreach allows you to reach out to prospects on a one-to-one basis to build deeper and stronger connections, while generating a higher response rate by 30%, compared to the other traditional methods, such as email marketing. 

With so many companies trailing LinkedIn Lead Generation without knowing all the facts on how to stand out from the crowd, here are a few tips from the experts:

  • Identify Target Audience & Make it Relevant: Make sure your buyer personas are segregated and well-defined. Group these into separate campaigns for different demographics: industries, geographies, and job titles. This will help you deliver the right messaging to a specific group of LinkedIn members and this will generate a higher-performing campaign. 
  • Keep it Short: Messages under 400 characters have a 22% higher response rate than the average, while messages over 800 characters have below-average response rates. Short subject lines also have higher response rates – you only have a second to grab their attention in their (probably swamped) inbox! Insider tip: Keep it short enough that if they open your message on their phone and don’t need to scroll to read. 
  • Keep It First Person: You’re writing person-to-person, so keep it personable and avoid writing in third-person as this can feel automated and mass-sent, which in turn will decrease the likelihood of a quality lead. This will also reduce the response rate drastically and will make you fall at the first hurdle.
  • Identify Pain Points & Tailor to the ‘What is in it for me?’ Mindset: The goal is to make individuals feel like they need something to improve their current situation in the workplace, and to position your product or service as the solution. People are busy, they don’t want to read paragraphs about your solution without identifying how it would help their situation in the first sentence of your messaging.
  • No Automation: This might sound like a life-saver to reduce time in your busy schedule, but there are several reasons why automation does more harm than good. It damages relationships, generates low-quality leads, and can also get your account permanently banned. 
  • Always End with a Call to Action: This is an essential part of your messaging. We recommend always asking for a call at the end of your messaging in a clear, concise way. However, don’t always take no for an answer. Use your expertise to turn the ‘maybe’ into a ‘yes’. 

Other tips and tricks can be found here. 

Final Thoughts: Why Use LinkedIn for Your Next Marketing Move

The transition of LinkedIn from a professional networking platform to a powerful marketing tool offers a huge opportunity for businesses in every industry. By building a strong personal and company brand, consistently creating and sharing interesting content and executing targeted direct outreach, you will unlock LinkedIn’s full potential to grow your brand, and business and reach your marketing goals. 

Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your current strategy, LinkedIn is an essential platform for driving business success. 

Interested in LinkedIn marketing? Click here to find out how we can help you to venture into the world of LinkedIn Lead Generation.