LinkedIn Marketing: How to Use LinkedIn Strategically
Before she started Heyday , a canned food company, founder Kat Kavner was a passive user of LinkedIn, keeping her profile up to date but not posting much. But when she started her business, everything changed.
“I posted on LinkedIn that we were launching our brand in 2022 and it got a really great response,” she says. “That post went far beyond my first connections and got a great response from the broader CPG community on LinkedIn.”
LinkedIn is different from other social media platforms in that it focuses on business. If you’re starting your own business, you can use your LinkedIn company page to build brand awareness, recruit employees, and generate leads from other LinkedIn users. You can also significantly expand your exposure with LinkedIn advertising. Learn how to build an effective LinkedIn strategy with Kat’s proven tips below.
Marketing LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the best social channel for B2B (business-to-business) marketing. According to a survey by digital marketing agency Wpromote , 89% of B2B marketers said they use LinkedIn for lead generation . Additionally, 62% of them reported that they have successfully acquired new leads through LinkedIn posts. At the heart of your LinkedIn strategy is your company’s visibility. You can use your LinkedIn account to promote your business to others in your network. You can also expand your network by purchasing ads that drive LinkedIn members to your business page. For many business professionals, your LinkedIn profile conveys credibility. By actively engaging in LinkedIn marketing, you can strengthen your brand image in the eyes of your business colleagues and potential customers.
How to Use LinkedIn for Marketing
- Increase brand awareness
- Lead Generation
- employment
- Strengthening company culture
Businesses use their LinkedIn pages to achieve four main goals. You can focus your LinkedIn marketing plan on:
Increase brand awareness
Business owners use LinkedIn as a marketing tool to build brand awareness and share their company’s accomplishments. Use your company page to tell potential customers about the services you offer. Post content to your company’s LinkedIn page to announce business expansions, new hires, awards, and major contracts. Consider highlighting team members and providing links to their personal LinkedIn profiles.
One of the best ways to grab your customers’ attention is to post content that is relevant to them. According to internal data from LinkedIn, 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing, making the platform a hub for their core audience. Stay ahead of the competition by regularly adding engaging content like polls and updates to your LinkedIn feed.
Lead Generation
You can use LinkedIn to generate leads through other businesses (B2B marketing) or business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. While both digital marketing strategies can be effective, LinkedIn stands out from other social networking sites because of its ability to reach business customers. Many companies customize their LinkedIn content to engage professionals who use the platform through their own business LinkedIn accounts. According to LinkedIn Analytics data, B2B buyers on LinkedIn primarily work in IT, finance, business development, accounting, and operations.
employment
Companies use LinkedIn marketing to strengthen their employer brand and recruit new team members. In most cases, this means posting job openings on LinkedIn. Instead of running a mass campaign, you can target individual LinkedIn users with personalized messages. You can improve your recruiting efforts by keeping your business LinkedIn page up to date and accurately describing your company and location.
Strengthening company culture
LinkedIn can be a useful tool for communicating with employees and existing customers. You can use LinkedIn posts to clearly communicate your company’s values and goals. This will be visible to potential customers as well as people who are already connected to your organization. You can also suggest that employees create and maintain profiles that provide updates on the work they do at your company.
How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Content
- Make your posts easier to read
- Staying relevant to the industry
- Minimize external links
- Include images and videos
- Use hashtags for related keywords
- Tag other LinkedIn users (moderately)
LinkedIn, like other major social media platforms, uses algorithms to deliver relevant content to its user base. The algorithm prioritizes providing quality content and minimizing spam to keep users engaged. Use these LinkedIn marketing tips to ensure your content appears in your target audience’s feeds:
Make your posts easier to read
Use concise sentences. Don't fill your text with marketing language.
“I see a lot of people on LinkedIn using a weird voice and style. It’s always long posts, short paragraphs, and it’s all about ‘working hard and achieving,’” says Kat Kavner, co-founder of Heyday Canning Co. “Just write in your human voice.”
Staying relevant to the industry
Talk about topics related to the service you offer. For example, if you sell a SaaS (software as a service) product, try writing a post about advancements in the information technology space.
Minimize external links
The LinkedIn algorithm may consider external links as spam or low-quality content. If you must include a website URL, use the actual address (not a shortened link) and provide context about the site you are linking to.
Include images and videos
According to LinkedIn metrics , video posts are 20 times more likely to be shared on LinkedIn than other types of posts.
