LinkedIn marketing and introduction of methods to grow

Even though Iranians can access and use other social networks without requiring filters, LinkedIn is considered one of the most professional social networks. But still, many online businesses are unaware of the unique features this social network provides users. Many users may have created an account on LinkedIn, but when formulating a strategy for their business and implementing plans, they rarely pay attention to LinkedIn marketing.

LinkedIn is a robust social network with 645 million active users worldwide. If you operate and market with strong and principled strategies in this social network, you can quickly create branding actions and increase brand awareness in the audience’s minds. LinkedIn is a social network for professional relationships that somehow lends credibility to your business.

On LinkedIn, many potential and expert customers can significantly impact your brand’s and your business’s growth. In this article, we will fully familiarize ourselves with the principles of activity in this social network, marketing on LinkedIn, and the methods of producing targeted and moral content.

LinkedIn Marketing

Today, with the increase in users worldwide access to social networking platforms, the number of active users has also increased. But unfortunately, in the meantime, some users use social networks just for fun because they don’t have enough information. Some professional social networks, such as Instagram and LinkedIn, provide unique opportunities for marketing and branding for businesses. It would help if you published targeted, practical, and valuable content using the principles and strategies of content production to strengthen or improve your brand.

Necessary steps to start marketing activity on LinkedIn

In the following, we will examine the things that you must follow to start LinkedIn Marketing:

Creating a business account

To begin marketing on LinkedIn, create a unique account for your business.

• First, register on LinkedIn and click on your profile from the top of the page to do this. Then, select the Create Company page option at the end of the new open menu.
• Second step: Specify your business type on the next page. Small businesses, medium to significant businesses, showcase sheets, and educational institutions are all kinds of companies.
• After confirming the previous step, you will enter a new page where you must fill in the information about your business, including business name, website address, etc., all the fields with stars.
• Then click the square at the bottom of the page and click the Create page button.
• After creating a company or company page, click the Page Admin option on the top right menu and the Admin Tools option to enable access and management for other employees or colleagues.

Determining the purpose of LinkedIn activity

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, LinkedIn is a professional and efficient social network. For this reason, at the beginning of your work, you should determine your goal or goals of creating a LinkedIn account and activity. For example, companies or businesses have the following purposes:

• Increasing the number of actual customers and loyal customers
• Increase website traffic
• Increasing the amount of content sharing by the audience
• Increasing the credibility of the business and field of work compared to active competitors

How to achieve business goals in LinkedIn marketing

After determining the desired goals for your business, you should check and analyze how LinkedIn can play an influential role in realizing your business goals. At this stage, you should remember that according to the available statistics, you can implement the appropriate performance to achieve your goals on LinkedIn.

• Increase customers: One of the main goals of any business is to increase the conversion rate of visitors and contacts into actual customers. In this regard, it should be said that compared to other social networks, LinkedIn visitors and audiences have a 277% more chance of becoming potential customers or leads.
• Recruiting and attracting human resources: LinkedIn is known as one of the best social networks for attracting capable and talented workforce worldwide. In this way, even many educated employees have been recruited from qualified, experienced people who have had significant daily work.
• Increasing brand awareness: The foundation of launching and operating on LinkedIn is based on creating a professional social network for professionals. This social network can become a way to increase brand awareness and fame by displaying your brand among millions of valid and active brands.
• Increasing business credibility: As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, LinkedIn allows users to specify the type of business and the purpose of work. For this reason, you can prepare helpful and practical content for users based on your specialized and professional field of work. If you produce valuable and continuous content, your business’s credit will increase significantly.

How to use LinkedIn for effective marketing

After you have determined your goal or goals for LinkedIn activity, you can effectively and usefully use this social network for marketing. Also, you can analyze and review your work process after some time. To check how to use LinkedIn as best as possible for marketing, there are tools and methods that we will introduce below:

Tracking the effective conversion rate from LinkedIn by Google Analytics

First, determine the current status or rate of origin you are currently in. Then, check the number of potential or actual customers who have entered your website by clicking on the link on LinkedIn. For this, enter the Google Analytics website, first select the Acquisition option and then the Social option. In the new Social section, enter the Conversion section and then select the LinkedIn option. In this section, you should set and select the date you want and see the changes that have happened to LinkedIn in the last six months.

The critical point in this section is to monitor and analyze the audience’s conversion into a willing customer. You must set a goal in Google Analytics. For example, if an interested user or potential customer enters the website and then fills out a contact form on the website. Then, join your LinkedIn through it. This customer is willing.

The statistics provided in this section are a basis for how you perform on LinkedIn so that you can easily see and check the growth percentage or accuracy of your work in LinkedIn marketing. For example, when developing a content strategy for LinkedIn, if you could get 1000 interested customers in the last six months. Suppose you want to increase the number of potential customers by 25%. In that case, you must attract 250 potential customers by repeating the LinkedIn marketing strategy or developing a new system.

