With over 630 million professionals from all over the world, LinkedIn is the ultimate destination for businesses looking to connect with decision-makers, influencers, and other key players in their industries.
But with so many users and so much content being shared every day, it can be tough to stand out on LinkedIn. That's why a well-crafted marketing strategy is absolutely essential. Fortunately, this ultimate guide to LinkedIn B2B marketing is here to help.
In this comprehensive article, we'll explore the best practices for LinkedIn marketing in 2023, giving you all the tools and insights you need to succeed. From crafting compelling content and optimizing your profile to building connections and engaging with your audience, we'll cover everything you need to know to develop a winning strategy that generates leads and drives results.
So if you're ready to take your B2B marketing to the next level and unlock the full potential of LinkedIn, then keep reading.
Why is LinkedIn the best place for B2B marketing?
There are many social media platforms available to businesses today, but LinkedIn stands out as the premier destination for B2B marketing. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, LinkedIn has over 930 million members on its platform, making it the largest professional networking site in the world. This means that businesses have access to an unprecedented number of potential leads and decision-makers.
Secondly, LinkedIn's targeting capabilities are unmatched by any other platform. Businesses can use a wide range of filters to hone in on their ideal audience, including job title, industry, company size, location, and more. This makes it possible to create highly targeted campaigns that reach the right people at the right time.
Finally, LinkedIn is a platform that is specifically designed for business networking and thought leadership. This means that users are primed and ready to engage with businesses in a professional context, making it easier to build relationships and generate leads.
Whether you're looking to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry, expand your reach, or generate leads and drive revenue, LinkedIn is the best platform for B2B marketing.
Set up your LinkedIn company page for success
Setting up a company page on LinkedIn is an important step in establishing your brand presence on the world's largest professional social network. A well-optimized company page can help you reach a larger audience, build brand credibility, and engage with potential customers and employees.
Here are some important things to consider when setting up your company page on LinkedIn:
1. Profile picture
The profile picture is one of the first things visitors see when they land on your company page. It's essential to choose a high-quality profile image or logothat accurately represents your brand. Ideally, your profile picture should be a square image with a minimum size of 300 x 300 pixels.
2. Banner image
The banner image is a large image that appears at the top of your company page. It's an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand personality and visually communicate your message. Choose a banner image that aligns with your brand identity and is visually appealing. The recommended size for the banner image is 1584 x 396 pixels.
3. Company description
Your company description should be concise, informative, and engaging. Use this space to describe what your company does, what sets you apart from competitors, and what value you offer to customers. It's essential to include relevant keywords in your company description to help your page appear in relevant search results.
4. Showcase pages
LinkedIn allows you to create showcase pages for specific products, services, or initiatives. This feature is a great way to highlight your offerings and engage with your target audience. Use showcase pages to share relevant content, showcase product features, and build a community around your offerings.
5 strategies for successful B2B marketing on LinkedIn
Now that your company page is set up, it's time to start getting active. Here are five tips and B2B marketing strategies that other successful companies are using on LinkedIn. Keep in mind that you don't need to implement all of them at once to be successful. Start with one and gradually add more as you go.
1. Create a content strategy on your LinkedIn company page
A robust content strategy is crucial for building engagement on your company page. Consider the type of content you want to share and how often you want to post. It's important to strike a balance between promoting your brand and sharing informative content that your followers will find valuable.
At Storykit, LinkedIn is our primary platform for B2B marketing, and our organic strategy has been a key component of our success. If you browse through our feed, you'll see that we post a diverse range of content, including articles, tips, case studies, introductions to our coworkers, stats, and more. While we occasionally vary the types of content we share, we primarily use video.
This is partly because we're a video software company that believes video should be used for everything, but also because video gets 5x more engagement on LinkedIn.
Our main strategy for success is posting frequently and posting a variety of content. Many companies are hesitant to share too much content and end up posting too little.
However, the lifespan of a post is short, and not everyone will see everything you post, so it's important to post frequently.
At Storykit we were able to double our followers from 5,000 to 10,000 in under 10 months by posting daily.
2. Encourage colleagues to post regularly on their individual profiles
In B2B marketing, building relationships and establishing trust with potential clients is crucial. And one of the best ways to do this is through individual LinkedIn profiles.
People trust people, not faceless corporations or brands. When colleagues post on their individual LinkedIn profiles, they are putting a face and personality to the company they represent. This helps to humanize the brand and build trust with potential clients.
Individual LinkedIn profiles also allow colleagues to showcase their expertise, experience and thought leadership. By sharing valuable content and insights related to their industry or niche, they can position themselves and their company as a credible and trustworthy authority in the field.
In addition, LinkedIn's algorithm tends to favor individual profiles over company pages. When colleagues post on their individual profiles, their content is more likely to appear in the newsfeeds of their connections and followers. This can help to increase visibility and reach for the company's brand and message.
Refine Labs serves as an excellent example of a company that has successfully implemented this approach. Refine Labs is a B2B marketing agency that focuses on employee advocacy and LinkedIn as a core component of their marketing strategy. They believe that people buy from people, not companies.
By encouraging their colleagues to post on their individual profiles and engage with potential clients on the platform, they have been able to establish trust and credibility, increase visibility and reach, and generate more leads and revenue for their clients.
