Linkedin For Business and Marketing: How To Use

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HOW TO USE

LinkedIn for Business


and Marketing
INTRODUCTION

The Importance of
LinkedIn for Businesses
Whether you’re a small business owner who
looks after marketing yourself or you manage
the marketing team within your company,
knowing how to utilize LinkedIn for business
and marketing is key to optimizing your B2B
platform. LinkedIn provides an opportunity to
reach a professional audience, acquire new
Within How to Use LinkedIn For Business
leads and contacts, rank higher to get more
and Marketing you will learn how to:
eyeballs on your page, and promote your
business. This ebook will provide you with » Set up a company LinkedIn Page
the tools you need to get your company’s
LinkedIn presence started or optimize it for » Improve your company rank for LinkedIn searches

your business goals. » Get the most out of your LinkedIn posting strategy

» Work within LinkedIn analytics

Let’s get started!


CHAPTER ONE

How to Set Up a Company Page


In order to join the business conversations that matter, you’ll need to start by
setting up a Company Page. Visibility is the backbone of marketing, the first step
to having your business be seen is to create a page that teaches others about
your brand, products, services, and job opportunities with your company. As this
Company Page will be the central facet of how you use LinkedIn for business, it is
crucial to understand how your Company Page will be structured and function.

Not just anyone can set up a Company Page, before you do there
are a few prerequisites you’ll need to meet to ensure LinkedIn
that you are a genuine company. They are: Tip
Remember, you can only
1 Your personal LinkedIn profile must be older than 7 days, you will not be have one live Company
permitted to set up a Company Page with a brand new personal profile Page up at a time—if you are
revamping or updating your
2 Your personal information must match the information on your company’s LinkedIn presence
Company Page (for example your first and last name must be the same) you will either need to update
an existing page or delete
Your personal profile strength must be listed as “Intermediate” or “All the existing page and rebuild
3
Star,” this strength is based on how complete your profile is—you can your new company page from
check your profile strength at any time on your profile homepage the beginning.

4 The Company Page must have a company email domain


unique to your company
Info You'll Need on Your
LinkedIn Company Profile
The key to optimizing your LinkedIn Company Page is
to fill out all fields with the necessary information—this
makes it more searchable. Follow these steps to ensure
visibility, for more insight check out HubSpot’s Ultimate
Guide to LinkedIn Company Pages.

1. Complete all the Page details.


Sure, this first tip might seem like a no-brainer but
it’s one worth repeating. According to LinkedIn,
fully completed LinkedIn Company Pages get
30% more views. That is a third more eyes on your
brand, and a third more potential connections
than if you left a detail or two out. The more details
you provide, the easier your company will be to
discover. Take the time to completely fill out every
Company Page detail, those that are not required
may end up being essential in the long run.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
2. Add important Page admins. 3. Keep your images up-to-date.
Running your company’s LinkedIn page Your cover photo and page logo are the first images your page
can be a daunting task, especially if you are visitors will see, they visually introduce potential connections
already running their other social media to your brand. Ensure your marketing efforts are cohesive by
accounts. Adding other Page administrators keeping these images up-to-date so they match your website
is a great tool for sharing that work load, here and all other digital marketing materials. Not only will this
are the four key types of Page admins: cohesion boost your brand awareness across the board, but
will help new customers and employees familiarize themselves
» Designated Admin access allows with you on LinkedIn.
employees to edit your page, add
additional admins, and post updates

» Sponsored Content Poster access allows


employees to share and sponsor updates

» Lead Gen Forms Manager access allows


employees to download leads from
Campaign Manager

» Pipeline Builder Admin access allows


employers to create and edit Pipeline
Builder landing pages

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
5. Share content and engage with your followers.
Creating your Company Page is just the first step in using
LinkedIn for Business. You don’t create a company Twitter
account just to look at memes, you use it to share original
content and engage with your followers—your LinkedIn
Company Page should be used for the same reasons. There
is a range of posts that you can publish on your company
page—product and service updates, job openings, news that
involves your brand, and behind-the-scenes content that
introduces your connections to employee life. We’ll review
specific posting strategies and examples of what to share
4. Determine your Page’s purpose.
in Chapter Two. Your Company Page is also a great place to
Will your LinkedIn Page primarily serve as a source repost your previously published blog posts.
of industry news, a place to share company culture,
or an educational resource for those growing in your
field? Whatever the goal or primary purpose may be,
develop a persona and key demographic to which to
tailor your content.

