What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when someone mentions social media? Instagram? Twitter? It’s unlikely that LinkedIn is the first thing that pops up. But LinkedIn is a social media that boasts a whopping 740 million members, which means using LinkedIn for sales is a great idea.
LinkedIn is popularly used for professional networking and career development. However, the purpose of this platform is much greater than just seeking job opportunities. Businesses can leverage LinkedIn to find prospects, build strong client relationships and increase sales.
Is your LinkedIn content barely getting any engagement? Are you struggling to generate leads on LinkedIn? Take this as a sign to revamp your LinkedIn marketing strategies because sometimes using LinkedIn for sales requires more than just setting up a campaign.
In this post, we’re summarizing marketing hacks for finding leads and effectively using LinkedIn for sales. Let’s dive in.
1. Create & optimize company page
If you don’t already have a company page on LinkedIn, it’s time to create one. Having a business profile on LinkedIn is vital for your online presence. Before a prospect decides to do business with you, they will most likely start by searching online to find out more about your company.
You need to be mindful about every element of your company page because this is essentially the first thing a new prospect will see. From choosing a professional image to writing a compelling summary, make sure you optimize different sections of your page prior to using LinkedIn for sales.
2. Create a showcase page
If you are offering more than one product or service, then it’s possible that you have a diverse target audience. In addition to your main company page, you should also create LinkedIn Showcase pages.
It’s no secret that the same marketing strategies are not going to work for different audiences. Showcase pages allow you to have pages dedicated to different brands to effectively target different audiences. For a powerful showcase page, you need captivating visuals and persuasive content. Besides these, it is also necessary to constantly engage with your audience.
3. Know your target audience
Just like any other marketing strategy, knowing your target audience is crucial when using LinkedIn for sales. Before you start creating content for your blog or design campaigns, take the time to determine who you are targeting.
Creating high-quality content will get you nowhere if it doesn’t cover your target audience’s needs and interests. From analyzing audience demographics to buying motives, do in-depth research to find the right people for your brand.
Connecting with the right audience will lead to better engagement and higher conversions.
4. Avoid overly promotional posts
Are you exclusively posting promotional content on LinkedIn? Your brand isn’t going to win over any customer if your marketing strategy is solely focused on hard-selling.
People join LinkedIn to connect with like-minded individuals and brands. You’re missing out on a coveted opportunity of attracting new customers by sharing only product-centric content. While using LinkedIn for sales, make sure you are sending out 80% informative and 20% promotional posts for maximum results. To help you create a combination of product-centered and customer-centered posts, seek the help of LinkedIn post makers for faster content creation.
5. Create customer-focused content
Why should people care about your product or service? Rather than aggressively pushing your product on LinkedIn, focus on creating customer-centric content. Understand the requirements, interests, and problems of your target audience and deliver solution-focused content.
This approach is also useful for connecting with prospects. Refrain from trying to sell your product in the first interaction with a new connection. Instead, try to learn more about the prospect and offer them valuable content.
Sharing valuable and relevant content plays a key role in establishing the credibility and authority of your brand.
6. Maintain a consistent posting schedule
The world of social media is fast-paced. There is so much content shared every second. So posting just a few times every month isn’t going to help your brand massively. If you want to catch the attention of your target audience, it’s imperative to post consistently.
When using LinkedIn for sales, you should post at least a few times every day. And these posts should be evenly spread out throughout the day.
7. Use sponsored content
In addition to implementing measures to organically grow your presence, you can also use sponsored posts to further your reach. You can choose the target audience your posts reach on the basis of key demographics such as age, sex, and location. Moreover, on LinkedIn, you also have the option to target your audience based on factors like online jobs, company name, skills ad groups.
8. Track campaigns
Are your online campaigns driving the results you want? Take out the guesswork from LinkedIn marketing by paying attention to your analytics. Tracking and monitoring campaigns are reliable ways to determine their success or failure. One of the biggest perks of using LinkedIn for sales is that you can figure out what kind of content drives the most engagement and conversions through analytics.
9. Pick the right time to post
Similar to other social media sites, you need to pick the right time to post on LinkedIn. Since LinkedIn is mainly used by skilled professionals, the start and end of typical business hours is usually a good time to post. In addition to the time, it is also necessary to choose suitable days to post. Avoid posting too much on weekends when people are taking time off from work and probably not looking much at work-related notifications.
10. Find valuable connections
One of the biggest advantages of LinkedIn is a highly accurate search feature. The advanced search feature allows you to set a wide range of filters to find exactly what you’re looking for. You can use it to find your ideal potential clients and grow your network.
When you find a relevant connection, make sure to check out the similar profile tool to find other potential connections that match your requirements.
11. Join groups
Joining groups on LinkedIn is an excellent way to connect with your target audiences and make new connections. Since there is a limited number of groups an account is allowed to join, make sure you carefully choose the groups most relevant to your business.
Merely joining groups is not enough. It’s imperative to interact with posts as well as sharing original content. Remember to follow the rules and guidelines set by the group when sharing content. Avoid spamming and constantly interact with other members in a respectful manner.
12. Create groups
Besides joining groups, you can also grow your network by creating your own group while using LinkedIn for sales. Creating a group allows you to make a community that’s based around your niche or area of expertise. Again, avoid taking an over-sales approach. Make an effort to share content that’s useful for the rest of the community. This can help you discover new prospects as well as have a platform to post your content.
13. Grow your email list
Your growing network on LinkedIn is an opportunity to grow your email list. Email marketing is a viable way to build stronger relationships with new connections and persuade them to become paying customers. In fact, email marketing is significantly more effective than other social media platforms. If you have reached a point of stagnation with your email list, LinkedIn connections could be your way forward.
When you send a follow-up message to new connections, remember to invite them to join your email list and include a direct link to your sign-up form.
14. Utilize paid sales solutions
When you’re new to LinkedIn marketing, using the free version is enough. But as your organization grows, it’s crucial to upgrade your marketing efforts accordingly. When using LinkedIn for sales, it can be beneficial to spend on paid tools to further grow your presence. Apart from sponsored posts, there are other tools such as LinkedIn Sales Solutions that make targeting and engaging new prospects easy.
The Bottom Line
While LinkedIn is undeniably an essential social media for businesses, it is vastly different from other popular platforms. It’s important to realize that blatantly promoting your product or service isn’t a strategy that does well on LinkedIn. Rather than a product-centric marketing approach, you need to create solution-focused content for your target audience.
Building a presence on LinkedIn takes time. So don’t waste your time on “tips and tricks” that promise overnight success. Understand the unique goals and requirements of your brand and accordingly develop your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact the team by joining the Facebook community for more information.
Author’s Bio:
Stefan Smulders is a SaaS Entrepreneur | Bootstrapped to €3M ARR in just 1year | Founder of Worlds safest software for LinkedIn Automation Expandi.io | Vegan | Father