Is LinkedIn Marketing worth it? | Important Factors to Consider

With more than 830 million members worldwide, LinkedIn, launched in May 2003, has become the most trusted and successful social media platform for B2B marketing. There was a time when LinkedIn was considered a platform merely for job seekers where they could connect with potential employers or for working professionals looking for career growth opportunities. However, today it stands tall as a leading network forming part of almost every business’s comprehensive social media strategy. Generating leads, networking with other businesses, and creating brand awareness are just a few of its many perks. Read on to know more about the key factors for effective LinkedIn marketing.

Should you use LinkedIn for your business marketing?

LinkedIn marketing is basically a term coined for the process of using this platform to promote a business or an individual through creating pages or profiles. Since LinkedIn is not only the most desirable B2B social media platform but also one of the prominent players in content marketing, it can work wonders to make people aware of your brand, drive traffic towards your website and build new business connections while simultaneously fostering the existing ones. According to the business statistics, here are three interesting facts you need to know about this platform:

1. LinkedIn is 277% more effective at lead generation than Twitter and Facebook.
2. 50 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs each week, and 6 people are hired through it every minute.
3. LinkedIn drives over 46 % of social traffic to B2B sites. With 98 % of content marketers using the platform, especially for B2B marketing and lead generation, LinkedIn is appraised to be the most credible source of content.

Moreover, the ever-increasing cut-throat competition in the current epoch has put tremendous pressure on businesses to invest in social media marketing. LinkedIn, if used wisely, can open an array of opportunities for businesses, individuals, and marketers. Let’s now look at the factors that must be considered to make the most out of this tool. 

LinkedIn Marketing: 6 Factors to Consider to Make the Best Use of LinkedIn

1. Profile optimisation is the key to successful marketing.

Now, it may sound completely basic, but actually, it’s an essential step. Bland profiles can be a pet peeve for many. Even if it’s something as trivial as having a good-quality profile picture, everything matters when it comes to your LinkedIn profile. It should speak for itself. So, what are you waiting for?

Go and embellish your profile – if you’re a business, showcase your employee’s achievements or celebrate that new recruit, give your followers a good coverage of how you are giving back to the community, or highlight how your business is unique and different from others. And well, if you’re an individual, market yourself by adding your experience, relevant skills, and expertise. Moreover, try to make your page SEO-friendly by incorporating important keywords and hashtags in your profile. 

2. Capitalise on all the LinkedIn features.

Like other platforms, LinkedIn too offers free as well as premium membership. Although the latter does promise a better experience with the help of its exclusive features like Premium Career (makes job finding an easier process), Sales Navigator (useful in generating leads and building clientele), Recruiter Lite (for finding and hiring talent), Premium Business (helpful for getting business insights that’ll ensure business expansion) and LinkedIn Learning (for honing skills and developing new ones), even the former can prove to be a fantastic marketing tool.

Through the basic account, one can connect and interact with other users, receive unlimited InMail messages, request and provide recommendations, save up to three searches, and get weekly alerts on the same. So, taking maximum advantage of all these features is the roadmap to effecting marketing on LinkedIn. 

3. Publish content that enhances value. 

LinkedIn marketing is not only about posting promotional content to boost sales of the company but also about publishing content that creates awareness, guides, inspires, or even entertains the audience. Because connections have an option to further share your content, it serves the larger purpose in hand that is broadening your reach.

Such engaging content will ensure that your audience is hooked and looks up to you as their go-to source for all relevant industry-related information. It will also enhance your brand’s visibility and allow you to evaluate what works and what does not – these metrics can be easily analysed by the amount of likes/comments/shares received on your posts. Adding visuals to your content is also a good idea as it will be more engaging and attention-grabbing. 

4. Engage your stakeholders.

Involving your stakeholders, such as your employees or customers, can also rev up your marketing game. Ask your employees to add the company website to their profiles, motivate them to create and share content, and highlight their achievements. Similarly, even customers can be encouraged to share their reviews or experience of being associated with you. This will again automatically expand your business’s reach.

Moreover, there are a lot of LinkedIn groups (designated pages allowing like-minded people with shared interests or in the same industry to exchange ideas and interact with each other) where active participation is also a win-win situation for both the corporates and their employees. 

5. Consistency is important.

Being consistent while posting content is as important as publishing it in the first place. It need not be on a daily basis, but you must be consistent enough for the audience to actually anticipate your posts, whether it is once or several times a week. On top of that, it will show your connections that you’re active and practically ‘an InMail away’ as several customers may like reaching out through social media. Thus, make sure you post regularly to gently remind the audience of your active presence. And here’s a tip – post at least once per day, if not more, especially during the working days, preferably in the morning. 

6. Try different approaches. 

Use LinkedIn Boosting to amplify your content that will further expand your reach. You may boost a post if you’re launching a new product or if there’s a huge corporate event lined up. This can definitely enhance engagement. Another approach could be through LinkedIn Ads – it directly targets the audience, and you really don’t have to wait for them to reach out to you; in fact, you go to them. This is an excellent way to generate leads. 

Similarly, there are Showcase pages, more like subpages to your main page, where you can highlight a specific event, product, or service. Also, being familiar with LinkedIn reporting tools can help measure conversions, analyse performance, understand the audience, and keep tabs on bigger opportunities. If this is not your cup of tea, hire an expert who can do that for you. Try to make the most of this world’s largest professional network. 

The Bottom Line

It is evident that LinkedIn marketing must be a strategic priority for all businesses, and letting go of the opportunities offered by it because of the unavailability of time or resources would be a very naive thing to do. One can easily outsource this task to leverage this platform by considering the above-mentioned factors. 

Team EMB

Our team of expert writers is committed to bringing insights on topics ranging in the fields of technology, marketing, and business. With a wide-reaching range of services on our platform, we help businesses achieve digital transformation end-to-end.