Much bigger than just a tool to keep track of colleagues, search for jobs and find the latest business trends and news, LinkedIn has become the epicenter of business-related exchanges and information, especially for companies in the B2B space.
With more than 66.8 million monthly active users in the U.S., decision makers from all industries are active on LinkedIn, according to its 2021 Industries report. In fact, the top 10 industries represented on LinkedIn, including construction, retail and automotive sectors, account for 29% of all account holders. The remaining 71% are professionals in all industries, from farming and fitness to restaurants and sports.
The sheer quantity of users, scope of industries and potential of LinkedIn create immense opportunity for all businesses. Whether leaders are looking to increase sales or generate leads, LinkedIn is ripe with high-impact opportunities businesses can capitalize on, including:
1. Utilizing LinkedIn newsletters to get in front of your target audience, provide unique insights and establish thought leadership in your industry.
Free and functional! That’s the best way to describe LinkedIn newsletters, which can deliver curated content from existing profile information, already-developed company blogs or custom content specifically created for LinkedIn.
Providing your target audience with consistent and valuable information about your industry and your business is essential to keeping them invested and engaged. According to Gartner, 84% of B2B purchasers seek referrals before starting the buying process, so it’s imperative the information you provide gets your audience talking about your brand.
In addition to building a robust presence on the platform, LinkedIn can lead to future conversions. Some 61% of consumers claim they will buy from a brand delivering unique content. LinkedIn newsletters are a worthwhile investment that can open the door for companies to showcase their broad range of insider knowledge and work to build brand loyalty and trust.
2. Audience insights can measure your effectiveness and uncover opportunities.
One of the most valuable benefits of social media platforms is their ability to provide insights about the people and companies engaging with your brand.
Among the most basic insights, you can gather information such as where your audience works, their job titles, where they live and even how they found you. Diving deeper, insights will help you reveal who your audience should be, what information they’re seeking out and how valuable they find your content. This data can inform your ad strategy and assist in targeting the correct audience and ad budget.
There’s also a critical importance in being able to ensure the content that you’re providing resonates with your audience. Demand Metric reports 82% of consumers claim they are more likely to trust a brand when they receive customized content, so ensuring you know as much about your audience as possible is essential to gaining their trust and developing a relationship.
3. Using paid ads to connect to the right businesses.
Once you’ve gathered insights about your audience, LinkedIn has a variety of ad types that can be tailored to your company’s goals.
Sponsored messaging can be effective, as it allows you to connect with professionals directly in their inbox. This is advantageous considering that LinkedIn reports 89% of people on the platform prefer connecting with other businesses via messaging. Currently, only 48% of businesses are capitalizing on this tactic, leaving many potential leads on the table.
Sponsored content ads are fed directly into users’ feeds. These ads can be displayed in a variety of creative ways, allowing you to lead users to your website, a specific page, messages, events and more. For many, the first step in their ad campaign is to gather more page followers or increase brand awareness. Sponsored content ads can help you connect with the right decision makers quickly and effectively.
While there are other advertising opportunities on LinkedIn, sponsored messaging and sponsored content are among the most powerful ways to get your target audience into your sales funnel.
As millions of users across all industries eagerly await their chance to purchase goods, learn more about the industry or grow their business using LinkedIn, the vast majority aren’t necessarily maximizing the full potential of the platform. By learning your goals, Aker Ink’s strategy-minded social media team can help you put your business’ best foot forward using LinkedIn’s full suite of marketing tools.
Learn more about our social media marketing services.
