LinkedIn trumps other social networks when it comes to generating qualified B2B leads. This is a known fact among savvy B2B marketers, and it’s backed by numbers.
Based on compiled data reports, 92% of B2B marketers prefer positioning their organizations on LinkedIn over other social networks, and the platform is 277% more effective at lead generation than Twitter and Facebook.
Aside from those numbers, LinkedIn is also equipped with various functions and features which opened a lot of doors for marketers and advertisers who are focused on driving traffic and branding.
But before we delve into how you can make the most out of these resources, let’s take a quick look at some interesting facts and statistics which paved the way for LinkedIn being the B2B marketing powerhouse it is today.
Pew Research Center’s reports revealed that LinkedIn users mostly consist of educated individuals and highly paid professionals. Even 49% of adults in the US who use the platform are college graduates, and 45% of them have an estimated yearly income of over $75,000, which is higher than the average annual earnings of Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram users.
A LinkedIn study showed that 49% of B2B buyers look at vendors’ LinkedIn profiles when doing research about them, while 44% have actually found potential vendors by looking at shared connections.
The site itself revealed that it is the most used social media platform among Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn has a high concentration of B2B’s target audience, as over 20% of users consist of educated and influential decision-makers and senior-level executives.
Based on a study by the Content Marketing Institute, 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to implement content marketing campaigns. The study further revealed that 78% of them say that the platform is an effective content marketing tool.
Recent statistics show that 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, while Twitter takes second place with 13% and Facebook the third spot with 7%.
It’s already established that LinkedIn is a valuable tool to grow your network and reach out to like-minded professionals. Now, let’s make sure that these three marketing opportunities on the biggest professional network are not overlooked.
Using LinkedIn as an Inbound Marketing Tool
By now, you probably know how to enhance your online presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google. Leveraging LinkedIn advertising platform, which features an excellent selection of audience targeting and segmentation tools, is also a great way to build a community around your business.
If done right, running LinkedIn ads can help generate a steady flow of quality B2B leads and ultimately increase sales conversion. How to start?
Identify Target Audience
This should be a no-brainer. Any marketing campaign is doomed to failure if it didn’t start with determining the target market first and ensuring that you’re deploying the ads to the right audience.
As a B2B marketer, it’s not possible to tap into the minds of over 610 million active professionals on LinkedIn, and it shouldn’t even be your goal. So your safest bet is to utilize the platform’s targeting options, which allow you to narrow down your list of market segments to target.
Create Effective Targeted Content
First off, create a list of your primary business goals and ask yourself these questions: Do you want to enhance brand awareness through increased website visits, focus on building a community and reach out to like-minded individuals, or advertise your products?
Then, identify what type of content your target audience typically consume and proceed to creating high-quality, easy-to-digest content that aims to educate and provide solutions to your audience.
Lastly, set an attainable goal and budget.
Luckily, LinkedIn’s content mediums are at your disposal, which brings us to the next topic.
Optimizing Content Marketing Strategies on LinkedIn
As already mentioned, LinkedIn offers B2Bs the opportunity to reach a massive professional audience, and with it comes another challenge of avoiding this cringe-worthy scenario — LinkedIn users rolling their eyes at a posted content that doesn’t offer anything new.
So make it worth their time by optimizing your content and making it relevant to your target audience.
But first, you need to choose from a variety of content types from different media within the platform:
- Photo/text ads– You can write a compelling copy that summarizes a topic and end it with a call-to-action, and include an image or a link to a LinkedIn article or a landing page. The headline should be interesting enough to catch the users’ attention and drive the readers to click.
- Video ads– This form of sponsored content on LinkedIn is ideal if you want to promote events or share a product demo or brand story. This type of content auto plays on the newsfeed without sounds. To make it less time-consuming (especially for those who are in the workplace and couldn’t listen to the audio track), keep the video short and add subtitles. You may even use a video ad to promote a LinkedIn article.
- LinkedIn articles– Another way to boost your online reputation is to publish business articles. If you’re planning to use the LinkedIn publishing feature, the factors you need to take into account are the relevance of your topic and the quality of the content, headlines, CTAs, and images used, as well as the timing of your post. Publishing insightful, high-quality content will keep your target audience engaged and help enhance business credibility.
Increasing Leads with an Optimized Company Page & Showcase Pages
Potential B2B buyers visit the LinkedIn profile before deciding if they’d make a purchase or not. So don’t waste that opportunity to make a good impression. A well-optimized company page has:
- A profile image (business logo) and a company profile banner that adhere to LinkedIn’s requirements.
- A well-written ‘About Us’ section that answers the most basic questions about the business (i.g., what type of company, what are the core values, where are you located, what are the products/services offered, what makes the business unique, etc.). Although you’re targeting an audience of business-minded professionals, this section doesn’t always need to have a formal tone. Keep the words simple and the sentences concise to make it easy to read.
- The important information included in the page such as your professional website’s URL, local and/or international address(es), type of industry, and size of the company.
Showcase pages, on the other hand, allow you to maximize your targeted advertising strategies on the platform. Creating showcase pages enable you to highlight the different areas of your business and publish specific content to your target audience.
So how can you make the most out of this feature? Keep posting! Keep the specific audience of each customizable page informed and engaged by regularly posting videos, text ads, articles, and other superior quality content.
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