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Utilising LinkedIn B2B Marketing for More Conversions

When it comes to professional networking, LinkedIn is often hailed as a linchpin. Boasting an impressive user base exceeding 1 billion globally, it has firmly established itself as the go-to social media platform for business-to-business (B2B) marketing. The numbers speak for themselves:  an overwhelming 96% of B2B marketers incorporate LinkedIn into their organic marketing tactics. Moreover, 77% of these marketers acknowledge LinkedIn as the most superior platform for their marketing needs. 

But why do marketers swear by LinkedIn for B2B success? Let’s discuss that in this blog post. 

Why LinkedIn?

It is intuitive to wonder why LinkedIn is preferred over several other platforms, especially for B2B marketing. Let’s see

  • The platform’s search features and filters in LinkedIn Sales Navigator help marketers get a precise target market and better quality of potential leads.
  • LinkedIn is a platform where organic marketing efforts, such as content sharing and engagement, can yield significant, high-quality results. It is because content sharing and thought leadership are highly valued here. B2B marketers leverage this aspect to position themselves and their brands as industry leaders. This helps them to build trust and credibility among their target audience.
  • It has the largest professional database. For B2B businesses, this is the best approach to building a network of professionals and leads.
  • LinkedIn has many features to maintain ongoing engagement with leads and the network through InMail and Groups.

Let’s delve deeper into the details of B2B LinkedIn marketing and understand why it is so important!

What is B2B LinkedIn marketing?

LinkedIn B2B marketing involves taking advantage of LinkedIn, a professional networking platform, as a tool to grow your company. You can use it to find leads, contact them, promote your business, and even run ads.

LinkedIn has a lot of tools that can support this process and your marketing requirements. A few of the most important tools for this are:

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator

Source: LinkedIn Sales Navigator 

This tool works well for sales professionals and businesses engaged in B2B activities. It provides advanced search and lead generation capabilities, allowing users to find and connect with potential clients and partners. This is one of the most effective tools for a Linkedin Marketing Strategy.

Let’s find out why it is one of the best features on LinkedIn:

  • For streamlined data management, you can easily sync Sales Navigator with popular CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot.
  • You have advanced search filters to narrow down leads based on keywords, location, job title, company details, and more.
  • The Lead Recommendations feature, which suggests relevant leads based on your preferences, can help you save a lot of time in the prospecting process.
  • Sales Navigator keeps you updated on job changes, company updates, and relevant connections, providing valuable insights.
  • You can unlock information about people outside your direct network, expanding your reach for more meaningful connections.

Company Pages

Italics’ Company Page on LinkedIn

Source: Self

Company pages help businesses with a platform where companies can share updates, engage with followers, and build a professional online presence. With company pages, you can:

  • Get insights into follower demographics, engagement, and page performance.
  • Create showcase pages to highlight specific products, services, events, or initiatives to target relevant engagement.
  • Display company culture and job opportunities for attracting potential talent. You can even leverage your employees’ accounts as brand advocates by connecting them to the company page. This helps to amplify reach and engagement.

Showcase Pages

Showcase pages are like extensions to your existing company pages. Marketers usually use this to highlight specific products, services, events, or initiatives. This is perfect for creating a more targeted presence and visibility for a specific aspect of their business. 

The showcase pages can also have a distinct call-to-action button, directing visitors to take specific actions such as purchasing or signing up.

Sponsored Content

Salesforce’s Sponsored Content

Source: Social Media Examiner

Sponsored content gives you a chance to promote your work and posts to the most accurate niche of audience. LinkedIn has many filter options so that you can make sure that every penny is spent in the right direction. 

For using this, you can select the audience of your choice by choosing the demographics, industries, job titles, companies, and other details. Then, you can use LinkedIn Ads to increase reach and brand visibility.

Groups

LinkedIn Groups

Source: Hootsuite Blog

LinkedIn groups help professionals expand their network by connecting with like-minded individuals in similar industries and facilitating engaging discussions. It’s a perfect tool for building connections and establishing expertise. Additionally:

  • Groups provide opportunities for collaborative learning and stay updated on industry trends.
  • Members can discover and promote industry-related events.
  • Groups serve as forums for problem-solving. You can seek advice from industry experts and help others facing problems.
  • Members often share job postings and career-related information, making it a resource for career development and job seekers.
  • Beyond explicit benefits, group participation can lead to indirect opportunities, such as partnerships or collaborations, through extended professional networks.

LinkedIn InMail

InMail

Source: LinkedIn

InMail is a messaging feature on LinkedIn that allows users to send direct messages to people outside of their immediate network. For a LinkedIn B2B marketing strategy, this can be useful for reaching out to your leads. 

  • InMail is for directly talking to someone you’re not connected with on LinkedIn.
  • It is a premium feature, meaning you might need a subscription or InMail credits to use it.
  • LinkedIn offers InMail credits refund if the recipient doesn’t respond within a specified time.
  • It allows you to craft personalised messages, making your outreach more tailored and effective.
  • It is best for connecting with potential leads and customers and starting conversations.

