LinkedIn Marketing: Using One of Your Business’ Strongest Weapons

How to Use LinkedIn for Business: A Step-by-Step Guide

LinkedIn is a platform that’s designed to be used for professional networking by allowing employers to post openings and job seekers to showcase their CVs. But what used to be a channel for expanding professional networks is now one of the strongest weapons in any business’ marketing arsenal.

How is that possible?

In Australia alone, there are over 10 million registered LinkedIn users with more than half consistently logging in monthly. 

This presents countless marketing opportunities that aren’t limited to increasing the reach of your content alone. The question is, are you using LinkedIn to its maximum potential?

If you’re not, don’t worry because it’s never too late to upgrade your marketing strategies across several platforms. LinkedIn Marketing is a truly powerful tool that can help your business grow and reach new heights. But how do you do that exactly?

Today, we are going to guide you through the steps of utilising LinkedIn for your business. But first, we’re just going to run through the basics:

What Is LinkedIn Marketing?

LinkedIn marketing refers to the process of using the platform to forge new professional relationships with the goal of generating leads, improving brand awareness, sharing content, driving traffic to your website, and nurturing business relationships and partnerships.

A Linkedin marketing strategy will give you access to data that you can use to build your brand and understand the market you’re trying to target with your content. It gives you a better understanding of what your audience are looking for and how you can create content that they’re likely to enjoy.

If you plan your content properly and use the best LinkedIn headlines for marketing, more people will consider connecting with you, following you, and maybe even sharing the posts you enjoyed.

How Do You Use LinkedIn Marketing for Your Business?

Knowing how to use LinkedIn for business marketing is a skill that will greatly benefit your organisation. But how exactly do you do it? We’ve come up with a step by step guide on how to use LinkedIn for marketing below:

1. Create a Unique Public Profile URL

   For your LinkedIn profile to be ‘clickable’, you need to make sure it looks professional plus it should be easy to share. Nobody will bother to check on a profile that’s incomplete with confusing details. So, when sharing the link to your profile, you should avoid sending one with an overwhelmingly long series of numbers at the end.

   Instead of showing this:
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/Olivia-Brown-a9a237202/

   Customise it and make it look like this:
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/Olivia-Brown

   
   Doing this is pretty easy, it won’t even take you 5 minutes to complete. Simply click on ‘View Profile’ then click on ‘Edit Public Profile and URL’. You will be redirected to ‘Edit your custom URL’. Click on the pencil icon beside your current URL and then change it to something that you think is more appropriate (don’t forget to remove the string of numbers at the end). Hit ‘Save’ and you’re done!Now you can share your profile’s link on any platform and encourage recipients to take a look (a lot of users refrain from clicking on shady URLs).

   
   
   

2. Use a Relevant LinkedIn Background Photo

   There was a time in the past when background photos weren’t a thing on LinkedIn. As the platform was more for business purposes, a huge background image was believed to look a bit unprofessional. It was only in 2014 that LinkedIn finally gave in and made this feature available to users.
   This allowed users to personalise their profiles which was especially useful for people in creative industries. It enabled them to showcase their skills through custom backgrounds. But don’t get carried away. LinkedIn is still a social platform for professionals, so you need to choose your background carefully.

   If you want the image to display properly without getting cut off or looking lopsided, stick to a photo size of around 1584×396 pixels. Make sure it’s in PNG, JPG, or GIF first and under 8MB.
   

3. Keep Your Business Page Updated

   Your business profile isn’t just for hiring people, it’s also the best place to post content that you can link to your website for the purpose of increasing your traffic. You can also add your complete business information and link it to your other social media accounts. Keeping the details on your page updated ups the chances of your visitors to access other channels to learn more about your organisation.

   A good example is if you produce a webinar. Those who weren’t able to attend the webinar live can be redirected to your website or to any other channel you want the visitors to check out. Not only are you able to cater to your audience’s needs, but you also open your business to more traffic.

