While majority of the people look at LinkedIn for job openings, references and pure networking; they ignore its importance from business development perspective. It has been recognized as one of the best platforms to grow your business fast. Today, LinkedIn profiles are the new business card while content is the new networking tool.
In the following, we are sharing some suggestions to help you take your business to next level, with LinkedIn.
1. Create A LinkedIn Company Page:
With more than 5 million company profiles, as of late 2014, you have to play to win on LinkedIn, or get left behind. Aside from keeping up an all-star personal profile, you also need a LinkedIn company page to increase the brand image to association members, distributors, customers and others. A LinkedIn page also gives you a chance to highlight your services, leadership qualities and your workers to enhance your external credibility and community.
2. Benefit From Advanced Search:
One of the most important things about generating sales is knowing how to find your client. LinkedIn’s advanced search feature gives you a chance to filter results by industry, company size, demographic, position and other information. This will save you much more time than if you have to look up the names of your potential clients.
If you feel that you have some extra money to invest in this, you may want to consider signing up for the premium option, which will enable you to reach more and qualified leads.
3. Use LinkedIn for Content Marketing:
LinkedIn is a professional networking site which means that it should be used to show your educational and professional background. Consider posting articles that show your expertise or that portray you as an insider in your industry. It can be a great source of content marketing. With LinkedIn Pulse, you can not only learn about latest happenings in the market but also can contribute your articles. They help in spreading positive word of mouth as well as attract traffic to your website.
4. Make Quality Connections:
Before sending a request to someone, verify they are legit by looking at their profile. The key variables to consider include a professional picture, a profile having a minimum of 150 connections, and a summary of their career history. Without having these three elements, it is possible that the person you are going to connect with does not use LinkedIn all the time. So, think twice before sending a connection request.
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5. Use LinkedIn for Drip Campaigns:
List building is a daunting task in email marketing. Businesses run campaigns for opt-in, purchase lists, exchange them, and use a range of tactics to refine their list. If you use some marketing automation platform, it must have a feature of integrating your system with LinkedIn. Even if you don’t have that integration available, just export your contacts in Microsoft Excel sheet and build a separate list. Give it a separate name for identification and use it for email drips.
We don’t encourage spamming but advise you to send out your corporate content and literature to potential leads on LinkedIn.
Recommended Read: Best Practices for Email Marketing in 2015
6. Begin To Blog On LinkedIn:
Technorati reports that 31% of clients are influenced by blog posts. Thus, it shows potential for each small business to post articles on their blog, their website and on LinkedIn to reach and connect with their audience. It could be the same content on every platform, since you will be connecting with diverse audiences on every site. Blogging is a new content networking tool and will help enhance your credibility and build your business message’s reach when others share it on their network.
7. Send 6-8 Daily Status Updates:
LinkedIn is not a place to post coupons for your small business. The social contract here is to use LinkedIn to add to your positioning. Send a minimum of 6 messages daily between 6AM to 12AM to expand your company’s exposure to your followers and your 2nd and 3rd-level connections (i.e., the followers of your followers and their followers).
8. Secure LinkedIn Endorsements:
Dimensional Research reports that positive endorsements, similar to those on Yelp and Amazon, influences around 88% of purchase decisions. LinkedIn endorsements are similar to those of Yelp and Amazon. Reviews of your business can be used as personal endorsements to build your small business’s reputation.
- Use Offline Marketing Tactics:
Upgrade all current marketing efforts with a tagline, urging your prospect and current clients to join your LinkedIn Group: direct mail, email campaigns, employee email signatures, business cards, also making sure there is a link on your site to the LinkedIn Group. LinkedIn is an amazing way to create traffic to your site and boost your website search engine optimization efforts. Make sure to ask your employees to add your site to their own LinkedIn profile – this gives quality and relevant links which helps you rise in search engine rankings.
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