Tip
Use LinkedIn’s Content Suggestion tool to
discover trending topics and help generate
relevant content for your audience to
engage with.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
Optimizing your Rank for LinkedIn Searches
Like any other website or social network, LinkedIn » A fully completed profile
Company Pages rank on search engine results pages Make sure to include relevant career information for
(SERPs). Google processes an estimated 3.5 billion potential job candidates and include a strong about
searches each day, so boost your SEO make sure your section including things like company mission, values,
Company Page includes these key things: and what you offer.

» A keyword-rich profile » Participation in Groups


Use your existing keyword research from Look up industry-specific groups, professional
blogging efforts to ensure that anyone searching development groups, and local groups to your
for your industry can find your page. area and participate, providing helpful information,
discussion, and resources.
» A variety of backlinks
Include your website URL on your company page, » Images
include links to places like your careers page in Add high-quality photos to your page showcasing your
your page posts, and encourage followers to product, company culture, and mission. Make sure to
share your posts that include links. have an updated logo and cover image.

» Original and relevant posts and articles


Share thought leadership posts from LinkedIn or
Medium from company executives at a cadence
that matches with audience engagement.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
CHAPTER TWO

Posting Original
Content on LinkedIn
How to create content exclusively for your LinkedIn
audience using LinkedIn's Publishing Platform
When it comes to posting original content on your LinkedIn
Company Page, you may be wondering what benefits it has over
the blogging you’re already doing on your company website. In
terms of publishing, LinkedIn has evolved massively. While the
ability to publish long-form posts was once reserved for LinkedIn
Influencers, now that ability is available to the masses. Take
advantage of this tool, when you think of LinkedIn as a publishing
platform you are opening your company up to a wider, more
engaged audience.

1 Click “Write an Article” near the top of your 2 Click “Headline” to type the headline of your article.
homepage. This takes you to the publishing tool.
» If you're unable to click into the Headline field,
» Alternatively, you can scroll down the page as you may have a browser extension that is blocking
you read an article on LinkedIn. You’ll see the this functionality. The two extensions that we know
Write an article button appear next to Like, cause this issue are Lazarus and Grammarly. This
Comment, and Share in the top bar, below the can be resolved by disabling these extensions and
LinkedIn navigation bar. refreshing the editor.
3 Click “Write here” to type the content of your article.

» You can add images and other rich media to


your article for visual impact.

4 Click the Publish button in the top right of the page.

» You won’t have the option to preview your


content prior to publishing. Your article draft
shows you how the published version will
look. You can share your article draft with
others prior to publishing.

5 In the pop-up window that appears, click


“Publish” to send your post out to the world or
click “Cancel” to continue editing your article.

» Once your article is published, you can Tip


edit or delete it at any time. If you are looking for more tips and tricks to get the
most out of your Company Page posts, HubSpot has
an Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn Publishing for you.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
What to Post Types of Content to Post + Best Practices
When it comes to the specifics of what content » Images
to share with your connections on your Company LinkedIn recommends adding an image to your posts, and
Page, let the 4-1-1 rule be your guide. It goes has found that several high-quality images perform best
like this: for every one original piece of content for organizations.
you share about your brand, share one update
from another source, and four reposted pieces of » Video
content published by others. Live video gets 24x more engagement than other types
of posts. Get creative and enable your sales team to start
By following this rule you are fueling a dialogue with potential customers from their personal
your Company Page with fresh content, page, then share their posts.
but not creating original content
from scratch every day. Instead, by » Articles
Use LinkedIn’s Content Suggestions tool to find the
repurposing blog posts, ebooks,
trending topics in your industry or among your audience.
webinars, etc. from other sources you can
be strategic about your posting habits » Page status updates without links
instead of off-the-cuff or burning out by Publish PDFs or PowerPoints to share educational,
trying to write new content every day. informative content with your audience.

» Job postings
Include relevant hashtags and publish job postings
to industry groups.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
Establishing a Posting Cadence
Posting on LinkedIn is an art form. In order to foster
meaningful, consistent engagement from your connections
we suggest posting on your Company Page at least once
a day. In order to establish a posting cadence, start with
a week of posting at different times to see when you are
the most likely to attract engagement—if you consistently
Tip
receive the most likes, comments, and reposts when you
Intermittently re-share your own best
publish original content in the morning then you know to
performing content so any new connections
consistently post in the morning moving forward. Each
who missed it the first time around will get
audience is different, from their degree of engagement to
another chance to see and engage with it.
the hour they consume content. Experimenting with your
publishing schedule is critical to establishing a recognizable
and effective posting cadence.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
How to Use Showcase Pages Company Page

Showcase Pages are niche pages that branch off your main
LinkedIn Company Page. They provide a more personalized
experience for your connections by allowing you to promote
individual products at a time or cater to specific marketing
personas. Additionally, LinkedIn users can follow product-
specific Showcase Pages without following a main Company
Page. Think of them like choose-your-own-adventure marketing,
you can tailor each page to audience specifics without altering
your Company Page or advertise singular events on their own.

