Want to start marketing on LinkedIn? Or maybe you need some creative ways to boost your results? This article is for you.
According to our 2020 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report, 95% of technology marketers are using LinkedIn. However, only 42% find social media effective for lead generation. Why? Think of LinkedIn as kind of a “tradeshow from your couch.” There is a lot of opportunity going in, but if you just show up and walk the floor, you’re going to get lackluster results.
LinkedIn Marketing Tips
To evolve your marketing on LinkedIn and see better results, here are a few tips to get started:
- Optimize. Strengthen your presence with a content calendar tied to publisher event calendars and your own events and activities. Build your brand with original, consistent banners for your company and employee profiles.
- Publish. Post at least twice a week. Share highlights from your blogs and link back to your site. Have all employees write blogs from events and tradeshows they attend. Share articles from other thought leaders around the web and add your comments. Take your publishing one step further by publishing long-form articles (your best blogs or – even better – original content) through LinkedIn Publisher. Not sure where to find it? Click “Write an article” at the bottom of the “Start a post” box.
- Amplify Your Reach. Use the FULL suite of LinkedIn tools for more direct lead generation. This includes paid advertising (sponsoring posts to people outside your audience), as well as Sales Navigator for account based and niche marketing.
- Engage. Companies that publish content, and engage their employees in their LinkedIn plan, will reach twice as many people as those who do not have a companywide program. To do this:
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- Train your employees. Share how to optimize their profiles by bringing in your banners and branding so your company is unified on LinkedIn.
- Make it easy and stay top of mind. Use tools like GaggleAMP to notify employees of all your posts, provide specific actions (post, comment, etc.) and even give them the words to post! If you aren’t ready to implement a platform to manage your engagement, send the information by email.
- Tools like GaggleAMP track employees’ activities and give them “points” for participation. If you can’t do it by employee, you can provide companywide “rewards” when you reach your organizational goals through LinkedIn.
Create a LinkedIn Content Strategy
If there’s one MUST EVOLVE marketing strategy, it’s content development. And there’s one single point driving that need for evolution: the quality of content being created.
In a LinkedIn survey, 55% of decision-makers used thought leadership content as an important way to vet organizations they are considering working with. However, only 18% of thought leadership content they received was rated VERY GOOD or EXCELLENT. That’s a huge opportunity IF you’re willing to invest in original, educational, engaging content. That requires some different approaches to what you create and how you share it. How can you take your content to the next level?
- Create content clusters. Instead of creating a single piece (like an eBook), create a whole set of content around a central theme that goes deeper into the topic. Identify the content your decision makers need and what prospects may need at the various stages in your sales cycle. An eBook on Wholesale Distribution Technology Trends is great for awareness, but what about that prospect that already knows what they need and are looking deeper into how it might work? Maybe that eBook has a trend that talks about ways distributors can get their goods to market faster. An article or video that focuses on that target could be an ideal piece to add to your content cluster. A case study of a customer who implemented your solution and decreased their time to market is ideal for adding credibility and convincing a prospect in the bottom of the funnel to work with you.
- Provide TRUE thought leadership. The very best content is original. Surveys that can offer original research are one of the strongest lead magnets you can create. Not everyone can do an annual survey and report, but you still need to bring your unique knowledge into any content you create. You want to showcase your expertise with a solution, or in a specific vertical market, by sharing real challenges and what you did to solve them.
- Tell Stories. People like engaging stories. One of the more compelling ways to tell a story (and also demonstrate that critical thought leadership we mentioned above) is through your customers. Have a specific goal to get more customer stories into your marketing and be creative. Create short pieces with strong visuals, highlight customer quotes with visuals and short videos are highly effective. Think outside the box and consider telling your customer stories in infographic style formats. Once you have your pieces created, use them everywhere. Don’t keep your case studies on one page of your website; share them in your social media posts, throughout your site pages and ALL your marketing touches (including emails).
Need Help Marketing on LinkedIn?
The Partner Marketing Group can help you elevate your LinkedIn presence, create engaging content, build a strategy and even deliver customized LinkedIn training for your team. Get started today with a quick chat about your goals and options.