Another helpful tool of LinkedIn is the Lead Gen Forms tool. This form is provided to customers, a simple and instrumental section to collect information from interested customers who have visited your LinkedIn profile.

Determine the amount of traffic received from LinkedIn

Like checking the amount of interested customers, you can view and limit the amount of traffic received from LinkedIn through Google Analytics. For this, enter the Google Analytics software and select the All Traffic option through the Acquisition option. Then, select the All Traffic option from the Referrals section and find LinkedIn. In the chart specified for LinkedIn, you can view and analyze the total number of visitors who entered the website through LinkedIn. You can also see their percentage with other sources through which they entered the website. In this section, you can also choose the type of goal (Goal) through the same method mentioned in the above paragraphs. So, finally, check the data of the last six months or the time you want and set a logical and targeted growth chart for it as a goal.

Checking the amount of content sharing

You can also see the number of content contacts shared through Google Analytics. To do this, click on the Analytics option on the top menu of your business profile page and then select the Update option. In the Metrics section, select the Share option. To determine the goal, check the average amount of content sharing in the last six months and define a logical growth according to the graph drawn.

Using LinkedIn to increase business credibility

One of the best ways to increase business credibility is to establish a professional business position on various platforms. To increase the business’s credibility, it is necessary to see the quality and continuous content on LinkedIn. Also, you can improve your interaction with other professional companies on LinkedIn for this purpose. It would help to remember that interacting with a group or sending more posts automatically (like a bot) will not increase the business’s credibility. Instead, the produced content must be informative, helpful, practical, and thought-provoking.

There is no specific index to determine the amount of business credit. However, you can measure the business’s relative growth status and credibility by monitoring various indicators, such as the growth rate of followers, content sharing, and the volume of interactions carried out on LinkedIn. However, the critical question is how these indicators can show the company’s credibility because the increase in audience interaction or content shows the value and validity of the company or practical content.

Determining the status and tracking the mentioned indicators

To track the three mentioned indicators to check the business’s credibility, it is enough to refer to the Analytics menu through the LinkedIn profile. Then, select the Followers option and view the followers’ growth rate and total interactions through the Update option. To determine the goal, consider the average growth of posts in the last six months or weeks or the time you want. Then, assess your plan based on the same chart shown.

Determine your audience on LinkedIn.

After you set up a dedicated page for your business and set your goal, you should focus on the planning necessary for marketing on LinkedIn based on knowing the target audience. If you do not have enough knowledge of the audience, you cannot provide valuable and appropriate content to the audience.

Another critical point is that LinkedIn is a B2B and professional social network. For this reason, you cannot copy the content you publish on other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Your audience in the link is a group of notable people looking for specific and professional goals, and the type of content they like is also different.

To know the audience, you must be able to answer the following questions:

• Who is the target audience (my business)?
• What problems and concerns do the audience have?
• At what time or times do they face problems?
• Why did these (professional) problems occur to the audience?

Complete and optimize your LinkedIn profile.

To attract better and be seen more by the audience, you must optimize your LinkedIn profile. For this, you must complete all the suggested fields or at least the areas that show complete and comprehensive information about your business. Also, post a photo that fits your business. Choosing outdoor and informal images is not suitable for LinkedIn.

Follow these steps to edit your profile:

1. In the page info section, change the profile picture and name of the LinkedIn page. Write a tagline of 120 words. This tagline will be placed under your logo. This section and the overview section are considered the most critical parameters for LinkedIn marketing. These parameters are displayed in the About section of the profile. These two parts are very effective and practical in impressing the audience and starting an interaction.
2. In the buttons section, select a button to display next to the following button.
3. In the overview section, write the necessary contact information and description.
4. In the location field, specify your activity location.
5. Create three practical and specific hashtags for your posts in the hashtag section.
6. In the featured group section, add ten groups that suit your business.
7. In the manage language section, translate the information you entered to display to customers and foreign audiences.

The importance of writing Tag Line and Over View on LinkedIn

The line is one of the essential parts and the first parameter that comes to the user’s eyes at first glance when checking LinkedIn. Writing 120 practical and valuable words about your business can give your business an identity. To report this part, you need to be creative and write concisely. Any audience wants to know your business more determinedly.

You can also use the overview section to write more descriptions. For example, to start introducing the company, you can do the following methods:

• Write about the mission statement or the values of the company.
• Provide information about products and services: Identify what your business does differently from others. How can your company help customers?
• Presentation of success statistics and recommendations of others: Many users pay more attention to the introduction and advice of others than to pay attention to advertisements. In this section, you can record the positive comments of customers. If users have doubts about your products and services, they will be convinced by seeing the recommendations and endorsements of others.
• Use of keywords: One of LinkedIn’s best practical marketing methods is using keywords. In this way, the probability that your LinkedIn profile will be seen in Google increases when searching. Even in this case, you can consider the LinkedIn page a secondary website and SEO it. In this way, use suitable keywords for the website and the LinkedIn profile.