Use hashtags for related keywords
Hashtags can help your content be found in LinkedIn searches. Make sure these hashtags are relevant to the main topic of your post, and avoid hashtags like #subscribe or #follow, which users may find unhelpful and spammy.
Tag other LinkedIn users (moderately)
Tagging other LinkedIn profiles can inspire those you tag to share your content with their networks. However, if you tag too many people, the LinkedIn algorithm may flag your post, limiting its exposure.
LinkedIn Marketing Strategy Tips
- Post at the right time
- Providing high quality content
- Leverage your LinkedIn connections
- Join our LinkedIn group
- Encourage contributions from team members
- Reply to comments
Follow these six simple guidelines to increase your LinkedIn exposure. Start with these tips when posting content on LinkedIn:
Post at the right time
Research shows that there is a good time to post on LinkedIn: Weekday mornings get the strongest engagement, while evening and weekend posts get less exposure.
Providing high quality content
Approach your content publishing strategy with the goal of filling your readers with information. Focus on your niche and publish content regularly. You can link to your company website or highlight your accomplishments, but be careful not to bombard your readers with sales language.
Leverage your LinkedIn connections
LinkedIn provides an opportunity to connect with other business professionals online. As you add people and businesses to your LinkedIn network, include them in your posts. For example, you can tag them in your posts and ask for their opinions. Share their posts and add your own opinions.
“I posted on LinkedIn that we were launching our brand in 2022 and it got a really great response,” she says. “That post went far beyond my first connections and got a great response from the broader CPG community on LinkedIn.”
Join our LinkedIn group
LinkedIn Groups are voluntary forums where people in the same industry or share common interests participate. You can join as many LinkedIn Groups as you like. While it is not wise to post blatant marketing content in these forums, you can build brand awareness by actively participating in group threads. Establish yourself as an honest and reputable group member.
Encourage team members to contribute
Employees are some of your best ambassadors. Encourage them to share content on your LinkedIn business page and post their own updates. Employee posts can reach LinkedIn users who aren’t already followers of your company.
Reply to comments
User engagement is one of the key metrics that the LinkedIn algorithm relies on to recommend posts. That means posts with lots of comments are more likely to appear in people’s feeds than posts without comments. You can encourage conversation by participating in discussions yourself. Ask questions on posts and respond to others’ comments.
How to Use Your Personal LinkedIn
In addition to using LinkedIn to market your business and products, entrepreneurs can leverage the platform to position themselves as business leaders. “I use LinkedIn as a way to spread the word and create buzz in my industry by posting all the important news,” says Kat.
Here are Kat's tips for leveraging your personal LinkedIn profile as an entrepreneur:
- Post it on your personal LinkedIn, then share it on your business page. “Sharing news from my perspective makes the post feel more engaging and human, and it brings readers on a journey with me, rather than posting from a brand account,” says Kat.
- Write in your own voice. “Tell your story, share authentically the motivation and ‘why’ of what you do,” says Kat. This will help LinkedIn users connect with your brand.
- Think of your LinkedIn posts as mini press releases. “Use LinkedIn as a mini press release because it can function like that in many ways,” says Kat. LinkedIn is a great place to share business news in a less formal way than a press release. Kat uses her personal LinkedIn account to promote her brand’s new line of canned soups and chili.
LinkedIn Marketing Strategy FAQs
How effective is LinkedIn marketing?
LinkedIn can be an effective tool for generating leads and driving web traffic to your website or ecommerce store. According to LinkedIn’s internal research , 96% of B2B marketers distribute content through LinkedIn.
Is LinkedIn Marketing Expensive?
LinkedIn advertising often costs more than advertising on other social media networks. According to 2023 data from digital marketing agency WebFX, the average cost for LinkedIn advertising is $8 to $11 per click, $33.80 per 1,000 impressions, and 50¢ to $1 per send.
Can you get leads from LinkedIn?
Yes, digital marketing agency Wpromote reports that 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation , and 62% say LinkedIn generates leads for them.
Is influencer marketing effective on LinkedIn?
Some businesses use LinkedIn for influencer marketing, but it’s not as common as what you’ll see on video-centric social media networks like TikTok.
How can I drive more traffic to my company page?
You can drive more traffic to your LinkedIn company page by posting regularly (several times a week), tagging your LinkedIn connections, posting at appropriate times (typically weekday mornings), and providing specific data and useful information in your posts.