20 Tips for Effective LinkedIn Marketing

I started my career in 1996 as a software developer and later turned into a digital marketer. Throughout my journey from blogger to entrepreneur in the digital marketing world, I’ve witnessed firsthand the immense impact that online platforms can have. LinkedIn, with its game-changing influence, has made a big impact on the professional world. Initially, I created my profile on LinkedIn just to showcase it to potential employers. Even though I created my LinkedIn profile in the early years of LinkedIn, I realised the true potential of it only after I entered the world of digital marketing. 

During the early years, LinkedIn was just a platform for tech professionals to build and showcase their portfolios. But it has come a long way from being just a resume platform to an amazing tool for networking and generating leads, especially for businesses in competitive markets like Dubai. I’m excited to share my expertise and the top 20 tips for effective LinkedIn marketing for successful marketing on LinkedIn in this article.

Why LinkedIn Marketing

When you promote your brand on LinkedIn, it’s called LinkedIn marketing. The platform allows users to utilize its features for sharing content and growing their network. It’s a great way to get your business out there and build credibility. On LinkedIn, you can connect with people, find leads, boost your brand, make business connections, and get more visitors to your website. Many successful marketing strategies rely on LinkedIn as a key tool owing to its ability to expand professional networks. Our company, SpiderWorks Technologies, has been using LinkedIn for more than a decade to connect with potential clients. In fact, LinkedIn has helped our company acquire clients from many foreign countries with no marketing presence in those countries. 

Benefits of LinkedIn marketing

While Facebook and Instagram are excellent tools for online marketing, they are not the best choices for B2B marketing. They are considered entertainment platforms and are best suited to connect with end customers. With more users and engagement among business owners and professionals, LinkedIn is a strong platform for B2B marketing.

Before we explore the tips, let’s take a look at why you need LinkedIn marketing for your digital strategy. I will share my 2 decades of experience in using platforms like LinkedIn in B2B marketing.

• Increased brand awareness

LinkedIn has over 900 million members like me and you. The right LinkedIn marketing strategy could potentially reach millions of people, the majority of whom are professionals and business owners. Additionally, a user’s connections can see their interactions with public profiles. When someone likes or comments on a post, it will appear in the feeds of their connections. There’s a high likelihood that your content will appear in the feeds of non-followers. This makes LinkedIn the perfect platform to increase brand awareness and reach the right audience.

The following is a breakdown of LinkedIn members across 200 countries and territories: In Asia-Pacific regions, there are approximately 277 million users. In Europe, there are 257 million users. North America consists of 233 million active members. Latin America has around 156 million users. Lastly, the Middle East and Africa have a combined 60 million LinkedIn users.

• Authority building

The popularity of LinkedIn as a B2B content distribution platform has skyrocketed. Specifically, content that helps brands become industry experts. Through an effective LinkedIn strategy, you can position yourself as a leader in the industry.

• Networking opportunities

With LinkedIn, the biggest professional network globally, you can create important connections. It allows you to expand your network and cultivate mutually beneficial connections. Through the platform, you have the opportunity to connect with potential clients, industry leaders, and potential hires.

• Lead generation

When it comes to B2B lead generation, LinkedIn is the go-to platform. The platform is favored by 89% of B2B marketers for generating leads. Additionally, 40% of B2B marketers view it as the top channel for attracting high-quality leads. My personal LinkedIn profile has more than 7,000 connections, which is a great opportunity to reach out to thousands of potential audiences without much effort. 

With LinkedIn, you can generate qualified leads that come from verified and quality audiences. You can avail of professional demographic data to reach your target audience by screening job title, company, industry, seniority, and more. The application also facilitates custom targeting options that allow you to retarget website visitors, connect with contacts, and build account-based campaigns with Matched Audiences and more.

Tips for Effective LinkedIn Marketing

Taking into account these benefits, let’s delve into tips for effective LinkedIn marketing. Please note that these tips for effective LinkedIn marketing are shared based on my experience in this field. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to add them as comments below, and I will be happy to add them to this article. 

