If you’re looking to improve your small business’ online marketing strategy, then you’ve come to the right place. Today, LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media platforms for businesses and professionals looking to build their networks. In fact, LinkedIn is estimated to have over 660 million users worldwide.
If you aren’t using this powerful platform for your small business in 2020, you’re missing out on an invaluable opportunity to grow. Here are 10 of the best LinkedIn marketing strategies that you can implement to help scale your company’s online presence and generate leads.
1. Always Analyze Your Competition
This is a very important step in almost any type of business operation!
After all, if you want your small business to compete with other leading names in your industry, you’ll need to know what they’re up to and what makes them so successful.
We suggest identifying 5-10 small, medium and large scale competitors. Then, take the time to check out their LinkedIn pages. Focus on: the types of content that they are posting, the topics that are important to them as well as who their audience members are.
Of course, you don’t want to simply copy what your competitors are doing on LinkedIn – but it is a good practice to identify the strategies that they are implementing to gain inspiration for your own.
2. Update Your Images and Banner Regularly
Think of your LinkedIn page’s profile picture and banner as the face of your business. Consider this: it’s the first thing that people are going to look at when they open up your company’s page. According to LinkedIn, small business pages that have high-quality profile pictures and banners get up to 6 times more organic visitors than those without.
Here’s a great how-to video about taking a standout LinkedIn profile picture:
Before you do anything else, make sure that all of your company’s LinkedIn images are up to date. Your first impression will be a lasting one!
3. Use Relevant Keywords
Keywords are words or terms used by search engines to help understand what you’re looking for. Therefore, the more relevant and high-quality keywords that you use in your page’s content, the more likely you’ll be to attract relevant LinkedIn users to your page.
For this, you’ll need to identify keywords that are specific to what your visitors might be looking for and that have high search volumes. You can use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to find the best keywords to use.
Then, add these keywords to your company’s LinkedIn page, as well as in your posts and other content, to help you attract new, relevant people to your brand.
4. Fill Out All Key Fields
There are many fields on a LinkedIn page that you can fill out to provide your viewers with valuable information about your business. Be sure to fill out all key fields, including: your company’s website URL, your address and location, your industry and your company size. Small businesses often don’t fill out some of these fields, which leaves them at a disadvantage.
Pro tip: continue to use relevant keywords wherever possible!
5. Create a Friendly and Engaging ‘About Us’ Section
While your images are good for attracting LinkedIn users, your words are going to be what reels them in and keeps them interested.
The ‘About Us’ section has a 2,000 character limit. If you choose your words carefully, this limit should provide plenty of space to tell your visitors all there is to know about your company. Use simple and understandable language. Be friendly and let people know who you are, what you do, and what your company’s goals are.
6. Post Content Often
Even if your images and ‘About Us’ section attract visitors to your page, you’ll need to post useful, informative content to make sure that they stay interested. Fortunately, when it comes to creating content on LinkedIn, your options are virtually limitless – you can choose to create videos, images, infographics, blog posts, or slideshows.
Strive to create content that is valuable and informative to your LinkedIn audience. It’s best to come up with content ideas that solve problems or answer questions your visitors might have. By doing this, you’ll be able to establish your company as a thought-leader in your respective industry, and visitors will start coming to your brand when they are seeking guidance.
Check out our guide When Is the Best Time to Post Video on LinkedIn? for best-practices when posting video content to LinkedIn.
7. Recycle Old Content
If you find yourself running out of ideas for fresh, new content, there’s always the option to recycle old content – especially if it performed well in the past. For example, if you posted an article a few months ago that got a lot of likes, comments or shares, you can always take that content, update it, and recycle it into new content that you can post. Avoid resharing old posts or videos over and over again – take the time to update your previously posted content and add value wherever possible.
Remember: if your past content performed well, it’s because your audience perceived it as informative. By improving upon it and adding even more value, you’re almost guaranteed that your audience will respond even better this time around.
8. Collect and Offer Endorsements
Another extremely powerful way to build your brand’s LinkedIn presence is by collecting and offering endorsements. You can gather endorsements from peers on your networks. This works to provide social proof that your business is credible.You can also ask for endorsements from your LinkedIn connections who work for other companies, offering that you’ll write one for them in return. This exchange is mutually beneficial since you’ll both be providing each other with a positive recommendation.
Check out this helpful video on the topic from career expert Cass Thompson:
9. Market Your Company Page Off-Platform
If you want people to visit your LinkedIn page, you’ll need to mention it as much as possible – both on and off the platform. Add a link to your LinkedIn profile to: your company page, your email signatures, business cards, website and wherever else you interact with your clients.
Furthermore, most social media platforms will allow you to add a link to your LinkedIn profile. For example, if you’re already active and have a large following on Facebook, try adding a link back to your LinkedIn profile. This could prove useful in increasing traffic to your page from other platforms.
10. Engage Your Audience
Whether you’re just starting out or have been running your small business for years now, the key to generating leads on LinkedIn is to be professional, and above all, to be active on the platform.
If you want people to notice your brand, you’re going to need to engage with your audience whenever and wherever possible. This means asking questions and starting conversations, responding to requests and messages, commenting on and sharing other people’s content and just generally getting out there and making yourself known on the platform.
Overall, LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for marketing and promoting yourself as a professional, an agency, or a business owner. By implementing these 10 Linkedin marketing strategies to your profile, you’ll be able to start generating leads, recruiting employees, and engaging with the right audience for your brand.