4. Optimise Your Business Profile

   Contrary to popular belief, Search Engine Optimisation or SEO isn’t exclusive to websites or blogs. You can also optimise your LinkedIn profile so it becomes discoverable to people searching LinkedIn for terms that your profile is optimised for. Keywords can be used in several areas in your page like your work experience or your headline.

   Using your business profile’s headline is referred to as LinkedIn headline marketing. For this strategy, you need to make sure to write an optimised LinkedIn headline. Digital marketing companies (or whatever industry you belong to) should describe what they do but not with too much detail. It should be like a teaser that will intrigue whoever’s looking at the page enough to dig deeper into the profile.
   The real challenge here is writing the headline, because you’re not supposed to exceed 120 characters. That’s why it’s important to include crucial information, add important keywords, and make it interesting enough for the reader to want to learn more.

5. Customise the Sections of Your Business Profile

   Not all LinkedIn users know that they can actually edit and reorder their business profiles. When editing, you can hover your cursor over the double sided arrow in every section. Once the pointer becomes a four arrow icon, you can click, drag, adn drop the specific section into another area in your profile.

   You also have the ability to to reorder entries like education, skills endorsements, or any volunteer experiences. It’s as easy as editing. The only difference is that there won’t be a four arrow icon. Instead, you are going to have to use the reorder icon, which looks like a hamburger menu button but with four parallel horizontal lines instead of three.

6. Use LinkedIn’s Job Postings Feature

   LinkedIn is a platform for job seekers and employers. To maximise its power (and so you never have to move platforms anymore) use it for the function it’s intended for, which is professional networking and hiring. You can create and set search alerts that will make it easier for you to recruit qualified candidates.
   
   

   You’re actually hitting two birds with one stone when you do this. Aside from having access to skilled potential employees, you also get job hunters to visit your page, check open positions, and be led to your website where you can list down in detail the specifics of the job. Who knew getting traffic was possible with a job opening?

7. Utilise LinkedIn Endorsements

   Endorsements show off the skills and experience of the people or businesses in your network. You can promote them for their specialty, and they can do the same for you. This exchange of endorsements will improve your reputation online and build your brand up as an exceptional one.

   The bigger your network, the more endorsements. The more endorsements you get, the more trustworthy you will be to the eyes of all your profile visitors.

8. Create an Open Profile to Send Messages to Potential Connections

   We all try to avoid spam in our mails, and there are a lot of those, even on LinkedIn. If you want to connect to more people, consider sending personalised messages to people you have yet to connect with.

   This is one of those LinkedIn marketing hacks that businesses underutilise. Sure, sending bulk connection requests is easier and more efficient. But they’re also more likely to be ignored by recipients.

   Anybody who’s been on LinkedIn’s platform for a considerably longer period can spot a templated LinkedIn inmail marketing attempt from a mile away. Don’t do what other organisations are doing.

   Write genuine connection requests that will let the recipient know how eager and willing you are to connect with them. Don’t make them feel like they’re just one of the hundreds or thousands you plan to send inmails to.

   Remember, a potential connection is a client that hasn’t signed up yet.

   It’s up to you to gear them towards that direction. Don’t scrimp on your inmail. What’s a few more personalised words if it means having your invite accepted?

9. Share Network Updates With Your Connections

   If Facebook has a News Feed, LinkedIn has Network Updates. Here you can see what your connections are doing and sharing. You can also follow competitors to get an update on what they’re up to.
   This is the perfect place for you to share your business’ updates or interesting articles that are related to the industry you serve.  You can stay in the know by signing up for email notifications or filtering your feed so you get updates on the latest news about the topics you’re really interested in.

10. Be Consistent With Your Branding

    Unknown to many, you can create a content marketing plan using LinkedIn. And you can start the implementation on your profile. Aside from LinkedIn inmail marketing,you can also use your polished business page to stand out among your competitors.

    If you know how to use LinkedIn for social media marketing, doing this shouldn’t be too difficult. It follows pretty much the same concepts but with different applications since it’s on a different platform.