Why is a LinkedIn strategy important for a B2B business? 

Today, Linkedin = Professional Marketing. 

With the largest professional network online, it offers an unmatchable source of contacts to any marketer for use in their LinkedIn B2B marketing strategy. But that’s not all. Here are some of the most important reasons why you should choose LinkedIn for B2B marketing:

You have an added advantage if you are doing LinkedIn B2B marketing.

  • Users prefer LinkedIn to make professional contacts. This helps LinkedIn to create an atmosphere that inherently prioritises business purposes, which helps to set a professional-centric tone. The brands that follow this end up making themselves perceived better and more trustworthy on LinkedIn than on other platforms. 

According to a Nielsen Study, brand perception on LinkedIn is viewed as “more professional” (92%), “more intelligent” (74%), “higher quality” (59%), and “more respectable” (59%).

  • When running ads on LinkedIn, the information used to target the audience comes directly from LinkedIn profiles. This guarantees a more precise and effective approach to reaching the right people for your business. 

You can reach out to the people with the highest potential to convert as a lead by simply using the filters available. The best part is that you can adjust these filters and parameters however many times you want.

  • Organic marketing on social media is getting tougher. That’s why digital advertising and personal online marketing have become the go-to for marketers. LinkedIn recognises this and provides various tools that help meet the needs of B2B marketers with a specific niche.

For instance, LinkedIn has Ad Objectives offering different ad goals related to your campaign, like website visits or lead generation. 

  • Another great thing about using LinkedIn is that you can connect with potential clients using your own data. This means that all the client email IDs and leads you have generated before joining LinkedIn can also be used to set up on the platform.

It’s very simple to use this feature. All you have to do is upload a list of emails, and LinkedIn will give you the related user profiles.

5-step Strategy for LinkedIn B2B Marketing

Before diving into any plan, it’s crucial to set clear goals. On LinkedIn, these goals might include boosting brand visibility, generating quality leads, establishing industry authority, expanding professional connections, and directing traffic to your company website.

After you have done that, follow this 5-step strategy to make your LinkedIn game strong.

1. Identify Your Audience on LinkedIn

Start with truly understanding who your audience is. This will help you understand the kind of content to create and the next steps to take. Here are a few tips for this:

  • Use keywords in your profile and post titles to target people interested in your topics.
  • Check others’ profiles for similar interests and skills.
  • Use LinkedIn’s “People you may know” feature to connect with like-minded individuals.

So, if you are a B2B company offering marketing services, your target audience on LinkedIn would include business founders, co-founders, marketing managers, and professionals interested in marketing trends.

2. Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile

This is very important to increase your brand visibility on LinkedIn. You can do this using the following tips:

  • Upload a high-quality, professional cover photo with minimal eye-catching text to create a positive first impression.
  • Write a compelling summary highlighting your skills, experience, background, and brand history. Make sure to use as many keywords relevant to you here as possible. So, if you are a marketing specialist, you can use keywords like “social media management,” “SEO strategy,” and “content creation” in your bio. 
  • Showcase your accomplishments, projects, and results to demonstrate your value.
  • Personalise your LinkedIn URL to make it easy for others to find and connect with you.

3. Create Content That Matters

After selecting your target audience and organising your profile, you can now begin with content creation on LinkedIn. Use keyword research tools to target the right audience.

  • Structure content for engagement with clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points.
  • Share valuable tips and advice, concluding with a call to action and useful links.
  • Write for people seeking answers, ensuring your content serves a purpose.
  • Adapt article structures if needed to maintain reader interest.

Creating content that adds value to your reader’s knowledge is always a good idea. Such content always works better and has a higher reach.

4. Optimise Your Content for Better Reach

Just like SEO for blogs, you must optimise your content for better reach. This can be done by:

  • Using keywords in titles, descriptions, and tags.
  • Creating creative hook lines for compelling people to read further.
  • Creating visual content like infographics and charts.

For example, posting something about a client case study on LinkedIn could start with a line like “ Something you never knew about…”. Then, using storytelling, tell your story in a way that is extremely interesting and to the point so that readers stay engaged till the end. 

5. Analyse and Adjust

After completing all the steps mentioned above, you must monitor and analyse them on a daily basis. This will help you better understand what works and what doesn’t. Line up what doesn’t work with your goals, and make changes accordingly.

By following these steps, you can create a comprehensive strategy for LinkedIn B2B marketing to achieve your business goals.

Conclusion

As LinkedIn keeps evolving, heed the wisdom of Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, who said, “Your professional brand is more than just a list of impressive resume points. It’s the cohesive story that weaves together your entire work history – past, present, and future.”

Build a profile that not only highlights your skills but also leaves a lasting impact on those who visit, creating meaningful connections and opening doors to opportunities. Keep growing, stay true to yourself, and let your LinkedIn profile mirror the authentic narrative of your professional journey.

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