• Keep Improving Your LinkedIn Profile

Your profile provides a great chance to make a strong first impression. Updating your profile regularly can significantly increase your contact rate. Your audience interacts with more than just your brand. Profiles are important because people prefer doing business with other people. In my case, after I created my LinkedIn profile, I kept it idle for many years. However, once I realised the real potential of LinkedIn for marketing, I started actively updating my LinkedIn profile with information about my employers, projects, clients, etc. That made a significant impact, and my connections significantly improved in a few years. 

• Define Your Objectives

Begin by clearly defining your goals for using LinkedIn. These objectives can support your other social media goals, like increasing brand visibility or generating leads. Once you establish clear objectives, you can build a strong LinkedIn strategy. There are thousands of people on LinkedIn who simply create profiles and then don’t do anything about it. If your goal is to use LinkedIn for B2B marketing, create a page for your business and start posting information regularly. Building authority in your niche is very important in establishing your LinkedIn profile.

• Optimize the LinkedIn Page for Search

To succeed in LinkedIn marketing, it is crucial to have a well-optimized LinkedIn business page. It presents your brand positively and enhances your credibility. It enhances your LinkedIn SEO, both on the platform and in search engines. When providing information, make sure to include more than just the basic organizational information. Make it a point to showcase the people and the environment that define your brand and organization. Remember to add relevant keywords, content, and articles to your LinkedIn profile so that your customers will find you when they search for your business on LinkedIn or Google. You may have noticed that a lot of LinkedIn Pulse articles appear on Google search results, which is an excellent way to promote your business using the Pulse platform provided by LinkedIn. 

• Use Hashtags

Hashtags are a game-changer for LinkedIn marketing. The hashtag symbol is great for connecting with new people, industries, and niches using short phrases. However, if you use too many or, even worse, incorrect ones, it can seriously limit your impact. I personally don’t use hashtags when I post on my personal profile, but I suggest you use them liberally on your LinkedIn company page. 

• Make Posts in Different Lengths

On LinkedIn, powerful and concise posts make a big impression. Stories that are longer in format captivate readers and result in increased time spent on the app. Your LinkedIn content plan should include both of these post types. I have written really long articles on LinkedIn that are 1000 to 2000 words. Usually, longer articles tend to rank better unless they are written by filling words without much content. I have a few LinkedIn articles that rank on Google for very competitive keywords and bring a good number of leads to our company. 

• Develop a Content Strategy

Any additional steps B2B brands take to maximize their content strategies are beneficial. LinkedIn’s high engagement makes it a valuable asset for your social media content strategy. Establish a solid strategy for content creation and distribution on the platform. Make sure to produce content that addresses the needs and pain points of your audience.

• Utilize Sponsored Updates on LinkedIn

Businesses can use sponsored updates on LinkedIn to promote their posts on users’ feeds for a fee. This feature, like other social platforms, offers targeting options like location, gender, and age. What sets it apart is the ability to customize even more specifically based on company name, job title, job function, skills, schools, and groups. Businesses can effectively target their desired audience without having to compete with irrelevant content.

• Post High-quality Content on LinkedIn

The success of content depends on its capacity to target a particular audience and accomplish two main objectives: educating others on problem-solving or skill enhancement and positioning yourself as a leader in your field. When you provide real value in this way, it naturally brings in more business because people are attracted to those who help them succeed.

• Grow page followers

Develop a large following on LinkedIn to maximize the reach of your updates and gain more page followers. To increase organic visibility, ask LinkedIn connections to follow your page and motivate employees to share important posts. Promote your company page via emails, newsletters, and blogs as well.

• Measure and improve

You need to continuously improve your LinkedIn strategy. Keep an eye on your performance, keep tabs on page growth, and examine post engagement to see what appeals to your audience. Apply these insights to tweak and improve your strategy for the future.

• Share Engaging Content

Post content that speaks to your target audience on your company page. On LinkedIn, posts that are excessively promotional don’t work well. To engage your audience and expand your reach, instead concentrate on sharing original concepts and thought-provoking content. In addition to promoting your own content, it’s critical to share thought-provoking and relevant articles from other sources to keep your audience interested and informed.

• Utilize Employee Advocacy

For all professionals on LinkedIn, from interns to C-level executives, personal profiles are extremely valuable. Because they have the ability to expand the reach of business accounts, employee advocacy is essential to LinkedIn marketing. Encouraging employees to share company content increases its exposure and gives them the chance to personalize their posts, which boosts engagement and authenticity.