    You want to be identifiable. You need to present your business in a way that with just one look and anyone can tell what brand they’re looking at. It might take a while to have it all figured out but it’s okay, you can always refine your branding as you go along.

11. Constantly Check Who’s Checking Out Your Profile

    One important  thing to know when it comes to using LinkedIn sales and marketing is that there’s a feature called “Who Viewed Your Profile” on LinkedIn. This page will let you in on the details of the exact users who checked out your profile. This is especially useful if you’re planning on using the platform to push your services forward.Knowing your audience and what they need will let you know if you’re the right solution for them. Grab the opportunity to get in touch and let them know that they weren’t wrong to visit your page.

12. Join LinkedIn Groups

    LinkedIn Groups are online places where professionals and businesses operating in the same industry (or with similar interests) can share their experiences and skills, ask for assistance on complicated issues, and build connections relevant to their enterprise. Joining one will help you discover how to market yourself on LinkedIn better.

    Don’t forget that the people in these groups are your direct competitors. Knowing what they do and how they operate will enable you to come up with LinkedIn marketing ideas that aren’t like others.

    You can easily spot these groups by searching the top of your homepage or checking out other groups you’re already a member of.

13. Cross Post to Other Platforms
    

    Add your other social media accounts to your LinkedIn business profile and cross share updates across platforms. Not only is this convenient, it will also help make your other channels visible and potentially increase followers not just on LinkedIn.
    

    The availability of several platforms will allow you to segregate and target various market profiles. If you want to showcase images, Instagram is your best bet. If you want to create videos (like for uploading a webinar) there are also several options possible. Twitter is perfect for sharing short updates or snippets for quick reading, and so on.

14. Tag Other Users

    Just like any other social media platforms, LinkedIn allows you to tag or mention other users if you want them to see your status update. It pretty much works like on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

    The powerful @ symbol followed by the business or username will alert them about your post. It’s one way you can bridge two brands that can make way to better engagement and lead to better brand awareness.

15. View LinkedIn’s Content Marketing Score and Trending Content Resources
    

    The impact of your LinkedIn headline digital marketing (or any other strategy you use for that matter) can be seen on Content Marketing Score and Trending Content resources. Your Content Marketing Score measures the overall audience engagement of your published content.

    Trending Content tells you what’s in and what’s hot in the community you’re targeting. This should allow you to optimise your content so it brings in the traffic to your profile and eventually the pages you’re redirecting these views to.

16. Analyse Data on Your LinkedIn Marketing Performance

    Want to know how LinkedIn marketing works? Analyse your strategies and tactics and make all the necessary adjustments as you see fit.

    Follow the data.

    LinkedIn has reporting tools that your business can use to evaluate how your strategies are performing. These information can be very specific like how effective your content or status updates are, how well your published posts’ reach is, and what really makes up your audience member demographics.

    These are the things that will make your LinkedIn marketing stronger and more effective.

Taking Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts to the Next Level

No marketing strategy is ever perfect the first time. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t get really close. You can optimise your LinkedIn profile and make it work for you. This is the perfect platform to improve your online presence and reputation and get a better idea on how you can take your marketing strategies up a notch.

All you have to do is create the perfect LinkedIn profile.

Don’t rush, though. The perfect profile will take time to craft. You need several hours of brainstorming and revising before you get it right. If you’re just starting your LinkedIn journey, it helps to play around with various images and styles before you implement anything on your business page.

Remember that LinkedIn is no longer just a place where companies hire employees and job hunters seek employment. The platform, digital marketing wise, now functions like any other social media channel you’re familiar with. Take advantage of its features and its unique user base.

Not Enough Time to Master All Social Media Platforms?

As much as a company would like to be present and performing on all platforms, it’s admittedly tiresome especially for startups or small businesses. In cases like these, it’s wise to have a professional digital marketing agency handle the management of other social media accounts.

Companies like SEO Services Australia can assist you with your digital marketing. Check out the rest of our website or schedule a free consultation today to learn more about our services and your options.