Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Advertising
New social media networks are sprouting out every now and then. However, LinkedIn has been holding onto his position as one of the top social networks. LinkedIn is a top-rated social media platform for lead generation, producing about 80% of B2B leads on social media. LinkedIn is a significant platform to stand out from the noise and boost your company page.
Any social media advertising can make you or break you. That's why it is crucial to understand the ins and outs of LinkedIn advertisement strategies.
Start Marketing on LinkedIn
Are you ready to start promoting your business on LinkedIn? - Here are useful tips that will help you boost your strategy; both organic and paid
1. Create a new LinkedIn page
Visibility is the backbone of your marketing campaign. To guarantee the publicity of your page, you need to set up your profile page. Visit the LinkedIn marketing Solutions site, click create a LinkedIn page, and then choose the size of your company.
2. Set up your profile
According to LinkedIn, fully completed LinkedIn company pages get 30% more views. Besides, 60% of customers trust a brand's social page over its advertising.
First impressions are essential, and your profile page is your opportunity to impress your audience. Fill out the information about your company. Add a cover photo, logo, new skills, tagline, achievements, and company's website. Don't forget to add the industry, company size, and company type. Take care that your profile strength depends on how complete the page is.
3. Complete your page details
Give extra attention to the Summary section on LinkedIn. In 2,000 characters, you can introduce yourself professionally to prospects and provide them with more information about your company and services.
Try to include relevant keywords and phrases to appear high in search engines. For extra credibility, add the location and phone number of your company. Adding hashtags is a unique way to engage your audience. Create up to three hashtags that are related to your industry, products, or services. At last, add the page administrators who are going to handle your LinkedIn page.
4. Pay attention to your images
Your page logo and cover photo are essential in the "Brand Awareness" step. The visually introduce your online presence and engage your audience. Make sure that they match your blog, website, and any other social media pages.
5. Get help from your employees
As per LinkedIn, companies that have a strong employee advocacy program are 58% likely to attract top talent and 20% more likely to retain them.
Your employees can be an important part of your LinkedIn advertising strategy. Encourage them to follow your page, like and share your posts. You can gain visibility in their networks if they add their position to their profiles as employers in your company.
6. Determine your goals
The type of content you publish on your company page depends entirely on your objective. You need to customise your campaign creation that delivers the best ROI for your planned goal. Choose one of the three campaign themes, which are Awareness, Consideration, and Conversions. Under those themes, there are some campaign objectives which are:
- Website visits
- Engagement
- Video views
- Lead generation
That why you need to determine the main goal behind your LinkedIn marketing strategy at first. Your goals are typically one or more of the following:
- Build brand awareness
- Generate leads
- Engage your target audience
- Promote your services
- Strengthen reputation and build trust
- Drive more traffic to your website
According to your goal, define your target audience and develop a buyer persona to help you create the most proper and relevant content.
7. Create a buyer persona
After you set up your goal, it is time to understand your target audience and define them. Engage your audience with unique content and study their behaviour to get meaningful insights about the type of content they prefer. A well defined audience leads to better lead generation.
8. Customise your call-to-action
Establish a call-to-action button to guide your followers to your website, landing pages, or event registrations. Choose a button name from the drop-down menu and enter the related URL.
9. Optimise your page
Leverage your knowledge of SEO and gain visibility for your company's page by using keywords and phrases. These keywords are usually the ones used by customers to search for your products or services. Share more often. The more you share content your followers engage with, the more your page appears in search results.
10. Use engaging content
Engaging your audience is a challenge. The only way is sharing meaningful content that interests them. Be unique and think of fresh ideas. Also, it is crucial that you respond to your followers' comments, address their inquiries, and solve their problems. This will humanise your brand and build trust. So that you know, a sales-based content doesn't generally conduct good results on LinkedIn. Build relationships with other brands by sharing useful content from their pages. LinkedIn is also the perfect social platform to share your company's news and updates.
LinkedIn has been a great aid by providing a Content Suggestion tool that informs you of the topics that already engages your audience. This tool views the engagement rates of the most popular content based on your pre-added industry, location, and seniority.
11. Use rich visual content
Use rich visual content to increase engagements and grab the attention of your followers. Enrich your profile through adding images, videos, and live videos. Don't forget to add captions and subtitles as most people watch videos with the sound turned off. It has been proved that live videos generate more comments than regular videos on LinkedIn. Besides, sharing your team moments makes your profile more authentic and real. If you want to stand out between your competitors, never overlook this in your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
12. Schedule your posts
Publishing engaging content on a daily basis results in higher levels of engagements and more traffic. Consistency keeps your audience hooked to your LinkedIn company page. That's why we suggest creating a content calendar as a part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
13. Increase your followers
Promote your business LinkedIn page through e-mails and blog posts. You can also use the "follow" button on your website or blog.
For extra exposure you can add your LinkedIn page URL to your email signature
14. Utilise LinkedIn groups
LinkedIn groups are a great way to boost brand awareness and increase your connections. Discover groups on this platform and share your content with other businesses and professionals in your industry.
You can also create your own LinkedIn group. One of the perks of establishing your own group is to quickly initiate a conversation. You can send messages to group members or post content on the group to communicate with your audience.
15. Share your LinkedIn's updates on Twitter
Connect your Twitter account to your LinkedIn one so you can share your company updates across both platforms. This helps you increase your Twitter followers, as well as your LinkedIn connections.
16. Launch your LinkedIn campaign
Reach your marketing goals with sponsored advertisements. Set up your budget, schedule your campaign start date, and choose one of LinkedIn's ad types. You can improve your paid campaign performance with the aid of the LinkedIn campaign manager. There are four main advertising categories in LinkedIn:
- Sponsored posts (Images, videos, or carousel format)
- Text ads (headline with a short description, images are optional)
- Sponsored InMails
- Dynamic ads (Follower ads, spotlight ads, content ads)
At last, think of your goal to help you decide which bid to choose. To clearly understand, you have to know the three options you have first:
- Automated bid: This allows LinkedIn to choose the maximum amount that correctly fits your campaign.
- Maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid: This bid will charge you whenever someone clicks on your sponsored advertisement. This will serve you the best if your goal is lead generation.
- Maximum pay-per-1000 impressions (CPM) bid: This bid will charge you a certain amount after being viewed by 1000 people. This will be the best option if your goal is brand awareness. This option is not available if you are using the LinkedIn Audience Network, which is a feature that allows you to extend your sponsored ad's reach to third-party websites and applications.
Be aware you will not be able to change your objective or advertisement format once you start your marketing campaign.
17. Analyse your marketing performance
Measure your efforts and evaluate your page performance through LinkedIn Page analytics and reporting tools for businesses. They produce data about how effective your content is, as well as details about your engagements, reach, and audience. You can also track LinkedIn conversions through Google Analytics.
Finally...
LinkedIn can be remarkably powerful when you are fully aware of its hidden features. If you are willing to create a LinkedIn page and don't know what to do next, you need to follow the five essential E's of a marketing strategy stated in this guide. They include the five critical steps to be implemented, which are: explore opportunities, expand network, engage connections, establish relationships, and expert positioning.
If you'd still like a helping hand at Social Receptionist we offer dedicated LinkedIn management and advertising services, contact us today to discuss how we can work together to optimise your LinkedIn channel.