• Join LinkedIn Groups

Joining LinkedIn groups related to their target audience is a valuable tip for business owners. By doing so, they can grasp the discussions of their audience and actively contribute by giving advice.

• Use a Social Media Marketing Tool

Tools for social media marketing increase productivity by making tasks like bulk scheduling and task organization easier. A unified inbox for managing all incoming messages, especially for platforms like LinkedIn, advanced analytics for deeper insights, and tools for scheduling and publishing posts are essential. These features increase overall efficacy and save time.

• Give Attention to Your Company Page

If you want people to notice your brand, you need to keep your LinkedIn profile looking fresh and consistent. The content, colors, and images need to be consistent with your website and other social media accounts. To keep your corporate image fresh and dynamic, you should update the page frequently. Having no LinkedIn profile is better than having one that’s inactive. In our case, we regularly share our office news on our company’s official LinkedIn page. Also, most of the content we share on Facebook and Instagram is shared on LinkedIn as well. 

• Use LinkedIn Analytics to Measure Progress

Most companies stop their activities once they post on LinkedIn. Not many bother to check the analytics and see the results of their activities. In fact, I personally didn’t bother much about these until a few years ago. LinkedIn gives you a lot of options and a great deal of creative freedom when it comes to posting. This does, however, highlight the necessity of routinely assessing the effectiveness of your content. You can find out which posts get the most interaction, when and how often to post, how employee contributions affect the reach of your business, and whether your content is generating traffic and leads by examining your LinkedIn analytics.

• Find out the ideal times to post on LinkedIn

Like other platforms, LinkedIn depends on consistency for engagement. Although brand accounts don’t typically post frequently or even every day, those who do often find that their posts generate the most engagement in the early afternoon and morning hours of workdays. Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 10 a.m. and noon are the ideal times to post if you want to reach your audience effectively, as these are the peak hours for business engagement. I have seen the reach vary significantly for different types of posts at different times. Some types of posts work best when posted in the evening, and some other types get the best reach if posted in the morning. The ideal time to post for your company needs to be figured out through experiments. 

• Get Your Own Unique URL on LinkedIn

It’s important to claim your custom URL on LinkedIn, particularly if you work in professional services or the B2B industry. Your name should be on it to increase visibility. Many people look up contacts on Google to find out more information about new clients they meet. It is more likely that your LinkedIn profile will show up at the top of search results if you have a custom URL, which makes it simpler for potential clients to find you.

• Refrain from pushing sales on LinkedIn

I get numerous push messages from marketers every day. And I ignore most of them. I always wondered why these people waste so much time sending messages that are not receiving any responses. To succeed in marketing on LinkedIn, treat it like any other channel and stay updated on the latest trends. Instead of interrupting users, try to be “discovered” and make use of inbound marketing techniques and content. Since many still act like pushy salespeople, steer clear of the aggressive tactics of outdated sales approaches.

• Update your LinkedIn profile’s summary section

Although it’s often overlooked, LinkedIn’s summary section offers a great way to get in touch with your target market. Use whole sentences, write in the first person, and clearly address your audience’s pain points in the 2,000 characters you have available to you for direct and persuasive communication. Instead of using traditional websites, many users prefer LinkedIn because they are looking to connect with others before interacting with goods or services. This is your opportunity to present yourself to possible customers. In order to facilitate communication, don’t forget to include your contact information at the conclusion of the summary, even if it can be found elsewhere on your profile.

You may also like to know the list of 15 LinkedIn Top Companies that are investing in their talent and helping people build careers that will set them up for long-term success.

Conclusion

In my past 20+ years of experience as a digital marketer, I have used LinkedIn very effectively for B2B marketing. LinkedIn marketing has developed into a vital resource for people and companies trying to grow their brands, generate leads, and make meaningful connections. You can realize the full potential of LinkedIn marketing by utilizing these tips and concentrating on providing value. LinkedIn is not just a platform but a community of people aiming for success. Connect with your target audience, boost brand visibility, and generate valuable leads for your business with LinkedIn marketing services in Dubai. You can count on our several years of effective marketing experience using LinkedIn to take your business to the next level.