3. Start a LinkedIn newsletter
LinkedIn newsletters can be a powerful tool for B2B marketing, providing a unique advantage when it comes to building an email list. Unlike email lists built through other channels, LinkedIn newsletters allow you to easily invite all your followers or connections to subscribe, enabling you to build a relevant audience quickly. This means that companies can leverage their existing LinkedIn audience and share relevant content, not just on their feed, but also straight to their followers' inboxes.
In addition, because LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, individuals are more likely to opt-in to receive newsletters from companies they trust and respect in their industry. This makes it easier for companies to engage with their audience in a more personalized way, driving higher engagement rates and increasing brand loyalty.
After publishing each newsletter article, push, in-app, and email notifications are sent to all your subscribers to help drive views, which makes it easier to get your content in front of your target audience and increase your reach.
HubSpot is a great example of a company that is leveraging LinkedIn newsletters in a powerful way.
By sending tailored content to each segment of their target audience, they've been able to boost engagement and drive traffic to their blog, seeing a 16% increase in click-through rates and a 50% increase in blog traffic.
4. Paid advertising
Paid advertising is essential for B2B companies to reach their target audience effectively. LinkedIn provides an excellent platform to run different types of ads, such as sponsored content, video ads, and more.
One of the unique advantages of LinkedIn advertising is its powerful targeting capabilities, which allow advertisers to narrow down their audience by company, job title, location, and more.
In fact, LinkedIn allows you to upload your own lists of contacts or target accounts, making it easier to reach decision-makers at the companies you want to do business with. This level of targeting ensures that your ads are seen by the right people, increasing the likelihood of conversion and ROI.
Paid advertising on LinkedIn is ideal for those who want to see immediate results and test different content formats to see what resonates with their target audience.
Here are the types of ads you can run on LinkedIn:
- Sponsored content ads: These are native ads that appear in a user's LinkedIn feed, and can include text, images, and videos.
- Sponsored InMail ads: These are personalized messages sent directly to a user's LinkedIn inbox, and can include a call-to-action button.
- Display ads: These are banner ads that appear on the LinkedIn website, and can be targeted to specific audiences based on their interests and behavior.
- Dynamic ads: These are personalized ads that use a user's profile information, such as their name and photo, to create a more personalized experience.
- Video ads: These are video ads that appear in a user's LinkedIn feed, and can be up to 30 seconds in length.
- Text ads: These are simple text ads that appear on the right-hand side of the LinkedIn website, and can be used to promote a company or a specific product or service.
- Conversation ads: These are interactive ads that use conversation to engage with users and can be used to generate leads or qualify prospects.
Adobe is a great example of a B2B company that has seen success with sponsored ads on LinkedIn. According to a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog post, Adobe ran a sponsored content campaign that featured its Creative Cloud product.
The campaign was targeted to people who followed Adobe, as well as those who had shown an interest in design, photography, and videography. The sponsored content was a short video that showcased some of the product's features, and it included a call-to-action to download a free trial of the software.
As a result of the campaign, Adobe saw a 50% lower cost-per-lead compared to previous campaigns, and they also saw a higher conversion rate. The sponsored content also received a high engagement rate, with many people commenting and sharing the video.
This is a great example of how targeted sponsored content on LinkedIn can be an effective way to reach a B2B audience and drive leads for a business.
5. Create or join LinkedIn groups
Creating or joining LinkedIn groups can be an effective strategy for B2B marketing. LinkedIn groups provide a platform for like-minded professionals to share industry insights, exchange ideas and build relationships.
By creating or joining groups relevant to your industry, you can establish yourself or your company as a thought leader, connect with potential clients, and expand your network. It also allows you to engage with your target audience on a more personal level and share content that resonates with them.
Additionally, group members are often more receptive to messaging and outreach from other members, making it a great opportunity to generate leads and create business opportunities.
The Content Marketing Institute is a leading organization in the content marketing industry, providing education and resources to businesses looking to improve their content marketing strategies. One of the ways they have been able to attract new leads for their consulting business is through their LinkedIn Group, which has over 70,000 members.
The CMI LinkedIn Group serves as a platform for content marketing professionals to share their insights, ask questions, and connect with others in the industry. By actively participating in the group and providing valuable information, CMI is able to establish itself as a thought leader and build trust with potential clients.
Through the group, CMI is able to share their expertise and offer insights to members, which often leads to new business opportunities.
Check your analytics and look for positive indicators
LinkedIn provides analytics tools to help you track your page's performance. Use these tools to monitor your impressions, follower count, engagement rate, and other metrics to identify what's working and what's not. Use this information to refine your content strategy and optimize your page for better engagement.
Conclusion
In the fast-paced world of B2B marketing, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of strategies and tactics available to you. However, the key to success is not to try everything at once but to find the methods that work best for your specific niche and target audience.
By testing different approaches and analyzing your results, you can refine your marketing efforts and optimize your ROI.
Remember, there's no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to B2B marketing. What works for one company may not work for another. The key is to stay open-minded, stay informed, and be willing to adapt your approach as needed. With the right mix of creativity, strategy, and persistence, you can achieve your B2B marketing goals and take your business to new heights.