There are a few main differences between Showcase Page


Company and Showcase Pages:

» Showcase pages have a larger hero image.

» Showcase pages have a two-column layout for content


posts, as opposed to the single-column blog post layout
of Company Pages

» Unlike Company Pages, there is no Career Tab at


the top of Showcase Pages

» All Showcase Pages link directly back to the Company


Source: LinkedIn
Page- so all additional pages are centralized around your
main page
For more information about creating,
» Individual Employee profile pages cannot be directly monitoring, and utilizing Showcases Pages,
associated with Showcase Pages
check out HubSpot’s beginner guide.
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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
CHAPTER THREE

LinkedIn Advertising
Last year, it was revealed that over 600 million users can be reached
through advertisements on LinkedIn. And good news—creating an
advertisement for your company through your LinkedIn account can
be done in minutes. Here are our first three steps to getting started:

1. Create your Campaign Manager account


Thanks to Campaign Manager, LinkedIn has an all-in-one advertising platform
where you’ll be able to set up ad accounts, run campaigns, and control your
ad budget. All you need to get started is your existing LinkedIn account.

2. Determine your Objective


Help LinkedIn, help you. When you are clear about your ideal advertising
strategy, brand awareness trajectory, and company objective you are helping
LinkedIn better customize your campaign creation.
Tip
3. Launch your Campaign Use this guide to better

Now that you’ve determined your objective you’ll be guided by LinkedIn to manage and analyze your
build an audience, set an ad budget, and upload your creative advertisement. LinkedIn Ads.
Once you set up your payment details, your campaign is launched!
CHAPTER FOUR

How to Use LinkedIn Analytics


Regardless of how long your company has been active, your Analytics Page on LinkedIn can
help you familiarize yourself with the engagement data your Company Page is generating.

Without analytics it can be very difficult to drive results for your business, because you won’t know what content drives
engagement. Your LinkedIn Analytics Page shows monthly engagement metrics for your company and individual posts—
when you optimize your posts based on performance data, you will see an uptick in engagement from month to month.

Here is how to get the most out of your LinkedIn analytics:

» Analyze your data to see not only what content is being


engaged with, but who is doing the engaging—when you
can better see your audience demographic you will be able
to refine your most compelling content and therefore create
more of what you know works for who is watching

» Use Content Suggestions to measure post popularity and


interaction level, LinkedIn is ready to tell you what posts to
make next, you just have to listen

» Add tracking codes to the links in your posts—you can see the
exact traffic you are driving to your company’s site through
LinkedIn Page Updates, and you’ll be able to plan future
site links accordingly

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
Alternatives to analyzing LinkedIn
outside of the Analytics tool
In addition to viewing your LinkedIn Page analytics
in the admin center of your account, you can export
the data as a .xls file. Subsequently, separate analytics
reports for each body of data can be made for
Visitors, Updates, and Followers.

To export your Page analytics report:

1 Sign in to your Page admin center

2 Click Analytics

3 Select Visitors, Updates, or Followers

4 Click Export in the upper right corner of


the correct analytics page.
There you have it! You now know how to
5 Select the timeframe you’d like to create successfully build, hone, and streamline
a report for and click Export.
your company’s LinkedIn for Business and
6 The .xls file will be accessible after it has Marketing. As you follow these steps, you’ll
downloaded. attract more recruiters, customers, clients,
Once the data has been exported, you can integrate and exciting opportunities than ever before.
your data and analyze it in tools like HubSpot’s Happy networking!
LinkedIn Integration tool.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
BONUS SECTION

5 Hacks, Tricks, and Ideas


to Make You Stand Out
1 Use video and post often. Don’t worry about being
Spielberg, just get content out there!

2 Find popular groups in your industry. Active members


will know where your target persona lives online.

3 Use objective-based advertising. LinkedIn’s new feature


is already proving to have super effective results.

4 Try LinkedIn for retargeting (both paid and organic).

5 Partner with or share posts from LinkedIn Influencers.

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing
Connect Your LinkedIn
and HubSpot Accounts
Use CRM and web analytics data to inform your LinkedIn Ads
campaign management strategy. Bring more quality leads to your
business and learn exactly which ads are turning prospects into
customers. Connect your HubSpot and LinkedIn accounts today.

Learn More

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How to Use LinkedIn For Business and Marketing

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