Determining the voice and tone of the brand

The marketing requirement on LinkedIn professionally and conscientiously is to define the tone and voice of the brand. The meaning of brand voice is the brand’s personality, which is introduced as an adjective. The technique’s purpose depends on different situations and factors for some brands, which adds flavor.

To determine and recognize the brand, you must know the answer to the following question:

What is your brand’s personality? Is it knowledge-based and informative? Thoughtful and political? To determine your brand voice, ask your employees and colleagues to write down the top three adjectives that best describe your brand. Then, in cooperation with another, choose the three best adjectives symbolizing your brand.

After choosing the adjectives, choose the right tone for the brand. Brand tone represents the style and trend of a brand on LinkedIn. To select a brand, one of the helpful things is to consider the feelings and needs of the audience. For example, how do you think you are to communicate with the audience? If you have a humble tone in mind for your brand, do you want it to come across as professional to your users but as serious and exciting as possible?

Choosing the right tone is essential because after determining the three attributes of your business, the type of message and content you publish on LinkedIn will be with that tone. But your tone in different posts will vary depending on various situations and conditions.

Formulating an innovative and targeted content creation strategy on LinkedIn

Creating content and publishing aimless posts does not improve the LinkedIn marketing process. Publishing content and any activity on social networks, including LinkedIn, should be prepared based on the purpose of the business. Also, in addition to the quality of the content, other things, such as the type and format of the content you use on LinkedIn, are essential. For example, you can publish various content on LinkedIn, such as research articles, blog posts, slide sets, videos, infographics, etc.

Establishing the position of the brand as a professional expertise

If you plan to introduce your brand as a reliable and essential source and reference in the field of work, you can get help from LinkedIn. The critical point is that you need a relatively long time to achieve this position. Success does not happen overnight.

Help with audience problems.

One of the valuable and effective ways to establish the credibility of receiving business credit is to solve the audience’s problems. As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, LinkedIn interactions are b2b. For this reason, LinkedIn’s target audience and users are not ordinary audiences and customers. For this reason, it is essential to show and prove the distinctive and vital points of the business from the users’ point of view. To stand out in the eyes of your potential audience, you should answer the following questions:

• Is there a question of sympathy in the content?
• Does the content you publish on LinkedIn connect with potential customers?
• Is the content in such a way that it can solve the audience’s problem?

If your content can’t answer the questions correctly, you must start a new strategy for developing and preparing the plan.
Free sharing of knowledge

To increase the credibility of your business and stabilize it among other competitors, you should provide your knowledge to users for free. But remember that this method doesn’t reveal your brand’s general and vital information. To share your knowledge for free on LinkedIn, you can do the following:

Share information that is shared between you and other colleagues. Because customers and users do not know about this information.
Indirectly teach new users the problem or mistake that other colleagues have made so that more users trust you.

Publish the most valuable content.

LinkedIn’s audience and activists are part of the professional and expert audience. For this reason, quality content must have the following features:

• Be written based on research and expert reviews. Also, this content should be based on up-to-date and valid articles.
• Informative content: Content published on LinkedIn should be informative and valuable for users. If you post duplicate content that is not useful for users, the content will not be helpful.
• Authoritative content: Authoritative content directly refers to the credibility of your business.

Determining the schedule for compiling and publishing content

To publish content on LinkedIn, everything depends on the audience and its performance. Based on the interaction with the content, the audience determines the amount and time of publishing the content. For example, Saturday and Sunday are holidays for LinkedIn users abroad. For this reason, based on Iran’s holidays, the best time to publish content is in the middle of the week.

Create a showcase page.

A showcase page on LinkedIn is considered a subset of business. Showcase pages allow you to display different fields of business. LinkedIn members can follow other tabs depending on their interest in several company dimensions. To create a showcase page, enter the admin tools menu and select Create a Showcase Page.
Use the LinkedIn advertising system.

Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn users regularly update their accurate information with detail and accuracy. As a result, based on the LinkedIn advertising system, you can provide a unique and exact performance for users. LinkedIn advertising solutions:

• Sponsored content: Using this advertising service, you can provide content to more users.
• Sponsored in email: This internal messaging system in LinkedIn allows sending advertisements tailored to each user. These messages are sent to the user when the target user is on LinkedIn.
• Text ads: Text ads are a type of click ads that are displayed in different parts of the LinkedIn user interface.

You can use analytical tools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of LinkedIn and apply the necessary measures for LinkedIn marketing. For successful marketing on LinkedIn, you must continuously check the analytical statistics.

The most important statistics of the LinkedIn tool:

• Engagement: the number of likes, comments, and content sharing
• Conversion: The rate at which the user performs the desired action. Such as buying a product, filling out a form,
• registering to receive an email newsletter
• Traffic: The number of visits to the website through LinkedIn

To obtain and analyze the above information, you can use two sources:

1. LinkedIn analytics tool: This tool is located in the LinkedIn tab. This tool includes several visitors, updates, and follower options.
2. Google Analytics: which we discussed at the beginning of the article.