When it comes to lead generation, networking, and business development in B2B marketing, LinkedIn is the gold standard for social media communications. LinkedIn shines in the B2B sector as it has made reaching influential decision makers of your specific industry audience, sharing company insights, products and services, and connecting with potential customers 10 times easier. Here are some to help you get the most from your LinkedIn company profile.
Lead generating profile
Header Image
The first step in lead generating; attracting prospects, is accomplished by the header image. The image needs to be of an attention grabbing nature which forces the person to respond by reading further or clicking onto your profile.
Company Description
Giving a dry explanation of your company history, mission and vision won’t serve the purpose of lead generation. Speak directly to your target audience, inviting them to convert. Focus on the first 2 lines of your description because after that, the rest of the content gets hidden behind the words ‘See More’. Your focus should be on grabbing the attention of your user with those 2 sentences which should include:
Recent Updates
To have an active and engaging feed, update your posts regularly, so that those prospects who didn’t click through to your website after reading your description will be enticed to know more after reading through your recent updates. You can post blog updates, infographic links and share other information relevant enough to get more click throughs.
SEO practices
Provide all the details on your company profile, without leaving anything unfilled, to help elevate it in search results. Keep the details descriptive, engaging and with carefully chosen keywords, the same way you use certain keywords on your website but do not overdo the keywords.
URL
A URL with just a vague reference to your company name will not help you get found. Take a second to work on customizing your URL so that includes your full name.
Metrics
Constantly monitor and analyze the data received from your metrics to make sure you are reaching your goals of lead generation. Doing this will help you become flexible and evolve according to the changes needed to get the best possible outcome.
Enticing Content-
Employee Representative
People trust the information disseminated by employees of a company than by the brand or even the CEO as they find them more relatable.
Expert
Your content should categorize you as an expert in certain topics and themes which will establish you as a thought leader. For this, make sure you and your content are always available to people and visible at all times.
Driving Traffic
You need to get people to your website and the best way to do this is by not thinking linear. You need to create creative posts that work as teasers, generating enough interest in people so that they wait for your PDF or whitepaper to come out and then rush to your website to take the needed actions.
Full Articles
LinkedIn launched a powerful content publishing platform called Pulse which allows you to post full articles on LinkedIn. This gives you the opportunity to engage with people by sharing your value-rich content. Plus the content you publish here gets delivered directly into the email inboxes of those who follow you on LinkedIn.
Networking-
Showcase Pages
LinkedIn created another platform, called Showcase Pages, that lets you showcase each of your products and services separately so that your customers can subscribe to the specific product or service they want to receive updates from.
Advanced Search
Give your company a chance to communicate directly with your target audience by taking advantage of LinkedIn’s feature of performing advance searches. The advanced search feature helps you identify the exact type of people you are targeting without cluttering anybody else’s newsfeed.
Saved Searches
While pursuing leads, it is important to maintain consistency. This can be achieved by using the searches you have created via the advance search feature and then saving them for all your further communications. You can even set up alerts for these searches.
Relevant Groups
LinkedIn has millions of groups for every kind of niche industry, product or service. Make use of this by joining groups that are highly relevant, active and medium sized and by maintaining a certain level of activity while in it. In these groups, you can nurture leads that have a higher conversion rate as they are already interested in what you have to offer. But do not send promotional messages as groups have very low tolerance for this.
Own Group
Creating your own group gives you authority, helps you gain leadership and recognition in your industry and establishes you as a thought leader. This will help you generate relevant and viable leads much faster as only those who are interested will join your group.
Add Connections
Every time you meet someone new or you interact with a person on one of the LinkedIn groups you are part of; add those connections to your LinkedIn network. The more connections you have, the further your content will reach and the more leads you will be able to generate and nurture.
Sales Navigator
LinkedIn has another useful platform called Sales Navigator, which targets good decision makers from the companies and markets you prefer. It also understands what the buyer is looking for and then contacts the buyers with personalized messages.
LinkedIn is the ideal
B2B marketing resource that offers a ton of opportunities. But it needs to be used effectively with the right knowledge or it will become just another time-sucking social networking site.
